Media Evaluation

Jess Holden and Chelsea Cropper

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

These are the props we used in our media production; we used them as they link with the fairytale genre of our pop video. The bouquet of flowers is used to represent the children’s love for one another, particularly the boy’s admiration for the little girl. We went with the conventions with this item as it is an iconic symbol of love, which is used a lot in films to show affection.

The Violin is used in the instrumental scenes, which is a convention of music videos as they show close ups of the instruments frequently. The soundtrack is quick and lively therefore we used short cuts and fast transitions between shots.

Convention of typography, the book we created is an imitation of a traditional fairytale book; the backing paper is dyed brown to give it an authentic old looking style with gold text in old English type to replica the stereotypical style. We wanted it to look quite plain so the focus would be on the content; we put screen shots of the video into the book to link the two media scripts. The audience would also grasp the lyrics more, “I’m in love with a fairytale”. It also indicates that it may be a delusion and that he may be ‘losing his mind’ another linking lyric.

The older female role playing the ‘fairytale girl’ we chose based on the characteristics of long blonde hair and pale skin to go with the princess-look we were going for. In this picture the actress is wearing her second costume. We chose this outfit as it looks casual and normal looking, it is the representation of reality within the story. This is the actual picture whereas the other look is what the male main character is thinking he is seeing.

This is the costume used throughout the video; we have gone with the conventions as we picked a very average outfit which is stereotypical of the portrayal of an typical young man. We didn’t want his costume to stand out because that may have taken attention away from the lyrics, illusions and the narrative going on. We also wanted the colours of the costume to be dull as it indicates his state of depression at stages of the song.

The other two characters play the same role only younger, in the mind of the singer when he looks back on their past. We chose the two children that played these roles as they resemble the other actors in the video. They have the same characteristics we were looking for; same hair colour and similar eye colour we also wanted the two younger cast members to look a similar age. We were very happy with our choices and think we picked the best people for the roles.

The younger female role playing the ‘fairytale girl’ we also chose based on the characteristics of blonde hair and pale skin to go with the princess-look we were going for. The facial characteristics are also similar which makes the storyline more convincing to our audience.

The younger male role was chosen based on the similar characteristics as the lead male; brown hair, similar facial features and of the right age group we were looking for.

Comparisons in costume linking the two characters together, therefore the audience should grasp that it is the same person in a different time; we also changed scenes to black and white to indicate this.

oBlack pants

oWhite casual shirt (indicating the same person at a happier time, first button open showing casual personality)

oBrown hair (shorter and a younger style)

oTaller height than the female counterpart

oBlack pants

oGrey smart/casual shirt (indicating his unhappiness, first button open showing casual personality)

oBrown hair (longer showing the change in time)

oTaller height than the female counterpart

oBeige/cream flowing dress

oTiara (smaller as the realism is becoming more apparent)

oBlonde hair (down symbolising a slight difference between the time)

oWhite flowing dress (longer indicating the age difference and innocence of the child)

oTiara (bigger indicating the fairytale existence is stronger)

oBlonde hair (up symbolising the different time and emotions)

We based the costume on this iconic princess stereotype.

Alternative location to studio, we looked for a fairytale-like woodland environment for the second location. We selected this location due to the easy access and its scenery.

We feel this location contrasts the studio environment greatly, which is what we were looking for.

A variety of lighting effects in post production and different camera angles

Zoomed in and out violin shots in the two chosen locations

Special effects created in post production

We followed the conventions of pop music videos, as we chose a music channel that pop videos of our genre would typically be shown on. The title banner is fun and lively like the music shown on this channel, its simple for a younger audience. It is what you would expect to see on this type of channel.

Intro 0:00 0:18 – instrumental – close up violin shots alternating with flash shots (X-factor introduction of contestants style) of male different angles (2 second intervals) done in studio, dim lighting, shadowed. To fit with the beat of the music.Verse 1 – shot in or edited to black and white to show passage of time. Possibly a fading effect to make the footage look old, foggy edges, etc. 0:19 0:23 – years ago when I was younger – close up of little boy (brown hair) eyes looking to the left (possible slow blink)0:23 0:27 – I kinda liked a girl I knew – close up of little girl (blonde hair) same distance, looking in opposite direction (possible slow blink)0:27 0:32 – she was mine and we were sweethearts – close up of children’s hands moving close and grab each other’s hand slowly.0:32 0:36 – that was then but then it’s true – shot of back of children walking away through woodsy path holding hands (Orrell Reservoir/woodsy path). Girl wearing nice dress and headband/ribbon, boy wearing smart clothes e.g. school pants and shirtChorus - shot in colour but has a dark colour scheme to show hurt and upset. 0:37 0:41 - I’m in love with a fairytale – shot of male singing, looking at camera 0:41 0:45 - Even though it hurts – shot of male sat reading fairytale book, singing looking at book, side shot0:45 0:50 - ‘Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind – front shot, close up, looking down at book turns page0:50 0:55 - I’m already cursed – camera goes towards the open book onto a photograph, photograph is first frame of instrumental0:55 1:13 – instrumental – shots of female dancing in woods with male character, quick editing, different angles, separate with black fades/flashes. She is wearing a bright pretty dress and jewellery like she is out of a fairytale (like a princess) and too good for himVerse 2 1:13 1:17 - Every day we start a fighting – walking away in opposite directions, long shot, shot of bottom of female’s dress flowing and feet moving, (outside res along the wall on Winstanley road/ a street)1:18 1:20 - Every night we fell in love – dance move, swirl towards male, both looking happy and facing camera, looking at each other, swaying

