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.

Evaluation - David Goodwin

Updated

Evaluation - Amina Diwa Saadat

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

Our music video is performance/narrative driven. The video is split into two very different sections, each set in different locations. The performance is by the band practicing and the narrative part is the couple travelling separately in London to meet up with each other. This is similar to the forms and conventions of existing music videos because many are narrative/performance focused. An example of this would be “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved” by The Script, which is a similar love song containing both narrative and performance scenes. The style of presentation of our music video deviates from other music videos because we have used a special effect called Red Giant Toonit which gives a cartoon quality on screen and I have used this for the narrative part of the video, it is something you don’t normally see in existing music videos.

Our use of camera work and sound follow established music codes and conventions. We have used basic hand held shots such as the crane shot of the girl standing under the lights in Oxford Street and also the tracking around her face. This is also done with Alex in the train station. As well as hand held with the couple we also used it for each of the band members to get a real feel of what they are doing and who they are whilst the camera is moving around them. We have also used the tripod to get steady medium and wide angle shots of the band all together and also used the dolly and the tracks to get a steady tracking shot of the band. This camera-work is similar other music videos because it is constantly moving, featuring a range of shots differences and angles. However if our music video presenting scenes with tall buildings, it would be much more difficult to film and would have to film at very high angle to get shots such as bird’s eye view shots, an example of this is “New York” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys, the music video is about New York so it contains various high angle shots f the sky scrapers.

The editing techniques are also similar to other music videos because we have used basic transitions such as dissolves between the narrative and performance shots. It is one of the basic transitions you see in most music videos based on love. However the main technique that differs our video from other existing videos is the Red Giant Toonit effect we have added to the narrative part of the video. You don’t normally see this in music videos which make our original and different. The mise en scene of our video also follow the forms and conventions of other music videos because it is not based on a fancy show biz style, it is a casual rehearsal performance between the band. And also the narrative part is about couple meeting up so they don’t need to be over dressed. The settings do not need to be over done because it is only a practise within the band itself because they are seen as relaxed and laid-back. The band members are dressed in casual shirts and jeans with trainers connoting their relaxed life style and also create a relaxed atmosphere; this also goes with the couple as ill. The fact that they are wearing just jeans and a coat suggests they are not going anywhere special. This creates the music video as an overall all relaxed, simple video which is what most videos are like with the similar genre.

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

We have adopted the principles of branding including brand image very well. Regarding our music video, we have developed used the band as the main brand image because they are the performers shown in it. The main singer playing the piano whilst singing associates with the DVD cover which has a picture of the band standing in front of the piano with the main singer sitting down like you would see him in the video. The colours are very natural and light, which is similar to the cover.

We have also used the same location for the video in the performance to the DVD cover to get the same branding image symbolising Grimsdyke hotel. The use of the band’s style and dress is kept the same throughout the video and DVD cover because we wanted their identity to be known. Their causal relaxed dress sense gives them a brand image of laid back band members and not as show offs.

This then leads to the magazine advertisement. In this advert we have used the same picture used in the DVD cover so that they have a link with each other. It is kept simple and basic just like the cover and we have used the same font and colours so that our audience will instantly know that it is linked to the video and DVD cover. The conventions are much similar to the DVD cover; it doesn’t contain any images of the animation because it would stand out from the DVD cover. Because we are advertising the cover, we therefore need to be similar to the rest of the products. It creates an overall image of the band as a male band standing in front of the black piano connoting the piano is involved in the video somehow and set in a posh old fashioned setting.

3. What did you learn from your audience feedback?

The elements we built in to our video to appeal to our target audience are the use of using young characters in the video, such as the band members are all male and young and also attractive, therefore most young girls would be interested to watch this because they get drawn towards young attractive men. This will mainly attract an audience at that age because audiences are attracted by people from their own age category and create some kind of bond or feelings for them. Another way is the choice of song; it’s a nice slow love song which youngsters like to listen to, especially females. The use of a cartoon effect for the couple which fades to reality towards the happy ending is another great way to encourage their identification because it is all about being different and standing out from the crowd, which is what everyone wants to be nowadays as well as upbeat. Our narrative isn’t over dramatic or out of the ordinary, it is about people’s everyday life about someone’s feelings towards their partner so the video will make them feel like they are a part of the video because they relate somehow to the song. They are being allowed to witness the feeling of falling in love and caring for someone you love so much. The setting in the video could also relate to them, the narrative part is set in central London so the audience might be interested in that the city life where it is a place for so many to meet their partner under similar circumstances.

In order to get feedback from our on what they thought of our music video, we asked them in various different ways to get as much feed back as possible. We made the links available on Facebook because it reaches a wider range of audience as it is a worldwide social network site. We asked them to comment on the video and tell us what they like and dislike about it. The feedback we received from them was; they loved the cartoon effect idea but it should be on throughout the whole of the video. They loved that it was set in central London at night during Christmas because the lights gives a great effect to it and makes it look more professional. Some people commented on the band and said that it was a great choice a male band and the band members all looked really professional and attractive which is what our audience look out for when watching a music video.

