Evaluation

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

Throughout my A2 Media Studies advanced portfolio production work I believe I followed a lot of convention of real media products because I wanted to make my products as believable as possible, I wanted them to be something which my audience can relate to and take in the point of my product which I am trying to get across to them. For my music promo video, I think the reason I chose to stick with the basic convention was to keep it real to life so it could be a video in which my audience can possibly reflect on and believe it to be something they have gone through themselves or possibly could go through in some point in their lives. There were two challenges to the conventions of a music video in my own which were making the whole video black & white and having some important flashing lyrics fading in and out of the video. I basically did these for impact and again to further emphasise what the video was about and how these two challenges would help the audience to have more belief in the narrative of the video. As the song I chose was called ‘A lack of colour’ I knew I wanted to have the video black&white from the start. The song is about a relationship which has broken up and the boy has lost all the colour from his life now that he has lost the love of his life therefore the use of a black&white video shows that the boy has no colour in his life now and that his entire surroundings and himself have lost any part of colour and happiness which he had when the relationship was still alive. The use of black&white inputs further impact to the song because the video is shot in the boys bedroom where he has now become a recluse from the world and with the use of black&white it adds impact onto his isolation from everything now that he has lost the love of his life which was once the one which put the colour and happiness into his life. Secondly the use of flashing coloured lyrics fading in and out was to show the most important lyrics in the song which I believe shows the passion and real life situation of what the song is about. I decided to use colourful fonts for the lyrics because they provide impact for the audience and it shows that the lyrics mean a lot and that they are what I want to portray the most to the audience because I believe they tell a story and with the most important lyrics it shows the turning points and what was done to try and get the relationship back on track. When I was first trying to think of ideas on how to show some of the lyrics within the video I originally wanted to put lyrics into the background so it looked like I hadn’t put them there on purpose such as using stickers with the lyrics on then and then get my girlfriend to shoot the video with my having to show her what to do so it was quite hard to do everything.

For the rest of the video I followed a lot of conventions. Such as miming within the song, I believe this shows realism for the song because I used direct miming when I sang in the video this showing the audience that the words are real and that they mean a lot when putting them randomly in the background of something which was in the shot, however this I couldn’t carry this idea out because I didn’t have enough time as at first the people I wanted to use couldn’t fully commit themselves and had other things to do so I had to use myself as the main character sang. The use of singing instantly shows that the song is about the person who is singing it and that it’s there story and it’s giving a different perspective to how they’re living through it to my audience who have also possibly lived through it. The of direct miming by looking at the camera and singing makes the whole video more believable which is again what I was aiming to do. Another convention which links to my miming is direct mode of address where the character in the video look directly at the audience when miming or during the rest of the video. The use of this has a great impact for the audience as it shows more emotion and realism to the story making them identify that the story is portraying true meanings and feelings. I also believe that the direct mode of address creates more knowledge and meaning to the narrative in which present real life situation into music videos so that the audience can relate to therefore making them like the video.

In my video I wanted to make the lyrics more important than the actual video because I believe that the lyrics show greater meaning than the video. This is why I put some important lyrics onto the video and also used object within the video which portray some lyrics for example the use of an alarm clock showing the time 7:03 which is a lyric within the song. I believe that by doing this it varies out both the video and actual song to both being important when the audience watch the video. I didn’t just want my video to have no narrative and just basically be about nothing I wanted the lyrics to shine through and show the true meaning behind the song. Due to wanting my video to be entirely about the narrative of the song I have declined using such themes as sex, sexy clothing, choreography because as these theme do sell a lot of music in the music industry I didn’t want my video to follow this and become a video in which the audience fall for just because of the unique clothing or sex shots so I went against using these in my video to ensure that the audience input all their attention into the narrative of my video.
The mise-en-scene such as the characters costumes and where I used to shoot my video are conventions of music videos. The costume of the main boy character was sort of messy and like he didn’t really have a reason to make sure his clothes where nice. So to express the way the boy was feeling now he has lost the love of his life I used jogging bottoms and a baggy t-shirt to show the audience that he has no life in him anymore and that he is sleeping in clothes he wore the night before because he’s hurting from the break-up and that doesn’t see any reason anymore to get dressed nicely because he only did that for his ex-girlfriend. I believe doing this provides great impact when the audience what the video because it’s again showing realistic tendencies within the video because if a relationship breaks up in real life then the boys usually tend to depart themselves from everything because they can only think about what used to be with the relationship therefore using messy clothes it’s showing the audience exactly what would probably happen in the alternate real life situation. Also I shot my entire video in my bedroom as that is where most people will spend their time if they break up with the person they love again showing again how I want my audience to relate to my video. The use of my bedroom shows one of the main themes which I wanted to get across to my audience which is isolation and by having myself (the main boy character) spending all his time in his bedroom strongly suggests to the audience that he has isolated himself from the world due to having nothing to do now he has lost his girlfriend.

