The document provides a critical evaluation of a music video the author produced. It discusses how the video uses conventions of the genre while challenging others. It aimed to portray the artist as a performer rather than stereotype. Dark backgrounds and close-ups were used to create a mood of loneliness reflecting the song's lyrics. Supporting materials like the DVD and ad used consistent branding to promote the artist. Feedback found editing was most liked, and the location was least liked, though necessary due to constraints. The author would change the location and add effects if producing it again.

1. Critical Evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our video represents many aspects of the genre relating to our artist. the main part of this is the performance aspect, our artist does not have strong stereotypical links to the alternative genre and we did not want to emphasise his persona in any way but to show the true artist. This was achieved by using the artist as the only main visual on the dark background. We wanted to portray him as a performer and not a stereotype so we decided to pull away from the Goodwin theory of a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals, we and the artist wanted a ‘visual skin’ for the track rather than a video with narrative. This amplifies the performance aspect of his persona, this was what we wanted to promote in the video. Although we wanted to pull away form this aspect of most music videos we still included lip-sync into the track, but this was to help promote the artist as he is not well known. We took inspiration for the Madonna video ‘frozen’ we wanted to capture the lonely visual of one person on their own in a bleak surrounding. Also we took inspiration for the clothing from this video by having our artist wear black trousers and black mascara but decided to have a white t-shirt so he predominantly stands out form the dark background but holding on to the dark, moody theme. We utilised his image for bands like Placebo also, to help emphasise his look on the video and his star persona. We wanted to have a code/convention of loneliness felt from having the ‘secrets’ being sung about in the video. We tried to portray this in the shots we used. Having Sean move about on the screen position and having a mix of medium close ups make him look alone and lost whilst dancing. Unlike many commercial music videos there is not a great deal of action within the video. I think this helps to promote the video as individual and alternative, also it relates to the tempo and content of the track as there is little in the way of action in the music as it has a moody theme and this is shown in the simple visuals of the video.

3. How effective is the combination of main product and supporting texts? The main supporting texts for my video were the DVD digipak and the Magazine advert. In these productions I tried to use a consistent house style throughout to try to advertise the artist by branding him in these productions. His iconic dress sense and style is portrayed through he texts to help promote the artist and his music. Using grey and dark colours throughout promote his alternative genre of music and performance and this colour pallet is continued throughout the production pieces. The positioning of the artist in these texts is important too, we tried to position the artist so that he is the main subject in all the texts. Having the artist standing looking towards the camera helps to promote his look and to be recognised by the audiences to boost his publicity. also, because we and the artist didn’t want a narrative track but a visual skin for the track, the artist is the only thing important in all the shots to ensure there is no narrative as adding in other subjects to the texts would add narrative of some kind. I used similar images for the magazine advert and the digipak. I did this as it brands the artist in a way. The use of similar images allows the audience to relate the advert and the digipak together and promotes the artist further. This use of branding was used in the magazine advert in the use of the logo, I super imposed the artists logo onto his lower back to boost his star persona.

4. What have I learned from audience feedback? From the audience feedback questionnaire produced from survey monkey I have learnt that firstly many people enjoyed the video and the majority rated the video as excellent. This is good for our production as we have managed to produce a video that the public enjoyed. Secondly, we learnt from the audience that the part people liked most was the editing compared to the camera work, lighting and location. This shows that the editing style was the right style to choose as it is the audiences favourite part of the video. I learnt that most people would expect to see the video on youtube or on digital music channels. This is constructive as it would help to promote the artist as the video would become easily accessible on the internet and the fact that most people now consume media online it means the video has a larger target audience, also I wanted the video to be able to fit in with other conventional videos online which it has. From the feedback I also discovered that the part of the video liked least was the location, this is understandable form my point of view as the shoot location was not my first choice, I did test filming on the beach and in a wooded area for ideas about the video but artist availability and deadlines meant that our footage would be best off in the studio.

5. How did I use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stage I used a range of different media technologies in the production of this project. The main technology used for this production is the internet. It proved to be an essential tool in the project, I first used it for research and planning, watching other music videos and researching different music video producers to determine what styles to use for my video. The internet was also used once I had completed the video, the video was uploaded to youtube and the artist’s own website to start publicising the video. I also used the websites Ning to document and store all my work on the internet where it is easily accessible as it is a social networking site, survey monkey to design and publish surveys, Slideshare to convert PowerPoint presentations to be able to embed onto ning and blogspot to keep up to date with college assignments and help with different parts of the production. The use of the internet played a key role in this production in the use of different websites to research and publish my video and for essential communication, the use of e-mail and instant messaging kept us in touch with the artist and enable us to communicate ideas and also set up shots. The main software that I used for the production is Adobe premier pro to edit the test footage and the final video. I learnt a lot of valuable skills whilst using premier pro to help achieve different effects and styles even if they were not shown in the final video. I used PowerPoint presentation and word processor a lot in the production to present my ideas and my work to others in a professional way. I also used Adobe Photoshop to design the digipak and the magazine advert.

6. Continued… The main hardware I used for this production was the HD camera used for not only the studio shot for the final piece but also was used a lot in the planning stage filming test footage and our first shoot. The use of the mobile phone proved vital for communication between us and the artist. We used green screen in the first video shoot we did but turned out to make the video look less professional and the quality of the images was too bad to use for the final video. I also used a camera tripod to film long exposures for our test footage.

7. What would I do differently If I had the chance to produce this music video again I would: Change the location to add more detail to the video and pull in more interest as there is more going on in the video. I would like to film the video at a deserted beach or in a bleak environment to add to the lonely theme of the video. I would also add in long exposure shots and intersperse this into the video background. this would make the video look more professional and interesting. If the artist wanted the same ‘visual skin’ for the track and not narration I would like to have some form of theme throughout the video so that the video doesn’t seem boring if there is more action in the video. I would want to have some form of after effects to make the video more impressive and professional to make it more popular. The first video we produced was a green screen video with long exposures imposed into the background. The idea was to have the artist in a variety of different environments which have been shot in long exposure however the quality of the footage we filmed was not of good quality and it was decided to re-film the video in a different way to make it simpler and more effective. From the first video we made, I would want to take some aspects to include into our final production of the video if I was to shot it again. I would want to include the long exposure shots with the artist in them to make the video more symbolic and moving. I would also like to have shot some of the video on the beach, even though this would be the same as the other video made for Sean for the same track. However I would want the video to be more like the Madonna frozen video as this was the video we took inspiration from and the long shots of the artist in a deserted place would have some link to the lyrics of the song.