In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In my opinion, the main conventions of a music video are the pace, the pace of a music video is always fast paced, to keep up with the beat of the music, because a music video must be shown within such a short space of time this means that the producer must attempt to tell the story of the song, or include a lot of action in a short time period, again this means that the shots must be snappy and quick in order to keep the audience entertained and interested in the song.
Another main convention of the music video genre is the inclusion of the star artist, however, in the genre of music that we have chosen this is often not the case, as our band in particular value the fans reaction to the music more than the reaction to their inclusion within the video, because of this we decided that we would only use the actors posing in the band in the chorus, this means that the whole song is not dominated by a well-known face, but it als
o means that the most memorable part of the song include the two/three stars. Therefore we still managed to somewhat stick to the conventions of a music video.
Lighting is another main convention of a music video, in most cases excluding the rock and Emo genre bright lighting is the key, take for example a pop video, the music is upbeat and lively and therefore the lighting needs to reflect the connotations that are given from the song. In the case of our music video, we decided that we did want some large lights; however as the lyrics of the song do have some dark deep connotations. For this reason we decided that big main lights would be too bright for the genre of music that we have chosen. To get around this problem we decided that the best option would be to bounce the light from a turned over table, this was enough for us to be able to gain sinister shadows upon our backdrop which was the effect that we had hoped to get, but it also meant that the actors were not lit up extremely brightly.
In the indie song genre, many of the above connotations do not seem to carry across, for example more often than not an indie band will use an actor to play the story instead of featuring in the story themselves, for example ‘Arctic Monkeys – When the Sun goes down’.
Another feature of the standard music video that is not featured in the indie genre is the use of many shots and fast paced cuts and dissolve, instead many artists tend to use long or short shots depending on the song and how fast and lively that song is, take for example ‘Coldplay’s’ song, ‘yellow’ many of the shots that are included in this music video are extremely long takes of the lead singer walking along a beach clearly remembering some aspects of his past and one assumes a female that was part of his past. This feature is similar to some of the shots that Sam and I have included in our own music video, for example at the very beginning of the video as the couple are walking along a lengthy gravel path hand in hand.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I feel that the main product that I and Sam created works well with the ancillary texts in an overall feel. In the ancillary texts that I created I attempted to re-create some of the connotations that are portrayed by both the lyrics of the song, and also the video that we created.
In our video, particularly in the chorus we tried to give a dark feel, using heavy lighting in order to create sinister shadows given from the singers against the bright white background that we selected. I tried to carry these dark connotations across to the CD cover that I created. In order to give this effect, I imported some photographs that Sam and I had taken, in place of the band and I then changed the contrast to make the photographs dark and sinister, as to match the darkness that we created in the chorus of the song.
I feel that the combination of the website that I have created and the final music video works well, the music video gives connotations of youthfulness, and I think that this feel is reflected by the website. This is done by the use of bright colours on dull coloured backgrounds to make them stand out, also with the cartoon effect that has been places on the photos of the actors posing as the band.
Another link to youthfulness that can be seen in my website is the link to various social networking sites such as Facebook, twitter and MySpace. I feel that these websites give connotations of youth as they are commonly a feature of the typical teenager’s life. After analysing various other artists’ websites I decided that a link to the main social networking site was a stereotypical feature. After noticing this I felt that it was necessary for me to include links to the social networking sites.
The first website that I analysed was that of Ben Drew (plan B) and on the page when the end user scrolls down the page, the background stays in the same place. This was a feature that I wanted to utilise in my own works as I felt that it gave an impression of professionalism.
Another feature that I feel combines the products is the use of the font, we attempted to use the same font throughout every product that we have produced in order to gain a sense of continuity and the ability for fans to recognise other band products that may be produced in the future, for example logo’s which are often used by bands such as ‘The Libertines’.
Another continuity feature that I entered was the same three actors posing as the Canterbury band, for the photographs that we needed to take I decided that Sam and I would play two characters and the third character that we needed to use would be another member of the media course, Robert Mills. The reason for this choice was because Robert has knowledge of the Media course and knows how much the little details are going to count towards my final grade.
Another combination of the products that works well is the usage of the final music video in my final website product, this allows for a more professional feel on my media website, as well as a sense of continuity. When analysing many other artists websites I noticed that more often than not an artist would include their latest music video on the website so that fans would be able to watch and listen to music, not only would this be good for the fans to be able to listen to a free sample of the music, but also this would promote the artists music and get the song across to a wider variety of people using the internet.
I feel that both my CD case and cover and my final website would be able to be used in order for the artists music to be promoted, there are many reasons for this for example the inclusion of the music video on the website, this means that a member of the audience would be able to watch the video as well as listening to the music, which in turn would advertise both the track and the video, hopefully this would then lead to the most favourable way of advertising among artists, and this is the word of mouth, when one person watches the music video then they would hopefully tell one of their friends about the video depending on their reaction to what they have seen.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
From my audience feedback I have learned a variety of things about the way others have seen our music video.
In order to get feedback from class mates Sam and I held a screening of our final product in an un-used classroom, and then asked our classmates to give us their reaction on the product that we have created, in terms of feedback we received mainly positive feedback regarding the way that the video was shot and edited.
