Evaluation: Script

Evaluation questions

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

From researching music videos from all genres I was able to find out the forms and conventions of my genre – ‘alternative’, as well as other conventions of other genres and the forms of music videos in general. I found that each genre of music video have very significant traits – Pop, for example focuses on the artist and their celebrity status by using close up shots and current trends in fashion and make up. The stereotypical location for pop music videos are usually in clubs (where the music is further promoted with dance routines and flashy lighting. Rock’s genre traits are live performances to show off their talent with elements of danger and rebellion – show through the use of wide shots of live performances and rock concerts.

I have followed some generic simple conventions of what is in a music video because I have used lip syncing and visuals that link with the theme and mood of the song.  Other more mainstream genres (Pop, Rap, Hiphop) strictly comply with these conventions and include a lot of Goodwin’s Theory however are different from the genre I chose to represent because the idea of the alternative genre is to challenge and be different and ‘alternative’ from all the other genres.

This is the first challenge I came across as I wanted to make a music video and therefore had to use conventions of music videos that I would have rather left out as I was representing the alternative genre conventions that sometimes contradict those of music videos, for example a convention of music videos is that they include lip syncing and shots of the artist/ band, whereas in these alternative music videos – Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal and Tessellate by Alt - J, neither appear.  

Another challenge that I faced when exploring and finding out the conventions of alternative music videos is apply to the entire alternative music video genre. Overall I found that the main conventions of alternative music are to be unconventional of every other genre, experimental, creative and works of arts. This is how is it possible that two music videos from the same genre can be so different as the idea of the alternative genre is that ‘anything goes’, to make people think and that many of the conventions are not conventions and that a convention of alternative is to challenge conventions and to push boundaries.

I feel that I have followed the conventions of the alternative genre as I have not followed any stereotypical conventions of any other genre for example; I haven’t focused on the celebrity status of my artist. This is also shown as I have chosen suitable name for the band rather than using the artists own name that would conform to the pop genre and promote the artist rather than the theme of the album, and the album’s themes and messages.

Another example of where I have followed the conventions of alternative music is where I have used symbolism, imagery and ambiguity in the sense that I have thought about how the song could be interpreted in a dark humorous way.

In terms of Goodwin’s theory that I have used in my music video are Theory 1 and 3 – Links between the lyrics (She bruises) and visuals (bruise on face), and also alternative genre conventions as I have added darkness to the clip by my male covering up the bruise (symbol of their love loss) with makeup. The fact that my music video has a concept and a theme is also in keeping with Goodwin’s Theory.

Another way that I have followed the conventions of the alternative genre is as I have experimented by making my music video arty, by having the last section in reverse and playing around with the speed. The use of changing the tempo and form of my music video made my music video more unconventional to the pop and hip hop genre as well as making my music video more creative and interesting to watch.

What was included in the mise-en-scene was important to following the storyline of my music video as I wanted to conform with the genre and storyline of my music video.

The rewind section of the song also adds to the creativeness and arty side to my music video. Although from another genre - I took the inspiration from other music videos that are in reverse like this one, as I liked this effect and thought that this fit with my interpretation of the storyline of the song (him reflecting back to when him and his girlfriend were happy in their relationship.)

I chose to use mid and long shots that stylistically conform with my music genre as another way of making my product follow alternative forms as many other shot types for example close ups and extreme close ups tend to be associated with pop and hip hop genre – Also associated with this genre are close ups of happy facial expressions. The use of not using happy close ups in my video conform with the darkness of the storyline as (apart from the end of my music video where the story begins) my actors are have blank emotionless expressions and do not look happy throughout my music video. This follows the alternative genre of ambiguity as although the music sounds happy and upbeat – the song in actual fact is not.

An clear example of where I used the above mise-en-scene techniques, along with the slightly creepy location, is in the woods where my actor is lip syncing to the song. In this section many conventions are conformed with as well as making the music video more interesting and artistic as I have chosen a location that Is artistic and is rarely used by other genres.

In terms of my ancillary products I followed the conventions of album adverts and CD digipaks as well as following the alternative conventions in these products. My album advert includes a main headline that tells the reader the album title and Band name as well as including one main image. I have also included reviews, contact details and a record label as well as the release date and any nominations or awards the album has received that all help in following the conventions of Album adverts whilst promoting the album.

I have followed the conventions of alternative album adverts by not using a picture of the artist as the main image, but instead I have embedded the image that is on the front of the Digipak as this is the item being promoted rather than the artist. This is a significant convention that I have found in the alternative genre.

The main image itself – both used as the front image on my digipak main image and the main picture on my Album advert, is a convention of the alternative genre as this hand drawn illustration is creative and a piece of art that conforms to the theme of control in my music video. 

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

From my deconstructions, I found that in real media products, the use of making obvious links between Digipak, Music Video and Album adverts are common and helpful in the advertising of the album as well as useful in portraying the themes, messages and genre conventions of the album.

