Evaluation

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

My music video both uses, develops and challenges conventions of real media products.
My video is mainly in black and white, with some shots in colour. This is rarely found in music videos as they are often in colour, however more modern music videos such as Kings of Leon, ‘Use Somebody’ and Beyonce’s, ‘Single Ladies’ are beginning to have more shots in black and white. Therefore I would argue that my video is both developing and using conventions of real media products as it isn’t a convention that is yet widely recognised but something fairly new so my video is developing on this convention, but it has been done, so therefore uses a convention.

My video is only narrative based, which challenges conventions of real music videos, as they are often performance based and narrative based in order to create an image for the artists and their music. Its also done to give the audience voyeuristic pleasure; pleasure of watching and seeing their favourite artists on screen.
For that reason my video breaks a convention of real music videos; I wanted to do this because I wanted the audience to focus more on the song lyrics and the video, in order to create a certain mood.

One the other hand it also uses a convention of real music videos, because it is narrative based, and this is something that most music videos will have.
I shot the video in the same location, purely because it fits in with the narrative; the girl being insecure and becoming secluded from society and reality. I therefore wanted to make this clear by showing the girl constantly in her room.

This challenges conventions of music videos, because they always feature at least five different locations in a video, such as Htwo0’s video ‘What we gonna do’. This has a lot of different locations and a specific one in which the performance of the song is done. This allows the audience to differentiate between the narrative and the performance.

By me therefore making a video that is shot in the same location; I am challenging the conventions of real music videos because I am breaking the boundary line and creating something new and unseen.

My ancillary product; the magazine article also uses and develops conventions.
I used an image that is also featured on the digipak that is a medium close up shot of the artist; Charley-Marie. It fills the background of the article.
This is a convention of magazine article’s for new albums because a lot of them feature an image of the artist as the background, such as the two magazine articles I have analysed. Although they are not all medium close up shots of the artist, this is a convention.
I therefore have used a convention of magazine articles for new albums.

I edited the image so that the artist is in black and white, whereas the magazine bed that she is laid on is still in colour. I did this because it related to the video and the girl being obsessed with celebrities in magazines. Therefore the focus is on the magazines.

I placed an image of the album in the bottom corner, which can arguably not be a convention of magazine articles, but something that is sometimes featured. I got this idea from the Gwen Stefani article that I analysed.
This is a development of conventions of magazine articles because it is not something that is always seen, but a convention that is used.
A convention that I have used is the name of the artist, the album and a song that is featured on the album. This is a convention that is used on most magazine articles, in order to increase audience recognition, but also to show what the advertisement is advertising.

My final ancillary product also uses some recognised conventions of album covers.
The front cover of my album is an image of a butterfly with bright rainbow coloured wings. I decided to have this image rather then the artist because I think a butterfly is a pretty creature that can be related to the song, as it is called Beautiful. I also featured the name of the album on the cover (audience recognition).
This is a convention of album covers because many don’t feature the artist (although many do) on the cover, and most of the feature either the name of the song, artist or both; such as Green Day’s, ‘American Idiot’ album cover. I therefore used a convention of album covers.

The back cover of my album also uses many conventions of album covers, including a barcode, the featured songs, the label logo, the compact disc logo and the labels protective rights.
These are all conventions of album covers, as most if not all of these features are on the back of album covers. The back is mainly used for the songs that are featured on the album, and this is on all albums in order to let the audience know what t is that they are purchasing.

The labels logo and protective rights will also be on there as they are the production company and represent the artist; they also need to state their protective rights for legal reasons.
By adding these to my album cover I used recognised conventions of the back of albums covers.
I also added the name of the artist which is used on some real album covers and is therefore another convention that has been used. This keeps the audience aware of the artist and the album that they may purchase.

The two side panels of the album case feature the artists name and the name of the album. I also added an image of a butterfly as this is the main theme of the album that can be automatically recognised by the audience.
This is another convention of album covers as the side panels often feature the name of the artist and album.


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

My music video is narrative based and follows a teenage girl, who is very insecure with her looks and becomes obsessed with wanting to look like celebrities in magazines.
The song ‘Beautiful’, by Christina Aguilera was the perfect song for the video I wanted to make, as the lyrics and the video have great relation.

The digipak cover that I created really links well with the video and the magazine article.
The cover has a theme of butterflies, which I wanted to use because I think butterflies are really beautiful. Also after looking at example covers, like Green Day’s, ‘American Idiot’ album, I decided that instead of using the artist on the cover I wanted something else that could be related to the song and music video; a butterfly.
This can therefore be related to the song that is used for the music video.

