Evaluation
Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Whilst planning and shooting our music video “Time For This Light To Shine” trying to use the conventions of our acoustic genre whilst challenging them in certain aspects was important to us. This was to ensure our video had a unique style to it, but also staying within the generic conventions of this genre. We chose this particular song because we thought we could make a story from the meaning in the lyrics, and we all liked the genre of the music.
Our narrative for the music video challenges the normal conventions for an acoustic music video for reasons such as; the story uses the idea of a non-linear narrative using flashbacks. We felt this was a unique idea for our video and was hard to find when researching other music videos in this particular genre. We thought this would work because it puts an originality mark on our music video and does not always follow the general conventions. This can show our initiative towards making our video stand out, we also used this because it was once said by Kress that “Genre is like visiting a familiar social occasion” taking on board this quote our music video and my digipak tries to utilise this idea but challenging some norms at the same time whilst appealing to our ideal audience. This was important because we had an idea of personality factors and the age our demographic audience would have, such as their lifestyle and age. The use of flashbacks can be found in many films such as; Amadeus, the Usual Suspects, Casablanca and Once Upon a Time in America. Flashbacks can be popular in some comedy TV series such as How I Met Your Mother and My Name Is Earl this is where the story is set in the present about a man trying to make his life better by going back and fixing bad things he has done in the past - the flashbacks then show the story of the bad things he did and is then presently trying to fix. I do not know of many music videos that use flashbacks all the way through, although I have seen relationships that have burnt out showing how the relationship used to be using flashbacks, this was also common among class mates. But there is little evidence in the use of the acoustic genre. Although trying to make our music video memorable we also took into account Goodwin’s theory by having visuals that link to the lyrics.
A way in which we used the conventions of an acoustic genre was by having an entirely narrative based music video, this is more common in established artists music videos and in the pop genre, therefore it was considered as taking a risk for a new artist, but we think it worked with our video.
The use of our Mise- En-Scene in our music video challenges the conventions of a real acoustic music video because with the research I have done the acoustic genre locations are usually in sunny/beach location, for example in the music video for Jason Mraz – I’m yours or Jack Johnson – Upside Down. Or they are usually set at a gig singing live.
Our Mise-En-Scene was chosen to be in a beach setting at first we thought this would be effective because it can be seen in many music videos in this genre, such as in Jason Mraz – I’m yours and many of Jack Johnson’s music videos, until there were complications with filming at the beach, so we changed our location to a slightly more urban setting, this challenges the conventions because an inner city and a housing estate would not normally be used for an acoustic music video, although it goes against the conventions we still felt the locations fit in with our plot and goes with the music because of the way we have filmed the video, but again the use of a different location adds a unique stamp to our music video.
The actors we used may not go with the conventions of a music video in this genre but there was not a lot of choice involved in this. From my research most acoustic artists are in their twenties, where as myself and our other actor were only 18, this may not fit in perfectly with the genres general style but there is nothing to say that an 18 year old couldn’t be in this genre making music and we had to use the actors we could get hold of and that were trustworthy regardless of their age. The actors represented the youth in our video as insecure, isolated and experiencing loss because of an unstable relationship. These are contemporary issues, another way the younger generation are represented in the video is slightly more negative as drinking is shown in the video because of the way the boy feels which is depressed. Issues like this are shown in many TV soaps and popular TV dramas on television at the moment, in particular the teen soap Hollyoaks.
Regarding my magazine advertisement and Digipak/Album I think I use an effective digipak cover because I use a natural photograph to link with the natural theme of the song, as it is just a voice and a guitar, so the use of the artist playing his guitar alone with a natural setting around him links with the conventions of a real media product in this genre. The use of costume in my digipak was important because I wanted the artist to represent clothing that was showing he cared about the environment and the world around him as I think the natural acoustic genre can link to this. I chose a t-shirt that had natural elements written on them such as wind and water I think this would fall within the generic conventions of the acoustic genre. The choice of clothing is also important when trying to attract my target audience as the male role is dressed like the audience would dress to make the male more desirable and to create a relationship the audience can relate to when looking at the digipak or music video. I think my digipak can compare to album covers to artists such as Jason Mraz for the song I’m yours as the use of his sketch image of his own face on the front cover gives an authentic image that has not been edited again fitting in to the genre.
