Final edit of my music video and ancillary texts.

Digipak

Magazine advert

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

eval q1 from laurensmotors

I chose to produce a music promotional package for an already established song. I chose the song 'Lost' by 'The Calling'. The song did not have a music video so I created a narrative for it. I carried out planning and research into what people like in music videos, conventions of music videos and conventions of the genre before creating my video to help me create a more professional looking product. When I had finished my final product I uploaded it to YouTube, a website that allows people to view videos, therefore, found uploading my video to YouTube conventional and gives easy access to my audience to watch my video. I then link the YouTube video to my blog. For my ancillary texts, I decided to create a six panel digipak and a magazine advert to promote my fictional artist.

My chosen song is a Japanese bonus track from the Camino Palmero album. The song has a strong beat with an emotional and personal feel. As the song did not have a music video I found it much easier to create my own narrative and not be influenced by an existing one. In my music video, I followed conventions of music videos and conventions of the genre that I had found in the research stage of my coursework. 

Stuart Halls theory suggested that all media texts are encoded by the producer and that whoever produced the media text fills the product with their own values and messages. Therefore according to his theory I have filled my products with a message, this message is that the boy is lost and alone after losing someone who he loved and is having flashbacks of the good times and trying to escape this nightmare he is having. Hall also argues that there are 3 main spectators that will decode my text in different ways, although not always in the way I intended. These are Dominant/preferred, negotiated and oppositional.
Dominant reading of a text is that the audience views the text in the way the producer intended, that being that the boy is upset and lost, having flashbacks of when he use to be happy and is trying to escape this loneliness. 
Negotiated reading of the media text refers to a compromise, where someone could read the meaning I aimed but possibly not relate to it or care about that message.
oppositional reading of media texts refers to the audience ignoring or missing the message I intended to put across. Rather than the audience getting the message that the girl has passed away and he is lost in his emotions trying to escape, the audience could completely miss that message or mistake it for the fact the boy and girl are just no longer happy. 

From audience feedback, I have found that my audience have a dominant reading of my texts as they have viewed my text in the way I intended, that being that the male and female were in a relationship, something bad happened and now he is trying to get to grips with life without her but still remembers the happy times they had. 

Rick Altman argues that the genre offers the audience a set of pleasures, emotional, visceral, stylistic and intellectual. My video conforms to this theory anAltman would argue that my video offers the audience emotional pleasure as it has a relatable narrative and, therefore, creates a strong audience response. 

Barry Keith Grant suggests that genre is divided up into groups with familiar characteristics that the audience can recognise. My video adheres to this theory of genre as I have recognisable characteristics in my video such as the addition of the classic American car and the clothes that my characters wear, especially the skater dress that the girl wears. 

Steve Neal argues that genre is not a system but a process of systematisation such as dynamics and evolution over time. The genre is dynamic, it has to change to reflect the times that they are made in, the ideology of that era. We gain pleasure from the change in conventions. 

This theory applies to my music video as I have created a video that does reflect the time it was made in as my video does not have a happy ending, like many stories in real life, there is not a tragic ending, just a simple getting on with life. 

Camera Shots

'Broken' by 'Lifehouse',' The Reason' by 'Hoobastank' and 'Wherever You Will Go' by 'The Calling' were the main music videos that influenced and inspired the creation of my video.  I looked at these video's as they are all from the same genre as the song I chose to create a video too. The video's also all had deep meanings with a narrative that reflects that meaning, so I similarly wanted to create a narrative to follow the deep meaning of my chosen song. 

Turning the key

I decided to have a close up of my artists hand turning they key in the car, this was to represent the turning of a new chapter in his life or to initiate flashbacks, like going back in time, both of which I have in my video. I took inspiration from Hoobastank and Lifehouse as they both had similar shots in their videos. Although, in the Lifehouse video, the artist is turning up/down the radio, it symbolises a similar thing, going to an alternative reality. 

Opening/Closing the car door

Again I found that I took inspiration from the music video for The Reason by Hoobastank. In the video the one of the lead singers gets into the car, symbolising that he was trying to escape, literally where in my video I decided to include the shot of opening the door to symbolising escaping his feelings of being lost and alone. 

Slow motion

I took inspiration for my slow motion bottle drop from the music video to Here Without You by 3 Doors Down when the lead singer flips a coin in the air in slow motion, this was to represent their feelings being muddled up and again being lost and everything going wrong. 

However, I felt that a close up of the bottle smashing reflected the lyrics as well as his emotions smashing all over the floor like they guys emotions flipping in the 3 Doors Down video. 

