Evaluation

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

Beginning with the ancillary task, we used and developed the media conventions that were researched, the typical conventions for the dance pop genre within the album adverts and covers were abstract photo’s, taking a basic scene and twisting it, making it unusual and unique. The use of mis en scene was often very bold and exciting, costumes being unusual, with make up the opposite of bland, often running along a theme of stage make up, and hair having an edgy spin to it. We took this into strong consideration and based our magazine ad and digi-pak around this. Starting with the main attraction, the artists, we brought glitter into the picture, giving her silver, glittery lips, we then enhanced her eyes using long black fake eye lashes, when enhancing her skin tone we knew we could either go dark and tanned, which is what was normally done within this genre, or go pale and smooth, we ended up deciding to go with pale, although it was challenging the genre’s conventions we believed it would enable the digi-pak to stand out among others and would also direct more attention to the eyes and lips, which was what we thought would bring our target audience towards our album. Looking at the costume, we followed the same route, being the ‘out there’, show girl theme, wearing a corset and patterned leggings. The costume was mostly black and white, we done this to enable her to stand out against any coloured background that we chose to use, it also prevented the attention going to the clothes rather than the artist herself. The magazine ad used a city background, this was the basic scene that most artists from the dance pop genre would use, however we then took the photo and edited it so the colours were anything but normal for a city setting. This was our own way of taking a photo and twisting and tweaking it so it had the abstract edge to it that our particular genre uses.  Like other magazine adverts, we included the image of the artist, the artists name and important information about the album itself. Artists that inspired us for such mis en scene we artists such as Cascada, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Ke$sha herself.

Moving on to the final music video we produced, we aimed to fit in many of the dance pop genre conventions, we done this by researching a variety of other music video’s within this genre. We took note of the mis en scene and camera shots that had been used, we took all of this into consideration from the very beginning when completing our story boards. The shots that we noticed were repeated throughout many different videos were shots such as wide shot, low/high angle shot, mid shot, close up, and long shot, we therefore incorporated all of these into our music video where possible. This was one major convention that we followed well and knew that as long as we followed it with good consideration it would work well and add extra effects to the video. Different types of cuts were also used quite often within our genre, cuts such as fades, split screen and extremely fast cuts (milliseconds long) were commonly used, the fast cuts were what immediately caught our eyes on various video’s, these had an enormous effect on screen and looked awesome, this was therefore something we knew we would definitely use. The quick cuts were often of things that appeared to be random for the video, so, like other artists have done, our quick cuts were indeed, very random but seemed to fit very well. When it came to the other transitions, we knew we wanted to use them, but we had to be careful of where to place them, we knew we couldn’t use them anywhere, for example, we didn’t want to use the ‘fade’ at a point where the music was running very fast, so we found a suitable place for the transition to go and after working it into the correct time space it was found to be very successful in creating the correct atmosphere in the video that we aimed for. The split screen we used to make the chorus a little more exciting as we had already used the footage once previously in the video and didn’t want to simply repeat it, we therefore split the screen into four sections and edited each picture changing the colour scheme. This was one of our favorite transitions/cuts used. An example of a music video that has used split screen is LMFAO’s Sexy and I Know It.  

When talking about the main story line, we decided to follow a linear narrative, this was mainly due to the fact that our lyrics told a story. Most music video’s within our genre link the lyrics and visual a lot throughout the entire video, they also tend to follow a strong story line, for example, Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night. In the majority of music video’s in all genre’s, they contain lip syncing, this was a major aspect that we wanted to include. Lip syncing to the camera allows it to seem as if the artist is singing to the audience as well as having a great link between the visual and lyrics. This is a convention that is found in a high percentage of the dance pop videos, but also in many other, if not all other genres.

Most of the editing techniques, mis en scene and camera work completed conformed to the conventions of the dance-pop genre, there was the odd occasion where we went against the conventions and added our individual spin to it, but we decided that following the conventions would lead to a successful, creative music video.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When taking feedback from an audience we considered each point they made, and took it into strong consideration. Throughout the production of our music video we consistently referred back to our audience to gain their thoughts on what worked well, what could be improved, and what they thought was missing. To begin our production we completed background research on the music genre of our video and various artists that are presented within the same genre. This research was then put forward to our peers, after explaining our findings, they gave us feedback on what they thought we considered well and what we had to research further into with greater depth.

We gained positive feedback about our knowledge on our target audience, we covered our niche audience well, however when explaining this to our peers we were not specific enough, although we knew where we were heading, our audience did not, we therefore took this into consideration and wrote out chosen audience up with more detail and precision. One aspect where we gained plenty of positive feedback was our understanding of a variety of shots, when researching we constructed a list of possible shots we could use within our music video and reasons for why they would work well with our chosen genre. Due to our explanations of these shots our peers were able to understand where we were coming from and picture images in their mind as we were speaking. On the other hand, our peers gave us some critical points, one being on our story line. Although we had a range of idea’s of what our story could be based on, it wasn’t appropriate for our audience when explaining the range of ideas. We were told we needed one story line and to expand on it to enable our audience to receive a good picture of what we had in mind. These are just some examples of how our audience feedback enabled us to progress and add upon what we had already completed, they gave us suggestions on how to improve and stopped us from going on about one aspect for too long.