1:22 1:25 - No one else could make me sadder – studio shot. Medium close up. Looks up and sings into camera looking sad1:27 1:29 - But no one else could lift me– medium close up flows into1:29 1:31 high above – low angled shot, arms out, powerful Verse 31:31 1:35 - I don’t know what I was doing – male and female together walking holding hands (normal clothes female)1:36 1:40 - When suddenly, we fell apart – close up shot of hands letting go1:40 1:43 - Now a days, I cannot find her - male walking, turns close up and looks around, worry/panic look on his face because he wants to find her and is upset1:44 1:49 - But when I do, we’ll get a brand new start – wandering, turns and sings towards cameraChorus 1:51 1:55 - I’m in love with a fairytale - 1:55 1:59 - even though it hurts - 2:00 2:04 - ‘Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind -2:04 2:09 - I’m already cursed -2:09 2:26 – instrumental – male and female dancing in “ballroom” happy and cheerful, 2:26 2:29 - instrumental - close up of male spins out female, face expression changes, sad, female disappeared2:29 2:35 - She’s a fairytale yeah – side medium shot of female, head turning towards camera, looking like a princess, not looking at camera, looking princess like 2:36 2:39 - Even though it hurts -2:40 2:44 - ‘Cause I don’t care if I lose my mind - 2:45 2:49 - I’m already cursed – 2:49 2:58 - instrumental – close up of violin being played fades into and over shot of male (opposite sides) 3 separate shots of drum (possible bass drum) for impact of the beat in-between flashes of male like in introduction, along with shots of the female, separated by flashes. Book slammed shut on final beat to reveal the title of the song and the artist in the style of a fairytale book cover

The first plan we made before we started filming, to make our production we selected the conventional camera angles to work from and change as we proceeded.

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

This is the CD insert pages from our digipack.

The inside pages relate to the fairytale book, the choice of background, text and imagery are similar to those in the book. The centre image also relates to the poster as the same image in used.

The outer pages are colourful to attract our target audience. The expressions correlate to the emotions in the video, the back cover is happy, indicating a happily ever after as he looks into the book whereas the front cover is sad, which indicates the story to be told and it intrigues the viewer.

Linking images

The final product, this is the poster we chose as our final piece.

These are the initial drafts of the poster. We tried a variety of different effects on these posters, we went in different direction as these feature the main character as the focal point of the poster, which we then changed as we preferred the other imagery.

We also used more techniques on the final product compared to the first drafts, which make the poster look a lot more professional.

We used YouTube to post our video on the internet, we received a good response. Here are some of the comments below and to the right is the statistics of the audience watching our video.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback

Facebook comments

This shows our editing colour technique, the first picture is the shot without any effects the one underneath is the final shot with effects and the picture above is how we did this on adobe premier pro. We made this change as our feedback stated that the first shot looked too dull and plain. We responded positively and changed the shot as suggested.

4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used adobe premier pro to edit our film footage into our production. We made all our after effects and transitions in this programme, and edited the colours and overall look of the video.

We also used Photoshop to drastically change the look of a scene to create the fairytale illusion. We took a short piece of film frame by frame and used effects on Photoshop to make it into an illustration, which we then imported back into adobe premier pro.

We made this scene slow motion in post production, we also transformed the look of it as it went from realism to the storybook drawn effect.

These videos show how the effects have appeared in the video.

We used a overlapping transition on this scene. We also edited how the shot appeared by changing the brightness and contrast, to make the female character seem bolder through the front layer.

Equipment list;

oCanon camera

oTripod

oStudio lights

oMp3 player to guide singer

We used the Internet to select a location as an alternative to the studio to create a contrast between the studio and a second location in the video. The woodsy location relates to the fairytale genre. We used social networking sites such as Facebook to upload our video and to receive audience feedback. YouTube was used to broadcast our music video to a worldwide audience. Without the internet we would not receive a variety of feedback instantly .