Evalutation media
- 1. 1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a real media product? There are several ways in which our media product uses/develops and challenged forms and conventions of official media products. Our product mainly challenges forms and conventions of real media products. Our structure and format challenges the customary forms and conventions of music videos by developing a concept of narrative driven music video; contrasting to the conventional performance based videos, as it gave us the ability to be inventive. The music piece we chose to do was DJ Chuckie- Move it to the drum. Our genre of music is tech-mix; this is an extremely popular genre within the age group aimed at; we have intentionally done this because it would appeal to our target audience which are teenagers and young adults. One way in which our product follows forms and conventions of real media products, was the use of a single stranded narrative; this created a sense of our music video being straightforward as oppose to the buoyant tempo of our song. Our music video is mainly performance based, which also associates with the lyrics of the song and exhibits a positive, humorous feeling through the actions of the characters. Our performance is based upon a young guy who dreams about being a DJ. However, in reality he is just a cleaner in the club in which he works at. He also dreams about being popular with a lot of pretty girls, who worsens look wise, as it goes from there being a “sexy girl”, a “bucktooth geek” and then a “transvestite”, therefore generating a nightmare effect. This consequently supports the forms and conventions of music videos in the present day, for example many music videos are all about dancing and set in a club, which verifies that we have maintained this aspect to the mass audience. However we have also challenged forms and conventions of music videos as there is no reference to voyeurism, which you would see in many of the music videos in the present day.
- 2. Different styles are integrated into dance music videos, such as romantic and abstract. Our music video challenges forms and conventions of other music videos within this genre as there’s the whole element of humour. We used a dream sequence, as we developed a non-linear structure. Flash forwards were used in order to create an imaginary world, which was created by the main character. Flash forwards used throughout music video, the dream part is in colour and the reality in black and white; making it clearer from viewers to understand the concept In my opinion, our use of camera follows the forms and conventions which is merely due to the fact that our research shows that specific shots are most effective in these kind of music videos, for example many close ups are important so we get a clear perspective of the main characters facial expressions, weather his shocked, happy or disappointed with the encounters he has with the girls in his dream. Also long shots are imperative in our music video because it shows a whole situation and to get a better understanding of the different situations taking place. Long shot of dance floor & close up of facial expression Editing is the most vital part in
- 3. a music video, where everything comes together in a very effective way. It makes a music video flow smoothly, without any editing taking place the music video would be very rough cut. The editing follows the traditional style of cuts between the beats on the music, which typical ‘techno- mix’ genre music videos also do. The visuals accolade the video. However, when the beat drops in the beginning half of the song, faster transitions took place which compliments and impacts the energetic feel. Mise en scene is tremendously significant in music videos, especially in techno-mix music videos; this is because it represents feelings, which are generally positive in these videos. Our music video followed forms and conventions when referring to the mise en scène; this is because it’s set in a club scene, with flashing strobe lights and a lot of dance involved. With many music videos, it is common that big budgets will be given to stars that are in the top of the charts, nevertheless we have still managed to get an ideal location that they would have to pay a lot of money for. For example, by building a network of contacts, we had admittance to film in a club called ‘Mansion’ (which we did not have to pay for) in Essex. In terms of intertextuality, our use of forms and conventions from music videos show that we have been influenced from other similar genres and music videos. For example, our use of a music video that is very performance driven has been influenced by techno mix dance music videos such as ‘Ayo-hyper crush’; it’s very common for them to be performance based and full of people dancing, having fun. Also, the clothing and makeup of the characters are also significant as they portray the characters personality. The “sexy girl” has brown eyes, mascara & black eye liner to emphasise her pretty eyes and make them stand out; blusher applied on her cheeks to add a little colour and make her cheekbones more noticeable; lipstick to make her lips stand out and look more alluring. Tight black and white dress: This shows her curvaceous figure and she’s also wearing black heels to make her look taller. The main guy “Jignesh” has more of a Casual dress sense, grey hooded jumper with denim blue jeans, and trainers. However, when he is shown in the dream sequence, he wears jeans and a smart black jumper, which emphasises that he is no longer a cleaner and looks more attractive to girls. The “bucktooth geek” Wears big glasses, clothes’ braces and a bow tie with a purple long sleeved cardigan underneath; emphasising the fact that she likes to dress as a nerd. Her plain facial expressions suggest that she’s shy and nervous. The attitude of the ‘buck tooth’ is quite laid back. Her buckteeth are exposed slowly, when she smiles, which then shocks the main character, leading him on to the next ‘girl’ who turns out to be a transvestite. The transvestite wears a long brown curly wig with a long black moustache, which adds to the humour involved in our music video.
