A-Level Media - Coursework Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

Our product was a bundle including a music video, CD cover and magazine advert. It uses, develops and challenges different codes and conventions of your traditional set of 3. We used textual analysis and research to discover what these conventions were and then decided how we would use, develop or challenge them.

We began doing this by looking at other products, for example, we analysed music video’s, album covers and magazine adverts by similar artists to the band we were creating our products for. We looked at conventions we would like to use (such as including a narrative story) and one’s we wanted to completely leave out (such as showing the band on tour or live at a gig).

Example of a text we analysed during our research phase, a similar style of music of a young artist. We looked at the conventions that this text did or did not use.

One convention we used which is very common and, in our opinion vital, in other music videos was fast paced editing. We found it particularly effective with songs that were similar to that which our music video used (an upbeat, cheerful song) and it added to the theme we wanted to create of the band being “fun” and “upbeat”. It adds energy to the music video and makes the video look far better aesthetically, especially when along side another convention we found very effective aesthetically of the editing being in time with the rhythm of the song, which is another convention we tried to use wherever possible. This is a prime example of us embracing a common convention of music videos and one which we used throughout out video in order to add to the identity of our “fun” and “upbeat” band.

A convention that we rejected from our plans was the voyeuristic use of women in our video. We felt this this added a mentality to our bands identity that we did not want, we agreed with theorists such as Mulvey. Mulvey believes that the use of women for aesthetically pleasing purposes gives a strongly male mentality to the bands identity and might result in the exclusion of a female audience to the band which we did not want as our target audience was a very large one. The voyeuristic use of women would certainly not help us to achieve the theme and identity we wanted to represent the band in and so this is a good example of a convention that we challenged during the creation of our product.

A prime example of a convention we developed during the creation of he music video was that of using both a narrative and footage of the band singing the specific song. The large majority of music video’s which we researched used either one or the other, and not both, we decided we wanted to use both in our product to make it more entertaining for the audience and include as many positive representations as possible. For this then we decided to create a narrative based on the lyrics of our song (another example of a convention that we embraced and used), showing it along side footage of the band in a basic set performing the song. In the narrative we attempted to describe the lyrics visually and give the lyrics more meaning, while in the footage of the band we wanted to represent them as a young, care free band, and so gave the set a very amateurish and messy look so that other young bands could easily associate and relate the video. The audience is motivated and more likely to enjoy the media product if they can relate to it (Dennis McQuail).

The ancillary products are all rather unconventional. We have included bright colours and a cartoon theme like in the main product (the music video), having the cartoon theme through out all of the products is a thread (creating continuity) and a theme that will improve band awareness and give the band it’s own unique identity. Conventional adverts and digipak covers are normally darker and have a theme based on the song itself (usually visually representing the song title or simply showing a picture of the band which we found from our research), however we have decided to use bright colours and create a theme around the band to attract attention to the band and not just the song. In this aspect we have challenged conventions to match the needs of the band, and also to emphasise on the representation of them as unique, this brings attention to the band from a wider audience. Using bright colours and breaking conventions however, is also matching a convention of youth and it’s collective identity as a whole, this is because youth (our target audience) and ‘indie’ regularly break convention to appear unique, and therefore we are in match with this convention of rebellion and outlandishness that is so often associated with youth, the audience we were attempting to attract. Once again we took into account the theory of Dennis McQuail who suggested that audiences will enjoy products more if they can relate to them.

Example of a common album cover of a similar artist to ours.

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

We have created one music video as the main task, and two ancillary tasks which all have links through out to ensure continuity. For our ancillary tasks we had to make a digipak, front and back, and also produce a magazine advert. We firstly decided to do some research on CD album covers and magazine adverts looking for; conventions and ideas.

We established a common theme between the main task and the ancillary tasks and this is important to create and give the band an identity, and this is apparent in real media texts, an example of this is below:

These are the Kings of Leon album cover and magazine advert, and this is prime example of how the continuity is used as a common thread and we have included this idea in our product.

The magazine advert and the CD cover use the same image and background with the only change being the magazine advert as it features ‘Out 17th’ and reviews from other media products (using a common conventions of music texts). The music video uses cartoon elements when introducing the band and this theme is echoed throughout the CD digipak and magazine advert. This gives the band a unique identity and one that people can relate to.

Continuity Benefits

Allows band a unique identity

Increase marketability of the band

Attract bigger audience

Band awareness

Easily identifiable

So, how effective is this combination?

