Media evaluationBy Victoria-Louise Sweet

In what way does your media

product challenge and develop codes

and conventions of real media

products?

•Once I had chosen the medium of a music video, I found a non-copyrighted pop-punk song, then I had to research the conventions of this medium and genre. I did this by looking up real media on YouTube and subverted, combined and used aspects of camera, mise-en-scene, editing and sound to create my product. Firstly I found that most music videos lip-synced and inter-cutted between different locations. Intercutting also known as cross-cutting increases the pace as the music video develops which means the pace usually starts off slow with few cuts to build up tension but gradually shots become shorter and cuts occur more frequently to create a climax so it then slows down towards the end. This is because cutting conventionally occurs on the beat and the pace of pop punk songs speed up and then slow down gradually. In addition I found that most Pop-punk music videos were performance and narrative based such as; Weezer’s “We are All on Drugs”, Avril Lavigne’s “What the Hell” and Paramore’s “Only Exception” So I transferred these editing techniques to my product. This meant during the verses of the song my video focused on the diegesis during the chorus and concentrated on the band in the chorus due to the fact this was a conventional structure to cross-cutting. However, the same three music videos began with the protagonist asleep which I challenged as mine begins with establishing shots of a school.

What the Hell by Avril Lavigne

Only Exception by Paramore

We are All on Drugs by Weezer

left - performance section right - narrative section

• I mainly used the conventions from the pop-punk band Blink 182s video “After Midnight”. As seen below both my promo and the real media starts with an establishing shots. Moreover, I obtained the inspiration from the plot from this video as two young patients; a male and female protagonist run away from the antagonist nurses. However I adapted this by changing the location from a youth psychiatric ward to a school. Thus, the students wore uniforms and the teacher wore a suit so the mise-en-scene was also developed. I also adapted the plot slightly to fit the scenario as instead of the youths playing with stethoscope, having a wheel chair race and messing about with foam alphabet pieces, the youths in my video bunk a school detention, have a paint fight and go and see the band Conquer the Decade in a VIP concert (which is revealed through the props of tickets). This is because I wanted to represent age as a convention of all media is to represent an idea or belief.

Top - my product– bottom -Blink 182 After Midnight

• Narrative is the chain of events in a cause-effect relationship, occurring in time. Therefore in my music video the protagonists escape a detention. The detention is connoted through the mis-en-scene e.g. the time on the clock in the class room. The escape is cause the kids wanting to go to see the band playing but they want to have a paint fight first. The paint fight causes the teacher to find them because if they had just left the school and gone straight to the VIP concert then they would not have been caught. However, this scene will engage the audience because when I spoke to my peers in my media lessons this was the idea that they liked the most. Another idea they did not like that much was finding their school reports on the teachers computer and deleting them but this was not very creative because “After midnight” by blink 182’s project pretty much does this with paper reports not electronic. Therefore I aimed for the diegesis to be from the students point of view to target my audience more easily. I think that some older people may not like the plot or story that is presented, but others will relate to it and feel nostalgic while watching it for example I remember on last day of term at my secondary school it was a tradition that the year 11s stole the clocks to annoy the teachers. It turned out to be quite irritating but funny because this was the time they did mock exams so some teachers went to extreme lengths to prevent us from taking the clocks such as locking them in a cupboard until they needed it for a practise paper, even though we intended to give them back eventually.

• To a certain extent my promo is a mixture of an unrestricted and restricted narration because it is not necessarily factual like the news but it still builds tension especially at the beginning with the long establishing shots of the school because it mediates my product as it excludes the introduction of characters for quite a while. It also excludes a large amount of the antagonist chasing the protagonists around the school because this is not engaging and only a small minority of my audience will know the layout of the . This is copied from “Little things” by Good Charlotte because the layout of the school is not known to the audience. However, I challenged conventions because although I excluded the costume change, I used a title stating 2 hours had passed to ensure continuity was maintained, unlike Avril Lavigne who skips the costume change because of it’s lack of importance. Therefore, they have been mediated as certain shots have not been selected.

• Nevertheless, I followed a traditional linear narrative of equilibrium (with the empty quiet and calm corridors) disruption (detention or escaping the detention) conflict (paint fight or getting caught) resolution (escaping the school) re-equilibrium (going to see the band in a VIP concert). Therefore, it tries to meet a resolution but the more traditional resolution would have been for the antagonist to catch the protagonists like in Blink 182.’s After Midnight. Although I do not feel my audience decode the flashbacks I had encoded a short backstory with the use of the long establishing corridors. Even though I did not use all 8 conventional character roles I did use a hero and villain which helped move the narrative forward. Moreover I used binary opposition such as good and evil or student and teacher to make sense of the narrative.

