This is the evaluation for my A2 Level media studies project where I created the music video for the song 'The Edge of Glory' by Lady Gaga.

3. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
MUSIC VIDEO
COSTUMING When moving this into my own music video ALICE
When researching the music industry I had to look at how I could integrate it to
I came across the idea of costuming my costumes and make it appear that my This is the grungy
as being a big part of the pop music costumes could be from a real music video. Alice outfit that I
video production. This meant that if I Created through
was to create a realistic music video I I started mood boarding ideas after Using a traditional
would have to think a lot about the finalizing my idea of using ‘Alice in Alice dress and
costumes that I got my artist to wear . Wonderland’ and thought about each Mixing it with a
character that I wanted to use and a Leather jacket,
I looked into many different music modern day representation of the Which is becoming
videos and came across this character. This was important because it Iconic in Lady Gaga
combination of high fashion and the makes the story, and the video, more Music videos, and
theme of the video. This was very likable for the audience and they can easily Also military boots
apparent in the music videos by Lady relate to it. Which is a high
Gaga. In her videos Street fashion
such as ‘Telephone’ After sketching my ideas for each character Trend and makes
we see this mixture I looked at finding the items from different The video more
of prison wear and costume companies and my own Relatable to the
high fashion with household. I started chronologically General pop
elements such as the through the video and started developing Audience, both
‘Caution’ Tape and the idea of a ‘Grungy lice’. Male and females.
Fashion.

4. COSTUMING CONTINUED
CHESIRE CAT CATERPILLAR
For this I did the same thing as I did The caterpillar was a harder design as
with the Alice outfit. I used it doesn't’t have any iconic fancy
conventional fancy dress with the tail dress accessories. However I played
and ears but mixing it with fashion by on the idea of using a patterned dress
using a leotard, another iconic look of which emphasis the animals shape
Gaga, and a fur jacket which is bang and also the blue colour, which is the
on trend for the winter season. same as the Disney’s caterpillar. Also
partnered it with leg warmers which
is set to be the latest trend as well as
WHITE RABBIT mixing it with a classic Christian Dior
As with the Cat I tackled the animal Jacket which is loved by celebrities
characters in the same way. By mixing such as Gaga herself.
conventional fancy dress, in this case
the rabbit ears and tail, with a ‘Levi
Strauss’ white denim jacket which is QUEEN OF HEARTS
known as being a key piece within With the Mad Hatter I had to over
fashion and celebrity culture. come making it original and still
remain human. With this I mixed a lot
of accessories to show wealth but
MAD HATTER also tweaked a basic black and red
With the Mad Hatter I had the dress to incorporate some material
problem of the character being with playing card symbols of. This
human however I used many modern gives the character across to the
and older clothed to create a look audience but still makes the character
which shows the character but also seem fashionable and a modern day
has an essence of fashion. version of the character.

5. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
To challenge conventions of real
MUSIC VIDEO media products I had to take the next
step for music video production. I
found that in Lady Gaga’s music video
Rather than it just being a more plain video ‘You and I’ she played two characters
EDITING focusing on the artist. They now use special in the video, so naturally I felt the
In order to create a video which effects to frame the attention on the artist. next step up would be for my artist to
represents a real video I needed to I used a couple of special effects in my play even more roles in the video, in
look at what made a pop music video video such as the ‘Submerged’ effect and my case 5 other characters.
so unique. I found many traits which I also the ‘Earth Zoom’ which help to make
needed to utilize into my video in the video appear more spectacle.
order for it to appear realistic.
Also for some symbolism in the editing I
Things I learnt was that there was used the idea of real life being black and
multiple locations for the video which white, with a ‘leave colour’ effect on young
was edited together to make a quick Alice’s dress, nails and ribbon remaining This also emphasis the idea of
pace experience. This has to mimic blue, and Wonderland being colour wonderland and it’s connection with
the tempo of the song but with ‘The making it seem as if we live in wonderland. madness. It required a lot of editing,
Edge of Glory’ it requires a fast pace To do these effects I used ‘After Effects’ and preparation, to fit together the
in order for the audience to remain which is an industry product and helps to scenes to make it appear the
engaged for the full length of the create effects which would realistically character are there together when
video. seen in a pop music video. really they were filmed at separate
times.
Recently there has been an
introduction of the importance of
special effects in music videos to
make it appear more of a spectacle
.

6. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
MUSIC VIDEO
ARTIST
I did a lot of casting when deciding
who was going to play my lead artist,
Lady Gaga, in my music video as I new
she would be key to it’s success and
representation of a real life,
successful artist.
I came up with a list of features that I
wanted the girl to have such as
singing, dancing and acting ability to
make sure a realistic performance
came across. Physical attractiveness is
also important in pop culture as there
is a lot of money gained from the
male gaze but also females who seek
perfection.
I managed to find a perfect girl to play
Gaga who looked the part and was
very talented so was able to make an
appealing performance on the screen.

7. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
MUSIC VIDEO
I decided to mix this with an episodic
NARRATIVE narrative so we get little snippets of
After researching I found a trend of dance and miming while we also
not using a linear narrative however follow the story. This continues the
Gaga has started to develop almost audience attention and makes the
mini movies with her music videos audience engaged with what Is
rather than just montages of happening on the screen.
attractive images. This is now being
picked up by other artists such as
Rhianna.
This meant that for my video to be a
true representation of real life videos
I need to follow this trend and this
meant that I searched for a story and
theme for my video.
I decided to use ‘Alice in Wonderland’
as my story because it allowed for
many takes on the story and also gave
me scope to use the long song
different sections and focused each
section on a new character.

8. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
PRINT MEDIA
My background There are many
photography is of a industry logos which
full shot of Gaga are a must, legally,
(My artist) against a and conventionally
graffiti wall which is for it to be
a continuation legitimate in the
theme of the music industry.
video and emphasis
the lead artist. Such as adding a
barcode so the
product can be
I use an idea of real
brought.
media cd’s by
putting the tracks
Record label
on the back and the
industry logos.
title of the album on
the side. This is for
consumer purposes
‘Anti-Piracy’
and allows the
campaign to show
customer to see
that the product
what they’re
shouldn’t be copied.
buying.

9. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
PRINT MEDIA
To continue conventions of real In order for the dates and locations be
media products I continued the realistic for a tour by Lady Gaga I
theme and photography into the tour looked at her 2010 Monster Ball Tour
poster with the tour being called and copied many of the locations and
‘Wonderland Tour’ and the routes that she took to make it appear
background photography. realistic.
I helped to make the writing more
visible by continuing the graffiti feel
and it helps to make it a brand rather
than just tour poster.
Social networking is key to an artists
success and with artists such as Lady
Gaga having over 40 Million friends
on facebook means that she/we can
contact a huge group of people very HOME
easily, cheaply and quickly.

10. How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?
My main product was to create a music video and the two ancillary texts were a digipak and a tour
poster. These texts needs to continue the themes, style and genre of the video in order for it to be a
coherent marketing package for the album and video. When researching I found that many pop artists
use the continuation of an idea to create a universal pack to advertise their product.
The theme of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is found throughout my project and this is linked to images within
the video, tour poster and digipak. Such as the use of graffiti is found throughout and represents youth
and also this ‘wonderland’ that I created throughout the series. The contrast of colours is also found
within the print media such as the contrast of white graffiti and the bright red text. I feel that my product
is instantly recognisable as a unit and the audience can see what product is also by Lady Gaga.
I used the same costumes and locations in sections of the music video for my print media to add
continuity.
HOME

11. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I spoke to 10 people who were of mixed sexes, ages and musical tastes.
There are many positives that I received and could There are a few negatives that I received and
continue to make another realistic product. could use to help improve my product(s).
• “It represents pop culture and shows the key • “The meaning of the song kind of gets lost” –
features of other videos” – This shows that my This is a valid point and If I were to do it again
research has been correct and the conventions could think of another narrative to base my
I chose to use were correct. music video on.
• “The actress appears to be like the original • “Some locations appear unrealistic” – This is
artist” – This means that my casting was understandable as I was limited to inside
correct but also my direction on set as it spaces but if doing again could seek out
effected how she appeared on screen. another location which has lighting facilities.
• “All the products seem related to each other” – • “There is some continuity errors in the piece.
This shows that I was successful in creating a – I did notice these and it was a result of the
coherent marketing package and it related back video being filmed over 3 months but if doing
to my music video. again I would make a note of each
• “It is very modern and is pushing the prop/costume and how it was in the shot
boundaries” – This shows that I have before to make sure there was no continuity
successfully challenged conventions of pop errors.
music videos. • “No backing dancers’ – My research showed
backing dancers are popular and if I could find
a suitable group of people I would use them.
HOME

12. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
RESEARCH AND PLANNING
BLOG RESEARCH Youtube and online video sites turned
For my research I used a number of out to be a great help to my research as
In order to show my research and it allowed me to see other videos and
different programs. In order to create my
planning I used the website blogger in analysis them in order to find traits to
Questionnaires I used Microsoft Word. To
order to create a blog. This meant make a realistic music video myself.
create the results I used Microsoft Excel
that I was able to make posts for each
and this allowed me to create visually
stage of research and planning and
pleasing pie charts which helped me view
add video and images to my posts to
my results visually.
demonstrate my ideas beyond the
written page.
I did not only used Youtube but also
’Video Co-Pilot’ in order to find tutorials
to help create special effects as I found
I used my Facebook account to send the that special effects is a modern
Questionnaire to individuals who could convention of pop music videos.
make up a variety of people or a more
focused audience such as my 11-25 years
This allowed me to see who and how
old Questionnaire
people were viewing my product and
it was interesting to see who
internationally was viewing my blog.

13. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
RESEARCH AND PLANNING
PLANNING
When planning my music video I had
to storyboard my video in order to
make sure that I used the full extend
of the song but also that it was
consistent in cuts and clips. My video
contains over 80 cuts so to create a
storyboard for this would have been
too time consuming. So I used the
program to give me the template of
what I needed to film.
When I decided to use a special
effect, that required other content I
needed to use the internet to search
for the OCR Specification to find a
loop hole in the system.

14. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
CONSTRUCTION
MUSIC VIDEO
My music video required 7 programs
to create it. Each of these had a
different part to play in the
production of the video. The main
programs I used to edit the clips
together were the new Final Cut Pro X
and Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5. The
reason I used both programs was
because I used a trial version of Final
cut and edited together 4/5 of my
video in there however I had to move
it to Premiere because of my trial
The program allowed me to see exactly what I was working with as it rendered it while I
running out. Also I did have some
was editing it which allowed me link the miming easily with the song. I was also able to
problems when I exported what I had
put in markers which would let me rejig the clips back to where they were meant to be if
from Final Cut and resulted in me
they got out of sink which often happened because of it’s ‘magnetic’ time time. The
having to rebuild sections of the video
program also offers basic time changing and meant I was able to make clips twice as fast
in Premiere. I decided I wanted to use
in order to create a fast pace effect. It also had basic special effects and editing such as
Final Cut Pro X because I saw a review
‘Spotlight Lighting’ which is used to emphasis the artist when she is kneeling, and
online which raved about it’s user
clicking, on the large deck of cards
friendliness and I felt as an amateur
editor it would be helpful to have a
program which was pleasant to use.

15. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
CONSTRUCTION
Adobe Premiere Pro CS5.5 I found to be less easy to use than Final Cut Pro X and it was also a a lot slower when previewing the
clips and meant that editing became a lot more drawn out and a slower process than before. However I do feel that it was better in
the fact that you could select what clip, out of a larger clip, easier and you could be more precise rather than on Final Cut Pro X.
There was one huge advantage however with using Premiere and that was that it had the Adobe Media Encoder to export the
media which resulted in a high quality export, unlike Final Cut Pro X, which failed to properly export the video and got the video
became disjointed and almost stuck like a visual comic record player being stuck!

16. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
CONSTRUCTION
After effects was needed in my video production as I needed
to create special effects in order to shoe conventions of
modern pop music video production. I used the program to
create the ‘Submerged’ special effect, along with Photoshop,
the ‘Earth Zoom’ special effect (Both of these are from
tutorials by Video Co-Pilot) and also the ‘Sin City’ effect used at
the start (Tutorial from YouTube). The program was very
effective, when editing more clips. It enabled me to easily
import, and export, clips from QuickTime formats and meant a
smooth transition between programs. I also used the new
stabilizing too to stabilize footage.
In order to create the ‘Submerged’ effect I also needed to use
Adobe Photoshop CS5.5 to create the linking sections of brick to
create the effect that Wonderland and the real world are joined.
To do this I used tools such as the clone stamp but also the new
‘Content-Aware’ fill option which is a clever new feature in
CS5.5 which allows you to select a section to fill and it
automatically asses what is around it in order to fill the section
accordingly. In order to create the ‘Earth Zoon’ effect I also used
Google Earth in order to get the aerial footage but then mixed
this with after effects in order to get the spinning and cloud
effect seen on the final clip. In order to get the Google Earth
Footage I used ’QuickTime’ in order to record my screen.

17. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
CONSTRUCTION
PRINT MEDIA
In the print media side
of my video production I
used less programs in its
creation mainly Adobe
Photoshop CS5.5 and
Avery Dennison
Corporation’s ‘CD
Stomper’ software. This
was a kit I had that had
labels for both the disc
itself but also a jewel
case sections. I used
Photoshop to create all
my print media but then
exported some of it to
print onto the labels
using the CD Stomper
software. I also had a
stomper system that
affectionately seals the
label to the disk

18. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages?
EVAUALTION
To create my evaluation I used Microsoft Powerpoint 2011 (for Mac). This has allowed me to use a mixture of screen shots, images
and texts in order to demonstrate the process in which I have gone through in order to create my music video. I carried on the theme
of my music video by using the graffiti image and this makes the evaluation part of the project and adds continuity that all the
different pieces are part of the same marketing package. I have also used a series of Hyperlinks in order for the evaluation to be
interacting and allow the user to make their way around the slides themselves resulting in always going back to contents page until
the last slide…which you are about to see!

19. Thank you for using my slide show and I hope that you enjoy my products as
much as I did making them. Thank You