Evaluation

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

When starting our music video we did lots of research into which genre we would use. When we decided to make a music video in an indie/rock genre we had to research them. One of the main criteria we needed to research was which conventions we were going to use. One of the biggest conventions was to have a performance and a narrative. Most bands we researched used this convention as many of their lyrics had a story behind them that the band/artist wanted to show their audience e.g. Blink 182-first date. We decided to use this because we wanted our audience to understand better what our lyrics were about, and so that the narrative would look like a story along with the performance, so the music video would be in time and flow nicely. Identifying Steve archers theory that there is a need for a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance.

Our lyrics are about a boy in his teens trying to get this girl who he likes a lot and it goes through the struggles of how he tries to get her. Therefore, for our narrative we explained what the lyrics were about. In our audience research this was one convention that many wanted to see so we decided to use Andrew Goodwin's theory that visuals can illustrate the lyrics.

Another convention we decided to use was lots of close ups on our lead singer. To make this look effective we needed short clips of the close ups of the lead singer. To do this we made short takes of different parts of the film to edit using final cut express and to position the close ups in the right parts of the video, that way we were able to give our target audience what they wanted. This is very popular in rock/indie bands as there is lots of performance in which to show the bands star image. Another close up we used which is also a convention is the close ups on the instruments in the performance part of the video. We used this as we could sync certain instrumental parts of the song to the visuals being shown. This is done so that the audience can see the skills of the band and to emphasise the sound being played. e.g guitar solos. In certain parts of our video there are small guitar solos which we have emphasised using a close up on the guitar and synchronising it with the music being played.

For our poster we wanted to create a continuity between all three products. Therefore we decided to have an image of a guitar inserted onto the front of our poster. The main convention used by other real media products is the continuity between the products. We used this for both the CD cover and the poster so the audience would know what genre these products were in, as a guitar is a predominate instrument in music videos in indie/rock. Not only does the guitar show the continuity but also the location inserted into the background of the images. The urban setting we used is clear throughout showing the connection of the products so that the audience will know that these products relate to the band.

Like the continuity, another convention used in posters is the"Coming Soon." This is done to create anticipation for anyone who wanted to buy the CD. Therefore the poster is released so anyone wanting to buy the CD will know when it is coming out so they can buy it as soon as possible. We used this convention for the same reasons so that our audience would know when they could buy our CD. The poster is also so that the band can promote themselves buy displaying the posters, as many bands put the bands pictures on the poster so people could see them.

The convention we used for the CD cover was again the image of the guitar. We used this as many of the bands we researched used the same image for the poster and the CD cover, to keep the link between the products. If they didn't use the same image, they used the same bands name as this would be the most recognisable part of the products. We also used this convention as it is very important that the audience can recognise the bands name which will be the most publicised and will be the first thing the audience look at, and this is why we used the same writing style, font and colour in all our products as this is a key convention used in all media products. Similar to the poster the CD cover is to show the audience what genre the band is in . We have used this convention buy having the image of the guitar and buy using different images that again show the genre of the band, such as the drums on the back of the CD which are again a common instrument in an indie/rock genre.

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

The combination of our main product and ancillary text has been very effective as there is strong continuity between all three, which has allowed our audience to connect all three together. We have done this by following the conventions that we have seen in real media products e.g Lostprophets have the same image on their CD cover and in their posters.

You can see the image is used in both their poster and their CD cover showing the continuity between the two.

We found that their is always some connection between the main products and ancillary text, so we had to find ways in which we could have a good relationship between our main product and ancillary text. Therefore we have used the same instruments in the main product and ancillary texts. This effectively shows the music genre that the music video, CD cover and poster are in.

