Final Evaluation

We have developed a media product that consists of a music video for an indie song titled heart skipped a beat by the ‘XX’, a digipak and a promotional magazine advert. The product is successful for numerous reasons. It conforms to some of the typical conventions in its genre while challenging various aspects in order to be unique. Furthermore consistency is shown through a subsequent visual motif in both the music video and the ancillary texts.

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

One of the highlights of our music video is that they is a balance between the use of typical indie conventions and the use of unconventional elements. We utilized only the generic conventions of indie music videos so that the audience can recognize its genre. For instance the way the artists are represented in our music video.

In our music video the male artist wears a green checked shirt, plain straight jeans and white plimsolls. These clothes are similar to the ones shown in the second picture, worn by the lead singer of kings of Leon in their music video ‘Charmer’. We added a purple hat and glasses that complement the indie style furthermore the purple hat and glasses make the costume look more unique in comparison to other indie costumes.

The female artist wore a dress with flowered patterns and a leather jacket. The dress is similar to the one worn by the lead singer and backup dancers of the Florence and the Machine in their music video ‘Rabbit heart’. The leather jacket she wore suits the style of the video while completing the dress.

We were generally pleased with the costumes because they represented the artists in a simple yet fashionable way while maintaining the indie style. On the other hand we also wanted to challenge the generic conventions of an indie video. We utilized the mise en scene and the absence of props such as music instruments to do this.

Usually indie bands have their music videos shot in inhabited locations that the audience is familiar to. In contrast we decided to use a deserted barn which was part of the unique selling point of the video. Not only did the barn give us a unique mise en scene but the graffiti art painted all over the inside gave us a visual motif for the full media product. Furthermore the characters were able to interact with the mise en scene in the scenes were they write on the graffiti walls. This reminds the target audience that the mise en scene and the graffiti theme are just as important as the characters. The barn was very spacious, so we could get several shots of the barn that we edited in final cut. Each transition from one section of the barn to the other suited the slow pace of music. The barn complemented the artists, because its sheer size created a sense of emptiness that brings more emphasis on the artists because they are the only people in the isolated barn.

Musical instruments are common props in indie music videos. Although they were several instrumental sections in the song, we chose not to use instruments in the video. Mainly because our music video is a bit more abstract than most indie music videos. Indie videos usually use instruments during a performance or live footage scenes within the music video. Due to the fact that our music video was abstract we acknowledged the fact that our video will not follow all typical conventions of indie music videos. So we ignored music instruments and decided to use a ghosting effect. We applied the ghosting effect because it was unique and visually pleasing and also suited the pace of the instrumental sections of the music.

Overall we were pleased with what we had achieved. Although the music video was constrained to the basic conventions of the indie genre we were able to make it look more abstract. This creates a sense equilibrium between the typical conventions that make it easy for the audience to recognize the genre and the abstract aspects that make the video unique.

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

In addition to the music video we designed a digipak and a magazine advert. All of these have the same visual motif that binds them all together to them one product.

Firstly we designed the magazine advert. We were generally pleased with the outcome of the magazine advert it was simple yet showed the target audience a lot about the product. The magazine contains graffiti drawings shown as the main focus. The graffiti drawings relate to the full product because they are consistently shown and also showcase the mise en scene. We also added a colour correction filter to the magazine advert. The filter makes the magazine advert look more visually appealing and is similar to the one we added in the music video thus showing consistency in the visually motif. To make the advert look official we added quotes from reviews and ratings on it. This persuades the audience to buy the product. The quotes from reviews were written in a simple thin mechanic font. We chose this font because of its simplicity and because it matched the overall look of the magazine. We also added a release date and a title in the same font. However the title has a bigger font size and is bolder so that it could draw the audience’s eyes to it.

Next we designed a digipak in the same visual motif as the rest of the product. However achieving the consistent motif was challenging. We had to do several drafts of the digipak in order to get the best possible results. Each draft had its own strength and weakness, but the major flaw in them was the lack of strong visual links to video. Fortunately we improved on this in the final draft. The final draft incorporated the graffiti art and the colour correction filter that were in the magazine advert. In contrast to the magazine advert the digipak had the artists shown on the front. Most album covers have all the band members shown on the front; however we decided to have one artist on the front and one artist on the back. This challenges typical conventions and also shows the target audience that the artists are unique in an experimental way, because they try new things that are not conventionally done.