I went against conventions in my video according to Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory as she states that women are there to be seen and that the use of the camera portrays  them as sexual objects through the shot types and movement. Unlike other media products I have not displayed women as a sexualised object in my video, but simple as a girl who was deeply loved by a boy and now she is gone. Instead of focusing on women my video focuses on the narrative of the boy's feeling for the girl now she has gone (passed away) and the loneliness he feels without her. This theory does apply to a lot of video's however I have found that video's with deep meanings and a relatable message such as loss, women are not as sexualized in the video's. 

Tessa Perkins suggests that stereotypes are assumptions we make based on groups of people. She argues that stereotyping is not an easy process and it contains a number of assumptions that can be challenged. My video contains stereotypes of a happy couple, just having fun in a coffee shop. This adheres to Tessa's theory because she suggests that stereotypes are not always negative. Another stereotype in my video is that of a sad, lonely person who has lost someone very close to them, on the verge of life. However, he turns himself around and gets on with his life

The hypodermic needle theory suggests that the media injects messages into our heads. My audience could see my video as injecting ideas of being incredibly lonely after losing someone and that you just have to get on with life. 

Textual analysis of my video from laurensmotors

Evaluation Question Two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

When I was creating my digipak I followed a theme of love, life and death with an underlying theme of classic American rock. When creating my album front cover I decided I wanted to have an image overlapping another image to represent memories of love and happiness. When I started to create my products I aimed to create cohesion so all my products complemented each other as they are intended to be part of a promotional package, therefore, should show continuity and work well together. I decided to give a name to my artist, the lifeline as in the video he sees the girl as his lifeline and without her he is lost and all alone, not knowing what to do. I looked at different fonts on dafont.com for a font that I thought was simple and bold and found this one.I really liked the font because I thought it stood out and was clean cut with the straight lines. I used this font for the name of the artist on the spine and front cover of the digipak and to show the name of the artist on the magazine advert. This shows continuity between my products, making them more effective. Also by using this font for the artists name and using it on other products starts to create a logo for the artist that the audience can then recognize.  I decided on the album name forever because the theme of my album is love, life and death and my video suggests that the boy is going to love the girl forever. The font I decided on for the album name was from Photoshop, again I decided I wanted a bold font but not as edgy or clean cut as the artist’s name. I liked this font because it was bold but rounded, giving a warmer feel. Again, similarly to the artists name I decided to use the same font on both my ancillary texts to show the continuity between products. I chose these fonts as they are bold and simple and I feel that they relate to my music video as my video has a bold narrative as well as showing that life is not clean cut as the fonts I have used are straight but have rounded edges suggesting there is no straight line you can follow in life and it may curve at any point (relating to the narrative as the boys life was changed when the girl died).  I decided to add the image of a lifeline to separate the name of the artist and the name of the album. I feel the lifeline fits in well as the name of the artist is the lifeline and give you the impression of life or death which is part of the theme of my album. I placed this on both my ancillary texts to show continuity linking both products together. 
I decided on the picture of the car to go on my front cover as it relates to my underlying theme of classic American rock as it is a classic American car, which also features in my music video. Over the top of the car I have decided to add a picture of my actor and actress’ hands very close, almost holding hands representing the love part of my theme however as it is only faint, it could be seen as just another memory, such as the memories and flashbacks my artist has in the video therefore relating to the life and death part of my theme. The picture of the heart locket and the angel wing together symbol life and death, a theme that is running throughout my products and showing continuity in my products. I have only placed one image of my artist on the inside cover of my digipak to show my audience who the artist is and again shows the theme of love as the boy and girl are looking intently at each other and have their arms around each other. As I also have an underlying old American rock the artwork for the disk holders relates to this as it is a country road similar to that in my video that the car would be driven down relating to my theme of the album. For the back cover I decided that I wanted the track list to be the main focus of the audience’s attention so created a note type background with the track list on and behind I put a record player linking to my classic American rock theme. The image of the car and the roads show continuity within my products as the car features in my video as well as on the cover of the album. The album cover features my artists hands over the image of the car which shows continuity between both my ancillary texts as the picture of the hands is the name image on advert and my video does feature my artist and the girl holding hands. Overall there is a lot of continuity with imagery in my products as I feel it links the products for my audience and complement each other. 
When I was creating my magazine advert I followed the theme of love, life and death, the same as I did with the digipak to have continuity within my products. I also used the same fonts for the artist name and album name, creating a sort of logo for my artist and allowing the audience to get familiar with it, this also shows continuity in my products. The main image I used for my advert is the image I used on my front cover although this is the full image and not the faded out version. The adverts has a theme of love as the image shows my actor and actress nearly holding hands, like they are shy but really want to hold each other’s hand, giving a mystical loved feel to the image.  
I decided to ask some of my peers how effective they thought the combination of my main products and ancillary texts was and this was their response. 
I am pleased with the feedback I got from my peers as they agree that my products show continuity and complement each other. My peers also recognize the themes in my products clearly and that the images in my ancillary products reflect the narrative of my video. 

