1. Evaluation The following presentation expands on the notes and ideas we had mentioned within our evaluation.

2. In what ways does your short film use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Like any typical music video, we chose to do a performance-narrative, as a pure narrative or performance does not manage to encapsulate the audience’s attention, this is noticed as many music videos today do not do this. However, by creating a music video that has both narrative and performance the target audience of rocker, goths and emos are all engaged, whilst relating and sympathizing with the characters within the music video. A good example of a music video that is considered a performance narrative would be flo rida’s club can’t handle me right now and Paramore’s decode, both of which have a narrative belonging to an existing film. Another convention that we had advanced upon was notion of looking, however many music videos today use this to demonstrate a sex appeal yet we chose to do differently. Instead the artist exhibited an evil gothic ambience, that targets as i had said earlier an audience of emos, goths and rockers, for this reason i was dressed to appeal to this target audience, which meant that costume consisted of black and only black. Immediately from the beginning of the music video i created an evil presence that is enhanced as i destroy all of the widow’s belongings that act a memoirs of her dead relationship. However, this perception changes if the target audience looks deeper and realizes that i am aiding her whilst she mourns as getting rid of her memories allows her to move on easily. This angelic guidance is proved towards the end of the music video, as i provide her with confidence that she uses in order to develop and make the drastic change of leaving the past and advancing with the future by leaving the house for good. This angelic ideology challenges the social tribes’ stereotype as goths are perceived as ones whom are depressing and morbid, however, these stereotypes are false as this is understood through the artist and the varied perceptions of her personality. This then brings about the moral of the music video, ‘don’t a judge a book by its cover’. Mise-en-scene There are numerous costume changes in music videos today but the widow within our music video doesn’t change because the story line has a duration of a day. However, to abide by this convention of many changes, the artist changes through a variety of costumes, all of which are black to contrast with the white clothed widow this shows that the artist is more dominant, emphasized as she destroys all of the memories of the dead husband. Although, in music videos it is rare when finding an extreme close up, for this reason we did not include it, however we did want the wedding ring to be of some significance to represent the fact that the widow has not moved on from the death of her husband. In order to make this stand out, within many mid-shots and close ups we see the ring lingering upon the widow’s finger, from picking up the photo to answering the phone call. In addition to this, we have the significant high heeled black stilettos that the artist wears when picking up the ring, immediately we have proxemics, as the high heeled shoes seem dominant in comparison to the small abandoned ring. To add to this, we then have the high heeled blue shoes that the widow wears as she makes a dramatic exit, this symbolizes the dominance that the angelic host/ artist has provided her with. These little aspects demonstrate how significant costume is as it allows the target audience to grasp the scenario that we provide them with, via the music video.

3. Another crucial aspect to mise-en-scene is the lighting that advances and reflects the genre of music. A typical convention usually used is where the lights flash in time with the music, however, we did not do this due to the calm but melodramatic scenario that we presented. On the other hand, in order to incorporate significant use of lighting, we had dull, low key lighting towards the end of the music video to signify not only the time at which it was set, but the harsh presence that I, the artist portrayed. Furthermore, we had the simple lighting presented by the candle that signified purity and well being (norm), however through out the course of the music video, this changed as it began to bleed conveying the intense pain and morbid atmosphere. Despite this, towards the end we had an immediate elimination of the candle light to highlight the end of the music video, as well as the end of the mourning pain as the widow moves on and advances with her life. Throughout the music video, we notice that the setting is in the house which has neutral colors to coincide with the artist and her angelic presence along with the innocence of the widow. On the contrary, within each room of the house, we see the suffering widow as she realizes that she must leave this setting, which she does, the setting then transitions outside the house. Editing When evaluating the editing techniques, we have managed to incorporate a variety of transitions which have a certain smooth flow like many music videos today. In addition to this we have managed to include an old footage effect to demonstrate the fact that the artist has an unearthly presence, which is why she interferes with the camera, this clearly shows the target audience the dominance and unconventional character that the artist is. In addition to this, we have added a a ghostly presence of the widows dead husband as he enters the shot, however, he is not actually present as this is a result of alcohol abuse causing delusions. To exaggerate this we have yet another effect where the widows reflection merges into the artists’ face, to create a horror like atmosphere. This also occurs when looking at the face of the moon, nevertheless, we did not advance with obvious effects as many music videos, do not do this, in order to keep the film realistic. For this reason, when adding an effect onto the glass picture frame, where the tear dissolves into a crack, we noticed that it looked like an evident effect, which is why we didn’t use it. In addition to this we decided to use a sound effect to specify the genre of music. Here we had used an echo to demonstrate an eerie, spine chilling atmosphere. But yet again, we chose not to advance with more effects as it will over power the vocals resulting in an unsuccessful music video. We also needed to consider shot lengths, as it is conventional to have a scene no longer than 3 seconds long. Taking this in my mind, we have applied this to our present music video.

