1. Media - production evaluation- Tia Jarvis QUESTION 1 In what
ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products? After watching my final media
product several times, it can be seen that it uses, develops and
challenges forms and conventions of real media products in a range
of different ways throughout the entirety of the music video. Given
the task of planning and producing an individual music video for a
'made up' musical artist, I initially set out with the intention of
following a specific genre. After receiving feedback through the
use of several methods, 'indie/alternative' was the final genre I
settled with. As well as this, I wanted to make my project and
video unique and individual, so decided to combine
'indie/alternative' and 'drum and bass' genres when it came to
musical choices, as this allowed me to incorporate even more
creative editing techniques and conventions which would only be
found in either genre. Doing so, allowed me to develop the use of
conventions used and select the ones which I believed would have
the best effect on the audience and give the video visual appeal.
Before planning my music video, I researched into existing music
videos which also fell into the genre of 'indie/alternative' to see
which features stood out to me and kept my attention on the artist
as a whole- one video which particularly stood out was 'Sweater
Weather' By indie band 'The Neighbourhood'. I really liked the way
the various shots and scenes were edited and cut together on the
beat of the song as it added a professional feel and made the video
enjoyable visually, a technique which I also saw in videos 'the
mother we share' by CHVRCHES and 'Neon lights' by Demi Lovato, as
well as going on to use this in my own video. This meant I could
use a technique which I saw frequently within the chosen genre in
existing videos, yet add originality through the use of combined
music genre; the increased speed and changing of drumming beats
allowed these cuts to vary throughout, between the start and end of
the video. From my existing media products research, I had seen
that several existing indie videos featured impacting
mise-en-scene, in particular the use of smoke; videos such as
'Pompeii' by Indie band Bastille and 'Recover' by CHVRCHES featured
dramatic and dark mise-en- scene to capture the audiences'
attention and I really liked the effect it created. I later decided
I would use smoke in my own project, more specifically, coloured
smoke (blue, red and white) as it went with my artists' image and
stood out against the dull and darker surroundings. This meant I
was taking a convention which I saw in an existing music video and
slightly developing it in a way which benefited my artist and
overall project. Another convention that I experimented and
developed over the course of the project was the use of filters-
From my previous research into existing music videos, I could see
that many of the videos incorporated filters as a way of adding
mood and adding to the overall feel and impact of the footage.
Seeing this, I used the iMovie apple software to test out various
filters on my filmed music video footage; After establishing the
genres I wanted to stick to, I came up with an artist to fit this
genre. 'Holly Graphiq' was the final name chosen for the project, a
teenage indie writer and musician, along with the song 'colour me
green' by existing female artist Shannon Saunders'. The lyrics and
overall feel of the song is very powerful and combines indie and
drum and bass genres, so I knew I wanted to use filters to
establish this and add to the feel. After testing a black and white
filter, I came to the conclusion that this resulted in too much of
a lack of colour and completely took away the effect of the smoke
being different colours. As well as this, I had received feedback
from my target audience of young adults aged 16-25 which told me
that many liked at least subtle colour used, if not bold and bright
colours to keep them hooked. This being said, I looked at other
filters which ensured the coloured smoke would be vivid and
eye-catching throughout and finally settled with filter 'day to
night', which I feel is the perfect balance of muted colours and
bolder colours. 2. QUESTION 2 How effective is the combination of
your main product and ancillary texts? When selecting ancillary
texts/tasks to accompany my main project video, I was adamant that
I was going to follow a specific theme which brought all three
projects together; I wanted to keep to a colour scheme and design
to allow them to go effectively together and with the created
musical artist. As I was creating a music video, I decided to
select an artist poster and a cd disk, cover and sleeve as my two
side projects. Sticking to the idea of various colours and the
effect of smoke over the course of all three tasks, I ensured they
all went well together visually and would give the artist a
professional impact to the audience. After shooting my music video,
I took several photographs which I then used in my ancillary tasks;
I selected a head shot of Lucy, the artist in the video, and placed
it in the centre of the CD disk, cover and sleeve, fading it into a
background of pastel coloured smoke. This same idea is exactly used
on the artist poster, in which a head shot and smoke takes up the
entirety of the poster, along with a list of gig/concert dates
below. Using the same images and visual features ensured each
project design was consistent and also followed a theme that can be
linked to the artist, so the audience become familiar with their
style and can recognise this theme on each task. Our music video is
largely performance and so there is a lot of focus on the visual
appeal of the artist instead of a story or message. This is also
the same in my ancillary tasks, as I focus on the artist and don't
feature any other visual distractions. It is important to ensure
this consistency over each task as it is important that an artist
can be recognised easily by their audiences and fans; by sticking
to similar themes throughout it can increase the recognition and
publicity of the artist as they are more easily recognisable.
