Evaluation in Word Format

1. Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
Planning for the media product and the research was conducted through working
in a group before the production of the music video began. This way we could
develop on the conventions of real media products by looking into the genre
Rap. Exploring the culture and aspects of the Rap genre as a group we
discovered that they conveyed a number of styles in many different forms. By
researching into this genre we found that we then had a clear idea of what is
included in this genre and whether we should subvert to this or conform to it.
Through this we then decided to produce a music video on the song Stan by
Eminem, as a group we noticed that the song followed a narrative and had a
plot. We both found that lyrically the song tells the tale of an abusive
relationship, an obsessed boyfriend in awe of the rapper Eminem who takes his
frustrations out on his girlfriend, but untimely losses everything to his obsessive
behaviour.
Through researching into this music video and the genre it helped us to create a
professional music video that challenged forms of real media products. Even
when creating our video we had to consider conforming to the original genre, but
try to make it as unique and subversive as possible. For example a number of
rap music videos have girls dancing around the rap artist while he displays his
wealth to others, although this is not apparent in the original music video we
decided to challenge this by having stop-motion show the relationship of there
and how it changes in a split second. This was different to all girls dancing
around the artist and portrays a stronger message. This scene is show in the
middle of the music video and towards the end of the music video, conveying
their chaotic relationship.
Throughout the filming of each sequence we had two specific actresses to play
the three roles in our music video. We asked Moya Casarini Mcmanus to play the
role of Stan’s girlfriend and Carly McCarron to play the role of both Stan and
Eminem. Both characters would be filming in two separate locations, one being
in St Anne’s Catholic High School for Girls and the other would be my fellow
group member Anna Mays House. The school would be used for filming in the
local drama room and in a room with a white wall, while in Anna Mays House will
would be filming scenes mainly in her bedroom.
Considering the role of the group members, my fellow member Anna May and
myself both aided in the process of filming our music video, however we each
took part in different aspects as well. Anna May also aided in turning the stop
motion footage to monochrome and helped to film the car scene, the drama
room scene and the bedroom scene. In terms of myself I aiding in editing and
merging still layers of our music video while Anna-May also done parts of the
editing. Working with Anna May in a group was highly enjoyable as we were

2. both enthusiastic about the filming and editing of our project and the planning of
it before.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary
tasks?
After we completed our main product we were then required to complete two
Digipack Ancillary tasks to go with our product, these were a CD cover and a
magazine advert. I believe that both of these ancillary tasks cover all the
aspects of real media products. They also include aspects from my own music
video, with still shots from scenes that showcase the characters and relate to the
music video. Our first task was to create a CD cover that will covey the title of
the song and include the artist which was Eminem. I came to decision on how to
best design my CD cover for the song and chose to do a black background so all
images and text would be clear and easy to see by the audience. Looking
through my music video I then picked appropriate shots to use. I then added the
images of still shots from my music video, creating a copy of each one.
I chose to go with the eyes of the girlfriend (Moya Casarini Mcmanus) as I
though it sent a strong message and would grab the attention of the audience
more. Creating two copies of each image meant I could then lay one layer on top
of the other, while also changing the texture and brightness/contrast of the
images. To create the back of my cover I decide to go with a long shot of Stan
(Carly McCarron) writing letters, while subconsciously looking upwards. This
again was two layers on top of one another, which was then flipped horizontally
to face in the other direction. The text was then enlarged to make it noticeable
and put in white font. I also did the same for the list of music that will be
available on the CD, making it more realistic and giving the impression of a real
CD cover.
The second task that I had to complete was the Digipack magazine cover, which
would advertise the Cd to potential customers. To begin I again decided the best
background format and went with the same colour I used for my CD cover which
was black. Again looking though my music video I decided the best shot for my
cover and took this from my own music video. I did the same format of editing
with the CD cover, by creating a copy of the still shot and then placing the two
layers on top of each other. This was done by merging the two together, to
create a ghost effect. Deciding on the text I was going to use was a difficult
decision, as I needed to ensure that the audience could read the writing and that
it would grab their attention.
I decided to place the text at the top of the cover with Eminem in white and bold
writing, while the Stan text was placed at the side vertically to allow the image
to show. I also included a review from a well-known newspaper, and a start
rating of four. I believe the image that I chose for the cover is effective as the

