Final evaluation

Final Video

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

Question 2- How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary tasks?

 

Question 3- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

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

Firstly, the media technologies that I used for the research of my digipak’s were Google Images to find examples of other Indie genre front covers to influence me making mine. I found three examples, which were Jess Glynne ‘I Cry When I Laugh’, Coldplay ‘A Head Full Of Dreams’ and The Script ‘Science And Faith’. I found that Jess Glynne’s digipak was my preferred choice due to it using conventions of the Indie genre by using pastel colours such as lilac to make the main artist stand out as well as being a bold colour. This will influence me to include colours similar to this on my website and use Barthes symbolic code to connote the emotions of the characters. For example, blue for sadness. Also, the digipak included a main image of Jess herself, which makes the audience focus on her as she is the main artist, as well as her looking at the camera, giving direct address to the audience which persuades them to pay attention and maybe purchase the product. This influenced me to design my digipak a similar way by making the actress and actor from the main video give direct address to the audience. This also meets conventions of the indie genre due to this genre usually including main images of the artist or band due to it being based on performance rather than narrative. But, her makeup doesn't meet these conventions due to it being heavy and running down her face, giving a more pop/rock effect. Indie genre digipaks tend to have artists with natural or no makeup due to the focus being on the performance and instruments.

Secondly, for my website, I used Google again to research different website layouts such as Jess Glynne’s official website and Elton John's. Again, I preferred Jess Glynne’s website due to conventions of the Indie genre being used by the bold pastel lilac, as well as close-up shots of the artist and videos from tours and music videos, which include bold colours too. This meets conventions of the indie genre due to videos being based on performance, which is shown on Jess's website by videos from her tours and music videos. However, Jess Glynne works on more pop music rather than indie, which is shown from her makeup and costume. For example, her makeup is bold but natural at the same time by her eyeliner being thick and the use of mascara to make her eyes stand out. Also, her costumes tend to be glittery and bold, which meets conventions of the pop genre. Therefore, I didn't use these aspects due to it not meeting the conventions of the indie genre, as well as the video being narrative rather than performance.

In addition, for my research for music videos, I was mainly influenced by the Plain White T’s ‘Hey There Delilah’ due to the use of colour treatment, such as black and white tints. These were used for the creation of the eerie and dull atmosphere within the video whilst symbolising the characters emotions (Barthes symbolic code). This inspired me to use a similar effect within my video by using the black and white tint and a slight red pigment form the three-way-colour wheel from PremierePro which gave some scenes a warm and happy feeling towards it, which connoted the characters emotions too. Also, using the puma-curve enabled me to make other scenes look eerie by darkening the whole shot.

Also, in our video we included slow and fast paced shots were used which synchronised with the lyrics. For example, the build up to the chorus had scenes which were more fast paced and then slowed down again when the chorus was playing. This helped the audience understand what was going on due to the use of lyrics being used for the specific scenes. 

Furthermore, for the research and planning of my ancillary tasks, I used Survey Monkey to show my skeleton templates of my digipak and website and share it to a small sample group, which were my target audience and get their opinion on which one they preferred and how to improve, which helped me plan and construct my main ancillary tasks. I found that my audience preferred my first digipak design of the two characters facing the camera as it met more conventions of the indie genre by the plain background, whereas the other digipak didn't give a clear narrative of the music video. For my website, the audience preferred the second website due to the use of graphics, text and colour whereas the other template was more plain and business-like, therefore it wasn't appealing to the audience. Also, we did a focus group with our target audience when planning and constructing our storyboard and they mentioned that they expect a love story, which we did. This helped us get advice from the focus group of what they expected and how to improve our narrative. 

Finally, the media technologies that I used for constructing my digipak were Photoshop and InDesign. Photoshop was used to crop, resize and use colour treatment to make the image realistic and professional. This enabled me to layer the images and blend them in together by the use of colour treatment, such as luma-curve and the colour wheel. InDesign was used to design the layout of my digipak and include the images from Photoshop. This was by uploading them and colliding the images together to make the digipak look realistic and professional. It also enabled me to design my front cover, back cover and tray disk inside.

The technology used for creating my final music video was Premiere Pro. This was to help crop shots and remove any unwanted elements such as unwanted props and people; the use of colour treatment and transitions such as fades, and place the shots in the correct order. This was to make the video look professional and have a high definition (HD) for when the audience watches it on apps such as YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. I used editing skills such as colour treatment to make the colours within the scenes connote the characters emotions as well as focusing on their facial expressions and body language. For example, a black and white tint and a slight red pigment form the three-way-colour wheel gave the flashback scenes a warm and happy feeling towards it, which connoted the characters emotions and their happy relationship. Also, using the puma-curve enabled me to make the scenes with the middle-aged man retracing his steps look eerie by darkening the whole shot, which makes the audience sympathies with him. This links to Barthes symbolic code due to colours connoting the characters emotions, helping the audience to understand the emotions within the scene.

In conclusion, these different media technologies enabled me to look at a variety of other media sources to inspire me of what to include in my own projects. Also, the use of using Adobe apps such as Photoshop and InDesign has enabled me to learn how to use a variety of sources to guide and construct my projects, giving it a professional finish by the high definition (HD), which will benefit me in the future due to continuing with media studies, therefore needing these skills to continue and develop. The process of constructing my media products took a lot of time due to the process of planning, filming and editing, which was inspired by other examples from the internet and resulted in my product looking modern and aesthetically pleasing to the target audience.