Evaluation - Written and video format

Evaluation Questions

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We gained ideas of what conventions were in music videos from real media products that we felt have the same narrative as the lyrics did in the song we had chosen. The music videos we looked at were: The prodigy – smack my bitch up Madness – Dust Devils The streets – blinded by the lights The verve – Drugs don’t work We also looked as things like the TV drama, ‘skins’ we know this is not a music video, however we feel that it has a similar narrative and target audience, and the majority of episodes contain a lot of music. We were therefore able to analyse the effects and editing used to show youth culture. We also looked at a party scene within the film ‘Kidulthood’, again the editing in this was different to that of a music video, however it contained editing and effects that we were able to analyse. We decided that the ideas gain from analyzing these music videos were a stereotypical representation of youth culture in the period of time that they were produced. We wanted to challenge the convention of this genre by being able to show a narrative thorough our own interpretation of what we thought a drug-related youth culture is currently like. We focused on one protagonist throughout, and developed conventions through interesting use of speed and reverse, shots such as close ups, extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots. We added these intentionally so that we could create a new take on youth culture based music videos through extreme realism. The conventions of extreme realism we used was fast paced editing through jump cuts and exaggerated speed and this showed the protagonists state of mine physically as well as mentally. When producing our video we often referred back to the music videos etc in which we had analyzed, we sometimes used ideas from these music videos, for example the last sequence in our video was based on an idea used in Madness – Dust devils, where a hand-held camera effect is used. We also expanded on ideas we had seen, creating our own take on youth culture today and editing it accordingly. The music video was created by Tyshea and me.

• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
For our ancillary texts we were to create both a magazine advert and a promotional DVD cover. Our DVD cover was created by Jamie, with the help of Dan. Our final product contained picture of eye stretched over the front cover. This eye has a red iris, creating not only the intoxicated image, but also the ‘wild eyes’ image. We chose to do this so that the audience could make connotations to both the music video and the band at the same time. We thought that this picture would be a great link between the two, and a good way of creating a simplistic look that covered all of appropriate elements. On the reverse of the DVD cover is two shot glasses; this is linking more to the narrative of the music video, and the intoxication that the female youth protagonist holds. We also incorporated typical DVD features, such as a titles spine, a barcode, and ‘DVDvideo’ logo. The text on the front of the DVD is a unique eye catching text, which is used on the spine also, to encourage continuity. The text on the rear is slightly clearer than this text and is not in block capitals. If I were to do this product again I would like to used similar idea, however change the layout slightly. Due to the nature of the picture on the front the text could only go in one place, I feel that I would have liked to have made it more central and made the eye more of a focal point, as it is quite low down the page. I would have also changed the text on the back as I don’t think it suits the DVD cover; however I like the effect that the background picture makes. I think that with group input and opinions we managed to change this product a lot from the first draft, and it is considerably better, however I would still make a few changes given another opportunity. Our magazine advert was created by Tyshea and me. Our final product contained a picture of from the actually band, with their permission. We used a lot of typical features we found when researching into the product. We incorporated the band name and the name of the song; these were the two biggest pieces on text, the band name slightly smaller in white block capitals on a black background, and the song name in large red block capitals. We thought that both of these would catch the attention of the audience, making it clear what the product was advertising. We also incorporated certain elements that we thought would attract the attention of our target audience immediately. A join us on ‘facebook’, section using the real facebook logo to attract the audience’s attention, and also the mention of a promotion when the product is purchased in ‘HMV’, again using the ‘HMV’ logo for recognition. The two other sections of text are what we found was typical of a printed advert. These were release dates for the major products, both download and CD track, and also a website address promoting the band, in which the audience may like to visit. I think that overall this product was produced well, as it carries on the red colour scheme in which we have used throughout, and we think it carries out all of the appropriate elements for magazine-placed advert. If I were to do this advert again, I would have liked to have more time on it, as the research was carried out in good time however this task was not originally allocated to us within the group, but due to it not being completed we took it on.

