1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
Throughout my Advanced Portfolio we had the choice as to whether we wanted to carry out a
music video, short film or newspaper. I decided to do music video. Therefore, we got into groups
and made several mind maps of our initial ideas of what we could base our music video on. After
a while we decided to do a music video for the song Mumford and Sons - Lover of the Light. We
then carried out another mind map of things that we could include in the video and what sort of
shots we would use whilst doing our filming. During the filming of our product we carried out a
number of different shots in a variety of locations. The locations included; inside college in the
recording studio and music room and outside of college on the three sisters fields. During our
camera work that took place in the recording studio and music room we recorded Josh who is the
main character and protagonist in the video, singing and playing a number of instruments to the
sound of the music including; the piano and guitar. This helped us to give our video a
performance based as well as a narrative as whilst carrying out camera work outside of college
on the three sisters fields we recorded Josh looking up to the light and casually walking in the
sun to represent the fact that he loves the light as represented in the name of the song. However,
before we carried out our camera work we took a few practice shots in order to prepare ourselves
for the real shots so that we could make them perfect in order to prevent us from taking them
again. The shots that we included whilst filming were extreme long shots, point of view shots,
close ups and match on action and eye line match techniques in order illustrate the connection
with light and the protagonist which in this case is Josh. We also used both high key and low key
lighting throughout our filming which gave us a range of different shots and effects. We also
filmed the scenery on the three sisters such as; the trees and the sun to show the natural beauty.
Throughout the editing process of our music video we used a programme called Adobe Premier
which allowed us to set up a project in order to edit our music video. However, due to the high
quality of shots that we took we had to set up our project in another room. We used slow
continuity in our editing in order to appreciate the natural beauty of the sky, sun and trees. We
also used a number of effects as well as cutting out some of the song to make it more unique to
us as before hand it was too long. Therefore, we cut out the last few minutes. We also cut down
some of the shots in order to help put them together into a sequence and make it into our own
video which looked professional and to a high standard. Our music video follows an
conventional narrative due to the fact that there is an idea of a form of story where the
protagonist is admiring the light of the sky, thinking of the song, practicing it and then
performing it which is why we used the recording studio in order to carry this procedure out. The
genre of the music video is based on indie folk. This is a niche,sub hybrid genre which is
expected to encode a sense of originality, narrative and abstract concept.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
In order to create my ancillary tasks of a digi pack and advertisement poster for my music track I
carried out research of 3 similar products to each and analysed each one based on the layout, font
and housestyle in which it used. I noticed that most of the existing products had a housestyle of 3
colours. Therefore, I decided to use a housestyle of 3 colours including; black, red and white as I
feel that they work well together and help to make it stand out to it’s target audience. Therefore, I
carried out the same housestyle in both my ancillarys one and two. I also researched into 3
existing music videos analysing each one based on the camera work that it used. This gave me an

2. insight of what sort of shots to include in our music video and how to edit it in order to make it
look professional. However, in our group we have all done ancillaries that are different from
each other due to the fact that we didn’t know that they had to link in some way. Therefore, they
are all original and based upon our own ideas throughout the planning and research process of
our production.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
In order to gather feedback from my audience based on the music video we created a Facebook
event and invited many people. On our Facebook event we had our music video and a
questionnaire with a list of questions in order for people to answer the questions based on our
music video that they had just watched. The purpose of the questionnaire was to collect quick
qualitative data audience feedback. We also gathered the comments that people had commented
underneath the music video on YouTube. However, the comments we received on YouTube
weren’t as detailed as the feedback that we got given back on the focus group event on
Facebook. This is due to the fact that the focus group stated questions that were relevant to what
we wanted to find out. However, from the YouTube video comments we were also able to gather
qualitative data. The feedback we collected was very useful to us as it allowed us to see what we
did well in our music video and where there is room for improvement if we was going to create a
music video again. For example, a lot of people thought the music video was good. However,
they thought we could have used a wider range of shots.
In conclusion to this, the audience have agreed that the music video matches the genre due to the
range of locations, lip syncing, and use of both narrative and performance.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation
stages?
Throughout my production of producing a music video I have used a number of different media
technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages. When creating my
ancillaries I used photoshop in order to construct these as I was able to select the correct
measurements for the front and back cover of my cd in order to make it look more professional
to my target audience. I was also able to use the tools in order to make a layout of a cd and
design it to the way that I wanted using my chosen housestyle. When getting the fonts that I used
for my ancillaries I used a website called dafont.com. This allowed me to search various fonts
and test them to the words that I wanted in order to see what they would look like before I used
them. I found this a useful website to use as it allowed me to use the font and select a size that I
wanted in order for it to look appropriate on my ancillary tasks. I was also able to find a similar
font based on the font that I had seen on the similar products that I had researched and used as an
inspiration when creating my ancillary tasks. When carrying out the editing of my production I
used a software called adobe premiere which allowed me to create a project with all my footage
that I had taken and edit it using the tools provided. At first I was unsure on how to edit the
project. However, after a practice go at editing a video that my media teacher had created for us I
was able to acknowledge how to use it and had the help of my group and tutor if it was required.
Also, when creating my questionnaire and carrying out my market research I used Microsoft
word in order to present these as I was able to spell check them before I placed them onto my
blog to avoid any spelling mistakes. I also used Microsoft Excel when conducting my graphs as
part of my market research so that I could analyse them based on the feedback given of my target
audience. However, when placing these documents that I created on Microsoft word I had to

3. import them onto a software called Slideshare due to the fact that I was unable to put them onto
my blog straight from Microsoft Word as I could not save them as a Jpeg. Therefore, I created an
account on slideshare in order to prevent this problem and to make it easier to avoid my work to
the blog. Therefore, I also used blogger whilst carrying out my production as I needed to present
my work on here. Therefore, I set up a blog and placed all of my work onto here by adding labels
and new posts to each piece of work in order to make it look presentable and professional. I also
found that I used youtube when uploading my music video that we had created as a group due to
the fact that I needed to download it onto there in order to embed the code for it to placed onto
my blog. Therefore, it is clear to see that I have used a variety of media technologies during the
construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of my production.