A2 Media Studies Evaluation Q1+2+3+4nf

8/3/2019 A2 Media Studies Evaluation Q1+2+3+4nf

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/a2-media-studies-evaluation-q1234nf 1/27

Samuel Ewen



The purpose of any music video is not just to promote the band but also to

reveal an attitude that the band convey. As music is a auditory medium,

a music video and other promotional material will be a media

institution¶s main way of putting forward this attitude. For t

his reason mygroup and I made sure we put a lot of thought into what conventions we

used, developed and challenged when making our media product.

my research into conventions concerning the Ska Punk genre through

survey monkey and through interviews returned a varied response, we

used these responses to gauge a structure for our media products. This

was the first stage of designing and planning what we were going tocreate.



Our music video uses conventional techniques in that most videos have an anchor clip thatthey flick back to in order to keep a sense of solidity and structure in the video. Our videoalso uses this technique. We have shots in which the whole band are present, which wecontinually return to throughout the video. Also, we have an aspect of narrative in our video,which is also frequently seen in real media products. These techniques ensure that our video does not just randomly and sporadically flick between shots that have no relation toeach other and instead progresses through an intuitive theme that is not too abstract for one to guess.

Characteristic of many music videos, we have also included a performance factor into our production,

the main character sings into the camera. In short, our video follows conventions of music videos in

general, in accordance with Andrew Goodwin¶s conventions of a music video.



By looking at existing examples of digipaks and of adverts, we found there to be conventionsthat we must adhere to make them look professional and to give the necessaryinformation.We found that frequently there was consistency between the album and the advertdesigned to sell it. We made sure this was apparent in our texts.We used the conventional ideas of putting a record label and a song list on the back of thedigipak.This was necessary information and also made sure there was song information,magazines¶ ratings and a release date on the advertisement. It was also apparent that it is

usually advisable to keep adverts and CD covers fairly simple.

Another important point with using conventions is

the conventional idea of using the same fonts

across both the advert and the digipak.

Presumably to promote brand awareness.



Our video and corresponding Digipak andmagazine attempts to largely conform to the Ska -

Punk Genre. As found by our interviews and

surveys, the standard attitude tends to rebel

against the monotonous day to day drudgery of

the 9 to 5 job.

We aimed to show that the character in the video

makes this journey on a daily basis and is

extremely bored of the whole thing, the beginningof the video establishes the middle England

lifestyle from which we stray later in the video.

It initially tries to challenge

conventions but it soon becomes

obvious that the main character

would rather do his own thing which

ultimately conforms to punk

conventions.



The particular aspects of mise-en-scenethat we used to create the tediouslifestyle of our businessman was hiscostume (the suit and tie) his posture

whilst dressing and walking to workand his general expression. His facehere suggests that he is notparticularly happy about having towake up and go to work. The topimage is a frame from our videoshowing the mundanity of his morning just through his expression.

The bottom image is the costume wechose in order to more successfullycontrast the brighter clothes the maincharacter wears later in the video. Hiscostume matches the convention of abussiness man but not necessarily of a Ska- Punk music video. This is an

example of where we strayed fromand ultimately challengedconventions.



In the answers to the survey I posted on Facebook, we found that a

perceived convention of punk rock music is the notion of red and black

clothing, leather and ripped jeans. The main character is dressed in red

and black as shown on the top image. This is the kind of contrast

between the suited businessman and the casual punk style dress sense

that we aimed for in order to follow ska/punk style conventions in our

video.

The image on the left supports the

idea of punk style leather clothing.

This is a clear example of how wemainly used, but also slightly

developed conventions in our media

product.

Also, when those who did my survey were

asked to suggest activities that a ska/punk

rocker would engage in, we got a common

response of drinking alcohol on the street.

This was further backed up by the content of

the video interview earlier in the blog. The

pictures to the left and right demonstrate our

use of this stereotype.



In the video, we tried to show a noticeable contrast between the morning when he is waking upand later when he decides to let loose and have a good time when the first chorus sets in.

One of the ways in which we did this was by adding a desaturation filter. It is evident below that the

desaturated picture on the left implies a slow and dull start to any day, contrasted with the brighter

colours in the image on the right, which suggests a much happier and care-free individual. It can

be pointed out here that this care-free attitude is closely entwined in the culture of our chosen

genre. We also used this effect because along with red and black, interestingly, bright colours were

said to be Ska/Punk, according to those who took the research survey.



We havemimicked the font

that the actual

band use on their

promotional

material.

We aimed to keep

the advert as simple

as we could to fit

with the themes of

existing products.

We used ratings

from well known

magazines, very

common.

Naming tracks on

the album, including

the most popular

track.

µALBUM OUT NOW¶

very conventional

language, simple, to

the point.

Used the same

picture as on the

album, almost

always the case.



Picture of band

together on

inside of digipak,conventional

style.Simple tracklisting, record label and copyright

information, keeping with the same style font,

very conventional, the back of an album is

commonly very simple.

Front cover

almost

synonymous with

advert.