4. Sound To match the conventions of certain music videos, we decided to have diegetic sound within the music video, towards the beginning, where the phone would ring and we would hear the news about the death of the husband. However, after evaluating this idea, we realized that we could create suspense by not using diegetic sound. When applying this to our music video, we realized that this was effective. Nevertheless, we knew that we were going to use diegetic sound towards the end, where the widow dies in a car crash, and ambulance sirens would be heard. Yet again, when pondering over this idea, we knew that we were being a tad dramatic. This is why we resorted to the widow leaving the house. We then used non-diegetic sound throughout the entire music video, through the actual track, where we had applied harmonies that complimented the actual song. Like many music videos, this is yet another convention that is commonly used successfully. Camera Angles, movement and composition In our music video, we made full use of camera movement as we knew that we didn’t want too many transitions because it may take away some of the attention from the footage, as a result, we decided to have subtle camera movements that involves zooming, allowing the different scenes to flow into each other, this seemed to be successful on numerous occasions. (Here is an example of what we meant - show when the widow leaves the house.) Another way in which we made sure that camera movement was successful was by using forms of panning when the widow left the house, demonstrating the fact that she has dominance due to her sudden actions of leaving. This is accompanied by a sudden swish pan that highlights and emphasizes her drastic decisions to leave the establishment. This effect is similarly used via tracking as to convey this sudden change which requires the camera to move in order to encapsulate this utter supremacy, distinguished by the independent women. Another element that we attempted to manipulate were the camera angles as these can easily reiterate whom is dominant throughout the narrative. We attempted to create a time line concerning the widows dominance through low shots and high shots, both of which clearly evoke the strength of an individual. During the beginning of the narrative we notice many high shots, as the camera looks down upon the widow, creating a sense of vulnerability as she is weak, this also conveys a form of sympathy for the character due to these themes. However, we notice an increasing dominance throughout the progression of the music video, to exhibit the strength that the artist provides the widow with, this is clearly demonstrated through the low shots which portray pride, power and self confidence that contrasts radically to her previous state. A good example of this is when the widow starts to pack up her things, this low shot highlights this transition to greater confidence, the way in which she throws her clothes demonstrates carelessness, yet the fact that the clothing hits the camera creates yet another great transition. However, when we focus upon the camera angles of the artist, you notice that this consists of mainly, mid-shots and long-shots as she is overall, a domineering character. Nevertheless, there are occasions where we see high shots that look down upon the artist, this is in order to relate to the narrative as she has been in the same position as the widow due to past occurrences. This enhances her angelic presence, yet still the overwhelming costume shatters this ideology as the target audience are consumed by the black presence of the artist.