- 4. 2. How effective is the combination of your media product and ancillary texts? The song we chose was “Move it to the drum”. From the name of the song, we knew that our product would have to involve a colourful dance theme throughout the product. Our Digipack, CD cover & advert consisted of a bright multi coloured background. We were influenced by other music video advert which has the same genre as ours; it influenced our group because we wanted to think of something original as we decided not to make our digipak cover too simplistic, which as the research suggested, normally are. We then contrasted other Digipack covers such as Benny Benassi and David Guetta. We found a frequent convention which the CD covers consisted of having the main artist on the front cover. ADVERT FRONT & BACK OF INSIDE LEAFLET FRONT & BACK COVER Multi-coloured background-continual theme throughout Our digipak cover, inside leaflet, advert and music video all go well together, as there is a continual theme throughout; we developed characteristics from the video into the digipak. For example, the concept of bright lights that were in the music video was followed by the use of bright colours as the backgrounds of our ancillary texts. Both the music video and digipak should compliment each other; there is a continuation of the mood from what the music video gives to what the digipak gives. It’s important for them both to complement each other as they have to link in, because if a viewer wanted to buy the digipak after watching our music video, they would be anticipating that the digipak ties in with what they have seen.
- 5. My ancillary text encloses and presents full attention to the main artist, with the main guy being the centre of attention; which makes him easily identifiable. The digipak cover consists of the four main characters, however the artist is slightly enlarged, which helps to recognize the main person, this is different to the advert as it’s only got the main guy on it; I have related all three of the ancillary texts together. Within my final productions, I have mentioned a major record label; ‘Sony BMG music entertainment’, this would help in order for attracting a larger audience as it is such a big well known label. Having the logo on the ancillary texts shows that the artists must be really good; this is because they are signed to such a well known established company. I think my ancillary texts help greatly to promote my music video; the public can easily identify the artist and genre of the music video due to the conventions that I have used within my CD Case and Advert. As it is easily recognisable it will help the targeted audience be attracted to my products which will inevitably lead to more CD's being sold and even more profit coming in; after the promotion of the main product it will help become more successful around the world which will make the targeted audience become greater. Our digipak follows several established forms and conventions, for example, the image of the main character/artist, name of the song, and a track listing. With regards to the magazine advert, we tried to achieve branding by keeping a consistent theme. The magazine advert and digipak both use the same font type which is on all the ancillary texts, it makes it stand out and eye-catching for viewers. It also gives a sense to what is expected in the video. The viewers should be able to recognise that the two ancillary texts come from the same music video as we felt it was important to create a sense of permanence, continuity and immovability. 3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? Our initial target audience were male and female aged 14-40. When looking at target audience research, from the results received, it is obvious that people enjoy music videos that portray emotion and is relatable to them and which portrays the song in a suitable way that matches the beat and emotions of the song. The results from the interview tell us that both the music and lyrics are very important to the success of a song. In our music video the lyrics of the song are limited, there is one phrase sung at various stages of the song to which adds as a constant reminder to the audience. The phrase is “Ah damn girl, I like the way you move it to the drum”, since this phrase is replayed a number of times it makes it easier for the audience to remember. Also the phrase links to the name of the song, also creating an easy way for the person listening to the song to get excess easily through downloading sites such as ‘iTunes’, which makes it easier to gain views and sale. This helps the profit margins and helps the song travel higher in music charts. The lyrics of the song make the audience think of girls dancing sexually, the word “Ah” itself acts as a sexual motif to make the song more likeable with the male gender.
