Media Studies

A2 Advanced Production

EvaluationStacey Perkin

6146

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

The main product and the two ancillary products all use, develop and challenge the forms and conventions of music video’s. We were well prepared in knowing the forms and conventions of music video’s by looking at a number of video’s in class and discussing how the genre was defined by the forms and conventions the artist and production team had chosen. The form is the context in which the media product is presented such as the medium. The conventions are the typical aspects of a certain genre or medium. For example the visual effects that can define the genre of a film of music. Fiske describes conventions as being shared amongst members of a culture, and which is used to generate and circulate meanings in and for that culture and so an institution creates the meaning through the forms and conventions.

Since digitalisation began in the 20th century, the proliferation of media has expanded and now magazine forms are not only as their traditional form but also online and mobile. I created a magazine advert to be placed into a traditional music based magazine such as ‘NME’ but could also easily be used in the online version of the magazine. As it was intentionally done in a traditional magazine format it was created using conventional forms, however if it was to be used online or mobile to advertise the album it would therefore develop conventional forms of advertising.

The magazine advert used, developed and challenged conventions used in magazine advertising, especially of music albums. When researching adverts of music albums I looked at the conventions used in themes such as typography, images and layout. When looking at the chosen adverts; I chose the 3 most interesting ones to put onto my blog. I noticed that in most of the music album adverts the artists name was placed before the album title for example Plan B’s album ‘The defamation of Strickland Banks’ as shown on my blog. However I chose in my advert to have the artists name below the album name, this challenges the usual conventions of adverts. I chose to do this for a number of reasons; I think it works well on the advert of ‘The Family Jewels’ Marina and the Diamonds advert because it isn't conventional which describes her music, which is very similar to Pink’s. When analysing CD covers I noticed Pink’s album ‘Funhouse’ the artists name was below the name of album, I used this convention to create my music advert.

My advert mainly used conventional methods as I didn’t want it to be too abstract because this doesn’t represent Pink’s genre of music. Promotions from other magazines and newspapers are used to help sell the album, these are used on nearly all album adverts and so I used this convention in my advert. The image used on my advert slightly differentiates from the one used on my album cover. This challenges conventions of typical media products because usually the image is the same on both the album cover and advert. I chose to have a more close-up shot on the album cover to have a more clear viewing for the audience of her facial expression of confusion and scared as well representing her as a mix of dark, represented by the darkness of her eyes, and innocence, by the paleness of her face. This was done through editing to create this effect. The close up photograph also helps the audience to relate and understand her because the photo is more intimate than the advert. This is for people who actively look at the album cover and so are interested in buying the album rather than the medium shot used on the advert who passively look at this either in a magazine or on a billboard. The large photograph, using a large part of the adverting space, develops conventions as it is surrounded by the black background/border. Usually the main image takes up the whole of the adverting space. The black background was inspired from an advert in NME magazine. The advert is created was an adaption from one in NME magazine, I made main image was bigger and I reduced the size of the border/background. The same san serif font style was used in both my advert and album cover, this was conventional when compared to other album covers and their corresponding adverts.

The text of ‘Pink’ and ‘Nobody Knows’ was conventional as it used the same font style and were both in optical area’s. The text was also asymmetrical, as I wanted to keep the text simple as the image was the main part of the album and advert, this was for people to relate all 3 products; music video, album cover and advert, together.

Every genre of music has its own specific conventions. This can either be followed by the institutions and artists and used as guidelines or they can challenge these conventions. When researching these forms and conventions by looking at real media products on YouTube I found all 3 of my research video’s had similar conventions, this was because all 3 artists genre’s were similar. Pink’s genre of music is described a pop rock. When looking at a number of Pink’s video’s and ‘Adele’s – Make you feel my love’ (also pop – rock genre) I observed similar themes and conventions, I then used and challenged these themes and conventions in my own video. Most pop rock video’s have a narrative in which I used in my own production, however I further developed this by having a number of narratives; something which is not usually found in pop-rock music video’s. I decided to do this, I felt that the words were better represented by the stories of more than one person and it helped me expand the theme of identity and struggle within video, something with Pink also focuses on in her music and video’s. The action on screen correlated the lyrics being sung, this was conventional of pop video. Typically in music video’s there is an establishing shot which sets the scene of the video, however I did not have this because it wasn’t just following one singular person and therefore one persons adventure and so an establishing shot would have been difficult. I believe my open shot of the drunk girl really sets the scene of struggling for identity and secrecy instead of having an establishing shot.

Looking at pop and pop rock video’s I noted the choice of camera shots were very simple, most, if not all the shots were long, midshots and close ups. Close up’s are used to reflect the emotion of the songs and are also used in rock music. I then used these camera shots in my music video, most of the shots were close up’s this is so the audience can see the characters facial expressions to increase intensity and emotion. In real media products of this genre the camera usually follows' and has many tracking shots of the artist singing the words however this couldn’t be done as the song was by a global artist not a local band and so the conventions had to be challenged by not using shots such as tracking shots of the artist.

Pop/ pop rock videos tend to have quick cuts between shots, this is because the music is usually uplifting, happy and upbeat. Since the music I chose is more emotive I decided to challenge the idea that quick shots are needed in pop video’s and so there are a couple of shots within the video that are long and there are very little quick cuts and are replaced by transitions to show the audience a change of character.

How effective is the combination of your

main product and ancillary products texts? The purpose of a music video js to advertise the song to audience’s

either through music channels such as ‘MTV’ or online on sites such as YouTube. Adverting in magazines and on billboards is done to promote the album of the artist to boost sales. CD covers need to visually standout and have to be recognisable to shoppers. Both the ancillary products reinforce the main product. The effectiveness of these will partially reflect in the sales of the album and then further concerts.

I used synergy when creating my main product and the ancillary product, this helps the audience to interact with products. Both the ancillary products linked together, gave the audience an idea of the themes and the genre of the main product. There were many repetitive features to create the synergy which then gave the products a strong brand of identity, this made the combination of my main product and ancillary products very effective as these were part of the codes and convention of real meal products.

Some of the repetitive features that created the strong brand of identity included; the similar image between the advert and the CD cover, this was done to relate the two products together so that when people saw the advert they’d know the image they were looking for either online or in a shop so they could purchase. My main product and the two ancillary texts all followed a similar theme, this created a continuance and relationship between them. These themes included identity and struggle, these can be seen my the facial expression of the girl on the advert and CD cover and my the language and action in the main product.

All 3 products were effective in attracting people/ potential buyers and to inform them, this was key for the magazine advert to do so. During my feedback I asked people if there was enough detail on the advert for them to go out, find and purchase the album without researching for more information, everybody asked, said there was sufficient information for them to do this, concluding that it was effective in its purpose of informing.

In order for the album or song to sell, proliferation of the products and the corresponding adverts need to proliferate to reach as many people as possible. All three of my products were potentially effective in doing so, because they could all be accessed in different ways. The music video would be streamed on music channels and so would reach active viewers and passive listeners. It would also be uploaded to YouTube, this would be the perfect place for my target audience of teenagers to early twenties to access this video. As found in my initial target audience questionnaire, most people watched music video’s on YouTube. These viewers would be active, this is because a song has to be searched for and doesn’t just automatically play when a person enters the sit. YouTube links can also be easily shared between young people on social networks and so it would be very easily accessible. The advert would be placed in magazines, especially of music genre, these viewers would be passive as magazines as people would most likely only glance at the advert but the information is clear enough for people to remember even at a short glance. Adverts could be placed on billboards, the viewers would also be passive especially for commuters. The CD can be purchased either ‘online’ or ‘offline’ in shops and so would reach passive or active shoppers.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Feedback Questionnaire

• Did you enjoy watching the product?• Would you watch it again on sites such as YouTube• Is there anything you would change, add or get rid of in terms of clips

within the video?• How is the video similar/dissimilar to real media videos?• Would you recommend this video to others?

