1. Evaluation By Katie Jennings

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? We choose to develop the song ‘Rain dance’ by a local independent band Modern mafia which are an indie band, we thought this track would be good to use because we liked the lyrics and by looking at them we were able to stimulate lots of ideas which we thought we could incorporate into a video. Whilst planning our music video we looked at the codes and conventions of similar bands and bands within the same genre (indie) as our music video. By researching music within this genre and similar bands to ours it enabled us to identify the codes and conventions that are used with in other music videos. This helped to highlight key conventions in order to convey the genre of the music video. We started by collecting research and watching other music videos making note of the lighting, costume, mise-en-scenes and techniques that had been used. We then brainstormed our ideas and discussing how we could incorporate these conventions into our own project in order to meet the needs of our target audience. Some of these conventions included features of the bands performance involving lip syncing, editing of the video adding special effects. In our music video we have tried to include lots of different camera angles such as close ups on the singers face at the gig and at the start of the video when we focused on the instruments which was inspired by The strokes ‘Reptilla, From research I have found through research that we have we have used intertextualityby “drawing upon existing text “Long shots to show location and low angle shots when Ed walks up the stairs and away from the camera. We felt that these were key shots which we also used in similar videos but we also felt that they gave different views to the video. For example when we used a high angles shot and used a zoom to focus on the rain drop we felt that this was a good shot because it linked back to the lyrics of ‘rain’.

3. The costumes the artists wear are casual and represent indie style. At the gig the band wore jeans and t-shirts which is similar to what other bands in this genre wore. We felt that it was important to stick to the same style of clothing throughout the video so when we were working with one of the band members (Ed) “sometimes the artist will be part of the story” we asked him to wear similar clothing to what he wore at the gig in order to keep the convention the same and recognisable to the audience. This type of clothing is common in the indie genre as the artists tend to focus on the music rather then there image. We chose to shoot our gig in four different locations in order to show different feelings and emotions of the character but also to reflect the lyrics within the song. "often music videos will cut between a narrative and a performance of the song by the band” The first location we shot in was the M.E.B bar, Chapel Ash, Wolverhampton (at the gig) we also shot at the Telford Plaza, near Telford Town Centre we decided to shot here because it is a busy place and with the tall buildings we thought that it would portray city life. We choose to film in Shifnal because it shows a more rural landscape and so this fits to our original idea of ever changing location to portray the characters loneliness. Our final location to shoot in was Ironbridge. We chose to shoot here because after many unsuccessful attempts to shoot a scene when it was raining we decided that we needed to some how incorporate water in to our video. We felt that we could shot different angles and clips of the river which would reflect the lyrics.

4. The lighting in our video was quite light (use of diegetic lighting created realism) because the minority of the scenes were shot outside. When we filmed at the gig the lighting was quite dark and eerie so to make the clips more reflective of a professional live gig we added effects from Final Cut to make the clips interesting and reflective to the genre. The effects highlighted shadows and silhouettes of the artists which looked really effective as it portrayed movement and flashing lighting, it made the clips appear more realistic and professional. The effects worked well and reflected similar music videos. It also made the music video more interesting to the audience and so it reflects the purpose of music videos (showcase song, advertising the artists). I think that our music video reflects the genre well (indie) and I think the audience will watch our music video as a form of escape and to be entertained as a way of release from everyday pressures (Blumler and Katz 1974 use and gratifications).

5. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? To compliment our music video we have produced a magazine advert and a DVD digipak. After researching other magazine adverts we were able to identity information which had been provided on existing adverts, such as; price, realise date, age certificate, reviews, and ratings. We decided that we wanted to keep the same theme throughout our ancillary texts therefore we decided to stick to the same background, (rain drops). We chose to use this background because it reflected the title of the song ‘Rain dance’. When we first chose the background for our magazine advert and DVD digipak the background was much brighter and so we used effects to tone it down so that the text would stand out and it could be clearly read by the audience. We also used the same font for the title of the band, we experimented with colours of font, to so what stood out best from the background and final decided to stick to white as it was the strongest colour which stood out from the dark background. After researching existing advertisement magazine adverts we decided that we wanted to include a picture of our digipakon to our magazine product, this involved taking imagery of our DVD cover and then adding this image onto our poster. We used the colour theme of white again which linked to writing used on the digipak, and we also used orange which matched the colours used in the Amazon logo. We also put the date of release so the audience would know when to purchase the single. We also wanted to feature images of the band on the digipak but the images didn’t blend into the background as we wanted so we decided to place the pictures in the inside cover along with the lyrics. For the inside cover we used a simple background which made the lyrics more readable then we used the same background as what we had used on the outside.

