Evaluation

Question 1:- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here is two pairs of images we have used to show how we have stayed with conventions.


Michael Buble's music video of "Just haven't met you yet"

After viewing many different existing music videos of our genre, it became clear that there is a lot of focus on the artist and many close-ups are used in order to draw attention of the audience to the artist and what they look like. Here is an frame of Michael Buble in his music video of "Just haven't met you yet". He directly addresses the audience and it was clear to our group that we needed to do this in order to create an emotional link between our artist and the audience.

 Therefore, here is a frame of our own music video. We have made sure that he directly sings to the audience so that the audience can feel that our artist is singing directly to them. The effect of this being that the audience will enjoy seeing our artist because despite never properly knowing them in person, they will feel a connection. Focusing greatly on the rule of thirds, we have ensured that he is roughly in the centre so that all the focus is on him. The lighting also brings more focus to our artist. This is because our artist is in the light, and our background is darker. The connotations of this being that our artist could appear quite lonely on his own and give the impression that our artist is performing live because the focus is own him and he is in the spotlight.

Josh Groban's music video "February Song"

The first frame is from Josh Groban's "February Song". This song was a great inspiration for us as Josh Groban is a very similar artist to our chosen artist. We liked the filter they used in the music video and thought using a similar filter would be a good look for our music video. We thought this because the filter makes certain shots much more interesting for the viewer. We decided to go for the sepia filter. This gives a slight orange tint and we believe this - as it does in Josh Groban's music video - makes the music video much more viewable.  

The music video is much more viewable as an effect from this, because it provides a bit more interest in shots and lighting, it makes shots stick out much more. The connotations of the sepia, light orange/yellow filter is age. This makes our artist look more authentic because it does not give the connotation of being the "new kid on the block" in the music industry. It instead makes our artist look more established. The effect of this, would hopefully be in volume of sales etc.

Here are the two pairs of images we have used to show how we have developed conventions.


Michael Buble's music video "Feeling Good"

We have developed conventions here by having our artist wearing slightly more casual outfit than existing artists in this genre. For example (see below) Michael Buble appears in the majority of his music videos wearing smart clothing and often wears a full suit. He is wearing a shirt, jacket and smart trousers. He is wearing a tie, so there isn't a hint of him being relaxed . This could be to portray that he is a professional and enjoys looking smart in order to appeal to his audience. Our artist is wearing smart trousers, shirt and a scarf. This scarf appears trendy and this is what we thought could be a motif for our own artist. We thought this because after much research we realised that well known artists often have something about them that makes them stick out from everyone else. For example, Bruno Mars often wears a hat and Daniel Powter often wears a beanie hat. 

This scarf, applied to Dyer's Star theory could be a part of our artists' construction as a pop star. Dyer states that artists are constructed and are artificial images despite portraying themselves as real people with real emotions, they are a product. This is what we are trying to do with our own artist so that he can be recognised as a brand.

Daniel Powter's music video "Bad Day"

Here we have taken inspiration from Daniel Powter's music video "Bad Day". We liked this music video because they extensively used "split screening". We liked this because it could show two different actions at the same time. This meant we could use this to ensure we could continue showing our narrative but make sure that our viewer does not forget that the music video is still about our artist. The effect of this being that the viewer does not forget who the music video is about. Despite there being a storyline, the audience needs a constant reminder about the artist. This is to try and make our own artist stick in the viewers memories even after watching the music video. After all, the main aim for a record company is usually to make money. If they make a music video that makes the viewer want to buy the album/see them live, then their main aim will usually be fulfilled.

Here are the two pairs of images we have used to show how we have challenged existing conventions.


Bruno Mars' song "Just the way you are"
Here is a frame of Bruno Mars' song "Just the way you are". The frame shows him sitting in a room that appears to be a band practice room (because of all the instruments). The piano that the artist is playing is an upright piano.This type of piano is generally associated to being used for non-classical pianists whereas the piano we have used in our own music video (see our chosen frame below) is a grand piano (usually associated with classical and jazz musicians). Our genre is pop/singer songwriter and we are going against the convention of using a simple, upright piano that does not look lavish and instead looks scruffy (worn in places). We have instead used a shiny, impressive grand piano. The effect of this being that our artist looks more professional and authentic. This could make the audience believe that because our artist is using a very professional-looking piano, he is more believable as a musician.

The connotations of our chosen piano are that of luxury and riches. This we have done to try and combat the fact we had a very minimal budget for making our music video (£0.00). Pop videos are often very high budget and have many features in order to make their artist more impressive. We feel we have managed this by using a luxurious, impressive looking piano.

