Finished Evaluation

Question One

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

The music video I chose to recreate is specific to the Pop Rock genre. I chose to recreate the song cops and robbers by ‘The Hoosiers’ as I believed that this type of music would have worked well with the storyboard plan I had set out within my research. Due to the song being upbeat I had decided to match the tempo of the song with a more performance based video (over other types such as narrative, abstract or animation) as this challenged the conventions of the pop rock genre as these are usually more narrative based, and the fact that I used a female performer instead of making appearances of the band within the video. I had used influences from different aspects of the pop rock genre within my original storyboard plan with such influences such as, She Will Be Loved – Maroon 5 and I’m Yours – Jason Mraz as these both used a narrative and performance structure.

Codes and conventions are used as a way of constructing a media text; these codes and convention can either be technical or symbolic. The differences between the two are that; technical includes aspects such as how the technology is used to create the text, and also how the use of camera, editing and sound influences the text itself with features such as different camera angles, different shots, the pace and style of editing, and the use of diegetic and non-diegetic sound.

Whereas symbolic is focused more upon the meaning past what the video is obviously displaying, this can be portrayed through the use of different facial expressions, symbolic codes and conventions also use the mise-en-scene of the video to send some messages to the audience to discover what the video is attempting to represent.

There are different types of styles of music videos, these styles are: performance, narrative, animation, mixture and cameo. All of these styles are used to show the differences that are meant to be portrayed in the video compared to other videos, for example you may use narrative for one genre and performance for another. Performance style videos are when the video is based around the band or artist, narrative is when the video tells a story, animation is done digitally or stop frame, mixture is both performance and narrative together and cameo is when the band or artist is in the narrative but doesn’t perform in the video.

The use of the camera will depend on the type of music video, for example if the video was a performance video you may see more close ups and extreme close ups to capture the artists/bands faces for promotional purposes and the lips, guitar strings, drums being banged as this shows the performance of the video. There will also be the use of shots such as crane shots, low/high angle shots, long and extreme long shots, establishing shots to show the location of the video, pans/tilts and tracking shots. All of these will sent messages to the audience and may give clues to the genre of the video such as the establishing shot as if the location was in a flashy mansion with lots of girls and cars, this would give the conventions of an R&B/rap genre.

There are many different editing techniques used in music videos but editing is mainly used to make the video look believable and make it flow. Most people will use jump cuts from one shot to another to keep the continuity. The footage will often match the music as this continues with the fluidity of the video. Depending on what style and genre the music video is, it may add in some split screen effects and CGI.

The sound of the video will include choosing diegetic sounds and changes in levels of sound; this can also make the video more believable.

The mise-en-scene can vary depending on the genre and style of the music videos; they would focus on certain costumes/outfits, props such as performance equipment, the location and the different facial expressions that the band/artists use.

Pop rock is a music genre, which mixes a catchy pop style, and light lyrics in its (typically) guitar-based rock songs. There are varying definitions of the term, ranging from a slower and mellower form of rock music to a subgenre of pop music. Scholars have noted that pop and rock are usually depicted as opposites; the detractors of pop often deride it as a slick, commercial product, less authentic than rock music.

Pop rock has been described as an "upbeat variety of rock music represented by artists such as Elton John, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Chicago, and Peter Frampton. "In contrast, music reviewer George Starostin defines it as a subgenre of pop music that uses catchy pop songs that are mostly guitar-based. Starostin argues that most of what is traditionally called 'power pop' falls into the pop rock subgenre. He claims that the lyrical content of pop rock is "normally secondary to the music."

Barry Keith Grant stated in 1995 that all genres have sub-genres, which means that these categories are more divided into more specific sections, which allows the audience to identify the differences and to become familiar with different styles of each of their characteristics. This applies to my video as my genre is a merge between two huge genres (pop and rock), this means that my video must contain characteristics of both types of genre.

Although, Steve Neale also argued in 1995 that 'genres are not systems but are processes of systemisation', which means that they are dynamic and evolve over time. This means that what makes a certain genre has changed over time, in my videos case it shows the differences between the stereotypes that are associated with this genre and in general.

Firstly, when learning about the genre in my research through videos and written documents I noticed that the use of close-ups and mid shots was the more dominate shots for this genre. This therefore influenced me to dominate my video and ancillary texts with similar shots as seen throughout my products. The reason for this is so that the audience could see the performance aspects of the video more intimately, which allows the audience to become more drawn to the video and feel closer to the music and performance themselves.

Another convention I used which I believe was vital to apply to the products was the mise-en-scene of the costume of the performance, this allows the audience to recognise and interpret the little narrative I had within the video to their own understanding, and although this was not my original plan, as I did have a second performer to play I vital role within the narrative, I had to change many aspects within the video, which I will further explain within the development section.

