Evaluation of Media Products

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

The music video which we had created had used several of the typical conventions of professional music videos used in the music industry, as well as following common, similar themes and narratives typically used in the genre of music we decided to make our music video for.

Whilst planning and researching we thought that if we used both a combination of narrative and performance within the music video it would help break up the story, which would make it more structured and easy to follow as well as making the video more interesting to watch.

During the performance parts of the song (which was mainly the chorus parts), we had decided that it would work well to have the female character in the video lip synch the words to the chorus, this had worked particularly well as the actress which we used had a particular look about her which helped fit the criteria of the female character which we were trying to portray in our video (a young, glamorous girl), the technique of lip synching is a common technique used in professional media products.

We had also used the enigma technique, in which certain information is withheld from the audience as the story progresses, this led to the audience wanting to watch more of the video to gain an understanding of why the female character was stalking the male character. The use of an enigma is a very common technique used with narratives in music videos, this helps hook the audience and sometimes create suspense and tension.

How effective is the combination of ancillary texts and the main product?

The combination of the ancillary texts and the main product are effective and work very well together, managing to create clear links between each other.

The use of dark colours in the female characters costume and the setting in which she is singing in help create a dark mood with the song, reflecting on the effect that the artist of the song is trying to convey to her audience.

For the inside covers of the DigiPak that we had created we had used still images taken from frames in our music video to try and make an obvious link between the video and the DigiPak. The image of the male and the female character together having a picnic is an obvious link between the DigiPak and the music video.

The front cover and the magazine advertisement both use an image of glass shattering as their background, which helps establish a visual image of the lyrics of the song. The use of the theme of “Shattered Glass” within the song is not taken literally meaning the physical act of shattering glass but more of a deeper meaning, in which the man breaks up with the woman suddenly and abruptly shattering their relationship like glass. The woman stalking him can be taken as tiny shards of glass cutting him slowly, making him feel guilty to the point where he breaks down and is forced to pick up the pieces. The image of the shattered glass however is related to the name of the song and helps creates a visual link between the song name and ancillary tasks.

In order to create a feel of variety and to avoid repetition in our ancillary tasks we thought it would be best if we took extra photos of the female character. So with this idea we carried out a photo shoot in similar locations with a dark, cold feel to them, which could be used on our ancillary tasks, which would also help create a link between the music video and the DigiPak and Magazine Advertisement.

How has audience feedback helped you in evaluating your media product?

The use of audience feedback was useful in the fact that it helped us evaluate our music video with both positive and negative feedback, which helped us understand what we could have done better if we were to make the video again.

Whilst editing our video we were slightly worried about the narrative of the music video which we used and whether or not it would be easy for the audience to follow but we also argued that the breaking down of the video by the performance would make it easier for the audience to follow. The audience feedback which we had received upon the viewing of the video did in fact show that the narrative and performance had worked well together.

It was also suggested by some of members of the audience that if we were to improve it we should have had the female character performing more as it worked well due to her fitting the criteria of the character very well.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation of the product?

Throughout the duration of creating this product we used a wide range of media technologies in producing it:

Research and Planning

For the research and the planning of the coursework we had used:

- The internet: This helped us research professional, industry standard music videos used by mainstream artists, as well as helping us research the artist of the song we had chosen along with similar artists.

- iMovie: Although a piece of basic editing software, it had helped us greatly in editing our animatic storyboard, which helped us with the timing of the video greatly.

Construction

For the construction stage of the coursework, we used a wide range of digital technology in helping us construct our product, the technology we used were:

- Digital Camcorder: This was used in filming the actual footage needed for the music video.

- iMovie: This was used to edit the footage which we had filmed and put it together

We had also used technology in order to communicate with each other, some of the technology we used was mobile phones and social networking sites such as Facebook in order to organise dates and locations to film.

For the ancillary texts we used different technology we had available to us, these include:

- Adobe Photoshop CS3: This helped design our images which we had taken for the DigiPak and Magazine advertisement.

