Evaluation

Evaluation

Planning and preparation saw story boards created to help process our ideas, music videos analyzed to gain inspiration, and research into censorship, album art, and magazine adverts to help with the task of creating ancillary texts. Filming was a long process, and concurred of familiarization with camera equipment, the re-filming of certain shots and scenes, choosing between two actors and getting lighting, sound, and the mis-en-scene in a scene prepared for a shot. Editing consisted of experimenting with new technologies, such as the media editing suite: Adobe premier pro. Again, it was a long process, and saw us using tools to create quick cuts between shots, fast paced movements and precise editing and cutting between two shots to create a focus on that particular piece of film. Evaluation, included audience feedback which contributed to our editing and filming as changes were made due to this feedback. It also saw us summarizing our whole experience of the Media Studies course and how we have gained certain skills with new technologies, such as Adobe Premier Pro due to experimentation and the old fashioned skill of trial and error, experience was also gained with equipment such as cameras and tripods, and lighting and sound. I will be evaluating my personal experience over the task set, which was: to create a promotion package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, a promotional DVD cover, and a magazine advert promoting the DVD.
After receiving the specification for the coursework task, my first thought was to research into new bands I knew were unsigned. I took to MySpace to find the perfect song for our music video, after much research into new bands such as: Fenech Soler and The Foals, most I found with appealing songs were signed to a record label and were therefore unattainable. I felt that MySpace was not inspiring with any unsigned bands; therefore I took to independent websites to find a suitable band. After researching using search engines I found a website titled: http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/music/bands/7366/ I found a bio for an unsigned band named The Wild Eyes, they took my interest due to their interesting image and one song inspired me with ideas of how the music video would look. This was song titled Breakdown, and I personally thought the lyrics displayed the narrative of a person who is going through an emotional, physical and mental breakdown, with lyrics such as ‘bloodstained tissues pink pills in your purse
you had a breakdown’ I interpreted this to be about drugs, and the effect of them on a person of how they course a ‘breakdown’ not only physically to a human body, but mentally in a human mind.

Once my group and I were decided on the song my next thought was to look at occurring music videos that I personally found interesting due to their challenging forms of conventional music videos. I felt this would help me gain inspiration into what genre of music would be most appropriate for me to be able to make an effective music video to. I analyzed videos such as: The prodigy ‘Smack my bitch up’, Madness ‘Dust devils’, The Streets ‘Blinded by the lights’, and The Verve ‘Drugs don’t work’. These were inspirational for me as they all portrayed youth culture but developed conventions of typical music videos through use of quirky camera shots, such as extreme close ups, point of view shots, over the shoulder shots and hand held camera motion. I liked the idea of the representation of youth culture especially in the two videos The Prodigy ‘Smack My Bitch Up’, and Madness ‘Dust Devils’ this was due to as aforementioned usage of camera shots and angles to challenge typical conventions and the focus on the narrative rather than being a performance based music video. I felt I gained ideas from analyzing these two videos in depth that would later help me in developing my own conventions of my own music video in relation to a real media product. The fact that a narrative can be a main focus of a music video instead of the video being focused on the band was an advantage for me, as I knew the genre of music I wanted to pick a song from was electro-pop and this would involve a band, yet I didn’t want to have to complete the time consuming task of putting a band together and hiring instruments, I wanted to represent a social group and challenge conventions through interesting editing and camera shots, therefore creating a narrative based music video, I felt, was definitely most appropriate for me.

My music video showed a narrative through my own interpretation of what I thought an exaggerated drug related youth culture is currently like. I decided that focusing on just one protagonist throughout the video would be more personal for the target audience, as they could relate to that one protagonists’’ thoughts and feelings. The video developed conventions through interesting use of speed and reverse, as well as, close ups, extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots. These were intentionally added so that we could create a new take on a ‘youth culture’ based music video through extreme realism. The conventions of extreme realism, such as fast paced editing through jump cuts and exaggerated speed, showed the protagonists mental state of mind as well as physical. I performed as the protagonist as well as editing and preparing. I personally felt that my acting skills showed the characters state of mind effectively, and the audience were able to feel involved with the character throughout the music video due to the usage of extreme close ups and close ups.

