Evaluation

Evaluation

The brief I chose for my Advanced Portfolio was 'to produce a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video. 'Together with a cover for it's release on CD/DVD and a magazine advertisement for CD/DVD.

Before I began creating my overall promotional package I carried out extensive research on music videos and their conventions including the history of music videos and why it is important for an artist to have a music video. I analysed three music videos which are shown via YouTube - which also reflects the effects of digitalisation of the media industry as music videos are now not only shown on televisions but also through the Internet. Because of the Internet the video is likely to be seen by a wide audience range therefore having a good music video to accompany the song is essential for marketing it as the music video can stay in the audience's mind. In analysing the three music videos I have defined conventions which I can use in my own work. I have also defined my target audience by using a questionnaire, therefore I was able to analyse music videos which my target audience were likely to watch. In analysing the three music videos I have also defined how music videos are constructed, what camera angles and sequences are popular therefore I was able to plan these conventions in my own work. I also defined whether music videos focused more on the narrative or artist performance, again I was able to use this knowledge when creating my own work. I have also taken into consideration the audience's expectations and target audience's needs to ensure that the video is appealing to them.

Overall I found this brief a lot more difficult than the AS media tasks as there was a lot more to take into consideration in creating the three texts. There were also new skills to be learnt such as editing the music video and how to define the target audience efficiently. We also had to research conventions of three types of medium whereas last year we had to research just one - a magazine. Time management was also a lot more intense as there was so much to do, the volume of work was very high and extra time is essential as it was not always possible to edit and film when planned.

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

I think that all my media texts use the traditional conventions of that specific medium. I spent a lot of time researching the conventions of all three texts and therefore had a strong idea what to include in my own work and how to structure it.

Before creating my music video I researched the conventions of music videos so I could use these in my own work. I found that the conventions are montage sequences, 'mickey mousing' (miming), voyeuristic pleasure, notion of looking - provocative outfits/dancing and the artist looking as attractive as possible. The use of the provocative ‘feel’ and the audience’s view of this can be explored using the ‘Uses and Gratifications audience theory.’ The media is created to gratify the audience in a specific way, and the use of provocative and attractive imagery presents the media in a specific way as well as gratifying the audience’s needs. The audience theory states: ‘Social situations and psychological characteristics motivate the need for media, which motivates certain expectations of that media.’ This, in the context of the music videos I have researched which are popular contemporary dance videos, basically reflects that the social way in which audiences would discuss these music videos and act in response to such videos is defined by the provocative imagery contained in the videos. It is also expected of these music videos to contain such ‘provocative’ imagery, therefore it becomes a convention because audiences expect this.

Montage sequences are basically the full structure of music videos, which I have used in my own. Every shot is different which makes up the video. Montage sequences create pleasure within the audience as they make the music video interesting and makes it possible to make the sequence go on time to the beat of the song and different shots go with different lyrics/parts of the song. I have used this a lot in my own work as the outfits and actions link with the lyrics and parts of the song.'Mickey mousing' creates continuity in the music video as the miming to the song ensures the sequence flows with the song. It also reflects the artist as a performer. I have used this in mine a few times which draws the audience in as they are seeing the artist performing and gives them voyeuristic pleasure. It is hard to fit the exact footage of the miming with the lyrics of the song but with care it is possible.

Voyeuristic pleasure creates pleasure within the audience as they are watching the performer without them knowing, which stimulates pleasure in a person's brain. The influence of the artist on the audience can be subliminal as the audience could start to act out traits of the artist and buy clothing like theirs. For this the artist has to seem attractive to the target audience so the audience will either want to be them or gain pleasure in watching them. I have used this in my own work as the artist is seen as attractive and dances in a revealing outfit which creates pleasure in the audience watching them. This also fits with notion of looking as the revealing outfit and provocative dancing and actions reflect the artist as being attractive.

Another convention is that the narrative links in some way with the lyrics of the song. I have used this in my own work as the actions I have used, such as 'Friday to Friday' and the she-wolf 'in the closet' have being used to link with the lyrics. The full narrative of the video also goes with the lyrics.

I also researched conventions of the ancillary texts and used these in my own work. This was easier than creating the music video as I had a base image of a 'real' advert and album cover to base my own work around therefore ensuring my work looks as realistic as possible as I could concentrate carefully on every small detail. The conventions I found with the magazine adverts were that there were usually two adverts on the same page advertising the artist, one including tour dates, there is an image included on the advert - of the artist, details are usually in small text but also stand out colour wise, the artist is shown looking as attractive as possible and adverts are usually in a rectangle shape.