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We aimed our music video at the audience in which it represents. As it is stereotypically representation today’s youth culture, we thought that the audience who would empathise with the music video would be the youth culture of today, The term youth in our interpretation describes young people aged between fifteen and twenty five. We think that the music video will attract our audience by showing the life in which they stereotypically lead; we did this by using typical conventions such as taking drugs, drinking alcohol, dancing, and getting ready to go out. The fast pace to our video also attracts our audience as they are stereotypically used to this kind of lifestyle and can relate to it.
We asked some of our peers to watch our music video and found that plus points were:
The fast pace
The editing
The narrative was clear
We found that negative points were:
· Too much repetition in the choruses
· Intentional camera shake may not appear this way
We were very pleased with this audience feedback, as the audience feedback we received from our rough cut was a lot more negative, our peers again liked the editing effects and the way in which the protagonist was portrayed, however they found the video very dark and unclear and didn’t understand the narrative, we learnt from this and changed our video a lot in order to reverse the negative criticism. I think that Tyshea and I did well with this and we are much more satisfied with the result now that we have taken the feedback on board. If I could make this product again I would incorporate more changes into the choruses.

• How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Last year, we used the editing software ‘windows movie maker’ and we found that it restricted us greatly as to what we were able to produce. So this year, we used Adobe Premiere Pro. We found this software complicated at first, however once we had taught our selves how to use it through experimenting, we found that we could use it much more widely that the previous software. Adobe premiere pro enabled us to be able to use more advanced editing transitions and effects such as reverse, speed up and different kinds of cuts. This software was perfect for what we wanted to do, however the computers that we were provided with to use were very slow and froze a lot, which meant that we often lost parts of our work and had to recover these and touch the m up before continuing to edit. We found this very time consuming and frustrating.
We used a more up to date camera this year, which was a lot smaller making it easier to use. I would use this camera again as it was a clear picture on the computer and was extremely easy to operate and carry around. This camera was not available to us on one of our filming days, so we used a different camera. We saw the effects of this as the framing on the music video changes according to which camera was used. We didn’t like this effect but when asking for audience feedback we found that the audience either thought it was intentional or didn’t notice it, so we decided to keep it as it were.
Research and planning was more or less the same as last year in the way of what technologies were available, however we used them a lot more widely this year. We used the internet a lot, however we also expanded our sources to books, television etc. We found that using a wider range of technologies was not only more appropriate but a lot more effective and meant that our research and planning was of a lot higher quality.

Music Video - Final Cut

Our finished Magazine Advert

After looking into the further research in which we carried out for a magazine advert, we decided to be simplistic and subtle, just as we did with the DVD cover, however still managing to incorporate all of the typical features of an advert of its kind . We used a picture of the actual band’s lead singer, with their permission. This picture is quirky looking, we didn’t edit the imaged as we thought it looked effective as it was, we tried it in greyscale but much preferred the outcome in colour. The picture appears to have a lot of red in it, which we thought helped with the continuity of our two ancillary texts, and also reminded the audience of what effect the colour has on the video. We felt that when looking at the magazine advert the audience would make both of the above connotations and therefore have an insight to the music video and its narrative.

The image on the magazine advert covered around 80% of the page, we enlarged it to this size only, as wel felt that text would be a lot clearer on a plain background, and therefore any potential fans and buyers were clear of what it said, hopefully increasing the sales and improving the marketing of both the band and music video. The text on the advert, starting from the top left, where it says ‘The Wild Eyes’ in white block capital writing on a black background, the text is not too large, as we didn’t want it to be the focal point, however it is large enough to be clear and stand out enough. At the top on the right there is a small section saying ‘join us on Facebook’. We thought that this would greatly appeal to the target audience as social networking is very popular for that age range; we used the ‘Facebook’ logo meaning that it would catch immediate attention of the audience and they would recognise it straight away. We then go down to the bottom of the image of the band member, where there is the word ‘breakdown’ in large red block capitals. This is again to help with the colour continuity of the products, but also to make it stand out, this is clearly the largest text on the page and because of these factors, draws the audience’s attention. Immediately below the image is white block capital text again. However this time it is considerably smaller. This text states when both the song and music video are available in stores and also to download. To the right of this is another block of red text, again a considerably smaller font than the previous red text, however still catches the audience’s attention. This states a certain promotion when purchased in the well known music store ‘HMV’. Again, we used the ‘HMW’ logo to catch the audience’s eye, as we think that they will immediately recognise this logo. Finally, at the very bottom of the page is a website address for the band, this is again for the marketing and promotion of this song and further songs and videos. We have used the same font throughout, only changing the size and sticking to two colours only. This stops the advert from looking complicated, but also helps it to look catchy and not ‘boring’.