5. As we had said earlier, we didn’t focus on many extreme close ups as it isn’t very common within music videos, however, we did challenge this to a certain extent as we decided to keep a few to symbolize the diminishing love of the couple. This has been verified as we zoom into a love letter that consists of the words ‘I love you’, which are emphasized due to the extreme close up. The target audience are then aware of this harsh reality when this scene is followed by a flash, we then notice the charred letter that had been consumed by flames. This use of extreme close up challenges but successfully demonstrates the conventions of a music video, as the symbolism manifests the narrative within the music video. Another typical convention is parallel sound, where the visual aspect coincides with the audio contribution, which we have abided by throughout our entire music video. Yet still, it is not common to have visual scenes with out the presence of music, unless it is fading away. This element, we decided to challenge in order for the target audience to realize that our music video stands out in comparison to the rest. We notice this towards the end of the music video, where the scenes focus upon the dramatic exit of the widow, during this period, we see less contribution from the artist. however, as the widow leaves the house, the music fades out, obviously, the target audience would automatically assume that the music video has finished. However, despite the absence of music, a sudden image of the artist emerges with a grin upon her face that is extinguished when she blows out the candle, this conveys the happiness of the widow leaving, yet as I had mentioned earlier, this can be interpretated in various ways. Yet still, as we questioned our target audience upon this, we realized that this creates a shock and form of fear within those whom watch. To add to this morbid imagery, the sudden lack of light results in the scene being imprinted upon the viewer’s mind, as a consequence, this depiction of horror is also instilled upon them. Despite this, the negativity allows our music video to stand apart from the rest as this technique ensures a form of viral marketing on account of this horrific experience.

6. How effective is the combination of your main product and it’s ancillary texts? During our planning stages, I knew immediately that the ancillary sales will automatically revolve around our main product of a music video. Therefore, we decided to take elements from the actual music video and incorporate them within our ancillary texts via formatting. Due to this, we decided to use a font that varies from others and isn’t used very often, for this reason, we used Edwardian script that creates a posh ambience that is regularly a connotation of love. This font will be bold, however, to convey the broad issues that come with love, one of which is death that we have expanded upon within our music video. However, you may ask how this font has evolved from the music video despite the symbolism? Well, this same font is visible upon the love letter that is constantly referred back to within our music video, yet again this just demonstrates how the font is used to portray this intense love between a couple. The fact that this is generic demonstrates how we gain a sense of house style as this CD cover, and poster automatically create a combining liaison between the ancillary texts and the actual music video. this then leads us to the analysis of the dying rose and how this has managed to convey yet another generic quality that highlights how each element within our ancillary texts convey My Immoral. this dying rose is one of the memorable scenes within our music video that easily symbolizes how the rose, an overtone of love can die over a period of time due to the natural cause of things, elaborating on the exact scenario that we wanted to present. as a result of this, we decided to show the end result of this dying rose upon our CD cover as it will not only convey the essential message that we want, but engage the right target audience of rockers, goths and emos. As we took this off of our clip, we realized from asking our peers that this rose did not look as though it ever was a rose. taking this into account, we decided to take the picture ourselves of a dead, red rose, yet again we saw failure as the flower had seemed too brittle, when we put it down upon the stone, the petals fell, until there was nothing to work with. Due to our lack of time, we decided to look upon the internet, yet we were upset by this because we wanted everything to be original although, this did not seem possible. eventually, after time consumed research, we found an image of a red rose that was in tact, however the stem had been edited grey to look as though it were dying. immediately, we felt exhilarated as the stem could symbolize the down side of love whilst the red petals distinguish the perks. This was not finished however, as we wanted to change certain aspects to assure that we had developed this image, instead of copying the image online. In order to do this, we had then dulled the surroundings including the floor boards, to look as though everything has been consumed by hatred, although, the use of a spot light enhanced the vibrant red upon the flower. We made sure that the flower itself was the only sense of passion on the CD front to create this contrast upon the dulled surroundings. we then looked upon this further, and noticed how this flower could also symbolize the artist as she seems to create two completely different perceptions from those whom watch, an angelic helper or this demonic character who is the cause of all this suffering. To summarize this, it is clearly emphasized how the rose has also a clear connotation of the music video, both visually, as well as the symbolism that comes along with it.