The combination between my music video and ancillary texts are very effective as I have used a strong theme that links all the products.  This theme is control – a concept that I interpreted from the song breezeblocks. I have used different images that connote control; Hands tied behind backs, Eyes and mouth covered (to show physical control) as well as using symbolic representation of control through the image of the bird’s freedom/ bird being shot. This use of symbolism and artistic style conformed to the conventions of the alternative genre as well as tying in all my products as I used the same images and themes throughout.

Another theme that I used throughout my products were images of birds and I chose them to further represent the control theme as it linked in with my Digipak cover, For example, I used birds in the symbol of the Twitter logo rather than the ‘Twitter T’. Another example is where I have used a scarf with birds on to subtly represent the control theme in my digipak images.

From my deconstructions, I found that in real media products, the use of making obvious links between Digipak, Music Video and Album adverts are common and helpful in the advertising of the album as well as useful in portraying the themes, messages and genre conventions of the album. The links also help with the marketing at publicising the album as the customer knows what to album to look for due to the obvious links through the pictures.

The fact that the female in my digipak images is the same person as the actress in my music video further connects my digipak and music video.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I have found that the genre of my music videos comes across well throughout my music video as many of my audience said that they did understand who the target audience is; “middle to late teens who are into alternative music, who like arty creative things and think outside the box.” “You can tell that the genre is alternative and who the target audience are through dark nature of the video and the way you’ve interoperated the lyrics and made it into a storyline”

Also from my audience research, I was told that improvements could be made to “the lip syncing section as it could be tighter to the song.” Also there is a slight bit of continuity in the amount of feathers on the bed between each scene.”

The other improvement that a lot of my viewers made is that the quality of the footage. This is something that I agree on as I would like the music video to be filmed in better quality as there the ring and the feathers would be more noticeable then and have a better effect. I would’ve liked to use my own camera for this task as I wanted it to be filmed in High Definition in order to look professional. However I had to use a school camera meaning that the quality of my music video suffered. 

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

The new technologies that I used in the planning and research stage of constructing my music video were:

The Chroma Key workshop and Animation workshop

In these workshops I learnt how to use Green screen and Stop Animation. These Workshops helped me with inspiring me to make a creative music video and to think about different ways that I could use technology to make my music video arty and have the alternative feel.

YouTube

I used YouTube, a video sharing website to find music videos to deconstruct that helped me find out the conventions of music videos and give me inspiration and ideas that I incorporated into my music video.

I also used YouTube to watch tutorials when it came to the construction stages of my music video as I learnt how to do some special and creative video editing effects on Adobe Premiere Pro, for example the reverse section of the song and the backwards section.

Blogger is another new technology that I used as, with help from a scanner I was able to upload work onto a blog in the correct order so that is visible how my ideas and how the creation of my music video developed. 

My Mobile phone was very helpful in the planning stages of this project because I was able to take pictures of anything I saw that inspired me, which I was able to refer back to. I also used my mobile phone to picture my actors as well as location shots that I liked.

Time toast

Time toast is a programme where you can create timelines and embed them into blogger. I used time toast to plan my time wisely so I had an outline of how long each project would take and when I was going to do it. I was also able to reschedule and re-arrange the time line easily when I had to re-film or was unavailable to film. By using Time Toast I was also able to plan backwards when I was going to do everything so that I knew when my whole music video would be finished (Plus a couple of extra days security) and I was able to see what was next and still on the ‘to do list’.

Facebook

Lastly another programme that helped me with my organisation was Facebook – a social networking site, which I was able to use easily that connected my actors and made it simple to have group conversations. This meant that it was easy to organise my actors and actresses.

In the Constructions stages of making my music video I also used:

A Sony Handicam DCR-SR15

Although in the end I wasn’t happy with the Quality I achieved from this camera as it wasn’t HD, the camera was able to use to film my music video. The Camera had a light on the front that helped film in darker times, later in the day and the flappable screen was useful as it meant that my actors could practice the movements and see how it looked at the same time. The play back feature also meant that I was able to watch the footage back and see if it needed to be re filmed.

Adobe Premiere pro

… was the editing software programme that I used for editing the audio and visuals of my music video. Although I did need to watch some tutorials on Youtube, the programme is fairly easy to use and is able to do a lot of techniques. On this programme I was not only able to fade clips into each other but reverse sections and control the tempo of each clip.

In my evaluation I have used powerpoint for the creation of my evaluation presentation. I have also used Youtubeinmp4.com and Clipconverter.cc to convert my video clips from youtube to be able to be put on this powerpoint.

Other new technologies that I used in my Ancillary tasks were:

(Ivans camera)

Photoshop; a programme where I was able to enhance and develop the saturation of my images and remove backgrounds of the images used in my ancillary tasks. (I also used adobe premiere pro here again for some colour correction on some of the images)

Photoshop was also used to create my album advert.

Microsoft Publisher

Publisher (another picture editing software) was the last new technology that I used to in the creation of my Digipak as I compiled all my images on to the Digipak template that I downloaded from www.Discwizard.com