This is my evaluation on my final media product, analyzing the aspects that were good and bad.

1. Evaluation …
By Anna-May Carey

2. 1)In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In A2 Media, we have had to create a music video; I was greatly impassioned by the prospect. I
decided to explore Eminem’s notorious single, ‘Stan’. In the original music video, the narration’s
point-of-view revolves around Stan and not his girlfriend. Therefore, I wanted to explore her story
and the development of their relationship with a gender role-reversal for subversive effect.
This song has disturbing themes and explicit lyrics which we wanted to convey with distinctive
imagery and edgy storytelling techniques. The ideological emphasis of our music video centred
around the theme of self-esteem and interpersonal relationships - about how people don’t always
appreciate the people in their life and always want better but if they just stopped to appreciate
the person in their life they would be pleasantly surprised. Sometimes, the best way to convey a
message is through shock tactics.
In my music video, Stan’s girlfriend is getting abused and she has so many occasions to walk away
but doesn’t until it gets too much to the point where she takes her life. This subverts the
conventions of the music video because I didn’t want to give Stan the power of taking away her
life as he has already broken her physically and mentally.

3. For my music video, I felt it was important present the music video on a media platform that
allowed my target audience to have access to it. The media platforms that I used to were Blogger
and Vimeo as well as showing my fellow peers at school, this allowed my target audience to get
their own perspective on this subversive music video as well as giving me feedback on it on my
theme and how my music video conveyed the gender reversal role .
However with my ancillary tasks which were; Digipack – CD Cover and a Magazine Advert I only
used Blogger as I had created a Magazine Advert and a CD Cover in Adobe’s Photoshop with
which I created to have a complimentary purpose on my music video and allowing my target
audience to understand how in this patriarchal society we are dominated but we all have a
chance become independent as Stan’s girlfriend does.
The genre of my music video is; Hip-Hop and Rap which are considered controversial genres as
they talk about being rebellious and being subversive to society’s forms and conventions by using
legal and illegal substances as well as empowering men because they are able to use woman as
objects for sex. I feel like I haven’t conformed to these forms and conventions but I have included
male dominance as well as legal substances; vodka.

4. However I have not conformed to the stereotypical conventions of a Hip-Hop music
video. I haven’t included suburban areas or obligating my main character to wear
a lot of gold and this song doesn’t have a fast tempo or a loud bass effect so
therefore it is considered a controversial song not only due to the lyrics but to the
fact that its tempo is slow.
As well I included a post-modern effect known as stop motion which Hip – Hop
music videos don’t usually include and I have yet to find one that uses it at all.
Therefore I would say that my music video does imitate and from my research is
very subversive.
My music video includes elements that our ‘perfect’ society try to hide. One of the
shots in my music video is the symbolisation of self-harm which I felt is important
to acknowledge because a lot of teenagers face problems in their life and use this as
a scape goat. I have realised our society doesn’t touch much on this topic I feel this
is because they don’t want to acknowledge that there are problems out there that
we need to face together, to help prevent this happening.

5. Also I created a six minute video which some people could classify as subversive as the majority of
music videos apply the ‘MTV’s three minute rule’ as well it allows them to create a short narrative
and nothing too complex as it only lasts for three minutes, whereas I could be ambitious and
discover elements that a three minute video couldn’t. I feel like I did not obey to the forms and
conventions as I was quite subversive with my music video and explored aspects not many other
students have.
With my music video I don’t feel like it was a conscious decision of mine to be subversive and not
conform I just found this music video thought-provoking and wanted to add my own take on it as
well as exploring gender role-reversal. As well we were studying elements in class that we may want
to include in our music video and I felt intrigued by some of the ideas; one being stop motion.
Although other members of my class did not include an obvious post-modern element like stop
motion they did include post-modernism within their music video, take for example Eva, Ellen and
Aimee’s group included symbolisation of the crow explaining that it was their main character
breaking free, this was similar to my symbolisation of the self harm. As well as making the music
sounding like it was actually underground in their train scene. I feel like it was a decision that wasn’t
conscious because I felt like I would enjoy exploring certain media techniques that I wasn’t aware of
last year and also felt it would suit my music video exceptionally well.

6. I feel my conventions in my music video have proven successful because it communicates my
narrative/theme in a way that is subversive to Eminem’s music video as the narration just walks
you through everything that is going on. It has created enigmatic with my target audience
because it is never shown that Stan’s girlfriend ends her life and therefore it makes my audience
ask more questions and consider all possible endings.
As well when first creating my music video I felt having these conventions in place allowed me to
make improvements or changes. Take for example, the fact that I was going to have the car
crashing over a bridge in stop motion this was then changed to the abusive relationship as I felt it
would be more achievable to do stop motion on abusive relationship than on a car. This shows
that I was constantly changing my ideas and my music video plans because I may have been too
ambitious at the beginning. My music video now is totally different to my original plans but I feel
this has allowed me to explore more aspects and be more subversive with my main theme,
evolving my music video.

7. In my music video I feel I contributed an awful lot, for example I done a lot of the filming and
editing that took place. I filmed the car scene with my actor playing Stan, as well as the bed room
scene with my two main actors, also I filmed Eminem’s rap at the end, as well as, the stop motion,
the drama room scene with Stan writing letters and the funeral car scene. When filming these
shots I knew exactly what image I wanted to capture to reinforce my main theme and I felt that
was demonstrated by my use of different shots and symbolisation within certain shots.
As well when it came to editing I edited the beginning of the music video along with the car scene,
the end rap, and the stop motion, where I made it monochrome which means black and white as
well as adding the odd transition where necessary within my music video. I have always been a
fan of Eminem and I feel he is an amazing role model, this inspired me to do a fan music video
because all of his songs having meaning. I wanted to create a music video with the same powerful
message as well as including post-modern elements and communicating some ideologies and the
fact that our society is patriarchal which needs to be changed.