Picture of garage

door, contrasting

with front cover as

soon as the digipak

is opened. Further

supports the theme

of contrast that we

have been

conveying

throughout thewhole promotional

pack.

Morecontrast,

outlining

again the

line

between

work and

fun.



This question deals with how well all of our texts work together. On a

superficial level our texts do have commonalities such as colour

scheme and location but there are smaller and more subtle qualities

that contribute to the promotional package being a combined and

tailored effort rather than a set of unlinked final pieces.



From the beginning, our group decided it was important that there was consistency between

our music video and our advert and Digipak. This consistency is referred to as Synergy.

Examples of synergy in our pieces are focused largely on the location, an aspect of

mise-en-scene in the beginning of the video.

The picture on the left is our final version of our album cover, which is strikingly

similar to our magazine advert on the right hand side. This is a direct example of

synergy. As is obvious, the

font is the same onboth texts.

Also, a slightly

different sized

version of the

picture was used in

each. But seeing

the two piecestogether shows how

effectively both

pieces work

together to combine

with our main

product.



The idea of choosing a consistent picture for both the CD cover and for the album

advertisement is commonly used, its tends overtly toward a holistic promotional

package, creating a strong brand awareness. If an individual sees the magazine advert

and memorises the theme present then they will be better able to recognise the CD or

Digipak when either browsing for it or if it catches their eye in a music outlet such as

HMV.

This was the general motive behind us choosing to do this in our products.



So both of our ancillary texts convey synergy between each other and also fit very

nicely together with our main product, the video. This results in a well integrated

promotional package. Here are some examples of how the two ancillary products

support the general t

heme of t

he music video; contrast and wanting to leave themundane behind.

The digipak, one of the ancillary texts, works directly at effectively combining with the main

product (the music video). Above you can see that the digipak has on it two costumes, one

casual (right) and one mundane and characteristic of the work environment (left). The fact

that these two outfits have been chosen by our group to go behind the CD and DVD is adirect reference to the video. It definitely contributes to the theme of contrast as shown by

the video itself. It is as if you open the digipack and are faced with the choice of either outfit,

one on your left and one on your right. This is somewhat reminiscent of the choice the main

character makes about 50 seconds into the video.



The methods we used to gather audience feedback

were through survey monkey and through the use of

video and written interviews.

We were aware that we needed to design these

interviews and surveys in such a way that they

would give us useful information. the answers to

these questions would give the group an insight into

an audience profile, which ultimately helped us to

design a

promotional pack that will

specifically appeal to acertain demographic.



Firstly, survey monkey was a very helpful tool touse. The members of the group and I each created a survey and posted them on our Facebook walls. What I learnt from my 5question survey was varied but along a centraltheme. The questions I asked are in the imageon the right.

The image on the left is a screen shot from

surveymonkey.com that details what people

believed to be the clothing worn by

individuals who consider themselves part of the punk movement. The answers I got from

this particular part of my audience research

were:

Leather jackets

Torn up jeans (and denim in general)

Jeans and torn t-shirt

A loose tie

We clearly learned from the audienceresearch as our video and digipak have

these elements in it.

The main character is seen wearing most of

these items. As can be seen on the next

slide...



The left image shows the main character wearing red and black, accompanied by aloose tie. The image on the right has the characteristic spiky hair and leather jacket. We learnt that these choices would be a good combination through the useof audience research.

What the whole group learnt is that in order to have successful audience feedback you need to

have the largest sample or the most applicable sample to what it is you want to find out. This is

why all three members of our group each carried out our own survey in an attempt to attain as

many answers to our questions as possible. In the video we used what we had learnt fromaudience feedback to create the best video. In the case of reaching the right sort of people, I

made sure I interviewed a girl who I knew liked the genre of music we were interested in creatinga video for. Therefore we would almost certainly get answers we could use.



To gauge what standard our texts were I hada colleague look at our texts and recordedwhat he said on video. He mentioned that

the advert (shown on the left) did not havea professional look to it and could do with reworking, he mentioned that he liked thefont and that we should keep that aspectof it. He also mentioned that the text onthe right hand side underneath ³work hardplay harder´ was too compact andwouldn¶t catch the eye of whoever read

th

e advert.So as a response to what we learnt fromour audience feed back, we changed thepicture into a city, to make it look moreprofessional and made it as minimal aspossible whilst still keeping the originalfont. Audience feedback proved to be veryh

elpful as th

e group agree th

at th

e newversion shown on the right tackles theissues raised by the interview.



Firstly, in the research stages,upon planning what I wantedto find out, I used what I learntlast year in Media Studies andcreated a research survey onsurveymonkey.com. Thismedia technology was notonly easy to use but also hada huge variety of differentlayouts and styles for questions, allowing me to getexactly the right style of question, in order to obtainthe qualitative structure Ineeded to holistically appealto a set demographic. Thisparticular website was pivotalsoftware in the research

section of this project, whichis evidently true because mygroup and I used much of what we gathered from thistechnology from Facebook, asocial networking site, todecide how to create our video.

Also involved in research was

the video interview, used to findout the views of an individual

who is an actual fan of the punk

genre. A prerequisite of this

video was a camera, which I

provided through use of my

mobile phone. I also needed toconvert the file from a 3GPP file

into an MP4 in order to uploadit to my blog. This was another

stage of technology I used in

the planning stages of my

media texts.

Brothersoft.com was the website I

used to convert the video .



Also, a large part of our research

included browsing and

analysing existing products.

For videos, this was very

easy as the group just spent

time on Youtube.com.

YouTube was extremelyhelpful for this and is

arguably the most efficient

technology for finding videos

for existing material analysis.

I then typed up my

analysis on Microsoft

word to ensure there

were no spelling mistakes

and then copied and

pasted this passage intomy blog. It was also a use

of technology to capture a

screen shot of the video

in order to back up my

evaluation.

Existing music videos were not the only media that we needed to research and analyse, we also needed tosee existing digipaks and adverts to get a feel for the conventions were looking for. For this we used Google

search. Whilst doing this we found it quite hard to find images of these texts, especially relevant examples.

To evaluate this use of technology, there per haps may have been an easier and more effective way to find

adverts and digipaks such as searching magazines. But despite the difficulty of finding these images, Google

did prove very helpful overall. This may be an appropriate time to say that a computer was necessary for

these kinds of tasks, through research, planning, construction and evaluation of our promotional pack.



At the planning stage, we didn¶t actually much

technology beyond our pens, pencils and imagination when actually

creating the ideas for the music video itself.

This was the case until we needed to put the storyboard on blogger.com. For us to do this we had to use a scanner and scan the images into vuescan

scanning software, before uploading them onto slideshare.com, in order to

embed the storyboard into our blogs.



Later in the planning stage, we needed to plan the locations where we would be filming

our video. To do this we used Google maps, searched for relevant areas and captured

a screen shot and uploaded these screen shots to Blogger.

The planning stage did not require as much technology as the other

stages as it was mainly a discussion. However, the technology we did use,

I believe we used to a high level and realised how helpful it is to have

technologies such as a computer and software like Google maps in the

research stage of the promotional package.



In the construction stage, we used a variety of technologies. Firstly the maincomponent of filming is obviously, the camera. We used a very advancedCannon 600D that made filming very easy, the manual focus on thecamera was especially helpful as we could pick out the exact area of focus we wanted and it also allowed us to do a focus pull that featureslate in the video. The camera proved easy to use and the technology wasnecessary in the completing of our coursework. This clear cut highlydefined level of photography was what the group was looking for in order to give our texts a conventionally professional look.

If it can be considered technology in its own

right, we used a tripod in order to keep the

framing of the video consistent, for

example, in the morning sequence we hadtwo shots that required the same framing.



For storage of data, the camera had an SD card which extended the internal memory of thecamera and also made transferring the files to the macbook very easy as it has anintegrated memory card slot. The macbook is a very advanced and capable laptop thatmade the whole process of producing the texts very easy. Of course, I was not very fluent

on it to begin with

on theM

ac as Ihad never before used one for any great lengt

hof time,but after an hour or two, the group and I were able to use the technology quite effectively.

After transferring the data, we imported the files into an editing programme called Final cut pro. Finalcut pro was an excellent piece of software that we used to actually order, cut in/out and composethe separate clips we took with the camera. Other groups used adobe premier but this software

was practically the same.



We used the left screen tochoose the clip we wanted to

use and the right screen to see

what the fully composed video

looks like.

The timeline along thebottom allows you to place

the clip where you would like

it relative to the other clips

you have.

On the far left is

where we importedthe clips that we

captured with the

camera.

Also on the time line is

the music, allowing usto match the words of

the song with the

miming of the main

character.

The software became easy touse and we would have found

it very hard to achieve the

same effect if we had to edit

on the camera. Final cut pro is

one of the most important

pieces of technology we used

in the construction stage.



Upon finishing the video weuploaded to YouTube in the hopeof getting feedback, however,what comments we did get werequite unhelpful. Perhaps adifferent method would be moreappropriate.

As well as the video, we created the digipak and advert by taking images

with the same camera and imported them into Photoshop, which isadvanced photo editing software.We used Photoshop to put the images

together in a digipak form and to

overlay the text on them. The

software was easy enough to use as

we learnt to use it last year whilst

making our music magazine. We usedthe software because it allows you to

work in layers. This is helpful as you

can move and re-move the text around

until you are happy with it, then flatten

the image.



The evaluation stage is

extremely brief as it is self

evident that I used Microsoft

PowerPoint to create this

Presentation, which implies

that I used a computer on

which to make it.

Other than that, I only used

Google search and printscreen to select the images

for this evaluation. I thought

it would make sense to keep

it simple, because the text

content of the evaluation is

in my opinion, mostimportant.

A2 Media Studies Evaluation Q1+2+3+4nf

Documents

Transcript of A2 Media Studies Evaluation Q1+2+3+4nf