• My survey told me that most of my audience was going to be British at the beginning of the process I wanted to make sure I used the cultural code. Thus most of my target market will have similar ideologies because they were exposed to similar experiences. What’s more, throughout the whole promo I used the hermeneutic and the enigma code because the audience is left questing; will the teacher ever catch the students? Or what happens to the students when they go back to school? However, these questions are answered by the end of the music video; the students do not care due to their rebellion. Hence, although tension is built an anti-climax causes a re-equilibrium in the end.

Top - my product– bottom row -Blink 182 After Midnight

• I also combined “Wake me up when September ends” by Green Day with the rest of my research because Green Day’s video had sections of diegetic sound at the beginning and middle. Therefore, I combined this with “What the Hell” by Avril Lavigne, Weezer “We Are all on Drugs” and “Helena” by My chemical romance which didn’t have any diegetic sound. Hence, my product had some diegetic sound at the beginning but the non diegetic score of the song like most music videos was used throughout the rest of the medium. Also the non diegetic ticking of the clock was used to ensure the quality of the sound was clearer to the audience. Moreover, it challenged conventions because most music videos do not have more than one non-diegetic score. Additionally, This is due to the idea that most pop videos have a little narrative section at the beginning of them for example; “If I were a boy” by Beyoncé which is the pop part of the sub-genre Pop-punk. So by combining this with the black clothes the band is wearing in my product it makes it more punk orientated because pop-punk is an adaption of Rock. Many pop-punk bands wear black or dark clothing e.g. My Chemical Romance, Green day and Blink 182 because black connotes death for example the Beatles wore black suits in their music video “Hard Days Night” which is iconic to the rock genre.

Helena by My Chemical Romance

Weezer we are all on Drugs

What the Hell by Avril Lavigne

Wake me up when September ends by Green Day

“If I were a boy” by Beyoncé “Hard Days Night” By the Beatles

• I challenged the Pop-punk genre as many of these songs were about war and featured this in their music videos e.g. “When your Gone” by Avril Lavigne, “Now” by Paramore and “Wake me up when September ends” by Green Day. I also challenged conventions from “What the Hell” by Avril Lavigne, “We are All on Drugs” by Weezer, and “Helena” by My Chemical Romance, because the protagonist in the narrative section is usually lead singer in the performance section.• Thus, I copied conventions of the Pop-punk genre

again because none of them included a paint fight but I came across the promo Bounce by The Cab which is a hybrid of Pop rock, emo-pop, alternative rock, and pop punk. As a result I combined this with conventions of the pop video Let Go For Tonight by Foxes to even out the rock elements of the cab. The use of the prop of the paint emphasised the stereotypical representation of age which has different interpretations. The negative rebellious teenagers with the positive wise adults, or the negative serious and boring adults with the positive, happy, athletic and free youths. What’s more it will engage younger viewers because I adapted my mise-en-scene by using younger actors so will make it easier for the target market to relate to my product.

When your Gone by Avril Lavigne

Now by Paramore Wake me up when September ends by

Green Day

Bounce by The Cab

Let go for tonight by Foxes

Lets hear it for the Vague blur by Conquer the

Decade

• I used the convention of breaking the fourth wall which is done in all music videos including mine making the media postmodern because it blurred the lines between reality and the media. Additionally, this was engaging because the audience and the lead singer made eye contact. This was obtained through close ups and mid shots of the lead singer and long shots of the band which conveyed the emotion of sadness. This is because the narrative of my music video is about leaving school and going into the real world of work which is conveyed through the lyrics “They told me I’d be fine without my former life”. The “They” refers to the teachers or antagonists, so implies they are not “fine” as the band reflects on the protagonists in the flashback diegesis. The idea, it is a flashback is conveyed through the establishing shots of the empty corridors at the beginning of the video. The fact, there were more close ups of the lead singer than long shots of the band portrayed the detail of emotion needed. This camera technique is not used in just the pop punk genre but also in a large amount of promos such as “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz which is a Alternative rock hybrid. • However I did challenge conventions of all music videos

to engage the audience more, for example I used a high to low over the shoulder shot of the drums to make my video more interesting for younger audiences which the video is aimed at. I also unintentionally challenged music videos because the props of microphones were not accessible and these are used in all performance based music videos use. However, I combined these ideas with a conventional close up of the drummer and the mise-en-scene of props; guitars and amps, to target a broader older audience who prefer familiar shots from real media such as Blink 182’s promo “After midnight”.