To find this out we asked for feedback which would provide us with an answer. We also judged this ourselves and with the band. The combination is ‘cartoon’, which ensures the band is represented as unique. The combination of this is very effective as it links all the products and achieves the desired representation.

FeedbackIn order to establish how effective the combination of our media texts are we asked for feedback from our target audience as we feel that our opinions would be too subjective.We believe the effectiveness of the combination between each of the three tasks is very good, we have ensured all the products have the same theme for continuity to create band awareness. The cartoon elements added to each of the products is the theme that creates this sense of identity and band awareness, which allows the audience to instantly recognise the products. The majority of the target audience agreed with our views and said the theme gave the band a suitable identity which was easy to relate with as an audience member. We also asked the band for feedback, they said they were very pleased with the three products we made, they believe that we represent the band correctly; young, fun and unique, as they wanted to be represented. We chose the cartoon idea as our theme throughout the products because it shows the different views the band holds on the world, the main example of this is the digipak cover, the front shows the bands in a cartoon world looking realistic, while the back shows a cartoon band in the real world, this shows the uniqueness of the band, and how they are different and don’t fit in. The continuity throughout ensured this representation/identity of the band was communicated to the audience well.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Benefits of constructive feedback:Can bring flaws with product to the attention

of producers.Can give an early indication to how

successful your product will be.Can tell producers if the product is missing

anything important.Producers may learn more about their target

audience.Allows producers to edit product based on

feedback and create a better product.

How we gained feedback? We used two methods of which to gain

feedback from our target audience, verbal and written. We first showed a small group of 20 students (all in the target audience bracket) and had them discuss the positives and negatives with the product.

We then gave each a short questionnaire which gave us summative and statistic feedback o the product, seeing exactly what percentage of the group thought of specific features of the product.

What we learnt from our verbal feedback?

We had a general discussion after watching the film with the group and the feedback was generally very positive.

The target audience generally enjoyed the video and said that it suited the band as well as achieving the goals we targeted.

One negative point which came back was that some parts of the music video were lacking enough shots.

The ancillary products both however had incredibly positive feedback. Nearly all of our target audience agreed that it gave the band an identity and one that is “fun” and “upbeat” as we had targeted.

We gave out a basic questionnaire consisting of 3 questions which we felt would give us the knowledge of whether we had achieved in creating successful products.

What we learnt from our questionnaire feedback?

Questionnaire Results

Yes No0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Did you enjoy the products and find them appropriate for the band?

Target Audience

Yes No Not Sure0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Do you think that the music video con-verges well with the ancillary products?

Target Audience

Yes No Don't Know0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

Do you feel the products create an identity for the band?

Target Audience

How did you use new media technologies in the

construction and research, planning and

evaluation stages ?

 ,

We used a wide range of new media technologies throughout our project. Both hardware and software were used through the entire production of the products.

For this we had to learn to use new programs on the computer and new equipment to actually film our video.

HardwareDuring the filming of our product we used a handheld camera

such as the one seen below. We also used a digital camera to take still shots for our ancillary products in order to photograph the band. We did all of our editing and documentation using Apple Mac computers and the software on them.

Handheld camcorder Digital cameraApple Mac

computer

Filmed Interviews and Audio responses http://bloorisyes.blogspot.com/2010/12/target-audience-research.html

Link to our blog of a video interview of an elder member of the public during our research phase of production.

http://bloorisyes.blogspot.com/2010/11/target-audience-research.html

Link to our blog of an audio interview with a member of the public during our research phase of production.

http://bloorisyes.blogspot.com/2010/11/interview-with-elastics.html

Link to our blog of a video interview with the band we were creating for during our research phase of production.

Hyperlinks to the video’s Artic monkeyshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9I9VBKPiw Examplehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma9I9VBKPiw

These are some examples of hyperlinks we put on the Blog to let us manuver between analysing and watching the video and also allowed the consumer of the blog to see what we were analysing.

Photography

These are some examples of photography within our Blog. This shows the reader of the Blog specific locations instead of just ideas.

The Blog

This is an example of how useful the blog was and how all of us in the group could access each others work .

I MOVIE

iMovie and iDVDiMovie is a simple, yet powerful, video editing program. It allows you to create videos quickly and easily. You will need to use iMovie to capture your footage before you can import it into Final Cut Express.

Fireworks CS3

1 Adobe Fireworks Fireworks is a graphic design tool designed to

work with both vector and bitmap images, especially used for web images. This is a useful program to use for designing CD covers, magazines and publications.

Here is a diagram outlining the tools that you can use in Fireworks: