Evaluation - Imran Bashir

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

My media product both challenges forms and conventions of similar products in the industry; my music video is based on the band Domino Theory which is a group of 4 males that perform together. It is both a performance and narrative music video with the performance being based around a rehearsal of the band which we used the location of the Grims Dyke hotel in Bushy, and we shot the narrative part in several areas in London and tube station, it is a typical narrative for the genre of music which is a love song so this reinforces forms and conventions as its similar to most music videos in that genre. A love song about a couple reuniting and living happily ever after,

The use of mis-en-scene was key to us in this music video we tried to shoot it to similar videos in the genre again reinforcing the forms and conventions by using wide angle shot of the band, we did handheld so we got close ups of the vocalist and ranged from medium to close up’s of the band, we also tried a few tracking shots but this didn’t work out as well as expected so we didn’t use it at all, the performance of the band is shot in normal colour but the narrative story is edited to have a cartoon effect we did this to challenge the forms and conventions as other music videos in this genre don’t feature this. We used the track by Domino Theory Titled Try A Little Harder which was written and produced by Domino Theory and we used some speech from the band to make sure that we identify with the audience it is a rehearsal and not a live performance. The editing process was difficult and we found ourselves constantly going back and forth and receiving feedback to improve it we use the software ‘Final Cut Pro’ which is a professional editing software that allowed us to do multiple things, it was a learning curve but valuable and essential. As we took multiple shots of the band we had a lot of selection to choose from majority of the shots we used were hand held, we used a selection of fades and cuts from performance to narrative

We had multiple ideas for this music videos we used the idea of a Romeo and Juliet theme which became too complex as finding the right characters and developing the story as we first wanted to challenge the forms and conventions of this music video we then changed from using the Romeo and Juliet theme to using kids and puppets which we later decided to change to just using a couple in love who find their way back to each other.

The main influences of our music video was looking at similar artists and band within the same genre and see how they approached there music videos some of them completely challenge forms and conventions other reinforce we tried to strike a balance between both so that we reach out to a larger audience, also Romeo and Juliet played a big role in our influence as characters as we wanted two couples you wouldn’t expect to challenge forms and conventions and ideology so we used a mixed race male and an Afghanistan girl which we used popular locations in London and the Christmas lights to represent colours and happiness

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

We tried to brand the video to reach a mainstream audience we used several representation methods of image for the band as we wanted to brand them as the band they want to be seen as which is an indie pop band so they came in their own style and we used the title screen to present the band and title of the song so audience recognize this for brand recognition,

For the digipak we used multiple branding elements we used a group shot of the band and used a piano and placed the singer behind it this is a key branding strategy as in the music video you can see the piano with the lead vocalist performing on the same piano, in the digipak the band is also placed behind him with Domino Theory in the same font as the music video starting title this is to keep it consistent and ensure it looks professional. We placed the band website around and used a guitar on the back of the digipak for the musical feel we kept with a colour scheme of black, red and white as these were key colours and are enhanced in the music video then more colours, the Band feature the same costumes and location as in the music video as it was a good location with the piano in place there to reinforce the ideology of the group and keep the brand recognition consistent so audience feel as if there not seeing two different bands in different locations as the band remained in the same location throughout the music video.

The main influence of the digipak came from the music video itself as it was an indie pop group breaking onto the mainstream we wanted to make sure the audience feel they are with the band the whole way, this is why we use the same scene and colour scheme text font, size in both the digipak and music video. This will in return help create the true brand recognition as they are a new band and our trying to establish an audience the use of the instruments was suitable as they were key instruments in the track and video.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From our research our key market was females between the ages of 16-24 of white ethnicity this we tried to cater to our target audience by using mis-en-scene such as the characters costumes the band consists of 4 young males who females may be drawn to, this will create some interest within the same age group as they can see themselves relating to their audience and likewise. We chose this particular market as it was the one that appealed to the group the most.

We used a number of elements in the music video to try and appeal to our audience, such as the band itself is appealing as their ages range from18-24 and are attractive which can really grab the attention from the female audience. We also used popular places in London this can help as audience can relate if they been to those places such as Leicester square, Trafalgar we also shot during the Christmas time so the lights and decorations make the music video have that sense of love and more attractive. Throughout the music video the narrative is a linear about two people travelling we don’t know where they’re going or who their meeting this keeps the audience as they want to know who these two character are which they later find out are a couple.

We aimed particularly to a young adult of middle class social groups we tried to aim for a wide market as it could relate to a large amount of people we did this using costumes and let the characters and band feel comfortable and sell themselves not a particular image. The camera shots we used for the performance are wide angle shots and close ups so the audience feel involved the shots for the narrative are more close ups hand held’s to get the facial expressions to keep audiences interested and so they can feel in her position and we used particular shots to go with the Lyrics “maybe one day I’ll see you walk the isle with me” we used a shot of the female character walking down steps so audience have a visual idea.
I believe our music video achieved its goal towards our particular audience so they can relate to them also I believe with the research we collected this was the best audience to appeal to as it was a similar audience as the band.