When looking at my narrative I decided to sort of show an ending in my portraying of the lyrics to how the song ends. I did this by using a photo of myself and my girlfriend at the end of my music video to show the boy dropping it to the floor when the lyrics ‘This is fact not fiction for the first time in years’ play because it shows the audience that he has come to terms with the fact that he is never going to get his relationship back and that it has now come to his mind that the relationship is in fact ended and not fiction anymore. I believe this allows the audience to see how the video ends and how the whole interpretation of the lyrics has come to show how the boy has come to terms with everything what has happened.

CD Covers

I believe my CD covers for my music promo video do follow the conventions of real media CD covers. I decided to follow the conventions because I didn’t really want my CD covers to throw of the whole idea behind my music video for example I didn’t want my CD covers to not related to my music video. So to make my CD covers relate to my video I used actual screenshots from video for all the photos which I used when constructing my Ancillary products. This is showing the audience that everything including the CD package is realistic and relatable. Conventions which I followed are the fact that I made the band names font bigger than the album name and I did this because when analysing real media CD Covers this happens in all of them and I believe it’s more important because the band are the ones who are singing the songs therefore their name should be in a bigger font also so that the audience can easily find it in any music store because the albums are shelved by band name so I wanted to make mine more eye catching and bigger for the audience. Although I did want my CD covers to follow all conventions I did however choose the main album photo to be of both the main boy and main girl characters as it shows who the song is about. Instead of just using the normal photo I decided to make it again black&white and also when making my CD covers in Microsoft Publisher I made the photo transparent by using the transparent tool, I did this at first just to experiment but when I made it transparent it appeared to me that it looked quite modern which is what I wanted as well as still keeping the whole narrative intact when following onto my CD covers.
Another convention which I followed was the use of font styles for the band name and album title because when I analysed real media CD covers the bands/artists tend to use the same style for both their names and their albums title and I did this because it provides consistency throughout the covers and suits the genre of the song.

A convention which I made up myself was putting the most important lyric of the song, which is used the most throughout the song, at the bottom of the front cover I did this because the lyric provides huge impact within the song and it tells a lot about what the story of the song is about. I decided to do this because I believe it’s quite unique as I researched a lot of real media CD covers and none what I found used this convention so I choose to do it. I used a handwritten font which I found on http://www.1001freefonts.com/ because I wanted the lyrics to look like they would have when the band wrote them in the first place so I made them look handwrote so that when they audience buys the album it also looks like the band have actually wrote them themselves therefore giving the audience a sense of self satisfaction in that they have something of which the actual band have written themselves.

For the back cover of my album I used the end shot of where the photo of the couple is seen dropped to the floor I chose this because it expresses the ending of the song and how the narrative ends so this shows the follow on from how the music promo video links to the CD covers. However, as I used this photo I actually used 3 other photos of the couple and placed them around the one which was actually in the music video so that it shows the good times in the relationship but also shows that everything has come to terms that the relationship has gone. I again made the back cover main photo black&white but made the 4 photos I used in colour so that it suggests to the audience that the photos of when the boy and girl where together have all the colour in his life whereas now she has gone there is no colour. Through the back cover I didn’t really break and conventions other that challenging the colour of the photo as again when analysing real CD covers I didn’t come across one which was in black&white. The conventions I followed on the back cover was the use of the track title being put on the back cover and also the bar code at the bottom left hand corner which most every album has on it. Also the use of the bands record label shows the followed conventions from real media products. Overall I didn’t really break any conventions when producing my CD Digi-pack because I wanted everything to be realistic and in comparison to my music video.

Magazine Advertisement for album release

For my final ancillary product I had to product a magazine advertisement for the album release. With my magazine advertisement I again chose to follow typical advertisement conventions. However, with this product I decided now to fully make it link with both my video and CD covers in terms of colour because I believe that the advertisement isn’t really being sold like the CD therefore shouldn’t be black&white like the rest of my products entirely because I want it to be attractive in the magazine so that the audience see it as an eye catching page. I decided to make the background a light blue colour so that it would be colourful and appealing for the audience.
A convention which I followed but also kind of challenged was the use of the album front cover on the advertisement to show what album its advertising. When I researched and analysed magazine advertisements I saw that the bands used their album covers but didn’t use the whole cover on the page they tended to use only half or some of the photo however, I chose to use the full front cover so the audience can get a glimpse of the cover and maybe get an idea of what the genre of the album is and what the songs will be like. Also I did this because when the audience go out to by the album they will know what the entire front cover looks like meaning they will be able to find the album without any problem.