Our finished DVD cover

After re-evaluating our previous draft DVD covers, and looking into the further research in which we carried out, we decided to be simplistic and subtle. We took a picture that we felt had relevance to the name of the band that produced the song. This picture was of an eye, we then used Adobe Photoshop to edit the image, making the pupil red, which is clearly not ordinary and therefore we felt it suited the name ‘The Wild-Eyes’ We chose the colour red as we also wanted to show that the eye had been intoxicated due to substances, such as alcohol and drugs. We done this as the narrative of our produced music video was sowing the effects both of these intoxicant have on a youth, female protagonist. We felt that when looking at the DVD cover the audience would make both of the above connotations and therefore have an insight t the music video and it’s narrative.

The image on the rear of the DVD cover consisted of two shot glasses with an liquid substance in, in which the audience assumes to be alcohol. We enlarged the image so that it fitted as the background image, with the text over the top, and then we made the image lighter so that the text we were going to print on top of it was still clear. The text on the DVD cover consisted of the title of the song and band on the front cover in a unique text that we felt looked like it could be associated with the band and song, and we also felt it was catchy. On the reverse of the DVD cover was the track listing, along with reviews of the music video, we felt that this would make it look realistic, along with the title ‘breakdown’ on the spine of the cover, using the same font as before to make it look simple but affective, and help with the continuity. We also used typical symbols like the barcode and the DVD video symbol.

Research into DVD covers, and Magazine Adverts

Another part of our coursework task was to produce two ancillary texts. The first was a magazine advert, which would be shown in popular and relevant music magazines. The second one was a DVD cover for the release of our music video. I therefore researched both of these topics, looking into popular current contenders, styles and audiences. I decided to begin my research looking into general magazine adverts, starting with ones that aim at a female audience ‘More, Closer, OK!’. I noticed most of the adverts in these were relevant to what a female audience would be interested in purchasing, for example make-up, perfumes, and other cosmetics. I then looked into magazines focusing on a male audience, for example Nut’s and Zoo. Again, I noticed that whatever being advertised was typical to what a male would purchase, for example, aftershave, cars, and sportswear. Throughout both of these, I noticed that all adverts had a similar pattern and layout. Focusing around one large picture with minimal text, however putting forward all information needed for promotion. I then began researching into the most popular music magazines currently, I found that NME and Kerrang! were big contenders. Both magazines are well known for their eye catching front covers, always containing the latest music news and gossip and also hosing all of the current ‘big’ artists. Having looked inside both of them, and looking at their websites and customer reviews it was clear to me that both magazines have the same objectives; music information and promotion. I then focused what I was looking at within the magazines around the adverts placed in them, I found that a vast majority of the adverts placed in music magazines were of a similar layout to previous magazines, however the picture was of a bad rather than a product. They tended to have bold writing, minimal but catchy, a smaller section containing information on how to purchase, or become a fan of the band or song, and also a website. I definitely think that NME would be more suitable for our magazine advert, as I think that the genre of our music is indie, and NME covers the majority of music genres, whereas Kerrang! focuses slightly more on rock. I also thing that the narrative of the music video suits NME better, as it represents a stereotypical life of a youth culture, which fits in to age rang 14-25 and I feel NME also has this target audience, whereas Kerrang!’s audience is more genre (rock) related that age related. We included things like promotions when bought in HMV and, a prompt to become a fan a popular social networking site, as we thought these would also target the appropriate audience.

When moving my research onto the DVD topic, I found it a lot harder to find DVD covers containing music videos and songs. It was made clear to me that a promotional DVD is not a popular way to distribute a music video. Some CD singles that are released for sale in the shops contain a video file of the music video for the audience to view, however these are not sold in a DVD case, but a CD case. I therefore did research into both DVD covers and CD single and album covers. I found that for the CD single or CD album, the front cover consisted of one large simplistic image; if and album the image would be of the band or singer and if a CD single it would be a different image of the band or singer, relating more to that particular song. DVD covers were similar, containing one large simplistic image and a title, with more text on the rear of the case. We therefore decided to combine these two ideas into one, producing a DVD cover with all of typical DVD features, however incorporating the visuals of a CD cover, as we thought this is what drew attention to what the product was.