1. Music Video Evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Throughout my music video it is clearly observable that I have used many conventions of real media products. Many of Andrew Goodwin's points can be viewed in the video, for example, the lyrics and visuals are closely linked and the visuals aid in illustrating lyrics from the song. A placard with the text 'Can you help me, Jeremy?' illustrates that particular lyric, 'I drink too much' is illustrated by a person drinking and 'can we have some security please' is highlighted by a group of police officers walking past. The visuals also match the music as they are cut quickly to reflect the tempo and style of the song. The crowds of people featured in the video also fits in with the slightly chaotic feel of the song.

3. References to voyeurism are a key part of the song and as such I have highlighted them in my video by showing numerous video and digital cameras to amplify the idea of being watched or under surveillance, a theme which the song focuses on strongly. The primary intertextual reference within the music video is to Dougal Wilson's video for Graffiti - What Is The Problem, after researching the director for my case study and being inspired by this particular video I decided to emulate his style by using a high level of verisimilitude which I was able to create through the use of natural lighting and mise-en-scene and little use of special effects. I particularly liked the use of placards in Dougal Wilson's video and the idea of people protesting about issues that are important to them, therefore, I too featured this concept in my video.

4. However, my video does challenge two of Goodwin's points. He states that music genres have their own style and it would be expected that the style of song I was working with, that featured a fairly fast paced tempo, would include a live performance from the band in the music video. I chose not to do this as, after listening to and annotating the lyrics, I felt that the song concerned the idea of people feeling anonymous and this inspired me not to use the actual band in the video. This also means that there are no close ups of the artist within the video which is something that would normal be expected.

5. How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts? To ensure that there is a strongly recognisable brand identity throughout my products I used the same colour scheme of black, grey, navy and white for both my digipak and magazine advert designs and a very similar colour scheme for my music video. I also used the same scissor effect and layout for the digipak and advert which means that they are both easily identifiable as belonging to part of the band's promotion material.

6. A clear stylistic link is established through all three products due to the photography and the layout of the images. The photos used on the digipak and advert were captured at the same event I filmed the video at and therefore they too feature the same lighting and mise-en-scene. Like the music video I chose not to add any special effects to photographs which means that they continue the theme of the brand identity featuring high levels of verisimilitude. As the video features numerous quick cuts to reflect the fast paced tempo of the song I attempted to reflect this in the print texts by cutting out parts of images and placing them on the advert and digipak rather than using a whole image so it gives the impression of cutting between the photos.

7. What have you learned from audience feedback? From the responses to the first two questions on my survey I can see that fifty percent of the people who answered it were aged between seventeen and twenty. This was the approximate age range that my music video was aimed at therefore, my feedback is from people that the video is intended for and this means that it is particularly relevant. The second pie chart shows that the majority of people that responded to the survey were female. My video was not specifically aimed at one gender so if I conducted an audience feedback survey again I would ensure that I had an equal number of responses from males and females so that I received a balanced overview of opinions.

8. Eighty six percent of people liked the music video and seventy two percent thought that ‘yes’ it definitely suited the genre of music; this is a very positive response. Only seven percent of people that responded thought that it didn’t really suit the genre and zero percent though that it didn’t at all. Twenty one percent of respondents answered ‘maybe’. Which although helpful doesn’t give me an indication of whether they think it does or does not. Therefore, to improve the survey I would eliminate this option so that I was able to interpret the feedback more clearly. As I mentioned previously, the video didn’t include any live performances as Goodwin stated that music videos of this genre usually do. I received a comment that was relevant to this ‘possibly more shots of the band’ suggesting that failing to feature the band is not appealing to everybody.

9. Sixty four percent of people said that they were encouraged to find out more about the band and their music after watching the video. Thirty six percent of people would download the song based on the music video and a further thirty six percent might. This is encouraging as the primary aim of a music video is to act as a promotional tool for the band and their music, this is something which I tried to keep in mind throughout all stages of the video and this response shows that my video would be an effective promotional tool.