Another main response that we got from the audience was positive in terms about the acting that was featured within our video, particularly in the chorus. Also comments about the background of the chorus were made, particularly about the shadows created from the heavy lighting which we used, in order to do this for the correct amount of lighting that we needed we bounced the light from table tops and other classroom objects as the standard light would have been too bright for the camera, and we would not have been able to achieve the sinister effect that we desired.
In my own opinion I agree that the acting in the video was high quality, in the chorus Sam and I did the acting for the video, recording each other singing. As we have both been media students for a few years now we understand that it is important for characters in a media product to act professionally in order for the product to look high quality at the end of the project, this meant that instead of miming the words to the song we would sing them loudly as we imagined the band would when performing or rehearsing, this allowed for the chorus scenes acting to be very high quality and give a sense of realism.
Another piece of positive feedback given was the editing that was seen in our final product, comments made were initially revolving around the animated entrance to our video, in which the screen is designed to look like a sheet of paper, and the action from the video placed into boxes that appear to be drawn, this gives a teenage feel to the video which was reflected by the feedback given from members of our target audience.
Outside of the classroom Sam and I asked other members of the target audience age group what they thought to the quality of our final product, again the response was mainly positive, many people saying that it was a professional quality video, however not up to the standard of an accomplished artist, for example ‘Plan B’.
In terms of negative feedback the main response that we got were not enough shots being used in the opening sequence of our music video, the main conventions of a music video make it fast paced, and this means that more and more shots are used in order to gain a fast paced feel to the video, in this case Sam and I have gone against the typical conventions of a music video as we felt that a long dramatic shot for the opening sequence would be more suitable with our style of music.
When Receiving feedback for my Digipack production I received mainly positive comments about the realism of the content that I had produced, insertions such as the scroll bar on my website and discoloured photographs on my CD case and cover helped to give a professional feel to the products that I had created. Personally I feel that the product that we have created is of a good and fairly professional quality
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Throughout the production of my music video, CD case and website new media technologies have given me great creative advantages, and I have utilised these technologies in a variety of different ways. For example, when researching music websites I was able to do this on my iPod Touch, this enables me to type about the website whilst looking at it at the same time, this was a great help and time saver as it meant that I did not have to switch between my work and the website so that I was able to get ideas.
In the planning stages of my production, I was able to use the internet in order to get evidence and media products on the subjects that I am stating to the reader, and it gives my work a more interesting feel, for example when talking about Plan B’s website in my evaluation the internet at college enabled me to include pictures of the website to back up what I was saying.
During the construction stages of our production Sam and I were aided greatly by the file sharing website YouTube, YouTube enabled us to upload every draft of our music video, we were then able to share the video on our blogs using the embed code, not only did YouTube give us a place to upload our videos and then transfer them to our own blogs, but we
were also able to get valuable feedback from other internet users, as anyone can find the video on YouTube.
In terms of finding music to make our video around, Sam and I attempted to use a variety of new platforms in order to contact artists about the possibility of using their music, these platforms included a standard email and phone call to quite big named bands, for example The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and many others, however when this did not work, we decided that it would be more beneficial for us to try a different approach, therefore we decided to create an account on the popular music sharing social networking site MySpace, as this is where most up and coming bands share their music with fans in an attempt to get more notice. Therefore we emailed the band ‘Canterbury’ and received a rapid response, making MySpace the best option, and meant that the new media technology helped us greatly to get a song to work with.
When editing our product we decided against using the software provided by the college, and instead opting for the option of doing the work on a home computer and the ‘Sony Vegas’ programme, this allowed us to achieve different effects than the rest of our classmates as we were using a different programme, this also allowed us to add professional effects such as the introduction of the split screen that we included in the chorus for example.
In the making of the digipak, I feel that I used new technologies well; this is mainly because I had used the programmes before in my ICT courses, for example the Dreamweaver software. However, despite previous attempts at using the software I still found problems with the layout that is required to make a decent sized website. Despite this I was able to add some complex features to my website due to previous experience, for example a scroll bar which is a feature of many websites that I analysed, I feel that the introduction of the scroll bar gives a professional feel to my website.
During the making of the music video, I think that my use of new technologies went very well, as I had used the cameras that are provided by the college before I was able to navigate how to use the camera extremely well, meaning that I was able to do tasks such as setting the white balance with ease, something that I would not have been able to achieve at the same time last year, when I had not used the cameras before.
When making the CD case and cover I decided that the main features I was going to be using would revolve around photographs, I wanted the fans to be intimate with the band as this was the idea I was given whilst listening to music produced by the band. In order to make the photographs suit the style of the rest of my products I used the Adobe fireworks programme so that I could change the contrast of the photographs to suit the dark and sinister themes that are seen in the rest of my products.
When thinking about the distribution of a music video product I personally feel that YouTube is a great way for an up and coming artist to promote their work, YouTube allowed myself and Sam to, not only upload our work to the internet, but also to advertise our creative ideas to other likeminded music fans on the internet.
This is the link that we uploaded our videos too - http://www.youtube.com/user/swillis1993
Blogger was a fantastic way for me to be able to display my work, a paper folder would have limited the amount of creativity that I was able to place into the work, whilst using the internet I was able to place into my blog interactive media features such as videos from the internet, not only this but I was also able to upload pictures to reinforce the ideas that I was writing so that the audience of my work could gain a better impression of my ideas.
