my media evaluation

1. MEDIA EVALUATION
ALEKSANDRA JONCZYK

2. MY FINAL PRODUCTS:
VIDEO
ADVERT DIGIPAK
MY BLOG:
https://aleksandrajonczyka2me
dia.blogspot.co.uk/

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

4. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
http://aleksandrajonczyka2
media.blogspot.co.uk/2017
/07/research-into-similar-
products-1.html
My music video uses the conventions of real media products in
many different ways. Firstly, to choose the genre of my music
video I had to research into different types of music and their
videos. I decided upon the rock/metal core genre because I felt
that it would be a good genre to convey emotions through, as
many songs of that genre show a range of emotions such as
anger and sadness. After looking at different conventions of
different music videos of different genres I went with the song
Drown by Bring Me The Horizon as not only did I like the original
music video as it makes the audience feel a sense of sympathy,
which I also wanted to achieve, but the lyrics of the song
connotate water, and I thought that would be a good theme for a
music video. I didn’t want to do a happy music video as I thought
that it was a bit mainstream but difficult at the same time. I wanted
my video to convey emotions which seem real.

5. http://aleksandrajonczyka2
media.blogspot.co.uk/2017
/09/research-into-similar-
products-genre.html
http://aleksandrajonczyka
2media.blogspot.co.uk/20
17/09/research-into-
similar-products-
genres.html
http://aleksandrajonczyka2me
dia.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/re
search-into-similar-products-
can-you.html
http://aleksandrajonczy
ka2media.blogspot.co.
uk/2017/10/research-
into-similar-products-
no.html
Music video influences:

6. For my digipak, I had a couple of influences. The first one was of the self titled ‘1975’ album. I thought
this digipak was interesting for it’s use of colour. I liked the mix of black, white and grey because I
thought that it conveys my chosen song genre which is dark and wouldn’t be associated with light
colours. What I also liked about this digipak was the rather simple disk tray which is effective as it makes
the disc itself stand out against everything else in the digipak.
So the influence for the main colour style came from this digipak.

7. The idea to have a main protagonist running throughout the digipak came from the digipak from Three
Cheers for Sweet revenge by My Chemical Romance. I liked this digipak because it also had a similar
colouring of black, white, grey and bits of red which I decided not to use. I used the idea of a main
protagonist in my digipak which I thought worked very well.
Furthermore, the name and title of my album was kept the same as Bring Me The Horizon because I really
like the name That’s The Spirit as it sounds ironic to the way the protagonist is feeling upset, but still trying
to make herself happier.

8. For my advert I was largely inspired by the advert for the album Sempiternal by Bring Me The Horizon.

9. I decided to focus on this advert when creating my own one as I felt that if I used an
advert produced by the band who my song is by, it would ensure that I am using
the correct conventions of the metal core genre. I researched many adverts which
can be seen through my blog, although this one stood out to me the most because
I really liked how the band’s logo was at the top, and I could recreate the logo very
effectively. I chose a background of water in order to link back to my music video
which has a big running theme of water throughout it, just like the black
background on the Sempiternal advert links to the darkness of their music videos
for that album. I also liked having an image in the middle of the advert as it is a very
common convention of adverts. However, I used a picture instead of a sign like on
sempiternal to link the advert directly to the digipak and my music video.
http://aleksandrajonczyka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2017/11/research-into-similar-product-21-
album.html

10. • All in all I believe that my media products do use, develop and challenge the conventions of real
media products.
• I was largely influenced by the bands and musicians that I like, and I kept close to their conventions
as I wanted my own media product to seem realistic and as if it was created by the band
themselves. Therefore, I think that my own media products are successful in using and developing
real media conventions.
• My research into similar products focused on many different types of music at first, which helped
me gain a wide perspective into different conventions. After I picked the song Drown which is metal
core I focused on music of that and similar genres in order to gain a broader perspective on the
conventions of those particular music types so that my own products fits and conveys them well.
• The use of conventions I think is portrayed the most in my music video, where I took inspiration
from videos of a similar genre and transferred them into my own work, of course in my own way
which shows that I can challenge these conventions and apply them in a way that is specific to me.

11. 2. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts

12. 2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think that the combination of my main product and my ancillary texts is
effective.

13. This is because…
• Between my advert and the music video there is an obvious link through the use of water. Water is
the main theme of my music video and it also appears in the background of my magazine advert. I
think this is successful as it clearly shows the audience that the focus of the album is water, and the
emotions such as sadness that can be connotated with water. This links to the uses and gratifications
theory as it implies that the audience can view the video in the way they wish. They may watch the
video for pure entertainment but could also view it so look at the way that depression and loneliness
impacts people, as a goal of this video was to show the audience that mental health amongst
teenagers is very important.
• My digipak links to my music video through the use of setting. Throughout the digipak I applied the
park setting, which is very consistent through the video and it is where the protagonist goes to think
and find herself. The picture for the front cover of the digipak was actually taken in the same spot
where we first see the protagonist’s face in the music video at 00:17. This is important as it shows the
audience that the whole album will focus on this protagonist in order to show her journey.

14. • The digipak and my advert link through the use medium close ups. I decided to use
mainly medium close ups as I wanted there to be a clear image of the character’s facial
expression, but while also showing their surroundings in order to set the setting for the
music video, and show the audience that the setting of the lake, park and bridge are
significant in the character’s journey of fighting her problems.
• Also, all my products link together because of the costume. I have kept the protagonist’s
costume the same throughout my products in order to keep it consistent and show
through her costume that the pain and sadness she is feeling is always the same and will
take time to change.
Continued…

15. 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

16. 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The media platform that I used to gain feedback from my audience was Snapchat. I chose this
platform because I think it is simple and easy to use as well as I have lots of friends who use this
platform everyday, so if I sent them a message about giving me feedback they would see it
instantly.Below are three examples of feedback that I have received. The first feedback is from the production
of the music video when I was nearly finished, and this helped me understand what I had to improve
in order to satisfy my target audience. The following two are from post-production, after they have
watched the video and have been shown my ancillary products.