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

I think that my products are effective as I had researched appropriate media texts and doing this defined the conventions which I then used in my own work. My main product contains conventions of music videos and therefore this makes it effective as this is what the audience expect. The narrative reflects the artist in an appealing way which is a convention and what i wanted the video to do. The ancillary texts mainly back this view of the artist as they show her as attractive, fun and also elegant which is attractive to the audience. The costumes I have used also reflect the artist as how I wanted to and the dark colours I chose for the outfits connotate to the genre and feel of the song which is horror. The outfits used reflect a sexual feel too as they are tight fitted which show off the artist’s figure. I chose the props carefully also to create the right look which I think was successful. For example, I used my rabbit as a prop as the animal ideology fitted in with the narrative idea of the she-wolf hunting her prey, the cookies I used in the tray with the oven gloves in the same scene reflects the domestic ideology of the she wolf being stuck at home and forced into a domestic lifestyle, the pole-dancing pole reflects a provocative and suggestive ideology – which is a convention of dance music videos, the disco ball I used and the strobe lighting I used reflects the feel of a ‘nightclub’ – therefore I used these props to create a setting. The locations also reflected the narrative of the lyrics so therefore was effective in showing the narrative to the audience, for example the indoor domestic setting reflects the domestic and ‘perfect home’ ideology I wanted to reflect and the forest-like setting reflects the ideology of the she wolf being an actual creature.

I researched the conventions of magazine adverts and CD covers so I could use these in my own work. In choosing the album front cover I thought carefully about what image I could use. I chose to use an elegant image which also included the elements of the genre of the song which is horror. This successfully reflected the artist as being attractive and elegant and also reflected the genre of the song. The dark colours and lighting used also reflected this genre and therefore promoted the song well as the genre of the song is very clear to the audience. In creating the magazine advert I decided to use two adverts to reflect the artist in the lights I wanted the audience to see her in as this would make her attractive and also seem fun and also elegant. I spent a lot of time making sure that micro details were to perfection therefore making the adverts seem as realistic as possible. I think that the magazine adverts promote the promotional package and also the artist well to the audience. I made sure I used the same colour scheme and style in creating the magazine advert for the promotional package to ensure that the audience would recognise it and link it with the album.

However, to improve my work I could have possibly created an official logo for the artist as conventionally artist's have one.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Audience feedback is essential in the evaluation process as it gives an insight into what others think of your work therefore helping to create a non-biased equal truthful view of your work.

To ensure helpful feedback I created a questionnaire that I handed out to various unbiased people who were nearby to the media room to fill in whilst viewing my music video. These people were around 17-18, which is the mainstream audience age, there were of either genders and from mixed social classes. I gave them questions to mark out of ten to give an opinion on how good they thought my music video was and also what would need improving. I designed this by including a question with the numbers to choose underneath this to rate my music video. I also filled out one for myself which I could then compare to other's views therefore it was clear what would possibly need improving.

Overall the highest score I gained was 9 for how interesting the narrative was and the lowest score I gained was 4 for the lighting. Altogether on average the highest scores were given to how interesting the narrative was and the lowest was costumes and props. This showed me that, although it is not good that I lost marks on the costumes and props I scored high marks for an important convention - an interesting narrative. I also personally asked a small selection of people to view my music video and talk to me about what they felt were the best parts and what needed to be improved. Most people liked the parts with the rabbit in them as they found it amusing and original and also the slow motion of the dancing and fades towards the end of the video. People mostly thought I could improve the dark lighting used in the bar scenes as they were not clear enough. Compared to my own questionnaire I completed I saw a link in the audience's feedback and my own - we had the same views and opinions. In completing both methods I gained both qualitative and quantitative research. The questionnaires I created gained quantitative information for me which was successfully used to gain an overall basic opinion of my music video which therefore gave me a useful insight into what would need changing the most. However, with quantitative data I could not gain exact opinions on my work therefore the quantitative data, which involved talking to people and asking their opinion directly, came in useful as I could define the little points in what needed improving.

I learnt from this that I have a good judgement on my own work therefore if I feel that something needs improving it probably does because other people agree.

For my ancillary texts I sent my work to various people over the Internet using MSN messenger and asked various people for their opinions. I used this method rather than another questionnaire as the music video is a piece of footage that changes and you have to follow therefore it was easier to use a basic method of collecting feedback - the questionnaire. However, the ancillary texts are basically 'what you see is what you get' therefore I was able to have a conversation about exactly what worked and what didn't. Luckily, everyone who I asked liked my texts and didn't see any room for improvement apart from one person who suggested the front cover of the album be lighter.

I also included a poll on my blog which people can vote on. This gave me an insight into how effective my products are and also how realistic they look. It also let me know if I needed to improve them in any way to make them more effective in promoting the artist.