You can see the close ups on the instruments, the drums on the CD cover and the guitar on the poster. Another continuity we have created is the location where we filmed, the urban setting is clear throughout all three so the audience can see all these products are linked to the band.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Once we had finished our music video we did a showing to a mixture of people to gather some audience feedback. Our first audience feedback was from an age range of 20-30. This was good as we can have a strong variety of audience feedback which will show whether we have achieved our goals in targeting our specific target audience. They said the colour difference between our performance and narrative was to great which made it look a little bit amateurish, so, they suggested a black and white tint. This was a good idea as it made the narrative seem more like a story, which is one of our goals that the visuals illustrate the lyrics, identify Andrew Goodwin's theory. The second group of people we showed our music video to was a younger age range of 16-18, we did this as this was the audience we wanted to target. Not only were they a mixture of males and females but not all of the audience who watched our video were fans of the genre. We did this as the people who are not fans of the genre are able to identify key conventions in rock/indie music videos, and if the were able to see them then we had accomplished our goal. This was good as we were able to get a good mixture of comments, these comments are on the blog. Our questions were based around, " what made our video look like an indie/rock video?" Many of the fans of the genre said things like "the close ups on the instruments","The performance"," The mise en scene." This is exactly what we wanted to hear as these were the conventions we were using from the very begging of the music video and we were very pleased with the results. We asked more questions on the narrative and performance aspect of our video, the question we asked was " Can you relate the story to the live band performance?", all replied "yes." We were again very pleased with this as one of the major conventions in all videos with a narrative is the need for the audience to be able to watch the video at any stage and be able to understand it, therefore they would watch it more.

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

Construction

The main media technology I used in the construction stages of our media product was final cut express. This is a very versatile programme that was very effective in editing our music video. We used Final cut so we could effectively make our music video look like and indie/rock video. I used it to cut in and out of the performance and narrative which was very effective and worked well as I could just edit the timeline.

I could move the clips around into whatever order that I wanted, it made using our conventions possible and was able to show the theory of Andrew Goodwin that visuals can illustrate the lyrics. I used Final cuts cutting tool to make lots of short cuts so that it was in sync with the music. We used Final cut to put the black and white tint over the narrative clips. One of the important editing techniques that I wanted to use was the lip syncing. Final cut made this possible as not only can you edit the video clips but also the sound. I found we could put the image above the sound, and adjust it till I got a good synchronisation. Final cut has a variety of effects and transitions which we found very usefull as I used fade ins and fade outs at the begging of the video to show it was starting.

Another programme we used in the construction was photoshop. We used this for both the CD cover and the poster. Again this was very useful as we could insert images and edit the different layers as we went along. One of the conventions we needed for the poster was to have an image that portrayed what genre our band was in. We used the image we took inside the tunnel so that the audience could see the continuity between our main product and our ancillary text. So we used photoshop to insert the picture of the guitar in the tunnel so we could easily show what genre our media product was in.

We also used Photo shop to create our poster. We used the variety of tools to adjust the positions of the layers of the poster. Like the CD cover we needed the poster to show what genre our music video was in, so I used used the guitar. After inserting the guitar I was able to adjust the colour scheme so we could make the guitar stand out. I did this by making the background black and white and having the guitar in colour along with important details.

One problem we had when we first did our poster was it didn't look like a poster because there were conventions missing that would show it was a poster. One convention I saw that was missing was the small print on the very bottom of the poster that normally showed who published the CD and any terms and conditions there might be. So I used photoshop to draw a text box and insert some information and then adjusted the size and changed the colour of the writing so there was an even mix of colour. Another convention our poster didn't have was the "Coming Soon" which is what creates anticipation for the consumer who want to by the product. This was import so, in colour and a moderate font size I put "Coming Soon", followed by the release date. These conventions made the poster look more like a real media product and create anticipation in the fans of the genre as they wait for the release date.

Planning

When planning our music video we used the blog to upload pictures of the location and information on our thoughts on constructing the music video. The blog was useful as the information could be easily read and was very reliable instead of using paper which can be lost. The blog autosaves information that we have been putting in so we can save as a draft and edit later. Before starting we created a new file ready to use when we had any film on final cut express, so we could just upload the video and start as soon as possible. We have also used final cut express to layout the position of our video and explore the different effects that are available that we were considering using.

Research

When researching I used a variety of media technologies to research our music genre. One of the media technologies was the television. I used this so I could research rock/indie music videos in our genre. I watched a variety of channels that were specific to our indie/rock music genre. I used this because I could watch a variety of videos and write a set of reliable conventions. Another media technology I used was the Internet. I used the Internet to go onto YouTube and watch more music videos in our genre. I did this because I could look at the comments some people had put on the video to see which bits they liked and whether they like the music video at all, and if not, what didn't they like? We also used the Internet to look at Final cut tutorials to help us when we were having difficulties using some effects.

Evaluation

The main media technology we have used for our evaluation is the blog. We used this by creating a post and continually editing and adding more information to each post, allowing us to build our essay. The blog also allows us to show pictures and video clips from our music video to expand on our answers. This was good as the videos could be used as examples to back up our points.