My media product is on the top row and Clint Eastwood by Gorillaz is on the two on the left in the 2nd row. My promo is on the 3rd and After midnight

by Blink 128 is in the 4th row.

•While creating my product researching never really stopped as I found the Pop-punk band Good Charlotte who did a music video called “little things” which was set in the location of a school. Therefore, I unintentionally copied conventions from this promo as depicted above because I found this video after coming up with my idea of youths rebelling. I developed this because in America students do not wear uniform like they do in the UK and because my video was made in English setting I wanted to subtly represent this stereotype of ethnicity. I also copied the mise-en-scene of costumes because both teachers are wearing suites. Furthermore, I copied the sign of the school but adapted the camera shot from a low to high shot to a long establishing shot.•What’s more I challenged conventions because I decided to have a VIP concert with just the protagonists instead of a concert with a crowd. The pop-punk music videos ”What The Hell” by Avril Lavigne “Little Things” by Good Charlotte and “Only Exception” by Paramore all have crowds watching the band. Although I wanted to copy this convention because it was effective in the real media, on a small budget actors were difficult to organise as I did not pay anyone in my video, like I would have in the real world of work. However, I did manage to obtain the conventional editing technique of eye line match. This was adapted mainly from Paramore’s video who were not performing in the concert scene of “Only Exception” but the lead singer/female protagonist was at a different concert with the male antagonist, who wasn’t part of the band, like my female and male protagonist who were at the concert of the music videos song this juxtaposing in Good Charlotte’s and Avril Lavigne’s Video the bands were the protagonists performing to a crowd of people.

Top row has print screens of my product and bottom row little things by Good Charlotte

Only Exception by Paramore little things by Good Charlotte

What The Hell by Avril Lavigne Lets hear it for the Vague blur by

Conquer the Decade

• I combined the mainstream clothing of the green coat from the pop-punk music video “Only exception” by Paramore with the fans in the videos ”What The Hell” by Avril Lavigne and “Little Things” by Good Charlotte by having my female protagonist wear a leather jacket and my male protagonist wear a hoodie. • I also copied the promo Helena by My

Chemical Romance as the band all wore the same thing so were uniform. I tried to copy this completely but did not have the funding for the suits as in the real media they all wore red ties, black or white shirts and black suites with black shoes. Therefore I combined the uniform idea with blink 182’s music video “After Midnight”, Paramore’s promo “Only Exception” and Green Day’s “Wake me up When September Ends” which all have dark coloured clothes and told my actors to wear black or dark coloured shirts, trousers and shoes. In Addition I copied the medium key light that was used in all of the real media’s narrative sections that I researched. Plus, I copied the low key lighting from Green Day’s promo “Wake me up When September Ends” and Blink 182’s “After Midnight” during the band section.

Helena by My Chemical Romance

Wake me up when September ends by Green Day

Blink 182 After Midnight

Lets hear it for the Vague blur by Conquer the Decade

Only exception by Paramore

What The Hell by Avril Lavigne

Little Things by Good Charlotte

Lets hear it for the Vague blur by Conquer the Decade

• Additionally, I challenged the make-up of the pop-punk genre for example in the music videos “Helena” by My Chemical Romance, “Wake me up when September Ends” by Green Day, “What the Hell” by Avril Lavigne and “Little Things” by Good Charlotte the music artists all wear make up. Whereas my product none of the band members wear make up. This will enable audiences to relate to my music video because males do not normally wear make up.

• However, I copied conventions of the pop punk genre because the promos “Wake me up when September Ends” by Green Day and “After Midnight” by Blink 182 both have two protagonists who are not part of the band. What’s more I adapted the natural make-up of the female protagonist but copied the male protagonists make-up. This is because in these two real media the male protagonists did not wear any make up and the female protagonists wear a little foundation and mascara. This is similar to my product as my male protagonist didn’t wear any make-up and my female protagonists wore a little eye liner, foundation and mascara like Avril Lavigne in her music video “What the Hell”. Thus, ensuring it fits into the pop-punk genre.

