Media Evaluation- Final

1. Evaluation-Media A2 Nicola Smith 2099

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

3. Music Video As I had such a vast amount of research on Papa Roach, the rock genre, the other sub genres of rock plus other music genres such as pop and RnB, I was informed well enough to know what goes into a music video, also exactly what would be needed for my artists video. I included things such as number of shots needed, type of clothing and whether I was to include a story line or not. I also researched the key elements to a music video to make sure mine was suitable.

4. The first one is that music videos demonstrate the genre characteristics, which is the shots and mise en scene; spiked hair, dark clothes and instruments. These were all factors that featured in the videos I researched and were apparent in my final product. The next is that there should be a relationship between the lyrics the visual and the music, the main way I did this was by linking some of the lyrics to what was happening on screen, such as Ryan's character breaking down in the mirror alongside the lyrics 'it's my redemption' as he is contemplating suicide in the story line, also things such as the shots of the lead singer lip syncing the lyrics, which is a direct music visual link. Also, the demands of the record label needed to be taken into account, they would like loads of close ups of the lead singer, which was present in my final product having previously researched the amount of shots needed for each band member. The reason for the record label wanting more shots of the lead singer is so they can show that he can convey the right emotion and that it makes him appear approachable, which will draw in more fans and therefore more money. The next two were quite hard to show on screen for my music video, the frequent reference to the notion of looking and the voyeuristic treatment of the female body, I have touched on them slightly but not to a huge extent as the song that we chose made it difficult to add alot of this in. Finally, there is often textual reference to films, tv and other music videos, this one was done sufficiently as everything is a reference to everything else in every form of media. I feel as though I made my music video to the best of my ability and touched on many of the conventions that I needed to make a suitable music video for Papa Roach and the rock genre, though I didn’t challenge any of the conventions so I would perhaps do this if I was to do it again.

5. Digi Pack- C.D Cover Again I have researched all the C.D covers from the band itself, so I know the general aspects that i should have on my own product. I feel as though my final products fits in with the normal conventions of a C.D cover, though I have produced something that's slightly different to the bands taste despite having the usage of fonts, colour schemes and simplicity of their covers. As all the photography had to be original, it helped me make something original as I didn't add stuff such as fire or barbed wire to my picture of the rose, I kept it as it was so it was different to something they'd normally do. I feel as though the cover links well with the song title, as obviously using a rose gives it a complete link, also you can see from my sketches of my initial ideas that I was planning to use a gravestone in my piece as well which would have added to the link, though I feel that the rose alone shows a strong imagery without the use of a gravestone too. My CD cover conforms to similar products yet is eye catching, so it would stand out on a shelf and make you want to buy it, so I would say that it challenges other similar products more than it conforms to them.

6. Digi Pack- Magazine Ad I researched products from the same genre as Papa Roach, as I couldn’t find any of their own magazine ads, however it still gave me an insight into what I needed on my own ad, such as wording and pictures. Both the magazine ads I have researched are from the rock genre, but are both really different as the Kings of Leon one was dark and simple and the Bright Eyes one is bright and has a busy kind of picture. Though, as I wanted to link the magazine ad to the C.D cover, I made sure it was simple and used the same rose picture and same dark colour scheme, as the audience would be able to link the two easily. I don’t feel as though my magazine ad really challenges the conventions of a magazine ad, if I was to re-do my magazine ad I would have tried to do something that would challenge the usual conventions a bit more, though I feel the magazine ad works as it is.

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

8. I feel as though I have linked my music video and ancillary tasks well, as they all follow the same darkened theme, due to the context of the story line and the lyrics. My music video and C.D cover link the best, as they gives clues as to what the song is about, but still has an air of mystery, the C.D cover doesn't map out what happens in the video at all, but still links in with the song title and the music video has clues that something bad has happened but doesn't sum up until the end of the actual video. The magazine ad and the C.D cover would be released at the same time by the record label, so it's vital that they both link, as the audience would need to make a link between the two and for the artist it's promoting. I feel that because I have used a similar style, with the colour scheme and pictures that I have done this substantially. As a whole, my products link together easily, as none of them seem out of place with one another, I feel as though my digi pack was done effectively as it wouldn't seem out of place on a music store shelf.

9. What have you learned from audience feedback? I asked many different people to gives me both positive and negative comments about my music video and digi pack, there are all worthy information as they tell me what I could of done different and what I did right. I asked people to give me a good and bad comments on each and how each of my products worked as a whole.