However we also received some negative feedback via Facebook. Some people said that the video didn’t relate to the song and they got confused and didn’t know what its purpose was. Some said that they didn’t like the cartoon effect and that it ruined colours and was a downfall to the rest of the video. Most of the feedback we got from Facebook was students aged between 16-22 which was brilliant because that was the age category we aimed the video for.

As well as using Facebook for audience feedback, we also used msn and wrote out a short questionnaire to get as much feedback as possible. We wanted to find out their thoughts on camera work and editing. We also wanted to know what they thought of the song and the use of mise-en-scene. The feedback we received from this was all positive. We created a short closed questioned survey and each of our group members asked five people. The kind of feedback we received from this were, that most people thought the music video was different regarding the mise en scene, more than half of them said this when asked “what did you think of the narrative part of the video regarding the use of mise en scene?”, and more than 60% of them said was entertaining when asked “what did you think of the performance part of the video regarding the use of mise en scene. This was one our main aims and we have achieved it according to the results of our feedback. We also wanted feedback on the use of camera work and editing. We asked them “how well was the use of camera work presented in the video?”, more than 80% of the people asked said that the use of various shots and looked professional. Many also said that the hand held camera work was very steady.

Ten out of the fifteen people asked said that they liked the cartoon effect when we asked them what they liked about the editing and all of them said that it was very well edited and looked professional. The negative feedback we got was that some of them thought the characters, the couple, were too young and a few mentioned that they were underdressed but overall it was all positive and the majority was pleased with the final product.

Overall, we are very pleased with the final product and the audience feed back because we have met their potential needs on a music video. We have also met the forms and conventions of professional existing products. We have created a video which our audience found entertaining and professional as well but also different and unique which was what we were aiming for.

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

Compared to last year I have improved our skills in the use of technologies dramatically. I have gained the skills on using the college filming camera, the Canon XM2 with David Goodwin and Imran Bashir. Before we started shooting, we practised with our group on using the camera and gaining different skills from it, for example we practiced creating different angles using the tripod. We also practised filming creating steady hand held shots. Our strengths ire that we was able to film hand held shots as well as using the tripod and was able to keep the camera steady without shaking so we ended up with some really effective steady hand held shots which we wouldn’t get using the tri-pod. Our weaknesses however are that we didn’t know how to use the white balance on the camera effectively to get the right natural colour. When we eventually worked it out, we were supposed to have kept the button pressed until the icon on the screen would stop flashing. Unfortunately we let it go too soon so the performance part was too red and didn’t have the right colours. however when it came to filming the narrative scenes we remembered to switch the white balance on and knew how to work it and we ended up with the natural colours of what I was filming.
We also started off with having difficulties on setting up the tripod when we was filming for the narrative scenes, we couldn’t set the camera on the tripod the right way because we was using a slightly smaller tripod made for a stills camera. We chose to use the smaller tripod because it was much easier to carry around with me because we were travelling by foot but we did manage to get a few effective shot. We found it difficult operating a pan because it was hard to follow the person when she was walking as the camera person wasn’t quick enough to keep up with her, but I did end up with a few shots that could be used for the video. The rest was all filmed hand held. During the procedure of filming the band, we also wanted a few tracking shots of the whole band performing together so we used a basic suit case dolly. David filmed the tracking shots which he did have some trouble with to start with because he kept tripping over the tracks which made the camera shake a little but we did end up with at least one good tracking shot without the camera shaking. We also used a few extra lighting, due to the clumsiness of one our team member one of the lights fell off and broke so we only had one left which we used as a flood light to lighten up the area of which the band was performing. The loss of one light didn’t affect our filming as much because we also had the lights of the room so we needn’t need extra lighting. Over all we found the hand held shots very useful because it was very easy to use and also we were able to be creative with it as you were able to create various different shots from different angles which we wouldn’t able to do with the tri-pod. This was well presented with the hand held shots of the band members.

Generally, the college equipment enhanced our ideas because it gave us a chance to develop our skills and create new ideas. For example we used a hand held camera create effects such as the crane shot going up from the girl’s feet and reaching up to see the lights in the sky. This wasn’t originally planned but having the camera available gave me the chance to come up the idea and do it.

As a lead editor, I learnt the basics of editing to start with because last year I didn’t participate in much of the editing. We also had improved editing software and facilities so it was all new to everyone. The editing software we had to use was Final Cut Pro. Throughout the editing procedure gradually we picked up the basics and the advanced skills for example adding a transition and adding the cartoon effect. Our main strength in editing was the cartoon effect we used for our video. When we first added it, it didn’t look very effective and the colours were too dark, however due to the skills we gained we managed to soften the colours a little which enhanced the whole of the video and completed a great effect to it. Although this took me quite a long time, I believe we mastered it very ill. For creating our overall pace and style of editing, I found the cross dissolve transition very effective because it was a nice way of changing scenes and settings, from the performance part to the narrative part. It also added a soft touch to it which added a nice flow to the video. We also used this transition to transform the cartoon effect to real life, this works really well because it can change the pace to it and we used it to change slowly to catch the audience’s attention and making sure they don’t miss anything.