What The Hell by Avril

Lavigne

Little Things by

Good Charlotte

Wake me up when September ends by Green

Day

Helena by My

Chemical Romance

Wake me up when September ends by Green Day

After Midnight by Blink 182

Lets hear it for the Vague blur by Conquer the Decade – my

product on top row

• Furthermore, I challenged the conventional tracking camera movement which is used in quite a few pop-punk music videos. I think it probably would have been more effective and conveyed the genre more if I had copied it but I did not have a the equipment of a dolly so I would have had to make one which is quite time consuming and did not think about this early enough in pre-production. Instead I used the unconventional pan to try and obtain the same effect.• Nevertheless, another convention of

music videos in general is the still shot which I used throughout my product. For example the promos Helena by My Chemical Romance, and Wake me up when September ends by Green Day both use still shots. In fact the music videos above that conventionally use tracking shots use some still shots as well such as Only Exception by Paramore and What The Hell by Avril Lavigne.

what The Hell by Avril Lavigne

Little Things by Good Charlotte

Only Exception by Paramore

Blink 182 After Midnight

Helena by My Chemical Romance

Wake me up when September ends by

Green Day

Only Exception by Paramore

The Hell by Avril Lavigne

Lets hear it for the Vague blur by Conquer the Decade – my product on top row

• I also challenged conventions of the pop-punk because I used the editing technique of dip to black at the end of my promo which none of the music videos I researched did. However, I wanted to convey emotion and engage younger audiences with interesting editing methods. I reinforced this with the shot reverse shot (SRS) editing tool because this enabled to portray protagonists emotional reaction to the music, this was of happiness because they successfully got away from the antagonist and were at a VIP only concert which was emphasised through the sign on the door. •However, conventions of happy and

excited facial expressions, body language of the fans were copied from pop-punk promos such as ”What The Hell” by Avril Lavigne “Little Things” by Good Charlotte and “Only Exception”. Stereotypical Relaxed and focused Facial expressions, body language of the band were also copied from the video After Midnight by Blink 182 and Only Exception by Paramore.

Lets hear it for the Vague blur by Conquer the Decade – my product

After midnight by Blink 182 top row What The Hell by

Avril Lavigne bottom row

Lets hear it for the Vague blur by Conquer the Decade top

row and Little Things by Good Charlotte bottom row

Only Exception by Paramore both rows

• Similarly, in my ancillary task I continued to copy, combine and subvert conventions of real media. Firstly I found that most digipaks and album adverts have the band name and album name so I copied this vital conventional language. Likewise, I combined conventions of the pop – punk genre for my digipak front cover. This is because I wanted to intrigue audiences by allowing the band anonymity. Real media such as the digipaks by the music artists Blink 182, Paramore, Jimmy Eat World, Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Motion City Soundtrack, Taking Back Sunday and The Get Up Kids all obtain anonymity by not having images of the band on the front cover. However, I adapted this convention because I copied the skull from the My Chemical Romance album cover to maintain the anonymity of the band members by using the non copyright images of skulls as masks. Thus this combined it with albums by Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte and Weezer which have photographs of the artists on their front covers. I achieved this by editing the skull to fit the sizes of the faces of the band and adjusting the opacity down to 70% so that their facial features are seen slightly to create an edgy tone which matched the music. Therefore, I challenged the conventional opacity of images because the real media I have researched have their images at 100%. In Addition, I used the conventional layout of the bands positioning and camera angle from Weezer and Good Charlotte. As the both the real media and my front cover used a long shot of the band and edited it with an eye line match.

• Additionally I copied the conventional graphic of splattered paint from the Blink 182 album for my background. I did not know whether this was a photo of real paint or a computerised photoshop of paint so I used both. I did this to use synergy as well because it refers back to my music video where they have a paint fight. Therefore this conventionally strengthened the brand of my products. This is conventional because Green Days CD front cover had an image of a hand holding a heart shaped grenade which links firmly to their music video due to the plot being about the protagonists being in love but separated by war. Furthermore, this is the reason a large amount of digipaks have photos of the music artists in them; to use synergy which promotes the band. Nevertheless, I adapted the colour of the graphics from pink and light blue to green and dark blue to combine my idea with Weezer and connote masculinity to broaden my audience. This is because when I researched the target audience of the Pop-Punk genre it was directed mostly at females but I wanted to target my products to both genders to enable higher sales and gain more profit.• However, I challenged the font of the band name “Conquer the Decade”

