Written Evaluation by Lauren

(By Lauren)

1.) In what ways will your media product use,develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our media product will challenge the forms and conventions of real media products as the band will not be shown in the video. Therefore, there will be no continuous miming from the band. However, the main character will mime some parts of the song, for example the chrous. We will also use some  of the forms and conventions of real media products as typical camera shots will be used in our music video such as close ups and long shots. This will enable the audience to get an understanding of the character's emotions and feelings and enables the viewer to become familiar with the characters identity. It helps to create a relationship between the character in the video and the audience who watch it. The main character in the video wears a black costume, has dark hair and wears quite a lot of dark heavy make up, this is a typical form and convention for this genre of music; electric/ metal. This illustrates to the audience their identity and personality. We are using more influences from video art and short films than simply music videos. Our video also challenges the forms and conventions of real media products as it does not have a narrative whereas, most other music videos do. We chose to do this so that the audience are left open minded and can have their own imagination as to what is going on and whats going to happen. We had to develop conventions from William Control's other music videos as we have combined two of his songs together. The second song is quite slow and depressing and the images used and visuals throughout this section reflect this. Within the editing of our video we chose to use the form and conventions that our artist chose; fast cuts. This was to create an eerie atmosphere and to make the audience feel on edge. It also creates tension and matches the pace of the song.

We have used the forms and conventions from other music videos within this genre as a lot of blood is used and seen in the video. This iconography is strong and powerful as it shows the characters state of mind; quite low and depressed. The mise en scene at the beginning hows a girl bandaged and tied up. This was to illustrate that she does not have an identity and is restricted. Therefore, she does not have any freedom, choice and power. 

We chose to use some of the conventions of real media products in our ancillary products as well. For example, we have kept to the dark colours in our album packaging this is so that the video and album combine together/ link together. It makes the audience aware and helps to promote the video t o a wide audience. We have developed the forms of the artists album covers, as we have also chose to use a texture throughout the album cover and magazine advertisement. The stripped texture is suitable for the genre of our video and for our audience. 

 2.) How will you ensure that the combination of your main product and ancillary texts are effective?

We have ensured that the main product and ancillary texts are effective by matching the style and image of the ancillary product with something within our music video and the artists existing material. For example, the main character in our music video is featured on the front of our Album Cover and on the magazine advertisment. This is so that the main character is recognisable and memorable which will enable them to sell and become popular. We have also used a stripped texture in both of the ancillary products this is so they links together and the audience are aware that the three connect. We have used the logo of the artist on all 3 aspects so that they are recognisable to the audience and have a distinct link which is obvious. We have also use the same font on each of these products which makes it more effective and successful. 

We chose to use white font on both of the ancillary products as it stood out the most against the black background and both the colours connect with the music video. This is because in the video we have used a black and white effect which therefore combines the ancillary products with our main product in an effective way. 

They work well together and are again recognisable as the costume that the main character is wearing is similar in all 3 aspects. The style is very modern and is suitable and links with the genre of the song.

 3.) What kinds of audience feedback will you seek for your product and what things might you learn from this?

We posted a draft version of our product onto a social networking site, Facebook and asked the audience for their feedback. This was useful as the majority of people of our age use this social networking site and therefore gaining access to them for feedback this way was successful. We asked people of our age as this is the target audience of our music video. Overall we received quite positive feedback. Some people believed and suggested that we should change the colouring of the blood to red instead of black and white. The reasons they gave were that they thought it look better, stand out more, be more effective and more realistic. However, we chose to go against this and keep it as black and white because we believe it did not give the look and feeling that we wanted it to have. We made further changes from the feedback that we received. For example, we did not include the swing at the end as it was confusing and did not fit in with the images. The feedback enabled us to find out if our idea was good and if the audience believed that it would work and be successful. We also wanted to know whether it was addressed to the correct audience and the emotions and atmosphere they felt when watching it. 

We also gained audience feedback by using audio visual. This was used to show that we could use a range of technology and is more effective and useful than using the same/one type of technology. This was a good idea as it got the audience involved and made us aware of             .

We also posted 3 drafts of our magazine advertisement onto Facebook and asked the audience which one they thought had the best layout and which design was more appropriate for the genre and an advertisement. This helped us to decide which one we were going to use as our final product.

 4.) How will you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used the internet to research forms and conventions of music videos which are similar to our genre. We also watched music videos created by other Media students on Youtube to form different ideas for our own video and to think about the technical skills that are required to create one. We are going to digitally create our evaluation by using a video camera to film us talking about our finished product and the what we have achieved and the things we could of improved.  We also used photoshop during our production stages to edit our images we took during our photo shoot. We changed some of the colouring and the effects of them.

We also used smartphones/mobile phones to contact one another to arrange when to meet to film and to arrange what we will be doing other than work in school eg researching the history of music videos. We also used phones to contact one of the actresses in our video and to let her know what costume to where and when. This was helpful as it was a good way of organising our time and preparing our schedule.

The media technology which was the most effective and which benefited us the most was a hard drive as we had to keep transferring material from technology to computer. This allowed us to complete work at home and elsewhere to then transfer it onto the computers in school. We could then feedback to each other what we found and what we had been working on. This was useful when we were completing research and when we were planning the two ancillary products.
We used the software I movie to construct our music video. This software was very successful as it enabled us to edit the footage including colour editing, detach original sounds and move clips around in the order we wanted them to be in. We chose to use I movie as we had become familiar with the software from our AS course. Therefore, we already knew how to work it and did not waste time learning how to use it.

We used a Panasonic HD camcorder to film our footage, this camera made our footage look of a high quality. It was very clear and in focus which made details and specific things stand out. We also used a SLR camera when we did our photo shoot. It improved the quality of our product as we had high quality images to edit and choose from for our ancillary products.