Evaluation

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

1. Actor choice and its relevance to the genre of the music video.

Relating to Andrew Goodwin’s theory of music videos record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist. Therefore in my music video I stuck to this theory and made sure I had a lot of close ups of my actors body and face so that I could produce and represent a video that depicts real life music videos. As the majority of music videos nowadays if not all have some form of close-up on the artist(s).

2. Locations and their similarity with other videos from a similar genre.

I used two predominant locations in my music video. Firstly was the bench location, which I have not seen done in any other music video I have seen. However I guess that there probably is a similar story line / video to mine about waking up from a night out in a random place. 

The other location I used was the town, which includes clubs and the car park. These locations develop the conventions of real electronic / dubstep music videos due to the fact that this genre of music is predominantly heard in nightclubs. 

Club shots are very common in such artists videos as Deadmau5 – Ghosts n’ Stuff.

3. Props used if any

The only specefic prop that i used for my music video was a beer can. It is common amongst most music videos of this genre to feature / promote some sort of alcohol / product in the video due to the fact that this music is predominantly played in clubs and most people drink to have a good time and is heavily based in youth culture.

This convention is followed in LMFAO's video for Champagne Showers as they promote La Freak champagne and show how drinking it ensures a good time. 

4. Costumes

The costumes that i chose for my actors portray typical youth culture clothing which ties in nicely with the genre of music. Checkered shirts, hats, leather jackets and jeans are predominantly worn by the youth of today in clubs and bars, and this is why i try to convey this in my music video,

My costume choices are similar to the ones in Example's music video stay awake. Stay awake is about the youth culture of today and how 'messed up' the generation is. Checkered shirts, hats and jeans are also worn in this video.

5. Apply Goodwin theory for as many of the characteristics as possible.

- There is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.

I followed this convention as closely as I could. For example when the song goes 'It started with champagne, and then we start talking' I interpreted this as someone telling a story of their previous night. And I did this with my music video as it shows my actor rubbing his head, waking up from the night before trying to remember what happened.

- Genres are complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography

The genre of electronic / dubstep music is complex and diverse in terms of music video style and iconography and is shown in my video due to the fact that i have tried to portray a common scenario in everyday life for the youth culture of today. I have done this by having a narrative in the video which portrays a man who has been out clubbing / partying, had too much to drink and is trying to remember his night. Also i feel people who live this type of party lifestyle can also relate to my video which is pleasurable in that sense for the viewer.

- Record companies will demand a lot of close-ups of the main artist or vocalist

I have already addressed this in my first answer, as i have many close ups of the actor.

- Voyeurism is present in many music videos, especially in the treatment of females, but also in terms of systems of looking. Some examples are screens within screens, cameras, mirrors, etc.

I have gone against this convention due to the fact that due to the nature of the narrative i did not feel the need for  voyeurism of females or systems of looking in the music video due to the fact that i felt that this would divert away from the storyline.

- There are likely to be intertextual references, either to other music videos or to films and TV texts, these provide further gratification and pleasure for the viewers/fans.

There are no intertextual references that i can think of from my music video.

6. Choice of lighting, and mise-en-scene.

I did not really have a choice of lighting in the clubs neither outside so lighting was irrelevant. But the mise-en-scene of the entire music video was really about youth culture and how alcohol can affect alot of aspects of life.

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

The combination of my main product (music video) and my ancillary texts (poster and digipak) were very effective due to the fact that both products had the same theme and was inspired by my specific research I did on similar genre texts.

The locations that I chose for my music video worked well with the electronic / dubstep genre due to the fact that my second location was the town / clubs and this gave my video the energetic, chaotic feel that goes hand in hand with the genre. I also took some photos of club lights for my digipak so that I could keep within the conventions for my genre.

However I went against the conventions for the combination of my poster and digipak due to the fact that my poster is just one picture of my actor, which I think works really well due to the fact that posters are meant to promote the artist. On the other hand my digipak follows conventions of my genre with the club shots. 

My research of current electronic / dance / dubstep CD’s on the market helped a lot with the design of digiak due to the fact that such CD’s as 100% pure dubstep have the title of the CD and a picture in the background. This is very simple and works well, and this is what inspired me to follow this design.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Here i did a video for this question:

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

I used many technologies throughout my A2 Media Course which included video sites, social networking sites, survey and blogging sites. I also used a lot of technology, hardware and software, for example I did most of my work on the Apple Mac. All these media technologies aided me throughout the course.

Webpages / Software

Research Section

For my research section I used such site as Youtube to view existing music videos that I was interesting in / already had a few ideas for. This aided me on choosing the song I was going to use. I also used blogger to post screenshots of music videos and described what I liked about them. The keyboard Cmd+Shift+4 was also very useful for me as it allowed me to crop part of the screen and make a picture from it.

Planning Section

For my planning section where I created a hand drawn comic sheet and animated it into a video I used youtube for the uploading stage and for feedback so that others could watch it. I also used blogger to embed it onto my blog. I used iMovie to piece together the pictures and put different coloured filters over them. The use of Facebook also greatly helped with my planning section as I could post the uploaded videos from youtube onto facebook and ask my friends to comment on what they thought about the video. In addition to this feedback I used an internet site called survey monkey to create a survey for my audiences feedback. This allowed me to compile results and get a feel for what my target audience would be looking for in my video. I also had the opportunity to practice with Final Cut Pro (the application I would use to create my final video) with a practice music video I did in a group of 4 with the song Proper Education – Eric Prydz. Also for my practice digipaks on my ancillary tasks I used Adobe Indesign and Adobe Photoshop and from the help of psdtuts.com I practiced a lot of effects.

Evaluation Section

For my evaluation I uploaded my final music video and wrote about how the codes and conventions were / weren’t followed. My final video was edited and created in Final Cut Pro where I also used filter sand transitions such as cross dissolve to add interest to my video. I also used Youtube to upload the video and Blogger to embed it for viewing and comments.

In conclusion there were four main sites that I used throughout this course.

The first was Blogger. This is a great site due to the fact that I could compile my sections into different posts for easy viewing. Also I could upload pictures, videos and edit the HTML to embed videos. It also made it easier for me to keep track of my progress as the posts were dated.

The second was Youtube. Which was very helpful as I could watch existing videos and get ideas for my own music video from videos in the same genre. Also watching the music videos gave me the opportunity to think of what professional filters and transitions I could use on my video.

The third was Survey monkey. Which was very useful for creating surveys so that I could look at my feedback for animatics etc. and learn what the audience would like to see and what ideas they had. Even though feedback on my ideas for my film was not necessary, it was still important to have reassurance that I was following the right path.

The fourth was Facebook. Which was very useful for posting certain videos that I needed my friends to comment on about their opinions or how they thought i could improve certain aspects to help my final product.

Technology / Hardware

Research Section

The technology / hardware I used for my research stage was only the Apple Mac. I found that using a Mac instead of a PC for compiling research was much easier due to the use of cmd+shift+4 for print screen.

 For my planning I used the Canon 7D and my Sony Cybershot to take pictures of my actors, locations etc. I felt that the Canon was really great for taking high quality pictures and video, but for practicality and efficiency I preferred my Sony cybershot due to the fact that I could take it home and edit pictures from home. 

For my evaluation I used a mix of the Canon 7D and the Sony Cybershot. For such shots as the ending one where my actor walks off and I zoom out of focus I clearly used the Canon. However for shots such as the car scenes where it was too hard to position the 7D I used my Sony Cybershot and I felt it worked really well due to the fact that the quality is still really good.