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

Evaluation Question 4 on Prezi

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our music video was aimed at 15-25 year olds both male and female, in the C2/D category on the social demographic scale. For our focus group, we used a fellow student who is also working on music videos, one of our media teachers and the media technician. After watching our music video, they were all able to easily identify the narrative of the music video as well as being able to identify our target audience. Our focus group also understood that we chose this narrative, as our target audience are able to relate to this, as they are at the age where they find it important to be shown love and affection. Our focus group also stated that our music video appeared real and put on, i.e. the narrative is believable and it's not cliché. They also found it easy to identify the different actors within the music video, making it easier to understand the storyline taking place. They also pointed out that we followed the typical conventions of music videos, in my opinion this is something that makes it seem more professional. But in the future I think that it will be more intriguing if we were to use more of the unlikely conventions such as having a twist mid-way through the music video.

Unfortunately, our focus group were unsure whether or not our animation fitted in with our genre and style of our music video, but they found it to be a good thing to include based on the technical and creative and creative aspects of the animation. Overall, our focus group said that they really enjoyed our music video and there were only little things that needed improving; a short area of a clip needed to be lip synced properly, close ups and effects. In the future, we will definitely take more time in order to ensure that these things are done to please our target audience to the full potential.

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

We have created our brand identity by using the same house style for our Digi-Pak and our adverts by keeping the same theme of dark and bold colours, which contrast against each other; we chose to keep the theme the same in order to make them visible and eye catching for the audience. We thought it would be best to use the same layout throughout our Digi-Pak in order to represent the bands simplicity and organisation; they don't have to go to extreme lengths in order to prove a point and gain new fansOur music video also follows a similar house style as the Digi-Pak and advert; we kept the same colour theme, dark and bright in order to connote the previous relationship, the heartbreak and how Tommy is moving on from the event. We stuck to the same style of the band members as what was used in the Digi-Pak; the clothing they wore for the photo's was similar to the clothing featured in the music video. This was done in order to make them more appealing to the audience and also so the audience can decode the band members as being 'real' and not fake, i.e. trying to be someone they're not. The design of the Digi-Pak will help to sell the song/album to the audience as the colours used would stereotypically be classed as 'grunge' colours and our target audience would fit into the stereotype of being grungers/indies. As well as the colours being stereotypical, the colours also represent despair and loneliness, according to the uses and gratifications theory, the audience will see this as a form of escapism, as well as a form of entertainment. They will also find it appealing as it features images of the band members, for the female side of the audience, this will intrigue them they like to identify someone who can be their favourite band member. For the males, they may like to look at the images as they can see the band as someone that they would like to aspire to in the future as well as copying/using their image as an influence on themselves. I think that the advert design will help to sell the Digi-Pak as it they both use the same house design, e.g. colours and fonts, the design is quite similar; there is still a flare in the bottom left corner. But instead, we used hair Photoshop brushes as a band identification as they all have similar but different hairstyles. Based on our target audience, we understand that they take pride in their image, but most of all their hair, as hair is being used on the advert this will draw in the target audience and they would think that the band has the similar interests/hobbies as they do. The genre signifiers will help the audience to identify the band as an indie pop/rock group. Using the typical conventions such as guitars and drums playing in performance, the music video is performance/narrative based which will also help to identify the music as its genre. The mood throughout the music video is somber which signifies further that the band sing about love and romance, rather than an artist such as Kanye West; he sings mainly about himself being successful, making others feel inferior toward him. Our band music sings about the things that interest their audience that relates to them.

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

For our music video, we chose to use the song Fireworks by You Me At Six. This song falls into the pop/rock genre as it has an up beat tempo whilst using dull, disheartened lyrics. Our music video conforms and challenges the typical conventions. In music videos, the audience expect to see the things that appeal to them the most; for our target audience this is things that relate to their life. For our music video, based on our song, we chose to focus this on betrayl and heartbreak. But rather than having the boyfriend cheating on the girl, we chose to challenge the typical convention of this and instead, we had the girlfriend cheating. We chose to do it like this because a male figure is stereotyped to be the same; they are all unfaithful and they cannot hold a relationship with just one person.

In our music video, we chose to have both of the relationships shown, the one with the boyfriend and the relationship with the lover. We conformed to the lyrics of the song as in them, the band sings,'together we'd float, so delicately', using the boyfriend and the girlfriend together in past tense, we were able to reinforce the audience that the relationship has ended.

Throughout the editing of our music video, we found it really frustrating to lip sync the video; whenever we moved one clip, the rest would either move along or get cut. We conformed to typical conventions Goodwin identified by using the image and lyrics in relation to each other.

