Evaluation – jacks blog

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

In Neale’s 1990 theory it stated that that genre provides guidelines and expectation [for a music video]-this meaning each share certain conventions that form the identity of the genre and my music video and ancillary texts doesn’t seem to challenge such conventions that real media products follow.

My music video is a performance videos, following a circular narrative, with amplified lyrics, for the song Moving To New York by the Wombats. This an indie song and my music video does little challenge but rather reinforces conventions of other media videos. In indie music videos the locations is usually that of somewhere quite dark and all though my chosen location was not that dark to begin with, but through editing I made it out to be which reinforces a conventional expectation of the genre. This is also to help with the amplification of the lyrics in which there is references throughout the song to the artist having problems with his sleep, which could be seen as linking to the darkish lighting of music videos, which also contribute to this outsider image associated with the indie genre. Other common conventions of the genre that I used myself is the use of multiple close ups; whilst using a range of shots, the main type of shots in my music video were closes ups and these are the most commonly used, especially in performance videos within the indie genre.

The stereotypical/conventional view of the indie genre is that it is mainly low budget and this is reflected in my camera movement. To continue this conventional view of the gerne, my whole video was filmed handheld and contained a variety of camera movement within the different shots, mainly titling slightly every now and then. The reason for this is to give two affects, one that it feel as if its flowing with the music and the other being to solidify this stereotypical image of the genre being low budget, as gives the hand held feeling and not that of a major big budget pop production. Other conventional views are continued using the mise-en-scene which is affective in continue conventional views through both the clothing and the background. The background of my music video is in a studio, which once again links back to this conventional view of a low budget indie project, as a studio is the most common place for music to be recorded and the band isn’t going out of their way to change where they are performing, which would the budget and look. The background has lots of props of other instrument lying around which links back to of low budget, as is not like it is their own private studio, and links to the stereotypical view that indie bands are quite un-professional, mainly as they consist of young band members and don’t have a large budget.

Also looking at mise-en-scene the clothing in my music video reinforces the conventional representation of age in my music video. There are plenty of reinforcing stereotypes about youth and youth culture in my music video. The two most featured musicians in my music videos are wearing hoodies, whilst performing, as they are a young band, and this reinforces stereotypical ideas about youth identity-as it is common in the media they are presented wearing such clothing. The choice of wearing a hoodie, whilst seen as casual by teenagers, also share negative connotation about being edgy and rough, a connotation that is also shared by teenagers in mainstream media. Yet the reason for my musician wearing such clothing, is not to link them to the negative connotations that come with wearing hoodies, but more to link the uses and gratifications theory. The uses and gratifications theory mentions one of the reason media is consumed is for social identity. By having people dressed in hoodies it can be seen as relatable to the target audience; 15-25 year old’s, as they are seen as the primary consumer to the indie genre. This is why I choose to represent my artists in this conventional way.

Linking further Goodwin’s theory about codes and conventions is that intertextual references are a common convention with in music videos, and I continued this idea. The first intertextual references within my music appears right at the start in which the number of takes for the music videos on the clapper board reads the area code for Manhattan, as the music video is titled Moving to New York. Another intertextual references appears right at the end, by slightly copying the end for American Dad episodes, which each time end with a thumbs up which fades out, with the reason for this being copied is that American Dad is a late nigh TV show and the artist continuously mentions how he has problems with his sleep. The other intertextual reference is less clear but is present in my music video; linking back to clothing, there are other connotations with how my artists have been represented that link to the genre, but is not to do with stereotyping. I mentioned how my two main artists are wearing hoodies, but the other artist within my music video is wearing quite different clothing. My other guitarist is wearing a shirt, smart trousers but with no ties-whilst this is still casual like hoodies there is a different meaning behind it. The clothing has connotations with and is an encodes message (Stuart Hall 1973) which links to the mod culture. The reason why I have chosen to represent my artist in such clothing; is that a large amount modern day indie bands are said to have gained a lot of inspiration for the mod movement, including the Wombats, who’s song I am making a music video for. This intertextual reference to the mod movement is my way to salute the inspiration of the genre, through the representation of my artists.

The other ancillary task in my music video also follow conventional guidelines, that are expected with such products. The adverts aims is to promote the musician and their work and mine does so in a conventional fashion. The two largest texts on my advert is the name of the artist and the song. This is because the aim is to promote those two thing and is important and conventional that they stand out from the rest of the text and are clear to audience, otherwise it defeat the purpose of the adverts. Other texts on the page also include attempts at promoting, which would be found on most other adverts including reviews, release dates and what platform it would be available on. These are conventional placement on an advert, and I followed them to avoid potential audiences being confused. A conventional expectation of the genre is also frequent on the advert in the lack of the actual artist, as this is not always a major selling point for the indie genre, unlike pop and hip hop when the artist themselves plays a big part in the selling point of the music video.

