Main Evaluation

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

When creating our music video, we wanted to follow conventions of a current music video of the same genre as closely as possible. During the research period we watched several current music videos to try and determine what the codes and conventions were. We found that most of these videos had a narrative which we decided should be a main feature of our video. We also noticed that continuously throughout the video the band were frequently featured playing the song which is a main part of our video. We thought this was important because if this video were to be released, one of its main aims would be to sell the song and to promote the band.

            In terms of the ancillary products, I think that my advert follows conventions because I looked closely at how similar advert have been constructed in magazines and newspapers and based my advert on these. The research was hugely helpful as initially I didn’t know how to construct my advert, and after research of current adverts I made a few sketches of what mine should look like.

            On the other hand, I think that my DVD challenges some conventions of current DVD covers because during my research I found it hard to find a cover that suited the genre of the band. This caused some complications during the planning of the DVD cover and it meant that I had to try and assume what the conventions would be, and I based the final product on different genres.

How effective is the combination of your main ancillary texts?

I tried to reflect aspects of the video into the ancillary products, for example I knew that both ancillary tasks needed to have dark colours, and the text needed to fit the genre. As a group we had agreed on a dark grey/blue colour and on all our ancillary products we used the font 'Skin and Bones' and all our products had the same house style. This worked really well because our products matched which would allow the audience to be able to recognise our band, for example they would see my advert and could identify the album and calendar.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From the audience feedback I have learnt that the music video looked professional and that the transitions and effects between each shot were good because it allowed the video to flow well. The locations were frequently mentioned during feedback, as some thought that it added verisimilitude and people could relate to the location. However, some feedback showed that parts of the video were hard to follow and left audiences confused. This problem was identified as being caused by certain parts of the storyline being too complicated, and this problem could have been resolved if audience feedback was conducted during editing. 

            Feedback associated to my ancillary tasks was mostly positive, however bad aspects were identified on the DVD cover. Some thought that the cover had some dead space which made the cover look at times unprofessional, but they thought that some parts, such as the copyright information and legal rights, were very good. Similarly to the music video, I think this problem could have been resolved if I had conducted audience feedback during production, even perhaps pre production, as this would have allowed me more time to plan the DVD cover.

            On the other hand, audiences thought that my newspaper advert was very professional, and the fact that it included minimal information meant that it was easy to read and was more likely to attract an audience to look at it. I found this very positive as I was reluctant to leave the advert minimalistic because I thought that it may have look too empty. However, feedback from my group told me that this made the advert look more appealing.

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

New media technologies were used during the research stage because I used several search engines to try and find out the conventions of a music video, DVD cover and album advert. I wanted to know what was expected on my ancillary tasks, and from the internet I found out the legal requirements and what copyright issues I needed to address on the DVD cover.

            During planning, illustrator was used to find out the house style of all the ancillary products, this included the colour scheme and the house font. This needed to be identified during the planning stages because they all had to work well together and if there was a problem it would be easier to resolve during the planning stages.

            During construction, the music video was created on Adobe Premier Pro which was the best software to use because it allowed us to edit the video by importing videos and cutting them in the correct places and inserting fades between each shot. Furthermore, whilst making the DVD cover and advert I mainly used Adobe Illustrator because the software is easy to use and the tool bar allowed me to construct both products with ease. Alongside this, I used Adobe Photoshop to cut out the backgrounds of the photos I wanted to use and place them into illustrator.

            I filmed some of the key parts of the evaluation stage which a video camera, for example some audience feedback was filmed so that I could include all what the individual had to say because I saw questionnaires as being limited. I found videoing helpful because it meant that the person could say all they liked, which worked well because some of the main flaws of my production were highlighted this way.

Louisa