The document discusses feedback received on a music video project. It describes surveying classmates about two potential songs, with the majority preferring "We Won't Run." It also discusses feedback received midway through shooting, with some confused about the narrative. The document considers changing songs but decides to develop the original idea further. Additional feedback from two people is provided, praising aspects but noting some shots were blurry and effects could have added interest.

1. Evaluation
By Almaz Camporeale

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms
and conventions of real media products?
The narrative for our music video ‘Moon and Moon’ by Bat For Lashes is based around a young girl who is waiting
for her boyfriend or male friend - their relationship is unclear. The guy arrives and they have a brief but wonderful
time together; however he leaves shortly after he arrives and the girl is left alone again. The incident in this music
video gave my group and me the idea of portraying the nature of loneliness and dependence in a relationship.
This narrative also gives a good insight into the ways in which society looks at the roles of men and women today.
The main representation is of how a woman looks to the man to be the mature one in a relationship. The woman
is also represented as always having to wait for the man to commit to the relationship. Although the storyline is
not teaching you anything original or new about relationships, the question of relationships is always of interest to
everyone and can therefore be captivating. Leaving the ending ambiguous gave us the chance to captivate the
viewers through suspense and wonder. The theme of unfinished narrative seems to be a very popular theme in
music videos nowadays with popular artists. For example Lady Gaga’s video ‘Paparazzi’ ends very suddenly with
her character getting arrested for killing her boyfriend; it does not stop here as later on in her video ‘Telephone’ it
is a continuation of the video with her character in jail. This in my opinion will gain more views to these music
videos as people will want to know what will happen next, it is also another way of gaining more fans. So with that
in mind we wanted to leave everyone watching wanting to watch more to see more of our artist ‘Elena May’ ’s
work.
Our music video is found under the genre of dream pop, which is a sub genre of indie and alternative rock. Music
genres are well known to be a category of artistic composition. It is also known as a conventional category that
identifies pieces of music as belonging to a shared tradition or set of conventions. Some genres often overlap –
for example pop and rock along with indie and rock.
Genres are conventions which change over time into new genres invented by combining and repeating others.
Steve Neale’s theory expands on this point, by stating “genres are instances of repition and differences”.

3. Throughout the music video, we wanted our artist
to have a simple and natural about her, therefore
there would be nothing fake about her, trying to be
someone she is not - like particular artists out there
today. If we had tried to make her appear very fake
with make up plastered on her face, it would not
have looked right as it would be completely different
to the style of the song. As the song is very slow
and in some ways depressing, we decided not to
use bright colours. However, black bold eye make
up seemed to give the impact that we were looking
for.
A lot of music videos these days have the use of
intertextuality shown. A good example would be
Sabotage by the Beastie Boys, showing them run
around as though they were in a 1970s cop show,
which is seen through their costume. With that said
we wanted our music video to have an edge to it.
Individually we went and researched possible eras
to use, and all came up with similar ideas. Our
original idea was to attempt the 70s Twiggy hair
and make up. As mentioned in my blog we dropped
that particular idea as the outcome was not how we
expected it to be – Kim found it very difficult to put
the make up on and take it off, the result was a little
too gloomy for the song choice and we felt as
though it would look out of place if we had carried
on using the theme of the 70s. As a solution, we
decided to use more subtle make up, and resolved
into using the 1950s style. Our motivation came
from Marilyn Monroe in the movie “Gentlemen
prefer Blondes”. With such make up we felt as
though it suited our character perfectly as it was not
too shocking and out of place and it had just the
right amount of subtlety.

4. • As seen with the make up, the costume choice for our
artist is also very simple, using natural colours. Using
such clothing and make up represents how the girl is
leading a normal life like any one of us, showing that
she is not some celebrity all fake and made up and
that she is down to earth. This in my opinion is
something in which the audience can relate to very
easily, as they may look at her like they look at their
friends and nothing above them, she is on the same
level as everyone else.
• In Goodwin’s theory, he says that women in music
videos will frequently be objectified in this fashion,
often through a mixture of camerawork and editing
with disjointed body shots emphasising a sexualised
handling of the star. Goodwin also argued that there
is a relationship between the visuals and lyrics of a
music video, either illustrative, amplifying or
contradicting which is another convention we
developed on in our video.

5. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary
texts?
Whilst planning my digipack I looked into all types of album artwork (even those of a different genre) so I could get
a glimpse and an idea of how I could possibly design my album cover. Along with the rest of my group I used
booooooom.com. This particular website has a number of album artwork and photography from different unique
photographers; the originality of the different pictures is what enthused me the most, the use of the colours,
objects and unusual patterns. We also looked at thefly.com which is a free music magazine and wonderland.com
for different ideas for our album cover. We looked at different albums by different bands ,for instance, New Look,
Neon Indian, Summer Camp and Big Deal. All these albums had the theme of lights going for them with the album
cover with a vintage feel and shade to the covers. With that in mind, we all agreed on using the theme of lights,
which is another reason as to why we used the professional lights in the dark room.
Elena May’s target audience are those in the soft rock, indie and dream pop crowd. Most artists in this category
do not go over board with their album cover, as that is not what they are about – they are not trying to show off in
anyway. So with that in mind, to attract the target audience’s attention, I wanted to use a very simple picture of
Kim with a simple white background for the front and middle cover, and for the back cover I wanted to use a nice
picturesque image of the river at sunset. With a digipack as such, it is nothing too in your face
Being able to use the dark room at school my group and I took full use of the opportunity. We spent a long time in
there doing a photo shoot with our lead singer Kim (who is also in the group) for our own individual digipack. The
dark room was a real advantage as there were high quality professional lights at hand along with a white
background and good space to move around in. Whilst shooting we took shots from a range of different angles,
from a far and close up. The different shots enabled us to clearly express in the pictures our artist’s emotions;
because of the type of song we chose, having pictures of Kim smiling and happy would have not looked right,
instead we had her look motionless and sad.

6. • Whilst editing my digipack, I downloaded Adobe Photoshop for my pc. This was very useful, as everything about it
was very professional. It allowed me to do a great deal of editing of the album cover. I adjusted the lighting of the
image, until I got the perfect level of brightness. I also experimented with the vibrance of the images, and opted to
make the images have a bit more colour and life.
I decided that for the digipack I would put more than a front and back cover but add an extra two pictures in the
middle. This way the fans can get more for their money than just two pictures, and get them a little bit more
interested in the artist.
It was another way of getting the audience to get to know the artist a little better, see more than one side to her,
with all the pictures of Kim using different expressions. One is of the artist looking away, one of her looking
straight to the camera and one of her on the bridge at south bank.
For the front of my digipack I used a simple medium close up of Kim, which is simple yet effective with the use of
editing. The photo represents someone very natural looking with hardly any make-up. The artist is also not
wearing anything – this could represent the idea that she is baring her soul in the album. The fact that she is not
looking at the camera could mean that she does not have confidence or that she is troubled in some way.
The photo chosen for the inside cover, is in total contrast to the front cover. The artist is staring straight at the
camera almost in a daring way. The angle of this shot gives the impression that the head is much larger than the
rest of the body, as well as making the eyes follow the person who is looking at the picture.
The photo on the inside back cover represents the artist in a totally different environment. Her clothing, hair style
and natural attitude make her appear as any ordinary young woman. This is intended to appeal to a vast majority
of young people who would very easily identify with the artist. The image of the artist as well as the background
are all in full focus, sharp and with vibrant colours.
In contrast, the photo on the back cover is just an image of the river at night with reflections of light in the water.
The out of focus image is intentional to give the impression of timelessness and vagueness. ……………..

7. I think that my individual digipack would fit in with other artists’ under the same
genre such as Sarah Blasko. However, another one in which I took inspiration
from was by Cheryl Cole. Even though she is within a completely different genre,
I felt as though her album artwork represented our music very well. Her front
cover for her album ‘3 words’ is very similar to mine, in the sense that her
posture showing her bare shoulders is very similar.
The difference between my album cover and Cheryl Cole’s is the position of the
album title, which instead of being on Kim’s shoulder is down the side of the
picture. Along with the fact that Kim does not have any props.

