MEDIA EVALUATION

The work I have created for my A2 advanced portfolio is a promotional package including a music video, digipak and an advertisement for the digipack and the genre of my package being alternative rock which is the genre I chose for my band to fall into.  The genre ‘alternative rock’ emerged from the independent music underground back in the 1980’s and became extremely popular in the 1990’s, it is an alternative to mainstream music and an alternative to the standard ‘rock’ genre, which is why this genre suits my chosen song by Muse because it is so different to standard rock music. My music video, digipak and magazine all follow the typical conventions for my chosen products, along with the conventions needed to fit in to the alternative rock genre.  Each genre has different conventions and depending on the genre, you will see a different number of conventions.

In 1999 Sven Carlson said there is different forms of music videos and those being performance which features the artist performing, narrative, which would show a story throughout the video, mixture which is a mixture of performance and narrative and cameo which shows the performer being a part of a narrative but they do not actually perform. My music video uses a mixture of performance and narrative. We see the band performing in front of the camera and the lead singer playing apart in the narrative. For the narrative in my music video we see the lead singer playing the part of a man who rebels, he is an alcoholic and does drugs. He will not be forced/pushed around; he is powerful and will live his life however he wants to, whether it's right or wrong.  With this storyline I show my performer waking up, we see him sit up and he puts his head in his hands which would go with his alcohol drinking habit and him waking up feeling a bit rough. We see him drink alcohol and see him gradually getting washed and dressed and shots of drugs and drug taking. All of these shots are placed in the music video so they are in time with the music, so my music video includes jump cuts and these specific shots flash on the screen extremely fast. With my music video been a mixture of performance and narrative, we recognise it as an alternative rock video because these types of video are typical conventions for an alternative rock video which is recognised in Paramore's video Misery Business. There is a variety of camera shots that are needed in a music video. Close ups are essential in a music video because it allows the audience to see the artists up close and to see the emotion shown in their facial expressions. The close ups help promote the band and the promotion of the band is the whole reason for my music video, so without the close ups of each artist I would not do a good job with promoting them as a band. I have followed this convention by having many close ups of my lead performer singing showing very powerful expressions on his face and when it comes to power I have also created many low angle shots of each of my performers so it is like the audience is looking up to them, making the performers look powerful but these shots mainly focus on helping promote the artists and their image on being a band that's a part of the alternative rock genre. Another conventional shot used within the genre is wide shots to show the full band so the main focus isn't on just the lead performer; this is something I have used in my video. Camera movements are also important when it comes to music videos; it is a type of editing and also helps the audience follow each performers every move and camera movement is used a lot in my music video. Pans, tracking and zooms are the different types of movement used in my music video and these movements can be quick or slow paced depending on the tempo of the chosen song and the effect wanted for the video. These movements make my video look much more interesting and it allows closer shots of the band. Editing for a music video is crucial and a convention for the alternative rock genre is that all cuts are in time and that they cut to the beat. The editing in my video is done so it is in time with the beat of the music, changing from different performers, seeing different movements and cutting to different locations. Continuity in my video works well within the performance shots however when we see the shots cutting to different location and different people, this challenges the conventions because it shows non-continuity within the video. In my music video there are a few abstract shots that are shown that go with the lyrics of my chosen song. In one shot we see my lead performer with red tape over his mouth. This is goes with the lyric 'red tape to keep the truth confined' which insinuates the truth been prevented from being spoken. On the editing suite, the shot has been set to have a high contrast and has a 'ghosting' effect on it, which blends two shots together creating something more abstract. Another abstract shot in my video is a shot of a girl with long hair, shaking her head with her hands held at each side. I speeded up the pace of this shot on the editing suite to give it a crazy look about it to go with the word 'mind control' and I also edited it to have a high contrast. Like the changes in location, these shots also challenge the conventions again because it shows non-continuity. Mis-en-scene in my music video mainly consists of artificial lighting created in the theatre and the instruments for the performance shots of the band creating a dark effect which was made darker when I changed the brightness and contrast on the editing suite creating a hard lighting which made the performers stand out more. This is a convention I have followed from noticing in other videos of the same genre. Another convention I have followed is to have instruments in the performance shots included in my video, as this is an essential prop of the alternative rock genre for the performance clips. I also stuck to my research on costume and dressed my performers in smart casual clothing so their image followed the conventions for an alternative rock band. The bands costume is important because it makes them, them and it attracts a specific audience. Their costume also contributes to their representation making them look sophisticated and modern, linking to the genre. For my first location outside the theatre, we see my lead performer in his bedroom. For this scene in my video I used a bright lamp and dimmed the main room light so that my shots didn't appear too dark and things were still noticeable because I knew I would be able to darken the shots on the editing suite with the 'night time' effect, along with changing the contrast. The costume I wanted for this scene was just typical clothes that a young man would wear for bed, t-shirt and boxer shorts and later clips seen in his room we see him wearing casual men's clothing, hoodie, jeans and rigger boots. Props for this scene being the obvious bedroom furniture and then I took shots of alcohol and drugs, using vodka bottles and salt to impersonate cocaine.  The second location we see is a bathroom in which my performer is washing his face and looking at himself in the mirror. Lighting used in this shot is just the general room light which was also changed on the editing suite by changing the contrast. The costume remained the same for this shot and the only props used where the sink, mirror, water and a towel. The third location seen in my music video is down a track where an old train track used to be. Only natural light was used whilst filming in this location and there was also no props used for this scene. We see my lead performer in this scene, still wearing casual men's clothing, jeans, a hooded jumper and rigger boots.

