Evaluation

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

The videos that have inspired our final video product consist of:


Eminem ft Rihanna- love the way you lie

                                                  Official Video                         Our Product

We decided to use this music video as inspiration because it conveyed a storyline which we though would suit the genre of our final song choice. The music video 'love the way you lie' portrays a similar concept to our video as both talk about the strains of relationships. The main aspects of the video which influenced us was the camerawork as there was a wide array  of different camera shots featured in the portrayal of the artists. Camera movements on establishing shots made the artist look godlike as the background he was in front of looked harmonious and we as the audiance could see the glare of the sun, all of these features we wanted to replicate in our video but instead of a harmonious location we would do it by the river which utilises the city skyline in exactly the same way.

  

Sugababes- About you now

                                                     Official Video                    Our Product

We were influenced by this videos concept as it matched our initial idea which came from 'love the way you lie'. The Sugababes video has an story interlinking with the artists singing the lyrics, this feature we really liked and decided to merge the two together which gave us the basic foundations for our storyline which was a couple meeting up. The aspects from this video that intrigued us was the style of editing, the editing was quick and skipped from the artists to the actors efficiently in specific places e.g. when the cores started the audience would be shown the artists.  

Tinie Tempah- Written in the Stars

                                                     Official Video                     Our Product


We were influenced by this video because it contained a wide variety of shots of the artist and used establishing shots frequently, we were influenced by the use of establishing shots as they created a harmonious location for the artist which made the artist look superior. Tinie Tempah partrayed his emotions to this song by being shot doing plenty of hand jestures and movements to show his anger on how unequal society is.  


We challenged the conventions of the 'grime' music genre by not using a stage which is common in most grime videos. In our product we did all the filming for our scenes outdoors which we though would be perfect as having the couple meeting up in a club would go along with mainstream grime videos. We wanted our product to be unique to the grime conventions but also portray the lyrics not only in sound but also in vision.


My digipak that i have produced conforms to the conventions of the ‘grime’ music genre, whereas our video is a mix of conventional and alternative styles. As each member of our group was familiar with grime music we all had the ability to experiment with different ideas and create something conventional to the 'grime' genre. The links between my digipak and advertisement are simple to recognize, everything from the colour scheme to the font and pictures is the same. I used an effect throughout my digipak which consisted of three dark grey lines swerving parallel with each other. My initial idea was to create this effect throughout my digipack but then it looked dull so i decided to put drops at the bottom which gave it a blood trail effect running down the digipak, this 'blood trail' effect conformed with the codes and conventions of grime music as it represents violence. In my ancillary products i decided to follow the conventions of the 'grime' music genre by putting a parental advisory logo on the front panel, however not all grime albums have this logo as the lyrics may not contain any violent, abusive or sexual content. in my decision on what record company to assign my artist to i decided to go with a prestigious and well known 'grime' record company like 'EMI'. In the ancillary products i featured store logos  where consumers can purchase the album digitally or in a CD format.    

Inside panels

                                                                     Front and back panels
2.
How effective is the main combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

My initial idea for a digipak consisted of a plasma ball effect throughout my digipak as shown in the picture below, i decided to scrap this idea as the effect was too complicated to successfully make the digipak comply with the 'grime' genre conventions. From my preliminary digipak design i have decided to keep the font as it was conventional to the grime genre. I decided to name my digipak 'lure of my memories', this does not correlate with my main product (video) but i couldn't name the album after a single featured in the album because this is a album not a single.  

                               Back Panel        Front Panel                            Inside Panels

I decided to use related grime artist's digipaks for inspiration on my ancillary products. I analysed covers and adverts from the following artists:

The ideas acknowledged from through analysis of these related grime digipaks have inspired my ancillary products. My decision on what picture to use on the front panel of my digipak was inspired by 50 Cents debut album 'Curtis', the album cover shows the artist with his hands on this head with a frustrated look, i decided to use an image like this as grime music is considered to be extremely hyper and aggressive, i decided to use the connotations from the imagery to create a modern/ youth full effect. The design i used throughout my ancillary products was inspired by Roll Deep 'Return of the Big Money Sound', for their CD cover they use illuminating effects which made the CD stand out as a grime album as most modern grime albums extensively use effects, this has become a convention but not a necessity. For the back panel i decided to use J Spades 'MOET' CD as inspiration as it contained the same font i intended to use and it was a grime CD.








Finished product after thorough analysis of similar digipaks with the same genre.



           

For my advert i used the front panel of my digipak with the three lined wave effect expanding from the digipak picture to the advert. In the advert i included logos of retailers where the album can be purchased. I hierarchised the font size due to the importance of the information e.g. the artists name has the largest font size with the album name next, this is because the advert is promoting Y.Shockers album, the date is the next significant font size as the audience need to be informed about the release, which is the main purpose of the advert.


There are clear visual links between my music video and my ancillary products, these visual links are that the artist Y. Shocker is featured in the video and also features on the front panel of my digipak, in the video the artist is wearing all black clothing but there doesn't have to be a clear visual link between one song featured in the album and the album image. The audience can recognise that the video and the promotional packages are linked because the artist is featured in all three products. My personal opinion on my main and ancillary texts is that they work harmoniously together in the promotion of the album/ single (individual download). The styling and visual effects on the ancillary texts supports the grime conventions and the way the artist is shown on the front panel of my digipak suggests to the audience that this is grime as in the correlation between my picture and the picture from 'Curtis' have similar artist  expressions which  create a modern, youthful, exciting effect. My main product and ancillary texts have features in it which attracts the audience into finding out more about the artist, the way my products do this is the way they have been manipulated i.e. my ancillary texts have effects on them which makes them appealing to the audience and makes the album look modern and professional.

3.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The media technologies that i have used in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages are all featured and explained in the video below.   

4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience at the cinema seemed to really enjoy our video as there was a loud roar when ours finished. The comments received during the class analysis of videos consisted mostly of positive features that they really liked about our product such as:

"The lighting was perfect"

"Really like the locations of the shots"

"wide variety of camera angles used"

"A* acting by the artist"  

However there were some comments which really made us more aware of how challenging making a full length music video can be. Comments on the negative aspects of our video were harder to spot when not paying attention but made a significant difference when someone noticed them:



"she starts of with a handbag and then she hasn't got it during the end"

"some scenes were blurry"

In relation to these comment the potential changes i could have made would have been to check when everybody is free and create filming sessions in which we can all agree to, this would have taken the handbag issue out of the way as organisation is the key feature which produces success in all types of scenarios. The second comment about the blurry scene could have been prevented if we we looked at the shots we had taken in depth and make decisions whether that is acceptable. 

From the audience feedback i have learnt that my product could have been a much better product if we were all organised as a group and planned all of the shots ahead of time not making things along as we went. Now that someone spotted out that hand bag i can never stop looking for it every time i watch the video. The quantity of feedback from the audience commenting on the locations used was huge as to capture the whole of west ends key attractants in one video in high detail, we made our video represent london baisically.