Comparing 'The Sundays' to 'The Saturdays'!

Both images are advertisements for a song, as you can see they both follow similar conventions including the bold titles and darker backgrounds yet some conventions have been challenged to make them different and unique.
We wanted to follow a similar image of branding and advertising that The Saturdays do in order to bring across that Feminine provocotive look in their advertisements to draw a larger audience to our product. As you can see from both images a lot of time has been spent making the girls look good because then this will make them look eye catching so it grabs the audiences attention and has them hooked on the image so they will explore into looking at the product.

Branding our group.

Brand indentity is a very important section to do when it comes to advertising new or existing artists because this is how your audience will recognise the artist and the image they are trying to bring across. Me and my group researched into existing artists and decided to produce a girl band that followed a similar brand image to 'The Saturdays'. When you look at or hear of the Saturdays words such as 'girly, provocotive, young and sexy' instantly pop into mind because of the outifts they wear and the brand identity they have produced.

As a group we wanted to create a brand identity similar to The Saturdays as I feel as though we accomplished this and produced an effective combination. We created our brand image and identity through our costumes, feminine image and poses in picutres. We posted a status on facebook asking what words pop to mind when you see an image of 'The Sundays' as these are the results we got; Sexy, Fun, Young and Feminine.

We were very happy with the results we recieved from our target audience because it showed us that all the hard work and time we put into branding our image payed off and we produced a practical that we are all proud of!

Screenshots of youtube page!

We used 'Youtube' to upload and advertise our music video because its a large website that recieves million of views each and every day. This site is used for people to upload videos and unsigned artists to get recognised by posting videos of their talent!

By using new media technologies in the construction and research, evaluation and planning stages was really important because we wanted to get as much detail as we possibly could into our video. Researching the different conventions that were included in a music video was another important section, but also looking in more depth at CD covers and advertisement posters that came along with it as a package was important for us to succed in because we wanted to make the product clear to our audience and that had continuity in all areas. This was where youtube became perfect for us to do this as it allowed us to research into existing media products to gain more knowledge and ideas.

The Final Video!!

I can't upload the final video onto my blog but heres a link to another member of my groups blog to the video!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h85ssM2AMwY - here is the youtube link that links you directly to our music video that has been uploaded to youtube so everyone can access it!

Finished Ancilary Task.

This is our finished anciliary task of a magazine advertisement advertising 'The Sundays'. Using photoshop we were able to edit the last girl into the picture and make it look professional. The theme of the photo was to dress up as an occupation of 'work' so it followed the same theme as our song. I think as a group we accommplished this and with us each wearing a different outift it makes the advertisement stand out and look more eye catching.
Conventionally girl bands and artists tend to look more pervogative in their advertisments by revealing a little more skin and having there hair and make up done. In some advertisments they also have each singer on a different levels of standing or sitting to make the image more eye catching.
I think overall that our anciliary task turned out as we expected because we kept the original idea and although we had a few things go wrong when producing it we stuck it out and through the use of editing software such as photoshop we ended up with our final piece we each memeber of the group was happy with.

