What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation

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

The music video that has been produced follows the forms and conventions of a real media product because it has performance and narrative imbedded, as expected from an Indie Rock genre song. Throughout the music video some relationship between lyrics and visuals can be identified, an example of this would be during the verse “I’m walking into the night, where everything seems so bright” and there is a cut to the actor standing in bright light. Furthermore there is a good example of a relationship between the music and the visuals, we see the drummer hit the snare drum in sync to the music. These relationships are important during the production of a music video that belongs to this genre as the audience expect to see them throughout the whole music video and be familiar with the forms and conventions for similar media products. When this song was discovered, the first thing that came to mind for the music video was to make it dark colour themed because it is a rather depressing song and use of dark colours would further emphasise the genre of the song and also the lyrics themselves.

This particular genre of music usually has its own form of conventions, for example a lot of close up shots of the lead singer in addition to shots of the members of the band. However the main emphasis is always on the lead singer seeing as he/she is the main selling point of the music and the band itself so all the focus must be on them in order to sell the music. In addition it would make more sense to put emphasis on whoever is singing during certain parts of the song, same with during a guitar or drum solo, placing emphasis on the performer during that time, not only to promote their skills but it also looks more appealing in the music video and creates a sense of continuity. Seeing as the lead singer is also the guitar player for the band, it was easier to edit and create a star image seeing as during the guitar solo there would be no editing required to cut away from the singer and to the guitar player seeing as they are one person. There is no voyeurism present throughout the music video (during the performance anyway) seeing as the lead singer is fully aware he is being watched and is performing into the camera.

The song itself is slow pace therefor the music video had to also follow the speed of the song. So a range of different shots had to be considered before recording the music video in addition to what kind of meaning they would convey. It was decided to have a lot of close up shots on the lead singer due to the fact that the audience is likely to watch the music video on a small screen e.g. iPod/iPhone or any other mobile device, therefor close-up shots of the lead singer were important due to that factor. Additionally establishing and long shots were also important throughout the music video as they were used to set the scene and introduce the audience to the whole band, not to forget mid-shots of other members of the band in order to promote the whole crew. Hand-held shots were also used at some points of the music video, this was due to the fact that we wanted to make the music video seem more free-flowing rather than completely linear, creating a variety of effects in addition to making the music video itself look more unique seeing as not a lot of music videos that belong to similar genre use hand-held camera shots and we decided to challenge that aspect.

Throughout the music video the lead singer is represented in two different ways and possibly having a dual personality. During the performance the audience sees this confident and rebellious male wearing a t-shirt with ‘Don’t Care’ imprinted on it suggesting that he does not care about opinion and wants to get his point across no matter what. Also the t-shirt itself stands out throughout the whole music video further emphasising his character. The lead singers’ body language being confident and powerful throughout the performance emphasises his passion for music and expressing emotions. During the narrative however we see a completely different character. At first we considered to use a completely different actor for the narrative, however using the lead singer would help put more emphasis on his character and further promoting him. The fact that in the narrative the audience sees a more ‘loving’ and ‘caring’ side of the lead singer may suggest that was he has changed over time into the character he is in the performance. This would be an intertextual reference that we intended to create, suggesting how people change in time and after certain events that either ‘make them or break them’ and in our music video the audience can see how what ever happened to the lead singer has completely broke him and he decided to move on and ‘Don’t Care’ as stated on his t-shirt.

Narrative itself does not follow the typical Todorovian narrative model making it less straight forward and harder to understand for the audience. The audience may find the narrative confusing and possibly puzzling developing the need to re-watch the music video in an attempt to gather better understanding of the narrative as a whole. However there are some aspects of the Todorovian narrative model present. For example the equilibrium, recognition, reparation and new equilibrium, they are not in the exact order and that makes it harder for the audience to understand the narrative. Additionally during the narrative the actors are not aware that they are being watched and the whole relationship scene is being acted out rather than directly shown like in most music videos. This is something that would challenge the audience as they are watching the music video. Furthermore there are subtle intertextual references present throughout the music video that can be possibly spotted by a small amount of audience. That narrows the audience that are likely to watch the music video, however because the band is not well known this will not a big issue in the first place.

Furthermore to emphasise the dark and depressing feel of the song, we decided to use dark colours throughout the music video. During the performance we found that using the lighting provided by the facilities was not enough as the lead singer would be in the shadows half the time and the rest of the band could barely be seen. So it was decided to bring in more lighting in order to highlight the lead singer and bring forth the band. The idea came from ‘Battle’s – Tendencies’ music video, where they made use of the black background and lighting equipment to create effects that we were after for our music video. However in the narrative it was decided to further adjust the colours in order to create the mysterious and worrying effect in addition to making the narrative stand out from the performance by making it have different effects and further emphasising the different characters of the lead singer. Due to the fact that the narrative was intended to be acted out we decided to use ‘Spotlight’ lighting in order to create the effect of actors acting out their role making the whole relationship theme look static rather than real.

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

The main purpose of an ancillary text is to work with other promotional products in order to advertise the singer/group to the audience. After the production of a music video it was essential to work on the ancillary text that would not only promote the singer but also match with the music video seeing as the audience is most likely to be familiar with the style of both products. Not all music videos match the ancillary text because some singers can afford not to place their image on a CD cover for example due to already being well known. However, in this case because the band is not well known and the genre of music is not as popular as POP music or RNB, it was thought best to stay to the same style as the music video when it came to creating the ancillary text. This is due to the fact that the audience would be more familiar with the CD cover after watching the music video due to them having similar design and layout. The costume of the lead singer is the same as in the music video, making him more recognisable on the CD cover. Additionally the same type of lighting was used when taking the picture of the band and in the mid shot of the lead singer the same guitar was used as in the music video however, that’s the only image colour of which has been changed to black and white for more effect.