3. over-the-shoulder shot does not show Stan’s face, and creates mystery. Using
this depicts Stan as a private person who shuts people out, his girlfriend
specifically to keep his obsession secret.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The importance of audience feedback is significant and is needed to ensure I
have created a professional and high-quality music video. Near the end of
completing this project we both decided to ask fellow students their thoughts on
our music video. I decided to ask around 6 students what they thought of our
music video and what they liked. Their names are not included in this
questionnaire as I wanted to keep it anonymous, it was also not important as I
just wanted their responses. I asked each of them a total of 10 questions which
I will display below:
1. Was the quality of our music video up to standard?
2. What genre do you think our music video was?
3. What age group do you think our music video was aimed at?
4. Do you think our music video contained any postmodern elements?
Please explain if possible.
5. Did you find the storyline easy to follow based on the footage in our music
video?
6. Did you find the characters were suitable in our music video?
7. Have you seen Stan by Eminem before watching our music video?
8. Did you notice any similarities between the original by Eminem and our
music video?
Please state these similarities.
9. What did you enjoy about the music video? E.g. scenes
Please explain.
10.If we were to do our music video again, what do you think we could
improve on to make it better? E.g. editing, filming
Please explain.
One of the things that I noticed is for the first question all 6 students that I
asked all answered yes. This meant that I did create a high-quality music video.
While the second question gave a mixture of responses from some getting the
genre of our music video correct, which was rap and others putting different

4. responses. Looking at the age group question many of the people that I asked
all responded with the age limit between 17-20 years. This meant that we both
correctly got the target audience for our music video right and displayed it well
in the filming that we did. The fourth question saw people say that the stop
motion that we did, showed the most postmodern elements. As we filmed the
stop motion on a phone and edited it to make it faster. All of the students I
asked said it was easy to follow the music video, which meant we portrayed the
plot well.
They also said the characters were easy suitable for the type of music video we
did and most of the feedback showed that they had watched the original Stan
music video. This meant it was easy for others to spot similarities in our music
video to the original; however one or two students did not see the original
before. For question 9 the feedback showed that most enjoyed the stop motion
most of all that was placed at the end and middle of the video, while others
enjoyed the acting. Our actresses then portrayed the characters well and were
reliable when filming. The final question shows a range of answers, one being
most common is the lip syncing. As we were running out of time with finishing
our music video, it meant that we could not redo some scenes to make our
music video flawless. In conclusion to the feedback I received it is certain that
my music video was a success, while being an ambitious project and
experiencing problems along the way, I am pleased with our music video.
How did you use media technologies in the construction, research,
planning and evaluation?
Throughout my media production, I have conveyed many types of media to
create my ancillary task, planning and music video. Examples of some of these
are Slideshare to upload my documentation (PowerPoints, Word Documents) to
my blog, Prezi to construct professional presentations, Blogger to show my work,
Adobe Photoshop CS5 to edit and construct my two ancillary tasks. To film our
music video we used two cameras, one being a SONY Bloggie MHS-Ts20 8GB
Touch Mobile HD Snap Camera and a SONY Cyber-shot DSC-WX350W
Superzoom Compact Camera. These were both used throughout our media
production. Both of these cameras then enabled me to take over-the-shoulder
shots of the characters, match on action shots and many more.
To edit our music video Adobe Premier Pro was used to edit and speed up ore
stop motion piece, while also using a number of different transitions and
techniques to effectively construct our music video. My final evaluation as you
can see has been presented on Prezi, to split up each section of the evaluation
and to also present my work professionally. This then enabled me to speed up
the editing in the music video to match the speed of the song. Finally to upload

5. my documents for planning, SlideShare was used, so that all my work was
added and presented on Blogger. After getting more familiar with all these
types of convergence and different digital technologies, my overall skills have
now improved dramatically.