The costume is also another aspect of the conventions used in other pop rock videos; my influence was from within the video Goodbye Mr. A by ‘The Hoosiers’ as in this video they dress to match the theme of the song, which is of superheroes in this case.

Other aspects of the mise-en-scene of the video such as the location where also very important to the video itself as this would help set the tone of the video and has to be effective in order to keep the attention and interest of the audience viewing. If the location fails to do this, it could effectively make for a poor video as a whole. I believe that my use of locations of going in-between similar locations of noticeable poverty was good for the video and the social idea I was trying to portray to the audience, which was that, even though the criminal does not get caught within the video, they do also not get very far and are stuck within the same parts of a negative life which they will not break out of through misdemeanors and crime.

The use of diegetic sound at the beginning of the video, with the asynchronous whistling, and the synchronous and asynchronous sound of footsteps, again, stuck to the conventions and showed a beginning to the narrative structure of the video.

I used a narrative and performance based video, which is conventional to the genre I am targeting, this means that the video should be more likely to understand and enjoy the video as a whole, although, the consistency of the narrative structure is not as strong as first planned due to the casting issues I experienced in the build up to me shooting the final product. The narrative is simple which is conventional, it consists of the escape of the criminal at the beginning (as previously shown), and then having a carefree time outside of prison, this is shown by the fact that there are no policemen chasing her down, the video then finishes with the criminal winking to the camera, this is to signify the fact that she has not learned her lesson, which reinforces the message I was trying to deliver in reference to the social idea I was pitching to the audience.

I have also used narrative structure with reference to the video within my digipak and advert as these are partial reflections and insights to the story being portrayed on-screen, the narrative on my digipak begins with the chase which is to indicate how the criminal ended up in jail, the next image is two drawn elements chasing each other, this is to highlight the wacky element within the performance and products as a whole as this is conventional to the genre and audience, my influence behind the drawn elements was from the rotoscoping method used in the video to the song ‘Take On Me’ by ‘A-ha’, although these were a synthpop band they used elements that are conventional to the pop rock genre such as the use of band performance, use of both rock and pop elements etc. The next image is then of the criminal caught (after the chase) and the image on the back is of the criminal holding the open handcuffs, symbolising that she had escaped (which is where the video starts. I thought this was conventional as this kept the entire campaign of the products continuous, as the advert was an adapted image of the cover of the digipak to create familiarisation between the products to the audience. 

The use of the design I have created also sticks to the conventions of the genre as it is creating a fun vibe that targets the audience of that genre specifically, with such bands like ‘The Hoosiers’ and ‘Maroon 5’ both having animated cases on their albums such as Maroon 5’s albums ‘Songs About Jane’ and ‘Overexposed’, which were influences for the creation for my digipak product, the aspects I used was mainly to do with the way in which the lighting on Overexposed allows the CD to really stand out and the use of the image of the women alongside a rather simple background on Songs About Jane allows the cover to straight away sent out the message and the theme of the album.

Throughout the creation of my final products I had to change and develop many aspects of my work such as the video and the digipak. The video was originally casted for two roles (a cop and a robber) but from issues with casting times and the availability of my ‘cop’ part, I had to recreate a meaning for the video which was rather similar to the original meaning but it had to be portrayed in a different manor due to only having one element of the themed song. Originally the story was supposed to follow the conventions of a typical pop rock song until the end where the performer would lose the battle within the video, which would have challenged the codes and conventions of the genre. So I decided that without my second cast member, I could use this to my advantage to allow me to put a spin on the conventions of the genre and allow the performer to win as a robber and portray a negative image within society, as the police wasn’t even trying to do the right thing. So in this sense my aim was developed from following the conventions of the performers winning (for example in ‘Goodbye Mr. A’ and the original video to ‘Cops and Robbers’ both by The Hoosiers) until the end the video before breaking conventions of the genre and letting the performer lose, to having the performer win as a negative character to depict a negative outlook of the authorities within society ‘which again was influenced by the narrative to ‘Goodbye Mr. A’.

Other developments I made within my overall products are with regards to my ancillary texts, specifically, my digipak. For my digipak I had a general idea in what I wanted to achieve in terms of interlinking it with my advert and video in terms or marketing techniques such as using the cover of the digipak as the main image on the magazine advert and creating a joint narrative between the digipak and the video as explained previously. I used many developments for my digipak that used and challenged different aspects of the pop rock genre. For example, I used drawn, basic ICT, Google found images and a self taken image versions in order to find a conventional way of designing the digipak but still keeping to my idea of interlinking the products very closely and effectively as a overall media campaign.