Q2. How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?
Digipak:
Front cover. Middle panel 1
Middle panel 2 Back cover
I combined the use of the visuals in my music video with my CD cover and magazine advertisement by using the artist/main character in the music video on the front cover and throughout most of my digi-pak. I did this because a prospective audience will focus on the image of the artist and be able to create a link between music and a person. I chose the artist to be playing the acoustic guitar in the digi-pak, my reasoning behind this was because the genre is acoustic and the guitar was an important instrument in the song and important in the way that the guitar shows how the artist plays acoustic music to attract its target audience. The recurring use of the guitar in the digi-pak supports Goodwin’s theory, in the way in which it supports and strengthens a media product. Three out of four of my panels include the artist to help enhance appeal for a new artist, also having the digi-pak simple makes the album more attractive to its target audience, because a close-up picture catches your attention and familiarises fans and your audience with the artists face. On the first panel the image is close up on the face, for the reason of establishing the artist with their music, the left middle panel is a low angle shot of the artist playing their music, this is effective because it can help appeal to the target audience, the lyrics are also on this panel I did this to make this many look more interesting and will help the audience enjoy the song more by being able to learn or become familiar with the words. The third panel again show the artist with their guitar but this time shows more of the body of the artist this is again for a visual link of the artist. The back panel is the only panel which does not include the artists face on, instead uses a scene from the music video I used this image because it can help the audience relate to the artist and link to the music video locations therefore strengthening the appeal by making it easy for the audience to make connections between the artist and places.
Magazine Advert:
For my magazine advertisement I also used an image of the artist. I chose this again so the audience can make connections between visuals and sound. I used an image using the whole body so the clothing of the artist could be noticed by a prospective audience in a magazine. The words wind, fire and earth on the t-shirt are important as they can link again to the acoustic genre. The natural elements of the earth and the natural sound of the song and instruments can be connected. The wording on the magazine advertisement suggest that the artist is up and coming by saying that the album is coming out and the comments from magazines also suggest this. Although the main appeal was to advertise the album release, I also chose to add in there was a tour ahead, this was to attract the audience to listening to the artist live and becoming a fan of the artist. Using websites on the magazine advert were useful to attracting interested target audience to check out the artist, and their music. I tried to use a natural background on my magazine advert to help connect and connote to the natural theme of the acoustic genre. The way the artist is showing he has his hands in his pockets shows his casual laid back approach which again will help the appeal to the target audience. I think my magazine advert would appear in magazines such as NME or Q as these don’t focus on necessarily one particular genre but a range of genres, also other acoustic artists such as Newton Faulkner has appeared in this magazine, showing it would be appropriate as he is also in the acoustic genre. As acoustic is a hard genre to place, I think these would be the most suited as to appealing and finding the target audience.
Q3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Music Video:
The most convenient way to receive audience feedback for our music video was to get our class to complete a questionnaire on aspects of the music video, we asked our entire Media Studies class in total, so had a range of males and females aged 17-18. Also as all of the participants were in our Media class they all had a general background knowledge in to what to be looking for and what makes a music video attractive therefore making our results slightly more valid, although there could have been a problem with reliability as the class could have easily lied. Our class is quite opinionated though, so we also knew we would gain a range and variety of results.
The first group of questions included rating certain aspects of our music videos using the numbers 1-5 (1 the lowest, 5 the highest). The first question was “How much did you enjoy the music video?” The average rating was three, with one five and two fours. Also one two. This shows a generally steady shared opinion from our class, with a few anomalies. This could have been because they specifically enjoyed the genre, or disliked the song, or the pace/style of the video. Especially as the acoustic genre is not as much of a widely popular or well known genre. The next question which was “Did the video hold you attention?” scored an average rating of three-four out of five. Interestingly males and females both scored roughly at the same. As one male and one female both scored a two. It is generally steady throughout all the research, this can show how the acoustic genre and the video successfully appeals to both genders. The next question was “How do you rate the camera work and editing?” the average score for this was four, this was pleasing as we tried really hard to create an interesting edit to make the shots as creative as possible, for example using the split screen. The last of this set of questions was How do you rate the standard of mise-en-scene?” Again the average scoring was four which was good because we tried really hard to create interesting angles and find the right mise-en-scene to fit the style we wanted to create for our video. It was also pleasing to have scores towards the higher end of the scale because this shows the non-linear narrative we used for our video was successful and the audience understood the idea and purpose of using this style. Although the video was about a love story I think the male protagonist helps the male audience to engage with the music video just as well as females, who can relate to the love side of the story the video tells because of female-based films that show love related stories such as the film ‘The Notebook’.