When asking other people’s opinions on my work I used a number of different methods. Questionnaires were given out in the research stages so I could find out what my target audience enjoyed. Another one was then given out at the end of the task, when I wanted their response the final version of the music video. Questionnaires were used instead of interviews because it was more efficient and quicker to do so, this allowed me to give my questionnaire to more people, giving me more reliable data to work from. Throughout the creation of the Advanced Production my choices were always backed up by those I had asked to analyse my work. This was really important to do throughout every stage so that things could be changed easily.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The second questionnaire was sent to 9 people of mixed sex, age and education. As I had hoped nearly everyone enjoyed the music video, and a large majority would watch the video again on YouTube. When asked ‘Would you change, add or delete any clips?’ - 2 people said they would have more characters and it needed more filming of the other 2 characters, I felt 3 main characters and stories was sufficient enough for the audience to get involved but not too many that they wouldn’t understand the plots. I had originally planned to have about 4 narratives parallel with each other, however recruiting people to be in the film was a big problem so I had to reduce it to 3 narratives. Although in the end I think this worked in my favour has it was less time consuming and nobody said they didn’t understand the different narratives

Most of the people who I interviewed were not media students so could only analyse the video and the texts up to a certain level and so their response to some of the questions were informed, where as media students often went into more detail. In my original questionnaire last year, the most popular type of music was pop-rock which reinforced my plans to do my music video to one of Pink’s songs.

I used audience feedback throughout the tasks, I asked other media students what they thought of the video and how could I make it better, on several occasions many of clips were moved to make them flow better. This is one of the reasons why I have no completely stuck to the initial storyboard. During the process of creating the ancillary tasks, choosing the appropriate font for the album and artist name was really important, this involved trial and error to test a number of fonts. When deciding the font, other peoples opinions were very important. When I had completed these tasks I asked teachers and media students what they thought, the majority of people said the font didn’t suit the image or genre. The final font was chosen when I thought it kept with the genre and themes of the video as well as being supported in my choice by media students and teachers.

During the final editing stages of the video, I showed the DVD to my family in order for my to get their opinion. One opinion stated the last shot of the drunk girl spinning around was too quick for the pace of the song. I then slowed the pace of the shot and found it worked really well and gave the end of the video a different feel. Although this person was not a media student or teacher, the feedback really helped improve the video to look more professional.

Findings1) Did you enjoy watching the product? – 8/9 said yes2) Would you watch it again on sites such as YouTube – 5/9 said yes3) Is there anything you would change, add or get rid of in terms of clips within the

video? – 2/9 said yes4) Is the video similar to real media products? - 5/9 said yes5) Would you recommend this video to others? – 9/9 said yes6) Do the ancillary products link to the main product? – 9/9 said yes7) Do the ancillary texts perform how they should do, in terms of roles? – 6/9 said

yes

A Graph to show the Quantitive Results from the Questionnaire

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

evaluation stages?New media technology emerged in the 20th century during the

revolution of advanced technology. This digitalisation meant that traditional media such as; film, music and images developed into interactive power of computers and internet. In all three stages; research and planning, construction and evaluation I used a range of technologies.

During the research and planning stages, technology was vital to be able to get a wide range of information easily. Firstly in order to record our coursework, I created a blog, this involved the using the internet. Without this, I would have had to record all information on paper and create an offline project. Using a blog enabled me to easily share my findings and information with people including teachers and other media students.

When planning the shot list of the video, I used the internet to find the lyrics. This was so I could choose appropriate action to match the lyrics something that Is very popular in real media products. This was very convenient to just search for lyrics instead of looking through the CD booklet and writing down the lyrics. By using the internet I could simply copy and paste the lyrics into a Word document ready to add the actions. Once I had added the actions I intended to use to the lyrics I printed the document and then used a scanner to put it onto my blog with ease. I scanned multiple documents to put in my blog in the research and planning stage to give it more variety in the technology I used, this included a sample of the audience questionnaire, original song idea’s and magazine adverts.

When asking people to complete the questionnaire for the audience response of the video, some were sent over social networking sites and via email. This allowed a more variety of people to do the questionnaire instead of only the people I saw during school or at home. It also allowed me to ask older people on the social networks and people not my social group, this gave me more reliable results as their was no bias in the participants that took part.

I used YouTube.com to research real media music video’s, this enabled me to look at the codes and conventions used as well as giving me idea’s for my own video. I then used the web link from the video to put on my blog so that could people could see the video I had chosen to analyse. I tried to add the video onto the blog instead of a link however this was unsuccessful. This would have enabled easier access to the video’s I had analysed.