7. Yet another element that easily conveys this liaison between the main product and the ancillary texts happens to be the film strip present on the back of the CD cover that consists of some of the main scenes within the music video. obviously, this is a strong connotation between these types of media, as the pictures link directly to the scenes which are viewed in the main product. however, the use of film strip creates a spin on this idea as it makes the scenes pop out in comparison to the grey background that has been developed from the main image of the dying rose. due to this dominance, i have assured that the text revolves around the film strip, to convey it’s supremacy as the main product. In addition to this, to enhance the effectiveness of the main product and the ancillary sales, we have made sure that the house colors of red, black and white are kept constant throughout our entire production, throughout the mise-en-scene of the costumes as well as the setting of the scenes. This is to allow our target audience to link these different types of media together and realize that they come together as one to converge. this then allows the target audience to say ‘Oh yes that’s my immortal’, which creates a form of viral marketing as the target market can easily recognize the types of advertising which they can then tell their friends about. As a result, you will notice the constant use of these colors on the CD cover as it is used in subtle ways that complement each other as oppose to splashes of these colors that the target audience may get board of. a good example of this subtlety is demonstrated around the film strip, where you will notice forms of swirls and flowery patterns that aren’t usually used to carry a house style, as this kind of formatting is usually replaced by a symbol or sign of some sort. Nevertheless, we decided to challenge this as these types of formatting enhance the dominance of the film strip, and add to this femininity of romance. Similarly, these swirls and flowery designs are all present on the poster as a border around it. Nonetheless, each little form of formatting is different from the next, once aging to engage the target audience as oppose to boring them. This then leads to the background of the poster as it also consists of swirls in black and white that happen to merge together in the centre, this abides by the house colors for our music video which will contrast against the mast head that will be in red. these two opposite colors also substantiates the different views of the artist that are either good and/or bad, however, the target audience will notice that the artist is put on the right hand side of the page, where we have the white background. This implies the true nature of her angelic presence as she helps those in need, i.e.: the widow. when we then look at the centre image for the magazine’s promotional poster, we see a dominant image of the artist in her black outfit that conveys ultimate authority that contrasts well with the white background. when we looked at the image, we knew that we wanted it to be perfect as it will occupy majority of the space for the double page spread to engage the target audience immediately. as a result, we had to edit this image on Photoshop, starting by creating a white glow upon the artist’s face that made her look ghost like as well as providing her with an overall supernatural outlook. Then, we had added green, piercing eyes that would encapsulate the readers when they turn the page, which we wanted to stand out along with the bright red lipstick that contrasts well with the pasty white skin. in order to see that we were heading in the right direction, we then asked the crucial target audience for their opinion, many of them felt that this editing technique would work as the image stood out upon the page, making them intrigued as to whom this person is. They also mentioned how they believed that this person could relate to them as goths as the artist resembles characters from twilight, whom are vampires, thus proving that our editing techniques has been successful in portraying this supernatural outlook.

8. Another key element upon the poster will be the CD cover that will automatically create a link between the two ancillary texts as they both promote the same thing. This is essential to have in order for the target audience of goths, rockers and emos to understand what they need - music wise, this will be emphasized through lures and exclusives that will engage and sell the main product. like many promotional posters today, we attempted to explain to the target audience what they want, as we can then guide them to buying the CD, reasons for which we have included rhetorical questions. As many music videos and songs today are being downloaded, it is obvious that our promotional poster must be domineering because of this lack of engagement towards the CD cover. This is why we concluded in a double page spread that assures that the readers will not lead astray to another article or advertisement upon the next page. This will conclude in a very strong advertisement in comparison to front cover magazine advertisements today as they must also include other articles within the magazine. To conclude, it is obvious in saying that the combination of the main product and ancillary texts combine together in order to converge, as they seem to complement each other instead of being thrown together. This is the result of continuing our house style throughout that seems to be generic, yet still, each promotion has something new to offer that draws in the target audience. For example, the CD cover has the film strip whilst the poster has an intense domineering image. All of which come together as one.

