The document discusses how the media product uses conventions of the indie music genre while also differentiating itself. It follows conventions like using a love story narrative and a performance aspect, seen in other indie music videos. However, it makes the love story about an elderly couple rather than a young one. The ancillary tasks of a tour poster and digipak also follow conventions like centering the artist and using consistent colors and font. But the background of the poster and use of multiple artist photos in the digipak differentiate it somewhat. Audience feedback confirmed the narrative was clear and the artist was effectively marketed as indie. However, the video's ending needed clarification. Across planning, production and evaluation, various technologies were used for research,

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
In most videos within the genre of Indie, the same conventions are consistently used.
When creating our music video we did want to follow this pattern as seen in real
media tasks however we wanted to differentiate slightly as genre is a process of
‘repetition and difference’ (Steve Neale). One way in which we have followed the
conventions of the Indie genre is the narrative of a love story. Love stories are
common amongst many of the Indie videos we have looked at, for example ‘Boys
that Sing’ by Indie group Viola Beach. While our narrative has kept to this
convention/pattern we have slightly developed it, to make our video stand out
amongst others, by basing our narrative on an elderly couple rather than a young
couple which is often used to the age of the typical audience for this genre. Another
way in which we followed conventions was through the use of a performance aspect
in our video. The performance aspect was used to promote the image of our artist as
they are an indie artist (many of whom are unsigned and eager to spread their image
and brand). The use of a performance aspect can be seen in ‘Sucks To Be You’ by
Emma Blackery as well as ‘The Sound’ by The 1975.
In terms of our ancillary tasks we also followed and broke conventions. An example
of this can be seen through our tour poster. In our tour poster our artist is the main
focus and stands out against his background, this is because as an Indie artist it is
important he sells his image to gain attention and audience appeal. In Ed Sheeran’s
‘X’ poster he is placed right in the centre of the poster for his tour so, much like in our
poster, it is clear who the artist is and helps to promote them. It could be said that we
also challenged this as we used a background of a wooded area (which was the
same as in our music video which enabled us to create a link between the two, which
is a common convention) Ed Sheeran had a background of his own logo which
furthered the idea of him promoting himself and his brand. We decided to defer away
from this as we through the colour scheme of our background fit better which our
artist’s image as well as the fact that we wanted a more natural image. This was the
same in our DigiPak, we can compare this to ‘Wanted on Voyage’ by George Ezra.
Additionally, in both our poster and our digipak we used the same font and colour
scheme in order to create a clear identity for our artist. In our pieces we used colours
of white, green and brown and white text while the 1975 use the same text and a
consistent pink and white colour scheme. We feel we did this effectively and it also
linked our artist to his genre of Indie as his appearance is similar to that of Mumford
and Sons. One way it could be said we broke conventions by looking at the DigiPaks
of Ed Sheeran and The 1975 is by the fact that all the images revolve around their
logo rather than showing their own image. In our Digipak all our photos were of our
artist which meant he was able to promote himself. We felt this was important for an
Indie artist.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Having a brand identity for the artist and a consistency/synergy through their music
videos and subsequent ancillary products is important. This is because it helps to
attract appeal to the products as a set and spread the image of the artist (in a sense
what we are selling) successfully to a wide audience. In our tasks once way we have
created our brand identity is through the use and placement of our artist’s picture,
more specifically his face. Our artist, as you would expect, is the focal point of our
video and the narrative plays out around him. We have made it so that his image is
quite iconic and stands out so we have used this to our advantage in our ancillary
tasks. He is wearing a simple outfit that also has bold colours that aren’t too busy yet
draw attention to him. He is also positioned in the centre of our poster and the
digipak so the eye of the audience is automatically drawn to him and through him
there is a clear link between the products and the music video. We have also taken
the photos, used in the ancillary tasks, in the same woodland location as the main
section of performance in our video. This location adds to his brand image as we
have made it so he suits his environment and it links between all three tasks. Finally,
in our ancillary tasks we used the same simple white text, the font we have used is
quite simple and does not draw attention away from our artist but rather fits in well
with the colours used particularly in his costume. As an Indie artist it is important that
the artist is the focal point and we believe that is what we have achieved. Our
ancillary task sells our artist through the use of our artist’s image, it is positioned in
the centre of both our products so he is the focal point and the main attraction in our
products. This fits in with the indie genre, as aforementioned, as it sells him as a
person as it is likely that the artist is unsigned. Additionally, the location and the
simple dress fits in with the Indie genre as it is quite unique compared to videos of
other genres which are typically set in urban areas and the uniqueness is a key part
of the Indie concept. The colour scheme we have used of mostly green, white and
browns again adds to the Indie genre and it is quite simple not drawing attention
away from the artist. If we compared our work to another Indie artist, such as
Mumford and Sons you can see the colours we have used are similar to theirs
meaning our use of genre is successful because it is comparable to a professional
piece.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback played an important role in the production of our music video as
it was crucial that our work, particularly our main task music video appealed to our
target audience. When we showed our music video to our target audience (people in
our peer group), they told us that they could clearly follow the narrative and the
progression of the relationship with the Old Man looking back at his relationship with
his wife when they were young. This means our use of slow-paced editing and filters
to age the shots of the young couple in comparison to those with the older man were
successful in putting our story across, this is important in videos (like ours) which
have a narrative element. Additionally, our audience commented that our
performance scenes with our artist ‘Callum Vincent’ in the woodland environment
was effective in both marketing him as an artist but also fit in with the genre of Indie.