- Digital Photo Camera: This was used to take the photos used for the ancillary tasks.

- iMovie: This was used to extract the still images from the music video.

Evaluation

In order for us to evaluate our product we created a blog on www.blogger.com On the internet, this helped us evaluate the parts of the video production and the processes we underwent throughout making it as we made it and allowed us to keep a type of diary of events. We also used iMovie to edit the audience feedback that we received from our classmates.

Audience Feedback

After showing our final version of our music video to our class we asked several of our classmates questions about our video to help us evaluate our video and to see what was good and bad about our video and what we could do to improve our video if we were to make it again. We asked our classmates several questions and filmed their responses, which can be seen in the video down below:

DigiPak and Magazine Ad

As our final products for both the DigiPak and Magazine Advertisement we thought that these were the best products that we created for different reasons:

Front Cover:

Back Cover:

Inside Cover:

Inside Cover 2:

Magazine Advertisement:

DigiPak Trials

In order to gain an understanding of how we could link our DigiPak and Magazine Advert to the Music Video that we created different examples:

We felt that this didn't work very well overall, the reasons we didn't use this our:

• The cuts in the image were supposed to represent the theme of Shattered Glass, however the outcome of the image created a Halloween effect, which we thought didn't go well with the overall representation of the message we were trying to convey to our audience.
• We felt that the image didn't blend in very well with the background.
• The empty space by the side was good as it provided space for the song listings

We felt that this did not work as a front cover for several reasons:

• The front cover looks to plain and basic.
• The image was not a good representation for the DigiPak.
• We felt however if we got rid of the writing this would be good to use as one of the inside covers.

This is one of the first images that we produced for the front cover, however we felt that this did not work at all:

• The colours didn't work at all
• We believed that the photo quality of the image was not good enough. As we took a still from the video, as opposed with the other images where we used an actual digital camera.

We thought that this didn't work very well as a front cover for our DigiPak for several reasons:

• There is a lot of black empty space making the cover look really plain
• The use of the borders manages to make the image look more interesting
• The use of still images from the video manages to create a link between the video and the DigiPak.

Album Cover and Digipak Photoshoot

After looking at our possible digipak photos we decided to expand our choices by taking another day to take some more photo's for the covers.

We decided to not use the video camera but a digital camera so that the quality of the still's would be much better.

We tried to use different locations and camera angles to give us a variety of choices. First we decided to try an extreme close up to try and emphasise the emotions portrayed on her face. To get a variety we decided to try it in black and white and also in colour.

Also the same with pictures of the singer up against the wall we tried different types of angles but also in black and white, and then colour.

Here is a slideshow of the photo's we narrowed it down to in our choice for our digipak.

We did this slideshow to show that we haven’t just taken one picture and used it for the Digipak and album cover, it shows that we have taken a variety of shots in different sceneries so that we could select the best shots for our promotional products. To create the slideshow we used iMovie HD and loaded the pictures onto it and arranged them accordingly.

Possible Images for the Magazine Ad and DigiPak

These are still images taken from the video which we thought would be appropriate to include in our magazine advertisement and DigiPak. The use of dark colours contrast well to the theme of the song and we thought that generally most of the images selected below would be well suited for the DigiPak.

Plan for Magazine Advertisement and DigiPak

These are possible rough designs that we came up for both the magazine advertisement to promote the release of our video and the digipak which we will be created. Also designs for our digipak can be seen.

Magazine Advertisement Ideas:

DigiPak Ideas:

Settings

The settings that were used in the music video were selected carefully to convey different messages and create different atmospheres to the audience.

Dark, Derelict Room: This was chosen to emphasise the feelings of darkness given from the lyrics. The room was dark and empty with very little light to show the feelings that the female character has, the feelings of revenge.

Man's Bedroom & Bathroom: The main reason this certain bedroom was chosen was because of the colours used in the bedroom. The use of the colour blue can be interpreted as the character being calm with the current state and feelings that he has.