After completing the background research went ahead and drew up the storyboards then prepared ourselves and went ahead with filming our music video. Once we had appropriate footage we began the editing process. A rough cut was first produced, being only the first few seconds of the music video, this was then uploaded to our blogs and again, we received feedback on this from our peers. The rough cut feedback was essential as it enabled us to create the perfect music video which our audience would enjoy. Our feedback told us that some of our zooming was a little jumpy and could be smoother and the duration of one or two shots needs to be shortened as they keep the audience waiting for too long, however we also gained positive feedback, such as, we used good angles and framing when using a variety of camera shots, the quick cuts of flashing lights worked well with our chosen genre, and we used ‘fun, bold’ and ‘eye-catching’ mis en scene which also came into connection with the genre of our music genre. From the mixed response of good and bad feedback, we were able to work upon the negatives and improve these aspects, as well as understand what the audience liked. Finding out what they liked was extremely helpful, we were able to repeat some of this, for example, the editing techniques, and ensure that these positive points stood out for the audience, resulting in a music video that enticed an audience and followed media conventions.

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

When beginning the research stage, we used the most common and obvious, but also the most helpful media technology, the internet. The internet enabled us to research media conventions, our music genre, various artists and much more at a very good speed, it was not only useful for its speed, but it also gave us more information than we needed, more than we would have received if we had of researched from books etc. Research is what some would say is the most crucial and important stage out of the entire production, without the research we would have minimal knowledge on the conventions we needed to follow, the stereotypical aspects of our music genre and information on other music video’s/artists.

After the research was completed we went ahead and began our filming, this involved another form of media technology, the video camera. We were already familiar with the video camera as we used the same camera when filming our AS coursework. The camera’s had a great picture and picked up on every detail when filming, along with the camera was the tripod, this prevented any unsteady filming and enabled us to turn the camera smoothly when following actions on screen. The camera contained a play and pause button so we were able to stop filming easily when changing location or bringing in new props etc., it was also easily connected to the apple macs when uploading the footage.

The editing stage was possibly where the provided media technology came in the most useful, we used an editing program named ‘Final Cut’. This particular program allowed us to add in shots where wanted, remove unwanted/unneeded shots, use ‘qwerky’ and eye-catching transitions and enhance colour schemes where necessary. The editing techniques that could have been used were endless, some working with our music video/genre better than others. We were consistently changing and adding upon editing that we had already completed and new footage that needed a fun, edgy spin to it.

Photoshop was yet another major media technology used within our A2 coursework. This was brought into action during our ancillary task; the production of our magazine advert and digi-pak. We used your standard every day digital camera to take the photos for the digi-pak and mag advert, we then uploaded these photo’s onto the apple macs and began editing. Like the film editing, the options we had were endless, we were able to change the background of our image, edit the brightness and contrast of our photo’s, add texts and symbols, characterize the images, change the colour schemes completely and so much more. We played around on this for a while, trying to figure out what worked best whilst fitting into our music genre which would also catch someone’s eye and stand out among other similar adverts. Without Photoshop we would have ended up with a very bland, and simple digi-pak/magazine advert, this would not have been ideal, therefore having such media technologies, we were able to produce professional looking pieces for the ancillary task.

A final media technology that cannot be forgotten is blogger.com, this has been used to track all of our work and enables each member of the group to keep up with what is being researched, analysed, produced etc., by other members of the group. It is also how members of the public, and the examiner can look at our individual and group work, as well as watch our final music video. The website offers many things, we are able to edit our page to our own liking, tag ourselves in posts so we can see who completed certain research etc., and also offers ease of use. Understanding how the web page works is very simple and quick. 

As you can see, various pieces of media technology have been used right from the very beginning of the production of our music video, right up until finalizing the last aspects. Each one of the above, with exception of Photoshop will also be used when researching/filming/editing our evaluation.

How effective is the combination of your media product and your ancillary task?

When designing our magazine advert and digi-pak we knew that we wanted to keep the theme of the music video continuous, this meant that our ancillary tasks had to follow this same theme. The chosen theme was simple, but effective. It involved bright, bold colours and unusual props along with an abstract dress code. Having this sort of theme would enable our products to stand out among others of the same genre, drawing attention to it.

The repeated setting that we chose was the fun zone (ball pit), this was chosen as it creates a fun, bubbly atmosphere full of colours and is an immediate eye catching scene. This was used within our music video and where the majority of our photos were taken for our advertising. We continued the mis en scene by ensuring that our artist was still wearing revealing clothes, having big, bold hair and ‘in your face’ make up. Both of these elements allowed our audience to easily relate the music video to the advertising we created.

When connecting the magazine advert to the digi-pak, we ensured that they were very similar so our audience would immediately recognize the album after seeing the advert. This was done by using the same font for the writing, and the artist herself was dressed exactly the same with the same hair and make-up, just striking various different poses throughout the advert and album artwork. The digi-pak itself has much more information than the advert as it needed to included featuring songs, sponsors etc., however we did keep the exact same font, a font that would be kept the same throughout all of Ke$sha’s advertising campaigns.  

When analyzing the music video, magazine advert and digi-pak it is clear that we have kept the same theme throughout, this was purposely done in order for the audience to relate each to one and another, and improves the ability to recognize the album among others surrounding it.