EvaluationYas Hausler & Seamus Keating

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

• Before we started producing our video, we made sure to do a lot of research into our chosen genre (pop) to identify the conventions of real media that we wanted to express, by seeing the general conventions used in other videos of the same genre.

• Many decisions were based on primary and secondary information we had acquired from pre-production surveys and research into conventions that our audience had already been exposed to. We decided to potentially challenge the most identifiable conventions to create a sense of originality and to approach the genre with a different outlook, for our distinctive theme.

• The video challenges the stereotypical conventions, as it doesn’t rely on materialistic imagery, in terms of the usual conventions expressed in other videos of the pop genre. It mainly focuses on the artist and doesn’t rely on non-relating and doesn’t drift to non-relating mis-en-scene, to be used as filler.

• We challenge the arguable exploitation of women, which can be seen in other videos of the same genre. For example there seems to be a trend created by popular artists such as Robin Thicke and Lil Wayne, of showing women wearing very little clothing and being expressed as objects. We felt that due to the heartfelt nature of the song, Sophie should be expressed with sophistication and decency rather than as a sex object.

• We thought a simplistic approach would be more effective for our chosen song because of the emotional nature of it, and the simplicity of the beat. We believe out artist is more interested in promoting himself and his music rather than material possessions, therefore we decided to go against the stereotypical product placement, that can be seen in music videos that share similar qualities.

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

• We believe that the combination of our main product (music video) and all of our ancillary texts (CD cover, digipak, magazine poster, promotional poster, web site draft, merchandise and promotional video) were very effective in their own aspects. Most of our ancillary productions are linked into each other. For example the use of synergy in the promotional video allows viewers to go straight from the video to Brima’s social media platforms; his twitter and his website.

• We used similar colour schemes and design styles, in each other our media platforms. This is effective as it creates continuity and allows a recognisable theme to separate Brima from other artists. The variety of different platforms also provides more advertisement for the initial release of the single and the video.

• For the magazine poster we wanted something that could be used in a magazine that shares the same target audience we’re aiming at, such as NME.

• We decided to create a website as part of an ancillary project, because as our research showed, the internet is our target audience’s main media outlet. We also believed that it would provide credibility and show Brima as an established artist. In the society we live in, when we like a product we tend to want to know all about it. We thought having a website would be the perfect way for our audience to stay updated and keep up with Brima’s latest projects.

• A lot of the stills for the ancillary tasks were taken from the music video. This also stresses the distinctive style we wanted portrayed over each of our platforms, again expressing continuity.

• Our main target of the ancillary tasks was simply to advertise and promote the music video. We feel have achieved this by having a large variety of different platforms, that are all regularly used by the target audience we were seeking. We felt that quantity was important because it shows a degree of success and gives a more open perspective. It also makes the video even easier to access, as the more platforms we had ventured into, the larger the audience that will be able to access it.

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

• We used many different media technologies in the research, construction, planning and evaluation of our film. We used both hardware and software, without both of them we wouldn’t have been able to produce our video and complete our coursework.

• A definition of hardware is “a general term for the physical artifacts of a technology” for example; Computers, the mechanical, magnetic, electronic, and electrical devices comprising a computer system, disk drives, keyboard, computer screen.

• The definition of software is “a general term primarily used for digitally stored data such as computer programs and other kinds of information read and written by computers.” For example, all computer programs.

The Hardware we used:Computer: We used a computer through-out the duration of our project for a number of different things. The hardware, a computer includes a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. It has been particularly useful for e-mailing, editing photos, and most importantly blogging about our progress. We created our album cover and magazine advert on the computer using Word. Most importantly we could not have used the internet without a computer.

iMac: As the iMacs at school don’t have internet, they were purely used for the use of editing. We used Final Cut Pro to edit the main music video. We also used iMovie to edit the Camera testing sequence and to make the promotional video.

The Hardware we used:Tripod: This was used in almost every shot when filming our music video. Using a tripod, meant all of our shots were steady and straight. Not only does using a tripod achieve a more professional looking video but it also make sit easy to edit shots as there are no sudden camera movements, otherwise it would make editing a little more tricky.

Dolly: We used the dolly for a lot of shots to create smooth camera movement. In doing so it gives the video a better flow, rather than just constantly having still shots.

Camera:We used a Canon EOS 600D Digital SLR to film all of our clips for our project including; the music video, testing the camera and the promotional video. We also used my iPhone 4 to take pictures of behind the scenes and setting up.

• We were able to use the Macs at school to edit all of our footage. We edited as we went along filming to see what looked good and if we needed to refilm any shots. This helped a lot as we could see how much more we needed to film.