I did feature an image of the artist (the same one that is featured on the magazine article) on the inside flap of the digipak. The image is of the artist of the song (also who is featured in the music video) laid on a bed of magazines. This links to the music video because the narrative focuses on the girl’s obsession with celebrities in magazines.

I purposely made the image so that it would link with the video, and I thought that the best way to make the link was to keep the subject matter of the magazines.
The magazine article also links to the music video and the digipak.
As described above, the main image of the article is the same one that is featured in the digipak. This therefore also links to the music video.
The article also features a picture of the digipak in the bottom corner so that readers are aware of what is being advertised, but this also connects to the digipak.


What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I carried out a survey on ten people; some from my medie class, friends and a teacher.

After finishing my video, I showed it to my participators and asked them a series of questions, focusing on how my video looked and if it was effective in communting the narrative. The questions were as follows:

1. How well do you feel my video works with the song and what do you feel works and/or doesn't work?

2. Do you think that the video is effective in black and white? Why, and what changes may you suggest?

3. Do you think that there are enough shots in the video? Please explain.

4. What are your opinions on the video being in the same location throughtout? Did you notice and/or did you think it worked well?

5. Overall what would you rate the video on a scale of 1 to 10? (1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest). Give reasons for your answers.

These were the questioned that I asked; they were open questions because I wanted to gain as much information as possible.
I looked at all the answers in order to help give me ideas and improve my video.

I used a lot of ideas from the feedback, and many of the particpants answers were the same.
1 participant gave me 5 for the last question; 5 gave me 6 out of 10, and 4 gave me 7.
I though these were overall good markings, however all explained why they gave me these scores, and all of them commented that there was room for improvement.

The rest of the questions gave me pointers to work from. I did this by taking something that most if not all of the participators had mentioned; they are as follows:
- A wider range of shots are needed; there is a lack of close up shots because most if not all are meduim close ups.
- There could be more shots in colour especially at the end. I think it would be much more effective in showing the girls change of heart.
- The location works well because it shows that she is very secluded and living in her own world.
- The song is a very good song choice, because the video shows something that both relates to the lyrics, but also can be realted to by viewers.
- I gave this score because there is much more that can be done with the video (as pointed out above).

These are the main pointers that I wrote down for me to work on. I used all the ideas above and made the changes that were suggested; they were very useful because I felt that they did in fact improve my video overall.
I gathered this by writing down things that most and/or all the participators had mentioned, thus taking note of something from everybody's feedback.

On the whole, I think that the audience feedback was very helpful as it gave me new ideas and ways that my video could be improved, and a lot of them were correct as it did improve my video.
It also helped because it gave me things to work on, that I may not of thought of myself; like having a wider range of shots.

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

Before filming for my music video and editing it, I had to carry out research in order to find out as much information as possible about them.
I began by doing some research into the history of music videos and how they came about.
In the 60’s feature films were made were artists such as The Beatles would act but would also perform their songs during the films. This essentially was a music video; however they were seen as films.

The first music video to hit MTV on August 1, 1981 was ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’, by The Buggles. This was the first official music video.
After finding out some background of music videos I went onto analysing some; all a different genre. I did this in order to then write about the codes and conventions of them; so that I could use them when creating my own video.

I also wrote LIIAR for music videos; Language, Ideology, Institution, Audience and Representation. By doing this I was increasing my knowledge further about music videos. I was also increasing my knowledge about what attracts an audience to a music video and recognised conventions that are used in them.

I underwent doing research really early in the process because I wanted to learn as much as possible but also so that I could concentrate on my music video.
After the research I chose my song and analysed the lyrics with ideas for my music video. I also drew a storyboard that I could follow when shooting for my video.
However I changed my song twice after that and therefore added the lyrics to the new song.
After the research and planning, I moved onto shooting for my video; I did this over a weekend.
After shooting I began to edit; at the end of November.

I continued to edit on the editing suit and created my first video edit; I then decided to change the song for the final time, due to me finding that the song didn’t fit with my video.
Everything that I researched and planned and made, I posted onto my blog and also kept note in my ‘silver book’.
I kept a note of everything that I did and when I did it in a notebook, so that I could look back at any time if needed.
For my ancillary products I used photo-shop to edit my images for my magazine article and digipak.
I created the final pieces in Microsoft publisher, due to me adding new fonts and needing to save it in a JPEG format.