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

The primary piece of technology we have used throughout our process was Blogger.

We have used Blogger extensively to document the process of the production of our music video. Blogger involves regularly posting updates and in our case including multimedia elements such as embedding videos from YouTube and uploading photographs.

In order to use Blogger we have been spending a majority of our time in the media suit using the macs. Below are images of the kinds of macs we have been using: 

Using the macs involved learning a range of new technical skills such as creating new tabs, copy and pasting and such which are all specifically different and tailored to Apple PC products.

To edit our main product we used Final Cut pro which is an industry standard editing suit. In order to operate the programme we have spent the last 2 years learning the ins and outs of the programme; from desaturating shots, to using the cutting tools and altering the timing and colouration of the shots.

When researching our band and other elements in our production process such as digipack research, we used google. 

Google is the world's top choice search engine which we used to surf the net for information on our band and also used it as a portal to other websites. For example YouTube:

We used youtube to upload our video and access our audience feed back, we also used facebook as it is the most popular social networking site. 

Evaluation Question 3: What did you learn from your audience feedback?

In order to carry out our audience feedback process we uploaded our finished video to Facebook and YouTube; after doing this several people left posts below the videos commenting on their opinions of our work.

We also studied a smaller, focus group, in order to obtain a more specific set of audience feed back.
Below are some of the positive comments we received from our focus groups, via Facebook:

"Great vid guys!! Haha definitely got the Reservoir Dogs reference...
Would give it a 10/10 lol" -Tom

"Ahh thats so good! Better than the one I made for my school lol. Really liked the whole style of the video.. looked really cool, especially the split screen shots." - Sophie

Sweet! Deffo will come to you for a video when i do my next track. Loved the band shots! Looked like a real performance. - Josh

And below are some negative comments we can gain constructive criticism from.

"Nice! Would be better if you extended the shots of the band walking around?? But quality video all the same" - Luke

"Safe! Should be more band shots though... :p" - Dan

"I really liked it but I dunno, maybe better if there was more shots of the band in the gang?" - Molly


We plan on using the comments above and those yet to be posted on YouTube, to help us improve our editing and production skills for any projects we may also be involved with in the future.
We have learnt that our experimental approach to the production of our video was a good idea as the different editing styles, particularly the split screens and contrasting coloured shots, were really effective in engaging the audience.


We expected constructive criticisms but overall were pleased by the positive reception that the video received from the audiences. Admittedly, we expected comments such as:
"Nice! Would be better if you extended the shots of the band walking around?? But quality video all the same" - Luke


Purely because we were aware during the editing process that a lot of our narrative/ walking shots of the band members were quite similar and we should have branched out and experimented with location more. However, the whole experience has been a learning curve and next time we are involved with a project we can focus more on expanding our ideas.

What do you think were the stronger parts of our music video?

Tom: I really liked the narrative shots you used, I definitely noticed the films you referenced, especially the reservoir dogs style walking shots. I also liked the Once Upon a Time in the West reference you used in the digipack.

Sophie: I loved the colour scheme within the music video you made. I think the desaturated colours juxtaposed with the multi-coloured split screen shots worked extremely well, making the video have contrast and catch the eye of the viewer.

Josh: I really liked the images of the different band members being put into a split screen then coloured, it looked really cool and made the video flow well. I especially liked the band shots because it looked like an actual gig, really professional. Well done.

Luke: I enjoyed the performance shots, it looked really realistic. I especially liked the close ups of the different band members playing their instruments. I also liked the split screens of different band members.

Dan: The band shots looked awesome, especially the close ups and the split screens.

Molly: The best bit for me was the performance shots, the band had lots of energy and the quick editing and various cinematography really showed this.

What do you think were the weaker parts of our music video?

Tom: I felt as though the video was great and I can't think of many bad points. However, I feel as though the reservoir dogs style shots should have been expanded on.

Sophie: The scenes where the band are walking down the street should have perhaps been made longer and maybe had some more narrative.

Josh: I did like the band shots and thought they were really realistic. However, I feel as though you should have made the split screen shots more frequent, was a really cool effect.

Luke: When the band members were walking down the road I didn't quite understand where they were going? although it did look really epic.

Dan: There should have been more close ups of the lead singer while singing on stage, but it was a top effort.