10. In response to the question 'what would you change about the video?' thirty three percent of my survey respondents said that they would change the storyline. This is a large majority of people that answered the survey and indicates that the narrative really isn't very strong or pellucid. It is an obvious area of the video that could be improved. Twenty percent of people would change the special effects and seven percent the lighting. However, after being inspired by existing videos with high levels of verisimilitude it was my intention to use little or no special effects to replicate this within my own music video. Forty percent of people that took the survey selected the ‘other’ option which allowed them to comment and make their own suggestion about what they would change. Most of these comments were regarding the narrative.

11. Narrative As illustrated by the pie chart on the previous slide, the narrative is the primary area of my music video that could be improved. To do so I would take on board the responses from my survey as well as comments that I received such as ‘more internal mise-en-scene, close up shots and more literal references linked to the music’ to ensure that I made the narrative explicit. The dramatic footage which is interspersed with footage of the march is definitely something which needs to be linked in better and to do this I would include shots of the actors getting ready to go to the march and then for various reasons not making it. This would explain why they’re not at the actual protest. The shots of them getting ready could occur at the beginning of the video between 0.00 and 0.15 seconds. These could be cut between different people getting ready and could show them grabbing their bag and placard before leaving the house, eating breakfast or putting the finishing touches to their placard. This would add internal mise-en-scene to the video as well as setting up the dramatic footage so that it has more of a purpose. I think that this would greatly strengthen the narrative and also add a slight comedy element to the video as, despite their best intentions, they could miss the protest due to scenarios such as: they missed the bus, went shopping or met up with friends. Through the use of different shots, including close ups as suggested, this comedy element could be heightened. For example, by focusing on their facial expressions as they realise they’re more interested in seeing their friend than going to a protest or discarded placards where they’ve left them on the floor or binned them.

12. Ninety three percent of people thought that the issues in the video seemed appropriate for the song (the main issue being protesting for something that you want or believe in). This is a pleasing response as the issues and themes within the song are something which I thought a lot about when creating my music video and I was eager to incorporate them. Q music channel was voted the one that my video is most likely to be seen on. Q ‘specialises in indie, rock and alternative’ music and I agree strongly with this response. Other places such as MTV, 4Music and C4 Sunday were suggested. 4Music and C4 Sunday are owned by Box Television, the same group that own Q, this suggests that any of the Box channels would be likely to show this type of music video.

13. How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages? Throughout all the stages of my music video I utilised new media technologies such a Facebook, YouTube, Slideshare, Issuu and Blogger. To gain an idea of the bands pre-established style and existing visual material I used Facebook and YouTube which allowed me to view their previous music videos, CD covers and promotional material this helped me to plan for, and decide on the style of, my own music video. I also made strong use of YouTube for my Dougal Wilson case study - something which strongly inspired many of the ideas behind my music video. I found that my research was most effective in PowerPoint presentation format and used Slideshare to upload these and embed them into my blog. My treatment sheet was published on Issuu and then onto my blog; this meant that it was easily accessible to reference back to during the later planning stages.

14. During the construction of my music video and ancillary texts I used a variety of editing software. To edit my music video I used Final Cut as it seemed to be the most appropriate software for the type of camera I filmed with and the quality in which I filmed. My magazine advert and digipak were both created with a combination of Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro. I used both of these rather than just one as it gave me access to a wider variety of editing features and capabilities. To evaluate the effectiveness of my music video I created a survey on Survey monkey to gain audience feedback and sent it out to people using Facebook. This allowed me to gain quick responses and I was able to make use of the Slideshare's analysis feature to create pie charts which visually illustrate people's thoughts regarding the video.

15. Twitter was an invaluable new media technology which I made frequent use of throughout all of the stages of my music video. I primarily used it to post links to songs, videos or images that were inspiring to me at that moment and occasionally recorded my thoughts regarding the progression of my video or ancillary texts. This was particularly useful as it meant that I could look back at my account and instantly find inspiration for any aspect of my music video as well as keep track of where I was with it's creation and how I needed to progress. I linked my Twitter account to my blog using a HTML code meaning that it was even easier to access. I also posted a link to my feedback survey on my Twitter account in order to gain as much feedback as possible.