Evaluation.

Media Evaluation

                                                                    Amiee Austin 13AG

Brief?

After doing some research into the history of music videos, we was told to pick members of our class to work with to make a music video and digi pak. We was then told to pick a song and identify its genre to make a music video to, we was asked to make sure the song we picked wasn't from the rap, r&b or hip hop genre. After discovering the genre we then started to research into the music conventions and its current music video for ideas for our own.

Introduce group member?

In my group was myself, Amy Fountain, George Hoy and Jake Poulter.

Explain what your role was and what you were responsible for and what you learnt from it?

We all took on very similar roles as we wanted to share the work load evenly between us. My main job roles in the group was to film, conduct the story boards and help arrange meeting times, from taking these job roles I had to learn to be organised in order to make arrangements for the group to meet up as everyone had their own after school activities and free periods, so after we discussed what times we could meet, we needed to make sure that we stuck to the set arrangements if any problems came across as to why someone could not come to a set meeting, we then needed to re-arrange to do so. I had to make storyboards so that my group would have a guideline as to what we need to film, the storyboards included the camera shot, location, iconography, lighting, actors, sound, editing and a full description. By doing this beforehand it allowed us to get as many marks as we can, it gave us a clear view of what we needed to film and know second for second what needed to be included. Filming I found quite difficult as I am not very steady with the camera and quite a few parts needed to be hand held so it took a bit of practice to steady the camera and get the best shots I could. I enjoyed using the tripod as it was easier to manoeuvre. We had a few issues though whilst up London we had to get a permit in order to film using a tripod so a lot of the camera shots were done by hand holding the camera.

Did your group work well within a group?

I think my group worked really well together until the end of making the music video as we all was under a lot of stress and pressure to do well and it became very stressful. However throughout the production of the video we got on really well. While filming in London we managed to get a lot done, we decided to take a day trip up there in case we found it difficult to get certain shots and to make sure we got the sun rise in the morning because of our plans to make our lyrics match our visuals. We got on well as we all took our job roles on board really well and made sure that no-one had a bigger work load than anyone. We was all friends so it was easy to make decisions between us as we was good at picking and choosing whose ideas we will use for each part of the task ahead of us.

Explain if you think you have made a successful music video and ancillary texts

I think my group have made a good music video for our music genre. We chose 'Wake me up' by Avicci. This song comes under the genre of 'house music'. We identified our target audience firstly by handing out some questionnaires to students at our school and then did some further analysis into what our audiences would expect from our music video, for example what they would see in a typical house music video. Most answers lead to flashing lights, lasers, crowds full of people, alcohol, low lighting, club scenes, close ups of dancing women, Dj's, mess etc. By following these typical conventions we knew we was going to be on the right track to making a good music video, our teacher then gave us a sheet of camera shots to look at which we then looked at and picked which ones we wanted to use, our music video contained a lot of mid-shots and long shots, this was mainly because with larger shots you can see the setting and iconography more and it enabled us to set a vibe to our video. After finishing our music video we was asked to make our ancillary products we made these by looking at other house music products and mixed them into making our own. We all had very similar ideas for this so we found it difficult to choose the end product but also it showed that we was all on the right track because the outcomes were practically the same from all 4 of us.

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

Brief - what was your production brief? What were you asked to create?

When starting this project we was asked to get into groups of maximum groups of four and choose a song to make a music video and ancillary products for. As a group we then had to research into our chosen song to find out its genre and conventions in order to make a successful video, after completing the video to the best standard we could in our time limit we then began to research products and their appearance to get ideas for our own. This was my favorite part of the project as it allowed us to be a bit more creative.