Once I had decided the genre of music I wanted to do, I had to pick an appropriate song, in which I used my IPod. This gave me easy access and large choice of songs. Creating playlists gave me a flexible choice so I could narrow down which songs I liked and disliked, this made it more convenient than using CD’s because I could compare different artists at ease. During the research stage I began to look at real media album covers, again, this involved the internet, images were then copied and paste on to my blog and analysed. Most of the research and planning was done on an Apple Mac because of their advanced technology and software which I would later use for the construction process.

Constructing my final project involved less variety of new media technologies. Blogger.com was again used to upload my ancillary texts and to share information to keep viewers up to date with my progress. This could not be done without technology and a journal would have to be used instead a blog, however the information can not be shared easily and ancillary texts couldn’t be shared at all.

My main product and the ancillary texts could not be done with the use of a SLR camera (single –lens reflex camera). This was used to take the photo’s that I used for both the front and back of the CD and the magazine advert. Using a SLR camera allowed more detail in the photo’s as the pixels are more defined when compared to using the clips from my video. A video camera was firstly used to film the music video and re filming of shots was done on an SLR camera because it was easier to access than the video camera. Mobile phones and social networks such as Facebook were used to arrange times with my actors so we could film. This was very convenient to use these as it allowed to pass messages between me and the actors very quickly. Mobile phones were also used to film in the music video.

The footage I filmed was then put onto IMovie, which enabled me the edit the clips and convert them ready to put them on to DVD. During the editing process I used Adobe Fireworks to edit the photo’s to use on the advert and CD cover. I also used Dafont.com to find interesting and suitable fonts for the texts used in these tasks. Without using the internet for this the variety of fonts would be considerable reduced as only the programmes fonts would be available and I found most of these were unsuitable for my product as they didn’t fit the themes.

The evaluation is uploaded to my blog so it can be shared easily. When doing the evaluation I used Microsoft PowerPoint to inform people who looked at my blog. I then had to upload the PowerPoint onto an slideshare.net so it could be easily added to my blog. I chose to do my evaluation of products on PowerPoint because I had yet to include this technology in my Advanced Production and I variety is important to keep viewers interested. It was also quicker to type the information using the computer instead of writing it and scanning it in and uploading it. It was also easier to get access to my blog to look at my previous tasks so I could efficiently write about them during the evaluation process.

I used the schools ‘Virtual Learning Environment’ to get information such as mark schemes in which the teachers had added to it so we knew what the marking criteria was. This really helped me when re checking my work, knowing what I needed to do to get the best marks. I also looked at other peoples media blogs to see the different ways in which they had presented their evaluation and I found most people had simply uploaded it as an essay on the blog which is partially why I chose to do my evaluation on PowerPoint, to be more experimental and to use more of a variety of new media technologies.

After completing the main task I tried to upload the video to my blog, however this was unsuccessful, this would have further varied the media technologies I have used.

When I had completed editing the music video it was put on to a DVD. I checked the video worked and the effects I wanted to by playing it using the television. However I found some of clips had not worked properly, by knowing this it allowed me to edit parts using IMovie. If I had not done this, I would have lost marks in the efficiency, quality and professionalism of the video.

Using new media technologies during the research and planning, construction and evaluation stages really helped me to gain as much information as possible during the research and planning stages. The internet enabled me to compare video’s, CD covers and magazine adverts. During the construction stage I mainly used the computer and its software programmes to edit and construct the products. Without using the computer these tasks couldn’t be done. My evaluation used very little new media technology. Microsoft PowerPoint was used instead of typing my evaluation as an essay on my blog, this gave it more variety and was more aesthetically pleasing. The internet was used to then upload it to my online blog.

I used my blog - http://staceyperkinmediaa2.blogspot.com/ through the entire production stage. By using an online blog instead of a journal it allowed me to share my information easier, information could be transferred easily depending whether I was working at school or at home. Using an online blog was also a lot safer than using a journal by the fact it couldn’t be lost or damaged and I knew all the work I put on there was safe from clumsiness.