The main focus I felt of our media product was to represent youth culture in a challenging format compared with representations in real media products. I felt this was successful due to careful planning into how we could do that, and the sense of realism created through personal shots, re-filming was a lengthy process, however it was worth it due to the outcome received, with thanks to careful preparation and team work between myself and Jessica Broome.

On the other hand our ancillary texts were delegated to two group members who did not pull their weight as they were left to last minute to complete, and only the DVD cover was accomplished to a presentable level. I felt that this was not good enough, as myself and Jess had spent time planning and preparing for filming, filming and acting, and editing, and we delegate these two groups members a simple task but it was not completed. This caused more work to be put onto myself and Jess and we were not able to focus on our delegated project as we had to complete a magazine advert. After researching into what makes a successful magazine advert, I found that music video DVD’s were not often advertised and found it hard to gain any inspiration as the task was not clear. If we had been able to create a CD cover for the track we had chosen to create a music video to, and an advert, promoting this particular song, I think it would have related to contemporary adverts and I would have found inspiration from real media products. I found that the lack of knowledge as to what conventions were typically found in a music video DVD cover showed when producing the cover. Jamie found it hard to structure the DVD cover in an appropriate way, as often the audience feedback would be, that the images were too big or too small, or not in the right place. This was due to the lack of inspiration on whether to make whether to make the image the focus, or the text the focus, or both. I decided that the best way to overcome this was to look into existing album art, I obviously could not find any for a DVD cover, but I found lots for CD covers. One that grabbed my attention was that of Pink Floyd’s 'Atom Heart Mother.' The image was of a cow the complete main focus of the album cover, with not even a title or logo of the band to familiarise audience with previous albums from the band. I found that images of irrelevance to music can sometimes prove to be more outstanding and bold to an audience leading to popularity of that particular album due to this irrelevance. I felt that the image we had choose to be our main focus on the front cover of our DVD cover was ambiguous, and to be honest, I thought that we could have picked an image with more relevance. But after researching into the above situation and finding that the album reached number one, despite the record company’s negligence towards the image of a cow, the image of an eye could perhaps be eye-catching to an audience and make them want to question about what the music video will involve. If I was to complete the DVD myself, I would have coincided two contrasting images next to each over, in a diagonal way, of the protagonist in a ‘normal’ state, and of the protagonist under the influence of intoxicants. This would be to show the differences between the beginning and ending of the music video, and how things eventually spiral out of control which is shown through precise editing of jump cuts and exaggerated speed.
As aforementioned, I found it hard to gain any inspiration from existing magazine adverts, promoting music video DVDS. Due to this lack of inspiration, I decided to use the front covers of magazines as an article in which to gain ideas from. The front covers I used were from music magazines such as: NME and Q. I felt they were aimed at two different audiences’ therefore it was important to analyse both in depth, to notice the differences. Q took a minimalistic approach when creating a front cover to a magazine, as they used an image of what the magazine was to be about as the main focus. With only a small title or name of band or artist and often a quote of what they have said in the featured interview, again this was small and often did not stand out; there is also a magazine logo which is of the letter Q written in bold in red. On the other hand NME (New Music Express) magazine uses both images and texts as a focus, with often a band or artists logo featured with a huge title of what the interview was about. For example in a recent issue with rap artist Jay-z the NME logo is on the left hand side in bold red writing, there is the same red writing used for the subtitle of Ian Brown and Jay-z to show who is involved in the interview, and there is smaller red writing describing what the interview is about ‘to talk politics, the roses and noel’ there is also a black subtitle at the top of the page, and white bullet points at the bottom. There is an advertisement about bloc party in a circle ‘bloc party why Kele needs time out.’ I thought the colour scheme of black white and red was effective. The fact that the image is a big focus of the cover, but the writing plays importance as well made me think that this was more informative than Q magazines style. I decided to adopt this style when producing the ancillary text of the magazine advert. I did not have any extensive knowledge on what software to use; therefore I decided to keep things simple and use a programme I was familiar with, this was Microsoft publisher, I was able to input images onto the advert and add a black background, which I thought would make the black and the red writing stand out. I chose a simplistic font, as I did not want to overdo the advert, with confusing the audience with too much to focus on. I felt this colour linked well with my main product as we added a notion of looking with a sign on the door to the protagonists room which stated ‘do not enter, she’s had a breakdown’ this was also in red writing on a white background. Red lipstick is also a focus in my main product therefore this links with the colour scheme chosen for the ancillary text. I would have liked to have been able to use software that was more advanced than that used, to gain more skills on new technologies. The fact we used an image of the lead singer of the band dressed up, with a pink wig on, in the middle of strumming a guitar, linked with the idea of a breakdown due to the pink wig and distant look, however the fact it is an actual band member provides a huge combination between the song of our media product and our ancillary text. Of course, we had to inform the band that we will be using an image of their lead singer on our magazine advert, for copyright issues.