We have also challenged convention here by using a completely different setting. The mise-en-scene is often very important in music videos. The scene with our artist shows him in what appears to be a performing area because of the large curtains and the size of the room. This challenges convention because the setting of our master shot contrasts so much with existing music videos. Our location gives the connotations of a professional performing because of the performance hall setting. Whereas the Bruno Mars setting appears to be a practice room, which gives the connotations of an artist trying to make it in the music industry. We did not want to portray this to our audience, and instead wanted to portray a professional artist that is already successful in the music industry.

James Morrison's music video "Broken Strings" 
 Here is a frame from James Morrison's music video "Broken Strings". We liked their use of having two video clips over each other and lowering the opacity so that both could be seen at once. There is a strange effect of this that means that we could have our narrative continuing, but having our artist appear as though they are with our character in the narrative. Ours does, however contrast with the frame I have used because in theirs, the two artists are singing to each other. Whereas in ours, it appears that our artist is singing to the character in the narrative. The effect of the editing we have done with opacity on the audience could be that they continue to remember that the music video is more about our artist than about the three characters that have their own storyline within the music video.

Question 2:- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In addition to the comments made here, I believe we had a great success with our music video and digipack. I believe they complement each-other well as the artists image is similar enough in both so that it is clear what his style is. The effect of this being that if an audience member would see one of the products, they would have an immediate understanding of the genre and style of music that our artist plays. 

Despite this, I do believe we could have done some things much better. For example, I wish we had more time in order to do filming, for this would have meant we could had filmed at better locations. Although with the short time we had, I believe we did a good job with filming and taking pictures for the digipack. This was somewhat due to the school's grounds being a great location to take the images. In conjunction with the autumn leaves, the images we took were great and suited our genre well.

Question 3:- What have you learned from audience feedback?

We have looked at our music video and clearly annotated the positive and negative feedback that we received on our video. We created questionnaires and surveys as well as asking friends and family to give feedback. I have annotated the positive feedback in green and the negative feedback in red.

I do agree with much of the audience feedback. However, I do disagree with the feedback that stated that the acting was poor. Despite none of our actors being professionals, or even taking A-level drama, I do believe they all performed splendidly. The acting was certainly good enough to make the music video appear as though it is a genuine and done by professionals.

Many of the audience that we had feedback from stated that our music video was authentic and looked as if it had been made by actual music video producers. This, overall, was our aim which I am very happy to say we managed to do. We aimed to use various authentic editing techniques such as cross-dissolve and split screening and had some very good feedback about this.  


We also strived to use the information we received in research and planning to ensure we kept to the correct genre and used a variety of shots, dress codes and locations.

Below is a screenshot of the email we received from our chosen artist. As it states below, he enjoyed the music video we made - which is very nice as it is his own song and only he knows the true meanings of his lyrics.

 

Question 4:- How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Below is a video that discusses the combination of the texts. With the video there are images that are displayed on the computer screen to demonstrate what is being said.

Our products use through the line advertising to ensure an effective combination of all three texts. Through the line advertising includes creating a brand awareness and using elements of both above the line and below the line advertising. We have mostly focused on above the line advertising because our artist is of the pop/singer-songwriter genre and this a very wide genre that is not at all niche. This means that our target audience could range anything from 10 years old to 60 years old. Therefore above the line advertising is very wide and not focused at any specific niche audience.

Our music video

Audience Feedback on our digipack

We made various different versions of our front cover for the digipack. This was due to getting lots of audience feedback and changing our ideas according to the feedback we received. The feedback was from a wide variety of people such as friends, parents,  teachers and classmates.  Many of the changes we made were to make sure we conformed with our genre of "singer-songwriter".

Our first front cover was liked by many of our audience, however, they stated that it did not appear as if it were a front cover for a singer-songwriter, but for a dance artist like David Guetta etc. Therefore we took this on board and changed our front cover accordingly.

 

We used a picture that showed our artist clearly and did not cover his eyes with sunglasses. We also used a backdrop that appeared to be a wooden floor. This was to provide a calmer, nice look that would link more with our back cover. However,  the feedback we received from people was that the front cover appeared to look too much like a cartoon. Therefore we changed the image we were to use and started again.

We changed our original image to this natural image that really gave a calm mood which is suited to our genre. This image was greatly focused on our artist which we really wanted. The image also was similar to the other images we took for the digipack. This was good because it meant all the images we used were connected in some way.

Overall, we were very happy with our final front cover as it included everything needed and appears to look fairly believable as a front cover for a digipack.