My target audience are in social group E therefore I would price my digipak at £11.99, an affordable price for my target audience as they probably would not have much money due people in category E are generally students aged 16-24 and have to rely on parents or guardians for money unless they have a part time job. In addition to selling my digipak in shops such as HMV, I would sell my album as a download on websites such as Itunes. As this is a downloadable version I would price my album at £7.99 and the single at 99p. These prices are the same as similar artists album and by pricing them higher I may lose customers because they can not afford to buy it. 

To conclude I feel like I have created an effective combanation of my main product and two ancillary texts. I feel like there is overall continuity between all 3 of my products and it is clear that they are all promoting the same product. However it is not unconventional to have differences between the music video and the advert and digipak as the video is promoting one song, not thw full album where the digipak and advert are, although I do not feel like there is huge differences between my products and the small differences have not made a huge difference and made my products less effective.  

Evaluation Question Three: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I have used audience feedback throughout the process of my work. Before I even started the production of my video and ancillary texts I found it necessary to do some audience research to find out what people liked and disliked in music video's. This allowed me to find out what people wanted to see in a music video and, therefore, make my video conventional and successful. 

I used audience research in the planning and research stage of my coursework. I created a survey on survey monkey and added a poll to my blog with questions such as asking what people if they thought there should be more than one location and more than 1 costume change. questions also included what style of a video they preferred (i.e performance/narrative/abstract) to ensure my product would appeal to my target audience.  Through the poll on my blog I found that most people who answered either watched music videos on the internet or not at all therefore was able to make sure my video was available on the internet. One of the questions on the poll on my blog asked for the age of the participants with the majority of people being 17-20 years old therefore I know my research was relevant to my target audience as my target audience is young people roughly ages 15-25. 

I learnt a lot from this research such as people like a narrative with elements of performance in a music video therefore allowing me to come to the conclusion that I would make a music video that had a narrative but also featured performance. I also asked my audience in the research what they thought the song was about, helping me to create a narrative that I, the producer wanted to create but a narrative that my audience would recognise and agree fits well with the lyrics and feel of the song. A lot of people in my feedback suggested that the song was about love and loss that inspired my narrative of a boy and a girl who were in a relationship, but he loses the girl (she dies) and he has to now face life without her but has flashback to when they were happy.  
When starting to create my video I was constantly looking for feedback by discussing with my friends who would tell me what they liked and did not like about my video, allowing me to make changed to make my video better. As I found that there was a few point in the video that you could not tell if my actor was lip sinking or not and my audience picked up on that and so I could not re film I decided to add another clip of the car door opening. So by conducting audience research I learned that I had to change some clips to make my product better and look more professional. 
Half way through filming, I unfortunately had to change actors and my new actor was not as comfortable lip -sinking, something I had found that a lot of people had mentioned. However, I then decided to add car scenes to my music video which I found my audience loved. 
The more feedback I got from people the more I learned about what parts of my video needed tweaking to make the video the best it can be. I had very helpful advice on how to change some of my video from people who also do media so they know what they are talking about and are part of my target audience so know what they would like to see. This helped me change my video and make it better as I learned what needed changing and possibly how/what I should change it too. 

When I had finished my final draft of my music video I uploaded it to youtube, I did this because I found from previous research that a lot of my target audience watched music video's on the internet and youtube allows people to watch videos via the internet and comment on the video. Youtube also allows you to share the videos on social media, therefore I decided to share my video on Facebook. I mainly shared my video on facebook to make sure I was getting responses from my target audience as most of my friends on facebook are part of my target audience. Facebook also allowed me to obtain feedback from an international audience as I have friends from all over the UK, Germany, Denmark, France and America. 
My friend Matt from America is very good at creating moving image. He is planning on studying at the Visual arts college in New York and has to create a portfolio including having relevant experiences in all aspects of creating a product that must incorporate research and evaluation therefore he quickly gave me some feedback on my product that he also used in his work. 

I was very grateful for this feedback as I look up to Matt as his work is impeccable. From this feedback, I learnt that I had to either reshoot some of the lip sinking or edit it more to make my video better. Matt is also part of my target audience and the fact he liked my video and picked up the ideology and message in my video shows me that my product is effective. 

