evaluation script

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.