and album name “Let’s Hear it for the Vague Blur” because I wanted it to relate to the bands title itself. This is because the verb Conquer and the noun decade are quite historic. Hence, I used the Rosewood font for the band title and Charlesmagne Std because they both had an antiquated feel to them. This relates to my music video because there is a flashback as the band is reflecting on the past as they leave school. This is due to the fact the band is going to university or the real world of work and they are becoming nostalgic as they watch the younger protagonists rebelling. On the other hand I copied conventions again because I typed the font in big capital letters like real media e.g. Green Day, Avril Lavigne, Motion City Soundtrack, Taking Back Sunday, Good Charlotte and Jimmy Eat World. Nevertheless, I challenged the conventions of the font again because Rosewood and Charlesmagne Std are both Serif fonts which goes against the majority of the band names in pop-punk real media I researched such as Green Day Avril Lavigne Motion City Soundtrack, Taking Back Sunday, and Jimmy Eat World because these all use San Serif fonts. Lastly, I used the conventional bold font and I copied the size of the Album name as this is always smaller than the band name in real media researched.

Wake me up when September ends by Green

Day

•Furthermore, I challenged conventions of the miss-en-scene as the costume on the front cover because in real media such as Avril Lavigne’s, Good Charlotte’s and Weezer’s digipak all wear the same style of clothing (which I did copy as dark coloured clothing is conventional of the pop-punk genre) but not the same as their music video. Hence, to use synergy the band on the digipak is wearing exactly the same as what they are wearing in the music video which strengthened the brand of my products. I Continued to challenge conventions as both Good Charlotte and Avril Lavigne’s album are wearing a bit of make up. Whereas, although it is difficult to tell behind the skull like masks the band has no make up on. Moreover, I combined the conventions of the use of props as in Weezers digipak there is a guitar, on Good Charlotte’s album the is an old fashioned microphone and in Avril Lavigne’s front cover there are no props used. Thus, I used no props in my product.•However, I challenged the conventional layout of real media which usually has the album name under the band name. For example, the following artists’ albums all follow this convention; My Chemical Romance, Avril Lavigne, Taking Back Sunday and Green Day. However, I felt that it was easier to see the Rosewood font at the bottom compared to the top because the 2 photographed splatters of paint on the right landed at the heads of the band members and I thought they looked like halos which was quite ironic as they are rebellious youths. Due to the notion that I did not know how to edit photographed spatters of paint and if I turned the background upside down, I would loose the halos, I decided to keep the band name at the bottom otherwise it would look too busy and unpleasant to the eye and the album name in the top aligned to the right. These both had white backgrounds and reinforced the ironic idea of the halos because white connotes purity which contrasts the music video. What’s more the conventional colour white was also copied from the pop-punk albums My Chemical romance, Blink 182 and Avril Lavigne. Plus, I added the two other splatters of paint with photoshop to add emphasis to the halo idea because they were positioned behind the two other band members heads. The positioning of the text was also adapted from the album The get up Kids because instead of being at the bottom aligned to the left my product has the album name aligned to the right at the top.

• Firstly, in the back cover of my digipak I used the conventional, bar code, track names and copyright conditions which are from all real products. I also used the conventional band and album name which is repeated on the two spines of real digipaks like the the record label logo which is also conventionally on the back of the of the CD cover and I developed by combining the following logos:

• I developed it by copying the black and white colours but challenging it by adding red. I also copied the language; “Backstreet” and combined it with “Credits”. I copied the serif font convention but challenged the italics font and adapted the font to Myraid pro. I also copied the font as “back street” capital letters but I challenged them again because “credits” is in lower case. I also copied the graphics because most of the real media I researched had a border around part or all of the logo.