1. Here is the shot of my lead performer in his bedroom waking up. You can see I kept everything well lit and you can see the darkness created with the contrast. You can also see his costume, t-shirt and boxer shorts, which are typical clothing for men to sleep in.

2. Here you can see my band 'Fuse' in the theatre and that I have followed the conventions by having the typical props for an alternative rock video by  showing performance shots with instruments. You can also see the hard lighting used to make my performers stand out.

3. Here you can see one of my narrative shots of alcohol and drugs. This shot introduces us to the fact that the man shown in our video takes drugs and is an alcoholic.

4. Here you can see the shot of my lead performer looking at himself in the bathroom mirror. The light and added contrast has given my performer darkness around his eyes which is something you would notice a person who takes drugs to have.

5. Here you can see my lead performer. The shot is looking up to him which creates power as this makes him seem bigger than the audience and makes us look up to him. You can see the theatre lighting making him stand out and the contrast creating darkness.



6. Here is a shot in my video from down the track lit by natural daylight. We see only my lead performer just stood wearing his casual clothing. The hooded jacket he wears gives him quite a rebellious look as we tend to link hooded jackets with teens that are up to no good.

7. Here is a sot of the band. Here you can see their costume what I have chosen so that the conventions and research have been followed so they fit into the alternative rock genre with their chequered shirts and striped tops with jeans and hats.



8. Here is my first abstract shot shown in my video. It is my lead performer with red tape on his mouth to keep the truth confined. The effect you see on the shot it a ghosting effect which has cause two shots to overlap.

9. Here is my second abstract shot. It is the girl shaking her head to go with the words in the lyric 'mind control'.

All music videos have a colour scheme and this all depends on the genre and alternative rock colour schemes change depending on the mood of the song. My chosen song is dark and powerful so I stuck to the conventions and edited and set the lighting in my video so it was quite dark with no bright colours, so that it contrasted well with the mood of the song. A convention what remains the same in all genres of music video is the use of non-diegetic sound. The music used in the video is non-diegetic and is added in the editing process. I have followed this convention by making the music non-diegetic; it isn't the band performing live. My music video also includes diegetic sound which we see at the end of my video, when the performers leave their instruments you can hear the sound of the drum cymbal fading.