This is also a theme continued onto my digpack in which the artists lack presents on the cover. This is a conventional expectation of the music, shown in the fact that the wombats themselves, as well as other popular indie bands/artists such as Catfish and the Bottlemen and Jamie T on all their albums combined have never appeared on the cover, so this is sticking to a common convention of the genre. Inside my digipack is the offer of a free poster, which can see to a conventional feature of musicians looking to appeal to a young audience, in which my target audience would be included. This how throughout my media tasks that most conventions are usual followed.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

Whilst the main product and ancillary differ in their overall purpose to one another, they are all interlinked with each other and together serve as an important make-up of the brand image, as well being linked in other ways.

The purpose of the advert seeks to promote the artists and their products (Moving To New York) and I feel mine is affective in doing so. The reason for this is the fact that it sticks to conventional expectations of an advert for a song/music video, as the two largest texts on the pages are the band name and song title. This is important as the purpose of the advert is for promotion and two things it is promoting are the clearest things on the page and the audience is made aware of it them due to this, the advert wouldn’t be affective if the audience weren’t able to make out what was being promoted. The advert also serves its purpose effectively by being laid out this way as a single page advert is likely to appear on bus shelters or in magazines, which means people are only likely to take a quick glimpse at them so it is important to make the artists name and song clear. To role of promoting the band/song is also being served through smaller texts on the page. Theses text include the realise date-the third largest text for similar reasons as prior-with the platforms it will be available on beneath it. Other texts on the page include reviews from magazines and intuitions; of which are linked with the indie genre-the genre of the band. Other links to indie genre play into unifying theme (the brand image) of my products. Indie bands have connotations of outsiders, as they are mainly out of mainstream music and mainly unsigned and this outsider image is reinforced by my advert, as its part of the bands image. This is down to the lack of the band themselves on the advert, giving off connotations that they are not the main selling point but the music itself is, unlike pop music where the artist is key to the selling point; therefore, creating this outsider indie feel to it.

This band identity, being the unifier between my products, is continued onto the digipack through similar methods. Just like the advert, the digipack lacks the presents of the band on the cover. This signal once again similar connotations to that of the advert but goes further in differentiation of the band from other potential genres. If someone saw the cover and was unaware of the band, they could take a good guess, despite not being completely clear, that this is an indie band, as faces of the artist in question, on covers are usually in other genre, such as grime, pop and rock. The lack of the band on the cover or advert also creates this mysterious feel to the band, a similar theme to the actual band The Wombats, who’s song I am using, as they have never appeared on any of their covers for singles or all four albums. As well continuing the unifying theme of my products, the digipacks also serves its main purpose quite effectively. One of the purpose the digipack is to help sales, as this is the physical product people buying a CD or Vinyl are paying for. This is why my digipack has a clear cover, as the only texts on the cover; is the band name, album name, tagline and “freebie”. It is important to minimise the amount texts on the cover so it doesn’t become over crowded, as the key selling point becomes unclear. My digipack does include within it a note to the fans from the band as well as a free poster, these are to please fans who buy the products, which suit nicely with the bands indie identity as a lot of these band have cult like following, which would appreciate such things within a digipack, but also plays into the down to earth indie identity.

This indie identity is also highly present within the music, as well such an identity being linked as one of the purposes of such a music video which is to give the public an impression of the band, with other purpose being promotion of the song itself. The indie identity of the band is created through the music video through many different connotation associated with the genre. The ideas of the indie genre being low budget is presented through the different filming techniques and editing to give it a dark, low budget feel to the production, which can also be seen to be linking to the brands image of the band being quite mysterious. The handle held camera also links to the low budget outsider image and the style of the performance separates the band image from similar punk/glam rock performance videos which are both in your face and glammed up, whilst the artist are wearing casual clothes and lack eye contact with the camera at most points in the video, once again reinforcing this indie image, which also a key purpose of the music video.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Throughout the planning and production stage of my coursework I received feedback on the different stages of my music video and ancillary texts, in order to gain opinions on my work and help shape the direction I was going with in creating my coursework.

My target audience for my music video was 15-25 year olds, so when receiving feedback, I collected opinion from this target age group. The reason for this is the largest consumer of the modern indie genre is 15-25 and also the artist involved in my video are of this age bracket and I had them dress in clothing commonly associated with this age bracket (hoodies and jeans). This would link to the uses and gratification theory as it provides a form of social identity, through relatability of my artists, which would support with the feedback I received saying in which respondents felt the music video felt realistic, modern and that it stuck with the identity of the genre.