• We started off by editing the chorus.In doing this we had two solid parts of the video made as the chorus is repeated twice. In our storyboard w had planned to have the girl walk down some stairs but when we were editing this footager, the clips were simply to dark so we had to discard them.

• For the editing we both sat at the computer to see what clips we liked and what we didn’t. We both had a similar expectations of the outcome, and having two perspectives is always better than one.

• Although at first it was hard to allocate who was doing what, we came together as a team and produced something to the best of our ability. Last year, both mine and Seamus’ group, all had separate roles. All of the brainstorming and planning we did together in order to produce something we were both happy with. At times we both had different commitments but we always came together to catch up on what we missed.

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

Software used:Internet Explorer:We used the software Internet Explorer through-out the whole process of researching, planning, uploading, and blogging for our music video, magazine advert, and album cover, and could not have successfully undertaken research without it. The internet was a great help However some information may be inaccurate, which was an element my group and I needed to consider when using the internet resulting in double checking the information twice over. The internet gave us access to web sites that were essential for our coursework, such as ‘wordpress.com’ which was the website we used to create our online blog. We also heavily dependent on ‘Youtube.com’, which we used to research music videos and upload out own videos.

Microsoft Word: We used Word throughout the duration of our project. We used it to write down our research and ideas to then copy it over to our Blogs. We also used word to type out our Pre-Production Surveys to print and hand them out.

Final Cut Pro & iMovieThis final piece of software was the most important to our group in the making of the music video. As Oliver had the most knowledge about iMacs, he also knew the most about the software on iMacs, including Final Cut Express. We used this software to upload all our movie clips and photos, to place it with our song, "jump". It also allowed us to edit the frames by adding special effects, changing the brightness, and many more. Without this piece of software we would not have been able to place the movie clips and the song together as easily as it has been. As i have been watching oliver on Final Cut Express for the past few months i have picked up a lot, and would be able to make my own, on my own.

• Audience feedback was essential in our final product. From the initial idea to the post production, we were open to criticism and keen to make the video as analytical as possible, to enhance our media skills.

• Due to this mind-set we ended up making very large regular changes to the video. For example our original story involved Brima’s love interest leaving through an airport. However to achieve this Yas had to film in an airport as she was already leaving for the Barcelona, which meant we only had one shot to get all the clips we needed. The clips were very good and fitted with the storyboard well, but they didn’t fit with the footage we had taken of Brima. Our media teacher, Mr Kesson, told us it may be wise to re-film a scene with a different girl at a more practical and accessible location. We realised his was a pre-production error as the story never truly linked together, as we only found out after we started editing the clips. We decided to scrape the airport idea which led to the simple structure of just focusing on Brima and Sophie, which we believe was far more effective.

• For our Post Production survey, we based a lot of our questions on critical concepts as we wanted a truthful critique for our video, to ensure we understand what we could have improved on. This continued the analytical approach we had tackled the other tasks with.

• In our post production survey; a few of our peers suggested that for our magazine poster, we included a few more star ratings from established media companies, as we only included one from ‘the Guardian’. According to them, this would make it seem more reputable. The use of only one star rating appears that this may be the only positive review which questions the level censorship of information included in the poster. If we were to do it again, we would definitely take this into account.

• When it came to choosing between our two final album covers, we weren’t sure on which one to go for, so again we asked our target audience on their preference of the two. The majority of the people we asked to fill the forms in preferred the first one as they said it was more eye catching and original compared to the other one as the colours really stood out. They said although it looked good, it was too generic.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Results and Comments

“ The lip syncing could be improved by micro-seconds but overall it looks like a recording

company recorded it. Amazing ” (Girl, 18-26)

“ Wish it was a bit longer, I wanted to know what happens with the Brima and the girl! …But

I guess the video is only as long at the song! ” (Girl, 10-17)

“The effects and camera angles used looked very

professional” Boy, 18-26)

“I really enjoyed the lights that were used, they created a great

atmosphere” (Girl, 18-26)

Overall we are very happy with our feedback. However we are very interested and aware of the critiques and the improvements that are needed.

Improvements

Now that we have finished our project we’ve had time to reflect on improvements we could've implemented. We feel as though overall our music video was a success. The experience was very positive and we learnt a lot from each other. However, if we were to do this project we would do a couple things differently. For example:

• We started quite late in the year which instantly held us back as we had less time. This was due to idea’s not following through and having to start over.

• This was the first music video we had both done and therefore were quite new to the field, meaning we had to learn as we went along, to an extent. If we were to do it again, we would know exactly what filming a music video entails, for example; the conventions and editing techniques.

• We struggled thinking of a suitable narrative that was within reason to achieve (e.g, the airport scenes). Next time we would a plan and research to ensure a more structured storyline that was obvious to the viewers.