What is a music video? (explain what a music video is and explain your understanding of one - this can be the same one as your blog - include the styles and conventions) 

Music videos are short films that accompany an artist’s song. They are primarily used to help increase the market and sales of the music recordings, although some musicians do make them to help audiences understand their song and are purely for artistic purposes. Music videos are usually categorized into three main terms of style which are, performance based, narrative based or concept based. Specific genres usually conform to one type of style and it then becomes a convention because of the sounds and lyrics the songs are based on. For example a rock or pop song would usually fall under the performance category because of the 'dance like' sounds and minimal meaning to their songs, these types of songs are mostly for good vibes so their music videos are aimed to get you excited and most likely promote for you to go see the artist in concert. In contrast to this a soul or indie song would most likely be more narrative/story based because of the deeper background to the songs. Most of these artists would rather the audiences know the deeper meanings to their songs, however they will still be promoting themselves in order to get more fans and buyers. Music videos can be viewed by a variety of different devises in this day and age which makes it a lot easier for fans and potential fans to view music on the go. Devices such as tablets & mobile phones have risen views on YouTube massively over the past few years.

Explain what the codes and conventions of a 'house music' music video, include detailed examples, to support the points that you have made.

Music videos for house music tend to have messages about dancing, love, sexuality, alcohol, drugs and all underpinned with repetitive arrangements and a steady bass. There are usually women dancing erotically and under dressed. They usually contain groups of people dancing together in a club or party setting with alcohol and sometimes show brief views of the Dj. The club scenes tend to have flashing lights and bright colours. Typical conventions are the following: flashing lights, lasers, crowds full of people, alcohol, low lighting, club scenes, close ups of dancing women, Dj's, mess etc. In our music video we used flashing lights in the club to make the scenes more intense, it was filmed at Jake Poulters 18th so we was able to get loads of shots of crowds of people dancing and alcohol being drunk. It had low lighting and had close-ups of girls dancing because this video was for a school project we thought it would be inappropriate of us to have under-dressed girls otherwise we would have conformed to the conventions exactly. When filming the end of the music video we showed Jake's apartment which was covered in mess and during the party about mid-way through the video we showed a table full of drinks and mess also. The aim of this was to show the teens/young adults views on life as being careless and destructive. Most house music videos are all performance based but considering the song that myself and my group picked we decided to add some narrative to our music video because the original video was all narrative which made it more appealing as it was different to your typical house music video, there was meaning behind the lyrics in the song and we wanted the audience to know that so we discussed possible outcomes and eventually George and Jake decided that they would be actors in the videos story. We conformed to the typical conventions because we didn't want our music video to be over looked we wanted people to be able to watch it and understand the meaning behind the lyrics and know that its not just another repetitive base drum house music video.

Explain if your finished music and ancillary texts, develops or challenges your chosen music genre. 

Throughout the whole production of our music video and ancillary products we tried to stick to the music genres typical elements so we definitely developed rather than change our chosen genre. We tried to stick to the colour scheme of our club scene in our music video in order to make our Digi Pak and poster to make sure that our products matched one another. However most music videos usually give off happy positive vibes and I believe our music video gives off a fun vibe with a hidden message. This is because of our slightly more narrative based video.

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

Explain why you think your ancillary products are successful (advert, digipak) ? Research (annotations and real products) planning (decisions) construction (making) reflection (which finished product is the most beneficial 

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Which digipak advert, did you and your group decide to submit and why?

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How does your ancillary tasks work alongside your music video and why? 

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3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback? 

Explain why you think it's important to evaluate your work 

I think it’s important to evaluate your work because you can see it with a fresh pair of eyes, rather than watching your work over while making the video and looking over the digi pak when you evaluate you can notice elements you wouldn't normally notice. It is important that you are aware of unintended outcomes, because not everything you do is going to come out exactly how you planned so you can focus on the parts you feel like you need/want to change. 

Explain why you picked YouTube to showcase your video. 

We picked YouTube because its free first of all. The uploading process is simple and can be done quite quickly. It can be viewed using a mobile device which in comparison to any other video site makes it much more accessible, there is even an application for apple products. By using YouTube we was reaching a global audience which was important to collect feedback from. 

Include 3 to 4 audience comments that you received as feedback of your products 

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How did the comments make you feel as a media producer? 

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Did you take on board the audience comments/change anything? 

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How would your feedback help you if you were working in the music industry? 

If you was working in the media industry feedback good or bad would be useful, because the work will need a balance. The good feedback will enable you to know what works well and what appeals to audiences so that it can be used for future reference. The negative comments will help you improve the work so that it can be a better overall package. 

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

Research- YouTube, Blogger, Mac, Google, Artist Homepage, Downloads, iTunes