Lauren's Evaluation for final product

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

The genre of our music video was electro, this was a very important element in our planning stage as our artist of Chromeo is a valid figure in the electro sub-genre of electro funk, and therefore we wanted to sustain this image. The typical conventions for this genre is constant variation of shots to fit the fast pace of music. After researching into many different products in the music industry we found this was a main convention used in a range of genres. To follow this we frequently used the technique of speeding some of our shots up, so the audience’s focus would not be on the same thing for a long length of time.

We tried to constantly refer to Goodwin’s theory by relating the visuals and lyrics, to do this we included the use of text in sync with the lyrics. The use of props was also contributed to meeting this convention, we included a phone in many of our shots. The shot of our main character on the bed with a phone in her hand portrays what the lyrics are saying, as the character is anxiously waiting for a phone call.

This use of a main character repeated throughout is also a common feature used in music video, giving the audience a clear link throughout and creating some sort of narrative/structure.

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

Our main aim for was to keep the theme of electro pop visible in all three of our products, and for them to work together recognisably promoting the same artist. In our planning stage we researched many real media products following this genre to gather inspiration for both our video and ancillary texts. To ensure our concept of fun electro pop was easily recognised. This research included looking at many different album artworks, we were particularly inspired by Madonna’s celebration album cover which uses a similar style of imagery as Andy Warhol’s famous pop art. We decided to use this idea on the front of our digipack using a single screen grab from our video and repeating it by using various bold contrasting colours, fitting with the conventions of our genre. Making it clear to the audience what the album contains with just simply seeing the album on a shelf. This also creates a clear link between this text and our video, meaning the audience can clearly recognise and link together both parts of the package i.e. the digipack and the main video.

The use of screen grabs from our video in both our magazine advert and digipack, makes clear connections between these and our music video. The repetition of our characters in energetic poses, helps make this link and portray our concept of a funky 80’s genre. For example the image on the front of our digipack of one of our characters winking, portrays the artist as being slightly cheeky and of a very fun nature. This is something that clearly relates to our video as there are many shots of characters dancing generally having a good time.

All three of these products use the same concept , shown through the use of similar imagery and colour qualities. Working well to attract our target audience of young adults, of which this genre of music usually is most popular with.

3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Overall I have recognised a great change in the feedback from our rough cut compared to the feedback from our final piece. We knew after finalising our rough cut that we had a lot of work to do to make our video successful. Our audience feedback helped us in doing this as we were able to realise what parts were successful, and which parts needed to be developed.

Much of our feedback from the rough cut said our video had little amount of lip sinking in, which is a main part of the marking criteria. This made us realise we had to add a lot more of this in, and we were able to film this in our last overnight period. Quite a big problem for us when creating our rough cut was the lack of variety of shots we needed to keep the audience’s attention. The class feedback we received from our final piece, comments on the good use of varied shots, showing we took this issue into account and was able to resolve it.

After reading the final feedback we have received from our peers, which would be categorised into our chosen target audience, I think our music video has used the different elements of any media piece to successfully attract and audience.

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

The use of different technologies ensured we could make the best use of our footage and that all three of our media products fit well into our chosen theme. We were constantly varying the colour qualities in shots and sequences, to do this we used colour corrector a feature of final cut, many of our shots were filmed in the green room, meaning we could easily manipulate the background to create a more interesting effect. We used the techniques available in Photoshop to distort the still images used in our promotional package, such as variation of colour and hue and saturation. These aspects were used to entice our audience and create a stand out effect. The use of HD cameras to film our video meant that we could get high quality of shot types and film from long distances and still get clear images. This was particularly helpful in filming shots such as the close up of the phone box as this could be done at a distance but we could still get the exact shot that we had planned.