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Evaluation 1

Transcript:

Music videos usually fit into the category of narrative or performance. When I researched the indie genre I found that most videos are a combination of both, with about 70% narrative and 30% performance. The performance element is usually the artist lipsyncing to the lyrics alone, as shown in dodie’s Sick of Losing Soulmates. However, I challenged the convention with this as my music video is entirely narrative. I felt that any lipsyncing would detract from the narrative of the song and so did not adhere to that convention.

I used Levi Strauss' Binary Opposition Theory to contrast rural and urban. This is a technique that music videos often use to make the conflicts of the central characters clear as they cannot use dialogue and so I used it to make the two narratives and their similar themes obvious to the audience.

Another convention of the indie genre is a shallow depth of field that allows the audience to feel close to the characters, often used because indie artists tend to write personal lyrics that they want the audience to connect with. So I used this convention in my indie music video, particularly when the character is being confronted by her parents, as this is the moment I would want the audience to feel the most sympathy.

There are quite a few conventions within editing for music videos. One of these is that the editing of a video fits to the beat of the song, with quick cuts, which makes the video easier to watch. I used this convention to partial extent, as whilst the cuts of my music video do align to the beats of the song, they are a lot slower than in a typical indie music video. This is because the song was a slow and thoughtful one and I wanted the editing of the video to fit that tone.

The convention of colour grading in indie music video is that the colours are desaturated to reflect the mood of the lyrics and this was a convention that I built on for my media product. However, I also developed this further by slightly increasing the contrast on key emotional shots in order to make the contrast and conflict in the two character’s lives clear to the audience.

Evaluation 2

Transcript:

The combination of my main product and ancillary texts is effective to great extent. This is because I used cracked paint imagery to illustrate the theme of conflict and the breaking down of lives in the music video. This was then transferred to both my digipak and my magazine advert, as shown here. Another effective way I combined the music video, the digipak and the magazine advertisement was through location. The photos I took for the digipak and advert were in the same place as one of the key scenes in the music video, which made it easy for the audience to make those connections. I also linked the products through the artist, who appears in the background of 3 shots of the music video, so whilst she does not distract from the narrative of the video, audiences will be able to make the connection between the products. If I were to make both products again, I would have made the artist more prominent in the music video to make the link clearer. Another way I could have made the combination of my main product and ancillary texts more effective would have been through making the font used in my music video the same as on the ancillary products, which would have reinforced the artist’s branding.

Evaluation 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 Transcript:

From my audience feedback I have learnt that our use of insert shots, although questioned by earlier feedback as slightly too long, was effective in communicating the themes of our music video. Earlier in the year, my group and I made a video in which we lipsynced to our chosen song. The audience feedback we got from our peers was that lipsyncing did not fit with the tone of the song and the audience agreed with that when we screened the final product. Another thing I learnt from the audience feedback I gained was that the ending of our music video was too abrupt. This was something that was noted in earlier feedback and so we made efforts to change the ending so that the two characters spend a bit more time thinking rather than moving straight towards each other. We did this by using some extra footage however the final audience feedback made it clear that this had not been entirely effective. Feedback also showed me that the audience had found the ending a little abrupt. However, I learnt that the slow cuts of the narrative style of our video was effective and audiences found it to work well with the tone of the video. I also learnt both throughout the process of making the music video but also once I got my final feedback that the audience enjoyed the themes of the video and how it addressed issues that young people face, meaning that I successfully reached my target audience of young people.

Evaluation 4

Transcript:

In the research and planning stages I made use of the internet, particularly YouTube, to research the conventions of music videos and the indie genre. I also looked at amazon.com for the research of other digipaks by indie artists, which I used for inspiration for my own digipak and magazine advert. I also used iMovie with my group to create a draft of the video using the storyboards we had created, which helped me with my planning as I was able to map out the cuts I would use in editing. Blogger was a useful platform on which I could document my planning, research and construction process and I was able to easily get feedback from my peers as they were able to access my work quickly and easily. Blogger also made the evaluation stage much easier as I was able to quickly look back at the process of creating my media products.

For the construction of my media product, I used a DSLR camera, which allowed me to use a shallow depth of field for my music video, which helped me to create meaning behind the shots I used. In addition, I used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit together my media product. This was a more powerful editing software than iMovie, which I used for my foundation portfolio and so I was able to have more control of the precise, small cuts needed in a music video. This led to a better quality final product that adhered to the conventions of a real media text.

For the construction of my digipak, I used Adobe Photoshop to create professional looking products, which I was able to do because of the amount of control that Photoshop gave me over the images I was creating. I also used YouTube to watch tutorials on how to use the software as I had not used it before.

Finally, I used Prezi for my evaluation stage as it is an effective and simple way to communicate many ideas. I also used a DSLR camera and Premiere Pro to edit videos for my evaluation in a way that got across my ideas quickly and clearly, especially through the use of inserting images on top of video.

Completed Digipak and Magazine Advert

Here are my final digipak and magazine advert for my artist and album.

The Inside of the Digipak

The final part of my digipak to complete was the two inside panels. Convention showed me that this was where the expressions of gratitude from the artist usually went, as well as information about the musicians also involved in the album.

I also decided to make the circle where the CD goes cracked paint, to continue the theme that crosses the music video, the digipak and the magazine advert.

Here is the finished inside cover.