Evaluation question 5

An overview of the project

Now the project has finished ive realised how successful it was and how much work I managed to get done in the time frame. I enjoyed the project too as it was completely different from AS and I liked the freedom we had this year to choose whatever we wanted to do within our music video. I am pleased I chose the indie genre and am convinced that this was the best genre to pick as it allowed me to play around with different storylines and themes as the genre is very widespread and known for being individual and different from anything else.

I thought the genre allowed me to challenge the conventions too as I wasn’t afraid to do something different as this is common within the genre. Its constantly changing so I made certain changes to fit in with the times today and what I thought my target audience would want to see for example on may magazine advert by thinking about technological convergence and making sure the website was the main focus. Ive learnt a lot more about the music industry too as my research led me to look into different record labels and how they work. All these tasks eventually contributed to me having successful final products, even if they did seem irrelevant at the time,

I made sure I linked all my products together as there all part of the same project and I wanted people to be able to recognise my work through a continued theme. I think the competition amongst the year was very strong and this encouraged me to put in the extra effort and make sure my products could be noticed and would stand out. My ‘house style’ is now recognisable as all my products are very similar because of the subtleties I included.

I made sure I harassed my friends all the time to give me feedback on my work. Even though this took a lot of effort I found it was worth it in the end as they pointed out things I would never have noticed myself and therefore contributed to making my work as higher quality as possible. I also wanted to show off my work to people as I was proud of what I had made and thought it looked very professional. I also completed other peoples feedback and that was quite fun as I got the chance to look at other peoples work and see what techniques they had used to make their videos successful.

Finally the use of new technologies had a huge influence on my work this year as I developed my skills even further since AS and have gained skills that I will be able to use in the future and that are transferable. I now feel like I know how to use the equipment professionally and make the most out of the editing software we have ins school to create a product that is different and stands apart from others and typical conventions.

Overall I have thoroughly enjoyed the project and think that I managed to include a range of different media forms. If I could do it all again the only change I would make would to have better time management and spread out the work more so I didn’t have as much to do right at the end.

Evaluation question 4

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

Evaluation question 3

What have you learnt from audience feedback?

Throughout my project I have carried out a lot of audience feedback tasks to get different opinions on the products I’ve made. I tried to make sure I got a variety of different people to ensure I had a wide spread of comments and views. It helped me find out what things I had don’t correct and also what I could improve on to make my work even better.

The target audience for my video is females aged 13-25. However I also expect there to be interest amongst the older generations as the album is very old fashioned and represents the 50’s very well. This is shown through the props in the video such as costumes and also the microphone and settings as they are the key features to representing a time period and making the video look realistic to fit with the theme. The vintage old theme is very popular in the indie genre at the moment, thus it appeals to the younger demographic too as its common amongst the genre and similar artists.

During the project I collected feedback for all different tasks from my target audience as they will know best what looks good and what else they would be looking for in an artist’s work. I did this by showing them my project and filming their responses and getting them to write notes on my Digipak and magazine advert. I also used twitter to make my video noticeable to the target audience. I got numerous different responses from the video, with mainly positive feedback from the females in comparison to males who felt the video was too feminine. I also posted it on Facebook and asked my friends to give me feedback on my products as they are the typical people I have aimed my video at so they will give me the best feedback and will be honest. It’s crucial that i get constructive criticism back from people to make sure the products are completely finished and for me to be satisfied that they are suitable for the target audience.

I used audience feedback from my research tasks to help me very early on make a decision on what i wanted my products to look like and what theme to go for. I had feedback on my mood board in the form of a questionnaire to make sure i was going down the correct route for my music video and that the theme would be appealing to the audience. Also to see what the audience wanted to see in the market and what there could possibly be a gap in the genre that I could fill. This is where I got the idea of having a female artist as the majority voted for this. I also got inspiration from this to create a vintage and retro video as the target audience felt like this was coming into fashion and would be popular amongst people of that age.­­ When i then went to research into costumes, it was much easier as I knew what sort of era I was looking for and created a post showing my research into this. I ended up going with a long formal gown as the target audience said they wanted to see something that was unusual and stood out. Yet it’s still elegant, thus fitting in with the female demographic.