Streets: The streets we used were empty and quiet, reflecting on the man's personality. For the first part of the street scene's we filmed it when it was sunny and we specifically chose the railway bridge for meaningful purposes. Although it was sunny the man was filmed walking underneath a dark railway bridge, this shows the darkness of his heart as well as a feeling of being trapped by his past. The further the man's journey comes to an end the darker and quieter the streets become, this reflects on the woman gaining control of the man's mind.

Empty Sidestreet: Like the same reason used for the streets, the empty, quiet sidestreet highlights the male character's feeling of isolation and detachment from the real world, showing that the female character has completely gained control of the man's mind.

Park: We decided to film the outside scene in the park when it was sunny as this would be perfect to show the contrast between the good times which the characters shared and the present day where the man is haunted by his guilt.

Shattered Glass Lyrics (By Britney Spears)

Did I wake you?

Were you sleeping?

Were you still in the bed?
Or is a nightmare keeping you up instead?
Poor baby, are you feeling guilty for what you did?
If you think you're hurting, you ain't seen nothing yet

Was it really worth it?
Was she everything that you were looking for to feel like a man?
I hope you know that you can't come back
'Cause all we have is broken like shattered glass

You're gonna see me in your dreams tonight
My face is gonna haunt you all the time
I promise that you gon' want me back
When your life falls apart like shattered glass
Glass, glass, glass

Are you having trouble focusing throughout the day?
Do you find yourself still calling my name?
Do you wish you could rewind time and take it back?
I bet you realized that she ain't half the woman I am

Was it really worth it?
Was she everything that you were looking for to feel like a man?
I hope you know that you can't come back
'Cause all we have is broken like shattered glass

You're gonna see me in your dreams tonight
My face is gonna haunt you all the time
I promise that you gon' want me back
When your life falls apart like shattered glass
Glass, glass, glass, glass, l-l-like glass, glass, glass

We felt that the chorus in the song was the strongest part of the song, through this we gained a feeling of darkness and revenge. To emphasise the feeling of darkness, we decided to use a dark room with very little lighting as well as using dark costume.

Filming - Day 3

During the third day of filming we decided to film the final scenes of the male character, here we had to do the inside shots as well as the few outside. The first few shots of the music video show the male character getting ready for work, for this we needed to have a plain setting in order to reflect the male character. Initially we found it difficult to find a location which would relate to the male character however eventually found a suitable setting.

The bedroom was plain and lacking in decoration which was perfect for the shots as it showed a clear image of the type of lifestyle the male character has and suggests the effect the woman will possibly have on him during the song.

These shots are of the male getting ready in the bathroom, once again the bathroom was plain white which was a perfect setting as it suggests the simple life that the male character usually has. We did have a few problems while filming these shots as the bathroom was small however this was solved by using many high angled shots which helped create tension and suspense as well as show how the woman is playing with the man's mind as well as gradually gaining control over the male character.

The outside shots show the male character becoming stressed and the setting reflects this. The chosen setting shows a contrast to the male characters normal setting which is usual clean and tidy whereas this setting is messy and dark. This shot in particular uses a very high angled shot with a lot of empty space around him, highlighting the male character's feeling of isolation and detachment from the real world, showing that the female character has completely gained control of the man's mind.

Filming - Day Two

During the second day of filming it was thought that to approach the lip-syncing and the performance of the chorus would be the best option, this would give an idea of roughly how accurate our timing of the shots from Day one would be.

It was decided that to film in a dark, eerie, derelict room which would help create the mood of the song and story line. This would also reinforce the motives of revenge and darkness in the song and video.

It was best thought that the zooming shot at the beginning of the video would be best done in the same dark room, which would establish the dark atmosphere and feel to the video.

The costume that the actress wears is made up of dark colours reflecting with the dark feel as well as the setting.

