Evaluation: Tyrone's Essay

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

By using the questionnaires at the beginning of the project we (as a group) where able to conduct a survey and see what people where looking for in music videos, giving us an idea of how we can kick-start the project by choosing an artist/band and also what the target audience would like to see in our product (keeping in mind that we have a zero-budget). From the evidence we collected and analysed we wanted to incorporate the use of special effects in our music video because of the fact that present day music videos rely heavily on the use of special effects, for example, taking Katy Perry's video E.T, this relied very heavily on the collaboration of costume and special effects to create the controversial video. 

I feel our music video challenge the present day music videos because of the way that the music video was produced. Compared to present day music videos, they have on average a $4 million budget, where as we had to buy any props or sets that we required from our own money. In this light, it allows the common man to not feel as intimidated but more so, reflective upon our product. This opposes the modern day music video because our product is not as "flashy" or as well funded and it appeals to more people because they are able to relate to it more. 

How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?

The Music Video, Website and the CD cover we tried to have a connection between all of them keeping a consistent house-style. Going through the type of video it was, and considering the possibility of having a memory sequence within the video, we decided to go with a black and white house-style with on the most important bits in colour. In doing so, we gave the audience some visual aid in distinguishing the more important parts to the less important parts (this gave those who have a lack of concentration the ability to keep track of whats happening in the video).  


In contrast to this the Music Video and the Radio Spot are complete opposites. The music video is a very serious, nostalgic video allowing the viewer to relate to the video and this is what we intended for this. However, when in the production stages of the radio spot we wanted to balance out the mood, so we thought we would make the radio spot more comical in comparison to the video which was on a more serious level. This weighed out the mood more and i feel doing this made all the product harmonise in a mellow mood. 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the whole project we, as a group, conducted 2 interviews and also set-up a test audience to gather their reactions. The 1st set of interviews were to find out what we needed to include in our music video, find out the music genre that the majority of people preferred, the different motifs that they liked to see within music  videos, and other questions. Below is a link to the 1st introductory interviews, and the information we gathered:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNdpKl7Tke8

The 2nd set of interviews that we had conducted where upon the completion of the video we had a sample of people watch the video, then answer a set number of questions (that where taken from the questionnaire that was published alongside with the music video when it was posted on Facebook) and this gave us a much more personal opinion, rather than having to type their answer people could be more in-depth with their words. During the same time, we also had a test audience view our music video, and recorded them doing so, from this we could gather their reaction to it, and see which bits where funny and so on. Looking back at all this data, I personally think that we managed to achieve what we initially set out to accomplish, making our product connect with its intended target audience. 

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

Throughout our research stages we relied heavily upon the use of Survey Monkey, and this new internet based company allowed us to create our surveys and publish them to our individual Facebook profiles, gathering information from a variety of people, with different musical tastes. Through out our planning stages, once we had collected our information, and chosen an artist/band, we turned to the internet for background knowledge on the band that we had chosen (The Script) we gathered the statistical information needed to see how well the artist has performed within the music industry and also on sales figures. 

In the construction stages of the project, we had to use the green screen (also known as chroma-key) due it being on one of our assessment objectives. We all had a go at this new technology, however, I am the only one that used it heavily, and being a new technology it was hard to fully understand the system and therefore, again turning to the internet I was able to find and look at the Adobe Users Manual for After Effects to help me understand the project better. For our evaluation stages, not only did we need to have an individual write up but also, a more creative outlook on the evaluation and we all took part in the creation of a mock-up TV show and turned it into a more creative analysis of our final product.