Our digipak technically include everything relevant to another digipak with in the market it uses a band shot the Group Name and track title so audience are familiar. The colour scheme is used throughout with red being the predominate colour our images are also effective as it establishes the band in the same location and we use a candle and a guitar on the back as the candle is used to start the music video and also at the end of the music video so we thought it would be effective. We used the relevant logo’s and brand to make it look professional and similar to other products in the industry we did make some changes based on our audience feedback especially with the first draft of the band being cartoon it didn’t look attractive so we changed it.

It is definitely a video you could watch again as it contains the mis-en-scene of a product with in the market of a professional standard and it tries to reach out to a mainstream audience appealing to all markets which is what a Major Record Label would be looking for. What suggests this is the use of our research was across a wide amount of people from all types of ages, gender and social class even though are key market was 16-24 year old females of a middle class status someone in an different age group, gender and social class could still watch this video and enjoy it. Our USP of the music video is the Group themselves Domino Theory we wanted to brand them as they are the main focus of the music video, this can lead to all different types of opportunities for them especially helping them break into the industry.

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

I used multiple technologies during this process it was a learning curve and was a good experience as I can use them as life skills at times I found some tasks more difficult than others but had help. For the research stages search engines and social networking sites were a huge factor on collection research and finding out information.

I used social networking sites like MySpace to help research into similar bands and see what kind of branding and there types of music, I used another social networking site face book to help carry out research and what our target audience would like and get feedback and make changes accordingly these were extremely useful technologies as it allowed me to collect research quickly and controlled. YouTube was another popular website it’s a website that allows user to host videos so allowed me to look at music video and help influence on my music video as I can look at similar bands and there music videos. I also used Google as my main search engine as we did allot of research into Romeo and Juliet this was a useful tool to collect information to give us ideas and how we could incorporate them into our music video effectively which we later chose not to go with as it was too complex in the time we had with the characters. We place all out work on blogger which at first was difficult for us all to use but was a learning curve and soon learned how to throw things up there with ease and keep things under clouds so our work is organised.
We set a time and location for us to meet the band at the Gryms Dyke hotel in bushy, we contacted the hotel about using their location as it featured a nice theme and a fireplace which was a real interest to us and the band as it would be nice to get shots of them performing in front of the fireplace. We brought the filming equipment such as the lights; camera’s the dolly for the tracking and so forth. We did encounter some problems with the lighting at times it seemed it was too dark or too light so we had to adjust it various times this was also harder as one of lights was damaged by accident.

We used the Cannon XM2 digital camera and a widescreen lenses so we could capture the whole group in a comfortable frame the camera also had a tin built mica. We didn’t use green screen as we had no use for it as we had all our location that were suitable. The camera was a problem at the beginning we needed to adjust the settings with the white balance as it seemed too dark at times but we soon adjusted it. We used the tripod for the shots of the whole group the rest of the shots were close ups so we could get in close so it adds variety and helps the audience feel more involved in the video, we also did a tracking shot with the dolly but didn’t use it in the final video as it wasn’t stable and consistent and didn’t look very professional.

We used Mac computers loaded with the software known as Final Cut Pro, this was really learning curve for me as a joint editor as I have had no experience in this area of media before so I found it difficult and frustrating at the beginning getting used to the software as I was also used to Microsoft software running computers. Final Cut Pro is extremely professional software for editors it allowed us to constantly make changes with ease and apply the effects we wanted such as the cartoon affects to certain parts majority the narrative story parts, a difficulty we found when using Final Cut Pro was keeping the track in sync with the performance when making a change. We used different fades when crossing over to performance or to the story.

With the digipak for the photo we used the FinePix 56000 Digital Still Camera we shot the Group placed in front of the piano as I mentioned before to keep the brand recognition we used Adobe Photoshop CS4 and In Design DTP software, seeing as I have used Photoshop before in my previous year I had experience so found it easier to pick up then using Final Cut Pro. This helped in being more efficient as I could make changes quickly and not find much technical challenges however one challenge we did face was the initial idea of making the reflection of the band from the pianos reflection making them look like cartoon which we later withdrew the idea as it didn’t look effective as it would of related to the story narrative as it has a cartoon effect. Another problem was the headings and logo placements to ensure the
spaces were equal so it looked professional and consistent.

The college equipment helped to get an idea of the placement of the images as we had a rough idea but using the actual college equipment allowed us to visualise what we wanted and that’s how we ended up including the Guitar and candle at the back of the digipak which fades to black.