Different genres of music video have different conventions. With my chosen song is a part of the alternative rock genre, there was certain conventions I needed to follow for my music video and features I needed to include that are iconographic of the alternative rock genre. Before creating my music video I did many test shots practising with the camera using different angles and also did them to makes sure the lighting and band position was good. My video needed to be dark because the mood of my song isn't happy and I did this by creating a specific lighting in all my locations and then also by adding a high contrast on to my video, using the editing suite. I kept clothing in my video dark to keep the theme of darkness continued to go with the mood of the song. My video was influenced by other videos one video been Hysteria by Muse which is also a part of the alternative rock genre. This music video is a narrative video with dark lighting with some parts shown in black and white to go with the mood of the song. The narrative in my music video was influenced by this and I followed the convention and made sure that the lighting was also dark for my narrative shots so that my video fitted in with other videos from the same genre.  Another video I was inspired by was Paramore's video for their song Ignorance. They are also a part of the same genre and their video is a full performance video and in the video we see a lot of darkness and the colour black surrounding the performers. This is something seen in my video; I wanted to stick to the conventions off dark performance spaces to go with the mood of the song, which is why I chose to shoot in the theatre against the black curtain, giving me a dark, space like effect. The lighting in parts of Paramore's video also inspired me to how I wanted mine; I wanted my performers to really stand out against a dark background from using hard lighting and changing the contrast. Their video also contains fast jump cuts to go in time with a fast paced drum beat which inspired me to use this effect in my video for when the drums pace is quicker and we see this as two shots mixed together, one of my drummer and the other from the narrative part seeing my lead performer go down some stairs. I think the performance shots in my video where quite effective and I think the narrative shots included contrasted well. For my video I did two shoots in the theatre where I gathered everyone. My first shoot went well as I managed to get half an hour shot onto a tape which enabled me to make my first edit really quickly. I gained many interesting shots which had movement to prevent my video from being boring. The only disappointment that came from my first shoot was when I watched my footage on the editing suite and realised my camera was on manual focus so a few of my sots where out of focus but I didn't worry because I had started my video early enough for this problem to be solved. However my second shoot in the theatre didn't go to plan when my performer who played the drums turned up without his hat what he wore in my first shoot. This worried me because I didn't want the continuity to be ruined in my video so I planned to re shoot all the shots of the drummer without his hat. When I looked over the footage of my drummer I realised he was out of time with the song playing whilst recording and he also wasn't putting that much effort in, so the footage was poor and didn't look as good as the first shoot. This led to disappointment because there were shots that really worked well but I didn't use them because my continuity would have been ruined, so I was really specific with the shots I included from my second shoot including the drummer. However my shots of the other two performers where great and adding them certain shots in my opinion improved my video a lot. After getting the main part of my performance shots edited I decided to get started on the narrative of my video. The narrative part of my video was filmed over two days. My first narrative shoot took place down the track where I just got shots of my lead performer walking and sitting down an open grass covered area. I did this to make him look as if he was free, which goes with my narrative of him doing what he pleases and not being pushed around. I believe this shoot turned out quite well however I didn't use it much in my video, you only see it quickly in the mid-section of the song. The next part of my narrative was shot the same day but in the bedroom of my lead performer. Shooting here took some time to get the lighting correct and then I had to place things appropriately so I didn't trip whilst filming. This shoot also went well and I managed to get everything I needed to complete the narrative. Editing my narrative into my video was easy. I made sure it was all in time with the music and made sure shots didn't last too long to prevent things from getting boring.

As well as a video, I have also developed a digipak, sticking to all the conventions and using all the correct features. The front of a digipak usually includes the artists name in a large font that is usually recognisable and used on all the products to do with the artists. I have placed this in the top left corner of my digipak against the white and the band name was able to stand out against this because the font was black. The font I have chosen to use is inspired by the font Muse use on all their products. The colour scheme of the digipak all depends on the genre of the artist. With my genre been alternative rock, I had to make it essential that my digipak had an abstract front cover. I followed this convention by using a still from my music video, which became abstract because it was blurred from the fast movement in my video. Because my digipak has to be abstract, there are so many different things I could do to it and I decided to make it look quite artistic. Like my music video I decided to keep my digipak looking quite dark so I used the colour black but added colours to my series of stills that I had chosen to appear on my digipak from my music video. The colours I included on my digipack where pink and blue. I believe these colours contrast well and against the black they stand out making my digipak quite eye catching. The back of the digipak should feature a numbered track list which is a convention I have followed. On the back of my digipak I placed an abstract image of an eye and around that image is where I placed my track list. More conventions for the back of a digipak would be to have a barcode, the record label logo and copyright information. I have followed these conventions along with placing them at the bottom of the back in the centre. Conventions for the spine of a digipak would be to include the artist's name along with the record labels logo. However I have challenged these conventions because on my spine I have only included the artist’s name, placing it in the centre of the spine. I kept the design of my spine simple because I didn't want my digipak to end up been too much to look at, I wanted to make my design quite easy on the eye. Along with my music video and digipak, I have also developed an advertisement for my digipak, following the conventions and using the correct features. I have stuck to these conventions and because my genre is Alternative Rock, like my digipak my advert also needs to be abstract. I have done this by taking an image from my digipak, to use on my advert. The image I chose was an image of the band however it is presented in an abstract because the image has been highly edited with bright colour and it isn't a clear image of the band, which makes it still fit into the genre conventions. Something I realised whilst researching advertisements was that it was also conventional to use an image that is a part of the digipack to keep the continuity of products going and this is something I have done to help my products link together. It is essential to have the artists name in a large font presented on the advert. This convention I have also followed by presenting the band’s name largely at the bottom of my advert using the same font I used on my digipak, so that my band name/font becomes a recognisable logo. The date of release is another convention I have followed also, placing it under the artists name in a large font, along with the record label logo which is another convention I have followed.

