RELATION TO REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS
I studied videos from the genre of my chosen track and also another interpretive music video from a different genre with a similar storyline to become familiar with the conventions of a rock interpretive music video. The videos I studied gave me inspiration for my own video.
After carrying out audience research by studying YouTube statistics I discovered very distinctive conventions of interpretive music videos I discovered that having a clear narrative or storyline was essential. My music video was aimed at the male and female aged 15-24. I made a specific effort to include conventions of interpretive narrative based music videos.
CONVENTIONS
I feel that my music video challenged the conventions of a rock music video because I chose a narrative based music video where the artist does not perform in any part of the video. I decided not to have the artist perform because having actors interpret the lyrics would portray the meaning of the song more clearly. I chose to have the main male character shown as weak and heartbroken which is a role reversal of the common stereotype where the female is destroyed by the end of the relationship and a strong male is seen. The meaning behind the role reverasal is to demonstrate males can also be hurt by a breakup that they have feelings similar to everyone else and both sexes are affected by these emotions and feelings. The female in the video had the dominating role in the relationship in the narritive of my video and is shown as the cause of the main males breakdown. The meaning of the selected roles for characters is so the audince feels sympathy for the main male character. Some of the video is not fully narrated so therefore contains a hidden narritive of why the relationship broke down which is a common convention of a music video to keep the audience wondering the reasons behind the break up.
During the research process I discovered that all of the music videos I researched had performance elements included. My final video uses conventions of real narrative based music videos by using a typical theme of a break up which is commonplace for the majority of rock music videos. I used a non-linear narrative showing flashbacks to when the couple were together and had the argument. I chose to use the beach as a setting for the music video because I see the beach as a place of reflection as well as somewhere you go to socialise, enjoy and relax. The main character in my video uses the beach to reflect on past times as well as flash back to the social, romantic side of the beach.
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| Examples of beach being used both for reflection and pleasure. |
The edit of my final music video was quite fast paced to link to my chosen track, I cut my music video to the beat to help keep a flowing narrative and to maintain the audiences interest.
My DIGIPAK uses conventions of rock music CD’s by including images of the band performing live and including lyrics of the songs on the album, I have also used the “parental advisory” logo on the front cover to add a sense of realism, my DIGIPAK front cover challenges the conventions of current CD covers because the band contains 4 members and only the lead singer was featured on the front cover. I used original images of the band performing live and some interpretive images which I thought suited the lyrics and the colour scheme of the DIGIPAK.
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| Example of interpretive image |
The combination between the music video, poster and DIGIPAK is not as successful as I hoped because it is difficult to combine between the DIGIPAK which features the band and the music video which is an interpretation of lyrics, similarities between my music video and the DIGIPAK include an insert page a created for the DIGIPAK which advertises the music video as an exclusive. The idea of an insert is based on my research of real products of an advertising insert included with the booklet of a My Chemical Romance live album.
The front cover of my DIGIPAK contains a subconscious link between the video and album because of the steps featured.If the audience see the steps in the video then see the album in a retail outlet they would recognise this link subconsciously which is a useful marketing and promotion technique.
However the combination of my DIGIPAK and poster was a success by featuring the same subject and a similar location used for each. I made sure brand identity was maintianed between the poster and the CD cover by using a similar font on both designs. I also chose to put the actual image from the CD on the left hand corner of the poster so instantly the view can relate the two artifacts together as an aspect of Brand Recognition which is important when marketing a new product.
AUDIENCE FEEDBACK
After showing my video to 5 Males and 5 Females aged 13-19 which was my original target audience I asked them to fill in a short questionnaire. I then put the results into graph format.
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| Do you think the track suited the location? |
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| Do you think the track suited the narrative? |
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| How clear was the narrative of the music video? |
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| How successful was the music video was at representing the rock genre? |
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| What gender do you think my music video and DIGIPAK were aimed at? |
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What age group do you think my music video and DIGIPAK were aimed at?
All 5 females thought the reverse stereotype of the male appearing weak and emotional over a female was successful at showing a modern break up story, they thought the genre of the music video was represented well by the main male characters appearance they thought the way he was dressed represented the rock genre.
Three out of the 5 females thought that the narrative was very clear and two thought it was clear quite clichéd when the sepia flashbacks were used. The females thought that the video was fairly unisex because of the track and the situation which can affect both genders.
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NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES
YouTube
I used YouTube to assist me with my research and planning tasks. The statistics on the videos I chose helped me to define my target audience.
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| Statistics on YouTube |
Facebook
I used Facebook to contact my band and ask them for permission to use the track. Facebook was also used to communicate with the band. I downloaded my track using Facebook.
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| Use of Facebook to find a band |
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| Using Facebook to download my chosen track. |
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| Example of using Facebook to communicate with the band. |
Blogspot
Presenting all my work electronically on a media blog has been really useful and un-stressful. The research was easy to put together on the blog which created an electronic copy of my work and made use of interactive technology where other people on the course could view classmates work and gain inspiration for their own work. The blog also allowed us to constructively criticise each other’s work. The blog was really useful because it allowed me to physically see my project grow as I progressed.
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| My Media Blog |
Final Cut Pro
I used Final Cut Pro to edit my video I found the editing software difficult to use at first because it was industry standard software. The quality of my edit was much improved compared to my video task last year where I used different editing software.
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| Example of the timeline on Final Cut Pro |
Digital SLR Cameras
I shot my footage on a digital SLR camera so managed to produce high quality images an improvement on my footage quality last year.
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| Last Years Footage |
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| This Years Footage |
Adobe Photoshop Elements
To produce my DIGIPAK and Poster I used Adobe Photoshop which is a professional standard image editing software.
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| An example of a Photoshop edit |
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| An example of a Photoshop edit |
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| An example of a Photoshop edit |
I used original images that I took on my digital camera of the band performing combined with some interpretive images and a photo shoot with the lead singer of the band. I set up my Photoshop canvas to be the suitable CD size for the DIGIPAK and A4 size for the poster. To remain continuity with fonts each lyrics page had the same font “Myriad Pro” and I had to choose white for the text so that it would show up on the backgrounds.
PRODUCING MY CONCLUSION
To produce my conclusion I used a combination of screen shots, internet images and Microsoft Excel to present my audience feedback in graph format making my conclusion visual. I also presented on a media blog which has enabled me to actively upload my work throughout the entire process from research to conclusion.