Filming - Day One

During the planning stage of the music video, it was decided that it would be best to split the shots into sections by scene. This would then make the process of filming more structured as well as making it easier to film and edit. Therefore it was decided to film outside shots first in the same day, in order to prevent any shots being missed out and to avoid any confusion.

The weather was sunny which was perfect for the outside filming for the last scene as it showed the contrast between the good times when the man and woman were together and the present day where the man is haunted by his guilt.

Although it was sunny the man was filmed walking underneath a dark railway bridge, this shows the darkness of his heart as well as a feeling of being trapped by his past.

The use of the shaking camera during the man's point of view shot, emphasises the nervousness and tension that he feels as he continues to see the woman throughout the street, in later point of view shots the man becomes more nervous and the camera tends to shake more.

The costume of the man reflects his feelings and his characteristics during his journey to work, the untucked shirt, top button undone, undone buttons of his blazer and his untidy hair show the nervousness, guilt and the tension that he feels from his previous night.

Why We Chose Shattered Glass

The lyrics of Shattered Glass appealed to us, due to it's heavy emotions, especially the anger and hurt that you can hear through the lyrics. We wanted to embody the lyrics into human form, showing a character who's life has been ruined, crippled by another, so revenge is what she seeks. The character was not intended to be the victim, she was intended to have been a victim, but now blinded by revenge, she sets out to ruin the mans life.

Also what was imagined was for the audience to be slightly scared of her, when in reality, she is the one that the audience should sympathise with, but in the end, when they find out that he ended the relationship suddenly and this idea can be read metaphorically and relate itself to the lyrics, in which the audience can interpret the man and woman's relationship shattering like glass, the opinion of the audience will completely sways from one to the other. The story was intended not to be predictable, it has to be thought provoking and interesting, and this twist in the character will hopefully make it more appealing.

Also what we got from the song that there is a spooky feeling about it, a haunting feeling. Therefore to apply the idea of the main character being haunted by his past, fitted into the style of the song. It is also quite upbeat, so we decided to at some parts have quick editing and her lip syncing the song.

Research of Artist - Britney Spears

The Artist we decided to use for our music video was from Britney Spears. 'Shattered Glass' is taken from her 2008 album, 'Circus'. After a long history of top twenty singles and five hit albums, she has made herself a world renowned artist.

Britney Spears first started by joining the highly popular kids TV show, 'The Mickey Mouse Club' and was joined by such other artists as Justin Timberlake, Christina Ag, JC Chasez (N Sync), etc. After a successful period of time on the show, Britney returned to college to study for a year and also joint a female pop group called 'Innosense', but then after sending out a demo of her singing at her neighbours wedding to talent scouts/record labels, she was called in to record a demo. The label liked her voice, her dancing abilities, but if anything more her image, as she has been seen as the girl next door character, which they knew would work well if marketed right.

After recording her first album '...Baby one more time' with the likes of Max Martin producing and writing hits such "Hit Me Baby One More Time', 'Sometimes', '(You drive me) Crazy' etc. She then went onto do her first world tour, 'Baby One More Time Tour' and was recieved well by critics for her performance. After the commercial success of her debut album and performances on such award shows as the VMA's, etc, she released her second album, 'Oops I did it again' which was released in 2000 and marked a more mature artist, again the lead single was the name of the album and did moderately well in the US, and got to number 1 in the UK. After the success of Oops I did again, Lucky, Stronger, etc this proved Britney Spears as more than a one hit wonder, with her breaking records for being a female solo artist to get two debut number 1 albums. In promotion of her album she again went on a US tour, 'Crazy 2K Tour' and then a world tour 'Oops!... I did Again World Tour'.

Three years after her debut album, Britney came back again with her third album, 'Britney', again she employed the help of producers/song writers such as Max Martin, Pharrell Williams, Justin Timberlake and was her third number one album in the US.

