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

 This is a slideshow expressing some of the programs and media technologies I used along with my group when producing our music video, as well as the ancillary tasks. Some of the other media technologies we used include:

• Computers
• Video Camera
• Premiere Pro Cs5
• Adobe Photo-shop Cs5
• PaintShop Pro
• After FX

My media blog was an enormous aid in creating a 'live' effective portfolio into the A2 part of the media studies course. It enabled me to create a visualisation of my ideas and get prompt feedback, advising me on other research areas to look in to. Research is so important for the second year of the course as you have to be able to actively identify the 'generic rules' i.e. the conventions and forms for each genre. So research is vital in creating a successful music video, with an effective Digipac and advertisement. By using Google I was able to expand my research, whether it was magazine related, video related etc. Just at the click of a button I was able to get hundred of pages of information on the band and also information about the creation of a portfolio such as this one of the products involved in the project.

Many people enjoyed the finished project that our group have created, for after the video only being up on YouTube for 9 days 14 people had shared the video and over 50 had commented across all the social networking sites. This astounded me as to how popular the video had become and how positive all the comments were was a great bonus to all the hard work put in when producing the video.

What have you learned from your audience feedback

To gather our audience feedback, we decided to do a number of things; firstly, we uploaded our finished product/video onto YouTube, and the print based products onto social networking websites such as Facebook. This gave viewers of our products the opportunity to comment qualitatively with their exact thoughts of how successful our video and my ancillary tasks where individually and collectively. The data can also be quantitatively collected through the form of a questionnaire, which is exactly what our group did for our finished products as a whole.

From this data we can draw a number of conclusions. Overall the whole project was a huge success, with an average 8/10 across all areas, with a minimum of 7 and maximum of 9 in some areas. The sections in which each viewer had to score the project as a combined portfolio were as follows; how enjoyable was the whole project? Was the whole project easy to focus upon (video mostly)? How gripping was the finished product? How similar is the finished product to real life products in terms of the conventions and forms used throughout both? What would be your overall rating for the project /10?

It is clear that the YouTube responses were the best, reaching 9/10 in three of the sections of 8 in the enjoyment section, giving an overall rating of 9. I agree with this data as I believe the finished video was the strongest part of the whole project. My ancillary tasks, although being of a very high standard, were not focused on with as much content as the video due to the increased number of us when producing the music video, each with our own ideas and thoughts to add to the mind-map of ideas we had when producing each individual shot.

The Facebook responses, although very positive, were not quite as highly scored as he YouTube responses; similar to the First-Person responses. All categories of viewers scored the project very highly, and each group the scores were taken from 15 people - all of which from the target audience of our music video. I believe the reasoning for the lower scores in this specific areas is that the print work is not as exciting to look at, however, the overall ratings were still strong clearly showing the standard of the work was high.

Here of some of the qualitative comments we received when conducting our evaluative data, these comments along with many others, including the constructive criticism, are all useful to our evaluation stage, as it can determine areas that need improving as well as areas that are consistently strong throughout the production :

"really awesome guys :) this music vid and song are phenominal!"

"one word...........WOW"


"Great video guys! well done! (Y)"


"SICKEST video EVER, nice job dudes"

How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?

Below are my two ancillary tasks, the CD Digipac, which has a 6 fold, 8 page booklet included, as well as the poster advertising the Digipac and the band/album.

Overall I am thoroughly happy with the turnout of the the Digipac and couldn't have asked for it to look any better, the information is clear and easy to read - it is also at a plenty. Making the insert a worthwhile investment for any CD is a difficult thing, as the information must be interesting for the viewers to even bother reading it, I believe the information I have provided has been intriguing for the consumers and is put to good use. 

I think the Digipac poster, advertising the CD Digipac works extremely well here also, I believe the poster is attractive to look at and also gives some valuable information about the release date of the Digipac, this is helpful to readers who may follow the band or just want to buy the Digipac. The poster also uses many of the conventions seen in the modern day print for rock artists. A simple image, with a histogram style grain over-fold, and the use of lighting effects to portray the band in a better light.

This is our finished video as the final hand in for our project. I am extremely happy with how the video came out, and the combination of this along with the ancillary tasks is very effective. As part of my evaluation I looked at my whole portfolio of work whilst adopting a meta-discourse. This involves stepping outside of describing my activities from the point of view of a media studies students' perspective, but from tat of a potential employer or a scout within the industry.  The combination of our finished product along with the graphically created print work combine really well to give a very strong overall set of products.

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

I am going to answer this question in three sections describing how our product challenges develops and uses the forms of a real media product.

Using the forms of real product

Our music video has many different forms and conventions used throughout, including a variety of shots such as close-ups, pans and jump shots; our video also consists of a narrative, which is a form used throughout the rock industry in modern day music videos. Throughout the research prior to the creation of our music video, as a group we looked into the main conventions of a modern day music video to explicit lengths, learning that music videos within this genre (Rock) are quite similar in certain ways, and dissimilar in others. One similarity between music videos of all genres and that of the rock genre is the lip sync/miming of the song by the band - including all members. The reasoning behind this is to add a sense of realism to the video, and also to replicate the band producing the music live. One difference between music videos of the rock genre and that of most other genres in the modern day, is that music videos for rock songs tend to contain a narrative explaining a small story, or at least the narrative will have some background information explained and there will be something for the viewer to follow. This is unlike most other genres as some genres (hip-hop) don't use a narrative as often, and other genres (indie/pop) use a narrative quite often but it is usually combined with the replication of the song or it revolves around dancing in time with the music.

