Evaluation of the product(s)

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

Our media product uses, develops and challenges various forms and conventions of real media products that are in the current industry. Our media product, a music promotional video for a latest single, involves three late-teen characters. The two main characters, Chris and Jess, are two teenagers that are shown to be in a close friendship, or even something more. Chris is being led on by Jess. Thus, the conventions of ‘Notions of Looking’ from Goodwin’s Theory show that females can sometimes be manipulative and lead boys on. This particular convention of a narrative music video is developed and

One media explanation for music videos can be seen in Goodwin's Theory. Goodwin's Theory states that music videos can be associated with the following: links between the lyrics and visuals, links between music and visuals, genre characteristics, intertextual reference, notions of looking, performance, narrative and concept based music videos, and also the demands of the record label. 

Goodwin suggests lyrics will make constant references to visuals on screen. In our music video, I felt that this theory has been applied accordingly. As you can see in our previous planning and our final product, we have made constant reference between lyrics and visuals on screen. For example, one point-of-view shot makes a reference of lyrics and visuals - Chris walks out of the shop and looks over at the opening times of the shop - and the lyrical match states "... Been wondering if your heart's still open and if so I wanna know what time it shuts..."

Goodwin also suggests there is a genre characteristic in a music video. In our product, the genre is typical rock, however could be seen in sub-genres like Psychedelic rock, Garage rock, Indie rock or Stoner rock. The music can be seen as these particular genres due to the heavy, dirty guitar riffs, accompanied by the prominent bass line and the dark, jungle-style drums. In our product, the genre characteristic has been exploited through the night-time setting of when our footage was taken. We specifically chose the night-time to film as we felt the low, rock style of the music needed that visual element of dark references. Also, the narrative was heavily-influential on out decision of a night-time setting, which I will discuss further when talking about narrative analysis of Goodwin's theory.

The statement of 'Notions of Looking' is also seen in our music video. The Notions of Looking plays on the idea of gaze and the way characters are visualized and represented, for example - the female character as an object. Notions of Looking be seen in our music video with Chris being a teenager, and when seen to be getting ready, he makes sure his hair is right, checks himself in the mirror, etc. and this can be stereotypically relatable to most teenage boys.  

The structure concept of our music video is typically narrative-based, featuring no performance-based shots and only a story with a maximum of three characters. Narratives in music videos refer to the video denoting a particular story relating directly or indirectly to the music and lyrics (as explained earlier in my evaluation of Goodwin's Theory). Our music video particularly is of a linear mode, meaning it tells a story from start to end. However, also features a fragmented style due to showcasing the story in not necessarily the right order with the use of flashbacks.  

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

During our research and planning stages, we decided after much thought and discussion to choose a narrative-based product that followed a typical teenage dilemma – and so forth we decided the latest release of Arctic Monkeys’ single ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ was the commensurable song to base our product and ancillary texts on. Speaking of the main product, we decided that the theme of the narrative should be in grayscale, solely to create a dramatic and tense feel in the theme of our collective texts. Our ancillary texts are also based around the black and white theme due to continuity being kept in the theme of dark and mysterious. We wanted the theme to be presented throughout mainly because the ancillary text of a magazine advertisement would further promote the new release of the single, and its promotional music video. I feel that the three products collectively (the main product, magazine advertisement ancillary and the digipak ancillary) all have an effective combination in promoting the band’s new release. Digipaks are common in the mass consumer market of CD sales (especially with the indie genre of publication), and I feel this ancillary was the most effective choice when looking at effectiveness in our product as a whole. We wanted to keep the independent genre alive with our product, so by producing a digipak with the theme of grayscale served an effective response in terms of reception when seeking audience feedback. Our target audience, being mid-late teens, viewed our designs of the ancillary tasks and music video and left constructive and compliments upon consuming our products as a whole. They felt that the black and white theme heavily suited our style and approach to making the collaborative effort effective.

3.       What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our audience feedback gave us valuable and very constructive feedback when reflecting on our products and what can be done, changed, modified to produce a better piece of work. We learnt many things from our audience feedback, one constructive piece of feedback could be the quality issue when consuming the product that was shared on social networking sites. Not only did we have trouble with encoding the product in the right format for viewing and streaming online, but also the ‘grainy-ness’ that affected the quality of some of our shots. We had noticed a slight quality issue with the shots that were shot with indoor scenes, for example, the first scene where Chris is shown to be getting ready.

Pixilation errors with the magazine advertisement was a point that was heavily expressed in our audience feedback, and was shown to be worse than we thought when we eventually printed the magazine page.

Specific examples from our audience feedback are as follows: 

-

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

One way in which I have used new media technology to aid me in the construction of the product and the ancillary texts has been the use of software that I have acquired to produce the ancillary texts – specifically speaking the Magazine advertisement. I have downloaded software called Paint.NET, an image and publication editing software namely related to Paint and Photoshop, which I used to edit the images and also layer the text needed for the magazine. I felt this piece of software was beneficial for professional editing for the ancillary text as it provided professional standard fonts, image editing functions such as blurs, sharpening, image noise reduction etc.

In terms of the planning stage, I have produced Computer-Generated Images (CGI), meaning I produced a digipak design through digital technology, as opposed to a pencil drawing. This was completed through spreadsheet software called Microsoft Excel, of which I find to be useful when sketching boxes through CGI – for example the digipak uses box style shapes.

With the music video, it is vital and crucial to manipulate the visual images against the soundtrack. I used a Macintosh (Apple hardware) to plan the music video by placing the soundtrack into iMovie (Macintosh software) and then planning with storyboards when exactly each scene should commence and finish. We intentionally placed black frames to mark out each scene that needs to be completed. For example, we completed the opening and third scene but not the second, so we placed black frames to mark out when each scene should happen.

Concerning research with technology, me and my working partner looked at various music videos online on YouTube from different genres and analysed the music video in full. I looked at the following music videos: ‘Vertigo’ – U2, ‘Panic Station’ – Muse, ‘The Scientist’ – Coldplay. U2’s ‘Vertigo’ has a typical genre of rock, ‘Panic Station’ by Muse having the obscure style funk/psychedelic rock which is unlike most of their other discography, and finally Coldplay’s famous melancholy single ‘The Scientist’ having the genre of such sub-genres of rock as alternative, post-Britpop and even soft. These music videos I analysed that were sourced from YouTube were able to give me particular ideas and technical concepts into the typical conventions found in these conventional music videos. With the wide range of music videos we researched, we were able to grasp a range of music video concepts and apply certain conventions found in the music videos with also the planning of our music video product. Researching these ideas on YouTube proved beneficial when decoding conventions in terms of our product planning.

The media department has allowed me to use their DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera, which is a highly professional camera, using digital imaging sensor as opposed to photographic film, producing a much higher quality. I have used this digital camera for the photo shoot which we planned to do when gaining pictures to use for our ancillary products. This camera enabled us to plan the digipak and magazine designs due to basing all other content used in the construction of our product around the photos we shot with this camera.

Another main feature of the use of digital technology with all three concepts (research, planning and evaluating) which have helped construct our product has been my blog, blogger.com
I feel that the blog has indefinitely helped me through reflection of planning and research as I’ve been able to publish all my ideas, pre-supposed tasks that need to be completed (filming, etc.), storyboarding, shot listing, for example. With all the ideas and content being online, I’ve been able to access this easily, especially through my iPhone and iPad with their blogger application. With the internet being a daily interaction with most of peoples’ lives, it has been very beneficial in terms of our research and planning accessibility.