2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our media product uses the typical conventions of a rock-genre music video by including performance aspects coupled with a narrative aspect (which could be seen as controversial). The performance shots include a wide variety of camera shots such as close-ups, medium close-ups, mid-shots and low angles which are put together to create fast moving edits which cut and change to the beat of the song. This fits the conventions of the genre and keeps the interest of the viewer, whilst making it seem energetic and busy. The transitions are simple to imply realism within the video and allows the band to seem more down-to-earth as they do not need to make themselves look better with unnecessarily over-the-top edits. This also helps the target audience relate more to the band. The only other transition we have used is a fade which indicates the audience’s withdrawal from the females mind into reality, where it is shown that she is in a comatose state. The mise-en-scene plays an important part in creating the atmosphere in the video, both in the introduction and during the main part. The introduction is stylistic in the way that the colour seems to have been drained out of everything, apart from the red lighting. This implies that the female character is depressed with only the colour red making an impression on her. Red connotes blood and danger so represents what she has done and how her guilt is affecting her sanity. The costumes we have used during the main part of the video are dark and connote an uncaring attitude which is stereotypically something bands in the rock-genre wear within their videos. The lighting is also dark and dull to create an eerie atmosphere. The use of the green screen allowed us to have a speckled effect during the performance and a dissolving background to indicate the woman’s descent into insanity which adds to the strange, grungy atmosphere. The conventions are challenged because we have used a female as the main character, rather than using the lead singer which expands the appeal to a female audience. This also challenges the stereotypes associated with rock bands as they are all generally male and rebellious. The woman is seen as vulnerable and distraught which is very different to the tough persona we generally see in other rock videos. Our narrative includes sensitive issues such as depression, drink driving, relationships and mental illness which is different to the rebellious attitude which comes across in other rock videos.
3. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? A similar theme runs between our video, website and DVD cover because of the colour schemes and images used. We have used the red and black wall within the website because, whilst researching other, similar band websites, we found that the most effective background was something simple and easy to remember to enable the target market to instantly associate the design with the band. The red and black generally have negative connotations which links in with the rebellious attitude that bands want to portray. The heart logo hanging by a rope was originally on the Used album in 2002 but we felt that we should incorporate this within our website and DVD cover because it relates to the situation between the woman and lead singer- it connotes death and heartbreak. Some of our pictures are in the style of Alex Pardee which is also commonly associated with the Used, so we thought it would be appropriate because it links in with the theme and style. By using the same theme throughout each of our media products, we have created a continuous image of the band that is rebellious and tough.
4. What have you learned from your audience feedback? To assess how successful we were in attracting our target audience we created a poll on our blog and also uploaded the video to YouTube, where people can comment on the pros and cons. From the comments and votes we have received, we have found that, overall, the video is liked by our target audience. The green screen is an interesting feature that we have used in most of the scenes (but would’ve been better if the lighting was brighter and the screen was of a better quality).
5. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Research Within this stage we used: The blog to present the information The internet to research Television and DVDs to analyze appropriate videos Planning Filming locations and props A digital camera to photographically record our plans (such as costume etc.) Storyboarding The blog Construction Video camera Green screen Photoshop to create the backgrounds Adobe premier to edit together the footage Evaluation Microsoft PowerPoint The blog
