The document discusses the evaluation of a media production project. It summarizes the ways the project used and developed conventions from Ed Sheeran's "A Team" music video. These included genre, narrative structure, characters, themes, and a simplistic black and white style. An album cover and poster were also created to accompany the project. Various media technologies were used for research, planning, filming and editing. Audience feedback praised the realistic portrayal of social issues and atmospheric style, while also providing suggestions for improvement.

1. Evaluation of Media Production
Leah Beckett

2. In what ways does your media product use/develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
 As a group we were influenced by Ed Sheeran’s music video “A Team”
 We particularly liked:
 The genre and the narrative
 The use of simple shots, real locations and natural lighting
 The mise en scene - simple but powerful and effective
 The use of black and white imagery throughout the video
 We used Sheeran’s conventions and developed them further to make the
video more unique and in our own style

3. The Conventions of Our Video
 Camera Shots/Movements
 Long shots – visual description of location
 Tracking shots – movement of the characters
 Panning shots – combining visual description o location and movement of characters
 Mid shots - to provide additional detail and enhancement of story line
 Close up shots – to show facial expressions, thoughts and emotions of the characters
 Simplistic but expressive filming
 Use of RAW
 Hand held technique – to make it more realistic
 Use of Nikon DSLR D3100
 Use of 18mm – 55mm Nikon Lense
 Use of unfocussed shots
 Combination of short and long depth of fields

4. Narrative Theory
 Narrative represents lyrical content in song and reflects a
sense of story
 Narrative follows two main characters
 Use of multiple shots to show simple narrative
 Characters acting/echoing the narrative
 Audience being told what is happening through the lyrics as
well as the series of visual events
 Always a structure in the narrative – start, middle, end
 Restrictive narrative range
 Not all the narrative information is revealed to the
audience
 Audience gets impression of characters’ social classes
 Limited information as to why the character is in that
particular situation
 Limited use of miming the lyrics as wished the story to
be as realistic as possible and as similar to Sheeran’s
video as possible

5. Genre
 Social realism
 Realistic settings, events and situations
 Hard luck
 Working class heroes
 Life struggles
 Experiences of real Britons
 Conventions

6. Characters
 Working class heroes overcoming their situations, dealing with their issues, not
doing what s expected of them
 Portrayed as every day people – mainly from working class backgrounds and
deprived areas
 Influences by characters from Sheeran’s “A Team” and the character Mia from
“Fishtank”

7. Themes/Plot
 Desiring a better way of life and trying to achieve it
 Bettering themselves
 Focusses on young people and their futures
 Following an ordinary day to day life
Camera/Filming
 RAW filming
 POV and tracking shots
 Close ups to portray emotions and feelings
 Narrow depth of field

8. Post Production
 Cross cutting to link different characters’ story lines
 Slow pace to reflect real life
 Simple cuts to add realism/no effects
Fish Tank
 Fish Tank is a social realism film which has influenced us significantly

9. Mise en Scene
 Mise en scene – location built up estate, urban and working class
area
 Cheap casual clothing worn by characters – track suits, hoodies
 Use of dim, natural lighting
 Audience has prior knowledge of the characters’ social class
because of the mise en scene and series of events
 Colour – black and white to emphasise the mood of the
song/creating an emotive atmosphere
 Sound -

10. How effective is the combination of your main
media product and ancilliary texts?
Our album cover

11.  Album cover shot in Cambridge using various locations - logistical
research undertaken. Wanted to use busy locations which reflect real
aspects of life
 Wanted the images to be in a social documentary style
 Images are in black and white – they mirror the black and white of the
video
 Link to main video using black and white and social documentary style
 Strong link to genre of video – urban location, busy city centre
 Images edited to be gritty which reflects the whole atmosphere and
feel of the video
 ‘My Life’ image – clear link between the images and a shot in the
video, as the male character in the video is shown in this position. The
use of colour in the image states that when everything is grey and
gloomy there are brighter spells of colour and happiness.
 Use of splashes of colour linked to positivity and the characters’
abilities to turn their lives around
 Simple shots which link to the simplicity of the video
 Simple post production

12. Poster
As well as creating a album cover we were given the brief to
create a poster adverting in the release date of the album

13.  Influenced by an image we found on line of Ed Sheeran in a music studio
 Wanted simplicity to focus on the artist as the artist hasn’t been featured
in the music video
 Use of studio highlights the singer’s role and emphasises the creativity
involved in producing a track and reflects the life of the artist. There is a
contrast as the main product and the album cover focused on the lives of
the characters.
 Links to video by the use of black and white
 Simple shot
 Use of black and white with splashes of colour links strongly to the main
image on the album cover
 Simplicity and use of black and white links the main product and anciliary
texts together

14. Here is the image that we were influenced by for our poster

15. How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
Here are a series of media technologies that as a group we used for our
production
YouTube- to do research into real
conventions of media as well as
researching into several of Ed
Sheeran’s music videos. We also
used YouTube to listen to the track
that we are using for the song.
Twitter- We used twitter
to tweet the artist that
made the track to ask
permission if we could
use it as part of our
production.
ITunes- we used
iTunes to listen to
the work of Ed
Sheeran.

