Evaluation

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

1. According to Goodwin's theory of music videos, all music video's given in to the demands of the record label and so have lots of close-ups of the artist. So in my music video I also did this to try and replicate the conventions of real life media music video's and most, if not all music video's have lots of close up shots of the artist. 

2. One of the locations i used develops the conventions of real dance genre music video's as one of the locations i chose for my film was a underpass. I chose this because it was a very grimy looking are , and as I found out in my research many dance music videos, especially hard style, use many locations that are very sub-urban and grimy, such as a lot of Examples work.

 3. However I did also challenge the convection's that are in dance genre music videos, as many of the videos I watched for my researched had shots from inside of a busy nightclub. However I chose to use an empty hall for my DJ shots, this is because i wanted to challenge the audiences expectations, so they would be able to get the true meaning of the song. Which is about a DJ who is mixing because it is what he loves to do rather than for the fame and fortune.

4. I mixed in shots of the DJ with shot's of my dancer, this is very generic of dance music video's and has been used to Scooter - J'adore Hardcore as seen in my research. 

5. I edited my music video so that the clips change in time to the beat of the song, this is very generic of all music videos, but it also gives my music video a very fast paced edits, this is due to the high tempo of the song, however again this develops the conversions of real dance music videos as many do have fast faced videos that match the fast paced song. 

6. I also added a Mojo effect to my clips, this was again to try and conform to the conventions about dance music video's, I wanted my music video to look grimy and so added this effect to my clips, many real music video's use effects on the clips to make them look more professional or to engage the audiences emotions. 

 6. I Used many low angled shots which is also generic of the dance music video genre because it makes the DJ look powerful and this was seen many times in my research. 

7. I Also used the conventions I found in Scooter's J'adore Hardcore music video as they used a guy dancing the shuffle along to the beat of the song which I thought was very effective and so used it.

8. I challenged the conventions again however as I did not have a storyline to my music video, i purely had shot's of the dancer and the DJ, however this is because I believe the song did not need a story as it is just about this DJ who loves what he does. 

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

To answer this question, I created this short movie in Imovie:

Voice Over Script:

My main music video and ancillary tasks were very effective because there were key themes that ran throughout both of them which worked well with the genre of music video. These key themes were because of the inspiration I got from my research section were I looked at existing media products. 

The locations that I chose for my shoots worked very well with the hardstyle dance genre that i was creating a music video for. The first location was an underpass that looked very grimy, this effectively gave my music video the look i was after. Not only did i film there I also took some photos for my dig pack, this meant that my digi pack could continue with the grimy theme that i had created within my music video.

the fonts that were used on the dig pack and HMV poster were the same, I did this because I wanted the name of my artist to be recognised from the poster to the CD, this almost gives my artist a recognisable logo which I believe works well with the ancillary tasks. 

While looking at what to do for my front cover of my Cd case I looked at a lot of existing Cd covers from artist that do dance songs. I found that between 30 - 40 % of these had no pictures of the artist on the front cover but simply had writhing on with a texture and so i decided i would do this too because the song i was doing is about an artist who is not doing it for the fame and fortune but doing it for the love of the music. 

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?


For my audience feedback, I played my final video to the rest of my class. I then asked the to fill in a comments box which I had created using survey monkey. Bellow are a selection of the comments i received: 

• I like the way you have timed the clips of the dance to the beat of the song. In places you're lip syncing is a bit dodgy. Overall a great music video that fits in with the genre. 
• Not my ideal song, however i can appreciate how you have used the convension's of the dance genre to create a good music video for this genre. I like how you swap between the dancer and the DJ. 
• You could have done some more depth of field shots, maybe with the mixer. 
• The effect you have used on the clips works well and makes you're video look very professional.  

These comments have taught me lots of things. Most importantly that y everyone has different ideas and opinions of what they like to see in the music video. I think they liked the originality of my music video, however if I was to ever make another music video there are aspects I would change that I have learned from my audience feed back. These are:

• I would have taken more takes of my lip syncing, so that I could make sure when i came to edit my video it was all perfect and looking floorless.
• I would use some more depth of field shots, and use them as filler shots because through my audience feed back it has been highlighted that this is what my music video lacks. 
• I would also include a narative rather than simply having shots of the artist, as this my help engage thoes who do not tend to watch music video's of this genre.

