Evaluation script
1. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We used Lana Del Rey’s ‘video games’ music
video as the main inspiration for our own but we also looked at some of
her other videos aswell as Ellie Goulding's 'I need your love'. We found
'video games' contains many random shots and a variety of shot types
and cutting speeds edited together well to the beat. We followed this
convention by filming many
random shots for example instruments, a swing and effects such as paint
falling
in water and then editing these in throughout. We felt that this would
add a
more artistic look to our music video and keep the audience interested,
wondering what is going to happen next. We also included close up and
medium performance shots of
our artist singing in many different locations which is very much like
Lana Del
Rey’s video with the artist remaining in eye contact with the camera the
whole time to entice the audience in. We did this right from the
beginning to immediately introduce our
artist to the audience as she is the most important part of our product.
We
were originally only going to use these performance shots at the
beginning and
end of the video, however in our feedback people said that they liked
these and
thought we should use them the whole way through. These shots were
mostly close
ups as this shows her vulnerability and also that there is no hiding for
the artist and in our research we found that artists
like ours were shown as though they are more interested in the music
than their
appearance. We also showed this in our mise en scene and costume by
having her
wearing simple clothes unlike artists like for example Rihanna who rely
heavily
on their appearance. Lana Del Rey's video games included the performance
shots placed where the lyrics were more important and needed to be
exaggerated so we aswell used this technique. Many music videos we
looked at contained footage that looked as though it had been filmed
with a handheld camera which makes it more believable, it would also
mean the audience are more able to relate to it. We also found that many
music video’s were based around a love story and decided to use
this as the base for our narrative. For example Ellie Goulding’s ‘I need
your
love’ contains many different cliche shots of the couple in love and
doing typical
things you would expect a couple to do. We followed this same convention
by
including many different shots, in different locations and with
different mise
en scene, of the couple in our video. In the end our couple eventually
break up
which is shown by different long and medium shots edited together of the
couple arguing and
walking away from each other, this made sure that, although our video
includes
many random parts, the audience can still clearly follow the narrative.
By
watching other music videos we were inspired by, we realised that the
editing
was a very important stage in ours. We had lots of different shots and,
like
the ‘video games’ video, edited them together to the beat so they didn’t
necessarily follow any order apart from the narrative shots. We made
sure the editing sped up when the music sped up
and slowed down when the music did, this makes sure that the audience
keep interested
while also emphasising important parts in the music. This was almost
like a
dream sequence, so we added the artist closing her eyes at the beginning
of the
video and opening them at the end so it is as though the whole video is a
dream. We felt the random shots added a different edge to our video and
could artistically explain feelings that could not easily be portrayed
by the two actors, for example the rose being
put together shows that their love is coming together but then at the
end the colour also connotes danger and the nettles towards the end
connote pain as the relationship is breaking down. We particularly liked
the driving shots used in Ellie Goulding's 'I need your love' where it
skips parts so incorporated this into some of our shots such as the
corridor. We also liked the clouds in Lana Del Rey's 'summertime
sadness' and wanted to include these so we developed this and used time
lapsing for clouds and a clock to show time passing fast.We found that
many indie music videos had an aged look and didn’t show bright colours,
we added a sepia effect over our
whole video to follow this convention and to keep this theme running.
The random shots throughout our video add confusion as they do in Lana
Del Rey's videos but they also engage the audience as they can work out
the meaning as most of these shots have a connotation. Our music
video mainly follows the conventions effectively that were found in our
research and doesn’t in many
ways challenge these.
2. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary tasks?
For my digipack I used the theme of roses
which ties it together with the rose in the video that symbolises the couples
love. I carried on this theme as a background through my whole digipack and
added photos over the top as, in my research, I found that artists such as Nina
Nesbit in her ‘the apple tree’ digipack used a background with a different
photo over the top. This shows the audience that this is an important aspect in
all the products while also emphasising the narrative of the couple in the video. I
then used the same colour as the roses for the artists name and song title on
the magazine advert to keep this colour theme going through my magazine advert aswell.
I also included a small photo of the front of the digipack on my magazine
advert to tie these together while also giving the audience more information
and showing them the CD that the magazine is advertising. I added a slight
sepia effect over the whole digipack as we did for our music video to give them
an older look and to keep the theme running. When I asked for feedback people
said they liked the colour theme so I decided to add this effect to my magazine
advert aswell to further tie all my products together. In my research I found
that many front covers of the digipacks used a simple natural photo of the
artist for example Lana Del Reys ‘video games’ and Ellie Goulding’s ‘bright
lights’. I also found in Ellie Goulding’s she is looking away from the camera
and it is more as though it is not posed, I liked this idea as it again shows
that the artist is care free and is more interested in the music. So for my
front cover of the digipack I used a close up natural looking photo of the artist just
showing her head and shoulders looking away from the camera as I also did in
the magazine advert. I found many other magazine adverts such as Ellie
Goulding’s and Lana Del Rey’s did this, this follows the performance shots in
our video as these are also close ups as we felt this was better for the
audience because they can clearly tell what she is singing. This also keeps the
convention going that we followed of the artist not being able to hide
throughout the video, digipack and magazine advert. I also found in my research
that many digipacks included song lyrics on one of their panels for example
Lana Del Rey’s ‘born to die’ I decided to include the song lyrics to time over
the background of the roses in two of my panels to follow this convention. I
used the same font for this as I used for the ratings, website and other
information in my magazine advert. For the artists name on my digipack I used a
swirly font that I also used in my magazine advert for the artists name and
song title to tie the two together. I also made sure that these were the
largest text on the magazine advert to show that the artist is the most important
aspect as is shown in our music video for the performance shots which are kept
simple just showing her so there are no distractions for the audience.
3. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
We first set up a focus group and asked our target audience
for verbal feedback about our music video before we had fully finished it,
people said that they didn’t always understand the narrative so we decided to
re-film the ending and include shots of the couple arguing and walking away
from each other to make it more obvious to the audience that they are breaking
up. This showed how valuable audience feedback was as our video was immediately made much better just by making these few changes, I also learnt that the audience are the best people to take advice from about our video as they are the people that will be watching it in the end. Therefore after we had finished our first draft we showed this to the rest of our
class and asked them what they liked, what they didn’t like and what they thought we could
improve on. Many people said they liked the random shots especially the clouds
and clock but that they were a bit too confusing so we overcame this by filming
and adding more random shots to make it obvious that it was supposed to be
random and like a dream sequence. We also changed some of these such as the
chair spinning around as although we wanted it random they were confusing the
audience more than what we would have liked. Another thing that was commonly
said was that people liked our performance shots and they were filmed and put together
well but they would have liked to see these more throughout the video.
Originally we were only going to have performance shots at the beginning and
end but we decided to film some more in different locations and incorporate
these into the middle of the music video aswell to further show our artist.
However there were also many things that the target audience liked about the
video aswell such as the time lapsing for the clouds and clock, they thought
this was an interesting and creative way to show time passing. Another common
theme that people liked was the quick cutting speed as they thought this fit in
well with the song and was very much like Lana Del Rey’s video games which was
our main inspiration. I also asked for written feedback for my digipack and
magazine advert after we had shown the video, I showed two different magazine
adverts, one with a rose background and one with a more natural background and
asked which one they preferred. Most people said they preferred the magazine
advert with the more natural background and I also thought this one fit in with
the conventions of indie artists I had researched better than the other one. Many people said they liked
the colour theme of my digipack so I kept this the same with the roses in the
background but replaced some of them with the roses in different positions, I also kept the common theme of natural photos as many people liked this.
4. How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used a camera with different features such
as time lapsing as we felt this would add more of an interesting concept to our
video, for the clouds and clock we turned on the time lapse feature then left
the camera to take many consecutive photos. We then used sony vegas to edit our
music video as we could add effects and play around with different
technologies. We added all the photos taken with the time lapsing feature
together and then sped these up to show time passing and to show the couple’s
relationship changing over time. We also sped many shots up for example the
ballet shots and the swing as we felt this would fit in better with the music
and wouldn’t drag on as much for the audience so keeping them interested. A
common feature we used in the editing process was opacity; we placed two
different shots over the top of each other but faded them so the audience could
see them at the same time. We did this for different reasons for example; at
the beginning we put a shot of the boy over the girl to briefly introduce him
to the audience before the main narrative became clear. Another part we used
this in was for some of the performance shots where we put these over the top
of other things for example the rose to make it different for the audience so
they were not all just purely performance shots. With the rose we sped this up
and then reversed it so it looked like it was being put together rather than
being taken apart. I felt this worked well as it showed how the couple’s relationship
was being put back together and going well. We edited the shots together to the
beat of the music not necessarily in a specific order. This helped to emphasise
important parts of the music as the shot changed when the beat changed, we also
kept the order quite random as this was how ‘video games’ was done, however
there was a slight order for some of the shots for example the narrative shots.
I used photoshop to edit the digipack and magazine advert as there were many
different features I could use in this. This is a more difficult program than others so took time to get used to for example the different layers. I played around with the hue and saturation on my images to enhance them and to make the colours fit with the colours in the music video. For the front and back covers of my
digipack I cut out the photo of the artist from the background and then put
this over a background of roses as I felt this was more interesting than just
keeping the normal background. It also made it tie in better with the music
video as a rose was commonly used it that aswell. I made it look as though the photo of the artist on the back cover was the same photo as that on the front cover but from the back as I thought this would add an interesting concept to my digipack. I kept the theme of natural
photos running through the digipack and magazine advert and then added a sepia
effect over the top of both of them as we did for the video aswell. I used blogger
to present my research and final products as this way it can all be viewed
together. I embedded photos and text together to show pre production for
example mise en scene, location and lyric analysis aswell as feedback. This
further showed our ideas for the music video and how we changed it according to
our feedback. I could also show the conventions I researched for my digipack
and magazine adverts aswell as some analysis’ I did on existing products to
make it easier in the editing stage when making my own products.