The importance of feedback was shown through its presents throughout different stages of my coursework’s, as it gives an idea to what is working and what needs changing. This is shown, especially well, in the first bit of feedback I received about my proposal. Even when writing my proposal, I was still slightly unsure of which type of video I was going to make; a performance or narrative, but after receiving feedback on my proposal I was able to understand the popularity of the idea I had for a performance video, which despite some changes along to its style/idea (due to further feedback), was the base for my final product.

The feedback I received for my ancillary texts; digipack and magazine advertisement, was throughout different draft stages, in order to provide guidelines on what was working and what should change. I started off first with my digipack, as magazine adverts usually share a lot of similarities with but are less complex than a digipack, so if I got that right then it would easier to make my magazine advert and feedback would similar but less in depth. The first draft for my digipack was using images off the internet and whilst respondents said they liked the creativity of my digipack design-especially the text-but the chance of recreating the borrowed images to an effective standard was brought into question. This lead me to change the phots and overall design of my digipack to contain images that were easier for me to recreate or ones I already had, yet to till try to incorporate the creativity of my previous design which had gone down well with the potential audience’s feedback. I continued through the use of a creative layout for my texts within my digipack, with result with positive feedback on future draft, and continued such designs onto my magazine advert-which received similar positive feedback. The feedback I received for both my ancillary task was written down, which allowed me to refer back when making changes more easily and look at what had worked in each draft, without making similar mistakes. The feedback was also from fellow media students for these tasks. As well as fitting into my target audience bracket, the feedback being from other media students was also useful as they provided advice on how I could make the improvements that were suggested, as they were using the same software.

When I moved onto my main task I received feedback even more frequently than on the previous tasks and through a further variety of forms of feedback. Like with the previous task at first I received written feedback on my first two drafts, this was for similar affect as having written down feedback, which was easier to refer back too for changes that could be made but to also make sure I didn’t remove scenes that had gone down well in previous feedbacks. Whilst the range shots themselves and the number of cuts were seen as positives to take away from my first two drafts, but a majority people felt the footage was too blurry in some scenes and that there weren’t enough shots of the other musicians and too many of the singer. This lead to me re-filming effective shots that came out too blurry and to film more shots of the drummer and guitarist, as well some group shots. The feedback I got on my final draft however, was not written down like previously but what I got my potential audience to do was watch the footage and give recorded feedback whilst they were watching it. This was useful as it gave me an idea of what people were thinking whilst watching the video and allowed them to point out things that stand out or issue that I may have missed. This sort of feedback was also useful as; the other feedback I had received was mainly about the video as whole or scenes towards the end of the music video, as this section was fresh in people minds, so by having them give feedback whist watching it allowed for more specific feedback but also areas of improvements to do with the start of the music video. Also throughout the make of my music video I would ask people in my class for feedback on cuts that I had added in or edited and ask if they prefer that or an alternative shot, which helped with my decision making throughout

The only criticism of the feedback I’d received was it was too nice at some point and I could have used more constructive criticism which would of helped further improved my music video, but overall the feedback I received was very useful and drastically altered some of my decision making.

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

Throughout the process of creating my music video and ancillary texts I used aa range of technology for various reasons.

During the research and planning stage of my music video I used many different types of software to do the tasks needed. The main two types of software I used for these stages were prezi and emaze. The reason for predominant use of these two websites, was to avoid the use of more conventional applications like powerpoint and word, but create similar work and these two whilst they do differ from conventional applications, at the same time share some similarities. They also provide more of creative layouts for the task in hand, which was useful in the planning stage as it required more creative thinking, which is also important as creative thinking was need to create and effective music video. Also within my planning stage I used premier pro for the first time, which I would later use for the construction of my music video and the planning stage help me get use to such technology.

When filming my actual music video, I used cannon 50 camera, perched on top of a Steadicam. This technology was useful as it allowed me to make an affective looking handheld like video, without the camera being too shaky but not restricting movement. I didn’t use any additional lighting in the room, mainly for the reason it in small already crowed space and I didn’t want to make my artists feel claustrophobic or limit the amount of movement I could have to get different angles.

I began editing my raw footage into a music video using premier. Premier was useful as it allowed me to add different layers in, so I could have many videos playing at once in line with the song and was able to cut out the scene I didn’t want but save time having to find a different footage and resyncing it with the song as a replacement was already in another layer synced up. The ability to have different layer, also made it easier to add in extra shorter footage for instrumentals and allowed me to place side by sides footage of my different scene in my music video at once. This same scene my music video was benefitted by the use of Premier Pro as it allowed me to have an effective looking transition back to a full, by using the effects offered by the software-being page turn on each of the videos. Other affects was the adjustment of the colour balance, which help create the dark indie feel. On my footage from the first time I had filmed I used a colour balance of midtone blue 20 throughout to create this affect, but the second lot of footage we required more colour balancing to create a constituent tone throughout, due to a difference in natural lighting on the days I refilmed. This made premier extremely useful for the making of my music video.