Media technologies played a key role in the construction of the music video and ancillary texts. YouTube and Google were used extensively for research and inspiration. Microsoft Word, Excel, and Blogger supported planning, tracking progress, and sharing work. A digital camera and flip cam were used to film footage. Imovie, After Effects, and Photoshop were the main programs used to edit footage, images, and construct the final products. Audience feedback on social media helped with evaluation and further improvements.

1. MEDIA EVALUATIONMEDIA EVALUATIONAfsar Miah, Raqhibul Islam, Gaith Taha

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Our media music video is similar and different in its own way to the music videos out on the market today. We decided
that we had to include similar forms and conventions to make the video recognisable for the audience. So we decided to
use the fast pace editing as a way of conforming to these conventions of real media products. A lot of the professional
videos have very fast pace cuts and transitions to show that it all flows together we wanted the same professional finish
and decided this is something that we had to keep the same. In addition to this it also made sense that our music video
was fast pace because of the up beat music. At first we all agreed that the use of animal costumes was not something we
would include. Many of the artists have started wearing animal consumes in their music video, after doing our survey we
realised this is something that the consumers enjoy about music videos and it does draw them in. So we all decided that
if we could bring the animal costume in to our music video and link it with the story line it would be a success. We all
agreed that it would be best when our main character wakes up from the night of partying before and realise the
craziness that happened last night. We decided to do a narrative that shows a clear story of the events that happened.
We wanted to show young people having a good time and how the city of London never sleeps with its nightlife. This
was key as the original video didn’t really have a storyline till the end when they go partying. We wanted to show how
people balance their free time with a full time job. Goodwin’s theory of the “link between lyrics and visuals” applies in a
huge way to our music video, the words “its getting late but I don’t mind” is repeated throughout and a lot of our shots
is late night in the club so these two coincide. This theory allows the audience to understand and believe the story line
even more and see that we are not just doing it for the sake of it, it is something we have personal experience with.
The area in which we wanted to challenge the forms and conventions of real music videos is where people think that you
need a lot of money to do a good music video. We wanted to show our audience that with a simple camera you are able
to give it a professional finish it matters about the camera angles/shots you take and the editing techniques you use. This
is the key in order to showcase a really well crafted music video. In addition to this the original video of “Memories”
used a lot of sexual downgrading of women. It doesn’t seem very clear but it shows small glimpse where the women are
recording this music video but they are naked and their private parts are blurred out. This applies heavily to Laura
Mulvey and her theory of “the male gaze”. We saw this as something we need to address and the way we can address
this is to show women in a positive light so in the working life and women dress smart in clubs.

3. Animal costume has been something of a recent hit with music videos. Artists such as Bruno Mars and Taylor
swift use it in their music videos. This new trend has rubbed off and we thought that it would be a good
involvement in our video. It also relates to the narrative so it ties in well with the storyline of partying and the
next day has it craziness. With this technique we conformed to conventions of the music industry. We needed
this typical reference point as the audience are able to relate to our video.

4. How effective is the combination of your
main product and ancillary texts?
The link between our main product (music video) and the ancillary tasks was key. We wanted to
show the similarities so we used similar colours and the overall setting of the video. The “clubbing
lifestyle” played a huge part and we wanted to keep this reoccurring theme through the images we
used in our ancillary tasks. As you can see our video includes the highs of party life and this was the
main images we used in our album cover and for the music magazine advert. We highlighted the fact
that we wanted all of this to be linked so it can be remembered. The bright lights and images of
clubbing is something that the audience will remember well.
We aimed to draw the consumers in through minimal use of writing. The age group we wanted to
attract were busy students/teenagers/young adults (17-24 year olds) these people will not have
much time to read so in our music magazine avert we decided to have striking images and bold texts
in order to attract them. After a short research task we decided that the best way to attract the age
group we want was through the use of minimal writing and through images. In addition to this by
adding a QR code on our magazine advert allowed the audience direct access to our video. This cut
out the long process of them trying to find the video. This was key as technology has advanced so
much and so many young people have android phones so they are able to view it on the go.

5. The link between the three pieces is the colour. We aimed to always have a
background and use bright colours on the foreground this allows it to stand
out more and be recognised. The colour plays a vital role as it is the main
theme of linking all three pieces together. In addition to this most of the
images have an element of London’s “night life” included again this link is
key as it relates each piece. This is typical of albums as they want it to be
recognisable so they have similar aspects.

6. What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
Audience feedback was vital in order for us to know if we have achieved what we set out to.
We wanted to see what people thought of our products in what way were they good and in
what way we needed to improve it. To allow us to take full advantage we released it before
the final due in date as we could go back and edit anything the consumers had said we
should put in. We received a lot of feedback which was positive. This feedback was positive
and negative which both helped us. Inevitably if the consumers mention something that we
didn’t do well or put in it was vital that we followed up on this because they are the people
who will be purchasing this item. We had to think hard about where we would put these
pictures and it was vital that we got it right, research showed us that Facebook and
Instagram was in high demand in social media. So we decided to create accounts that
showed off the work, this allowed people to view and comment on the pieces of work. It
allowed first hand interactions with customers and really get their viewpoints on what we
have done. The bottom three are from our Facebook page and the three that are on the
right are from Instagram.

8. How did you use media technologies in the construction and
research, planning and evaluation stages?
Media technologies played a huge part in supporting us to construct a good music video. It all began through the research we
had no idea of what type of music we wanted to re-make. YouTube played a vital role in us choosing the right music video. We
probably looked at around 40 or more different music videos not only to decided what genre we wanted to do but to also get
inspiration. In addition to this the search engine Google helped as we wanted to search the lyrics of our chosen song. It also
allowed us to research key theory work that we implemented in our work. One of these theories was the “narrative theory”
this includes how the story is constructed within the music video we had to think hard about how we could incorporate our
story line of “night life” in the music video. This theory came from Todorov, he came up with the structure of equilibrium,
disequilibrium and new equilibrium. We challenged this theory and from the beginning we put the problem. The whole outline
of the story is figured out towards the end when people realise that our main character has work the next day.
Planning – We used Microsoft Word to construct our survey on what people between the ages of 17-23 listen to. After we got
this data we transferred it to Microsoft Edexcel and constructed a graph.
Blogger is probably the most important aspect of this whole project as it became a diary for us. We were able to access it
anywhere and each individual could post work. Our blog shows the progression from start6 to finish and how our ideas came
about. By being able to upload videos and pictures it allowed our viewers to see what we were doing. We were also able to
embed presentations that we created to why we had chosen this song. It also helped us as a group as we were able to keep
track of what work we have done and what work needs to be done.
For the filming process we used a Digital Flip Cam, this proved a challenge as the quality was not very good but we still stuck
with it and overall it looks good. We also used a Nikon digital camera to take pictures for our ancillary tasks.
The construction of our music video was probably the most challenging part of all. We used a variety of programmes to
construct the video and the two ancillary tasks that included an album cover and a magazine advert. The main programme we
used for the making of our music video was Imovie on the Mac. After having past experience from GCSE this allowed us to get
started straight away, it was still a challenge as we had to get use to the programme again. Adobe After Effects was key as we
edited videos and images on here then we transferred it to the main tasks. For our ancillary task we took the main images on
to this programme and used a variety of techniques such as colour corrections to make a specific colour stand out. After editing
these images on Adobe After Effects we transferred it to Adobe Photoshop and finished it on there. We also completed the two
ancillary tasks on Adobe Photoshop.