9. What have you learnt from your audience feedback? The way in which we had received the data regarding the target audience was via a questionnaire, that was open not only to our aimed social tribes but to the general public, as we wanted to know whether ancillary tasks were an all round success. We also interviewed a selected few but only regarding our music video as you can see on my blog. This is the questionnaire that we had used: Do you think our ancillary texts were affective and promoted the music video well? Yes () No () Why? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ What aspects of the CD cover and poster did you like? Title () Pictures () Text () Formatting (colors, fonts and design) () Other () Please specify _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Would you personally stop and pause to look at the CD cover or/and poster? Yes () No () Do you think that the house style runs well throughout the CD cover, poster and music video? Yes () No () Why? _______________________________________________________________________________________________________ Do you think there can be any improvements? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. The Results As you can see from the bar chart, majority of the target audience felt that the ancillary texts were affective and completed the purpose of promoting the music video very well. When asking the target audience why they felt that this was the case, many of them mentioned that the image from the poster caught the readers attention due to its supernatural elements, mainly, the ‘hypnotic green eyes’. However, there were a handful who felt that the poster was lacking in terms of written aspect, as they wanted to know more about the artist and their music. Other then this, the CD cover had a lot of positive feedback as the image of the rose happened to be very intriguing. From the pie chart on the right, you will find that a lot of the target audience felt that the pictures where one of the best features within the ancillary texts. Yet still, we had gained a lot of healthy feedback from each of the ticking boxes, therefore, we have realised that many of the details that we had included were very successful in reaching the target audience of goths, rockers and emos. As you can see a few people chose other, and thought that the fact that we had included a website on the poster made the music video very accessible and advances as a good marketing technique. The consumers can then watch the music video when they are free and have time, which is one of the main elements that make our promotional magazine poster very successful.

11. Would you personally stop and pause to look at the CD cover or/and poster? When looking at the questionnaire results for this question, I had noticed that all of the target audience said yes. When asking why, they felt that the poster’s intriguing ‘unearthly features were really interesting’, which encapsulated the reader at once. The fact that the ‘image was really big, made sure that it was known’, and cached the readers eye immediately. However, in regards to the CD cover, once again, we gained a lot of positive feedback including ‘having the film strip containing memorable scenes really appealed to me’, ‘the rose looked quite intriguing because of it’s simplicity’ and the ‘artist’s name was really big and her reputation in the music industry is why I would buy the CD’. To conclude, from this, we feel that we have achieved a lot as we have managed to really attract the audience to our promotional items. From the diagram on the left, it is obvious in saying that many of our target audience believe that the house style that connects the ancillary texts to the main product is strong. This is due to the scenes taken from the music video which were made into a film strip that really encapsulated the narrative of the music video. This along with the constant use of generic formatting including the font, Edwardian Script, the house colors of red, black and white as well as the swirls and patterns present on the poster and CD cover. Nevertheless, there were a few that didn’t feel that the poster showed many connotations directly to the music video as they would prefer it if we used another stronger liaison that would ignite a thought, ‘oh, that must be for the music video, My Immortal’. Taking this into mind, if I were able to repeat this task once more and improve it, I would definitely include greater links to the main task. Do you think there can be any improvements? When asking this question, many didn’t respond, however, one individual did mention that we could perhaps use more written aspects to the ancillary texts to make them slightly more informative as to what the music video is about. If this is case, we would have included exclusive quotes from the artist, where she would elaborate upon the music video and her opinions of it.

12. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research planning and evaluation stages? As you can see here, we have used the Mac book in order to construct our music video for our main task, of which we had two pieces of software to choose from, one of which was final cut and the other was imovie. in the end we opted for final cut as this programmed has much more to offer in view of editing, as it has more transitions, effects and overall audio filters that can guarantee a successful music video all around. When using this piece of technology, we knew that we had to focus upon the flow of the music video as it is essential that the visual aspects coincide with the smooth audio contribution. in order to do this, we looked at the varied transitions and where they will be best suited, in the end we concluded that the limited use of transitions would be better. we knew this from looking at successful music videos today as the use of camera angles, movement and composition result in a very smooth flow of visual scenes that is outstanding to the point where we don’t realize that there is a transition. We effectively wanted this technique for our music video, via using zooms and subtle camera movements. In the end, we deemed ourselves successful, nevertheless, we were aware of the fact that we needed transitions in certain areas of the overall music video, so we pondered over the effects on final cut. Eventually, we found that these effects complemented our use of filming and decided to add in extra forms of transitions by using the filming. What we had done was select a small amount of a clip, (the eye of the artist) which we had enhanced by adding a cross dissolve, that created a transition with the small clip that we had placed between two separate films, that concluded in a really effective solution to create a flow throughout the scenes. nonetheless, we did also consist of some of the transitions alone with out the clip, this effect also seemed to be well executed on a whole. when it came to actual filters, we decided to shy away as it would take away the realistic essence from our music video, resorting to something fake that would overpower the serious narrative based upon death. However, we did want to include a filter of an old footage effect that would emphasize the artist and her non- earthly presence, this will be conveyed as she seems to interact with the camera, resulting in this effect. Even so, when looking through each filter effect on final cut, we did not find this effect, which was a shame as it would show our narrative through a whole new light. Despite this, we persevered and scoured the internet until we found this effect which we had downloaded. eventually, we resulted in this amazing effect, although, to enhance it, we decided to cut down on the saturation as it seemed to overpower the footage. in order to do this, we double clicked CGM aged film LE, where we given a filters list where we clicked upon color and edited the saturation, along with this we changed the general contrast as well as the gamma contrast which resulted in the effect upon our music video that allows the target audience to understand whenever they are in the presence of the artist. when it came to audio filters, we did consist of brief effects as we were limited when it came to a variety of filters. Nevertheless, we took advantage of this as we created a simple echo on adobe audio that added to this gothic atmosphere as it now sounds eerie. this is then complemented by the fading in and fading out of certain vocals that add a whisper element, making the composition sound spooky, this then results in parallel sound as the haunted ambience is in both the audio and visual aspects of the music video. this just demonstrates how we have managed to manipulate these limited resources in order to create a music video that is as close as professionalism as we can get.

