Friday 4 April 2014
Evalutation Question 1
'In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?'
At the start of the year for the research and planning we had to conduct a list on conventions that appeared in a music video, some conventions I followed whereas some I want against, this is to attempt to create my media product to stand out from the rest and to attempt to draw an audience in how it is executed.
Some conventions I used and stuck with are the aspect of editing to the beat, as my song is indie-pop it means that there are some fast paced beats which I have edited my clips to fit with, but there are also some slow sections which then take over with some longer clips. You can see this through the use of my clips below. For the start of my music video I used quick pace editing, this was to match the song but to also get across what genre it is. An example of this is below:
As the narrative scene's are cut with some shots of performance clips which gets across the idea that it is indie-pop. As my first section is of a guy and girl in bed, this connotes to the audience straight away that it is going to be a love story, allowing the story to come across quickly lets the audience understand what is happening instead of keeping it a secret. My music video this way is easy to understand and straight forward.
At the start, when the guitar is strummed I have edited it so that each strum resembles a straight cut edit, as it is an indie genre there is no techno beats that you would find in a stereotypical pop song like in the Top 40 UK chart, so this guitar strum resembles that beat that would be present in a pop song. Keeping this convention means that there are no long clips that would bore the viewer, it is fast paced and would keep the audiences attention.
Another convention which I have gone along with is matching the action on screen to the lyrics which are said in the song. At various points in my music video I have done this, for example when the song says 'I've been walkin' around tryin' to figure out' both the male and female characters descend down the stairs. Another example of this is 'than I have got on my plate.' The male protagonist is then presented with a plate with food on which is handed to him by the female character.
I also believe that my costumes fit with my chosen genre, as linking back to my research at the start of the year the female is wearing bits of clothing that i selected from a mood board i created and took ideas from this.
Some conventions I used and stuck with are the aspect of editing to the beat, as my song is indie-pop it means that there are some fast paced beats which I have edited my clips to fit with, but there are also some slow sections which then take over with some longer clips. You can see this through the use of my clips below. For the start of my music video I used quick pace editing, this was to match the song but to also get across what genre it is. An example of this is below:
At the start, when the guitar is strummed I have edited it so that each strum resembles a straight cut edit, as it is an indie genre there is no techno beats that you would find in a stereotypical pop song like in the Top 40 UK chart, so this guitar strum resembles that beat that would be present in a pop song. Keeping this convention means that there are no long clips that would bore the viewer, it is fast paced and would keep the audiences attention.
Another convention which I have gone along with is matching the action on screen to the lyrics which are said in the song. At various points in my music video I have done this, for example when the song says 'I've been walkin' around tryin' to figure out' both the male and female characters descend down the stairs. Another example of this is 'than I have got on my plate.' The male protagonist is then presented with a plate with food on which is handed to him by the female character.
I also believe that my costumes fit with my chosen genre, as linking back to my research at the start of the year the female is wearing bits of clothing that i selected from a mood board i created and took ideas from this.
This is the mood board I created and using this I found clothes which would be suitable for the music video, from this i derived a prezzie in order to determine which outfits would be suitable and which colours of clothing could help develop my narrative. This prezzie can be found here:
However the conclusion I made on this prezzie is now outdated as I slightly changed my narrative so only 1 female outfit was needed and this happened to be outfit 5. This was because the white shirt underneath the black connotes that she is innocent but the black shirt over the top is to show she is trying to hide how innocent she actually is. But the red skirt connotes the idea of love, and desire. I did however stick with the Dr.Martens, as they fit with the indie genre nicely.
For the male characters I also tried to stick to the genre. I created like for the female cast, a mood board in which I would relate my genre to, to find out what conventional clothes would be. I found out that overall it is more smart/casual clothing. Button up shirts and jeans, with smart shoes. However, as my narrative involves them waking up, the costume for half the video tends to be pajamas. But as the male is wearing the brand 'Drop Dead' & 'Top man' clothing It still fits with my genre.
On the editing side of my music video I have added in elements such as 'Flash forwards'. This aspect is not conventional of most music videos, however I feel this fits nicely, and the slow build up of music as the female character runs towards the lead male, is almost as if him playing is allowing her to understand her true feelings for him. This then shows the future of the main Male character and female characters future together. This links the lyrics of the song to the video as it brings across the message that even though people do wrong things and may stray from the correct path in life, everyone can have a second chance and will never be judged for it. These flash forwards are represented by a small flash of white, followed by the clip being a milky white colour. It took me awhile to figure out how i could give the videos an effect which did in-fact resemble the flash forward, as they are not typical in music videos, if some do this aspect it is normally always a flash back, but due to the genre being half 'Indie' this word means individual so if I allow my music video to offer the audience a different version of how music videos are seen, this will attract a larger audience as it is different and not the 'norm'.