 After I had finished my final draft of my music video I created a survey on freeonlinesurvey.com. I asked questions about my music video to ensure my product was good and that my target audience understood my narrative. I decided to create a survey about my music video to get feedback from my audience. I posted my survey on Facebook as I have lots of friends from my target audience who would be able to take my survey.

 For the first question on the survey, I asked what star rating out of 5 people would give my video. Most people gave my video 4 stars which I was happy with as it shows that people liked my video and thought it was good, however, shows that there could be some more improvements.

I then asked the participants what they thought my narrative was, I was pleased that all the people that took my survey somewhat understood the narrative of a man being alone and upset after the loss of the girl. This allowed me to see that my audience understood the narrative, showing that I have an effective video.

Thirdly I asked my participants if they would watch my video again. I was happy to read that majority of my participants would watch my video again. 

As a follow up question to this i asked my audience why they would or would not watch my video again and found that the person would not watch my video again because they did not like my choice of music. This did please me to see that my audience liked my video enough to watch it again, especially because they liked my narrative.

For my final question, I asked my participants if they could relate to my video. I found that a lot of people could in some way as they have felt lost or alone at some point in their life. I was aiming for a video that people could relate too as the meaning of the song was deep.

Overall I learned that my product was meaningful and portrayed the message well as a lot of people could relate to it and knew what the narrative was.

My digipak! 

Throughout the production process, I have constantly looked for audience feedback to make my products better.  When I was creating my ancillary texts I was talking to my friend on Facebook. I decided to send her screenshots of my digipak so far (the front and back cover) for some feedback, to see if my covers worked well together and which cover she preferred (one with the hands and one without). My friend Lucy, who also studies media gave me her opinion on what cover she liked best (the one with the hands). This was very helpful as I had decided to redesign my digipak to make it fit better with my music video. This audience feedback was also very useful as I knew I was creating a product that people liked and thought fit better together with my video. 

Upon finishing my digipak before the evaluation stage of my product, I decided to conduct some audience research by posting my product on my Facebook page to ensure my audience liked my product. I posted my digipak on Facebook as I have a lot of friends, some of who take media and will give me both positive feedback and constructive criticism as well as some friends who will give me general audience feedback without using media terminology and will just go off their likes and dislikes of my product. This was crucial to making sure my product was conventional and to see if my audience liked the product and it related to my other products. 

From this feedback I decided that my digipak did not need to be changed as I feel that my audience have got the message I was trying to give when creating my digipak, even people who do not do media (microbiology student) was able to pick up on the message and feels that my product is well made. Although I did not make any changes to my final product after I conducted some audience research on my digipak, I did find the feedback very useful as it allowed me to see that my audience did in fact, majority, like my product as well as being able to find the message my product portrayed.

My magazine advert!

Before I created my magazine advert I decided to conduct audience research to see what my target audience liked on an advert. This was essential as magazine adverts are all different for different genres and I wanted to make sure my advert would adhere to what people liked. From this research, I found that my audience wanted to see album artwork on the advert, as well as some information about the album such as the release date and the album name. This really helped me in the creation of my product as I knew what my audience wanted to see on a magazine advert therefore I could create a product that my audience would like. As I started to create my product I was always looking for audience feedback to make sure my audience liked the product I was creating. I did this by posting my advert on Facebook and asking what people thought as well as sending my advert to people via messenger to get feedback from certain people 
(mainly people who also do media as they know what they are looking at and can give me specific helpful feedback rather than general feedback). This continuous feedback was very useful as I found that the image that I was going to use did not really reflect the message of the album therefore due to the audience feedback I decided to change it to a more suitable one.

 When I had finished my magazine advert I again posted it on Facebook as I have many friend, some of whom do media and others who can give me general feedback about if they like my product and why. The general consensus was that my product looks professional and my product shows a clear cohesion between my other products.The feedback helped me understand what I needed to do to create a better product for my audience as well as what they liked and allowed me again to see if they got the message and feel of the album. 

When I had completed this audience research I decided to insert my advert on a billboard and my album cover onto the Itunes album list and asked my audience if they thought that my advert looked like a real product and if they would buy it. This was their response. 

In the evaluation stage of my product,
 I again conducted some audience research to find how effective people thought the combination of my products were. This was essential as the evaluation question was on the effectiveness of my products and I learned that I had clear continuity in my products and that my ancillary texts complemented my video well. 

In conclusion, I have learnt a lot from my audience as I found that audience research and feedback was necessary and very useful throughout all stages in my coursework by helping me to develop my products and adhere to what people liked whilst keeping a professional look to my work.