Final Video

Summing up...

Conclusion on Prezi

Evaluation Question 4

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

Evaluation Question 3

Looking at specifically the focus group which we filmed, we were able to gain both positve and naegative feedback which will definately help us in the future if we chose to make a music video again. One key feature of our music video, that has recieved all positive feedback, is the lighting of our music video, and how it is definately a genre signifier of the pop/rock genre, as the lighting is able to convey a grunge look which fits in with the song itself.

Also as we have been able to create the right lighting meaning the audience believes the music video fits in with the style of the band, they think it is east for the audience to decode what we as producers have encoded, and as we have done this, it will keep the audience entertained throughout the duration of the music video, as we place the break up scene in the middle of the sequence. As the subject matter presented in the music video matches the son meaning, audience feedback suggests that it will be easy for audiences to realte to the story, as they would have gone through, also the costumes and locations used mean the audience can further relate to what the characters are going through in the video.

Another positive feature that audience feedback liked is the use of a black and white filter as it is clearly a convention of modern music videos as it gives a different and interesting look to the music video. Also the black confetti in the close up shots, against the white background, was liked universally as it gives the music video as proffesional look that handmade effect along with the motion blur final cut effect means the audience are kept entertained and interested in the music video throughout. Finally, the audience enjoyed the animation we incorperated, was liked as it gives the music video that little bit more for the audience, and some feedback members suggested that it fits well with the storyline of the music video and that it works well through the duration of the music video. However, it was also stated that the animation does not match the look of the video, but it is neccessary to give a new dimension to the music video. The negative feedback we recieved was that some shots of the couple were 'cheesy' and could have been made to look less cheesy by using a wider variety of shots.

Our digipak recieved positive feedback, as it creates a strong band identity, by using the same colours that the music video has, the blacks the whites and the yellows. They said that the lighting in the video helps convey the same genre as the digipak and that both work together to give a strong band identity.

How we can improve...

According to the audience feedback, we can spend more time on the lead singer focusing on their ability to lip sync, making sure they consistantly stick to the lines they have. Also with the lead singer in mind, we need to improve on taking more close ups of the lead singer to fit in with Andrew Goodwin's icon theory. Wider variety of locations will be neccessary to make future music videos even better. We will also need to make sure that the effects are appropriate to the shots we include, using all of this feedback and suggested improvements we will be able to make an even better music video in the future.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Evaluation Question 1

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

Our music video is one that uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media products. For our song we chose You Me At Six - Fireworks, this song is of the rock / pop genre, expressed through its high tempo but sombre lyrics often expressing betrayal and anger. To conform to the 'sound' of the song in our music video, we centred the main plot around two couples involving the same girl and how she has cheated on her previous boyfriend, and has started a new relationship with her lover. We believe that this conforms to the song we have chosen as we have centred the song around a specific lyric; "when you're sleeping in someone elses bed". Looking at other media products of the same genre we found that the shots involved include, close ups, upward pans and tracking to show how the relationships in the stories are coming to an end, making it easier for the audience to relate with the story. We conformed with these general conventions of music videos of the same genre by including shots and angles that show intimacy and infatuation.

Our genre signifiers include the style of the band, which is similar to the audiences sense of style, their hair and clothing, by dressing the band in this way, as producers we are able to to encode to the audience that the band is of the similar style to them. As we used a black and white colour for one of the relationships with a vignette which was created in Final Cut, by utilising colour to our advantage it will mean that the audience will be able to subconsciously decode that that is the past relationship, also this will make it easier for the audience to distinguish between the two relationships in the, one in colour one in black and white. In our music video we created an animation to give it a new dimension of viewing, we did this by using the same plot as the rest of the music video, this means that the audience will identify the two stories as the same, this ties in with our preferred reading, as we hope the animation will appear as 'cute' to the audience.

When filming our main character Tommy we focused on close ups to conform to Goodwin's theory meaning we are able to create a band identity and make the lead singer an icon, which will again strengthen the band's identity. By using close ups of the band and the lead singer the audience can decode that he is both the lead singer and the main character. By using non-verbal codes such as costumes, actors and locations the audience are able to decode the messages we have encoded the video with. Barthes outlined that media texts have signifiers that audiences decode subliminally, by using black and white the audience can automatically decode that it is in the past using these signifiers.

Our music video has four elements within them; narrative, performance, continuity and montage filming. We incorporated narrative filming, by selecting a story, the relationships within the music video, we decide to show these relationships in the same with the same locations and mise-en-scene but using different male characters in each shots. For the narrative shots we used clips short in length as they presented arguing and shouting. But for the performance parts of our music video we used quick cuts and pans of the lead singer, along with close ups of the band. We placed the band in the mise-en-scene of a garage to show that they are practising again this can be subconsciously decoded by the audience. By cross cutting between a performance and narrative we are able to conform to Andrew Goodwin's theory that suggests music videos are devices to promote band and band members alike, our video most certainly does this, as we include lots of shots of the lead singer, and the fact that we use the lead singer as the lead protagonist in our narrative video sequence.