Here is a quick interview with Jack after he watched my music video and he tells me what he likes and dislikes about my music video: 

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

Internet Sites

There were many media technologies that I used throughout my course. These included the use of YouTube, social networking sites such as Facebook, Blogger, camera equipment and Apple Mac programmes to put all of my work together to create my final piece. I found all of these media technologies very useful and they all had a major role to play in my course:

Youtube

Research: For part of my research, I used Youtube to look at many existing music videos and noted their conventions and compared them for each genre. This helped me to make my decision as to which genre I was going to choose for my final piece. These conventions included camera angles that were used in each genre, how the artist has applied Andrew Goodwin's theory (such as how the demands of the record label meant that there were many close-ups of the artist), and also what costumes and locations were used for each genre and how they worked well within the genre. 


Planning: For my planning, once I had chosen my genre (Dance/Hardstyle), I created a storyboard and made an animatic from the images I drew using Imovie. I movie gave me the ability to add ken burns to give me a feel for what my music video may look like when it is completed. This animatic was then uploaded to YouTube so that people could watch it and provide feedback. I found social networking sites, such as Facebook, very useful and easy to get responses and feedback. This was excellent in my planning section as I needed to collect responses from various audiences from a questionnaire that I created to hear peoples thoughts and opinions about generic music videos and what appeals to them. Once I collected the feedback using Facebook and surveymonkey, I could start to plan which genre of music I wanted to make a video for, and what conventions I should use in order to make this video successful.  I also had a chance to make other videos including 2 practice music video's ('Tenacious D - Tribute' and 'Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks') , equipment video, and a depth of field test. These were all uploaded to YouTube as well, and are also linked on my blog. For my ancillary tasks I needed to use Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. As I was not an expert using these programmes, I could also watch tutorials on how to use the programmes effectively, and practiced creating digipacks and posters, this was very helpful as it meant that I knew what I was doing when it came down to the real design. 

Evaluation: For my evaluation stage, I uploaded my final music video and made sure that everyone could see it on my wall. I then requested feedback from each viewer. Again, this was very easy, and I received lots of positive thoughts and opinions about my final music video. 

My Blog

The main purpose for Blogger throughout the planning, research and evaluation sections of my project was to keep a record of all the work that I had prepared and put together. This kept me up to date with the tasks that I had completed and had yet to do. This site made it easy to upload screen grabs from the YouTube videos that I used for my research section, upload the videos that I created in my planning section, and plan and write my evaluation questions with ease in the last section. Also, Blogger provides a 'comment' box within each post that I do. This was an easy way for people to leave feedback on the work as I did it. 

Technology

Research: For my research section, I looking at existing music videos on YouTube and Vimeo using an Apple Mac. I found using a Mac more useful than using a PC as this was quicker and easier to screen grab the shots I wanted to analyse. The programmes that I used throughout my research was just the internet, and a programme to create graphs from the responses of my survey, so that they were easy to compare and contrast, which meant that I could use this information to get a better idea of what to put in my music video. 

Apple Mac

Planning: I spent most of my planning time using the Canon 7D to take photos for my final digipaks, HMV posters, and location picture's as well as using the camera to film my music video on my chosen locations. On the days of filming, I also used other camera equipment including a tripod and dolly. Once the film had been shot, then I uploaded the footage onto my Mac and compressed it, to then input the footage into Final Cut Pro to edit and create my final music video. 

Evaluation: For my evaluation stage, my time was mostly used up by answering the given questions on the Mac. This meant looking back at my previous pieces of work that I had created throughout the year, and answering the questions to the best of my ability referring directly to my work. For some of the questions, I was also able to use the Mac and some of my footage of me talking to the camera, to create a video to answer the given question. This differentiated the ways in which I could answer a question to make it more interesting for the examiner.