Evaluation

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

Madonna's video 'Hung up' influenced me the most because it was the most suitable for our genre 'dance' as it portrayed a lot of  movement and dancing. The aspect that influenced me the most was the use of camerawork as when Madonna was dancing it was like the camera was following her in rotation and getting her from different angles. I was influenced by the movement, fluidity and dancing of the Madonna and the dancers. The camera filmed the body parts of Madonna and that's what we've done with the belly dancer which is a clear link, convention. We decided to use the convention of the dancers however in Madonna's video there's a part with slow motion but we decided to speed up the dancing which I thought was very effective. We used intercutting from long shots to close ups to create a fast-paced movement of the dancers to the beat of the song. In our video we use different locations with different shot types and angles which Madonna's video also uses. We was also influenced by the video DMC 'It's like that' we used the convention of movement and dance again however we challenged the convention of the dancing as in the video they dance against each other in groups (boys vs girls) but we used only 1 dancer. In the video there is a shot of the boys feet movement in trainers dancing to the song which we used in our video of the dancers feet movement. The locations are very similar as there is graffiti walls in both videos, however in DMC's video they are dancing in an old warehouse factory of some sort. This also shows a clear difference between the two videos as Madonna's video has a classic feel to it and our video is contemporary, more modern to the generation.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement) ?

I think the combination of my video, digipak and advertisement is effective in creating a clear visual link, however I believe that I could of produced a better, more effective ancillary products such as using the same font types and colours to suit the genre. A clear, visual link (key prop) is the 'Don't hold back' t-shirt that links with the digipak front cover and the advert. As there is a main part in the video with this t-shirt which is very recognisable as the main words of the song is 'Don't hold back'. This was a direct visual link, a strong base from the video to the ancillary products. In the video the image was in black and white however the t-shirt colour was red so I decided to make the words in red on the digipak and the advert. A clear, visual link is that I used imagery from the video and used it for the ancillary products which I believe makes it recognisable for the audience. I have also used imagery of the dancer in mixed, graffiti effect on the back cover of my digipak which the audience will notice as it is eye-catching and it is a big part of the video this also establishes the genre 'dance' as the audience will know what kind of cd they will be buying. The movement, dancers from our video is reflected on the digipak which the audience will recognise them as linked products. I think my main (video) was extremely successful, and ancillary texts we're also successful, however could be improved by the use of font types. I think my target audience would be attracted to them as I have used the same imagery and colours throughout the video and ancillary products.

Advert

Digipak front cover

Video

Digipak back cover

3. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For the construction of our video we used the video cameras to film at our locations using memory cards and hard drives to put the filming onto the computer.

We used the lighting kits when filming at the location at it was dark so we needed to create a clear shot.

I used the Mac computers to construct and research eg internet (blogger) for research eg Youtube to embed videos for research and Google, planning and evaluation.

                                                    

I used Photoshop for the construction of my ancillary products used for inputting images, effects and text 

Final Cut Pro for editing the video which includes a variety of shots.

I also used my mobile phone (the video camera) to take a video of the audiences reaction to our video.

We did an animatic storyboard which shows all the locations and shot types we we're going to use in our video.

This is at the beginning when editing in Final Cut when I was inputting images and setting the size it would be on the digipak.

4. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The audience in the cinema reacted extremely well to our video we received excellent comments and a lot of clapping, which made us feel even better as all our hard work had paid off. 

This is two of the comments I received after the cinema screening which she said very good points and aspects of the video such as the different shot types, dancer and the belly dancer which came as a surprise as it was inspected this made me happy as I believe it's good to surprise the audience and produce an unexpected outcome as an hip-hop dancer and belly dancer is two separate dance types. I am happy to produce a different video from all the other groups. Most of the feedback we received was different than the other groups as we used a different style such as including flashing imagery, fast-paced editing to the beat. Thr narrative of our video was extremely strong as we didn't use the same shots repetitively we used a variey of different shots of the belly dancer, boy doing grafitti, street dancer and the Dj. We only received one improvement which was to improve the lighting in the Dj box as it was a bit too dark so it didn't stand out as much. However, if we was to do it again I would make sure the lighting was more effective and the image was clearer.

This is the statistics, audience ratings I got from Vimeo. The statistics show our video has been watched a lot which is very good, however we haven't received any comments yet. 