Evaluation - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout producing my A2 practical production piece me and my group had to use many media technologies in order to produce a good effective music video.
Firstly, the planning stage involved using key conventions that would appeal to our target audience and make the genre of our music video stand out and be easily recognisable. In order for this to happen we had to research into existing media products using the Internet as our main resource to access sites such as 'Youtube.com'. The Internet came in very handy and it allowed us to research more information about the band (The Saturdays) in a lot more detail using sites such as 'Google.com' in our researching stage. The use of the Internet was extremely useful because it allowed us as a group to see and analyse the clear conventions that are typically found in a pop genre music video. It also helped us to see what kind of images The Saturdays and other girl bands bring across to their target audience, such as using bright colours to stand out but feminine revealing images to bring across a seductive female image.
Photoshop and the editing software was a main resource that me and my group used throughout the process of producing our music video and anciliary tasks. Photoshop allowed us to edit and improve the layout of our images. By using this software it allowed us to adjust the brightness, contract, size and position etc of our images to make them look more professional and appealing. This was the software that we used to create our CD cover and magazine advertisement as it allowed us to add in text, change font styles and colours and adjust the size of the font in order for it to follow the codes and conventions of existing CD covers and magazine advertisements. As a group we found using photoshop was a easy and very effective resource to use because it was less time consuming and gave us the freedom to be creative with our work. Another resource we used was the editing software which allowed us to add in special effects to our music video such as slow motion and zoom. This software also allowed us to improve the continuity of our video and create a smooth flowing video when cutting from shot to shot. The editing software was also a resource that allowed us to be very creative with our music video, by adding in different effects it spices up the video and makes it more interesting and appealing for our audience to watch.
Social networking sites such as 'Facebook.com' and 'Myspace.com' and also 'Youtube.com' have been very useful during the evaluation stage of our practical because it allowed us to gain audience feedback about both our main practical and anciliary tasks. By gaining audience feedback it allowed me and my group to look in depth at any areas that needed improving or tweaking. By having the freedom to upload our work so quickly onto sites such as youtube and facebook and recieve instant comments from a large group of people was very useful when producing our music video as it allowed us to recieve ideas and opinions about our work. We expressed our ideas on facebook to recieve audience feedback on what they thought about our ideas and if we could do anything to our work to improve it to make more appealing. This was definitely a good and very useful idea to do because the feedback we recieve helped us to improve our work to the best standard we possibly could as a group.

Evaluation - What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Through creating a group on facebook, which is a large social networking site that is used by millions of people it allowed me and my group to gain some positive and negative audience feedback. By creating this group it allowed people to access our work and give us comments on our videos and photos so we could see if there was any areas that needed to be improved. The audience is who your appealing to so by getting feedback from them it helps you to adjust your product to their wants and needs and by keeping them updated on your progress it makes them feel more involved and that you are going to take their comments into consideration.

Creating a facebook group was very useful because if we had ideas that we werent to sure about we could upload the idea onto our facebook group and have our audience give us their advice or what to do. Also it ensured us that if there were any ideas that needed to be improved on or develop any ideas that weren't as strong we would be able to find a solution. We wanted our video to be appealing and interesting to watch so we concentrated alot on making sure our audience was happy with our ideas and kept them updated every step of the way.
Also we uploaded our video onto youtube because its a large site used by millions of people each day so we thought that would be a good way to gain more audience feedback. This allowed a wider range of people to view our video.

We receieved feedback saying we needed to add more narrative into our video as our audience thought it made the video more exciting to watch, so we took this into consideration and added a lot more narrative into our music video whiolst creating a good balance of narrative and performance shots. By getting audience feedback it helped us a group to progress and develop our music video to a high standard and that our audience would be happy to watch.
Audience feedback is a very important section to consider, its quite time consuming but is worth it because it helps you get feedback on your ideas and thoughts.


Through using sites such as facebook and youtube to find out our audience feedback we made some specific changes to our practical including; re filming shots of us all performing the dance rountine because we got feedback saying they were too dark, locations; we got told to use a variety of locations and keep the lighting quite bright so the girls stand out and the audiene are drawn straight into looking at them rather than the surroundings. Audience feedback was definitly a stage that we needed to take time on and make sure we took the feedback in and done the changes in order for our practical to be successful and appeal to our audience.

Evaluation - How effective is the combination of your main product & your anciliary tasks?

