MEDIA EVALUATIONCHARLOTTE SINGLETON.

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

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

Our pop rock music video conforms to some of the key codes and conventions of real music videos, including genre characteristics such as the performance element, which is typical of rock band videos, and there are many examples of this in real media products today. Bands like Paramore, war paint and many other bands that we looked into at the start of our work all have that performance element.

The use of narrative in our video, although filming it in a documentary style format it was a narrative of how the song came about and getting ready to go to the gig. This is a typical music video trait to have a narrative running through the video and I think we have done this in a different way by choosing to use the documentary style footage. Footage filmed by the individuals in the band just creates that home comfort feeling for the target audience and allow them to get a sense of personalized insight into the bands home life, which will give comfort.We have used different types of cinematography and camera angles, which are very important in the video as this is what catches the audience attention and enhances the codes and conventions effectively. In the performance part we have included: long shots to establish the setting and in this case it was the gig and also to see the band as a whole, close up shots of band members and the instruments (guitar, bass, drums) this is to establish the image and the rock vibe from the instruments. We used Low angle shots so we could look down on the camera and show an attitude that rock bands have.

We didn’t use relationship between the lyrics and visuals, so this could be seen to challenge codes and conventions but we did however have a relationship between the music and visuals, each cut was on the beat our video was fast paced in order to fit in with the music.There was no notions of looking or any voyeurism that Andrew Goodwin’s theory talks about as that was not the image we were trying to achieve we wanted a fun rock vibe but didn’t want to be portrayed as provocative in anyway.

We ensured that the mise-en-scene within our video was effective and achieved our goals, firstly the naturalistic costumes in the home footage surrounded by all the home comforts of everyday life, to show how the band is just like everyone else living everyday life that they are down to earth however there is that fun rock band element to them as well. In the performance stage of the music video we have ensured our costumes are that of a more dressed up type, our hairs are done differently and our make-up is natural but red lipstick to enhance the rock look. Instruments on the stage, the way they are set up on the stage and the set up of the surroundings is made to look like a gig I think we have done this effectively through lighting and camera angles mise-en scene and framing.

In addition to the music video created by the group we also had to produce a digi-pack individually for the band Dragon fly which of course had to tie in with the codes and conventions used in our main product. I managed to achieve and effective digi pack for the Dragonfly album to fit in with the music video and also a poster to promote the bands CD.

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

For our coursework we have created a music video as our main text as well as posters and digi-packs as the ancillary texts used to promote the band, music video and album. The use of the ancillary texts in combination with our music video is also effective to promote our band, as they Are all equally as girly but edgy as each other and work effectively together to promote our girly/rock, fun, laid back image.

We have upheld the consistency of all the types of media texts created, we have done this so that each texts portrays the same amount of effectiveness that our music video was made for it adds additional purpose to the creation of the music video by promoting it and portraying us as a real band, giving Dragonfly a more respectful image and loyalty to the target audience.

The use of font within the ancillary texts are also consistent, using the same typography for both the posters and the digipack is effective because it creates a more professional look for it to all be the same, whereas if they were different it would be confusing for the audience as audiences like to see one distinctive font that they can recognize to be a brand straight away. For example Coca-Cola use that same font that we recognize to be coca cola without hesitation worldwide.

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

DRAGONFLY……….

The location of the ancillary texts is relevantly used within both texts. We organised a photo shoot for the band in a location were it is full of natural light, whereby we could experiment with different shots and photos to use in our digi pack and posters. We purposely shot these pictures in a different location and didn’t just extract screen shots or still images from our music video as we wanted to show variety in our band, it was effective as although the location was different the codes and conventions were still consistent so it showed that we was willing to go the extra mile and infuse new ideas in relevance to our bands image, rather that to take the easy, less time consuming root of copying images from the music video.

Within the photo shoot every detail was considered, from the costumes we wore to the locations and lighting. We took a first photo shoot prior to the second photo shoot that we decided didn’t fit in with our band image as the location was all wrong as there was many distractions and things such as cars being in the background one minute and not there the next therefore we decided to re shoot and payed particular attention to the type of location. Which was Danson Park in the end as it is full of natural lighting and is just the perfect background for the shoot. Another element that proved to be unsuccessful in the first photo shoot was the bands costume. It was too “normal” and didn’t really give us an image for example casually dressed but not standing out from the crowd therefore we again considered our costume in great detail within the next photo shoot. Ensuring that we each had an element of our costume that was distinct to each artist.