Thursday 3 April 2014
Evaluation Question 2
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Through the duration of my course I looked at features which would appear in all texts of a promotional package, I used technologies of those stated in question 4 to help me with this. I figured out features such as using the same font, using the same talent, using the same colour schemes. From this I then created a magazine advert and a digipak which all use these aspects. Such as, my genre is 'indie-pop' and due to this the lead females hair fits well within this category, and as her hair is so bright and she is a main character within my music video i used the pink of her hair to drag this into my digipak and my magazine advert. However I did not use much on my magazine advert and I could not find anywhere it could go apart from in the photo triangle that I had created which included screen grabs from my music video, other than that I didn't want to use such a different design to that used on the front cover of my digipak.
Another aspect that I believe makes my products effective is that I have used two people who are within the age range of my demographic, doing so brings in the audience I want. But also allows the audience to be attracted to my talent, as most people who watch music videos do so to see their favourite people on their screen. But also using people from my demographic age also allows the audience to connect with the narrative better as they can then sympathize with the characters and understand how they feel as they may have been through the situation these characters are living through. Due to this it would allow people to share their feelings through videos and encourage them to share the video.
Another feature I used was tying the album name to the song, I did this via naming the album 'Numbers' this is because the song is 'I love you 5' not 'I love you five'. Then having to make up the rest of the songs within the featured album I then incorporated numbers into each song to get this aspect across. But I also added the album name to the digipak and onto the magazine advert so this is also creating links between all three making them more effective so people can identify them as belonging to each other.
Do you think that these three media products are effective as a promotional package?
All the people that I asked this question to said yes they do. One person expanded on this idea and said at across all three media texts I have used the same male lead to they are easily relatble to each other. This could also be due to the fact that i've used screen grabs from my music video so the images on each are the same product, or this could be due to using a similar colour scheme.
Can you see any clear links?
One person said that the pink of the females hair is then brought across into the digipak on the cd's so this is a clear link. Another person said that some of the pictures have been taken directly from the music video to create the triangle used on the front cover of the album. This then backs up my thoughts on question 1.
Do you think they work well together?
All people I asked said yes, so this shows me that the links I created between the three products work well and can clearly draw them together to be an effective promotional package.
Is there anything you would do to improve any product?
One person said no, and another person said that I could add pink onto the magazine advert, as my music video has a female lead in it, and using this I have then used pink within my digipak to bring this factor across so they link more. However I did not think to add pink to my music magazine, no one in my feedback had said this so this opinion is good, however I wish i had found it before this moment so I had time to change it and update it. Another comment was that there should have been more performance shots within my music video, and I can understand this as I used a lot of performance a the beginning, and after this I didn't use much only during the narrative. So maybe I should have considered this more.
Overall I believe that due to the feedback I was given through these videos I created an effective promotional package that entices the viewer to share the video to others, and to eventually buy the song when it is out.
Through the duration of my course I looked at features which would appear in all texts of a promotional package, I used technologies of those stated in question 4 to help me with this. I figured out features such as using the same font, using the same talent, using the same colour schemes. From this I then created a magazine advert and a digipak which all use these aspects. Such as, my genre is 'indie-pop' and due to this the lead females hair fits well within this category, and as her hair is so bright and she is a main character within my music video i used the pink of her hair to drag this into my digipak and my magazine advert. However I did not use much on my magazine advert and I could not find anywhere it could go apart from in the photo triangle that I had created which included screen grabs from my music video, other than that I didn't want to use such a different design to that used on the front cover of my digipak.
Another aspect that I believe makes my products effective is that I have used two people who are within the age range of my demographic, doing so brings in the audience I want. But also allows the audience to be attracted to my talent, as most people who watch music videos do so to see their favourite people on their screen. But also using people from my demographic age also allows the audience to connect with the narrative better as they can then sympathize with the characters and understand how they feel as they may have been through the situation these characters are living through. Due to this it would allow people to share their feelings through videos and encourage them to share the video.
Another feature I used was tying the album name to the song, I did this via naming the album 'Numbers' this is because the song is 'I love you 5' not 'I love you five'. Then having to make up the rest of the songs within the featured album I then incorporated numbers into each song to get this aspect across. But I also added the album name to the digipak and onto the magazine advert so this is also creating links between all three making them more effective so people can identify them as belonging to each other.
Do you think that these three media products are effective as a promotional package?
