Karl Final Evaluation

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

In many ways we’ve tried to make out music video effective by using common conventions seen in existing media products. Firstly, for example our music video is of the alternative rock genre because of this our video is mainly performance orientated which is key feature of alternative rock videos therefore making our video conventional. Furthermore, a secondary part of our video is the clips we’ve tried to include of everyday life. We have filmed in a music studio, out in town and on a stage. These locations try to promote the idea of fame and music promotion but also the shots in town promote the idea of our band being quite accessible. This links to Goodwin’s points of trying to sell the artist. The idea of following the band around in their everyday life can also be seen in ‘blink 182’s video ‘rock show’. The band can be seen walking around town together and this is what we have tried to capture in our video. This therefore means our video conforms to conventions. However on some levels are product does challenge the convention. There is no clear narrative, unlike some other videos of this genre which does make it slightly unconventional however, considering this it would have been very hard for us to break conventions. In the alternative rock genre most videos are quite experimental because of this, whatever we did in our video it would have been considered experimental and therefore conformed to conventions. In the terms of Goodwin’s points I feel our product does conform. We feel our video does convey our personalities well which refers to Auteur theory. This is a demand of the record label and does promote our band image.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Overall we feel our ancillary texts and main product are quite effective together. We have tried to include on both our pieces information that will promote our DVD. Tour dates can also be seen on our magazine advert. To keep continuity between our pieces we have used the same backdrop, font and logos in our magazine advert as well as the DVD. We have picked these colour schemes because they are quite simple and they do not divert attention away from our main pictures which help to sell our artist. This links our pieces and makes them effective, they attract the audience into them by locking the viewer’s attention and because they look the same the audience is drawn in. Another way we’ve made our digi-packs effective is by showing a clear identity of our band. We’ve used lots of close ups in our video and tried to twin that with close up photos in our advert and DVD cover. Not only does this help with continuity but the images/close ups of the band help sell the artist. This is one of Goodwin’s points and ensures our products are effective. We have also tried to reflect the idea of auteur theory in our pieces. We have tried throughout to make our video and digi-pack as funny/playful as possible and we’ve to link this in the pieces therefore making them obviously belong to the same band and continuing our continuity. Unfortunately, there were obviously some negatives about our ancillary tasks. We feel as a group we did not leave the appropriate time for us to build our pieces. We had one lesson to try to make our products and our un-familiarity with Photoshop hindered us further. We feel if we could have had one of two more lessons we could have formed a much greater product. We could have included more relevant information and promoted our DVD further.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From our first pitch for this video we have had many feedback comments. These comments helped us realise some good ideas for our video. They made us aware of what are target audience really wanted because they were the people giving us feedback. The main feedback we received from our pitch was generally how are we going to film the shots in town. This feedback made us consider our locations further and eventually decide how we were going to film our ideas. From our peer feedback on our rough cut piece we learnt that we needed to include more close ups in our video. This feedback was relevant because it was from our peers and are target audience. Bearing our feedback in mind we went back to our location for a second time and filmed some more close ups. These close ups were used to help build our band identity and were added into our final cut. Overall from the feedback we have learnt its important to leave enough time for a second day of filming as it became apparent to us, you do not always get all of the necessary footage in one shoot with regards to out digi-pack footage we feel we should have left more time for it as the overall products look very rushed. We failed to include everything we wanted such as drawing more attention to our DVD in our magazine advert. Therefore in retrospect to our feedback we have now learnt to schedule our work and leave more time for our bigger tasks. However overall, the most of our feedback was very pleasing. We had many good comments which were all positive.

4. How did you use new media technology in the construction and research, planning and evaluating stages?

Throughout the making and development of our product we have used lots of new technology. For example to host and keep track of our work we have been using a website, www.blogger.com. This website allows you to have your own blogs where you can record how your work is progressing in posts. It is very useful in keeping track of what you have done in lessons. You can host videos and pictures which enabled us to show all of inspiration in a simple, easy to access location. A second piece of technology we used to build our media product was a programme called Final Cut Express. This software is used when editing video footage. Final Cut is a very easy to use piece of kit and we all easily came to terms with the controls. You can add lots of different effects and with the marker tool available it was very easy for us synchronise our music to the visuals. Lastly, we used software called Photoshop. Photoshop is software which enables you to place a picture on another picture and add text onto it; with this we made our Digi-pack. We found this programme overall very hard to use. The tools were not easily explained and we found ourselves struggling to produce our products. Looking back at our pre-luminary tasks I feel we have come a long way especially with the use of final cut. Generally, over the two years of studying media studies I feel I have come a long way in filming and in producing products. I now feel very confident behind and in front or a camera and also I feel capable of using Final Cut editing software to make a good product. As we carry on our media course I hope to learn more about Photoshop as this is the one piece of software I feel most unfamiliar about.

Karl Lambourne