QUESTION 3 What have you learned from your audience feedback? The
aim of my project is to produce a music video which is original and
successfully meets the needs of the target audience (young adults
aged 16-25), meaning audience feedback is an important factor in
how effective my video is as a whole. I decided to use two forms of
audience feedback; a short interactive questionnaire made up of
several chosen questions which would benefit my knowledge in the
task and the method of asking 4 individuals to give me their
opinion (likes, dislikes and favourite features) of existing indie
music videos as a way of broadening what I knew about this genre
and what would be most effective for my target audience. The online
questionnaire allowed me to understand the basics about my genre
and my audience; the mood they most preferred in a music video,
what colours they liked, how many people they preferred to be
featured, setting etc. From there I could work on developing
conventions and changing up the features that I wished to
incorporate after watching back the clips. This allowed a more
specific method of feedback as each individual was selecting ideas
they personally liked or disliked and I could find out as a whole
group which techniques I could immediately rule out and which I
could build upon. I learnt a lot about what visual features were
preferred from my target audience feedback; for example, on the
topic of colour, many said they preferred a music video to feature
colours which stood out to them as this ensured their attention was
focused for the entirety of the video. Speaking about the 'Sweater
weather' video by indie band 'The Neighbourhood', it was said that
the filter used meant the colours in the video were too dull and
muted, so this told me that I would need to use a more effective
filter in my own project, which I then went on to do. Again
relating to the 'Sweater weather' music video, several of the
individuals stated that they did not like the use of the same shot
of the car over a long period of time as it became repetitive and
boring. Seeing this, I wanted to ensure that the cutting and
changing of the clips in my video were snappy and not shown for
large periods of time at once, to avoid this issue in my video. 3.
As well as these techniques being built upon or ruled out as a
result of what I found out from my target audience, I also saw that
many of their answers and responses were very similar or identical;
this largely benefited me as I could use features which were
preferred by the majority and knew these choices and decisions
would appeal to most of the target group. QUESTION 4 How did you
use media technologies in the construction and research, planning
and evaluation stages? Throughout the research, planning and
evaluation stages of my project, I used a range of different media
technologies. The biggest and most necessary media platform I used
over the entire course of my project was an apple iMac; when doing
research, I used this form of technology to browse website Youtube
as a way of watching and reviewing existing music videos. As well
as this, I used Wordpress.com as a means of starting my blog and to
create a space where I would gather and upload all of my findings
and work over the course of the entire project. This media
technology was extremely helpful throughout as I could organise my
findings and research into one space and this allowed to be able to
visually see what tasks still needed to be complete and also helped
with the audience feedback as I could upload my feedback videos to
the iMac and watch them as many times as i pleased, ensuring the
results were thorough. As well as this, the use of an online
questionnaire platform allowed my target audience to interactively
submit their responses, which again helped me massively and sped up
the research process. The planning stages of my project benefited
from media technologies as I was able to use the iMac mailing
system to send drafts of storyboards and similar planning tasks to
the other member of my group, allowing us to build our ideas and
include features which we both agreed would be visually and
artistically effective. When it came to the construction of my
music video, I relied largely on various media technologies to
complete the task; I used a Canon 700D to film with as it was
technology of a high standard and quality and of which was
recommended on various social networking platforms. I particularly
liked this choice of media technology as it had a long battery time
and so we only had to dedicate 3 hours of our day to film in our
chosen location, Bessingby park in Ruislip. It also had the ability
to create blurred backgrounds and give crisp quality to the object
or person in the foreground, which I believed gave a very
professional finish. Having filmed the entire video, I started off
the construction process by ensuring the clips were uploaded to the
apple iMac, via the use of the memory card slot located at the
back. This advanced technology meant I didn't have to carry around
or take any wires with me to my classes and it sped up the process.
When it came to the actual editing of the task, I used editing
software iMovie throughout; as a frequently used media software, I
was able to access a wide range of buttons and filters over the
course of my project, resulting in a higher quality outcome and
again speeding up the process as a whole. A feature that I
particularly liked to use was the 'reverse' feature, which allowed
me to reverse clips. As a video which is performance based, this
technique was very visually effective, especially when it came to
the clips which featured smoke and really added to the indie feel I
was looking to create. For the evaluation of my music video, I
again used the Canon 700D to film a self evaluation; this included
what I felt went well and not so well over the course of the
project and what I would improve If I were to complete the project
again. I used this form of media technology as it, not only had
high visual and sound quality to ensure my evaluation was easily
audible, but it also features a flip screen which was extremely
helpful; being able to see myself in the screen ensured I could
suitably position myself in shot and was confident that I was in
focus and not blurred at any point. This being said, the self
evaluation was completed in one take and so didn't take a lot of
time. Also, the use of the memory card slot into the apple iMac
allowed easy access to my clips and I could then move on to using
the same iMovie software to cut the clips together and remove any
unnecessary pauses and mistakes.
