A2 Media Evaluation: Presentation slide

1. A2Media Evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My media product predominately uses conventions of real media products. My music video ‘Schools are Prisons’ has taken and developed some ideas from videos I analysed. I chose to have a simple linear narrative for my video to keep the audience engaged. My narrative follows Todorov’s theory of equilibrium, disequilibrium and new equilibrium. The entrapment of the students and the teachers power over them would be the equilibrium. It then moves on to the disruption of the equilibrium which is the students rebelling against the education system and causing chaos. The new equilibrium is the students breaking free which is signified by the flashbacks of the beginning followed by the students appearing in control.

3. I chose to shoot parts of the narrative in black and white to create a prison like atmosphere; this is a convention which my targeted audience would be used to. My audience are also used to having the band/artist as the main focus; I challenged this convention by having the story of my video as the main focus. Another genre convention I challenged is the band performance being on stage; instead I shot the performance in a band rehearsal room to use the idea of entrapment further. With this I have challenged Goodwin’s theory of a genre’s own style and iconography. However, as I have followed other punk conventions such as the dress code and fast paced editing my video also complies with the theory.

4. As well as challenging them, my music video does comply with many of Andrew Goodwin’s concepts. The first would be the relationship between the lyrics and visuals which I have clearly done in my video, e.g. ‘unable to respond to the beautiful world’ and this cuts to a panning shot of the students bored in detention. I aimed to show the meaning of the song through the visuals and was successful in doing so as my video portrays school as a prison simply influenced by the title of the song ‘schools are prisons’. Another concept would be the relationship between the music and visuals; I have followed this theory by changing shots according to the beat of the song. I used the fast pace of the song to establish the timing of my shots. Goodwin’s theory of a reference to the notion of looking is apparent in my video with shots from a window with bars to enhance the depiction of entrapment. The final theory is that there are intertextual references to TV, film and other music videos. I have references of other Sex Pistols songs written on a white board in graffiti such as ‘God save the Queen’, this is because my audience will recognise the lyrics as they will be familiar with the band already. Another reference is of Pink Floyd’s ‘Another Brick in the Wall’ which has a similar narrative of taking a stand against the education system. Like Pink Floyd’s video I also used an overly strict teacher who victimises certain students. As my video both displays and challenges conventions used in other punk videos I believe it fits in with other media products while standing out with its developed features.

5. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? I feel that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is good. I aimed to show clear visual links between all my products. I feel that this is important so my audience can relate the video to the digipak when they came across one or the other. As parts of my main product (my music video) are in black and white, I decided to make the image on my digipak black and white too. The teenager on my digipak is wearing the same shirt he wears in my music video so the audience can link the two together.

6. The conventions used on my digipak follow the genre of the song I used. The colours used on my digipak such as black, white and red follow the typical conventions of punk genre. I gathered this information from analysing real digipaks. The person used for the front image is the lead singer/character of my video which promotes him as an artist. As safety pins are a typical punk feature I used an image of one of the CD cover along with the ransom note font used on many of the Sex Pistols and other punk albums. This was to make sure my ancillary texts are as appealing and identifiable for my target audience.

7. To make my audience familiar with my digipak I used the front’s image for the magazine advert. This way if my audience come across the advert and decide they would like to purchase the album they know exactly what they are looking for. By making strong visual links between all three of my products my audience will find it easier to link each of them together. The theme of my digipak relates back to the genre and message of the song, the boy on the front image is holding a mug shot board appearing as if he’s been nicked. The colour red represents the aggression and frustration of the song as well as the scribbles and rough edgy font used on the inside.

8. What have you learned from your audience feedback? I have learnt the importance of audience feedback and how useful it could be in building up to my final drafts. Using Facebook and surveymonkey.com I was able to gain feedback from my target audience on their response to the rough cut of my video which was a huge help. The feedback from my rough cut guided me while editing the final draft of my video. Without this feedback I would have not been able to judge on how my video had been received by members of my audience. I was already aware that the timing of my video needed improving and after getting feedback from the rough cut I was certain about this as my audience also commented on this. The response from my audience was mostly positive towards the storyline which made me feel confident in this area resulting in no changes to my narrative.

9. The feedback from the final draft of my video had some really good responses which proved that I had chosen the right audience. Posting the final draft of my video on Facebook helped me gather comments on what my audience liked about my video, what they didn’t like and how it was overall received.

10. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? Before starting the productions I had to ensure that I was familiar of the conventions of music video within the genre of the song I chose. The internet was a big help in exploring the conventions of punk videos. Using websites such as YouTube and music channels such as MTV Rock and Kerrang I was able to analyse the structure of punk rock videos, the mise-en-scene, and the pace of the editing. Goodwin’s theory of conveying the lyrics through the visuals was very useful while creating my video, though it was quite hard I was successful in applying this theory. Looking through videos of artists such as The Clash, Sex Pistols and Sum41 was useful in exploring the style of punk bands. The mise-en-scene was especially important to explore as this would be the main feature to attract the right audience.

11. I used new media technologies through all stages of developing my music video. I learned to use iMovie video editor where I produced my storyboard, rough cut and final draft of my video. iMovie allowed me to add special effects such as the black and white editing making my video look more professional. Though I was new to using a video camera I was already aware of which shots I needed from my storyboard which made it easier. It was all a matter of getting used to the equipment including the tripod which was particularly hard to begin with until I learnt how to adjust and move it.

12. Facebook was a big help in organising the filming of the narrative and performance of my video as I was able to keep in contact with all cast members letting them know the day, time, location and dress code for the event. It also played a big part in finding out if my video was successful where I was able to receive feedback from my target audience after posting the final draft of my video. Surveymonkey.com was also very useful for feedback on my rough cut. Overall the internet has been very helpful in my research and planning stages. Using Photoshop I was able to do all my ancillary texts and I believe that my digipak and magazine advert come out quite successfully with the software. This was most probably due to my being familiar with the software which made it easier during the production. Photoshop allowed me to transform my images, add text and move them around with ease which is why I was happy about using the program. To present this information I created a PowerPoint presentation which I found a simple and sophisticated way to communicate.