Paramore

Blink 182 My Chemical Romance Green Day Avril Lavigne

Conquer the DecadeWeezer The Get Up Kids Taking Back Sunday

Jimmy Eat World

• However, I did copied the layout of the song tracks because they are conventionally aligned to the right at the top. For example Green Day, Blink 182, and Taking Back Sunday all follow this convention as well. I adapted the image of splattered paint from My Chemical Romance (The back of the black parade conductor), The Get Up Kids (The candle which is in front of the robots in the front cover) and green day (The pin to the grenade on the front cover of the digipak) to a paint splatter to make the brand consistent throughout the digipak like real media does. However, I challenged the convention of having photos on the back of digipaks as Blink 182 and Avril Lavigne have photos of the on the music artists. Plus, Taking Back Sunday and Jimmy Eat World both have photos related to the front cover on the back of the CD case. I also copied the positioning of the bar code which is mostly aligned the left in real media texts such as Green Day, Paramore, and My Chemical Romance. Furthermore, I challenged the alignment of the copyright conditions which are normally aligned to the left but in Taking Back Sundays digipak they are aligned to the right like my product and I haven’t used many conventions from this pop punk product. Moreover, I copied the conventional layout of the spines because both Green Day’s and Paramore’s digipak starting from the bottom going to the top there is the bands name, album name and record labels logo facing inwards to the back cover which is like my product.

Paramore

My Chemical Romance Conquer the DecadeThe Get Up Kids

Blink 182 Green Day Taking Back Sunday

Avril Lavigne Jimmy Eat World

• Furthermore, I copied the convention of the colour scheme red, black and white from Green Day Avril Lavigne and My Chemical Romance to make the track songs easier to read compared to the splatters of paint which would have made it too busy and not aesthetically pleasing. Whereas the white and red font stands out against the black background.

• Moreover, I adapted the font which is the same as my album name’s font; Charlesmagne Std. This is to keep the brand consistent throughout the Digipak. This occurs in all pop-punk real media I have researched but I adapted it to fit my font as I did not copy these mediums font. I also developed the San Serif font called Verdana for the copy right terms and conditions.

• Nevertheless, I challenged the convention of language by numbering tracks because the band only has 7 and I did not want to emphasise this because it is not that many compared to the Get Up Kids who have 14 this is not that many. Therefore, people will be less likely to pay more for the product because they are not getting much. What’s More I copied conventional language by excluding the band or album name on the back cover because most of my research does this except Avril Lavigne which has both. I combined and adapted the language of the copy write terms and conditions from the Avril Lavigne and Green Day back cover by changing the names. For example “Photograph by Victoria-Louise” and “Executive Producers James Michie & Simon Ford”. All digipaks also state something on the lines of the following “unauthorised, copying, reproducing hiring, public performance, broadcasting and lending is punishable under federal law” like my product.

My Chemical Romance

Green Day Avril Lavigne

Conquer the DecadeThe Get Up Kids

• Furthermore, I challenged conventional black CD compartment and used the exact background of the front cover which had splatters of paint on to maintain the brand throughout my digipak.

• However, I copied the colours (black and white) and language of the top right panel of the digipak because all real media have band members names here. I also added many thanks in smaller font which is also conventional of the inside of a CD case. I also used Charlesmagne Std and Verdana font again to keep the brand consistent throughout my product.

• I also adapted the images of the top right and left of the digipak because they are usually band members I used the same colours and graphics (splattered paint) as the front cover to reinforce the brand again.

CD Compartment - conventional layout of top row middle of my

Digipak

Conventionally Top left of my Digipak

Conventionally Top right of my Digipak

Conventionally bottom left of my Digipak

The images are it the right way up which audiences would view the inside of the digipak once it was folded and put in a

case

• Moreover, I adapted most of the conventions to suit my products advert because it is conventional to have the band name, album name, front cover of Digipak, record label logo, what else can be bought e.g. tickets, name of website or store where the album and tickets can be bought and release date. I combined all of these conventions from the album adverts from the pop-punk bands Green Day, Paramore and Blink 182. I conventionally used the same font and colour scheme from the digipak like Paramore to create synergy.

Unfortunately I could not obtain the album adverts for the albums I researched for the

digipak

• I think the combination of my main product and ancillary texts were very effective. This is because as stated previously, I used paint as a prop in my music video and graphic and photograph on my front cover. I also photographed the band members for my front cover which was used in my album advert. I used the same colour scheme and fonts throughout my digipak and album advert to create synergy as well. The language was also consistent throughout because I named my music video Let’s Hear it For the Vague Blur and put this as my album name which was on the front and back cover of my digipak and on my album advert.

How effective was the combination of your main

product and ancillary texts?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

• Firstly, gender was slightly biased as more males did my survey in ratio to females which may effect my results. This is because more than half of the people that did my survey were male and less than half of the people that did my survey were female. This was lucky because males were predominant in my promo so represented stereotypes of gender. This is due to peoples perception and or experiences in society that men a stronger and women are more fragile. Therefore women need men to help them more. However, it could be interpreted that females like boy bands more so my music video will hopefully target both genders.