Molly: I loved the shots of the band walking around in a gang formation. I think it would have been better if you used more of these shots.

If you could change one thing in the video, what would it be and why?

Tom: I would probably change the amount of screen time the narrative shots have as it would have set up a good video.

Sophie: The same as Tom really, it is an awesome video just the narrative shots could have been longer.

Josh: I would probably add in more effects to make the video look more futuristic.

Luke: I would also say the same as Tom, it could have been more of a narrative behind the gang scenes to make the video have a better structure, although it has a really good structure any way.

Dan: I would add in more shots of the lead singer on stage because it would have made the band shots more realistic.

Molly: I feel as though you should have perhaps used more narrative shots, it would make the video seem more cinematic. 

What I can draw from this focus group

From what I have found in my audience research I have come to the conclusion that if I were to make the video again, I would do the following....

1) Make the narrative shots longer, adding more structure
2) Showing more shots of the singer on stage, giving a more realistic feel to the live performance
3) Using more split screens within the video
4) Show the gang scenes have more narrative, adding perhaps a small story line
5) Keeping in the vertical intertextual reference from various films

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task/text

Script

Introduction

Group: Hello I am (names) and this is our analyses of our main product and ancillary task. In this video we will be answering How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary task.

Ewan: We feel as though the editing within our main product was quite effective as it appealed to the target audiences' needs that they expressed during the audience research stage
James: We used a vertical intertextual reference from Tarintino's reservoir dogs when editing our video, we used this because our target audience will understand the visual signs connoted making our video effective by appealing to them
Lauren: We desaturated our video (making it black and white) as we were influenced by the dvd cover of reservoir dogs which was black and white. This would make our video effectively target our audience because it is a style that would appeal to them as in the audience research, the majority wanted the video shot in black and white
Ewan: We edited some shots in colour to contrast the desaturation of the majority of the video, this is effective as it cross breeds our genre of rockerbilly with conventions and forms of a pop video, this will allow our audience to watch something they would not usually see within their preferred genre.
James: The music video’s target audience is the 18-25 year old male demographic who are white and middle to working class. This audience has been targeted within the music video, as the characters represented are young white males, mirroring the target audience. The Paradigms of a gang of teenagers dressed smartly walking down a street within the narrative scenes create a dark syntagm of youth crime which the media has created a folk devil out of, intriguing the target audience as it has an element of danger.
Lauren: The road that the characters are walking on creates the metonym of an open road being freedom for the young gang members. The band members performing on stage (who are the same as the gang members) are also represented as white young males who are performing at a gig, this will appeal to the target audience who are into a live music culture.

Ewan: The semiotics of the music video connotes the songs genre of alternative/rock, predominantly through the videos mise-en-scène, which uses many conventions synonymous to the rock/alternative genre that can be found in real products. The paradigms of having the props of musical instruments such as; the guitar, drums and bass are all iconic signs of rock music, the setting of being on a stage for the performance shots and the costumes of smart/casual clothing worn with sunglasses creates the syntagm of an alternative rock band.
James: The performance shots juxtaposed with the narrative shots of the band walking which is a direct vertical inter textual reference from Tarintino’s Reservoir Dogs creates the indexical sign of criminality and a rock and roll lifestyle, this is through the target audiences’ understanding of the Reservoir Dogs reference which has been parodied, pastiched and paid homage to in various other texts that they may have seen.

Lauren: Within the editing of the music video, standard forms and conventions of the genre were challenged as there were some split screens which were brightly covered, this was a horizontal inter textual reference to pop music videos, a genre that contrasts greatly to the alternative/rock genre, giving the audience an image they may have not seen before.
Ewan: The music video contains a vertical reference within the editing; the majority of the music video is desaturated (Black and White) which is a reference to the Tarintino film, Reservoir Dogs. This also developed forms and conventions of previous media texts as the video cross breads ideas of music videos and films. The cutting of the video challenges forms and conventions of the genre as usually, alternative/rock videos are quickly cut whereas this music video contains many fades and dissolves, making the music video look quite contemporary and different to previous texts.