The next two questions were to be circled, question five was “Was the music video too short, long, don’t know or correct length?”. Everyone answered “correct length” I think this was because our video was the average length of a music video, this was important so we did not lose the audiences interest. The second of these two questions was “Would you listen to it again?” Most of the audience answered undecided, this was possibly because the acoustic genre is not widely popular, and also is not particular popular among our class, again another reason why just asking out class could not have been the most reliable way of collecting data.
The next group of questions were opinion based. “Were there any aspects you found offensive?” No one had an answer for this, as we tried to represent any aspect of our video in a negative or offensive way. This is why I don’t think anyone found anything offensive as we took this into consideration.
The next question was “Can you think of anything that could improve the appeal?” We had some answers including suggestions such as making the narrative more complex, increasing the pace of the video and improving some effects. These suggestions show that maybe my group and I could have taken into consideration a little more about our narrative and maybe how to make it faster paced and more exciting, but we also thought it fit in with the song we used.
For the question “Was there any part you found confusing or hard to understand?” No one answered that there was a part that was confusing, and that the narrative was easy to follow.
The last question in this group being “What is the best part of the production?” Had answers such as “The use of the recurring fire”, “use of the split screen”, “use of shots”, “the narrative of the video connecting to the lyrics in the song” and “it suited the genre”. This shows the audience had a varied opinion on what they enjoyed about our video and we were pleased as it shows that different aspects can appeal to different people.
The last 3 questions were again circling numbers or words. The first “Does the video reflect the style of the music?” All of our class answered ‘Yes’. This results shows our video did the job it was supposed to do and that we set out with good ideas.
The next question was “Does the video successfully promote the artist”? This produced some less pleasing results and most of the group answered No, or undecided. This made me realise we should have maybe not had the entire film as narrative based and could have used the male protagonist singing and performing or playing the music this could have helped the appeal and promotion of the video and artist.
The last question for our music video was “On a scale of one-five how do you rank the music video overall?” We got an average result of three - four with some nice comments such as “the video really related to the genre”. This shows that according to our media class we successfully created a music video that fitted its genre and appeals to a wide audience.
Digipak & magazine advertisement
For my digi-pak and magazine advertisement I chose to ask a small set of questions to similar participants as I did with my music video. Males and females aged 17-18, 5males 4females were used. The questions were as follows:
1. How well do you think the digi-pak and magazine advert represent and promote the artist? (on a scale of 1-5).
2. What do you think could have improved the digi-pak or magazine advert?
3. What is the best part of the digi-pak or magazine advert?
4. How interesting are the images on a scale of 1-5?
In terms of my digi-pak I had an average rating of 4 out of 5, this shows that using the artists face and body on the first album was successful in promoting and familiarising the artist with possible audiences. It also shows that uses images like mine promotes effectively. For the second question, I got comments such as “using a wider variety of location”, “changing the lighting to be different for each panel” & “more variety of clothing on the artist”. These comments show I could have taken pictures over different periods of days to get different lighting to maybe strengthen the interest of the panel, or I could have changed the costume of the artist to create variety in the digi-pak but overall I do not think these comments are too negative.
For question three I got comments such as “the use of the artist alone”, “the way the artist is playing his music”, “the way the images all connect”. This shows that my general idea of having a theme throughout my digi-pak can work, and that the use of the artist and the image being focussed on him attracts and appeals to an audience. The last question got me an average rating of 3. This shows I could have had more variety, but I do have a sound rating from the people I asked showing my images do work together.