16. Picasa 3- We used Picasa to edit the poster. For example we added
text to the image and arranged it in the order and place that we
wanted it. The software is on my own personally computer at home ,
know how to work it as I have used it many times. Easy and reliable
software to edit on.
Photoshop- Used Photoshop to edit the
image that we have used for the poster. I
adjusting the levels to make the colours
much darker and standout and to create
more of a gritty and urban feel. I also
edited the image in black and white used
Photoshop several times before as part of
my photography so was no problem's
editing the images.
Google- Google was the biggest source that we
used for our research and planning. We
researched several things such as, narrative
theory , genre, camera shots and the director
that directed the A Team video “ Ruskin Kyle”.

17. Pixlr – an online editing software for images. It was
on this software I edited the album cover images. I
adjusted the colours and cropped the images as well
as adding effects such as blur. I have used this
editing software many times before due to my
photography so I had an idea of what would look
effective and knew what types of effects there were.
https://pixlr.com/express/
IPhone- We used our Iphones to take the images that
are part of the album cover. We also used our iphones
to communicate within the group as well as using
them to communicate with the characters as well as
the people helping us record the track. We used them
to send emails to one another as well as emails to our
teachers about the production.
Nikon DSLR D3100- used the
Nikon for the filming. As it was
my own camera felt confident
and knew what I was doing.

18. Canon 600D- we used the canon for
taking the poster image as I forgot to
bring my Nikon so we used a fellow
students camera instead .I had never
used this camera but found it easy to
use and really liked it
Movie plus x6- we used this software for all of our
production editing. I am familiar with this software as
I used it last year for the editing of my as production.
However, I found this year I have learnt more about
the software. On the software I edited the clips
together as well as adding effects such as black and
white and motion blur. I changed the speeds of the
clips as well as the lighting , contrast and exposure. I
also muted the clips so the only sound is the sound of
the track and the artist.

19. PowerPoint- I used PowerPoint to
create my slideshows. This
software is something I haven't
used much before but found I
easy and really effective to use.
All of these media technologies that I have listed
were all a major part in the research and planning of
our video . The products and programme's were all
in vital in the creative and the overall making of the
production task.

20. What have you learnt from audience feedback?
The music video was shown to a number of different aged indiduvals.
The feedback that was given is summarised below.
 Realistic/topical
 use of realistic situations
 Poverty, homelessness ,deprived urban areas
 Stereotypical of urban youths
 Realistic portrayed of different areas of society.
 Dramatic
 sense of anticipation/mystery anxiousness
 What is going to happen? Sinister feel
 Drama increases as the video continues there's a constant sense of anticipation and
edginess .
 Atmospheric
 dark
 Gloomy
 Depressing
 Edgy
 Intense
 The black and white heightens the atmosphere

21.  Beginning
 sense of anticipation anxiousness- what is going to happen? Very dark
atmosphere almost frightening increase throughout the video.
 Emotive
 sad, feel for the characters, want to help them
 Simplistic filming like the use of black and white as it intensifies the
drama.
 Good representation of society
 Lyrics powerful clearly link to the scenes/ actions in the video
 Modern
 use of young people
 Rap, rap associated with urban youths
 Modern clothing
 Very realistic – working class people , character believable

22.  Clever use of image , locations , lighting – simple but
powerful
 Lack of props makes viewer focus on the characters-
there are no distractions or no bright colours.
 The black and white links to the greyness of the
situation in the video. Black and white represents the
depression and the deprived areas.
 Left open , no final happy ending. Thought provoking
, what happens next?

23. What I personally have learnt from the audience feedback
 Good idea to brainstorm ideas
 Learnt how to create something realistic that gives off a powerful message
 Learnt that powerful messages and emotions can be delivered through
filming an lyrics of a song
 How to take a concept , what I want to get out of it and how to develop it
 To take an idea and something that inspires you , and create something
original and unique
 Learnt how to link different media’s together to produce a consistent
theme / style of work
 How to take a genre and create work based on/around that particular
genre
 That I can create something similar to “ A Team”

24. Overall I have really enjoyed the
process of the production and am
extremely happy with the outcome