The artist was at the forefront of these sees and we chose our costume and location
in order to mimic professional ones of the genre so our video was comparable and
looked professional. This was also true with our ancillary task poster, we presented
our artist as the central image with the text outlining the tour details around him. His
placement made him stand out, which the audience acknowledged, and the clothing
he was wearing (which was the same as the main performance segment in our
music video) meant that the audience could immediately recognize him as an Indie
Artist. We used the same image on the front cover of our Digipak so I believe we
produced three successful products, shown by the positive audience reaction.
However we did receive negative comments on the ending of our video as our target
audience said the ending of our narrative was unclear. One audience member we
asked stated that it they did not know whether the female character had died as he
thought maybe the old man was knocking on the door to cheat on her or to say sorry
after an argument etc. when our preferred reading was that he was going to spend
Christmas with his family rather than alone. While some of our audience did
understand the true meaning of our ending, through of the use of the blue filter to
create a sad atmosphere, if we were to recreate our video or change anything I
would try to make the ending more universally understandable. Narrative is such an
important part of the video so we should make sure it is coherent and
understandable throughout. Our audience also commented that they would have
preferred a wider range of photos in our Digipak as well as rethinking the way in
which we edited the background of our tour poster however overall we created a
successful brand identity in both products.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research,
planning and evaluation stages?
Across all three aspects of our coursework task (the planning, production and
evaluation) we used a wide range of technologies to effectively create a successful,
well planned Music Video and two ancillary tasks.
When I started the planning element of coursework I used WEB 2.0 in the form of
YouTube and the internet in general in order to research real media products, on
YouTube I found 5 music videos and on the internet I found examples of ancillary
tasks before analysing them each individual on PowerPoint. For the music videos I
used Final Cut Pro X to create a video out of the PowerPoint where I narrated my
comments and including relevant clips. Another way in which we used digital
technology in our planning, was in order to gather audience feedback. We created a
polls using PollDaddy (before presenting our findings on PowerPoint) as well as
collecting feedback from a video survey where we used digital editing technology on
Final Cut Pro again to edit the responses together. The main way we used
technology was through our WordPress blog which we used throughout our planning
in order to record all our work in an array of blog posts from written posts, to our
results from surveys etc. (as listed previously) as well as our own progress update
videos (edited on Final Cut and filmed on an Apple Mac) so that the posts on our
blog had a range of technologies. The blog enabled us to have a record of all our
work which we could then refer to.
When producing both our music video and our tour poster and Digipak we used a
digital camera. The camera was used on a tripod in order to film our scenes as well
as to take the photos we needed for our ancillary tasks in the photoshoot we carried
out. When we had finished filming we edited our music video using Final Cut Pro X,
producing two rough cuts before our final cut. After the second rough cut we
gathered audience feedback which we edited together using the same editing
software. This was useful as it enabled us to make further improvements to our video
Final Cut enabled us to create a professional video and enabled us to portray our
narrative, through the use of the filters for example. To edit our photos into a
professional-standard Digipak and tour poster we used Photoshop. It initially posed a
challenge as we had to learn how to use the features however eventually we were
able to use appropriate tools (as well as a font from DaFont which fit the indie genre
and feel of our products).In the same way we used rough drafts to gather audience
feedback before creating our final products, we used the Web 2.0 platform of
PollDaddy meaning we could use the internet to post our survey (on a blog) so the
audience could access it and fill it in.
Finally, we used technology in order to conduct our evaluation. First, we collected
final audience feedback through video (which we were able to edit into on video on
Final Cut to present it on our blog) as well as on our social media pages, Facebook

5. and Twitter. The use of Web 2.0 meant that we could reach a wider range of people
particularly those who fell into our target audience of 16-24 as they are the main
users meaning our feedback was more accurate and useful. When presenting our
evaluation we were sure to use a wide variety of digital technology. First, we filmed
our responses to three of the questions using a digital camera which enabled us to
have a discussion as a group about the topic and areas of both success and
possible improvement. We then edited these using final cut pro X so that we could
add in clips to the video when we mentioned either a certain aspect of our production
pieces or a real media product we felt our work was comparable to. We also used
Prezi in order to present our fourth evaluation answer as it meant that we were able
to map out clearly our answer in a visual way before speaking over it. After this we
posted all our questions on a Wix website as it meant we could present our
evaluation clearly.