Evaluation: Jack's Essay

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

We used ideas of real media products in the sense that our video contained similar features to those of real ones. In the beginning stages of the project, we conducted a questionnaire as part of the research, in which we asked a sample of people from our target audience (teenagers) a range of questions, including motifs they like to see, what their favourite genre is, and so on. Using this information, we recognised what to include in our video to not only meet the needs of our target audience, but also to be similar to real media products. We used motifs in our video that are commonly used in real media products, such as fragmentation of the body, concert footage, and flashbacks to the past. In addition to motifs, we also used a diverse range of camera shots and angles that are used in real music videos to portray the different parts of the video, for example, a high-angle shot to show the inferiority of the man. In addition, our product uses a similar structure to real media products in the way that there is a clear narrative story that it follows from the beginning to the end, however, at the same time, it also differs from real narrative structures where there are breaks in the narrative in which we see concert footage.

Top: Fragmentation of the body in our video.


Bottom: Fragmentation of the body in Flo Rida's "Wild Ones".

Our product also differs from real media products. Real media products usually make people want to be like the artist they are representing, and live a life similar to theirs. However, our product steers away from the idea of wanting them to be like the artist, because people will not want to find themselves in a similar position to our artist. Despite this, they still feel our artists’ pain and can relate to his story/the video because the story in it is one they may have found themselves in, or could possibly find themselves in.  Another particular difference is the use of location; in our video, the main location is just an ordinary park that anyone would find themselves in, however, in real media texts, the locations used  would be more exotic and desirable, which ties in with the above statement that people will be able to relate to the video because it is set in a place used by them.

Top: The depressed character in our video, in an ordinary park, that our audience can relate to.


Bottom: Happy characters in an exotic location surrounded by company of the opposite sex in The Wanted's "Glad You Came" - something our audience would aspire to be like.

(2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I feel that the combination of our main product and the ancillary texts is very effective, as they all come together to promote the band. The video, obviously, provides the chosen song with supporting material that allows it to be played not only on radio, but also on television, in cinema adverts, and so on. This gives the video, and the song, plenty of opportunities to be promoted and addressed to people, particularly our target audience. Promotion is also a key part of the whole project, and supporting the video is the 3 ancillary texts we produced, all of which promote our band in a very professional, industry-like manner; the radio spot allows people to hear a sample of the song, which will then make them want to hear the whole thing and consequently view our video; the CD cover promotes it as though it were being sold in a retail store, so people would, were it a real product, see it in shops and be attracted to it, hopefully wanting to buy it; lastly, the website gives people all information they need to know about the artist and has on it the above products.


Another effective factor about all of our products is the consistent theme in them. The video is, as previously mentioned, about a man who is looking back upon a past relationship and being reminiscent of it in the hope that it will be rekindled, which therefore gives off a sort of depressing/nostalgic mood. To co-incide with this mood, we decided to use a black and white colour scheme in them, as black is a dark colour that would typically be associated with depression.

Top: Black and white in our video.


Bottom: Black and white in firstly the CD cover (front part) and the website (navigation bar).

 

(3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Having completed our video to what we feel was a very sufficient standard, we then had to evaluate it. A key part of this evaluation was the audience feedback because, after all, if the video isn’t appropriate for/approved by our target audience, then essentially it is pointless because it doesn’t meet its purpose. In order to gain an idea of the audience’s opinions of the video, we, firstly, carried out a test audience video in which we should 5 teenagers the video and analysed their reactions, and we then interviewed another sample of test audience people (as shown in the image below). Secondly, we created a survey and requested that people fill it out upon watching their video. Again, once a sufficient amount of people had filled out the survey, we analysed the results, which allowed us to recognise the strengths and weaknesses of our video.

We found that our target audience felt that our video portrayed a clear narrative that was easy to understand and follow, and we feel, as a group, that this is one of the most important things about any music video, whether it be real or for project purposes, as it keeps the audience engaged and makes them want to find out what happens at the end of the narrative story. Also, 87.5% of the people that filled the survey out said that they think the video fulfilled its target audience. This too, is a highly important factor because, as previously mentioned, if it didn’t, we wouldn’t be meeting their needs and therefore the video would have no purpose.

A weakness that was mentioned, and we agree with, was the lip-synching. Although it was in time in some places, in others it was very weak and was slightly out of time on a few occasions, as highlighted by the responses from this survey.

(4) How did you use media technologies in the research/planning, construction, and evaluation stages?

Media technologies were used in every stage of our project. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to do anything, and there would be no project, because it is impossible to manually/hand produce what we had to.

The main technologies that were used are the Mac (computer), the camera, and Adobe Premiere. The Mac was the source of everything; it had everything we needed and everything related to our project saved on it, and was the place on which we edited the video, uploaded the clips, created surveys, put together the blog, so if we didn’t have a Mac, we wouldn’t have been able to do any of the above. The camera was the second most important piece of technology used because it’s what we used to film not only the actual music video itself, but also the interviews, any podcasts, etc., and so without it, no filming would have been able to commence, and therefore no videos would have been produced. The third most important piece of technology was a piece of software called Adobe Premiere. The product that took priority within the project was the music video, as this was the sole purpose of the project, and without Premiere, we would have no video, because we wouldn’t have been able to edit it by piecing it together and applying all the effects.

In the light of the above question, we essentially used technologies to do the project, and without it, there would be no project; we used them to make the video and all ancillary texts, to create surveys, to make interviews and podcasts, to do all of the research and planning (which was done using the ‘Celtx’ software), and to then upload all of this to Blogger in a presentable fashion.

Top: A Mac computer.


Bottom: A video camera similar to the one we used throughout the project.