13. However, there are certain elements that we have struggled with concerning lighting as we can not afford to gain professional equipment, although, we have managed to tackle this by using a stretch of foil that we shone light upon, creating a vast amount of light. We used these methods during our venture outside and have managed to sustain good lighting whilst manifesting the dark symbolism of the night sky, that portrays risk. to add to this, we then fought against the elements as we wanted rain that would suffice as tears upon the window, to reiterate this risk element provided by the outside world. Yet still, this didn’t go to plan and we resorted to snow that created a cold, spine chilling effect instead. We then took advantage of this scenery as it created better lighting out side that we used within our final scene. even though we were inexperienced when it came to final cut, we decided to use social networking sites to aid us during our learning curve. by resorting to these new media technologies, we gained a sense of professionalism, as without it we wouldn’t have been able to create the old footage effect as well as other elements within our music video. Yet still, the fact that we had the AS experience allowed us to develop the skills that we knew by creating a music magazine advertisement and a cd cover on In design and Photoshop which allowed us to convey some of the effects that we had learnt previously. the fact that we weren’t able to have the advanced technologies that producers use today just elaborates upon the lengths that we went to ensure that we could present a successful music video. As we had used stairs, floors and chairs to exhibit dominance, vunrebility and narrative. We are happy to say that we attempted to use the technologies that we were given to the best of our ability, taken into account that we never used this programmed before. this then leads to our use of composition skills, as we wanted the song to be sung once more in order to achieve good lip- syncing, this is why we relied on YouTube to ensure that the piano was played correctly and the harmonies were intact. We then focused upon the material that we recorded and how we could improve what we had presently got, by looking upon YouTube at real music videos, we were given inspiration to do better, not to imitate but face new outcomes that resorted in our music video that we have made. we then decided to use other technologies that allowed us to research and understand how we can create an individual stance upon present genres, allowing us to develop new and constructive outcomes of what is already present in today’s music industry. We knew that we wanted to take our previous knowledge and advance with it to create something different, despite our lack of experience, for this reason we did trials and made mistakes regarding which camera to use in view of quality, on the other hand, this gave us knowledge as to what we could make better in the future and what media technologies are better and more reliable. We then proceeded with this, allowing our lessons to take effect, in relation to which angles are better for composition, whilst using a variety that would make use of the narrative that we had displayed. however, if we had the ability to change the way in which we approached this task, i feel that we would have done more trials in the beginning to make sure that each scene within our music video had really good quality. In addition to this, i feel that we could have worked with animation to gain an insight to how it works and see whether it would complemented our work as we did dispute this, because we initially wanted the music video to have a serious outlook. If we were given more time to access this, we could have evaluated this and see if it would create a better music video on a whole. Although, when looking over this experience, we have both gained a considerable amount of knowledge in terms of technology and media, as we took on challenges with the lack of experience with certain software but we rose above it and created what many have said, a professional music video.

14. The End