Overall I felt as a package, the main product and the ancillary texts fitted together due to elements that were familiar in each. I thought specifically the magazine advert and my main product combined due to similar conventions used, such as colours. I felt the DVD cover did not combine as well as I would have liked, as the font was different to the magazine advert and I think we should have created a band logo that we could have used on every product, to familiarise our audience with the band.

Feedback from audience was a main part in our evaluation stages. It was due to audience feedback that re-filming happened, and precise editing occurred. After our final draft I collected audience feedback from the members of our class. Thom Muddle commented that some shots were too long and too slow so therefore did not fit in with the fast pace of the rest of the music video: ‘There are a few shots which last a tad too long, and a few where the lighting isn't great, but this is often unavoidable.’ Another member of my media studies class who I got feedback from was Mark White, he also suggested that the pace was not the same throughout the video. My main focus from this feedback was to concentrate on speeding the music video editing up to create the fast paced lifestyle of the protagonist represented. This caused it to use another actress all together, as the actress used in our first draft was often not available at times we were, which was no use to use, therefore I volunteered to be the protagonist of the music video. This caused us to re-film most of shots already obtained with myself staring as the protagonist. I volunteered my home to be part of the set, as we decided to cut the band scenes in the beginning of the sequence due to irrelevance to the music video as it was to be solely narrative based. This cut gave us more time to show the protagonist getting ready for her night out that was to end in disaster. We included scenes of the protagonist drinking alcohol and suspended the audiences disbelief when it came to drugs, as the audience could not actually see the protagonist sniffing cocaine, but they were able to make connotations that her emotional state was the outcome of drug usage even thought they had not actually seen her take any drugs physically. We felt the audience would feel more involved with more over the shoulder shots and extreme close ups, therefore toward the end of the sequence our shots were constantly of this format.

I decided the best way to show that an audience had actually watched our media product, was to complete a video in which, an audience was shown watching our product and commenting on how effective they thought it was. I decided that due to feedback gained from her first draft from two males, females were best to comment on our final product. They stated that they thought the sequence in the chorus where ‘no’ is the main focus was very effective and drew them in as an audience into what lyrics were important. They also said that the representation of youth culture lifestyle portrayed in the video was effective in showing elements of the shocking nature of what this lifestyle is like including intoxicant abuse.

I thought that I learnt a lot from getting audience feedback after the first draft of my media product and the final production. The first audience feedback allowed me to make creative and logical changes needed for it to be as effective as it could be. Changes made included, a new protagonist, more extreme close up shots, more over the shoulder shots, a ‘getting ready’ sequence, exaggerated speed to keep up with the fast pace of the narrative, and precise editing to keep in time with the music and lyrics. If I had not gained audience feedback these changes may have not happened. I thought to help with evaluating getting audience feedback for our final production would be useful and it proved a success as I was able to include their comments on my blog and create a video about the whole process of audience feedback as well as a summary of my experience over this coursework task.

New media technologies proved useful in the researching process. I was able to use the internet and stream songs from websites of unsigned bands. This was due to free streaming on websites such as the one I used to gain information on the band I had chosen: http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/IndieMusic.html. I saw that Wild Eyes’ song ‘Breakdown’ was top of the websites chart; therefore I decided to download the mp3 file available from the website and listen further. I enjoyed the song so much, that I could visualize a narrative to go with the lyrics from the start of listening. If a free download hadn’t have been available to me, through this website, I would have struggled to get the song from the band. New media technologies gave me easy access to music which proved effective as I was able to decide what song to use quickly.