- 6. From our audience feedback, the majority of people thoroughly enjoyed our music video and thought that it all fitted together really well. They got the concepts really clear in the video, and the felt that the black and white helped to show an understanding of our music video. Our aim when creating our music video was that it should be entertaining, funny and enjoyable to watch, all 5 people interviewed commented on the way they really enjoyed the video. They also all said that the ancillary products all resemble and link to the video. When asked to grade my music video the majority gave me a seven or above, showing that my music video consists of the main conventions that are generally used in techno-mix music videos. In addition, we did not only want positive feedback from the answers, we also wanted constructive criticism, which is why we asked them ‘if they could change something about the video, what would it be?’ When asked this question, one person said that they wanted the concept to be more clearer as it was not clear enough what was going on in the video, they also wanted more dance elements and for the onstage chemistry between the characters to be more publicized. One other negative comment was mainly that the text colour/font used in the music video did not compliment the video, other than that, there was overall positive comments throughout. In conclusion, I think that we have met the OCR brief of the forms and conventions for our music video and print work, as it appeals to our target audience. 4) How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages? Most of our planning and research was accomplished by getting information from search engines and the internet. Search engines such as www.google.com provided us with many images and videos to help us with our research. Also www.youtube.com was used to help us with our similar textual analysis, as we selected which videos we wanted to analyse. I also used www.facebook.com, this was to get the audience feedback results after they viewed our music video. To complete our music video successfully I had to research several other music videos of the same genre. This helped me with the development of my own ideas. Researching music videos was the most significant in getting my own ideas as it gave me a clear vision of the types of things I could include and it also showed what elements make it enjoyable to watch. Also using primary research which was conducting questionnaires was very useful as it showed what most people would want to see in a music video and what they expect.
- 7. The difficulties I had encountered whilst conducting my research was putting all the individual thoughts in the group all together and fitting it into the final proposal. The planning was all very useful when we got to the production phase. For the edifice of our music video, we used the Canon XM2 camcorder. To make sure our recording was clear; we had to set up a few controls. By using manual focus, it enabled us to capture very clear shots from a distance. One of the main digital technologies that I have used for the process of my project was ‘Blogger’ itself. ‘Blogger’ enabled me to store my work efficiently and it was easy to access. ‘Blogger’ enabled us to upload our video clips of our final cut. When it came to blogging I felt that I was very creative as I changed the text formats and inserted images. However, we decided to upload our evaluation via slideshare, which then went on to our blog. Another digital technology which I have used are the search engines on the internet; websites such as ‘Wikipedia’ to find out about the artists. With these I was able to research the music video genre. I used these search engines for my research as well as my evaluation as I have been linking these websites to the different films mentioned throughout my evaluation. We used Apples’ Final cut pro to upload our footage. The upload to final cut pro was quick and easy. Once our footage was on it we were able to sort out our clips, deciding which clips we were going to use. After we had done this we were then able to cut and edit our clips using the cutting tool which was fairly easy to use. Final cut pro also enabled us to add filters, transitions, visual effects, sound effects and text on to our music video. Whilst taking our footage we used camera XM2 camcorders. This enabled us to take footage efficiently and we were able to capture the shots we wanted. However one problem we did find with these camcorders was that the sound that we captured on them was not very clear. However I was able to zoom in and out of a shot smoothly using the zoom tool. I also used a scanner to upload storyboards that we had done on paper. This was fast and efficient and meant we were able to include our storyboards within our blog. All of the software I have mentioned above was used through a Mac computer. The Macs enabled us to use the software’s, whereas if we had been using a PC we wouldn’t have been able to use them. I was also able to upload footage and photos onto the Mac computers quick and efficiently as well as storing our work in our individual folders.
- 8. Most of the technology techniques used were learnt during AS. Whilst importing all of our clips onto Final Cut Pro, in which we used the log and capture feature. One of the new techniques we learnt was adding visual effects and transitions into our video. As for the construction of our digipak and magazine adverts, we captured still images from Final Cut Pro whilst we were editing, and used them in our ancillary texts. Our advert, inside leaflet, front and back cover were all designed on Adobe Photoshop, we knew how to use it because we were taught the basic from tutorials given in lesson.