Overall we were pleased with the digipak and magazine advert because we were able to archive a subsequent motif that matches the music video. Furthermore our product has an artistic style which is represented through the graffiti; the artistic graffiti can be used as part of the unique selling point of the product. This combination of a visual motif and artistic flare demonstrates consistency in the product thus making it effect because audience could tell that the digipak, magazine cover and music video are all part of the same product.

3.) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Before making the final music video we drafted it so that we could get feedback from the audience. The feedback was generally positive and we also received some constructive criticism that highlighted a few flaws in the music video. We responded to all of our peers and their feed, by improving the areas they highlighted, for example the quote shown below from one of our peers.

Group S1-23 Feedback

S1-23 - We think the location is very unique and interesting, a wider variety of shots would keep the audiences interest. The editing so far seems slightly repeatitive, maybe chop the shots up a bit more to the beat and include more close ups. The lip syncing was well done.

Genre characteristics - Low beat Indie - It fits the song well, the two characters appear close yet not close enough and overall the footage fits the romantic feel. The mise en scene attracts the social category that The XX tend to appeal to, along with the costumes.

This group responded positively to the video however they highlighted a few minor flaws that were in the video. In the rough cut we had a very limited set of camera shots and discarded a lot of footage that we could have used. Furthermore the ghosting was applied in too many scenes thus making the effect repetitive. As a solution we simply added a wide variety of camera shots ranging from establishing shots, close ups, mid shot and more. Each camera shot was chosen for a specific reason. For instance the establishing shot was used to show the mise en scene while close ups were used to show the artists so that we could meet the demands of the record label. In addition to this we deleted some of the scenes with the ghosting effect, so that the ghosting effect is only applied in the instrumental sections.

We had other minor flaws highlighted by our teacher such as the difficulty in seeing the lip-syncing in the first section of the video. We tried to find different solutions such as zooming into the artist’s face so that we could see him miming the song, however zooming worsened the video quality making it look pixelated. The only possible solution was to re-shoot the sections of the video were the lip-syncing was hard to see. Our teacher also highlighted another flaw in the music video. Usually in music videos the artists are introduced very early in the video in order to meet the demands of the record label. In the draft version of the music video the artists were not introduced early enough. So as a solution we used some clips of the artists that we had discarded placed in the early parts the video.

Despite the flaws in the video, the audience were still overall pleased with the rough cut. The audience were mainly captivated by the ghosting effect and the scenes were the artists write the title of the song on a wall, because they show relationship between the music and visuals. The audience also responded positively to our pitch, they were particularly impressed by the location we had chosen for our mise en scene.

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

The construction of the media product was heavily dependent on the use of new media technologies. We used new media technologies for almost every aspect of the development from, planning, researching and evaluation.

One of the most important tool we used wise blogger. Blogger allowed the group to communicate to its audience and get feedback from the audience. We wrote numerous blogs regarding each stage of the development of the product. Blogging soon became essential in planning and research because we could keep digital records that we could track back to.

For video editing we used Final cut. Final cut equipped us with tools we needed to lip sync the video correctly, apply visual effects such as the ghosting effect and the colour correction and arrange the order of the clips. Final cut was also effective because we could experiment with a variety of video editing techniques to make the video more visually pleasing.

Another application we used was Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop was mainly used for creating the digipak and the magazine advert. In Photoshop we were able to stylize the text for the digipak and put a colour correction filter similar to the one in the music video and experiment with a variety of techniques.

Using new media technologies helped us learn new things in different software. It also made us proficient in video editing and image editing.

Overall we were pleased with the outcome of our product, we were able to improve on all aspects that needed to be improved during the drafting stages and combine ideas while thinking as a group. We also got blog of the week that motivated us to even to work harder and try out more things within the group.