When planning and preparing for our production, new media technologies such as web 2.0 allowed me to become involved in reviewing, as I was able to comment on and email bands I thought could be appropriate for our music video. After choosing the wild eyes band and their song ‘Breakdown’, I emailed the band informing them that I would be creating a music video using their song and if they wanted to see the finished product. The reply I got was as follows:

‘Hay - this is Nikhil from the wild eyes - yeah we'd love to see your video +_+ feel free to send or upload on YouTube’

It was down to new media technologies that allowed this communication to happen, without it, I would have not been able to contact the band to inform them of our production using their song.

I was introduced to new media technologies during this course which helped me gain useful knowledge. In the duration of my AS Level, last year I used the software ‘Windows Movie Maker’ as I was not familiar with any other media producing software. After researching into what software would be more appropriate and more advanced when making a media product I found that ‘Adobe Premier Pro’ was suitable. I had to experiment with it before constructing our product as I was not familiar with any of the elements and I knew experience of it would be vital when constructing our product, so that tools were able to be used precisely and effectively. I created myself an instruction manual that guided me personally, through the editing process. This became my bible through the weeks when constructing the music video, helping input various effects and editing transitions that helped the music video fit into the music genre I wanted it to.
Overall I have learnt that ‘Adobe Premier Pro’ is much advanced than the previous software, however this often caused problems, as the computers I had access to at Sixth form were not as advanced as the software, and caused them to be slow, and often did not save all of the product, so when re-opening the project I often had to ‘touch up’ what had already been done before. This caused frustration as it became very time consuming.

In the evaluation stages of production, media technologies proved effective, in allowing us to gain audience feedback in the form of web 2.0. I got a fellow student to comment on the first draft of my music video on my blog. They were able to do this, and their comment was taken into account as constructive criticism. My assessor was also able to feedback through web 2.0, of a comment on my blog. I found this helpful as with easy access I was able to note down all feedback and write a plan of action on what changes needed to take place on my first draft.
The fact that the whole course was based on a blog showed that new media technologies were being used throughout the duration of the course. The blog proved useful at times, when being able to gain audience feedback through it. However due to the restrictions of YouTube at the sixth form I completed most of my product, I found it difficult uploading the finished product and summary video to my blog. I tried numerous times, to upload the videos from my laptop at home, and the computers at sixth form, however I kept coming across a wait time of up to half an hour for the blog to say that there was an unknown error when uploading the videos, and every time I went to edit the post again , there would be a video box, stating ‘missing video’, I thought the best way to overcome this was by uploading the videos to YouTube, which I obviously could not do at sixth form. I created a YouTube account, and tried over and over again, to upload each video to YouTube. The final cut of my media production proved effective as there was a wait time of 20 minutes but it seemed that it had uploaded the video. However when I went to watch back the final cut, it did not play, again, to an ‘unknown error’. The fact that the summary video did not even upload to YouTube, made me think that the files may too big. I tried to compress them, but again, this did not work. Due to these ‘unknown errors’ in the media technologies set out to use, I was unable to upload the videos to my blog, and had to put my media product on a DVD disk to hand in to my teacher. My summary video, was never seen, and felt like I had wasted my time, on getting an audience to actually sit and watch my final production and comment on what their thoughts on it were, also I commented on my whole experience over the AS and A2 course. If I was able to use another format to upload all of my research, planning, preparation, construction and evaluation, I think producing a folder with the videos held on a DVD disk would have been more effective, as I would not have encountered any problems with the blog, and could have overcome a time wasting process of waiting for the videos to upload, by just producing them on an actual disk to my assessor.