• What’s more, due to the fact that I posted the survey on Twitter, Facebook and Blogger means that younger audiences were more inclined to respond because this is the social medias target audience. Fortunately young people are my target audience so although it may be biased again I will obtain a clearer image of what my target market thinks of my products. However, I was surprised because 28% of the people who did my survey were 21 to 30 and I thought it would have been 11 to 20 because these are my peers but this only obtained 20% I did ask my cousin to share it so this makes sense as 21 to 30 is her age range. I also used the representation of stereotypical gender throughout the promo because youths are thought of as to be fast but delinquent whereas older people are thought of as wise but weak. Hence as there are still a large proportion of people doing my survey over the teenage years, audiences could get offended.

• Nevertheless I was not surprised to see the ethnicity results because I go to a school in Buckinghamshire in England and live in the Suburbs of London 60% was the most likely outcome. This is the reason I used all white people in my music video that and the fact that is a convention of all the pop-punk music videos I analysed. Therefore more people of White British ethnicity should like the video.

• Plus, The occupation status wasn’t a surprise either considering the age 21 to 30 means most people would be in work which is great because these are the people most likely to be in work with the money to buy my products with unlike the 26 students who may still get them as presents. Even so there are more part time employees who will have more money than the students or are both part time workers and students.

•Was the Music Video edited well?•It was good but then the location confused me because they left the school and then came back to the school - continuity there wouldn't be a VIP concert in the school l and the kids wouldn't have gone back to the school if they were in trouble with the teachers.•What was your favourite section of the music video?•The paint scene and the beginning bit and the band bit!!! ALL OF IT!!!•What can be improved? •The Verisimilitude I mean would a teacher really chase pupils round the school? I think not! They would more likely call their parents who would scream blue murder. Plus the paint scene needs more paint.•The acting could have also been improved like when the guy ran through the drama studio door towards the end he could have ran faster.

Most Common and Best Answers

• I am quite happy with my results 62% of the 104 people who took my survey stated my products were pop punk. What’s more 93% said they thought the brand was consistent though out which means I used synergy well throughout my Digipak, music video and album advert.

• Lastly, 14% said they were engaged fully by the video. Therefore, 86% were not fully engaged. However 20% said it was 8/10 which is a lot more than the small minority that said it was 1/10. Approximately 20% of the people who took the survey thought it was 1/10-5/10 and 53.3 thought my products were 6/10-8/10 which suggests the majority were engaged. However, because the people who took the survey were older they may not have been as interested as intended.

Best and Most Common Answers

What do you think went well in the Digipak and album advert?

The Skulls are cool

What do you think could have been better in the Digipak and album advert?

The paint could have been splattered more evenly and the font could have been clearer and bigger if the band members were made smaller. This would have been more conventional.

• Should I want to sell my Digipak I would do so on iTunes because surprisingly 46% said they would expect to find it there I thought it would have the music store which was not far off at 15%. I was also shocked that not many people said they would normally see album adverts on billboards because I thought that that’s the best place to promote my album. Therefore, it just goes to show I cannot just assume things I have to research and check with my audience first because the majority stated they would these adverts in magazines and posters. Nevertheless, I was not surprised at all that nearly 3/4’s of the people that took the survey said they watch their music videos on YouTube because it is free and its what I do.

How did you use new media technologies in

research, planning, construction and

evaluation stages of the project?

Research• I used new media technologies in my research, for example I looked up the pop-punk genre and different types of music

videos e.g. narrative, performance and concept based) with the help of the search engine Google. I then searched for real media on YouTube and took notes on conventional mise-en-scene, camera angles, editing techniques and sound. I also looked up different pop-punk digipaks and albums on Google images and took notes on conventional use of colour, images (mise-en-scene), language, layout and font. All of which I recorded on Blogger by embedding the videos and importing images, analyzing them in blog posts. This enabled me to see how synergy is used throughout the three products and ensured I had a clear understanding of how to make my brand consistent throughout my project. Plus, by knowing what the conventions were I was able to challenge, use and develop them in my products. I also used Wikipedia and media magazine to learn more and do some further reading which widening my knowledge about theories used in media including the following:

1.Narrative

2.Genre

3.Representation

4.Structuralism

5.Post-modernism

6.Meta-modernism

Planning• While planning I used a variety of new media technologies to develop my project. For example, I used Google Docs to

create a form to find out more about my target market. I posted and tweeted this on Blogger, Facebook and Twitter and asked my friends and family to fill it in. Next, I used a Microsoft Spread Sheet to create graphs and copied them to Microsoft power point on a Dell computer to convey my data. After that I posted my PowerPoint on Slide Share which I embedded into my blog.

