Evaluation: How did you use new media technologies in construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Following the creation of my music video I created survey to see what people think of it, here are the results:

More females answered my survey, meaning that my results are likely to be biased.

A majority of the people who took my survey enjoyed my video.

For a majority of these results, people chose the positive answers. The only parts of my video that really recieved negative feedback was the song, lip synching and actress. This means that the song is somewhat important to the actual music video, meaning that maybe the idea of the video improving the song may not actually be true. The lower rating on the lip synching means that the technical part of the video make a difference and are very important, possibly more so than the song and video. If it looks professional, people will enjoy it more. The most positive feedback I got for my video was to do with the costume and make up. The make up used is not the usual type seen in videos, meaning that people enjoy seeing something different from what they usually would see.

From these results I can see that people enjoy it when a video and song link in some way, in my case its with the story matching the lyrics and the clear link with the facepainting. They also like the story behind it, meaning that people enjoy a music video to mean something and make sense.

This proves my earlier point of the lip synching being a key part to the video, that it has to be perfect. If the video does not look professional, people are less likely to enjoy it. A range of different locations and shots is also key, if the video revolves around the same thing too often it may become boring andrepertivite. Again, this also shows that the song is key, if people do not like the song, especially if it is long like mine.

As alot of the feedback is positive, it an be suggested that people enjoy things that are different from what they know, they haven't see the story and make up used in mine often and so when they do they are more likely to enjoy it.

From this, I can see that people despite the story line being somewhat complex and confusing, people did understand my video. This means that people like to understand what they watch.

These again reinforce what I have already have found out from this survey.

Here is a video focus group I conducted. Once again, this reinforces what I have already found out from my aducience feedback.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Here are some opinions about my digipak and magazine advert. For the most part, people liked my magazine advert and digipak, and though they went well with the music video.

My Digipak and advert both have images taken directly from my video, with the main ones being the final face paint of the girl, which features on the front of the digipak and the advert.

I chose to use this image as the main one as it obviously shows the main parts of my video, conveying it easily. It shows the link between the video and song, the idea of wanting to be part of the outside world, shown by her being part of a tree almost. The make-up is very bold and easily stands out, which will make the person who sees it want to know more.

In the digipak also used the images showing the various make-up stages. This is because this is a key part of the opening of the video, it introduces the idea she is obsessed with the idea of leaving from the amount of detail. if she didn't really care, she wouldn't have made such an effort to paint her face. It again shows the idea of her wanting to part of the outside world.

I also used the images from the forest scene which pushes her confidence right to the top and convinces her it is time to finally leave. In the video the images show on different screens. Originally I wanted to have all these parts together on one screen however I could not do this. So I decided to make this pat of the digipak. Again it shows a clear link to the song.

Throughout my digipak I Use a tree texture and green to really emphasise the idea of the video of her wanting to be free and part of nature. I again use the tree texture on my magazine advert, with dark brown text to give the effect that its been carved into the tree. Throughout all my coursework I make reference back to nature.

Evaluation: In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Magazine advert

Digipak

Here is my finished digipak:

My video

Here is my finished music video.

Genre Theory

Genre means a kind or type of something, a type or film or type of music. Genres include Horror, sci-fi, comedy and romance. These genres will have characteristics which are shown again and again that audiences recognise, such as in westerns we will see similar locations, costume and props.

Audiences develop an understanding that certain expectations may be fulfilled and they may take pleasure in predicting what will happen. The audience recognises key elements or conventions and respond accordingly.

These key elements are known as paradigms, have been identified in two types:

1. Iconographic: Signs and symbols, such as props and costume.
2. Structural: How sturcutes in the text deal with issues such as ideology and gender

Levi-Strauss' Binary opposites narrative theory

Levi-Strauss argued that narrative structures are dependent on two conflicting qualities, or Binary opposites. These groups can be split into dominate and subordinate groups, the most common of these groups are:

Andrew Goodwin's music video theory

Andrew Goodwin identified 5 key aspects to look out for when looking at music videos:

1. Thought beats (seeing the sound)
2. Narrative and performance
3. The Star image
4. Relation of visuals to song
5. Technical aspects

Thought beats

This is the idea of seeing the sound.

• Firstly is to look at the music, look at the structure of the song.
• Next is to look at the artist's voice. Each artist has a unique voice which goes hand in hand with the star image. The voice is an expressive instrument and therefore able to make associations of its own.
• Next is the artist's mode of address. Songs are like stories, and the artist a storyteller.

Narrative and Performance

Goodwin says that songs fail to give us the full narrative, they leave part of the story to the audience to work out. He also says that music videos should avoid typical narratives, they are made to advertise above all. The video should be made to allow repeatability. The artist should also be convincing, the audience need to feel that the video is real.

Star Image

The star image identifies the artist, and makes then easily stand out from others.

Relation of Visuals to song

This can be broken into three parts on how the video can promote the song:

• Illustrate- The video can use images to illustrate the lyrics, genre or a certain meaning
• Amplify- This is when meanings and effects are manipulated to drum the video into the audience
• Disjuncture- This is where the song's meaning is ignored and the video unrelated, possibly making is more memorable or to get the audience think more carefully about the song itself

Technical Aspects

A music video should be edited to the beat or rhythm of the music where possible to make it more entertaining. Colour and lighting are also vital to show the mood of the song and genre or maybe to ignore it completely. Mise-en-scne is needed to be constructed carefully to ensure the authenticity of the video and make it look professional.

The three acts structure

Hollywood film narrative tends to be organised in the 'Three Acts Structure'.

Writer Side Field has identified what he calls the ideal paradign three act structure which says:

• A film must be set up within the first 20 to 30 minutes before the protagonist experiences a 'plot point' that gives them a goal to be achieved.
• Approximately half the films running time must show the protagonist's struggle to achieve their goal
• Field also sometimes refers to a subtle midpoint which happens in act 2, where a confrontation has an apparently devestating reversal of the main character's fortune.
• The final quarter, or third act, shows the final struggle by the protagonist to finally achieve, or not achieve, their goal.