In our successful shoot we took all natural shots instead of staged cheesy shots to show our fun natural side, which related to our music video as we shot natural home footage so it linked in well. Also the natural shots portrayed how we are a fun girl band who are not trying to be sexualized to appeal to a male audience and that we in fact are just trying to be ourselves and appeal to our niche target audience.When creating the ancillary texts we’ve used images that have been edited with quite high contrast showing our fun bubbly energetic vibe that we want to share with the audience we have also edited black and white shots to express our rock edgy look as well. Both high contrast and black and white are not only used in our ancillary texts but also in our music video showing a direct link to the editing and intentions. These pictures from our photo shoot were carefully selected for our digi pack. And I think we have achieved a well recognizable image for the band

What have you learned from your audience feedback?....

Audience feedback has made a big impact on the final product of our work. In the beginning stages when we had to plan our idea for the music video, we created a pitch for the idea and pitched it to the class and teachers in our media department. This was extremely beneficial to us as the feedback we received helped us come to the decision to change our whole idea as our original idea was perhaps to ambitious and not fitting in with the genre as much as it should of.

the points we received from everyone in the class we really appreciated it as helped us develop on the good points and change the bad points before it was too late. We came to realize that there is a lot to learn from audience feedback as who knows what the target audience wants more than the people in the target audience?

We continued to use audience feedback to our benefit when we created a questionnaire asking our targeted audience which font they preferred in order to establish which one would fit our genre most effectively. When we collected the result in it was clear to see that one font in particular took up most of the votes and we therefore made a unanimous decision to include that type on our digi packs and posters. We had originally chosen three fonts that we liked and could not choose between them so resulting in audience feedback not only helped us come to a final decision but also helped us learn more about our target audiences likes and dislikes which is interesting to use in the rest of our work.

DRAGONFLY

THIS WAS THE WINNING FONT !

Social network sites are that of great importance to our audience feedback as the type of audience we attract are people who would be on social networking sites regularly. With this in mind and in need of some feedback on our music video we posted our first draft on Facebook for constructive criticism. It was clear to see from the comments that a lot of people liked it however there was also comments from media students in other schools and friends who commented with constructive criticism most of it was just small minor thing that we needed to improve or work on which we of course took on board and edited/developed on in order to achieve a final music video that we could be proud of and our target audience would enjoy.

After the final piece was finished we uploaded it to YouTube which is a social networking site were anyone can leave a comment in contrast to Facebook were the majority of people are friends or family. Having people who don’t know you watch your video is a good way of retrieving feedback, as they may not be as hesitant as friends and people we know to give us criticism. We had a lot of views of our c=video and it was in the end a success after making small changes that needed to be done. I have learnt a lot from audience feedback and I believe it has helped us a great deal in the development of our work without it we would have created something that we THINK our target audience would like but with the help of audience feedback we are now confident that we have made the video and KNOW the target audience will like it.

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

At the very beginning stage of the whole process we of course had to research and plan. With the media technologies avail bile to us I today it was perhaps a big relief when having to create a music video. The different media technologies we used included. YouTube for example, which was extremely useful in helping us to research different bands with the same genre as us in order to find inspiration. We used YouTube to look at music videos from bands like Paramore an all girl indie rock band who genre is the same as ours, by doing this we was able to analyse the music video and establish the key codes and conventions needed to make a successful music video of this genre. We could also use this and Google to establish a rock pop sort of image by looking at pictures and videos of people that fit the genre. Also involved in planning we used Final cut pro to create an animatic for our music video this was very useful to help us gain a vision for our music video it is useful to have a storyboard but animatic help you put each shot in [perspective and therefore helping you decide on camera angles and shot perhaps before you shoot in order to speed up the process and push success first time.

Photoshop is another excellent technology. Without Photoshop we wouldn’t have no digi pack or poster so it was clearly a excellent use of technology it helped us create the digi packs as we had to edit the photos first in order to appeal, we then have to place them all in an effective digipack style, we had to create a barcode, logo, typography over the digi pack and by using Photoshop this, made the whole process so much easier. It gave us a taste of how real digi pack and posters and all types of media are created.

Using PowerPoint to write this evaluation is an media technology that helps add a bit more excitement than just a written essay.

And finally Final cut pro on the apple macs which was the main technology we used to edit the whole music video together we used a vast amount of effects, colour correction, slow motion and a lot more we had to include a lot of cuts as our video is fast paced and in order for it to fit into to song each shot had to be cut exactly on time. Sometimes final cut pro was a challenge as the apple macs like to just close now and then so it did take white a long time however we are pleased with the result and recognize that our use of technology has helped us result in a good final product.