All the people that I asked this question to said yes they do. One person expanded on this idea and said at across all three media texts I have used the same male lead to they are easily relatble to each other. This could also be due to the fact that i've used screen grabs from my music video so the images on each are the same product, or this could be due to using a similar colour scheme.
Can you see any clear links?
One person said that the pink of the females hair is then brought across into the digipak on the cd's so this is a clear link. Another person said that some of the pictures have been taken directly from the music video to create the triangle used on the front cover of the album. This then backs up my thoughts on question 1.
Do you think they work well together?
All people I asked said yes, so this shows me that the links I created between the three products work well and can clearly draw them together to be an effective promotional package.
Is there anything you would do to improve any product?
One person said no, and another person said that I could add pink onto the magazine advert, as my music video has a female lead in it, and using this I have then used pink within my digipak to bring this factor across so they link more. However I did not think to add pink to my music magazine, no one in my feedback had said this so this opinion is good, however I wish i had found it before this moment so I had time to change it and update it. Another comment was that there should have been more performance shots within my music video, and I can understand this as I used a lot of performance a the beginning, and after this I didn't use much only during the narrative. So maybe I should have considered this more.
Overall I believe that due to the feedback I was given through these videos I created an effective promotional package that entices the viewer to share the video to others, and to eventually buy the song when it is out.
Wednesday 2 April 2014
Evaluation Question 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From my feedback during the course of creating my products I gained feedback at various points throughout and this helped me to understand where I was going wrong and how I could fix various problems.
Once I had finished production I then again reviewed everything I had been told to improve on and looked at my product to see if I had met the criteria. After feeling that I had done this, I asked a set of questions to determine whether or not people agreed.
Thinking of genre conventions do you think they fit with mine, and why?
Due to me being able to know what the conventions of my genre are I had to tell all participants what the conventions of my products were by showing them a selection of music videos within the same genre as mine. Some videos I showed them were :
1. Phillip Phillips - Gone Gone Gone
2. Never Shout Never - Can't Stand it
3. The Fray - How to save a life
After watching these I then showed them my music video and were able to relate back to each music video with something they all had in common.
Are there any parts of my products that you like/dislike or would change?
For this question all three people commented on different aspects. The male answering said that I could have changed the font size. However looking at the conventions of other posters within my genre, a similar font size is used. So this however I would not change, but one of the girls commented on how I didnt not include pink within my magazine advert, and I believe this to be true that I should have. I used pink for the CD within my digipak to resemble how much of a large factor this girl is for this album, and how much of an 'inspiration' she is. But I did not transfer this across to my digipak, so this is something I should have done.
After asking these two questions I then asked all three people if they would watch my music video again and would they recommend it to other people? All three of them said they would, and have watched it again, and would recommend it to family. Two of the three said their family had also watched it after they told them about it.
Once I had finished production I then again reviewed everything I had been told to improve on and looked at my product to see if I had met the criteria. After feeling that I had done this, I asked a set of questions to determine whether or not people agreed.
Thinking of genre conventions do you think they fit with mine, and why?
Due to me being able to know what the conventions of my genre are I had to tell all participants what the conventions of my products were by showing them a selection of music videos within the same genre as mine. Some videos I showed them were :
1. Phillip Phillips - Gone Gone Gone
2. Never Shout Never - Can't Stand it
3. The Fray - How to save a life
After watching these I then showed them my music video and were able to relate back to each music video with something they all had in common.
Are there any parts of my products that you like/dislike or would change?
For this question all three people commented on different aspects. The male answering said that I could have changed the font size. However looking at the conventions of other posters within my genre, a similar font size is used. So this however I would not change, but one of the girls commented on how I didnt not include pink within my magazine advert, and I believe this to be true that I should have. I used pink for the CD within my digipak to resemble how much of a large factor this girl is for this album, and how much of an 'inspiration' she is. But I did not transfer this across to my digipak, so this is something I should have done.
After asking these two questions I then asked all three people if they would watch my music video again and would they recommend it to other people? All three of them said they would, and have watched it again, and would recommend it to family. Two of the three said their family had also watched it after they told them about it.
Using the social media I was able to post my video online onto Facebook and YouTube and get comments back on my work to help me progress.
Also due to posting my video onto youtube I was also able to see feedback through that via youtube having a selection of allowing people to comment on your videos and also like or dislike them. The feedback I was given on my music video told me that people liked my music video overall which is good.
I handed this questionnaire to 20 people and gathered the answers to help improve and understand what music videos do.
Overall this questionnaire helped me to plan what I should do next within my planning and research and what actions to take in order to create and successful and effective product.
Tuesday 1 April 2014
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