In promotion of her 'Britney' album, Spears went on a World Tour being based on the famous Edgar Allan Poe's poem 'A Dream Within A Dream', with the concept being at the start with a video montage of Britney falling off the top of a Las Vegas hotel roof top and cuts to Britney on stage. At the end another video is shown of Britney waking up and saying "It was just a dream" (referring to the tour/performance), therefore meaning that she dreamt about the tour, in a dream of her dream.

After two years touring with her 'Dream Within A Dream World Tour' and having a HBO special recording of her tour, she went on to record her smash hit album 'In the Zone' which she had a lot more control over the production side of her album, having writing credits on seven out of the twelve songs on the album, including hits such as 'Everytime', 'Touch Of My Hand' and most notably 'Me Against The Music'. Also with her most star studded album to date with R Kelly, Bloodshy & Avant, Max Martin, P Diddy, Kara Dioguardo, Madonna and Moby to name a few.

The 'In The Zone' album also promoted a new image for Britney, who was desperate to break out of the 'girl next door' image. Also her music style was changing, instead of her regular Bubble gum pop, she was more daring in the choice of genres for her songs, adding in a lot of RnB in her album.

For the album Britney appeared at the VMA's with Madonna, Christina Aguilera and Missy Elliot. The publicity and controversy from the performance was high due to an extremely risque performance of Madonna's hit 'Like A Virgin' but with a twist of oxymoronic content due to them singing about innocence, but their dancing being the opposite.

In promotion for 'In the Zone' Britney went on another World tour, 'The Onyx Hotel Tour' but was cut short due to a knee injury Spears picked up whilst filming her music video for 'Outrageous', which in the end, was never completed. Although not highly publised, this had a huge affect on her career, especially her performances, due to Spears not being able to do as well because of the strain of her knee. Spears stamina was slowed down, she could only dance for small periods of time, therefore putting out any chances of going on tour for a long time. Therefore even on her current 'Circus' tour the dancing is not the same as pre 'Onyx Hotel Tour' due to this injury. Britney would not go on tour again for another 4 years.

After a three year absences from recording an album, Britney starred in her own tv reality show called 'Chaotic' with she starred in with her then husband, Kevin Federline.

Also within those years she had two sons, Sean Preston and Jayden James, two years between the two, and also at the birth of her first son (Sean Preston) was born she reported that she would be leaving the religion of Kabbalah (as shown in her music video for 'Everytime' where she is wearing a red braclet) after becoming involved in it after being introduced to it by her fellow artist, Madonna, but stated on her website: "I no longer study Kabbalah, my baby is my religion".

Moreover in these years of absence from the music industry, a remix album was released titled 'B in the mix' which was a collection of her most popular songs remixed by famous producers/DJs. Spears tried to ease her way back in by releasing a 'Greatest Hit's' album, with two new singles. It also had all of her singles, apart from 'The bottom of my broken heart'. Britney's singles faired well, 'My Prerogative' reaching number 3 in the UK charts, and 'Do Something' reaching number 6.

Spears returned in 2007 with a new type of sound with her album 'Blackout', her first album not to reach number one. It was a commerical flop, but is a popular choice with her fans, and also won a MTV Europe Award for 'Album of the year', with hit singles coming off the album such as 'Gimme More', 'Piece Of Me'(Which also won a VMA for best female music video), 'Break the Ice' and 'Radar' (Which was also on her 'Circus' album). In promotion for 'Blackout' Britney performed on the 2007 VMA's, where she now had a reputation for putting on show stopping performances. When it came to the performance, she was reportedly drunk by tequila shots to calm her nerves and fell out with the designer, so refuses to wear his clothes, going on stage in just a bra, pants, boots and tights. You can clearly see by the reaction of the crowd how bad she was, with half hearted dancing, and at one point she forgot what she was actually doing, as shown at exactly 3.06. This was marked as one of Britney's lowest points in her musical career, and did not perform on stage since then till November 2008.

