MEDIA EVALUATION

Joshua Lewis

IntroductionIn our group of 3 we created a Music video, a CD cover and an advert for it.

In this media evaluation I am going to answer 4 key questions

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

We had to research into different music videos and different types of genre’s and analyse the conventions used in each of those music videos that makes it appeal to certain audiences. We were then told to make a decision about what conventions we were going to use in our own music video

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

This question will look at the synergy of our three final products

- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The whole point of researching conventions in a music videos and their different genre’s is to appeal to the audience, we want to make a video that the audience feel they can relate to. Audience feedback is essential to help understand what we done right and were we could improve.

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

I will look at the different hardware and software used in creating our music video.

QUESTION ONE

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

Marketing aims and beginning stages

As a class, we analysed different music video’s from different genre’s. In particular we analysed the ‘Runaway Love’ music video by Ludacris and Mary J. Blige. We analysed how different conventions were used to portray different characters in this video and how they were used to send a message across that the audience can either relate to or empathise with. After picking up on different techniques we decided what kind of music video we was going to make and drew up a story board of the location and the different shots in the music video. We also appointed different positions within the group for example the camera man, the director etc.

How we used conventions of real media products

How you used the conventions of a real media product

Smartz produced a song called Londons burning, which was recorded just after the riots on the topic of the riots. We felt it was only appropriate to shoot the music video in central london around the westminister and picadilly area. In devlin’s london city video he has filmed all the people walking in a night out in london ad sped up the footage to create a blurry effect of how busy the night life is. We have aimed for this in our shot at Piccadilly in Smartz’s music video. Devlin has also used one of the main tourist attractions in london which is the london eye and so have we using a similar shot creating the impression that Smartz is just a small human in a big city. The view of big ben from different angles was important for this video, the lighting has been caught effectively to show how beautiful london can be. In Wileys never be your woman video Emeli Sande is seen to be standing on a rooftop in deep thought, we have also used this convention in our shot Smartz across the river from Big Ben.

How do you use conventions of a real media product

How you used the conventions of a real media product

• In our video we have used the dissolve effect to change shots a numerous amount of times. This makes changing from different shots smoother. We have chosen carefully where we used it in our video for example when smartz is talking about sirens we dissolved the police and ambulance sirens into the video briefly with footage we got from recording at oxford circus. I discovered this technique used in many Drake videos. Also in Usher’s ‘Burn’ video when he is talking about his girl it has a faded shot of her walking out of the room. I also noticed that some shots change to go with the tempo of the instrumental for example the drums in Drake’s ‘I’m on one’. We used this technique at some points in our video changing the shot after every one of Smartz’s lines in the song.

How you used conventions of a real media product

We noticed in some official music videos the Artists put the title of the song and the artist or the music group they are representing. The logo on our video will stick in the audiences minds so if they see it again they will recognise it instantly and watch more products from this Artist. From the logo we have dissolved in the clips from the London riots so it makes the audience realise that ‘London’s burning’ in the title is referring to the riots.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Question Three

Audience feedback Audience feedback is essential for helping to understand whether the conventions you used within your music video was successful and what you can do to improve on them

Techniques used for gaining audience feedback -Survey monkey

We created a survey on www.surveymonkey.com with the following questions

Do you like the music video?

Do you think the video is representative of other music videos?

What music channels do you think the music video would be on?

Do you think the Imagery in the video match the lyrics in the song?

Does the video make you want to research in to more of the artists work? -Facebook/Twitter

We posted the video on facebook to gain response from people we know as to whether they like the music video or not and how we can improve

Do you like the music video?

Do you think this is representative of a real music video

What music channel do you think it would be shown on?

Do you think the imagery matches the lyrics?

Does the video make you want to listen to more stuff from the artist

How we can improve on our product

Apart from evidently needing a better quality HD camera, there are other techniques we could have used better to bring out the best in this video

-Camera handling

In some points in our music video the camera is shaky which makes it look unprofessional. There is also raindrops on the camera lens which could have been wiped off. Steady handling of the camera can ensure all shots come out clear as possible

-Lighting

In some of the shots particularly the one across the river from Big Ben and the houses of parliament, there is not enough lighting on Smartz’s face to see the words he is mouthing, a headlight on the camera would prevent this from happening.