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

I had used blogger.com for my AS coursework so therefore I already had a good knowledge in how to use it which was a big advantage as new technology was essential in creating the music video. Because of my knowledge of blogger.com I was able to add things such as audience polls, images and videos. The polls on my blog were used to gain audience feedback on my work which I found useful. I sent my blog address to people on networking sites such as 'Facebook' and also through MSN to gain as much feedback as I could. I ensured that the people who went on my blog were of the target age I had defined therefore ensuring I could hit the expectations of the particular target audience.

In creating my animatic which proved useful in creating my final music video as it gave me an idea of the timings of shots and also gave me an idea of anything I would need to change for the final video. It really helped me as I found I could plan shots to be at exact timings in the song and quite a few shots did not fit therefore I had chance to rethink and re-plan these. I scanned the storyboard sheet onto my computer and using paint I cropped the images accordingly and used Windows Movie Maker to place the images in order. I already knew how to use all of this software and hardware so I was at an advantage. I downloaded the music from I-tunes (I had done this previously) and imported this into Windows Movie Maker and then placed the image accordingly based on the music.

The largest challenge for me was learning how to use 'Adobe Premier Pro' - the college software used for editing the videos. I was already familiar with uploading videos and understood how to do this. In filming my music video I firstly used the college camera and then my own with my own tape which caused a slight problem as the tapes used in combination with the editing suites have to be blanked first so it does not mess up the time code and my own tape was not blanked. However, I got around this problem by simply capturing the footage onto the computer. I also included two images of the moon in my video and used a memory stick to transfer this from my home computer to the editing suite and then simply imported this, as I did the soundtrack. I already knew how to import files as I have a program on my home computer similar to Adobe. However, I needed to learn new skills in actually editing my video which included dissolving, changing the speed of slip, changing colour and lighting and placing the clips : one above and one below etc not on the same line - to prevent one clip cancelling out another. To do this I had to have a tutorial on how to use the software. After this, and a little experimenting, I began to feel confident enough to edit my video alone making sure I regularly saved me work to ensure a backup if anything went wrong. To get the video onto my blog I simply used a memory stick to capture it from the editing suite and take a copy onto a computer and them embed it into my blog.

In creating the ancillary texts I was in my element as I really enjoy creating texts such as magazine adverts and I knew how to use the software very well. I used the same software as I did for my AS media coursework - Ulead Photo Express - as I understand this well. I did not use photoshop as although I am becoming more familiar with it i find it a little too complex to use. I also used a website called Picnik as I am also familiar with this and although it does the same functions as Ulead photo Express I find Picnik easier to use for some things such as editing the background of an image. In taking my photographs for my ancillary texts I used a canon camera which I previously bought for photography. It is a good quality camera with high pixels which ensured I had a clear image to work with. I attached a flash box to the camera but found this to be too bright so stuck with the camera's own flash.

It was then very simple to transfer this work onto my blog as I used the upload image tool and upload video tool to embed the images and video files. I also backed up all my work in a word document which ensured I had a backup copy if anything went wrong.

What can be improved?

To improve my music video I would firstly, although not possible, use a better quality camera as this would make my video look more attractive and more professional. In the industry professional cameras are used which create the touched up glossy ‘look’ which we view on our television screens. The camera I used was okay but the overall picture quality was not as clear and defined as I would like it to be. I would also have loved to airbrush the artist, which is a tool commonly used by industry professionals to create, again, glossy finished videos. I would plan my time better as I found it a struggle to finish everything and it was hard to arrange fixed dates for anything as something usually came up. I would definitely improve the lighting in the bar scenes which was also noted by the audience in answering the questionnaires I created and also during the quantitative data collecting (conversations.) To improve the lighting I would have used professional but practically portable studio lighting which I could have set up in the bar and therefore created exactly what lighting I wanted – bright and clear but also with a few shadows to create the right atmospheric feel. The current lighting during these bar scenes is too dark and gives a really unprofessional look to the video and it also makes it hard for the audience to see exactly what is happening.

To improve my work overall I would have spent more time thinking up an unusual, unique practical idea that would have stood out. I would have also changed the song I used as it was hard to adhere to a narrative based on this without the footage looking down market. If possible, I would have chosen a completely different song and video structure idea which included a band playing, perhaps ‘I fought the law –The Clash’ as I could have included shots of the band performing as well as a story line. I could also have used black and white colouring by adjusting the saturation levels to create a classy looking video which would have fit in the chronological timing with the song (The Clash performed in the 70’s where black and white music videos were still popular.) I would have done this as, now I have viewed other people’s work, I have realised that these type of videos look the most attractive and are also interesting to watch. They seem realistic whereas my own doesn’t due to, partly the limited equipment, but also the struggle I faced trying to create a music video to fit in entirely with the song.