To conclude, in the terms of the construction of my final media product, I think that the challenging of the conventions of music videos, from the genre of music I wanted our media production to fit in was successful. This was due to being able to show a narrative through my own interpretation of what I thought a drug related youth culture is currently like. The focus on one protagonist throughout helped develop conventions through interesting use of speed and reverse, as well as, close ups, extreme close ups and over the shoulder shots. These were intentionally added so that we could create a new take on a ‘youth culture’ based music video through extreme realism. The conventions of extreme realism, such as fast paced editing through jump cuts and exaggerated speed, showed the protagonists mental state of mind as well as physical. ‘Youth Culture’ was the particular social group I decided, I wanted to represent in my media product, and it being the main focus, proved to work effectively. I gained inspiration for this, through research into what music videos of the same genre as ‘Breakdown’ by Wild eyes represent, and what style of narrative they adopt. My findings helped me make connotations, that most music videos of this genre form a realistic narrative stereotypically representing youth culture, with elements such as drugs, alcohol, violence, partying, effects of drugs and sex to add to the mise-en-scene and help with the narrative flow. I decided to adopt this convention, into my music video and represent youth cultures using the same elements. However the focus was on one protagonist, in a chronological order of the effect of one evening. I did this to make it easier for the audience to follow the narrative flow, but still using the effective elements that make a good music video in this genre. With these conventions, adopted, developed and challenged, the final media product became a success.

I thought that, doing further research was important, into getting to know the music business, and what goes on when constructing music videos. As our narrative was about drug related issues, I thought that some scenes may be too explicit, therefore I researched into censorship and found that The Prodigy’s Video ‘Smack My Bitch Up’ was banned in 1997 video for “due to depictions of drug use and nudity. From our research into censorship I think that the drug use scenes are not explicit enough to make the video banned on Music Video Channel institutions.
Overall I felt that my music video attracts the target audience through showing the life they stereotypically lead. The target audience is those of youth culture, between 16 to 25. The ways in which I made the music video releate was through use of conventions such as drinking alcohol, taking drugs, dancing, getting ready to go out. The fast paced style of the music video also attracts the target audience as they are used to this kind of lifestyle and can relate to it.
Finally, I felt my final product and ancillary texts, were a combination of a successful promotional package, that even the Wild Eyes band itself, could be proud of.

Audience Feedback and Summary Video

We decided to create a video explaining our decision for aiming our music video at the target audience we decided. This entailed getting to members of the target audience to watch our music video and give us feedback of what they thought about it, and its effectiveness at portraying youth culture. We were only able to gain 2 female members of the audience, therefore we got a male audience member to comment on our first draft of the music video of what he thought was effective and what needed to be changed, this audience members was Thom Muddle and his feedback was:
'It's a 'good'n'. There are a few shots which last a tad too long, and a few where the lighting isn't great, but this is often unavoidable.I like it, can't wait to see the finished product!'

We gained inspiration from this comment and decided to speed the whole pace of the music video up, with precise editing of shots, and cuts to make sure that they are in time with the music. This was mainly evident in the chorus where the focus was on the lyric 'No' and the fact that this has been highlighted and repeated shows it is a proficient use of editing as the 'No's' jump back and forth from each other creating a fast paced effect and stating that a breakdown due to drug usage is a negative thing.

Our audience feedback video also includes a summary of what my personal experiences have been over the course of this A2 subject. I describe the issues I endured and how I overcame them, also my thoughts on new technologies used during the course.

Further Research into Album/DVD covers for Music

I was not 100% happy with the final outcome of the DVD cover. I felt this was due to the lack of effort put in by the associated group members that were allocated to complete this task. I completed further research into what makes a good DVD cover, and even what interesting album art has occurred over the years. This was to put myself at ease or to worry myself more about whether our DVD cover was good enough. After looking at this website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8605975.stm

I found that images of irrelevance to music can sometimes prove to be more outstanding and bold to an audience leading to popularity of that particular album due to this irrelevance. This was evident in Pink Floyd's case when they put an image of a cow, onto their album cover of 'Atom Heart Mother'. The image was the complete main focus of the album cover, with not even a title or logo of the band to familiarise audience with previous albums from the band. It was frowned upon by the record label however the album reached number one even though the cow had no relevance to the music the album withheld.

This helped me come to terms with the DVD cover we had produced, as even though the coloured pupil on our eye had some relevance to the music video we had produced it was not the main focus, but the fact it was an eye catching image made me more optimistic about the front cover of the DVD case.

Final Draft of DVD Cover

After re-evaluating our previous draft DVD covers, we came to the conclusion that simplicity was the best option. We took a picture that we felt had relevance to the music video. This picture was of an eye, however on Abode Photoshop we edited the pupil so it appeared red. The purpose of this was to show that the eye had been intoxicated due to substances, such as alcohol and drugs. The main narrative in our music video was the effect of these intoxicants on a teenage protagonist; therefore we felt the audience could make connotations that this 'eye' was that of the protagonists' featured in the music video.

