Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The main generic convention to which we adhered in the music video was the use of a narrative device. It is a proven method in which to gain an audiences attention and keep it. However, our research on similar artists to Lawrence King taught us that narrative is not typical in these genres, thus furthering our reasons to use a narrative and be innovative. The content of our narrative did challenge the cultural hegemony of a heterosexual relationship being the norm. The every day style of the costume and make-up also presented us normal girls not the stereotypical 'butch' lesbians. We used the convention of colourful mise en scene from other electronic music videos we researched. The bar scene looks fun with vibrant pillows and decor, whilst the costumes has flashes of bright colours. In the album cover and magazine ad we also used flashes of bright colour through the lights of the traffic. The increased exposure time resulted in a laser light effect whilst the saturation on the sunset on the front of the album cover really emphasises the reds and oranges. The use of experimental cinematography and fast paced editing reflecting the rhythm of the music also stuck closely to genre conventions.

I think one way in which we broke mainstream Pop Promo conventions was the omittance of the artist in the video. Typically a record company would demand a large amount of close up shot to promote the artist and help in the creation of star image. Ultimately it was a controversial decision but our research showed us that you rarely find an electronic artist staring in his own music video- the face and image is just not important in this genre.

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

We wanted to get a city vibe in our music video without feeling too urban, and we did this by choosing pleasant central locations around Ipswich. We encroached onto middle class territory with the use of a sophisticated bar and stylish outfits. We also wanted to give across messages about speed and time through the time lapse sequence; the way in which coincidences and crossed paths happen in everyday life while we let life flash pass us unaware.
I believe all these elements were carried across to our digipack and magazine advertisement design extremely well. The inside cover of the digipack uses sub-urban houses to relate to the middle class city feel of the video and the blurred lights directly link with the sense of speed and traffic within the time lapse scenes. The mystery guy across the street supports the sense of anonymity we gave Lawrence King in the video and on the magazine ad- backed up by the type writer style typography of the digipack and magazine ad. The same courier style font was used throughout for continuity. On the front cover the saturated sunset gives a feeling of electronic nature, something that can definitely be heard on the track itself, and also matches the themes of day turning into night in the music video.

Verisimilitude is definitely achieved throughout; all locations are accessible and the narrative feature nothing out of the ordinary. The mise en scene reflected everyday life for most people... pedestrian crossings, coat and jeans, laid back bar and homely bedrooms. Similarly, the print designs feature traffic a road and a house which adds to the feel of realism. Through this we show are ideology that material possessions are not important- amazing things happen in ordinary life to anybody regardless of wealth, sexual orientation and gender.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Our target audience was 16-25 year old male and females, typically students or young professionals, who have the time and to want to discover and explore new artists within the fairly niche electronic/ambient music genre. In our questionnaire we discovered that generally 80% of our target audience rarely or never liked music without lyrics, to combat this we used a narrative device which we discovered 75% or our target audience enjoyed.

We screened our music video and promotional package to the class who all fell into our target audience. On the whole we received positive response with the audience particularly liking the narrative and the 'rewind' feature that re-ordered the chronology. The audience felt mise en scene and editing was used well to focus the attention on the two main characters, such as Jessica's bright pink mac and the pauses on the two characters in the time lapse scene. Cinematography used interesting and inventive shots, like the shot behind the wire chair and the camera being used as a mirror. Mise en scene was also strong with the colourful bar being a favourite location and the moody scenes in my bedroom. The audience felt editing showed a high standard of skill and the video transitions (dissolve, fade etc) were used appropriately and the video didn't look amateur.We were criticised for the poor lighting in Nicola's bedroom scene, in contrast to the good lighting in my bedroom scene. Nicola appears very dim in her shots often making it hard to see exactly what she is doing. Due to bad planning we didn't have the lighting equipment on this day and the difference really shows. The class agreed the video was suitable for the genre of music but they felt showing the DJ would help. In retrospect based upon the feedback I think maybe we should have included a little footage of a DJ, maybe during the bar scenes so that it came across in an understated way. We learnt that we created both emotional and visceral pleasures for our audience. Emotional pleasures were created by the formation of a relationship in the narrative whilst visceral pleasures were created through the re-ordered chronology; Nicola and myself waiting for a call from each other appears at the start but we then rewind through the day to see exactly what happened between the two. There could undoubtedly be an element of voyeurism for some- will they get close? will they kiss?

The class felt the music video, album cover and magazine ad worked strongly as a package due to the linking elements of nature, traffic, time, suburban and city life. They like the high quality images that were shot by Nicola and the high standard on editing in Photoshop. Once criticism was that some of the text on the magazine ad could have been different colours instead of just black. We did experiment with different colours but had problems with visibility due to the mixed colours of the background image. To rectify this we could have changed the colours or tones in the background image so that we were more free to have coloured text on top of it.

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

I used blogger.com to create my blog on which I presented all stages on my coursework. The concept of creating quick multi-media entries on a regular basis that can be viewed by all really worked effectively as a basis for my coursework. For my research into music videos the Internet held a hive of information; Youtube hosts practically all music videos, Wikipedia contains much to do with history whilst print designs are easily accessible through artist's websites. I also found the digital library in the Learning Curve useful as it stocked a range of DVD's on the more high profile music video directors.
Facebook proved very useful as a communication tool in both the planning and production phase because as a team player its essential to know how your other group members are progressing. We shared research and treatments through a thread in the messaging facility and used the calendar to remind us of filming dates during production. To film the music video we used a Canon HV30 DV camcorder on a Velbon DV-7000 tri-pod, which we were comfortable with using as we had already had practice in our AS year, although we did need a refresher course on exposure settings. The only scenes that required us to use extra lighting were the bedroom scenes where we used a high voltage lamp to produce key lighting. For the magazine ad and the digipack designs I first shot original images using a Fuji FinePix 10mp camera (Nicolas used a digital SLR to get her higher quality images) then uploaded them to Adobe Photoshop CS4 for editing. I had to re-size the image and the canvas to the required dimensions for the digipack. The layers element of Photoshop made it easy for me to change background colour/text types quickly without effecting the image as a whole. During editing I often used the magic wand tool to separate items in the foreground from the background and of course the text tool to apply artist name etc.
As my editing software in post-production I used the powerful Final Cut Pro(FCP). The firewire cable enabled me to capture footage quickly from the camcorder and import into FCP to be edited. FCP puts great ease upon adding effects such as cross dissolves and fades. To speed up the footage for the time lapse scenes was relatively simple as I just had to select the required clip and press change speed. I used Compressor to convert my practice time lapse sequence into a smaller file more suitable to be uploaded to blogger whilst for my final video I used http://www.screentoaster.com/ to capture my video. Due to errors whilst converting my final edit into a .mov file to send to Compressor, we had no other choice but to use this unusual method but it was essential that we got our music video onto blogs for marking. The website saved it as a .mov file for us and then we used the Compressor software to make it a suitable size for our blogs.