The student produced a music video and ancillary texts of a digipak and website for a media studies course. They received mostly positive feedback but also learned areas for improvement. Specifically, they learned they should have included more lip syncing in the video, shown the guitarist's face, and reduced the amount of guitar playing to make the narrative more engaging. They effectively used a variety of media technologies like websites, blogs, and video editing software throughout the project.

1. Evaluation

2.  In my music video, the conventions of real media products are embedded purposefully. My
chosen music video genre portrayed the same conventions I used throughout. As the genre I
chose is already challenging the typical music video, I felt that relating to the current music
videos was more important than creating it from a different perspective.
 I kept the mise-en-scene very simplistic like other videos I have seen, in order to appreciate
the location I chose and move the audience’s interest to the beauty of the landscape more
than the narrative itself. The most prominent theme was the range of shots I had seen in
other videos. To capture the environment well, a range of different shots had to be used to
set the scene and establish the location. Therefore, I felt that the wide shots were ultimately
the most important part of the conventions used.
 If I were to challenge the conventions rather than develop them, I would risk losing my
target audience and not be successful. So by sticking to the norm, I was reassured that my
target audience would still want to watch my music video.
In what ways does your media product use, develop, or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

3.  My media studies coursework required me to produce a music video and
ancillary texts of a digipak and a website. In order to have these products work
effectively together I made a conscious effort to remain committed to the main
conventions of my music video genre. This meant I would not stray adrift from
my target audience, and that I would have a strong and effective combination of
products.
 Firstly, the website helped me gain knowledge of the range of colours I should
embed into my video. And also the kind of theme I should try to follow in my
own work. Other websites of artists from this genre created theirs in a similar
way, so I felt in order to be effective, I should follow these guidelines.
 For the digipak, I noticed that artists from this music genre don’t overcomplicate
their designs. Sometimes it can be as straight forward as just the artist’s name.
Therefore, I decided to keep this simplistic also to relate as closely as possible to
these artists. Although the digipak is arguably challenging to the other two
products, I still believe it is effective because large title makes the disk more
eyecatching and the artist name more memorable.
How effective is the combination of your main
product and ancillary texts?

4.  My audience feedback was generally successful; the majority of my comments were complimentary.
This ensured me that the conventions that I used were effective as predicted and that following the
guidelines of other alternative artists proved most constructive.
 However, certain aspects of my video were weaker than the rest including the “lack of lip syncing”.
My music video only has one line of lip syncing in the whole video which originally I thought made it
more powerful than lip syncing throughout. Now, I see that I should have embedded more lip
syncing as one line seems very questionable and pointless compared to several lines.
 It was also made aware to me that not showing the guitarist’s face in the video was
“disappointing”. By hiding the face, I intended to shift the focus onto the playing rather than the
actor, and separate the guitarist from the narrative. However, I now understand that I should have
perhaps put together a whole band and show their faces to make the video more effective.
 In addition to this, it was also made clear to me that there may have been too much guitar which
made the video less effective. Therefore, I understand that I probably should have added to the
narrative and the storyline to minimize the amount of guitar playing. Or maybe should have come
up with a separate narrative to make the video more captivating.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?

5.  I used a variety of media technologies in the production of my music video. Firstly, the
research was mostly done by websites such as Google and Youtube. The majority of my
research came from Google as I found there was a large range of information to gain
knowledge from. This helped me understand what I needed to reflect in my own video.
 Furthermore, to present all the work done throughout the year, I used the website
Edublogs. Edublogs is an easy to use blogging website, useful for posting regular updates on
what part of production I’m in.
 I also used sites like prezi and slideshare to present information in a more interesting way.
This way, I could keep my blog interesting.
 With previous problems with the school’s editing software, where work did not save
properly, I decided to use iMovie from my Macbook. I found this much easier to use and just
as effective as the other software.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?