Evaluation: Elliott's Essay

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

Our music video is very similar to those which are real as it uses similiar motifs. These motifs were decided on when we created a questionnaire before we made the music video, in the questionnaire we asked what motifs people would like to see. The motifs we ended up including in the video were flashbacks, some concert footage and fragmentation of the body in some scenes. These are all very commonly used in real music videos. Also music videos include a beginning, middle and an end, showing a narrative and a story which the audience can follow. The story would be the music video then at the chorus it would break to concert footage showing the audience the story isn't real. The music video also challenges the convention of a normal boy band which may be sex, drugs and violence but we didn't want to give them this 'rockstar' image so we decided to go for a more pleasant image to do with love and heartbreak.

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

I believe the combination of our main product which is the music video and the ancilliary texts which are the CD cover, radio spot and website work well together. The radio spot and website are used to promote the main product the music video, with the CD cover aiming to sell the product. All 3 ancilliary products were created using industry standard technology which adds to the realism of the product and giving us a website we could actually display on the internet promoting the video and giving information about the band members and a CD cover which could be seen in the shops. The combination works well because i believe all are needed in order to create a successful main product.

3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once we completed our video we got some teenagers in our target audience range to watch the video and then give their opinion after. This feedback was very important as to whether the product was a success or not because if our target audience didn't like it then it would be unsuccessful. Te feedback showed us that the narrative of the video was clear and they followed it well which was important as we wanted the audience to know what was going on in the video. They also said they enjoyed the video which is the main part of any media. Apart from interviewing teenagers who has watched our video we also created a survey which we put on to our facebook pages and people were able to fill the survey out after watching our video. The results showed that over 85% of people who took the survey said the video was successful and fulfilled its aim. However it also showed what people thought was a weakness in the video which was the lip-synching as it wasn't in time throughout the whole video. But the video was still a success despite this weakness.

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


We used several different media technologies throughtout the whole process of the project. But the main technologies we used were the Mac computer which stored all of our work and was also used to film podcasts, put posts on to the blog, create our survey and publicise our music video on facebook, then there was the camera which was used to film the music video and also film interviews with our target audience, and adobe premiere which was used to edit the music video, interviews and anything else we filmed, it allowed us to cut out parts which were not correct and edit in stuff which was filmed at a later date. These three technologies were vital and without them we would of been unable to complete the project. There were other technologies including Celtx, Prezi presentation, blogger and garage band to name a few.

Evaluation: How Do Your Media Texts Go Together?

Prezi and blog post made by Elliott.

Evaluation: I.T. Used For Our Overall Project

Prezi and blog post made by Elliott.

Evaluation: Motifs In Our Music Video

Presentation and blog post made by Elliott.

Construction: GarageBand Demonstration (Radio Spot)

The video above outlines the steps we took in order to create the radio spot.



Presentation made by Elliott.
Radio spot made by Elliott and Sid.
Blog post written by Elliott.

Construction: Issues With Filming - 1

The issues we encountered when we were filming today were do with organisation. The first problem was that Sid forgot his clothes that he had wore in the previous days of filming, this meant we couldn't film and this then set us back in our plans to complete the filming. But due to the upcoming winter break we have set a day a side which we can catch up on our filming. Another problem we come across was time keeping, this is because Jack came late and this meant we were set back in the filming further.

What we have learnt from todays events is the importance of organisation as a group, and we have decided that on future filming days to keep in contact to ensure we are all on time and have the correct clothing and equipment. This is of paramount importance is we are to succeed in our coursework.


Written by Elliott.

Construction: 4th Day Of Editing

Today, Friday 9th of December, our lesson was cut shorter due to events that occurred in school which meant all sixth form lessons were prolonged. This meant that the time we had to edit the video was reduced but, luckily, most of the footage we had was already edited.

In this brief editing session, we reviewed the footage we already had, and found areas that could be improved. One very minor problem we discovered was a slight jolt of the camera in the chorus, and to fix this, we decided to add a cross dissolve to the different parts of the chorus. Also, using the dissolve made the video flow easier and added a bit of variety to it.

Written by Jack.

Research: Music Video Proposal

The main aim for our music video is to make our audience watch the music video which is the aim for all videos. We are going to stick to a narrative storyline and a range of other elements which will make the audience want to repeatedly watch the video as they enjoy the video and to see the different elements we do include.


The storyline will be of a man reminiscing the past with his ex-girlfriend and then openly proclaims the love he still has for her. He then goes to the place they first met in hope she will turn up so they can re-kindle the love they once had. She goes there towards the end, however he is not there due to being forced to leave by the previously seen policeman, and his wanting to re-kindle the past is ongoing.


The video is going to include the use of a green screen and the use of slow motion, fades to white or black and adjustments to the colour and volume, these effects should make the video more interesting. There will be different mise en scene in the video including normal/casual every day clothing for the man and the girl, a police outfit, cameras and microphones, a heart ornament, a picture of the couple when they were together, money, a rucksack/sleeping bag, a varety of different camera shots and angles and a mixture of high and low key lighting. The possible locations where we will film our music video are a street, park and house. These are all easily accessable areas for the group.


Using all the mise en scene and music video motifs should hopefully allow us to fulfill our requirements for the music video and make the audience want to keep watching it.


Written by Elliott.

Research: Further Information About The Artist ('The Script')

The Script albums blog post

The Script has released 2 albums which have gone mainstream. The first being called ‘The Script’ and the second called ‘Science and faith’. The first album was released in 2008 and the second and most recent was released in 2010. The chart below shows where ‘Science and Faith’ peaked all over the world in the album charts, reaching number 1 in Ireland, Scotland and UK and 2^nd in Australia. It also had top 10 peak positions in Canada, the European top 100 and the US billboard.

Chart (2010–11)	Peak position
Australian Albums Chart	2
Austrian Albums Chart	70
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)	47
Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)	70
Canadian Albums Chart	6
Danish Albums Chart	23
Dutch Albums Chart	14
European Top 100 Albums	5
German Albums Chart	40
Irish Albums Chart	1
Italian Albums Chart	40
New Zealand Albums Chart	15
Scottish Albums Chart	1
Spanish Albums Chart	58
Swedish Albums Chart	52
Swiss Albums Chart	15
UK Albums Chart	1
US Billboard 200	3

This chart here shows the most listened to songs from both albums in the space of a week. The results are from ‘last fm’. The most listened to record was ‘Breakeven’ which was from the first album ‘The Script’ which was released back in 2008. It was played over 7,200 times. The second most listened to song was ‘The man who can’t be moved’ which had over 6,300 listens and also came from the same album. This must mean that the first album was more popular or that people haven’t been able to affiliate themselves with the newer album yet. 

The chart below is very similar however it has taken the results over the space of 6 months rather than a week. However the top 3 are all the same just with many more views as ‘Breakeven’ has been listened to over 86,000 times.

Written by Elliott.

Research: Video Analysis Of 'Madonna - Like A Prayer'

Presentation and blog post made by Elliot.