Developing forms used in modern day music videos

We used many of the forms that are found in a modern day music video to make our video look as realistic as possible; we achieved this by using an initial basis for what a viewer would expect a 'rock' music video to look like, and the conventions that are consistent within these, and expanding with our own ideas to vary the shot range and add excitement to the finished product. I think we achieved many different and diverse shots within our video.

Challenging the forms used in a real product

To challenge for forms used in existing rock music videos, our group researched many videos and tried to manipulate small variables that we could change to diverse from the norm of a music video in the 21st century. I think we achieved this very well, as we used many shots that are already consistent in videos of this genre, however incorporated other various camera angles and camera shots that are found not only in music videos of other genres but in short and long feature length films. An example of this would be the shot in our video of the protagonist of the narrative (myself) pondering his thoughts in the suburban setting we chose to shoot this particular part of the song in (Poole Park) where we shot still shots of an almost still image, where the body posture of the protagonist did not move, however the camera angle was changing around every half a second.

This shot, along with many others helped us to challenge forms used throughout the music industry today whilst still using the classic conventions needed to produce a music video of the highest calibre.

Our music video did not follow or challenge existing conventions to any serious degree; we used the forms found in a modern day music video and expanded on the ideas, hence achieving both similarities and differences to existing products.

Analysis - My Thoughts

After the hours of work my group put in to plan, film, and later create this video I am thoroughly pleased with the outcome. I believe we have added all the necessary conventions that make a music video at a high standard.

My favourite part of the music video is over a 7 second period (2:30-2:37) where we used very short snaps of some of the best cuts we got from filming, each shot is barely half a second long. This is a convention used in all kinds of videos including films, music videos and advertisements. Below are some screen shots taken from our music video; displaying how we used each convention necessary when filming and editing to create a high end production.

Opening scene, editing text

Fade from story to band

Fade from narratives with the same mise-en-scene

Bloom effect

Close up on base drum

Urban setting used

Fade from band to narrative short clips

Ending shot of narrative

Close up with background information (drummer) on guitarist

Ending scene for band shots

Close up on first band shot with fade from edited text

Close up on drumroll

Fades between narrative shots

Close up on guitar solo

Close up on guitar solo

Using lighting to add effects on band shots

Again using the lighting to add a mood to shots

Close up on singer

All of the above shots are symbols of the conventions used in the creation of a modernised music video. Close ups are a very popular in the twenty-first century along with these specific traits found in music videos under the 'rock' genre.

• Usually dark/deep colours
• Displays the band performing on stage
• Can include a narrative
• Eerie/weird videos
• Uneasy camera movements
• Hand-held shots
• Usually little or no special effects on the band shots, however if a narrative is used special effects are abundant.

Long shots, close ups and extreme close ups were constantly used. Close ups are usually used in music videos as it puts emphasis on the artist of bands face for promotional reasons and their lips to show the lip-syncing. Loads of different camera movements are used throughout, including pans, dolly track shots, improvised crane shots and tilts. These usually followed the movements of the band or singer. Jump cuts are the most common shot used in our video, the purpose of a jump shot is to jump from a scene of the location to the artist/instruments and vice-versa. Reaction shots were used in our music videos with the narrative as it expresses the relationship between two or more people. The pace of the editing is always in synch with the beat of the track. 

The Video! - The Finished Product

The Video! - Other conventions taken into account when piecing together our music video

There are three main conventions to take into account when producing a music video, the storyline/narrative within a music video, the "live" footage and also the conceptual ideas that are presented through imagery in a music video.

• Performance - To convey a sense of 'in-concert' experience. Performance orientated visuals cue viewers that the recording of the music is the most significant element.
• Narrative - Linear, love-stories are the most popular, action within a narrative is dominated by males who do things and females who react passively or wait for a reaction.
• Conceptual ideas - Add a mood and can offer multiple meanings. 

These concepts describe the form and content selected by the director to attract viewers and convey a direct or indirect message. They can act as advertisements, as popular art forms or as self referential filming texts.

Narrative and performance: Steve Archer (2004)
"Often, music videos will cut between a narrative and performance of the song by the band. Additionally, a carefully choreographed dance might be part of the artist's performance or an extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the 'repeatability' factor. Sometimes, the artist (especially the singer) will be part of the story, acting as narrator and participant at the same time. But it is the lip synch close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of music videos, as if to assure us that the band really can  kick it"

We took this quote and used it as a guideline when piecing our video together; such as the line "lip synch close-up and the miming of playing instruments that remains at the heart of music videos", this gave us a broad idea as to what makes up a high quality music video.