Music Video Evaluation (Draft)

HEATHER CASEY

Media Evaluation

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP
OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
My media product generally follows the typical conventions of an Indie-Folk video. A way in which my
music video has used the forms and conventions of real media products can be seen through the
actresses clothing, as it iconically connotes the Indie-Folk genre through the pastille colouring and
style of clothing. The clothing was something I hadn’t particularly focused on until realising that by
having iconic clothing within my product, it made the genre much more apparent; I realised this
when I noticed the actress was wearing UGG shoes, which aren’t iconic of the Indie-Folk genre at all.

Another way in which I used the forms and conventions
was through the location; from my research it became
apparent that Indie-Folk music videos are generally
outside in a naturalistic setting and videos such as ‘Old
Pine’ by Ben Howard (http://youtu.be/UzzCthKw_C0)
focus largely on the theme of nature. I also developed this
convention as throughout my music video I wanted
nature to be a significant theme, and I feel I made this
apparent through decreasing the pace of editing during
instrumentals and including shots of flowers when lyrics
such as “you can’t make flowers grow” were heard.

2:26 – 2:45

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP
OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
Throughout the production of my music video I think that an aspect I particularly struggled with was lip
syncing. Before I began filming I wanted to challenge the convention of lip syncing and I had decided I
didn’t want any lip syncing throughout my video, however I also wanted to create a conceptual-based
music video. The lack of lip syncing made it incredibly difficult to achieve any meaning from the lyrics
and shots whatsoever, thus I decided it’d be more beneficial to include lip syncing. I feel that by using
the convention of lip syncing I was able to create a more successful conceptual-based music video.
Through my research it also became apparent that the location in which the artist lip syncs varies
throughout Indie-Folk music videos, thus I used different locations. As well as changing the locations,
when analysing videos I also noticed that music videos such as ‘Your Song’ by Ellie Goulding often use
one location for lip syncing which they refer back to throughout. Thus, I felt I used and developed
this convention by opening and ending the music video in the same location.

1.54
1:01
0:15

0.45

2:52 3:26

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN AND
ANCILLARY TEXTS?

I felt that the synergy between my ancillary texts was lacking when creating my first drafts; despite having the
same font style and colour scheme both of the texts still looked quite different. To allow the audience to see the
synergy between the texts I copied the digipak cover onto the magazine advert; this made it extremely clear as
to what the magazine advert was promoting, as well as making the magazine advert look more professional. I
feel as though the magazine advert is more effective than the digipak as the background image is a recurring
image throughout my video, thus the audience is immediately aware of the song it’s promoting. However, I
think the shots of nature on my digipak effectively connote the themes and ideas within the lyrics and the
music video.

HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MAIN AND
ANCILLARY TEXTS?

I feel as though I combined aspects of all three of Gabrielle Aplin’s own EP
artwork in order to create profundity within my digipak. By using the
black and white colour scheme, alongside the theme of nature symbolised
through my choice of shots, combined with an eerie effect I was able to
create an effective digipak. I feel as though the digipak communicates the
themes and ideas of the song well, and I feel this was heightened by using
my research of Gabrielle’s own work to influence my own.
This research further influenced the design of my magazine advert as I
wanted it to communicate the same ideas as my digipak. I feel this has
been done effectively, as whilst the texts differ slightly, synergy is still
created through the fonts, colours and use of similar images. By using
different main images on the texts some audience members could argue
that the relation between the texts is lost, however when researching
magazine adverts it became apparent that sometime’s the album artwork
differs to the magazine advert, E.g. Mumford and Sons ‘Sign No More’
magazine advert.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM YOUR AUDIENCE
FEEDBACK?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGF3aFZHbXpmTlVNWm9kWFhnb3BEZFE6MQ#gid=0
– Music Video Questionnaire
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dEt6TkNlTmtRbWFpLTFzSTJ5dkRIbUE6MQ#gid=0 –
Ancillary Text Questionnaire

I uploaded my music video onto YouTube in order to gain
feedback from my peers to help me improve my
understanding of my product. I think that this was very
beneficial as it has allowed me to realise the pros and cons
of my product, and it has also made it clear as to where I’ve
improved compared to AS.
By creating questionnaires on Google Docs it was a much
more efficient way to gain feedback from my peers. As well
as this, as the information is processed and organised
already it makes it much easier to see the audience’s
responses directly. I made a separate questionnaire for my
music video and ancillary texts as I felt it would be more
beneficial for me to gain feedback on both aspects of my
coursework as each task involved different techniques and
research.

FEEDBACK?
I found it very useful receiving feedback from my peers as I was informed of the positive and
negative aspects of my work, making it visible as to what areas I’ve improved on since AS and
other areas that I should have been considered more. The information was recorded in Google
Documents, where I could access my audience’s responses in one area.

A lot of my feedback for my music
video questionnaire was positive,
focusing largely on the quality of the
editing of lip syncing, the shots of
nature and mise-en-scene. Negative
aspects were that if I was aiming to
create a narrative based music video,
this wasn’t done very well and the
narrative was unclear. However, I
intended to create a conceptual
based video with performance and
narrative elements, thus the idea of
narrative was less focused on. My
feedback suggests that this aspect
could have been considered further,
in order to improve the overall
quality of my music video.

FEEDBACK?

