In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The demographic of my target audience was aimed mostly at females from the age of 15 and above. The reason my video is aimed at this audience is because I believe the romantic music accompanied by the amorous and dreamy lyrics, let alone the appeal of an charismatic and good-looking young artist, is going to be more alluring to females than that of males.
I sought after creating my media product as a text that would work and fit with the conventions of a real media product rather than challenge it in order to appeal to my target audience. The song that I have chosen to use is by Bill Withers within the soul/rhythm and blues genre; I was aiming for my music video to have a relaxed theme to compliment the smooth and velvety style of the music and the conventions that accompany it.
In the music video industry it has been found that there are some directors who choose to subvert the forms and conventions of the chosen genre and challenge them in such a way that makes their product unique and as a result, stand out from others in that genre. This could be an intelligent action in terms of audience appeal; however it must be taken into consideration that it can also be a great risk, this is why I chose to stick to the traditional forms and conventions of the style of music I chose.
I looked at music videos of the same musical genre as Bill Withers, as well as videos by alternative artists. Through this research I came to the conclusion that within my video I wanted to make use of the local landscape and surroundings in one of my two narrative stories as I believed this is a useful way of displaying the reflection of the artist’s emotions and memories. Through my research and exploration for my music video, I came to the conclusion that one of the principal components of a video, often affecting the success or failure of a video, was the mise en scene.
For my music video, I drew inspiration from Farryl Purkis and after thorough analysis of much of his work I was able to inaugurate time brainstorming ideas for my own music video. I also analysed and studied different music videos from the wide spectrum of the different music genres. Through comparing each of the videos, common conventions manifested, some being present in music videos of all genres, but also having separate conventions that are confined within the different genres. A music video theory by Andrew Goodwin proposes that the use of close up shots is essential in order for the artist to stem motifs which reappear throughout their work.
I used the black and white as well as old film effect in my music video as I thought it worked well with the genre of my music and mise en scene of the video considering the reminiscent themes of the lyrics. Due to this I believe my video would be traditional in the eyes of Gunther Kress’ theory of genre, this theory is that the audience will feel content watching a music video as it is a generic piece for my video to work with the lyrics.
I wanted to make sure the costume and lighting was effective, for this reason I dressed my artist in a smart but casual and simple clothing to portray a well dressed male, which went well with the lyrics. I wanted my artist to look mature and for his image to fit with the voice of Bill Withers, the lyrics of "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone" suggest the concept of a younger but not to young person dealing with the break up and loss of a lover one perhaps more than one occasion.
In the ancillary tasks of my digipak and magazine advert I wanted them to combine and work well with the video, so I decided to keep my black and white theme throughout. I took pictures of the artist that were appropriate for production in black and white format. I wanted to also keep the theme of the artist missing someone and reminiscing, that is why I used the shot of the artist facing away and looking slightly sombre.
After researching many digipaks I noticed the most appealing were those which had a picture of the artist, a title and a name; I thought that this would be an effective style to use so that I could promote the face behind the music. I also wanted to make sure the magazine advert went with the other two media products I produced; therefore I kept it simple and stuck to my black and white colour scheme. I followed conventions of real media products because I believed it works and that breaking those conventions wouldn't have been appropriate for what I wanted to achieve.
In order to make this video effective, I therefore had to make the video something which the audience could relate to, and achieved this through mise-en-scene and lighting. I dressed the band in clothes that are typical of my target audience (trendy, stylish) in order to give the impression that Bill Withers is just a normal person that his fans can relate to. Additionally, I filmed the video in a loft conversion turned bedroom, to make it look small and comfortable, a haven away from the outside world, something which every teenager and young adult values. Overall, I think my music video adheres to the conventions of the genre and manages to achieve a great sense of appeal and style.
How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?
The combination of my main product and ancillary texts, I feel are very strong. Before I even started any practical work on any of the three tasks, I had a definite state of mind that I wanted to make sure that all three went well together and the style and colours were simultaneous and continuous. The font I used throughout the three products was kept simplistic and fundamental in order to relate with the colours and feelings I have associated with my music video and the lyrics of the song.
My front cover of my digipak and my advertising poster share the same image, I chose to use the same picture so that they would go together as the magazine advert would be promoting the CD and, therefore, when the magazine was viewed the digipak would be associated with it. In my eyes there's overall cohesion between my three products, I feel that they are all clearly correlated by the same forms and conventions and that this is the best way to reach my target audience.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Before I completed any pieces of work I wanted audience feedback. I asked a range of people in my target audience, some being Media students themselves who had strong opinions of what they felt did and did not work within the video and ancillary task. I had several focus groups which I found to be extremely helpful and it gave me good and frequent feedback on things such as transitions and effects. Although I had a clear idea of the black and white effect on my video the focus group agreed it worked better than colour which made me more confident and certain of my decision to use it, especially considering it's such an important and central part of the overall video.
From all the feedback that I received I learnt a great deal. Firstly, for my main task I discovered that my choice of black and white was popular with all my focus groups, as was the camera angles I used. One factor was that they felt that by using close up shots, and a constant reminiscent storyline in old film, made the video far more personal.
The focus group all liked the way the theme for the three products was consistent and connected throughout. For my digipak I found that the focus groups wanted to see the layout of the whole digipak, rather than just the front cover and inside page. This led me to research and find a programme that allowed me to design a full digipak. I also gained from my focus group that image quality was of the upmost importance in all three areas.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During the preparation and research section of my media coursework I used many different media technologies; to help me gather ideas and inspiration I used many websites and music television channels.
The main media technology I used was the internet; I found the most helpful site was www.youtube.com. Watching many YouTube music videos gave me a solid idea of what works in a music video and what doesn’t. It also helped me to understand what is popular in a music video for certain genres of music; I found that a main focus on an artist singing was the most popular type of video.
Through my planning I found www.facebook.com very efficient; it allowed me to post ideas and get immediate feedback and also allowed me to ask a much wider audience their opinions on my products.
For the filming section of my task I used a Panasonic video recorder which I found to be a very reliable piece of equipment. After I had taken my footage I then uploaded onto one of the school computers. This was where I have encountered the most problems as the computer was not compatible with the footage so therefore I had to download a converter to help me upload my video. After I had sorted the problem with the files I started to create my video using Adobe Premiere Elements; I found this took some time to get used to the programme and unfortunately it continued to freeze throughout the whole development and took a lot of my time.
I used a digital camera to take the photos I used for my ancillary texts and then used the programme Photoshop to edit the pictures. I found that Photoshop was a rather tricky programme to use and struggled to do everything I wished to do with my photos.
The improved software that was available to me for this task has helped me to get a good quality to all three products. Through the editing software I was able to use a wide variety of transitions, allowing me to use a range of styles, still allowing me to keep it uniform in terms of genre and style.
Another point my focus group made was that near the end of my video the sunset appeared a bit random as it did not really seem to necessarily fit in that part of the song and the lyrics.
I also used hand held cam briefly, I did this because I wanted to make my video seem more personal and I thought this helped create evocative and reminiscent imagery, but I wanted to be sure that the audience was aware of this is deliberate technique when I asked my focus group what they thought of it and they said it was obvious it was deliberate, due to the fact I had placed the old film effect on it as well, I was delighted with this feedback due to the fact it was something I had been apprehensive but excited about doing.
I have created this for my advertising poster, I will now show this to a couple focus groups for feedback and decide from there whether it requires any alterations or not.