Another convention which I used was the critic reviews. I believe these have a huge impact on the advertisement because the audience want to know other people’s perspectives on the album and this could persuade them to definitely buy the album. I again chose to use colourful fonts because I want it to be eye catching for when the audience are reading the magazine.
I again used the bands name and album title at the top of the advertisement which is a convention because every advertisement for an album will do this as it’s their album which is being advertised. However, this time I made the album title more important because it’s the album which is being sold not the band and as the album is new and never before released it will only be advertised for release once therefore it needs to be the most important thing on the page thus the reason why I put the full front cover on the page.

Finally the last convention I used was lures at the bottom of the page which detail the specific hit song which the album has had as a big mainstream hit. Also it shows what else is on the album and when the album will be released. Another thing I used on my advertisement was the bands website as this is also a convention as all the advertisements I researched has the band/artists website on it so that the audience with an internet connection can find out more about the albums release.

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

I believe overall the combination of both my main product and ancillary products are effective however, I believe my main product and my CD covers are more effective as a duo then all three together. My music promo video and CD covers are effective as a duo because I tried to link them together as much as possible. For example using screenshots from the actual video as main photos for both my front and back covers for my CD. The use of the bedroom and the shots and photos I used for my products all provide a story to the audience in which I wanted to get across to them and they all follow that link of narrative which is the main point I wanted to happen from the start. I believe that using the 4 photos of the couple in the CD covers and magazine advertisement show that I wanted to provide consistency throughout all my products and I believe I made that happen. Also the use of a black&white video and black&white CD covers it shows that the main narrative of the song is that the boy now has no colour in his life now that he has lost the love of his love therefore both the video and CD covers show this making it very effective. Overall I believe my products are very effective because the audience themselves can possibly relate to the story of the song and the lyrics as they could have gone through a similar situation sometime in their lives.


What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I have learnt that my main aim of making the narrative and lyrics of the song the most important factor throughout all of my products. However, due to not finished my products till a late stage I didn’t get as much audience feedback as I would’ve liked. But I did get some and it has helped a lot to show that I have ended knowing that my aim has got across to my audience.

I asked 16 people 3 questions which I wanted to know the most for my products. Even though these 16 people are my friends I told them to be entirely truthful with what they say about my products so that there is no bias at all. The first question I asked them was ‘do you think my video provides a strong narrative interpretation of the lyrics?’ and 100% percent of them said yes. They told me they said yes because they actually feel the video is believable and the lyrics show what the whole song is about and that the way I presented the boys isolation and no colour in his life with using a full black&white video fully provide the strong narrative.
The second question I asked was ‘do you like how the video is presented and if not then why?’ this was a 50/50 response rate. People said they liked it because of the strong narrative and how the emphasis on the lyrics and direct mode of address to the audience make it entirely believable and relatable. However, the other half said that the video looked a bit rushed and that it could have been edited better due to some parts of the miming being out of focus.
My final question was ‘do you think both my main product and ancillary texts show consistency’ and 90% of the people said yes it does. They said this because of the same use of black&white colours to emphasise the meaning behind the song and the use of the same texts and font colours made the whole products link together. The other 10% said that even though they liked all the products the magazine advertisement didn’t follow the video as much as the CD covers do due to it being more colourful and avoiding the meaning I had tried to get across from the music video and CD covers.

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

Throughout the production of my advanced portfolio I did use new media technologies to help research and construct my products. I believe the use of these new technologies which I hadn’t used before within a coursework piece helped me further my skills and therefore make my work a lot better than what it used to be.

For the start of my advanced portfolio I began to plan what I wanted to do and how I wanted to use this to construct my products. First of all I looked at many music video on YouTube and actual music video channels on the TV to try and find different aspects of music video which I could incorporate into my own and find ideas for how I wanted mine to be. After researched music videos and analysing them so that I could find conventions from them to use in my own video I began to research the history of music videos and how they first started and I used the internet to find this information which was a great help as it broadens my idea of music videos and advancing my knowledge of them.

I then had to choose the song I wanted to use for my video so I chose 3 of my favourite songs and then listened to them a few times and brainstormed ideas for each song and then looked back on them to see which I could get the best video out of and provide the best meaning for my audience. I listened to the songs over and over on my Apple iPod which is a media technology and this helped me because I could make ideas in my mind then write them down for each song and then see which song has the best ideas for a music video. When I chose the song I wanted to use I then began to research music into that specific genre to see what conventions real media texts used when producing a video for that certain genre. I again then used YouTube to watch the music videos of that specific genre which was acoustic music to see what I could use when producing my own video.