• What’s more, I used a SLR digital camera which I had never used before to take photos of the 56 shots in my storyboard and uploaded them to a MacBook Pro with Premier Pro to create an Animatic. Then I exported it to enable myself to upload it to YouTube so I could embed it into my blog but then tweaked and improved it as I had not at first followed the conventional structure of music videos i.e. I did not have the narrative scenes during the chorus and the band scenes during the verses. Once I was happy with it I exported, uploaded and embedded again using the same media technologies.

Construction • During the construction process I continued to use more new media technologies. This is because I used a sony camera

and a tripod to film my music video. Firstly, I obtained my song from my Step Bother’s band who had uploaded it from youtube so I converted it into an MP3 file and imported that to premier pro. I Then filmed the narrative and band sections on different days to ensure my actors were not waiting around. Plus, I filmed each band member from two different camera angles throughout the song to make sure I had more than enough footage to edit and would not have to reshoot much. However, I did have to reshoot the lead singers close up. This was because I thought when shooting it first to have keep continuity the drums and drummer had to be behind the lead sing but this was distracting and would not engage the audience enough. Hence when I reshot it I made sure the lead singer made more eye contact with the camera, knew the lines more and pronounced his words better because these were also issues.

• Unfortunately, on my first day of filming the room where all the equipment is kept was locked so I went to a different room and obtained a lower quality camera. This meant if I used a better quality camera the next time I filmed the footage would look different and continuity such as lighting would be effected negatively. This meant I had to keep using the lower quality one to obtain a high verisimilitude. However, the files of the footage made my macbook slower because of the poorer quality and editing with Premier pro more difficult. This is because I had to wait a really long time for the footage to load so that it could start playing in the preview section and when I put it into the timeline it would flicker too much to be lip synced in time. Thus, I rendered it which took a tedious amount of time. Once I left it rendering over night for 8 hours. Nevertheless, I was very patient and managed to get there in the end with my music video finished. I also edited the speed and duration of clips in order for them to fit in time with the song especially during the narrative section because I was able to use fast motion which connoted that time went fast when they had fun compared to the slow long clips at the beginning.

• Furthermore, for my ancillary task I used the SLR digital camera again to take photos of my band members individually (so it was easier to edit later) with a green screen and the splatters of paint. I then imported them into Photoshop which I had used in GCES art once but did not know how to use it very well. Therefore, I used a YouTube video to find out how to get the green screen to change to the background I wanted. I learnt that I had to turn all photos or “backgrounds” into “layers” drag one of the layers to tab you want it in and both layers appeared together. Making sure that the band member was on top of the back ground of splattered paint I went to select and colour range and selected the green screens colour. I then adjusted the fuzziness scale to my satisfaction and pressed ok. The band member was then selected so I clicked on the add mask button and then selected the band members layer and went to image, adjustment and lastly invert i.e. command I. I did this with each of my band members photos and added text, more shapes of splattered paint and changed the opacity by clicking on auto-select and show transform controls of the non copy right skull image. I obtained this from Google images and the opacity was adjusted from 100% to 70% so the audience can nearly see the bands facial features which created an edgy tone which the music has. I also rotated layers by clicking on auto-select, show transform controls and dragging the images and text 180 degrees.

Construction

Evaluation

• I used various new media technologies for my evaluation because once all my products were complete I exported my Digipak and Album advert as Jpeg files and imported them as images to my blog. Then I exported my music video as a H264 HD YouTube file so I was able to upload it to YouTube. Thus, people were able to feedback on my blog post and promo in the comments section below.

• I also made another survey with Google Drive which I posted and tweeted on blogger, Facebook and twitter again to obtain responses from friends and family. However, this could have been biased because people that know me are likely to like my product because I made it but because Google Drive allows the responses to be anonymous people can answer honestly. Nevertheless, I used Google Drive again to create the pie charts which are in this powerpoint.

• Lastly, I made this PowerPoint with my new MacBook Pro which I purchased in the construction of my product and I used the Keynote.