In early 2008 she was hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after she "appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance",though blood tests tested negative for any illicit substances. She was held for psychiatric evaluation for two days. On January 31, a court placed Spears under temporary co-conservatorship of her father James Spears and attorney Andrew Wallete, giving them complete control of her assets. It is also speculated that the reason for Britney's problems is due to her being bipolar,therefore making her hard to control.

After a long absence Britney returned at the VMA's 2008 and also pre-recording skits/adverts with Russell Brand and Jonah Hill, in promotion for the awards. One of the adverts involved Russell Brand and Britney sitting on a sofa in front of an elephant talking about the award show, the elephant in the room was meant to represent Britney's 2007 performance. This shows her willingness to not pretend it never happen, but instead of seeing it negatively, putting a comic spin on it. This was marked as one of Britney's comebacks, due to it being her first public appearance since the disaster of 2007 VMA's, although she still hadn't performed on a stage since.

Britney also appeared at the European Music Awards 2008,picking up two awards, one for 'Album of the year' and one for 'Act of the year', adding to her ever growing award collection and also inhancing her new image.

On the 26th September 2008 Britney released her comeback single, 'Womanizer', after being first played on Z100 radio station, it became a internet hit, and previously being leaked online. The lead single from her 'Circus' album was a over produced dance hit, and when the video was released only added concrete proof that Britney Spears was back. Here is the video for Womanizer, which is also similar to our video for Shattered Glass. With at the basis of the video a female heroine trying to get revenge, it defiantly played a role in inspiration for our video.

It also reached number one in the UK and the USA, where she had previously not had a number one since her debut single, 'Hit me baby one more time'. Even though commercial success and outstanding record sales, Britney still was yet to perform live since the VMA's 2007. Therefore in promotion for her album/single, Britney performed at the Bambi awards in Germany, this was highly antisipated due to it being nearly two years without her performing at all. It was a success her performance, although she did lip sync, her image was a lot better and performance was more together than at the VMA's 07. One gossip site (www.perezhilton.com) picked up on the amount of walking in the performance, and how it was easy to flashback to the VMA's 07. The song was performed on November 29 at Star Academy and the following day on The X Factor (Picture below with Simon Cowell after performance). This performance was watched by over 13 million UK citizens, making it the most viewed episode in the show’s history. On December 15 and December 16, 2008, she performed it in Japan at Hey! Hey! Hey! Music Champ and NTV Best Artist 2008. All the performances were slightly changed in terms of staging, costumes and choreography.

On the 2nd December 2008, was the release date of her highly antisipated album 'Circus' and performed 'Womanizer' and 'Circus' on 'Good Morning America' (as shown on the video below), it was also Britney's 27th Birthday. Although still lip syncing, Britney's energetic performance drew millions of viewers and positive reviews.

'Circus' went to number one on the US album charts, which was her 5th album to reach this feat.Also Spears announced that she would be going on a World Tour again, this was a shock to the media, due to it being so soon after her breakdown, and her last tour being cut short in 2005 due to a knee injury.

'Circus' was similar to 'Blackout' in the sense it was well produced pop music, with the likes of Max Martin, Danja, Boodshy & Avant, The Clutch, etc. After 'Womanizer', 'Circus' was the next single off of the album, also doing well in the charts reaching 3 in the US and 13 in the UK.
The next single was a fans favourite and was chosen on a poll on www.britneyspears.com but although it's popularity, it caused a lot of controversy for Spears due to it's explicit lyrics. If U Seek Amy was banned from a lot of radio stations due to when said fast, it spells out F-U-C-K me, therefore was complained about, even reaching CNN news, where it was critised for it's non parental rating. Therefore Spears decided to go back into the studio and record a radio edit version, where she would say 'If U See Amy'. This angered Britney's fans, who mostly believed it to be ridiculous especially when there are songs such as 'Sex On The Beach' are allowed on most radio stations.