Regarding my magazine advertisement the first question I received an average rating of 4, this shows my advert successfully promoted the up and coming album release and the artist because I used a full image. I also think my choice of wording helped to promote the artist. For the second question I had comments such as “less words, it is slightly crowded”, “the fonts could have been different and could have been in different colours” & “I think it could have been a more interesting advertisement”. This shows that I could have moved some of my information about to be at different angles to make the advertisement more interesting to read, but I also wanted it to be simple because if it is placed in a magazine it has to be simple to be eye catching and for someone to want to read the information. For question three I received comments such as “I like the simplicity”, “The use of the words going around the image of the artist” & “The way the advert stands out because it doesn’t have too little or too much on it”. These images show that the simplicity I was going for works well, whilst still promoting the album and artist successfully, keeping the image eye catching. For the last question I scored a 4 on average from the participants. I think this shows I had a very good and successfully magazine advert and did well on promoting the album, whilst keeping the advert simple to attract attention towards it, I also think the large image of the artist helps to attract an audience to stop and view the magazine advert.
Q4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Planning:
Using a blog, from the site www.blogger.com was a huge part of the planning for the production of our music video and individual print productions. For our music video it was used to keep record of all the ideas, and revisions we made on our way towards constructing the video. This included keeping track of costume ideas, actors we were planning to use, location scouting, this was particularly useful for this aspects as photographs were easily put straight on to the blog, then when we were going to shoot and meet to start to pull our music video together. Regarding the digi-pak and magazine advertisement the blog was particularly helpful as it allowed you to upload your ideas simply and quickly so teachers can comment on first drafts with ideas for improvements, therefore helping us to make the work stronger. This also helped because not only could teachers comment and suggest, our friends and peers could do this also instantly by leaving a comment at the bottom of a post for individuals to read, this again helped when improving and strengthening work. The most helpful aspect of using the blog and every piece of work being done digitally is how you can easily access you work at home or at school. Whilst planning our music video I also used technology such as www.youtube.com to watch videos in the same genre as we were working within to help collect ideas, and how we could see what we would like to use or challenge whilst thinking about what to have in our video.
Construction:
Whilst in the making of our music video our group used a digital camcorder and a tripod that helped significantly whilst producing our video. This was because it was able to enable us to produce a variety of angles for the shots we were planning to use. It also helped to produce a steady video when wanted as it was not hand held, the last thing that it helped us do was to view and delete pieces of video we did not want, or did not think was relevant was our ideas, or did not work as we had planned.
Whilst editing the music video we used “Premiere Pro Elements” this programme enabled us to use effects and cross fades to make our music video interesting to the eye, and keep the audience’s attention on the video. It also helped by having the soundtrack and the video together so we knew what we wanted when on the track and to make sure it was in time with the music if it needed to be. We also were able to achieve more complex cross-fades and cuts with this editing software. Whilst editing we decided to use a split-screen, to make our visuals tell a story effectively. We also super imposed a picture into the video, so it looked like the person was in the video, even though they were not. And lastly the editing software helped us speed up and slow down certain shots to the pace of the music, this was effective whilst trying to create atmosphere in the video.
Regarding print productions I used the software Adobe Photoshop Elements, this enabled me to experiment and manipulate still images I took on my digital camera. I took about 50 pictures overall, and slowly went through my cameras picking the most suitable images to my ideas. For my magazine advert, I used the effect of making a textured background to make the view of the advert more interesting. I was also able to change the contrast and move font and text around on the image to manipulate the image, and then I was embed images on to the image in photoshop to create layers and make the final piece. This was also true for my digi-pak.
Research:
Gaining feedback for research was an important part of creating print productions and our music video, I used the method of posting questionnaires on the site Facebook and handing out questionnaires to my classmates. I chose to use social networking sites because they are increasingly popular among teens. They are also helpful because you can gain feedback quickly, and can ask a large number of people efficiently. Another way we used social networking sites was to listen to our unsigned band, this time on Myspace and you tube. We were lucky enough to know our artist though, therefore not needing to search many bands and ask permission as such to people we did not know. These ways of listening and finding artists/bands are important today as they not only are ways to find new bands but promote current bands and what they are doing and releasing in an easy and immediate way to access.
Evaluation:
In order to complete our coursework successfully the use of you tube has helped me to embed videos on to my blog, and the use of our blog to insert stills in to my blog for purposes such as comparing images, and videos. Also the use of being able to insert images onto my blog has made the blog and evaluation of my work more interesting and effective.