8. 2)How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?
In my music video I feel the most important element was the stop motion because it
communicated Stan and his girlfriend’s relationship and their individual object for one another.
Therefore when it came to deciding what I would include in my ancillary tasks I knew I would
incorporate them because they communicating my main theme the most excellently. Hence I used
screenshots of the stop motion and added them into Adobe’s Photoshop where I went on to
develop my ancillary tasks.
For my font I decided to use the site ‘1001 Fonts’ as I felt there would be more of an choice of what
font I could use. It then went on to develop into the images which I am extremely proud of as this
was my first time using Adobe’s Photoshop and I feel I developed something to be happy with
while complementing my music video and developing my media skills. As well due to the stop
motion being monochrome (black and white), I decided it would be perfect if my ancillary tasks
tied in with the colour scheme of it and this would pull all of it together nicely.

10. I think my ancillary tasks are very successful as they communicate the theme of my music
video, whilst creating enigmatic and making my target audience engrossed, consequently
wanting to watch it. I feel very content with it because although I could have made them
more complex I feel my music video has multifaceted concepts throughout and this needs
to be simple it will create the greatest impact as it will promote my music video and draw
peoples attention.
As well it may make them consider what the music video could be about and therefore
they could make up some ideologies on the music video and consequently when they
watch it they could be surprised or disappointed. However when I showed most people
the reaction I received was impressed and surprised that an A-Level student had that I
had that much potential. I am very pleased when it comes to my ancillary tasks as I feel
they meet the expectations that I wanted as well it was my first time creating an
ancillary task and I feel it suited my music video and that’s the main purpose of it so that
it creates synergy with the main product.

11. 3)What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
I designed my own questionnaire to get peoples opinions written down on paper so they could be
as honest as they wanted to be. I will present below my questionnaire along with the responses I
got from my fellow peers.
1. What were the strengths and weaknesses of this music video?
Sharon: Strength - Effective song and acting, lyrics to visualisation applied. Weakness - The
variety of scenes were limited i.e. zooming in on eyes, mouth and writing as well the lip syncing.
Sarah: Strength - Fast editing. Weakness - Lip syncing
Renique: Strength: Editing. Weakness: Lip Syncing
Moya: Strength - Very good use of images that convinced the tone of the music. Weakness -
Difficult to concentrate as the editing was very fast.

12. 2.Did you find it subversive?
Sharon: Yes included intertextuality and stop motion which was very effective.
Sarah: I feel the stop motion was subversive as I have never seen it in a rap music video before.
Renique: I found the stop motion subversive.
Moya: Yes because stop motion isn’t used in the rap genre.
3.What part of the music video was your favourite?
Sharon: Where the guy expressed his anger and stress in solo performance.
Sarah: The rapping.
Renique: The stop motion scene.
Moya: The symbolisation of the woman cutting herself.

13. 4.Were there any parts of the music video we could have improved?
Sharon: Show what happened to Stan’s girlfriend.
Sarah: Lip Syncing.
Renique: The end, we need to discover what happened.
Moya: Lip Syncing.
5.Did you notice any post-modern elements within our music video?
Sharon: Yes the storyline I think.
Sarah: The stop motion.
Renique: Stop motion and lyrics on screen.
Moya: Stop motion I think.
6.What genre do you think our music video was?
Sharon: Rap
Sarah: Rap
Renique: Hip-Hop
Moya: Rap

14. 7.What age group do you think our music video was aimed at?
Sharon: 17 + year olds
Sarah: 18 year olds
Renique: 17-18 year olds
Moya: 16-18 year olds
8.Did you find our main characters suitable for this music video?
Sharon: I don’t think they were.
Sarah: Yes they played the characters excitingly.
Renique: Yes very good actors.
Moya: Yes.

15. I feel that this feedback has been effective because it has allowed both positive and negative
feedback as well as giving me an insight into my target audience’s ideologies on my subversive
music video. Although I felt disappointed with the fact that the lip syncing wasn’t perfect I knew I
had tried my hardest and so had the actor it is very hard to get it perfect especially as it is a rap,
as well certain words were blanked out due to them not being explicit language. However I’m very
satisfied that people were aware of the post-modern elements and found the stop motion very
effective as well as being able to understand my main theme.

16. 4)How did you use media technologies in the
construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
In AS media studies, we had to create an opening for a film. With this I learnt the basic construction which
was being able to cut the clips, add some transitions and make it black and white as well as creating our
own sound track. I feel this is because last year I did not know as much as I do now, as well I didn’t ask my
peers or teacher for help because I felt I could work independently. Whereas this year I asked for help
when necessary and I felt this has developed my technical skill as well as the construction of my music
video because I knew what improvements to make.
This year compared to last I have used Photoshop, a ‘Sony Bloggie MHS – TS20 8GB Touch Mobile HD Snap
Camera’ as well as a ‘Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-WX350W Superzoom Compact Camera’. As well I also
developed my Adobe Premier Pro skills because I was able to construct clips in a way that they blend and
flow one after another, this is shown in my main product compared to last year. Overall this year I was
more prepared and fully planned my whole music video. I feel overall this had a massive impact on the
developed of my product and I feel a lot more pleased this year compared to last as I feel I was more
prepared. Overall this year has been a lot better as I have developed new media skills, learnt about post-
modernism and how to apply it to a music video, I’m thoroughly proud of my music video and ancillary
tasks.