For each of my drafts, I got numerous people to feed back to me and tell me what I could improve on ready for my final products. I did this by showing them my product and letting them annotate it where they thought necessary, highlighting the positives and negatives for each product. From this feedback I found major flaws in my work, for example my magazine was hard to read and would have been better in portrait rather than landscape to make the information clearer. If I hadn’t been told this through my feedback, I wouldn’t have known and would have left it as normal. Therefore I’ve learnt that my audience feedback is helping me to improve my product and help me gain more marks for my work.

Overall, gathering audience feedback for various tasks turned out to be useful and vital in the process of making successful products. It helped me realise what i needed to change in order to match my products as close as possible to the brief and the specific genre of indie rock that I chose. I think my idea and concept is very unique and audience feedback has helped me build on it so I now have a good final piece. 

Evaluation question 2

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

Open publication - Free publishing

Text format

When making my products, I made sure they all included similar features and used similar formats on each one to make sure they flow and create a ‘house style’ that the audience can recognise. It’s important that the artist has their own style and that it’s shown throughout all the products to have a continued theme that the audience can follow and recognise in all different forms. The theme used throughout my products is the 50’s, and effectively creating a vintage feel which is noticeable all the time. This is key in making the products successful and link as they are different to modern day products that you may see in other genres. The narrative in the main product is the foundations for the ancillary products too as it creates an immediate storyline that is continued and can be noticed on the Digipak and also the magazine advert as I used the Digipak cover to help promote the CD and make it recognisable for the audience.

My music video was made to entertain the audience which is why i challenged the indie genre conventions and added a narrative alongside the performance to trigger the audience’s imagination and tell them a story. Therefore I think it fulfilled its purpose as the storyline comes to its peak at the end, which keeps the audience guessing throughout. I think the use of two different effects on the narrative and performance clips highlights the differences between the two and represents the theme well of the 50’s as its showing the real life with the narrative, and the recording style back then in the performance with a black and white, slightly fuzzy image effect. This is where I started to create the ‘house style’ with the graceful feminine feel to it through the elegant costumes and the flawless admirable actresses setting the scene and era.

The magazine advert is to promote the artists CD and reach out to as wider audience as possible. I think my magazine advert is successful as you can clearly see who the artist is as i used the CD front cover as my main image. This directly links the two together so the audience know what album it’s about. The image text cohesion of the CD cover and the newspaper reviews automatically creates a positive attitude towards the album and helps to attract the audience. Therefore serving its purpose well of promoting the artist. The colours I have used reflect the era as I decided to have a rustic red, which can be linked with being vintage and old. The text once again looks like it’s from old transcripts, thus linking back with the music video and further with the Digipak as I used the same font, creating a known ‘house style’ for the artist.

My Digipak continued the retro theme from the 50’s and i did this by mainly using photos, as i knew i could edit them how i wanted to make them look old and effective. The purpose of the Digipak is to sell the artists music. It’s meant to draw people in and the images i have chosen will do this, as i used a range of different shots with the same effects on to keep a continuous theme. I also used elements from my magazine advert such as the same font and images to keep a flowing house style that fans and people in general will recognise. It also links in with the music video as it’s following up the story told to us by using the same actress, highlighting that the album is all about her. The title of the album ‘Fall to Grace’ links in with the actresses i have chosen and the look i have created which is very gentle and feminine, similar to the name. Thus making this album successful as it will appeal to the female demographic.

Overall, all my product work well together as i have continued the theme throughout and kept things the same throughout such as the actress, photos used and the text font. These small production choices have allowed the products to flow and have a obvious link between them so it can reach out to the target audience and allow them to recognise the artist easily.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Text form

All my media products conform to conventions of the genre and what’s expected from these particular media types. A lot of planning went into making my music video to make sure it looked professional. In order for it to look effective, I had to research into other similar videos to see how they created certain looks.

I intentionally made sure i included typical conventions in my video to make sure it would fit into the genre well and would work. This is where the task ‘similar product analysis’ was helpful as i looked at what artists such as Ellie Goulding and Lana Del Rey used in their videos and what worked well so the audience can familiarise my video with successful artists and take it seriously. Through this i noticed that artists often use a combination of performance and narrative to keep the video interesting and keep the audience interested. This is where i got inspiration for the structure of my music video as I too chose a combination of the two which is a typical stereotype for the indie rock genre. The performance links to the original meaning of the indie genre that it’s all about the music rather than the fame. Plus the narrative gives the artist a chance to be creative and do something different from the norm which is common in this genre.