10. Music Video I tried to mainly ask people that fit into the target audience that was in my previous research, males aged 16-24, so I had an insight into whether I had made a video that did justice to what it was meant to. The main comments I got were on the story line, that it was not clear enough as many thought it was a love triangle. This however, is due to a late change in our story line as we were unable to obtain a friends car for the original death scene. So we added a new character, who's meant to kick start the males characters guilt and depression, though because she was not introduced at the beginning like the other characters I feel this is why the audience got kind of confused as to who she was, if we had managed our time better we could of had time for error and thought of another way to portray the death of Ella's character and Ryan's depression. I also got a couple of comments on out of sync violin shots, though we only used few short clips of violin and we could have missed them being out of sync. Also that some of the lighting was not consistent, as some shots were outside and some were filmed inside the studio, though we noticed this and tried to fix this as best we could by editing them and making them darker. This negative feedback has made me realise that I have to work more on looking at the small details of the piece as these are not overlooked. I gained some positive comments on how the video left people feeling saddened by the story line as it represents death and depression, which is just the angle we went for in our initial idea as it's meant to be an emotive piece that hits on the audiences emotions. I also got comments on the usage of a vast range of shots, as it made the piece interesting, this helped them keep engaged in the piece as we changed shot every half a second or so. As a whole I feel as though the video was a success, as it came across to the audience how I originally wanted it to, though next time I would leave myself sufficient time to fine tune the piece as this would make an overall better and more effective music video.

11. C.D cover and Magazine ad I asked the same people as before, as they are aimed at the same audience. The main comments I received for my CD cover and magazine ad were mainly positive, and focused on the simplicity of the designs, they commented that although the pieces were simple they still had an added mystery. This is great as the main thing I wanted to do was keep the mystery like in my music video but still link the pieces together. I also got comments on the contrast of the dark background and the bright red rose, people commented it to be eye catching which would be beneficial as the record company would want something that’s going to draw people to it and hopefully make them buy the product. Bad points that were mentioned were few, people commented that I could of put more images on the single cover and perhaps had a different font, though I wanted the image to directly link to the song title and have nothing to busy and I wanted the font to be easy to read. Overall, I feel as though I produced an effective digi pack as I didn’t get a lot of negative feedback for it, though now looking back I would perhaps change the font around to see what it looked like but I am happy with how my pieces turned out.

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

13. The new media technologies I used were: Corel Photoshop Pro Final Cut Pro Internet DSLR Cameras Digital recording cameras Green Screen DVD’s

14. During my research I mainly used the internet to find sources of information and pictures to back up as evidence, I used the actual bands site, wikipedia and google images to get the band shots, genre styles, CD covers and so on which I used to back up what I had written down. When drafting my initial and final ideas I didn’t use new technologies, just a pencil and paper, as it was easier for me to just sketch my thoughts then make them elsewhere. However, I then made some drafts in Paint Shop Pro, which enabled me to easily change font size, type and colour, alter pictures, move pictures, change the background and generally move things into the right spot at my own free will. This made producing a final copy and all the drafts much easier as I could alter what I had done and undo any mistakes with relative ease. I used things such as the green screen room for both research, when doing test shoots and for construction when we filmed our band shots in the green screen room, though we were unhappy with them and re-filmed them. For editing the shots we captured on camera we used Final Cut Pro, which was used to manipulate the shots and place them in the right order and so on, also things such as cutting the shots and changing how dark they were helped us with our final product, we also had to frame some of the shots as some had a larger border than the others and for the memory shots used our editing to make some of the shots black and white, so they appeared like a flashback. The final production consisted of burning the video onto DVD, this is so it can be played on peoples computers and in DVD players. I have chosen to do a PowerPoint for this presentation, as I can show my answers neatly whilst still showing off my ICT usage. I can also add a bit of my own personality with font and so on, plus I'm not a fan of being in front of the camera and feel my writing skills are better than my talking skills. So this is the best half way point for using ICT skills and writing.

15. Overall Performance

16. I began this project strong, as I made sure I gained a lot of in depth background research into my band and it's genre. I also made sure I had a knowledge of other genres as this helped me in my later performance to work out what I needed in my final products and what I didn't. I feel as though if I hadn't bothered researching as much as I did then I would have struggled later on whilst making any type of decision on what to put in my music video, or for my digi pack as I wouldn't know what was the right thing to put. The product I am most proud of would be my ancillary tasks, this is because I am not very strong on things such as Paint Shop Pro but I gave it ago and came out with something that gained a lot of positive feedback, I also gained more experience on the programme. If I was to do things differently I would have gained feedback earlier, so I could change things and make my overall pieces better and I would also manage my time better, as we came across some problems at the end when we found out we couldn't get the car. I got my work done well before the deadline for the first couple of deadlines, though this fell later on with the other deadlines, what with other work, school and other circumstances. Though I never fell really behind and missed things out and still came out with a decent music video that hit the marks of a conventional music video.