                                                                            Video

In conclusion I've learnt that it is very important to create a clear, visual link between the main and ancillary products so the audience will recognise the product and the genre.

Question 1-Jack Simpson

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

I would say one of our main influences to our cinematography,was from Madonna's music video for her song 'Hung up' and Run DMC's video for 'It's like that'.

One of the themes that runs through our video is that of dance and movement,whether it be the belly dancer, the street dancer in the tunnel or the lines of the graffiti artists spray can. We tried hard to replicate the feeling of 'fluidity' that is in the above music videos and apply it to our own set pieces. Shot types and angles were very important in capturing the feeling of movement so we analysed these videos alot.

For example in this shot we felt that the movement and rhythm of the hands was an important part of the shot so we felt a mid shot was best here. Like Madonna's video, the mise en scene here was very delicate because we had to keep our dancers head just in the shot. Composition was just as important as shot type.

In Madonna's video, the shots and sequencing never gets stale. This is because of the large variety of shot types and angles that are used and are constantly varied. The pacing of the shots are also key and by this I mean how the shots are edited to the beat and the order in which they appear in. Alot of these ideas came through in our shots,we aimed to vary the shots of our dancer alot and used a very fast paced editing style. I don't think there are any shots that really hang for too long and this is thanks to the editing and combining long shots with close ups and mid shots. For example we go from a mid shot of the dancers hands and head as he moves to the beat, then we cut to a long shot,then we go to a mid shot of just the legs and feet. The spirit of the video and genre of music can be compared to that of an electric current,which is why I think the high-low, in and out style of editing and cinematography works well here. There are certainly visual links between the two videos.

We drew quite alot of ideas from Run DMC's video when it came to how we wanted to portray our own street dancer. However, whereas 'It's  like that' focused on a group of dancers, we decided to only focus on one.This was for practical reasons of course,but it was also to give more of a context to the dancer. The background was very important in the shots of our dancer because the graffiti linked itself to the rest of the video and made it clear to the audience that we were going for an urban feel with the video, just like the abandoned factory/warehouse linked with the themes of Run DMC's song.

Regarding my ancillary products, I think they are relatively conventional.

 I didn't try to challenge conventions of the genre but at the same time I attempted to make a digipak that was different from the average electronic genre digipak. I decided to combine photos and text in a stylistic way,cutting them up and making sure the composition and colour fitted the promotional package well.

Referring back to Andrew Goodwins theory,I think our video falls under the 'amplification' category. I think this suited our song because the themes running through it were not really scripted.Instead we needed to make sure the themes were amplified.

Evaluation

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions for real media products?

  

We were influenced by Madonna's music video named "Hung Up" The fast pace editing and camera angles inspired us to use similar shots and editing to create fluid movement around the belly dancer and hip hop dancer. In Madonna's video we see close up camera shots of her body parts when dancing which creates emphasis to the dance and makes it loos slick and snappy.

We used a similar shot to what Madonna has while dancing. We focused on the legs of the dancer for a short while to give an abstract feel and dynamic impact for a boosted way of establishing the convention.

 

Digipak Analysis-Daft Punk's Homework

Front Cover

Back Cover

CD housing/Inlay

This is the digipak for the album 'Homework' by the electronic music duo, Daft Punk. The idea behind this design is to reference back to the vintage designs of the 80's. The satin jacket with sewn on script, was an 80's fashion staple. With this being the focus point,it ties the design to the sounds of their music,which prominently feature the use drum machines and synthesizers. I really like this idea because it shys away from more traditional album covers and goes for a really simple but effective style.Simplicity is often under appreciated when it comes to digipak designs.You have to convey alot in a small space and instead of cramming as much information/design work as possible into every panel, the designer has chosen to choose a simple theme that speaks a lot about the type of music at the same time. It gives a very authentic feel to it,you can tell the artists and designers collaborated to create something that best represents them. The use of colours here are pretty sparse apart from the front cover which is a very loud shade of scarlet red,combined by an 'electric' yellow outline which makes the cover stand out.Whats odd about the front cover is that it doesn't feature the album name which I feel gives the front cover a peculiar confidence to it,as if the artist name and front cover design is enough to draw people in.I personally like this.

Final Digipak

Front and back cover

Inside left and inside right

Final Advert-Jack Simpson

Final Advert