The image on the reverse of the DVD cover consisted of shot glasses with an alocoholic substance in, we maximised the image so that it fitted as the background image, with the text over the top. The text concluded of the title of the song and band on the front cover in a text that stood out and could be associated with the band. The tracklisting was included on the reverse of the DVD cover, along with reviews of the music video, by magazines that we personally made up to give it authenticity that it was a real DVD cover, we also included a bar code to help with the authenticity.

On the spine of the cover we included the title of the Song just so that on shop shelves the title would stand out, in the same text as the band name and the main title on the front cover, so there was continuity with fonts on the DVD cover.

Research into Magazine Adverts

Another coursework task set out was to create a Magazine advert, which should be suitable to be included in a music magazine. After researching into the most popular music magazines currently, I found that NME was a big contender. With its outstanding front covers and up to date news about new artists and bands, it was no shock that the NME was a popular music magazine. Its logo 'first for music news' describes its aim. I looked inside and found that articles advertising music, or bands included: - Bold Title - Huge picture that links with the record being advertised - A Band Logo with an image or in a unusual font - Subtitle - Small text explaining what is being advertised - Logo of where the record will be sold e.g. HMV - A website link of band for more information The front cover of NME is almost like the biggest advert the magazine portrays as it is persuading potential audiences to purchase it over other music magazines. Here is an example of a NME Front Cover that advertises an interview with the rap artist Jay-z.

Q Magazine Q magazine is inventive, insightful, irreverent, the UK’s biggest selling music magazine according to greatmagazines.co.uk. Its recent article see's Paul McCartney on the front cover, with a Paul McCartney 'special' inside. The format of the magazine is similar to NME with a bold logo in the left hand corner a subtitle and a eye-catching image on the front cover, however Q magazine adopts a more simplistic attempt as there is hardly any writing on the front cover, with the picture being the main focus rather than the headline. Also there is a quote in bold that is a taste of what is to come from the interview featured.

After researching into popular music magazines, we felt that our target audience for our music video and the target audience's Q and NME magazines are aimed at were slightly different. This was due to the protagonist used and the narrative featured in our music video is a stereotypical representation of youth culture, we felt that the magazine's were aimed at varied audience, including youth culture, but that may not have been the magazines main focus, especially with Q magazine as their front cover features Paul McCartney who is an older artist that older people such as educated adults 30 + may be more interested in, rather than youth aged between 16 to 25. Therefore I felt our magazine advert, would fit more appropriately inside NME magazine rather than Q magazine. This was also due to the genre of the song 'Breakdown' By the Wild Eyes came under. I felt it could be classed as indie/ soft rock, and the NME magazine includes this genre of music, as recent artists that have featured on their front cover are: Florence and the machine and other artists featured in recent magazines are Marina and the diamonds, Bombay Bicycle Club, The Klaxons. I felt these bands are closely related to the Wild Eyes in terms of genre.

Ancillary Texts: Magazine Advert

First Draft of Magazine Advert

After researching into what makes an effective front cover of a magazine, and what magazine would be most appropriate for our magazine advert we decided to create a magazine advert that was image focused. Therefore we wanted to use a picture of the actual band, we know we had to get authorisation for this, therefore we decided to email the band. After getting the all clear, we included an image that had a red tint, as our theme was of black white and red. The red colour used was for important words. 'Breakdown' was in red as it is the title of the song and the main theme in the music video the article was advertising. The description of what the DVD included was in white along with a website link of the band incase the audience wanted to find out more about the band. A 'Facebook' logo was used to show that the band were intact with the trend of social networking. As our music video was aimed at youth culture we felt that it was important to have covered all media where followers users or hits could be gained. We also used a HMV logo as we felt that it was the most popular institution for purchasing of products such as music, DVDs etc.

Final Cut of Music Video

This is the final cut of our music video. After re-evaluating our first draft, we felt that it did not keep the fast paced motion we wanted throughout. Therefore we re-shot scenes and sped up any shots we felt were slow and did not keep up with the narrative flow. As you can see a lot has changed since our rough cut.