The feedback from my ancillary texts was also mainly positive, suggesting that I
created synergy between the texts well, and I kept the theme of nature throughout
the texts as well. As well as this, the feedback suggested my choice of font style and
colour appeared professional and represented the genre well. On the other hand, it
was also noted that the image of the artist could be more engaging in the texts, as it
was suggested that it wasn’t obvious that the magazine advert was promoting the
artist and the song.

HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND
EVALUATION STAGES?

Construction – When constructing my music video I was very anxious as my whole music video was
outside and in order for there to be continuity, I needed to ensure that the lighting was the same
throughout. By using a HD camera it made the quality much better, and this was essential due to the
location. As the lighting was better on one shooting day compared to another, I was going to edit some of
my shots in Adobe Premiere Pro in order to make the lighting brighter. However, I found it quite difficult
to match the lighting levels so I decided to adjust the levels slightly in order for the shots to be slightly
lighter without looking edited. After experimenting with some of my actress shots, it was suggested that
my shots of flowers and nature (0:32sec) were too bright for the atmosphere of the song, thus I decided to
darken these shots using the brightness/contrast tool.
Adobe Premiere Pro was the most used software throughout the construction of my product, as I would
edit all of my clips via the software for both my music video and the animatic. I had previously used
Adobe Premiere Pro in my AS coursework, so I was familiar with how to use the software. Another tool I
used was the ‘speed/duration’ tool, as I wanted to have shots such as the actress walking along the fence
(1:26sec) in slow motion to create a lonely and calming atmosphere. I had never used this tool before
however I found it very simple as the speed percentage could be changed to what I felt was suitable.

EVALUATION STAGES?

For the construction of my ancillary texts I used Adobe Photoshop, I wasn’t very familiar with
the software, but I found it quite easy to get used to. When creating my digipak, I opened a
template which I had found online via search engines such as Google into Adobe Photoshop;
this meant that I could use the template to judge the sizing of images, texts and borders. As I
had used a black and white rustic effect on the camera I took the pictures with, it meant that
I had very little editing to do for my digipak. However, when creating the magazine advert, it
was evident that the effect had caused the image of my actress to lose the majority of the
definition in her face. To avoid this issue I used the brightness/contrast tool and decreased
the amount of contrast on the image.
As well as this, I used a ‘drop shadow’ effect on the text
of the magazine advert and the copy of the digipak
album cover. This meant that the text would stand out
above the image, engaging the audience on what the
advert was promoting as well as making it look more
professional. I think I struggled more with Photoshop
than Premiere as I was less familiar with the tools,
however with guidance from my teacher I feel as though
I understand the software much more.

EVALUATION STAGES?

Research – When in the researching stages for my product I used various search
engines and video-sharing websites such as YouTube. YouTube was probably the
most important media technology I used for my research, as it was essential for me
to analyse actual music videos in order to widen my knowledge and understanding
of music videos, to allow me to progress onto the construction of my music video. I
had also used Wikipedia when in the research stage as it allowed me to gain a brief
understanding of genre and my ancillary texts. As it’s a collaborative encyclopaedia
I was also able to find a list of Indie-Folk artists, allowing me to look further into the
codes and conventions of the Indie-Folk genre.

Google was another influential website, as it provided me with a large range of websites
which lead me onto further information on the chosen topic. I used the search engine
specifically when I wanted to gain a vast amount of knowledge and understanding
on topics such as my ancillary texts; it was very beneficial as I was provided with a
vast amount of information from various users, meaning I had many alternative
opinions and options to work with.

EVALUATION STAGES?

Planning – For the planning stages I created an animatic by taking photos of the
images in my storyboard using a HD camera and importing the images into Adobe
Premiere Pro. This was an important task for me as I felt it gave me a good
understanding of the timing, editing and choice of shots to consider. As I was
previously familiar with Adobe Premiere Pro from my AS coursework, I found it
fairly simple to create my animatic, as I had also created one using the same
technique at AS.

By using Adobe Premiere Pro, it allowed me to gain an understanding of the pace of
editing I need to be aiming for, as well as a rough guideline as to how many shots I’ll
need to ensure music video is lengthy and interesting. As the animatic was created
using camera shots from drawings, it made the editing much easier as I didn’t have
to avoid cutting out or worrying about the shakiness of shots. This was something I
had to keep in mind for the construction of my music video as I needed to be sure
that I could cut shots accordingly.

EVALUATION STAGES?

Evaluation - I used many online programs to broadcast and evaluate my work; Google
Docs was used to create questionnaires in which audience members could fill in
whilst watching the music video on YouTube, or being directed to my ancillary texts
on Blogger.

I was able to broadcast my music video and ancillary texts via social networking sites
such as Facebook and Twitter – this was the quickest and most efficient way to
allow audience members to view my product, as the sites are extremely popular and
can be accessed and shared by a large range. As well as this, the majority of users
belong to the audience I’m targeting, thus it was the most appropriate way to
contact the audience in one space.

By using online websites I’m able to evaluate my work effectively and efficiently, as it’s
much easier to retrieve audience feedback through online resources. As well as this,
by using Slideshare to create my evaluation, I can access all of my resources at once,
rather than having to collect questionnaires and show my target audience
individually my products.

Music Video Evaluation (Draft)

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