Next I began to analyse the music lyrics and see how I could interpret each lyric into the music video and see how I could show the true meaning behind the story of the song for my audience as that was my main aim. I again used the internet in some parts of the lyrical interpretation which was finding a website on Google which shows other peoples perspectives on what certain lyrics meant as I struggled to find a true meaning behind a few of the lyrics.
The next stage was to create a storyboard which would help me get a final rough idea of what I wanted my video to look like. Due to never having to create a storyboard I didn’t really know what was needed on one so I again used Google to find samples of other peoples storyboards to that I could find out how to structure one when creating it myself.

For the construction of my music video I used a programme called Matrox which was within the programme Adobe Premier Elements. When I had shot my footage on a digital video camera I transferred the footage from Mini DV to the editing suite and then began to edit my video together as I wanted it to look. As the editing suites were fairly new media technology to what I have used before it was quite a struggle to find my way around it however, when I began to find out how to use the editing programme Adobe Premier Elements I started to find out that you can use several effect. I used the effect which made my video black&white as that is how I wanted it to look. Also tools such as the pen tool, razor, speed duration, hand tool helped me when creating my video as I had to use them all when editing and cutting my video into how I wanted the final product to look like.

For my ancillary texts I used the programme Microsoft Publisher to create and construct my products. This programme was very good for me as I am very experienced at using it however, even though that is a good thing it’s also a bad thing as the programme is quite restrictive with the amount of things you can do on it. Such as Adobe Photoshop allows several different effects and would have been a better option but due to doing my ancillary texts on a home computer I didn’t have the Photoshop programme installed.

The photos which I used for my ancillary texts where all screenshots from my actual music promo video and I did this by using a home computer and playing the video in a programmed called VLC Media Player and then pressed the screenshot button when I wanted to use the shot from the video as a photo. When I got all the photos I wanted I then opened them up in the programme Paint as I am also very comfortable with using that programme and then resized them by using the crop tool to the size that I wanted them to be. As the photos were already black&white I didn’t have to change any of the brightness or contrast to the photos as they were already how I wanted them to be presented like. However, for my front CD cover I did add an effect to the photo which was making it transparent and I did this by using Microsoft Publisher by clicking the transparent tool on the photo and this at first was an accident but I liked how it looked as it provided a modern edge to the photo and made it more attractive for the audience.
I again used the internet to find some unique texts to use for my CD covers and magazine advertisement which I found on the website http://www.1001freefonts.com/ I chose Annabel script as the font for my band name and album title as I believe it showed what kind of genre the song was. Also again I used Google to find the bands record label logo which I found very quick and easily and this was used my CD back cover and magazine advertisement. I also used the same programme Microsoft Publisher when producing my magazine dvertisement and I again resized the photos in Paint by using the crop tool.

Another media technology which I used was a Blackberry 9700 mobile photo which I used when getting the 3 other photos which I used on the back cover of my CD and my magazine advertisement of the couple at different times in their relationship.

Overall the media technologies I chose to use where entirely because I have a lot of experience of using them and I believe this helped me a lot because it meant that I’d have hardly any troubles when producing my products and that I’d know several effects and ways of changing and editing my products. The only trouble I encountered was the use of the editing suite as I was quite new at using it and needed slight guidance to find how to use certain effects when producing my music promo video. However, with using programmes that I am used to also has a downfall which is some of the programmes are limited with what you can do on them so if I was to create this again from scratch I would try and get better at using Adobe Photoshop so that I could make my CD covers and magazine advertisement look more professional and better set out.

In conclusion I believe I have achieved my aim of providing a strong narrative throughout my media products for my audience. I believe some aspects of my products are better than others such as I think my music video could have been a lot better in terms of quality I believe I could’ve used more locations and better mise-en-scene to provide even more of a realistic meaning. However, I like how the consistency of my products is seen and that the used of same photos and same text fonts emphasises the meaning and genre of the song which I wanted to get across to the audience. Finally if I was to shoot my video again I would definitely use a different main boy character as I had to cast myself therefore this didn’t allow me to have full control of the video camera so I couldn’t entirely have my input into how I wanted every shot to look like because I had to tell the person using the video camera what to do instead of seeing how the shot looked through the camera and due to the person capturing the footage on the video camera not being very experienced at using the camera some of the shots had bad framing so if I was to do a music video again I would take control of the video camera so that I could capture the best footage through how I would be seeing it through the camera. However overall I am pleased with my products and I am very happy that my main aim of capturing the narrative behind the story of the song has worked very well.