Evaluation.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My music video challenges conventions of real media products as it follows the important Goodwin’s Points, for analysis my video includes genre characteristics. This is by using the stereotype of the genre “Indie” and following their rule of mainly performance and narrative. My video includes a story of the person’s life and how they go about their day, through their eyes. Unfortunately this then does not feature any lip-syncing and lyrics to music, but we do cover music to video as the video is very like the pace and type of music. I also don’t include voyeurism in the video as I didn’t want the audience to know what they looked like, so they can relate their lives more to the person, although it doesn’t have voyeurism it gives an insight into the artist’s life and that would appeal to fans. The video also contains Mise-En-Scene, for example, location, which is held mainly in Cambridge and a hometown this is realistic and believable, there isn’t anything fake, as we wanted to create a really believable world. Our video meets the demands of the record label by having the song playing, but that is about it as we don’t feature the artist and have resemble to the artist, it’s just a day in the life. I feel that our video is very like ‘All Falls Down – Kanye West and ‘LDN’ – Lily Allen, they both have the camera following them or looking through their eyes. This are the most interesting ones that are like ours, we tried to have them look a lot similar just change the Mise-En-Scene and song and stuff.
I also designed the whole of the Digi-Pack, this includes the picture of Cambridge, where we filmed our video, and therefore this is a good example of continuity as I have kept the picture of something people can recognise easily, to the video, also I kept both the DVD Advert and DVD Cover/Back the same image as people would be able to know what it is without even reading it and to make the band noticeable. The image was inverted to negative to give it an even more “Indie” and catchy look to it. The Digi-Pack also was very clear and helped with the marketing and publishing of the band; I feel it gave off the right look and image. My Music Video also has a voice over commentary to it, which was done professionally and featured everything that would be needed. I feel this challenges a real media product, as it is exactly what it is like in a real one. The artist is shown from the images to be a “normal”, mundane person just walking around her/his local town and waking up like anyone else would, for example, the audience gets to see what they eat fro breakfast and putting on their shoes.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I feel that the main project and ancillary texts are really effective, as we have in both things kept the Genre, INDIE, in the foreground. In the Digi-Pack I used the same type of writing as the band and other Indie bands have used, also the same picture, witch is like the video and other Indie bands as they all use the same picture or text on each different item. The DVD back and front are both of Cambridge streets, where we filmed on, and they have both been distorted slightly as to make them stand out and also to show that life isn’t straightforward. They both have the same font on each and have the same negative filter over the top to give even more of a weird and unusual feel, but at the same time recognisable look. The Digi-Pack and video link also very well as they both feature the streets of Cambridge and they both are Indie ‘like’. The magazine and advert both have the email, what’s on the DVD, record company and age consent. The advert promotes the DVD very well as it looks bold, so catches the audience’s eye. It also has where you can buy it and age consent so they know how accessible it is and for what people. It’s also very clear and understandable. The Advert does not have the artist on, but it attracts the audience by being bold and still in the Indie catchment, and it’s also the right image for the right age range and the right genre and like the video, so they will be interested in what the video looks like.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
I feel the feedback we were given was very helpful, but on the other hand not so. There was some really positive feedback, for example, they said how the rough cut of our video was a little confusing, in terms of the type of filter we used, so we decided to get rid of the filter and have it normal and mundane, like a real person’s life, to keep the continuity flowing well. On the other hand there was some negative feedback like they didn’t like the video and it needs a lot of improving, but this still helped us we looked over it and made it a little more interesting with extra footage and sharper editing. They helped a lot with the Digi-Pack as it gave me personally a lot more confidence and I felt that I did a really good job. The feedback said that the Digi-Pack is clear, understandable, catchy and includes all that is needed, apart from a few spelling eras it is really good. There was also a lot of feedback on the original idea that we had and that was also very positive and they felt that they understood the idea and were very intrigued to see how it turned out. So therefore we did not think about changing anything as we thought it was going to be great and so did the feedback. In the end we changed the idea and the audience didn’t like it as much but we had some good feedback like it needs more footage and the filters over the top make me feel ill! So we changed that and made it simple and we also filmed more footage. The feedback was from other groups in the class but they were also our target audience, if we had to pick one.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my music video I used Final Cut to edit the video, this helped me as it is really good at editing and makes it really easy to do so, also I felt very comfortable with it and using it. In the process I have learnt new techniques like fastening up the editing process by using shortcuts, also how to change the speed of the footage to create a different feel, how to use different filters and what they change, mould and create. This was really fun and I enjoyed doing it.
I also used the Internet to research other videos (www.youtube.com), Digi-Pack material (www.google.com/images), the blog to help plan ideas and create and do plans (www.bogger.com) (www.longroadmusicvideo.blogspot.com). These helped as I could create new, better, more challenging, exciting, talk about and compare ideas.
I used Photoshop to create the Digi-Pack, this was really fun and interesting, as I was learning while I was creating. I have a basic knowledge in Photoshop so I felt quite confident in the subject. I learnt new things in Photoshop, for example, how to invert and image and how to stretch and distort an image. I have advanced from As to A2 because I know a lot more editing techniques and filming techniques. The pre-him task helped me as I learnt loads of techniques and stuff that would help me to improve. I learnt how to edit in lots of different ways. Also how to link the footage to the song.