One development that I did not end up using was, the use of still images to make a short montage throughout the song, I was originally going to use this method in order to break the convention of having still images to break up the beat of the song when the instrumental parts were playing but I decided against it as I did not think it would be best for the video.

At the start of the project I planned to challenge the conventions of this genre with different aspects within each product. Within the video I planned to use a girl to be the performer to a song by a male band as I wanted to challenge the genre conventions that mean the band usually perform themselves and at the same time challenge the social view that men are usually depicted as criminals, and further past that, that if a female is going to be a criminal, she does not have to be big or have black hair etc. as the performer is small and blonde. I believe this works well for the video and the campaign as a whole as this still follows key conventions but still separates itself from artists that do use different performers or actors as this challenges the depiction of stereotypical gender roles.

Another aspect of the performance area I challenged was that I had no use of instruments within the video, which is usually conventional to this genre, but this again will be reflected as I had no appearance of the band and strictly stuck to a single performance with a slight narrative that stretched across the entire campaign.

I did not use much narrative structure within my video itself, which as stated breaks convention. The reason for this is because I believe that the single performance aspect had to be strong and focused upon since I was not using a performer relative to the band and one that was being used to break different conventions and social views. I believe that this aspect worked well within the video as it allowed the audience to be interested in the difference the full campaign has to offer as well as just some of the key conventional points.

I also challenged conventions within the magazine advert as I used the image of the cover of the album it was promoting and that I also used the performer in the video to advertise the band instead of the band themselves. I believe that this was a smart choice as this allows the narrative to be continuous throughout the full overall product and will be easily remembered as the performer will be eye-catching as people will have seen her within the other products.

Question Two

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

I believe that my collective products (Main product and ancillary texts) work well together and work as a marketing campaign effectively as they display an effective use of cross-form synergy. The video and the ancillary texts show shared and contrasting elements of the target audience and genre I was trying to convey or challenge. For example, a contrasting element of my video to the Digipak is that, within my music video I wanted to use a performance based technique as this challenged the genre conventions but this also contrasts with the ancillary texts as I wanted the digipak especially to portray a story line, as the order of the pictures when folded are in chronological order, i.e. – chase (the drawn images of the cop and robber), caught (the image of the performer holding a sign with the bands name on, which is a twist on the conventional shot of a criminal that are getting their photos taken), cell bars (represent being in prison) and then broke free (represented as she is holding the handcuffs whilst they are open).

Possibly the biggest and most important shared aspect my different products share is the upbeat and fun design of the products, which most of my target audience and even some outside of my target audience seemed to enjoy as shown within my audience feedback techniques such as my poll and my face to face interviews. This was an important aspect as this also follows the conventions of the genre although I took a different approach to achieving the goal through non-conventional ways as my video was mainly performance based without the actual band appearing in the video (although the audience mostly liked this aspect and enjoyed the performance aspects). I believe that I made this shared element very effective throughout my combination as I also made the ancillary texts have a conventional ‘wackiness’ as well as the video through the use of my Photoshop skills, as I used the blur and sharpen tools to create a main focus on the image by using the blur tool around the image and then exposing the image itself to heavy sharpening which created a colourful and pixelated image, which I believe was very effective in making the products stand out and add additional market value through the packaging design of the digipak and advert.

This specific shared element helps the overall brand image and allows the audience to easily identify the products themselves as they have an individual aspect through the design of the products themselves such as the colour aspects of the ancillary texts. The use of yellow for the front cover of the digipak case and the advert itself helps the brand show continuity as the audience will remember the design of either of the images, plus the colour yellow is conventional to the theme of cops and robber as yellow connotes the meaning of caution, which, as stated, is relevant to the theme of the song.

Question Three

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For my audience feedback I decided to use two methods:

 - Video face-to-face interviews

 - Online poll

The reason I chose not to use a written interview method is because it takes longer and does not provide me with the same level of qualitative data as a face-to-face video interview and the online poll allows me to receive my quantitative data, which when combined with my video makes the process of a written interview or survey, obsolete.