Audience feedback for my products is from both genders because I intended for both genders to be my target audience. 57% of my audience where females and 43% where male. I did this purposely by posting my blog and music video onto social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, which enabled me to get feedback from both genders in an easy way by simply answering the polls on my blog. I also gained feedback off teachers and friends who I showed my video to in person. On my blog 100% of the audience have said that my music video is good, and comments were made at college from people I had shown, the comments been things such as 'it's amazing', 'the contrast works well with the mood' and 'it looks professional'. I was very pleased with the positive feedback people left about my video as it has ended up been an appealing product. It must be good in the eye of the target audience and must fit well with the genre for people not to fault it. My ancillary texts also gained reasonable feedback. 100% of my audience also liked my digipak, which also pleased me because this means my digipak is appeals to both genders. 87% of my audience said they liked my advertisement for my digipak and 13% didn't. Noticing that 13% of my audience didn't like my advertisement, didn't really bother me because they probably don't like the specific genre my advert aims to be a part of, so I’m not too concerned because they may not be a part of my target audience. However over all I think I gained very positive feedback from my audience, from the people who looked from Facebook and Twitter, to people I showed at college and the viewers on you tube. To this day my music video has 151 views and 2 likes and will be on-going getting more views and likes. This feedback tells me my video is successful.

Here are some statistics on my views so far from Youtube.

I used new media technologies in the construction, planning, research and evaluation stages through the following: I used blogger to record all my research and displayed the development of my work over the year to show all my progression. You Tube was also used so that I could research existing videos and so I could watch videos for inspiration. You Tube was also needed to enable me to put my music video onto my blog account. Photoshop was another media technology I used. Photoshop was essential for creating my ancillary texts, enabling me to create an effective digipak and advertisement for my digipak. Using Photoshop allowed me to create the abstract images needed for my digipak, by changing the levels and the saturation of the images to make it more effective and fit into the genre more, which is needed because I need my band to have the right conventions so they fit into the alternative rock genre. Another media technology used was adobe premier pro which is the programme used on the digital editing suites. Using the editing suite allowed me to put my music video together and add jump cuts and effects to make it much more interesting to look watch. Effects put onto my video through the editing suite were the contrast; the ghosting effect and the occasional cross fade dissolve. Other than adding effects to my video, premier pro made it easy to put all my shots to the beat of the music by allowing me to zoom in to my shots and match them up to certain times shown on the timeline. I also used websites such as go animate and prezzi to create media based products to do with my music video and I used social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to encourage people to vote on my polls to allow me to get feedback.

To conclude, I think I have created a successful promotional package for the release of an album by my band and I think I have also represented the genre of my products well too. All of my products were made to link in order for them to work well as a promotional package, which was done by creating slight similarities between the video, digipak and advert. All of this was done by following many conventions. My knowledge on the history of music videos has grown along with the knowledge of how music videos are made today and I have learned how to create a successful promotional pack. I have progressed so much over the past year and have gained so much knowledge and technical skills on so many new things and have gained greater technical skills in things I could already do reasonably well. The audience feedback I gained when my package was complete gave me so much more confidence with trying and creating things I have never done before and I got shown weaknesses to improve on. Knowing what I know now will help towards creating something greater in the future. If I was to go back and redo my music video I would have given my narrative shots a bit more thought as I focussed a lot more on my performance shots making sure it was all in time with the song. However I think I have used my time wisely this year as I managed well with meeting all my deadlines. I have enjoyed this project a lot as it has given me a lot of freedom to do what I wanted to do and doing this project has encouraged me to want to study creative digital media in the future.

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