This brought Spears a lot of media attention, and after this Spear's released 'Radar', a single that was also on her 'Blackout' album. The music video was highly antisipated, and filmed over two days in between Spears North American and European legs of her tour. In the video Spears is watching a polo match and falls in love with the loser of the game, instead of going for the stereotypical option of the winner. Throughout the video Spears promotes Candies, wearing only their clothes, and in the end the music video appeared to just look like an advert. There was no creativity in it, just shots of Spears modelling in her clothes, which in the end came off looking tacky and thoughtless.

Spears 'Circus World Tour' was seen as her 'comeback' as it marked her first tour in 4 years, and was a incredible show. With Support from the likes of the Pussycat Dolls, Ciara, Sliimy, Ciara, Cascada, Kristina DeBarge, Jordin Spark, etc. Also with the Big Apple Circus performing just before Spears performs onstage and also within her set, adding to the promotional image of it being a Circus/Freakshow. Britney got good reviews for her tour, but drew negative critism's for lip-syncing the whole concert apart from 'Everytime' which she sung sitting down. It was only on the 5th September Spears added 'You Oughta Know' by Alanis Morissette, which she sung live and was also dancing. This is seen as a major acheivement for Spears, as this shows her confidence is building as a performing artist.
Spears also picked up best pop video at MTV VMA's 09, and again has recording an advert with Russell Brand, which see's him reading her mind.

Shattered Glass
The song we decided to use for our media video is Shattered Glass, which is off of the 'Circus' album, and is speculated to be the next single released, due to it already reaching number 93 in the billboard hot 100, even though not being released yet. Shattered Glass was not included in the setlist for the 'Circus World Tour', but would probably be added to the Australian dates of the tour if it was released as a single. A Dr Luke produced song, has haunting beats, with a strong sense of anger as heard in the lyrics and Spears voice.


Future Projects
Britney comfirmed herself via Twitter that "She was in the studio with Max (Martin)" which shows a lot of promise due to the long history of hits crafted between the two, for example:

- Hit Me Baby One More Time
- Oops! I did it again
- Stronger
- If U Seek Amy
- (You Drive Me) Crazy
- Lucky
- Overprotected
- Im Not A Girl, Not Yet A Woman

Also In November 2009, Britney is set to release a 'singles' collection (boxset, as shown below), which is all of her previous singles, with one new songs (called 3). Unlike most compilations, they are all going to remixed, extended, familar, but different, therefore making it a must have for fans. There is also to be a DVD within it, which will have all of Britney's previous music videos, and special features.

Therefore with a singles collection there is speculation that she could be going on a greatest hits tour, after her current 'Circus' tour is over. There will also be a single CD (as shown below) release for people that just want the original singles.

TV/Film appearances

Spears first break came through The Mickey Mouse Club, making her familar being infront of the camera, where every week she sings/acts/performs.

Britney's debut into the world of film was the critically panned film, 'Crossroads', also starring Kim Cattrall (Sex And The City). Britney, 19 years old at the time, was criticised for her stereotypical role of her being the 'girl next door' character and lack of acting skills. When at the premiere, fans lined up for hours to meet Britney, but arriving late to the premiere, walked straight into the cinema, not signing a single autograph, this also adding to her bad press.

In 2006 Britney appeared in 'Will And Grace' (as shown below) making a cameo appearance as a closeted lesbian, but never returned to reprise her role.

In 2008, Spears guest-starred on CBS's television show How I Met Your Mother playing a receptionist (as shown in the picture below). She received positive reviews for her performance as well as bringing in the series' highest ratings ever. Spears reprised her role in May 2008, leaving the storyline open for a future return.

In 2009 Britney presented the Top Ten List on David Letterman in August. The Top Ten was "Top Ten Reason Why Britney Spears Should Be President" She presented her points in a bikini and promoted her new perfume 'Circus Fantasy' within her appearance.

In 2010 a new album is set to be released after the number 1 single '3' (US Billboard Charts) with Bloodshy & Avant, Danja and Max Martin all on board with the production of her 7th studio album.