17. Gaining feedback from my audience was also important because…
• It helped me understand if I was meeting my target audience of young
adults
• It showed me if my products met the needs of my audience
• Showed me if my audience enjoyed the music video and if they thought
it looked professional
• With the digipak audience feedback was important to see if the digipak
was real would they buy it and would they expect to see something like
it in a shop.
• I gained feedback from males and females which showed me if my
products seem open to all genders, which is important as my target
audience does not have a set gender.
• My feedback encouraged me to work harder on my products and make
them the best they could be
• Seeing that my music video appeals to the target audience also gave
me a push and reassured me that the video is heading in the right
direction.

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

19. 4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
The technologies I used during my research were blogger and Youtube.
For research I felt that youtube was best as it is one
of the biggest platforms where music is available to
listen to and to watch for free. It really helped me
with researched into different genres and music
video styles as I hade a very wide variety of videos
available to me, which enabled me to carry out
broader research. Also, using blogger was important
because it had many advantages. It is simple to use,
free and the blog can be accessed by anyone if you
wish. Therefore, I could post my research on there
any time I wanted and I could ask peers and teachers
to take a look at my research for some guidance. The
two platforms combined gave me a great
opportunity to carry out in depth research, which I
undertook. Both of these platforms also helped me
come to a decision on my song choice as I could
easily look back at my research and decide what I
was going to do.

20. For the planning and construction of my project I used the software's Movie Plus X6 for the editing of my
music video and Page Plus X7. I chose these software’s because they are quite simple to use while having
good features in them that allowed me to produce products of a good standard. Also, I used Page Plus X7
for my AS coursework, so already knowing how to use the programme was an advantage. Furthermore,
learning how to use Movie Plus was quite easy, as we did an editing task at the start of A2 which prepared
me for editing my own video as it taught me the essential features of the software. This editing can be found
here: http://aleksandrajonczyka2media.blogspot.co.uk/2017/09/drafting-and-planning-editing-task.html
Movie Plus Page Plus

21. Furthermore, for the creation of my music video I used my own camera, a tripod and my
phone. Using my own camera was an advantage to me because I knew how to use it
well and I felt most comfortable using my own camera rather than someone else’s. The
camera was used for filming footage and taking pictures for my advert and digipak. I
rented the tripod from the school as I didn’t have my own one, and using a tripod was
very beneficial to make sure that my shots were levelled and I didn’t have to hold the
camera which would hurt my arms and make me feel tired. At some points though I
didn’t use the tripod as sometimes it wasn’t high enough or I couldn’t get the tripod to
be a bit lower, when I couldn’t do this I used a stack of books which was also useful, but
if I had a tripod where I could set it to be at various different heights rather than just
two the filming process would have been a lot quicker and more effective.

22. During the creation and planning of my AS project I used a camera and mainly
WebPlus to create my magazine, which is a simple software that is great for
making magazines. However at A2 I used WebPlus, which I already knew how to
use, and MoviePlus pretty much at the same time so sometimes it was confusing
as there was so much to do, a camera, my phone, a tripod and the setting and
costume were a lot more planned and important for A2. Also MoviePlus has a lot
of features in it which I had to learn how to use as I didn’t use MoviePlus at AS and
I didn’t use the software to the depth that I did in my project during the editing
task. So at A2 I managed to use the two effectively and efficiently. The use of
Blogger, powerpoint and slideshare was present throughout both AS and A2 but at
A2 I used all these platforms a lot more to demonstrate my work.

24. AS

25. A2

26. I feel that through my journey from AS to A2 I have really broadened my skills.
Firstly, at AS I only had one product to create which was a magazine, and at A2 I had three
separate products to make and make sure that they all link with eachother through the use
of the right conventions. At AS the conventions were very simple as almost every magazine,
no matter what genre will always have a masthead, cover lines, a main image and a left third.
However, at A2 it was trickier to find the right conventions as music videos are so varied and
there are so many different genres to research. At AS my research consisted of looking at
other magazines on the internet and the ones I collected myself, but at A2 my research
consisted of many different websites such as youtube, facebook, spotify (when looking at
different songs) and websites such as the HMV websites when looking at digipaks as the
website has a lot of digipak front covers that I used for inspiration. At A2 I also had to look at
magazines for album advertisements, and I had to look at the various digipaks that I have at
home for research as well. So at A2 my research skills definitely broadened as I carried out
much more of it that an AS.

27. During the creation and planning of my AS project I used a camera and mainly
WebPlus to create my magazine, which is a simple software that is great for making
magazines. However at A2 I used WebPlus, which I already knew how to use, and
MoviePlus pretty much at the same time so sometimes it was confusing as there was
so much to do, a camera, my phone, a tripod and the setting and costume were a lot
more planned and important for A2. Also MoviePlus has a lot of features in it which I
had to learn how to use as I didn’t use MoviePlus at AS and I didn’t use the software
to the depth that I did in my project during the editing task. So at A2 I managed to
use the two effectively and efficiently. The use of Blogger, powerpoint and slideshare
was present throughout both AS and A2 but at A2 I used all these platforms a lot
more to demonstrate my work.

28. Thank you for reading my
evaluation 