Within my audience feedback I interviewed both male and female aspects of my target audience (16 -20) as well as a male outside my target audience (40+) in order to create a feel of what the broad views and contrasts would be between the two audiences. The results show that both girls within my target audience really enjoyed the video as a whole, especially liking the performance aspect as they thought that this was key to the video, this taught me that you can break conventional activity within the genre as long as it is replaced by quality footage/idea, such as a strong performance base with a good performer that can convey an attitude through the video forms. All but one-person thought the video fell within the pop genre as most thought the tempo was quick and the dancing was within synch to the music itself. The male person interviewed within my feedback was very critical of the video aspects, such as, the pace, the narrative structure, the casting, the use of props, editing error (Coke Cola can) etc. Although this was very undermining of the video itself, it allowed me to see some aspects of the video, which could have been improved or changed in order to fit into my main target audience as my poll suggested as three times more male people voted on my blog. Through trying to understand the deeper meanings of why he did not like the different aspects of the video. The narrative structure I believe was effective in portraying my message and ideas but was not as finely tuned as the performance aspects, which must have come across during the video as he states ‘it is just a robber dancing’. Another reason that could have come from the narrative is because he could have perhaps been bias since it was his casting that was narrowed down during the initial filming, this can also be backed up as he mentions ‘he thinks there should have been a copper’ (that was originally has part) and when he says his favorite aspect of the video was himself as Simon and how it reminds him of the production method I could have used before changing the story and meaning of the overall product. This being said I had to develop his role into Simon, as I did not have enough footage or the appropriate standard of copper uniform within the small amount of footage he was originally in.

I did manage to find someone from outside my target audience that enjoyed the overall video as he enjoyed the ‘simplistic’ values it upheld being the strong performance base I tried to work from. But he picked up on something that was a worry of mine from when shooting the video as we both felt that their was not enough shots within the video to add much variance, this is again backed up by my second interview as she also picked up on the repetitiveness of the shots and she suggested that she would use more narrative in these spaces by having more a chase between the cops and robbers. This would of then gone against my message, but this seemed to be the more popular aspect desired by the target audience although my first interview really enjoyed the feature of my performer and stated ‘it was really upbeat’, ‘funny’ and ‘kept the audience engaged’, which was a big feature I was trying to create, although this may come from some aspects that she too is a media student and realises some different ways that I used in order to achieve my socially challenging view/message.

Question Four

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

Throughout the creation of my products, my research, planning and development stages, I used several different programs and new media technologies that allowed me to use, create, research, modify, and develop different pieces of work as well as my ideas.

The most important and influential technology I used was my Blogger account on internet explorer, this program allowed me to upload, save, and display my research, ideas, different influences and methods, developments and final pieces with the ability for me and other people from around the world to see and understand the progress I have made throughout the time spent on my work. It was also very quick and accessible to me as I could check my work regularly wherever there was a computer connected to the Internet. This also allowed me to collect quantitative date on the blog as I created a poll asking a variation of different questions.

Another technology I had used in order to display my work was YouTube; this allowed me to upload my final pieces of work as well as my interviews for audience feedback. This again allowed me to easily access my work and allows for a huge audience to watch, comment or like my videos.

I used an IPhone 5 camera to first video my face-to-face interviews as I thought that this would help me save time in uploading them to my blog but I experienced problems, as the videos would not transfer onto the computer, so I decided not to waste time so I used a Olympus SP-720OUZ Camera with a video feature to record the recordings from the phone instead of reshooting the interviews. I also used the Olympus SP-720OUZ Camera to take the photographs of my original cast, costumes, possible locations, and my storyboard etc. in order to be able to easily upload them to a computer and onto my blog account under the correct title.

In order to create the storyboard into an animation, I used the Windows Movie Maker programme as this allowed my to combine my Photoshop CS5.5 skills in order to crop each of my drawn pictures into a flowing animation displaying my original plan for the video in an attractive style.

I had never used the Windows Movie Maker programme before so this took me some time to learn the process in which to work the system and match the timeline and synch each of the pictures to the song, which was adapted from an MP3 file.

The biggest task that I had to face was learning to use the Non-Linear Editing Suite and the Adobe Premierpro CS4 system, as this was the main component towards creating my music video. Within the time I had on the editing suite, I learned to use features such as importing the music, synching elements of the videos to so the music, cutting shots with the razor tool, using the rate stretch tool to slow the feature down over a period of time, to fade the shots and music, how to zoom in and out by selecting key parts of the shot and setting a pace for the zooming to work at etc.

I also learned to mix and contrast the different colours within the shots although I did not use this element as I thought it was conventional to my genre, I did not believe it would suit the video itself.

All of these elements helped me in merging different features to create new conventions that I would not have been able to apply if I did not understand the system, so in this sense I developed massively.

When coming to my ancillary texts I already had an understanding of how to use Photoshop CS5.5 from my skills learned through my AS magazine work, this meant I knew what conventions to create through different uses of colours, fonts, image layouts and positioning etc. I used methods such as cropping, sharpening and blurring, scaling different aspects of the text/images, changing the opacity of the images I found via Google Images. The most effective feature I found was the use of the sharpen and blur tools and this allowed me to create and individual look for my images but still stuck to the conventions of the genre. 

Digipak Cover Influences

I had many influences for my digipak idea for the front cover but the two most influential covers where 'Overexposed' and 'Songs About Jane' both by Maroon 5: