Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge

conventions?

My video conforms quite firmly to conventions for modern rock music videos as:

- The inclusion of some kind of ongoing story is very typical of music videos, most frequently the indie rock genre

- The video depicts a performance by a band, as seen in many indie rock music videos as a cutaway or in the context of the video (my music video includes the latter)

A key aspect of music videos identified by Andrew Goodwin is “there is a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, with the visuals illustrating, amplifying or contradicting the lyrics.” I recognised this at a few points in my video - for example, at the point when the lyric ‘I had some nightmares…’ occurs, the video corresponds to the dream sequence in the video

Another convention that is used is the frequent close-ups and inclusion of the main artist (in this case the video revolves mostly around the vocalist for the band)

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

texts?

The combination of the main and ancillary products are used to create a whole, complete digipack. Links between the products are used to increase familiarity between multiple media and include:

- The main character from the music video is depicted on the album cover (as well as the band on a TV screen)

- The band featured in the music video appears in several compositions on the poster. Stills included were lifted directly from the video itself so as to ensure those familiar with the video would recognise the images and make a mental connection

- The established font for the band is used on both the album cover and poster, with the respective colour scheme

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From the evaluation I received regarding my products I have learned:

- How to better attract and retain the attention of an audience. The feedback I received for my music video pointed out that too many long, lingering shots can potentially lose the audience’s interest – more frequent cuts between action were required to improve the video

- Creating and maintaining a basic storyline. It was intended to be implied by the footage that the main character from the beginning and the end of the video is playing a music based game (other characters exist within the game). However some viewers pointed out that the introduction of the main character playing the game and subsequent lack of footage was somewhat confusing. To resolve this issue more footage of the player of the game was included, sandwiched between other footage

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction

and research, planning and evaluation stages?

- One of the primary sources of research for my project was the Internet. I analysed previously-existing videos, album covers and posters available through various websites and presented my findings on a blog via the Internet

- When planning my music video I created an animatic with the program Macromedia Flash to show the content and timings

- Both the poster and album cover were created through the use of Macromedia Fireworks

- My evaluation (as well as other presentations) were posted on the blog through the use of Slide Share – a service that allows for posting and embedding of PowerPoint presentations