In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The music video follows the forms of conventions as the audience can see both the story, acted out and the singer. This also breaks the conventions as both the singer and the action are not in the same scene but are separate, with the film cutting between each. The other conventions which the music video breaks is that many Indie and Folk films have fades between shots. The music video does have fades but also time effects and there are other effects which are not in Indie/Folk. The use of noise filters also breaks the conventions because indie and folk music video’s do not use these effects. Having a heavier noise filter over the singer makes him harder to see so breaks the conventions of being able to see the singer clearly.
The conventions that we have kept to was to have an older singer as folk video’s normally have an elder male singing. The use of filters (black and white and sepia) helps to show age in the video and also helps to show time.
My CD Digi-Pac keeps to the conventions of a CD Digi-Pac as the singer is present (on the back cover). The front cover has very little to do with the music video, but also shows the sadness of the video. There is an older version of the actor who looks like but is not the actor in the video. The lyrics are seen on the inside cover keeping to the conventions of having the track listings and lyrics on or inside the cover. The other conventions that the Digi-Pac has kept to is that the title and singers name are present on both the front cover and the spine/side.
The magazine advert breaks the conventions as the singer is not present. The advert includes the props from the video along with the title and singers name in the same font as the CD Digi-Pac (Garamond and Pristina). Also there is information about the CD/music video and where it can be bought from in the bottom right hand corner.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Both texts use the same starting point which was the song. The Digi-Pac slightly moves away from the
music video as the front cover sees an older version of the actor before he becomes the singer on the
back cover.
Both the Digi-Pac and the video use filters (black and white) to show emotion, feeling and time.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I gave a few people questionnaire’s of what they thought when I showed them the music video.
Many of them had the same views and opinions. They all said that the music video was appropriate for the target audience (14-45) and that it was understandable that the actor was looking back at his life and how he became the singer in the end.
I learnt that by filming both the singer and the narrative film with the actors that the music video makes more sense and is a lot easier to follow. Also the type of music video that we did is suitable for the target audience of 14-45 years old. All of the people who had questionnaires agreed with this.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The research into music videos was done using the internet (Google) and YouTube
(www.youtube.com). Also artists websites, like Enya and James Blunt, came in handy when looking at the
videos or researching adverts and Digi-Pac’s.
To make the final finished music video I used an Apple iMac and Final Cut Pro to edit
and render the film.
To create the Digi-Pac and advert I used a PC and Photoshop.
Combining AS With A2
In the last AS unit I had to use Photoshop to create the images on the webpages. To produce the CD Digi-Pac and Magazine Advert in this unit I used the same programme and tools on that programme (Dodge, Burn, Select, Paint Bucket, Blur).
Other programes which I used as like in the AS unit was the scanner and camera wizard (to scan in design ideas), Paint and PhotoPlus 10.
Using these programmes in the AS unit helped out a great deal in the A2 unit as I alreay knew how to use them.