8. • Audience expectations: For an artist like Elena May, the fans and the audience would most likely expect a free
willed, go with the flow woman. This in my opinion could well be a further meaning of the bareness of the artist
on the front and front middle cover of the album. Along with the poster advertising the artists upcoming special
gigs. I designed the poster to be black and white to add even more mystery to the artist. This will make the
audience eager to go and find out more about the artist as the poster is unclear, and going will be a way to
have a more clear image and in colour. The image used, like the front cover of the album, Kim has her eyes
closed, but this time with her head tilted up. The reason why I have chosen to use these two images with her
eyes closed is so the draws the fans even more to the artist because there is so much suspense being drawn
to the artist, people want to find out more about her, find out who she is and what her music is like, and
hopefully it will gain more fans through word of mouth.
The venue chosen is an indie venue - Roundhouse in London, Camden; which is a very popular venue with
the indie crowd. Roundhouse is quite a small venue, which I thought would be a nice place for the artist to
perform as she seems to be someone who is not a fan of huge venues, and likes cosy places to perform and
feel close to her fans. It also has a nice atmosphere to it which is what drew me into choosing it. I also added
a second date in Brighton, at the Brighton Centre, this way tickets are not limited, and she can give fans from
different cities the opportunity to see her live. However because there are only two gigs, that does mean the
tickets may run out therefore there will be a limited amount - which is the only let down.
The cost of the tickets are not too expensive as no one will be attracted to going if it were to be. The chosen
cost is £15.00 online and a little bit more expensive at £18.00 at the door; therefore there will be more options
for the fans.

9. What have you learnt from audience feed back?
• At the beginning of the project, whilst my group and I were choosing the song to use for our video we had a list of
possibilities. We narrowed the list down to two songs one being “We won’t Run” by Sarah Blasko and another
being “Night Terror” by Laura Marling. Even though had narrowed our list down, we were still undecided as to
which song to choose, hence why we prepared a small survey for our class mates to write down their opinion on
each song and which song they themselves would choose. It was a tight call between the two songs, one group
of people preferred videos with a narrative behind it and therefore chose Night Terror by Laura Marling – as they
believed we could do a lot with it and make it very original. However the majority of the class preferred We won’t
Run. Saying that a song without much narrative or meaning would be easier to make and less time consuming,
but at the same time a song such as that would test us and our ability to be as creative as possible and for that
reason we would be able to develop it even more.
Audience feedback personally is the most important of all. If the audience say particular parts are good or bad
then it must be true – if one person says something, it is most likely that others will think the same way. Since
finishing our final music video I have shown it to two people to see what they think of it. The first person was a girl
my age (18), who usually listens to completely different music to the song we chose as she is more of a
mainstream type of person. However, in general she really liked it rating it a 9 for editing, 8 for sound,
camerawork a 9 and synchronising of sound another 9. Her comments were as follows: “ it was a good mix of
performance and narrative, and they fitted well together.” when asked if she would watch it again she replied: “yes
I like the song and the video but it could have more of a clearer storyline”. The only issues she found were that
parts of the music video were blurry which didn’t fit well together with the rest of the music video.

10. • The second person I asked was my sister who is 22. We have similar tastes to music so she immediately liked the
sound of the music video. All together, she rated the editing and sound an 8, the camerawork a 9 and the
synchronising an 8. Her comments were very similar to the previous person. Saying that there was a good mix
between narrative and performance and the acting was very well done; the only things she said could be
improved was the editing, as she felt as though if we had added special effects then maybe it would have made
the music video a little bit more interesting, and like the previous person, she commented on the fact that some of
our shots were a little blurry which seemed a bit out of place next to focused shots.
• Mid-way in shooting we held a showcase to get reviews from our fellow classmates in which we received mixed
reviews. A number were happy with what we had achieved so far but on the other hand there were a handful of
people who were either confused as to what the narrative was about or what we were trying to get out of it/what
we were trying to portray. At this point after the feedback we had received all had mixed opinions about the song
choice. I personally did not think we had enough time to change the song as we had only one month left to
complete the project. I along with Shazmaa thought that the idea we had was pretty strong and we could develop
on it by being that bit more creative in our thinking. We both felt we were taking a big risk as our time was very
limited, as were the teachers. However once Kim and Eva explained to us why they thought we should change the
song from “we wont run” to “moon and moon” I soon realised as to why it would be a good idea. With the new
song, we already had a few shots where Kim was not singing which would be good for our cut aways, therefore all
we needed to do was film shot of her singing and the new narrative with Kim’s boyfriend Rory.
However after all that I now wish we had stuck to our original song, as there would be a lot less stress involved in
re-filming and getting it all finished in time for the deadline; and I still do believe that we could have done a very
good job with the previous song if we had worked extra hard.
I feel as though choosing a song within the genre of dream pop and indie, was a good choice as judging by the
reaction it was the best choice possible. As it has a good mix of pop and indie included therefore anyone could
enjoy it and not specifically the target audience. Anyone.
• As mentioned before I find that audience feedback is the best way to learn from your mistakes, and the audience
always tell the truth therefore are only being harsh for all the right reasons or visa versa. Feedback is another way
in which you can improve your work and make it the best that it can be, which is why the audience feedback is so
important for our coursework.

11. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of
constructing this product?
• For the duration of the course of making our music video I feel as though I have learnt a lot more about the
different technologies needed for making a music video than I did before starting this coursework and starting
media studies. For one I have learnt plenty more about filming, the different techniques that can be done in order
to make it the best it can be. I have also learnt a great deal during the process of editing. Before this piece of
coursework I was not very good at using apple mac computers’ software’s such as final cut express pro (and how
to edit a piece in general); however, after trying it out by myself and with my group I quickly got the hang of the
process and realised that in fact it is not as difficult as I thought it would be, and began to really enjoy this side of
making a music video.
• Throughout filming to keep in contact and updated with everyone in my group we made the most of the
technology around us, using our mobile phones and social networking sites such as facebook to contact each
other. This way we could organise our schedule (where and when we were shooting, editing, meeting etc) easily.
However, seeing as we did not have a group conversation going some people would get times wrong or dates
wrong therefore I found that my group could have taken extra care to make sure that we did, and I strongly advice
that to future students as it will be very useful and will help keep you organised.
Whilst filming we took as help as we could get from technology. Not only did we have the camera’s the school
gave us, but also Eva’s iPhone camera, which was of great use when for example there was not enough battery
on the sony camera. This is also part of convergence, when there is more than one use of a phone: having a built
in camera or using it to play our backing music on whilst filming. We found that the iPhone especially had brilliant
quality video in comparison to the camera’s we were given, the only problem we faced was the fact that it could
not fit on the tri pod given, so it really tested us in order to keep our shots still.
Right through the process of editing my group and I had to teach ourselves how to use final cut pro express, as we
were all more familiar with iMovie. The advantage however – to the programme and technology – is that the
programme was easy to work around and not too daunting and seeing as we are all digital natives, born with
technology around us it was not extremely out of our depth.

12. • An additional disadvantage to the software ‘final cut express’ was the uploading process, which was very time
consuming. At times when we had uploaded the whole tape the software would shut it self down losing all of our
work with it, meaning we would have to upload it yet again. Maybe we were doing something wrong/ we did not
know how to use it properly or it is just how the programme runs at times, but it lost us a lot of time in the editing
process of the coursework.
• We found the hardware at hand very useful. Especially the tri-pod, which helped us steady all of our shots. If we
did not have the tri pod with us at all times our music video would not be up to scratch for a group of A2 students.
However as mentioned before whilst filming with the iPhone we could not use the tri-pod which was a very
challenging experience for my group.
The camera at hand, was of quite good quality, the only disadvantage was the fact that it kept going out of focus
from time to time which was hard for us as we could not get the quality we wanted out of particular shots. But we
tried our best to improvise with the shots we had, by making the out of focus shots out to represent our
character’s confused and unclear thoughts.
Other technologies at hand were lighting, this in particular was very useful, especially during the course of the
photo shoot and the shots where our character is singing. The lighting was not a problem for us as our school
have professional – high quality lighting. This was a great advantage to have. In making my digipack I found the
software Adobe Photoshop extremely useful, without such a software, I doubt my digipack would be up to
standard as I would not have had the right editing facility. The only thing which frustrated me about photoshop
was the fact the it was extremely difficult to save the pictures edited as a photo to upload onto the internet,
therefore I had to resolve to taking it as a picture on my camera, that meant not having the amount of quality as
when edited.
The fact that we could also update all our work onto the internet was a great help as we did not have to write a
long essay, and update our blog as much as possible and whenever we could/ as things were happening so we
did not forget to write something in particular.
One thing in particular that I would change if I could was the way we put together our music video. We had very
limited time to edit as everything was left to last minute due to the song change, which I massively and openly
regret. If we did have the time to do more, the one thing I would to was make our music video seem a little bit
more professional, adding in as many effects as possible, even something small like a fade, to make it that much
more interesting and to add a bit of life to it.
The one piece of advice I would give to people taking the subject next year would be to organise your time well,
and make full use of the technology at hand, as you may not realise how lucky you actually are to have such high
quality software and hardware given.