Evaluation

Evaluation

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

Our media product follows some conventions but also it challenges and changes them to create something unique and original. Firstly, the convention it follows for the rap genre is having a big group of ‘gangsters’ rapping, in a way we followed the convention but instead of lip-syncing every part of the rap we made the gang wear masks. Masks have been used in music videos before but not many rap videos. There is a video that includes masks by slipknot, however slipknot is a heavy metal band and the opposite spectrum of genre to rap. In the video that is the official version of our instrumental over our track there is a lot of scenes of partying and people dancing and bopping to the music. This is following the conventions of a rap video with very similar arm movements in a specific hip hop way of dancing. We challenge some codes of the convention by not having any microphones of the rapper rapping and never seeing any faces as they are all in masks.

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

I think the digipak and the advert work really well with our main product, it has a perfect synergy of products that both complement each other really well in our chosen field of genre. With the advert carefully worded to represent the product we have launched it offers a good amount of knowledge for the audience to have an idea of what we are presenting. The digipak also offers a generous amount of information whilst being able to keep the surprises hidden in order to coax a customer into buying it.

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We showed a rough cut to a class of media students in order to hear some feedback. They were very helpful with their criticisms, allowing us to see the good and bad points. Firstly, the good points were the use of effects in our video. One person said “I really like some of the fades and effects, it creates a really nice mood and feel to the atmosphere of the video.” However there were some other points made such as some shots were too long and some transitions looked out of place. This feedback gave us a great deal of improvements that we were able to make. For example, in the scene of the trolley walking towards the camera there was no black flickering effect and it felt uncomfortable and too long to watch. Therefore adding the effect made it flow much better with the song and decreased the distance very slightly toward a professional video.

• How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and

Evaluation stages?

Newly found media technologies were massively helpful in the whole process of constructing a product. Final cut pro gave us a good amount of creative control with next to no limitations. The editing software was perfect in creating effects, dissolves and transitions in order to give our video fluidity. Furthermore, the software allowed us to put certain parts of footage in slow motion and also to speed up scenes, even reversing some gave it more creativity. In many shots we have saturated the colour which gives the viewing experience a nice twist.

                Media technologies also helped me in the research and planning of our product with sites such as YouTube being the perfect library of thousands upon thousands of music videos, which we could then analyse. One of the music videos that our product is loosely based on as far as the masks go is Even the most simplest of technologies helped us with the research with our location shots and also photos needed for our digipak and advert.

Advertisement

Here is an advert I made to showcase our artist. The picture is from the digipak we have made.

StroyBoards

Here are the storyboards we used to help us with the production process

Research On Digipak & Template

Here is an example of a digipak. I felt the need to research a completed product in order to get ideas for our own digipak.

This digipak is very much focused on the artist. This is clear because of the amount of pictures it includes of his face. On the cover there is a profile view of him looking at his own name this suggests that the attraction of the music is him and his solo performance. As I look deeper into the design there is more pictures of said artist. These pictures show every angle of his face, I like this technique as it makes me think that the album and his music will show the listener just who he is and what he is about. Furthermore, the font is bold and bright this is to show the audience who the aritst is, also it catches their eye and lastly the big font suggests that the album will be a big event and an experiance which is a good marketing technique.

This digipak has many strong techniques of advertising the artist which will inspire me for my digipak. These include clear pictures of the star and a bold title in which to advertise him well.

Digipak Template

Here is a template of a digipak that I found whilst researching digipaks. It's useful to see the work that would go into making a physical one that you can hold, rather than the one we will be fashioning on software as a preview of the finished product.

Questionaire Results

  We handed our questionaire out to everyone in our class, as well as inviting a couple of teachers to view our video and complete our questionaire. We felt that by inviting teachers from another class, we would perhaps get different results as they had notbeen around whilst the video was being made.
Over all we received 15 completed questionaires and the results are as follows:

1. How do you feel the imagery linked with the music?

For this first question we recieved 5 (1's), 6 (2's) and 4 (3's)

2. Does the mise-en-scene engage and fit with the intended audience? (teens +)

For this question we recieved 4 (1's), 8 (2's) and 3 (3's)

3. How well do you feel our video went overall?

We received 7 (1's), 7 (2's) and 1 (3)

4. Do you think we created a narrative that ties in with our title (MiddleClass) ?

Here the results weren't so high as we recieved 1 (1), 12 (2's) and 2 (3's)

                                                                                                                                 
The next three questions are not answered with a number scale. This is because we felt we would like some actualk information from the viewers.

Questionaire

Questionnaire – 1 being best

1.     How do you feel the imagery linked with the soundtrack?

1          2          3        4       5

2.    Does the mise-en-scene engage and fit the intended audience? (teens+)

1          2          3       4      5

3.How well do you feel our video went overall?

1          2          3        4      5

4.  Do you feel we created a narrative that fits with our title (Middleclass)?

1           2         3         4       5

5. What special effects/transitions did you notice and how well did they work?

6. What did you feel was the best shot, and why?

7.Do you feel we created a fitting atmosphere for youth culture?