James: The cinematography uses forms and conventions found in previous music videos such as the close-up shot. The close-up shot of the drums connotes the metonym of rock and roll as it is an image synonymous with the genre. This close-up shot also uses forms and conventions previously used in music videos as it shows the musicians performing, giving a live gig feel as the genre of the song is based heavily on live music and.
Lauren: The video challenges conventions from previous music videos as well in the performance shots as, wherein previous videos they use a dolly for performance shots (Arctic Monkeys-I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor 2005) In our music video we used hand held shots to create an even more live feel, to make the audience feel as though they were actually at a gig.

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

Our music video, "Bacalao" by The New Town Centres, is of the "Rockabilly" genre and contains many of the generic conventions of that genre such as an major key, upbeat tone and comical lyrics. Because of the more alternative genre of the song we chose, it enabled us to be more creative and experimental when editing together the video as the genre is aimed at a niche audience rather than mainstream.
The paradigm of Mise-en-scene in our video links most closely with the intended audience. The actors within the video itself act as indexical signifiers as opposed to iconic, due to the connotations of synthetic personalization between the “band” on screen and the intended audience. The five boys in shot are all young, white, middle class teens, which already connotes an assumed understanding; however the furthered indexical link comes from their attire.

The inconsistency of their clothing which is both smart and casual and the added combination of black trench coats and shades connotes a sense of individuality and rebellion; commonly associated with the indie-rock music genre which is the genre of my music we are showcasing in our video. I have not stated the actors as being iconic signifiers because I feel that the connoted meaning rather than a denoted one means that the link could depend entirely upon the audience of the video, I feel that the intended audience would make a connection with the choice of actors on screen whereas their mothers would not make the same subconscious connections if they watched the same sequence, as they are not aimed at their age demographic.

Once again within the paradigm of Mise-en-scene, iconic signifiers are created through the use of props such as electric guitars and old drum kits to help create the overarching syntagm of the traditional rock genre as the instruments are iconic symbols for the genre.
The song we chose is stereotypically aimed at an older audience as alternative rock was more common in the late 80’s and early 90’s than it is today therefore we signified the traditional roots of the rock genre through our use of editing; within this paradigm we chose to desaturate our shots to black and grey which stereotypically connotes the past. We also did some research based on rock videos of a similar genre and the black and grey colouring of the shots seemed to be a consistent convention in many videos and we wanted to follow the conventions so that our video was congruent with the iconography of rock music.

However within our sequence we chose to break the mould of convention slightly by using our cinematography and editing skills to appeal to our more contemporary audience. We filmed some of our narrative shots along a wide, deserted road which connoted freedom and independence which we hoped our audience would indentify with as freedom is a main component in the life of the average teen. We also used posterizing techniques when editing to both keep the “retro” image of the music alive whilst also appealing to a more artistic and creative youth demographic as alternative rock is seen as being marketed at a niche audience in today’s music industry.

Final Edit of "Bacalao"

Intertextual references

We looked at other promotional adverts for other media products and subsequently we made a vertical intertextual reference to the poster for "Sin City" starring Mickey Rourke, whereby the image was descaled into black and white and aspects of the poster were kept bright red to contrast.

Ancillary Tasks: Magazine Advert

The image below is of the magazine advert for our band's single "bacalao", again we wanted to keep consistency with images as our video and ancillary tasks are a promotional pack and all come together.
Therefore we used the same image as the front of our digipack but also included bold white text to stand out over the image to relay information to the audience easily. The advert also contained the necessary aspects that were present on the digipack, such as the record label logo. Other features on the digipack included barcodes, copyright information and the record label logo as we researched labels that would market our genre of music. It also includes a web address so that potential fans can find out more information about the band which in itself will act as a further promotional tool as lots of music is discovered and marketed online.

Ancillary Tasks: Magazine advert and CD covers

We incorporated similar techniques from our music video into the magazine advert and cover as we wanted to keep some consistency with style that an audience would recognise as being iconic to the band.
Below are the images of our digipack for the single; the image includes vertical intertextual references to our music video by including the image of the band members walking away from the camera and it includes the photograph of the red leather chair on the front cover. We used photoshop to increase the picture quality and desaturate the image to a sepia tone while making the red chair stand out. This "alternative/art-house" approach further highlights the alternative rock genre of the music and its intended audience who would be attracted and interested by the images on the digipack.