Evaluation.

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

When comparing my music video and ancillary task to real media artefacts, I can see similarities and differences. For example, when comparing my music video to We Are The In Crowd's video for Never Be What You Want and Young Guns' video for Stitches, there is an obvious element of close ups and extreme close ups, which help convey passion and intensity. These shots also help us feel 'up close and personal' with the artist. The audience often finds this attractive, and therefore is an important element of all music videos, no matter what genre of music they cover. My photographs of my artist were also close ups and extreme close ups to help represent how important the artist is and to sell her as an icon/powerful artist. This is done on most album covers and album release posters.

Another similarity is the editing technique of placing cuts where there is a strong beat, or to edit cuts together to fit the rhythm of an important part of the song, perhaps where the pace changes to create intensity and atmosphere. Furthermore, the use of the same shots over and over again creates a repetitive but memorable video. This is done in mainly rock music videos that I've looked at.

Ways in which my product develops the forms and conventions of real media products are that my product takes the idea of changing the colour balance within in the music video to create a dark atmosphere. However, I changed mine so that the shadows were blue and the midtones were yellow, creating a more interesting video visually, but preserving the neutral nature of the song. I made sure that when the song did get more intense, the shadows got darker and I bumped up the contrast of each shot.

I challenged the forms and conventions of real media products mainly in my digipack design. Other digipacks I looked at didn't have lyrics in the sleeve (an example I looked at was Young Guns' All Our Kings Are Dead), I wanted to do this, to show that Say What You Want is the 'main' song on the album. I also used photographs from the shoot in Swinley Forsest that link directly back to the single Say What You Want. This created an obvious theme and made sure that the music video linked in effectively with the digipack design.


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

I think that the combination of main product and ancillary text works really well personally. My audience feedback also suggests that they link together very well too. I think that the colours, use of close ups and use of the same setting throughout the digipack and music video work together particularly well. Looking at my real media products and how my products conform, challenge and develop the forms and conventions made me see that as a package, everything makes sense and link well together and therefore would help promote the artist and sell records effectively.


What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback, I've learnt that I need to improve my intergration of text with image. Some people found that the font I used for the album release poster and digipack didn't fit the rock genre and upbeat tempo of the track. Others said that I could improve by simplifying the digipack a little bit more, as the images I used were nice,but not always necessary. I agree with this, and think that if I were to change anything, I'd simplify the inside covers of the digipack by using a blank colour or logo like Twin Atlantic's debut album 'Free' as their design is simple and effective but links in with their genre of music still.

Positive points that came up about my music video and digipack were the contunuity of colour styles, the same fonts and similar images from the music video on the digipack and album release poster.


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

I used many technologies in my research, planning and construction that helped me learn more about making a music video and also how to get effective audience feedback. Technologies included a prime lens, this created the shallow depth of field that's seen in the music video. I did this because a lot of music videos I've looked at have this shallow depth of field. I used final cut pro to create my short part of my evaluation and my music video, this program enabled me to render, adjust colour levels, put parts of film and photographs together, add sound, fades and transitions. Using Final Cut Pro was challenging, but I felt that I learned a lot and challenged myself as a Media student.

Technologies I used for my research and feedback included Microsoft Office to produce charts, tables, questionairres and analysis'. I used my Facebook profile and photography page, Myyearbook, Youtube and Blogger to get feedback from the internet from people that I didn't know, people I did know and people in the music and/or media industry. I gained mixed responses, and also some responses from the band that I borrowed the song for for this project - they were impressed with the work I had done and would like me to work with them in the future.

Technologies I used for filming and uploading on the go included a Nikon D700 for professional photographs, a flashgun to add extra light when it was getting dark quickly, a Nikon D5000 to film my video in HD with the prime lens, an iPad to upload bits and pieces to blogger on the go, a dolly and tripod for smooth 360 shots and my mobile internet to keep checking my audience feedback responses.