After viewing several other music videos, we were able to identify that songs of love and heartbreak, used the typical conventions such as somebody cheating, close ups, clips of the past, panning and movement tracking. We chose to conform this because it helps to connote the distraught that has been caused because of what's happened.
The typical conventions from the rock genre were the band identity, what makes them who they are. This includes their clothing, hair and choice of instruments used. We dressed them in dark clothing in order to keep the mood of the video despairing. We chose to use the pop genre as an influence on us by using close ups and quick shots in order to conform Goodwin's theory by trying to promote the band and the lead singer and making the music sell.

We chose to keep a dull effect throughout the video in order to show how distraught that Tommy is because of what's happened; we done this by desaturating the clips of his past relationship and use the clips of me and Mike in colour as it is what's present. Half way through the music video, we started to use clips of Tommy singing in colour, on his own. We done this so the audience can decode that he is trying to get back to the person that he used to be, before he had his heart broken. We chose not to have a dance routine included (which is a typical convention of a pop genre) because the majority of the audience will be able to relate to the song lyrics, in one way or another and the last thing they want to see is dancing.

We also challenged Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze Theory'. This theory states that women are shown as sex objects through camera angles in order to make them seen inferior and men have all of the power. Instead, we chose to have our female character (me), seen as an average person, e.g. fully clothed and not heavily made up. The audience can then decode this and realise that even the 'innocent' looking people have a hidden past or hidden secrets.

But on the other hand, our music video conforms to Mulvey's theory as it's the female character shown to be cheating, not the male; making her look like a whore. This is usually used in a pop genre, where they use women as a voyeuristic images creating an interest for men.

Digi-Pak's are made in order to make an album more appealing toward their target audience as there are bonus features that can only be seen if you purchase the specific Digi-Pak. Most of the Digi-Paks that we researched featured the artist on the cover or on the advert, we chose to challenge this convention and instead, use things that can allow the target audience to identify the band just from the signifiers that we've included. Rather than using the band on the Digi-Pak front cover, we chose to include them in on the inside of the Digi-Pak. We decided to do it this way in order to make the audience feel as though they have a huge significance for the band and the reason why the Digi-Pak was made in the first place. We chose to use the same colours throughout as they represent the bands music genre and the band as individuals, the 'indie' stereotype. On our Digi-Pak we included a bar code on the back cover so that the shop staff will be able to sell the product to the audience.

The conventions that we have used throughout the music video, Digi-pak and advert will make the band seem more appealing toward the audience. The dark colours represents depression and hurt whereas the contrasting brighter colours connote happiness; the audience will be able to decode what Sinful Agenda's music is, if they haven't already heard it. They will look to Sinful Agenda's music as a form of escapism, reinforcing Blumler and Katz's Uses and Gratifications theory. By choosing to have a heartbreak based storyline it allows the audience to relate to it as they're between 15-25 and they can find themselves easily infatuated with another person. Some clips in our music video were shot in Leigh's garage; the audience may feel as though they want to aspire to be in a band, although most of them will probably already be in that stage as our target audience will have social or musical orientated hobbies.

We used montage and continuity editing rather than just having the one; we used the montage editing in order to show the different locations of Tommy singing various parts of the lyrics. This would make the audience realise that he is moving on from what has happened to him, this would also reinforce the self-seeking part of the uses and gratifications theory; if the audience were going through a similar situation, they would realise that it's okay to move on. We also used continuity editing with the relationships and the affair, so that the audience is able to keep up with the story. The animation was used in order to challenge the conventions as neither the pop or rock genre use animations in their music videos. But we used it in order to tell the story of our music video in short form.

Directors Commentary

Sinful Agenda Focus Group

Sinful Agenda Digi-Pak Advert Analysis

For our Digi-Pak advert, chose to kept the same theme as our Digi-Pak in order to reinforce the audience that the advert is for the current Digi-Pak and not for an older one. Rather than having a cliché advert, i.e. band photo airbrushed, we decided it would be better just to have an outline figure of what identifies each individual band member. After traking it into consideration we agreed on downloading Photoshop brushes of hair, this is because the female side of our target audience will be more attracted to boys with their hair like this and the boys in our target audience would have their hair like this, or similar. It would draw in the audience more because of this and also as it is an unusual way to promote a band.

Underneath the hair brushes, we chose to have the band members signatures. This makes it easier for the audience to distinguish each of the band members hair from the others, as well as making the audience feel special, as they have the band members signatures. We included the HMV logo in order to inform the target audience where they will be able to purchase the Digi-Pak from. We chose HMV as it is a well known, branded shop popular for music and entertainment. We decided to use the NME magazine review as this is the one that is most popular amongst our target audience, as the age group listen to what is heard from the media, they will be highly influenced by NME. We chose to have our release date a short space below the bands signatures, because once they'd finished looking at them they continue reading down the page and it will be the next thing they see. We chose to have it released early in December as our target audience can ask for it for Christmas, and the person purchasing the Digi-Pak will feel as though they haven't got a reason not to buy it as it is for an occasion and not for nothing.