We also conformed to the stereotype that teenage relationships are based on lust and sex, we did this by including clips of the couple in bed, arguing and intimate exchanges of emotion between the couples. We used Laura Mulvey's theory of the virgin/whore dichotomy which outlines that women in media products are based on 'whores' or 'virigins', we chose to show our female as promiscuous, as she cheats on the male character. This challenges the hollywood view that male characters are the catalysts for break ups in on screen characters, but our music video challenges this with shots of of female character with another man.

This challenging of general conventions, also challenges the theory of the Male Gaze theory, again put forward by Laura Mulvey, that all media products are viewed through the eyes of a male, meaning the women is often demeaned in the media text. A video to contrast to ours in P.I.M.P - 50 cent which shows cars, bling and scantily dressed women which shows that men are in control of relationships but our music video we show the women as the dominant ones in the relationship.

Our target audience for this music video will be young people aged between 15-25, as the songs are about issues such as falling in love for the first time, infatuation, break ups and heartache. The audience would have a style stereotypes as 'grunge' or 'indie' , and would hobbies musically orientated. We believe that we can attract the target to music video, by the storyline, and the actors are teenagers dressed in the same our audience would dress. Our main way of connecting to our audience is by filming in London which to most would be seen as Europes cultural hub. As we have created a performance and narrative music video we believe this will mean our audience will have a deeper relationship with the band if the wish to see them live or have seen them live.

Music videos use quick cuts to keep the audience entertained throughout the music video, this conforms to Blumler and Katz Uses and Gratifications Theory which suggests that audiences of media texts must be INFROMED, ENTERTAINED, allowed opportunities for SOCIALISING , a chance to attain a PERSONAL IDENTITY and being able to ESCAPE. We believe we have managed to do this with our music video as we allow for all of these criteria, we entertain the audience by using different shots of our characters and we offer a story that will be recognizable to our target audience, the story also allows the audience to escape. As our music video is not just a narrative music video, it is performance the audience will be able to escape as they will be able to see how the band perform.

Looking at examples of digipaks, the general conventions that are used is to advertise the artist and their music. Rihanna's digipak is filled with both images of her and the name of all of her songs and the album, the name is clearly presented it shows the name of the album 'Loud'. This is used to promote the artist and increase sales figures. Our digipak features the name of the band, the artists, photos of band members, a small bio, reviews, track lists and a bonus behind the scenes dvd. We think that this will give the audience more than enough extra material and they will form a relationship with the band. Our fictional band is called 'Sinful Agenda' and the album is called 'Facing the Insecure'. The colours of our digipak and advert are black, grey, white and yellow which all contrast and represent the dark sombre lyrics presented in our music video. The blacks are used to represent the dark meaning of their songs while the brighter yellows and whites represent the up beat tempo of their songs. To give the audience more we incorporated a silhouette of the band members heads with their signatures underneath them, this is another way of promoting the band as the audience can identify with each of the band members.

We believe that both our digipak and digipak advert conform to general conventions as they both promote the band and their material, and by maintaining one theme throughout them the audience can immediately relate them to the bands music.

Digi- Pak Sinful Agenda Advert Analysis

When creating our digi-pak advert we used Photoshop as we used it in creating our digi-pak, first of all we used a black background as it will stay with the theme of our digi-pak to then reinforce to the audience that this is Sinful Agenda's. We also reinforced the image of the band by using the same font and colour of the font for our digi-pak, however, to give the audience more than they would recieve in the digi-pak itself, we give the audience the signatures of the band members and a silhouette of their heads which personalizes the advert further as the fans will feel they are that much closer to the band. We coloured the signatures and silhouette in white to contrast well with the black background of the advert, also we used the yellow and white flaring that is a signifier to the audience again promoting the band and their new album/ digi-pak. We used a quote from NME, as the audience of that magazine is one that we aim to target as this band is one that would feature in the magazine. To conform to Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory and Richard Dyer's Utopian Solution theory that a media product must allow the audience to have some sort of social interaction, we achieved this by giving information, that fans can follow the band on facebook thus enabling them to leave comments and interact with the band and other fans. The most important part of a digi-pak is promoting the release date of the digi-pak we did this by placing the information in the lower part of the advert so fans cand see it clearly and know when the digi-pak is available. As a whole we feel this advert works well as we stick to the theme of the digi-pak which gives the band an identity enabling the audience to relate to the band as a whole.