     Yes / No

Music Video Analysis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF6kBNLTvaU&ob=av2n

   Rabbit Heart is the fourth single from Florence’s debut album, Lungs and reached 12th in the UK singles chart after being released on 22nd June 2009. The genre of the song is classified as indie pop on the music site last.fm and alternative in the iTunes music store.

  The video is largely narrative based with Florence singing in a field accompanied by a number of actors. A spiritual ritual appears to take place in the video, where Florence and the actors dance, food is thrown from a table to the floor and finally Florence is pushed out into a river in a floating coffin-like box in a way similar to a Biblical story. These spiritual themes relate directly back to the lyrics for instance the line ‘we raise it up, this offering, we raise it up’ as well as the song’s chorus.
  The video starts off with an extreme close up of Florence’s mouth with the rest of her face covered by a piece of cloth. The camera then pans outwards as the cloth is lifted into a medium close up. This draws the audience’s attention to the opening lyrics of the song.
  Tracking close ups and medium close up’s are regularly used throughout the music video of Florence making her constantly the centre of the audience’s attention.
  Only one musical instrument from the song appears in the video. A man in a suit playing a harp appears intermittently creating a fairy-tale like scene fitting in with the lyrics and meaning of the song. One or two other instruments are used simply as props in the video to help the video relate to the meaning of the song.
The cutting rhythm of the song is slower than most music videos, but still relatively fast. This combined with the filter used on the camera and the occasional use of the fade transition gives the music video a dated appearance, as if to suggest that the ritual happening on screen used to happen, but no longer takes place.
Florence & The Machine
    A number of extras appeared in the video, most notably at the end where Welch is carried towards the riverbank and pushed out onto the water. The extras make the ‘ceremony’ look like a joyous occasion as singing and dancing takes place in the background. In an interview for BBC Radio Florence confessed that her record label had asked for something more upbeat, and the use of these actors in the background help achieve this.
  While Rabbit Heart (Raise it up) wasn’t Florence’s first single, it was an important song as relatively new artist for the creation of her public image. The video helps to show Florence not as the typical female vocalist sex symbol, but as an artist passionate about writing interesting with peculiar videos to accompany them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QKj62RKBrM&feature=related
   The video is simple but effective. It is made to look like a cheap production, however the genre of music that it is classed as, indie, makes the video hold a strong relationship to the song. The song is by ‘Bombay Bicycle Club’ and is called ‘Always like this’. The relationship between the video and the song is strong due to the role that the director has played. The song entitles why is it always like this and by making the video look cheap it ties together. The narrative is about things being bad and getting better. The technical operations play the role of helping to make the video what the director wanted it to be. The use of a usual video camera and only a couple of different shots used creates the outcome the director wanted for the narrative.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r26y--evIw
   I think that the music video is made effective due to the use of Mise-en-scene and lighting. The music has an upbeat pace right from the start, and the video although it is someone waking up in the morning, they are out of bed and out straight away. The song is called ‘Feel Good’ by ‘Modestep’. When the lyrics read “when I see that look on your face” the main focus of the imagery if focused on the face of the characters within. The happenings inside the video are based to keep the the pace of the music, the use of Mise-en-scene is present in two completely opposite locations, one being in an office work place and the other set in a live night club. The video swaps between both locations throughout the song to create a stronger relationship. The technical operations play the role of constructing the video, the use of different camera angles that are present and the zooms, help you to focus on one point of the image and by doing this it creates the relationship between the consumer and directors thoughts. The director is present in the video as the angles you see used and the shots that are used are basically his/her eyes. It is what they want it to be. Other texts are used such as the briefcase which is used throughout the video to create connotations for the consumer, the immediate thought when you first see the briefcase and a parcel exchanged you think of drugs being bought. It is only later on in the video that you are allowed to see the contents and it is a old record player, this is used in several other videos from this artist. The themes used within the video are the stereotypes of the younger generation, the use of drugs and partying, office work and what it could be like. I think the representation that it creates is of the younger generation not to be taken as all the same, it shows that stereotypes aren’t always true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVUHWCynig&ob=av2e
    In this video the people who are being represented is both Beyonce and the other male in the video.
   The way in which Beyonce is being represented is the ways in which females are usually represented. Beyonce is being represented as a female which is sort of paranoid about finding the right person to be with. Also, in the video Beyonce seems to be with the male who is shown and it is shown that she is able to trust this male and is removing the wall that is stopping her from trusting him. This representation of Beyonce is sort of reinforcing stereotypes of females as females are seen as paranoid and worried about meeting some one and being able to trust them.
   However, the way in which the male is being represented is challenging the stereotypes of males. This is done as males are usually stereotyped as not staying with one girl whereas in this video he is seen as the perfect one as he is being represented as an angel. This shows that the stereotypes are being challenged.
   The representations in this music video is fair as the way in which Beyonce is represented, that is the way in which most females feel and go through so its allowing females to open up more rather than hold back and not trust any males. Also, the way in which that the male is being represented is different than what males are usually represented as in music videos which allows females to see that there are some different people. This why I believe that the representations is fair.