1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?
The definition of convention which is found on google is
this; A way in which something is usually done, esp. within a particular area
or activity. In a music video this means the technical features which are
recognisable to the audience which allow them to classify what genre it belongs
to. Conventions can be many things; generally it includes symbolism, camera
shots, sound mise en scene and editing.
A genre is the category in which media product such as music videos,
films, etc can be put into based on their style, form and use of codes and
conventions. For my media product I chose to make a music video for the song ‘Not
Like The Movies’ which is performed by Katy Perry. When it comes to music
videos there are three main types, these being performance, narrative and
abstract, although there are an increasing number of ‘hybrid’ music video
types.
In my media product, a music video, I decided to use the
conventions of real media product. This was a decision I made because it was
something which the audience could identify with. When I did audience research
it was obvious that most of the music videos people watched contained the
conventions of performance and narrative but less contained an abstract
convention. Because of what I researched I decided to use this information help
to shape my media product. This meant I followed the conventions of music video
in the sense I would use scenes including performance and scenes which contain a
narrative. The music video contains the usual conventions which are seen in
real music videos. I have followed conventions in my use of camera angles,
these include long shots which include a happy couple allowing the audience to
see fully how happy the couple are, but I also use medium close up shots during
performance shots to show the emotion of the singer as she sings reminiscing of
her memories, something which links the performance and narrative together. In my media product lip syncing has been
effectively used in performance shots, it is effective as it isn’t over used
but most importantly it looks professional as it is actually in sync, something
which proved harder to do than I anticipated. Lip syncing is also used slightly in a
narrative shot of the couple, the boyfriend has his arm around the girl while
she sings, in this scene the girl appears to be sad, the camera angle captures
this perfectly. I also used special
effects like most videos do such as Katy Perry’s music video E.T which was directed
by Jeff Dotson. Although the effects used in my music video aren’t on such a
big scale as most videos it still effectively used especially in the shot where
the boyfriend walks away and fades, also when the boyfriend appears on the
swings. Also I used transitions to make
smooth cuts from different parts of narrative and performance although I also
use jump cuts where it’s appropriate. The use of transitions is something which
many music videos use including the one I have mentioned previously.
For the purpose of my media product I decided against
challenging codes and conventions, my decision behind this was due to the time
constraints. I also decided this as I thought my abilities would be used well
if I used codes and conventions as a guide to create an effective media
product. Looking at my work I like to think although it is an amateur
production it is effective and would be more effective if I had access to
equipment and a budget which a professional and real production would have. Lip syncing as a convention is something which
is found in most music video, especially which are completely performance
unlike my hybrid of performance and narrative. Narrative is used as you see
medium shots of the couple throughout the music video telling their story.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The purpose of my media product (music video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement) was to promote each other, for example if someone say the digipak or advertisement they might go on to watch the music video and vice versa. Because of how they worked I like to think they were particularly effective, especially as they would help capture different audiences depending on where the texts were found. The method which I used to promote my music video is known as something called as synergy, a technique which most media producers use to promote their work. Obviously my ancillary texts are just a few of the things which would be used within a marketing campaign of a ‘real’ media product.
For my ancillary texts I decided to produce a digipak and an advertisement, I decided to do this as I believe these are some of the few promotion methods which are proven to work. Although I decided to use the album as the digipak opposed the single, my decision behind this was from research, which has shown a decline in physical singles (CDs/Digipaks) in recent years, so to make one of my ancillary texts more effective I used the album; this also gave me the chance to showcase more.
When it came to creating the digipak I had decided that along with my music video it would feature teenagers, something which links to the album name of ‘Teenage Dream’ the name alone tells you the albums and tracks (including Not Like The Movies the track chosen for my music video) are about teenage life so this was an easy theme to follow through into my media products. The theme was also something which is easily relatable to by my target audience, teenagers more specifically 13-24 year olds; although some people in my target audience aren’t teenagers they will remember being a teenager. On the digipak I used 5 different images. Two of them featured couples, the reason I chose these images was that they related to both the music video which featured a couple but it was also something which is associated with teenagers in the sense of young love. These two images were also used to be the start and the beginning of the digipak as they feature as the front and back cover. I also made the front image black and white, this to me represents the idea of them being good memories. Continuing with the teenage theme the digipak features a picture which represents partying and is also reminiscent of a campaign for the British TV show ‘Skins’ although the slight mimicry wasn’t intended it might entice the audience seeing a somewhat familiar photo. A prom picture is also featured as nowadays proms are becoming something which are held every year for the leaving year of high school, and with the prom event comes the stereotypical ‘big puffy ball gowns’, a stereotype I decided to use to my advantage as it made the meaning of the pictures more obvious as they continue to show teenage things. For the CD I decided to have the image of a doughnut appear on it, my decision behind this was that it was something associated with sweetness and dreaminess, the feeling I was going for with my digipak.
The text I used in both the digipak and advertisement were pink, although my target audience was male as well as female I thought as the artist is female and the album was called ‘Teenage Dream’ the colour pink was more fitting as it can be seen as ‘dreamy’ and associated with love just how the colour red is.