Within my music video, i think the representation of the 50’s era is very clear through the use of props locations etc. This highlights how a lot of thought has gone into the pre production of the video. I also included a performance from the artist alongside the narrative which copies the traditional layout of indie videos and they generally incorporate the two together. The mix of the two worked well together as well as having two different actresses’, as it highlights how the artist is singing about a girl’s life. This links to Andrew Goodwin’s conventions of music videos where he states that the lyrics often match with the storyline and shots being shown. The title ‘Never tear us apart’ directly links to the storyline of the video as it’s about a girl writing to her lover in another country and they are emphasising how the distance won’t stop them from being together. The shots i decided to take mainly focus on this storyline of the character writing a letter. I avoided shots of the actress’ face as I wanted it to be mysterious and unknown as the indie genre often isn’t about fame, but more the music itself, therefore I wanted the audience to realise the link between the shots and the music and how the storyline is relevant. However i also challenged some of Goodwin’s theory as he believes we should ignore the common narrative and allow the audience to think of a story themselves. This links with the original attitude in the indie genre as it was thought that the focus should solely be on the artist rather than the narrative as it’s purely for selling and advertising. But i decided that a narrative was the right thing to include, as the genre has changed and this is now the norm to have a narrative, it’s what makes each video stand out. There’s only so many stories you could come up with for the particular song I chose, therefore i wanted to touch the audiences hearts with the story I decided to use to make it more personal and enjoyable.

My second product made was the Digipak for the artist’s album. To continue the story, i based the Digipak around the actress in the narrative as the songs on the album are meant to reflect different events in her life. Therefore i included numerous photos of her on the cover to highlight this. I set the scene in a woods with lots of foliage, to highlight that at the beginning of the album she feels lost, but by the end she has found her feet through these events and learnt from them. I used a very feminine font as it fits into my theme of the 50’s and represents it well as I also included this writing style on the letter in the music video. It also ties in with target audience as it’s a very neat feminine font that will attract women to the CD, thus making it fit the criteria. The inside of the CD shows a set of doors with the contents of a girl’s dressing table on the CD. This is to represent how when you open the Digipak, you are opening up to take a look inside her life and what the songs have to tell you. This fits into the genre perfectly as it’s unusual and different. It’s never been seen before so will stand out against other artists in this genre. However it still fits in the genre as its linking directly to the music video about having an insight into someone’s life and therefore is telling a story.

My final product was the magazine advert. I created this after the Digipak as the main image is of the front cover. This follows the typical conventions of magazine adverts as the CD cover is often used so there is a direct link between the two and the audience recognises what album they are promoting straight away. The swirls in the corners of the border highlight how the advert is trying to represent and continue the theme of the 50’s and give it a vintage feel. They keep it very girly and feminine and this is apparent straight away, thus attracting the target audience immediately. I used quotes from famous well known magazines and newspapers on the advert as this is commonly seen and helps to reassure the audience that the CD is of a high quality and lives up to previous albums by the artist. I also stated where the album can be bought. This is a typical convention but I believed it was very important, especially in today’s economic climate with numerous music suppliers going into administration, the audience need to know where they can now purchase the album. I changed the conventions slightly on my magazine advert by making the website very large and centred in the page, instead of being in the corner with the institutional details. This is because I think it’s important to encourage fans to use the website and reinforce technological convergence as the internet is the biggest place to pick up new fans and to reach a larger target audience.

Overall all my products show typical conventions as these are needed to make sure they still fit into the genre. However I have challenged some to make the products my own and to change with the times regarding technology today.

Complete final products

Here are all my final products completed. This includes my music video, poster and digipak.

Diary entry 31

Looking back at the project 

I feel like I've learnt a lot from this project and its helped me develop my skills in various different areas. I also think i have become more creative as the proposal was very brief, allowing us to make the products our own in whichever style we wanted. Overall i have really enjoyed the project and have kept my blog up to date throughout.