Taking into account they are most likely to find out about the band on the internet through iTunes or YouTube it is important to make sure that the audience would recognise the ancillary text if they were to see it in a shop. It has been decided to take pictures of the band to be place on the ancillary text and place more emphasis on the lead singer due to him being the most important member of the band in addition to standing out the most throughout the music video, so it would only make sense to embed the same focus on the lead singer into the ancillary text. Furthermore dark colours were used throughout the ancillary text similar to the music video making it further recognisable for the target audience and people that have seen the music video.

Same style has been used across the media products that involve the mise-en-scene, costumes and lighting. Due to the genre of the song, the members of the band are represented as being moody, especially the lead singer. This is due to the narrative of the music video and displaying the lead singer the same way throughout the media products would further develop a star image.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

During the planning stage of the production it was important for me to gather as much feedback as possible in order to produce a media product that the target audience would find appealing in addition to recognising the genre of the music that the media product should represent. After creating the animated storyboard I have conveyed a survey for my target audience using the ‘surveymonkey’ website that has helped me greatly before the actual production stage of my media product. Asking the target audience a variety of questions regarding the storyboard has helped me acknowledge any issues with the story/narrative and the feedback that I have received has also helped me fix in some cases minor in some cases major faults in the narrative before actually planning the production. Furthermore the questionnaire was conveyed not only for the target audience but also for other range of audience in order to gather as much information as possible as to what kind of people are most likely to listen to the song seeing as that is the main factor, if people enjoy the song they are more likely to watch the music video and questioning people outside the target audience would possibly help me to increase the pool of current target audience.

After all the planning and research has been completed it was time to start the production of the first draft of my music video. Before we started however, a test shoot took place in order to see if the chosen actor was suitable for the role. After uploading the test shoot, we have obtained some verbal feedback from our superior if they believed that the actor is suitable for the role. Once everything has been ready for the production, we have produced the first draft that was far from perfect however we have gathered feedback from the target audience in addition to our superiors. Additionally there were peer assessments taking place that allowed us to see what our classmates were producing and possibly gather some inspiration and allowing us to receive feedback from a non-target audience group and see if they would listen to this type of genre. The peer assessment has helped us greatly before the production of our final music video as it has provided us with insight and detail on how to improve from our current first draft and what the audience believed was missing from our music video. Despite the fact that half the things mentioned we were planning to improve upon in the first place, for example the lighting, we have also gained some knowledge on ways to improve that we did not even consider or noticed in our first draft.

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

It was required for me to carry out research into already existing media products before any form or production could take place. Through use of media sites like YouTube and DailyMotion I have looked at music videos and analysed the different aspects of the media product. That involved analysis of the narrative, intertexual references and star image, furthermore, through use of Web 2.0 I could convey further research into the background of the singer or the music video itself to gather information on the producer and how/when the media product was firstly released. Additionally through the use of social sites like twitter/facebook I was able to follow an artist based on my research and see how a stars image is developed over time in addition to comparing the two representations. Once all the research has been completed it was time to move onto the planning stage. This involved the production of the interactive storyboard that has been drawn out first then recorded and uploaded onto YouTube to allow easy access for the target audience. Using a survey website called SurveyMonkey I have created a questionnaire relating to the interactive storyboard in order to gather feedback and consider ways of improving or changing the narrative to please the target audience.

Using survey webpage like SurveyMonkey has helped me a lot through the planning stage as I was able to gather critique from the target audience and acknowledge what they believe is missing or could be added in the storyboard/music video. In addition to this the use of YouTube has allowed me to easily show my storyboard to the target audience and gather feedback even through use of the commenting section. Furthermore when carrying out the risk assessment and recce I have used the Sony Camcorder to take high quality pictures and assess the location in detail and decide if they were suitable to use for our music video. To help me arrange and present my work I have used the blogger that also helped me keep track of the progress made through the course in addition to helping me keep up to date with my work and plan further ahead during the planning and production stage of the media product. I believe that during the planning stage I used the technologies available to me to a full extent in order to aid me in future production of my media product.

Once all the planning has been complete and we were ready to move onto the production stage we have used Nikon SLR cameras to record our music video first draft. We decided not to use any addition lighting when recording the narrative and hope for the best with the weather conditions. This was due to the fact that we could easily edit the colour and effect of the footage using Final Cut. However during the performance we used lighting that was provided by the facility rather than placing any additional lighting. From our first draft we thought that the footage looked too dark and decided to use extra lighting in later recording. Furthermore throughout the production stage the main equipment we have used were the Nikon SLR and a Tripod that have helped us record footage to the highest quality. After recording all the footage for the first draft it was time to upload and edit. Both of these processes have been accomplished using the iMac and a program called Final Cut. In comparison to iMovie that could have been used for editing, Final Cut had a lot more to offer despite the difficulties with uploading for the first time. There was a bigger variety of effects that was available in addition to the actual process of arranging the footage in an order was simple and straight forward.

To conclude I believe that the technology available for me to use has greatly aided me throughout the research, planning and production stages of my media product. In addition to using the CS6 program Photoshop when creating the ancillary text allowed me to improve my editing skills and produce a media product to a high standard. Furthermore the use of Web 2.0 allowed me to plan ahead and manage the time required during the production stage and helped me gather audience feedback much more efficiently and less time consuming.

Ancillary Text/Advert

This is my final advert that provides all the information about the album and the band information clearly providing a link to their site and what social web pages they can be found in.

CD Cover

From look at my first draft of the CD cover I noticed that there was certain information missing in addition to it being just a box-shaped image rather than an actual CD. So it was required to add the information around the CD itself in addition to adding the cells that hold the actual CD case together and to see how the CD case would look as a whole.