Balancing producing our main task along with our ancilary tasks was a struggle but me and my group got there in the end. The combination of our main task and ancilary tasks has been very effective and the original ideas we thought of changed as we started to create our main and anciliary tasks.
Firstly with our CD cover as a group we came up with the idea to each of us on chair doing a certain pose and having each girl wearing a different bright colour so the girls would be assosicated with their own colour. This idea is very similar to one of 'The Saturdays' CD covers as they have been recognised in their photoshoots, videos and CD covers by a wearing a certain colour. As a group we felt this idea would be very effective and the when it was done we thought it would look very interesting and eye catching to draw a larger audience into our products. We felt this idea fits in with the typical conventions of a Pop CD cover because of the use of bright colours, it comes across as a very feminine idea and it represents the girl band in a very positive way.
The next stage was then to create a booklet to go inside our CD cover basically introducing the girls in more detail and getting to know a little more about each individual girl. In the booklet we included pictures of the band and our song lyrics. We had a picture of each girl with the lyrics to the part of the song they sing photoshoped on next to them. This looked very effective as we made sure we took each photo of the girls in the same location but each doing a different pose and wearing different outfits so there personality could be reflected through their clothing and posture.
The second Anciliary task we were creating was a magazine advertisement of our new song 'Work'. The idea for this task was very creative, we decided that because our song was called work that we each girl should dress up in well known obvious job occupations such as a doctor, receptionist, life guard, police officer and a builder, whilst adding their own feminine touch to the outfit to keep the girls coming across as girly, sexy and feminine. This made the poster look very appealing and interesting because the costumes related to the name of the song therefore it makes it easily recognisable. The use of bright colours and exaggerated poses also helped to draw in a large audience because it made the girls stand out and look eye catching whilst we used a plain black background. The poster also helped us to represent our narrative message 'Girl Power' that we reflected in our music video, as it shows the band in a dominant position and shows they have authority. Being able to reflect our narrative message through our main and anciliary tasks was a major concept me and my group wanted to accomplish because without narrative the video would have no meaning and would be seen as plain and boring.
Lastly, our main taks which was to produce the music video turnt out to be very effective because we included many codes and conventions of a typical Pop styled music video but we challenged them also by adding in our own ideas to make it more appealing and attract a larger audience. We used a variety of locations throughout the music video to keep it looking interesting and some of the locations are what you would expect to see if you were watching a Pop music video. We used a variety of different camera shots, angles and movements throughout the whole video to keep it looking interesting and in some areas to create suspense. When it came to editing the final video we used some special effects such as 'Slow Motion', 'Reverse Shot' and 'Zooming' this was to keep the video eye catching and interesting to watch. Without any effects the video would have been very plain so it was a good idea for us to add some effects. We also added some narrative shots into the video which is a typical convention of pop videos as we wanted to reflect our narrative message 'Girl Band' in a fun creative way. Once again this was to make the video more entertaining and to draw a large audience into watching our product as you have a story to watch as well as watching performance shots of the girls dancing.
In conclusion I think that the combination of our main task and anciliary tasks turnt out to be very effective and we did a good job of making sure we balanced this out and spent enough time producing them to the highest standard we possibly could.

Evaluation - In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For our A2 practical we came to the decision to produce a music video that followed the genre 'Pop' and followed similar codes and conventions of the girl band 'The Saturdays' using their song 'Work'. To ensure that our music video followed similar conventions of a typical 'Pop' music video we had to do a lot of research into existing media products using sites such as 'Youtube' watching videos of girl bands including Girls Aloud and The Spice Girls.

By using the internet as a main resource to do research into existing media products we found there was certain codes and conventions that we needed to follow to ensure that our music reflected our chosen genre in a effective way. The outfits that the girls wear in the video are quite feminine, girly and slightly revealing which is very common for female bands and artists. They want to have a sex appeal in order to attract a wider audience of both genders. *IMAGES*
Another convention we have followed is having a narrative message reflected in our music video. Just like female bands such as 'The Spice Girls' and 'The Saturdays' we decided to follow this convention and reflect the message 'Girl Power' in our music video through using a variety of different camera shots, angles and locations. In order to reflect this message in our video we included many narrative shots to show the girls as being dominant and in control of their lifes and relationships. By having the girls being reflected as being stronger than the boys it shows they are taunting and teasing them reflecting them as being strong and powerful.

We just a variety of locations in our music video to keep the music video appealing and interesting to watch. The locations we chose were very conventional including using a white backdrop, outside areas, dance studio and props such as outside stairs. We performed the dance rountine scene in the dance studio because the lighting was good and there was a lot of open space to use. For the single shots we used a white backdrop so the girls and there outfits would stand out and be the main attraction. We also used a shot of one of the girls outside on a set of steps that was similar to the original video 'Work'.

There were many conventions that needed to be followed when it came to producing a music video as well as making sure costumes, locations and narrative messages were included. After researching into many existing media products we noticed a similar pattern that they all include a catchy dance rountine. We decided as a group to follow this convention and include a dance rountine in our music video because we felt it made the video more appealing and interesting for our audience to watch. As a group we decided to lay our dance rountine out in a similar formation to 'The Saturdays' dance rountines that they follow in their music videos. By following a similar formation it made the dance rountine look very effective.