Evaluation Question 2

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

The brief of our A2 coursework was that we had to create a music video and 2 ancillary tasks to promote it. We chose to design a digi-pak and magazine advert to promote the music video. However, i didnt take part in this part of the brief due to the fact that i was solely concentrateing on editing the music video, whilst the girls completed the ancillary tasks to promote the video i had edited. We decided to use the artist from the video on both of the ancillary tasks to make sure that they were consistent throughout. We also did this for promotional reasons to make sure that every task added to the artists iconography.

When designing the three tasks we had to be open minded. We realised that we werent just designing a video, magazine and digi-pak, we were actually creating a brand for the artist. For this reason we had to research into things such as a target audience to see who our brand would be aimed at.

Before specifying your target audience, you have to look into the kind of music that you are using. As the song we had chosen (Pieces) featured two acts, we had to research them both. We discovered that both artists linked quite well musically. Chase & Status are Dj's that focus in on the Drum & Bass/Dubstep side of music. Whereas Plan B is classed as a Singer/Rapper. This makes sense in trhe song due to the fact that Chase & Status produce the instrumentals whereas Plan B supplies the vocals for the track. These artists together combine the D&B/Dubstep loversd with the Indie/Alternative fans. This means that the song reaches a broad target audience. This is why i believe these artists are in such high demand at this summers music festivals. This year Plan B will be famously opening Ibiza and Mallorca Rocks whilst Chase & Status will be entertaining the crowds in Staffordshire for this years V festival.

Evaluation Question 1

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

After completeing our music video we recieved lots of glowing feedback both from our friends and other members of our class. However, they just simply saw the final cut of the music video and didnt understand the stages we had to go through to develop the video so that it lookerd proffessional.

Nearly all of these stages include watching the video itself through and then analysing it. By observing the positives and negatives, we can then move on and hopefully turn the negatives into positives by either changing the shots or by tightening up the editing.

Andrew Goodwin

Visuals either illustrate, amplify or contradict the lyrics and the music.
Genres have their own iconography and style.
Close ups are essential.
Music videos create and enhance star iconography.
Voyeurism is a common theme.

John Stewart

Lighting is used to highlight the star's face.
Visual references derive from a range of sources such as art and fashion.
Video allows more access to a performer than a stage performance.

So, in conclusion;

Music videos wouldn't be as alluring and specialised without:

Lip syncing/ Close ups/ Innovative and accurate editing/ Camera movements that enhance the music/ Post-production aesthetic effects/ A clear interpretation and amplification of the lyrics/ Iconographic mise en scene/ Excellent lighting...

The screenshots you can see below show how we related the visuals to the different parts of the song, pieces.

We used cross dissolves during the slow paced stages of the song. These dissolves seemed to work well with the backing instrumentals at that time in the song.

Whereas these screenshots show the editing at a different point in the song which clearly contrasts the editing shown at a slow part of the song.

We also included some special shots that we used for a specific reason. One of these included the desaturation of a shot to give the impression that a photo was being taken.

We also speeded up some footage to give the impression that there was a passing of time. We speeded the walking round the house footage up to ten times its usual speed. However, we also used speed to slow footage down from the hotel scene.

The following shots show how our music video relates to existing media products. The conventions below can both be seen in our music video as well as others that already exist in the music video industry:

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Final Cut

Pieces Final Cut from Stefaceylauren on Vimeo.

Editing Pieces After The Rough Cut

Feedback From Our Rough Cut

We collected feedback from our target audience on our rough cut. This will enable us to make the relevant changes to our rough cut so that it progresses and becomes more enjoyable for the target audience by the end of our final cut.

Rough Cut

Corrections

After editing the filming that we had I realised that some shots weren't up to scratch. This was either down to bad camera work or lighting. I have highlighted the shots below to show which shots we decided to re-do.