Charlies evaluation

A2 Media

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

1. Our media product has been influenced strongly by many elements of the music industry. We researched music videos made for upcoming or famous artists and realised that the majority of videos were performance based; we decided to base ours on a narrative, which challenged the conventions of media products and also Goodwin’s theory. A narrative based video is more suitable for The XX’s song as it strongly fits the indie-pop genre. As ‘Heart Skipped a Beat’ is a romantic love song, we decided that our characters should appear as innocent and pure. We did this by making their costume youthful and formal, and ensuring the girl wore no make up. This challenges voyeurism and how generic videos use woman as ‘sex objects’. Another feature that challenges modern day music videos is our mise en scene as our location’s are of an old house and some of the lip sync is filmed in a University rather than a metropolis or a studio. We chose to use these locations as vintage appeals to celebrities and teenagers at the moment, this works as our target audience is of the adolescence. For our advert and digi-pak we did not feature the artist’s faces which challenged the media industry of today, we found it was unnecessary for our product as The XX are relatively unknown. The logos and companies we chose to use on our digi-pak and advert are Myspace and Warner Brothers. We decided both of these companies were relevant as Myspace is where The XX built themselves a name for themselves, and Warner Brothers are known world wide. Myspace is not usually used on products as a logo and company so this challenges the conventions.

We featured the artist by using lip syncing which uses conventions of music videos, within this we used eye contact which supports Goodwin’s theory ‘notion of looking’. Including a relationship between lyrics and visuals worked well, a feature which is commonly used as it makes the video and song a complete piece rather than two separate medias put together. Through research my group discovered that visuals always move to the beat of the song, and change shots relatively quickly to keep the audience interested. We supported this idea and cut our video strictly so that it did not seem to be behind or ahead of time and ran neatly. Our digi-pak includes lyrics, websites, screen grabs, song lists, titles and tour dates which are typical features of a media product. We also used images and colours which supported our mise on scene and carried on the overall look for all three products. On both the poster and the digi-pak the website is stated so that the viewers can find out more information about the artist which is commonly used. Also we had star ratings and comments from magazines or newspapers to promote the artist.

Developing our music video to make it unique was something that appealed to us. We began by using subliminal messages during our video of the artists name ‘XX’ which is featured in various parts of the song; on the mirror, the bottle in the cellar, the books and on the tissue at the end. To carry on this idea of using words, we wrote the lyrics as they came in the song ‘I’m not finished’ on the sheet music which the boy turns to, this is a direct link between lyrics and visuals. Screen grabs, a unique love letter and signatures are features we included in the digi-pak which are a development of typical products, most of which have unique selling points that use further technology such as website codes and blog information.


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

2. When designing our digi-pak and magazine advert, we ensured that there was a strong link between each of the products and that they both referred directly to our music video. Many digi-paks and adverts today use the artist’s faces to sell the products, but as The XX are relatively unknown we chose to use establishing shots of the house we filmed in, creating a link between the products. Our digi-pak has a vintage, feel to it, carrying on the characteristics of the house; this is also mirrored in our advert. The poster particularly carries on the ‘hide and seek’ approach we took to the song, as it is of a dolls house. It is interesting how when you watch the video it is hard to link which room leads to which corridor, so the poster works as a ‘map’. We included some unique selling points in our digi-pak such as signatures, bonus tracks and a letter which we originally pitched at the beginning of our project. We carried the same font over from the digi-pak to the poster so that it was recognisable and unique to the artist.

We decided that a visual theme throughout all three products is necessary to give them an individual brand identity. Our artists’ identity is shown through images of rooms within a house which are quaint and mysterious, reflecting the bands current status as they’re not yet recognizable in the market. We believe that this idea of using a vintage style in a subtle, non-overpowering way appeals to teenagers who are our target audience, particularly those who enjoy different variations of indie style music. The products appear innocent and honest, the rooms within them messy and old fashioned, telling a story within themselves which we think The XX tell in their music. We hope that by creating powerful, individual products, which look good and pleasing to the eye, the products will sell themselves by word of mouth, rather than acknowledgement.


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

3. Research began by looking into music videos which were available to view through the internet on youtube. We looked into Goodwin’s theory and analysed many videos which we felt would influence and help develop our initial ideas from our pitch. We particularly liked Imogen Heaps music video for ‘Goodnight and Go’ as it features a dolls house, and has a quirkiness to it which is appealing. It was useful to use the internet to research into music videos within the genre from well known bands, as we had to see what it was that sells to our target audience.

As a group we did research into various music directors and posted our research onto our blogs. We researched and analysed Spike Jonze, and Chris Cunningham, who are unconventional directors.

As our band had a myspace, we were able to get information from there and get a feel for their style and music. This meant we could have a deeper thought into whether or not the way we were interpreting the song suited the band or not. The XX have a band website which we were able to look at, and we discovered that their song ‘Heart Skipped a Beat’ already had a video to it which was a large X windowing different scenes and filtering them into various colours. We found the video boring, and indifferent to many amateur videos, it also did not strongly support any of Goodwin’s theories.

We used Final Cut to produce our media video, where we also edited it in various ways. Having looked at past media students work, we used the ghosting effect by layering footage and changing its opacity, this was effective and fit our theme. Our college blogs had a large influence on our work as we received feedback through them from other students and also the public as our video was posted on there, and also on youtube. The blogs meant that we could look at other peoples work, and get ideas from their rough cuts, particularly when it came to editing and construction. In conclusion we decided to use filters to make our video have a greater ‘antique’ feel to it.


4. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

4. We have received feedback at various points during our project. Our pitch was successful and full of many strong ideas which we carried out to the end of our project. We pitched that we wanted to hold a strong hide and seek feel to out video, along with a mise en scene which would stand out from the conventional ones. When explaining our ideas, we did it by breaking the song up into its verses and describing the visuals with the lyrics or music. I had also looked into ideas for the digi-pak which we ended up using a lot of for our final such as the letter idea. This was helpful as it meant we were organised and had a clear idea in our head. We had very good feedback from it, but found that for our music video we had to include more performance and lip syncing when initially we planned on having only narrative.

Our rough cut received positive feedback on the blog from students and our teacher despite the fact we knew that there was a lot that could be improved or changed. There were suggestions that we should include more lip syncing in a separate location and also edit the footage more interestingly. Our peer group which are also our target audience particularly liked our unique location we used, which suited the innocent approach we had to the song. We also had a variety of shots, but it was felt that more close ups of the artist would make their recognition stronger. As a group we took the advice and ended up with a second lot of footage filmed at a separate location which was useful for the chorus’s towards the end of the song as it featured lip syncing.

Our blog was kept up to date throughout; we ensured that there was work on there illustrating each stage so that we kept on top of what we were doing. Our teacher told us that our blog was good but that further research into supporting Goodwin’s theory would be helpful, and also research into our digi-pak such as labels. I cartooned some images that we took on location which we thought we may be able to use for our digi-paks and/or magazine advert, the influence for this came from Mika’s cartooning affect he uses as an artist signature.

Our final music video was given positive feedback overall. Personally if I could do it again I would have made the lip syncing towards the end more tidy and filter it brighter. I am particularly happy how our artists’ innocent is portrayed in the house and that both character and location have similarities. Our digi-pak received particular praise as we decided to make a CD gatefold, rather than a DVD cover so that we could show our strong selling points within the case. For the digi-pak we used the cartooning image as the front cover as it gave a youthful look to a ‘vintage’ image. The digi-pak was reviewed and people were impressed by how we used various images and the layout.