For the advertisement I decided to continue using black and white on the main image, I wanted to show the reminiscent memories. The advertisement is simple as I think some ads these days are overloaded with texts and pictures and fail to achieve what they are meant to. The main image is of the girl from the music video (myself as for the purpose of this project I had to ‘be’ the artist) she has her eyes closed and is smiling which represents her thinking which links with the representation of the black and white effect. The advertisement promotes both the music video and digipak. It promotes the digipak with a small picture of it while telling the reader that it is out now and where they can purchase it from. It promotes the video by having text saying ‘Includes the new single Not Like The Movies’ which is the track on the music video.
With the combination of both the ancillary texts I have made I believe it is extremely effective in promoting my media product.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Once I had finished edited my video and it was in a viewable format for other to see I asked the same group of people which were involved in my original discussion group, I decided to take this group as they were Involved with my work from the planning and research stage. I let the group watch the music video a few times before asking for their feedback.
The music video came back to generally good reviews, although there was some negative feedback. Even though it can be frustrating to receive bad feedback it is something which can be used to improve my work in the future.
My viewers appeared to like the special effects which I had used in my music video. They like the scene when the girl is walking alone at night there was a shots of the couple in black and white faded in one corner, they enjoyed how this showed she was thinking about the past. The other effect they liked how the ex boyfriend was faded away in one shot as he walks away. I’m particularly happy that my audience were able to understand the meaning of this shot to show the boyfriend is no longer in the girl’s life. It was also commented that the use of such special effects made it look more professional than amateur.
The audience also told me I had used a good combination of both performance and narrative, they liked that it was evenly done so it wasn’t too boring with narrative or too focused on the performance like some music videos can be. They enjoyed being able to follow the narrative throughout the video. Although the narrative was something which was initially harder than expected to grasp but after time to think about the video and watch it a few times it became clearer.
Many different members of my audience liked how certain shots related directly to the lyrics, especially the shot which showed the girl spinning and a 360 degree shot of her in a sped up motion, they thought it matched it well, they also like how the final shot of the couple was a spinning shot of the girl being stopped by the boyfriend.
One negative piece of feedback was that sometimes there were too many transitions although they also said they don’t think clean/jump cuts would be suitable in place of these transitions. Looking at that feedback I would have to see if there were any other transitions which could be used in replace.
Another thing which was noted was how good the syncing of the music and the girl’s lips in the video was, it was another thing which made the video look more professional opposed to amateur.
Something which my audience didn’t like was the lack of different locations, although they said they didn’t want to be bombarded with different location a different one more often may have been better. With this comment it was also highlighted that it could be repetitive as some shots appeared to be reused or extremely similar.
From my feedback from my audience I have learnt more about my strengths. I have learned that my use of special effects is good and something which I could hopefully improve on in the future. Also I now know that a combination of performance and narrative is better than just one of the two or an abstract piece. I also found out that perhaps using a few different locations would be more effective as it could be a bit boring it just being in one place. It has made me realise even though I had capture lots of shots for my music video even more would be better as its better to have more shots than not enough which appeared to have happened.
4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In the different stages of my project I have used different pieces of technology to produce my work. During my research stage I used various different things. To research music videos, documentaries and short films I used the internet websites Youtube.com and Vimeo.com. The reason I decided to use these sites was because they were easy to access and could easily accompany the analysis’ I made. Because I wanted a platform to present the research I made I decided to use the site Blogger.com. The reason I chose this platform was because it was easy to access and would allow my work to be viewed by whomever necessary; it was also easily available to show others my own research which could be used as a guide to enhance their own work. Another reason I used Blogger.com was because I have used it in the past and found it an easy way to present my work in its various stages. I also used a voice tape recorder in my research, this was used when I had a research group, it was used to record the opinions of those in the discussion group, this turned out to be an effective device as it allowed me to listen back to the views I’d been given. When it came to planning I also used blogger.com, it was used to showcase my progression throughout the planning of my project, from location scouting to storyboards.
When it came to actually filming my music video I used a DV camera with a tape. I decided to use the DV camera that I did as it was small and easy to use, it was straightforward and portable, things which to me as a amateur media producer were important as I didn’t have the time or money to produce a ‘proper’ or ‘full’ music video set. Although the microphone on the DV camera I used wasn’t spectacular this didn’t make me change my mind about the technology I used as sound wasn’t important on the actual film clips. Although the microphones needed to be good enough to hear the music video track being played on a mobile phone, I decided to do this so it would be easy to sync the music in post production. To actually put together my music video I had to edit it, I chose to use Final Cut Pro on a Mac to edit it. On Final Cut Pro I used various different tools to edit my video, I used an array transitions, slow and fast motions, different layers to create special effects and to make sure the footage could be viewed properly the footage and music was rendered. This software was easy to use and with a tape reader I was easily able to log and capture my footage and edit my work. To produce my ancillary texts; a digipak and an advertisement; I used a digital camera to capture pictures which could be placed on my texts. I also used Photoshop, the use of Photoshop allowed me to create effect which couldn’t be achieved in programmes such as paint. In Photoshop I used de-saturation on my both my advertisement and on a few pictures on digipak, I also used the text tools to add the appropriate text where needed on both pieces. There are a number of tools I used to produce my ancillary texts.
For my evaluation I decided to use the platform Prezzi to showcase my work, this decision has been made as I felt it gave viewers a more interactive feel to viewing my evaluation opposed to just reading a long PDF file or simply on my blogger.