6. When we first chose the background for our magazine advert and DVD digipak the background was much brighter and so we used effects to tone it down so that the text would stand out and it could be clearly read by the audience.

7. What have your learnt form your audience feedback? We found that the feedback we received from friends, members of the class and our teachers was most helpful and has helped us develop and reflect on our project. From gaining our audience feedback we have received both negative and positive feedback. From our feedback we noticed that the lighting was dark at times in some of the scenes. “Lighting was dark and this made the bands performance unclear and difficult to see”. Although some people thought that we used lighting effectively showing the transitions between the dark scenes of the bands performance and the light scenes showing characters and location, we did receive some negative feedback that the dark lighting made it hard to see the band playing. Although we did find the lighting dark when we were filming the gig I think we could have added more effects to make the scene lighter and more interesting to the audience which would highlight the establishing shots of the band such as the close up on the singers face. This would therefore meet the demand of our target audience and the record label. We also noticed that we had a few people who said that at times the scenes seemed to be a little repetitive.”Slightly repetitive at times” I think that this is true I feel that we may have repeated the scenes in Ironbridge of the river. We had originally hoped to use rainfall which I feel may have been more interesting to the audience and more reflective to the lyrics of the song. I think that to develop our video we could have incorporated some more scenes of our character (Ed) this may have given the video more of a storyline and therefore not been so repetitive at times.

8. Despite these few negatives points we did receive some positive feedback from the audience. From the feedback people liked the way we editing we had use in the video a few people said that they especial liked the mirror scene of the band at the gig they said it was interesting, unusual and worked to separate the performance shots making it less repetitive. The audience had also liked the range of shots which we had incorporated into our video.”Good variety of shots used by river, links between the song and the video work well”It made it interesting and gave different views on characters, performance and location. I am pleased that people had compliments use our camera angles and shots as we wanted to incorporate a variety of different shots including long shots, panning shots, close ups, low angles and high angle shots because when researching excising music videos within the indie genre we had noticed that these were the some of the codes and conventions used and therefore we needed to include this in our music video to meet the demand for our audience and record label in order for our music video to be successful. We also received feedback on your print products. For our magazine advertisement people said that they liked the image of the DVD cover in which we are trying to promote “good use of DVD image on magazine links well to product and looks professional to the audience”. We also received positive comments on the use if background as it matched the theme of the DVD cover and the song therefore it will be familiar and recognised by the audience.

9. For our DVD cover the audience said they liked the way we had kept the cover simple but still managing to incorporate all the information needed. Although some people liked the simplistic of the design a few said that there was quite allot of empty space on the fount cover which could have been covered with images of the band. “Good use of background but too much space on the front cover making it unappealing to the eye” Overall I feel positives about our feedback I believe we can use this to develop our project further and by improving these few minor flaws in our work we will be meeting the demands of our target audience in order to create a successful interesting music video.

10. How did you use new media technologies in construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Whist working on this project we have used a variety of new media products including digital cameras, Mac computers and video camera. We have also used software programmes such as; blogger, Final Cut and Photoshop. We have used blogger throughout our project; research, planning and valuation stages. This has helped me to blog the different stages of our project in order to log and reflect on each stage and decision that we have made. By using blogger I am able to look back and reflect on our original ideas and thoughts about the codes and conventions in which we wanted to original incorporate into our music video in order for it to felt the genre and meet the needs of our audience. Blogger has helped me evaluate my own music video and reflect on our decision resulting our final video. For the editing of our video we used final cut. Final cut allows use to cut, edit and add visual effects such as the mirror shot of the band performing at the gig. Final cut has been most helpful in allowing use to make adjustments and experiment with a range of editing techniques and tools to make our video effective, and interesting.

11. We also used Adobe Photoshop. We used Photoshop for our ancillary texts, when creating our digipak and magazine advertisement. Photoshop has allowed use experiment with different fonts, images and background in order to use effects and techniques to make our print products look professional. Using new software in our project has helped us to learn new techniques in different software. I feel I have gained experience and confident in programmes such as final cut and Photoshop. Overall we are pleased with our final product. By the feedback we have received we feel we can make changed to develop out product further so it meets the demand of our target audience. By using blogger I have been able to communicate my research planning and ideas for my video it has allowed me to log important decisions and development within each stage our project. From using new technology I feel confident and have gained great experience in using this software and these programmes.