Evaluation Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?

For this section of the evaluation we have, once again, collaborated to present an answer in the form of a video.

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After we had completed the main product (music video), we thought it would be necessary to receive audience feedback to ensure that the text would be a success amongst its target audience. In order to do this, we posted the video on the the evolving social networking website, Facebook. This allowed our target audience to comment on the video, and express their personal opinion of it.

Here are some quotations demonstrating the feedback that we have received:

> "A really good music video. You can really see the emotion of the character through the imagery of the video and the lyrics in the song."
> "The video shows an excellent visual presentation to accompany the theme of the song."
> "I love the underlying thematic representation of rebelliousness reflected by the grittiness and quick cuts of the shots which impairs the clarity to the audience. The playful interchanging colour saturations kept me visually stimulated and satisfied my needs as the audience."
> "Really well made! Love the band shots, but if you changed the main singer for a professional actor it would be even better!"
> "Overall, I really liked the music video, I think the story really followed the lyrics of the song and they both fitted really well together, I particularly liked the band shots. The use of costumes and setting were appropriate for the song. The transitions between the band and the rest of the video worked really well, and kept you interested during the video. The content of the video was appropriate for my age group and was thought provoking."

When receiving this feedback, I thought that it sounded on the whole very positive, which was therefore very encouraging as it suggests that our text would be successful when presented to its target audience. The comments imply that the micro aspects such as cinematography, editing, miss en scene and sound have been effective towards creating a video of satisfactory quality. It would appear that the audience have responded to and liked the combination of the band shots and narrative, which I think proves that we made the correct decision to use this particular convention of rock and roll music videos. I am pleased that the audience have commented on the emotion of the character that has been signified in the narrative section of the video, because it shows that the video has effectively captured the themes represented in the lyrics in a visual media. Overall, I have learnt from the audience feedback that using conventions of the song's genre has ensured that the product meets the audience's needs.

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

When creating a promotion package it is necessary to conform to the institutions needs as well as leaving an impression on the audience whilst the products are being marketed. We thought that the most effective way to do this would be to establish a clear link between all three texts.

We began the research and planning stage of the project by analysing the lyrics of the song '18 and Life' in order to establish the themes we should connote in the music video. Through researching videos of the rock and roll genre, we learnt that the most effective concept to connect with our target audience would be to use the conventional combination of band shots and narrative. The target audience admire the band, therefore making band shots very important towards the success of the text.

As for the narrative, we reflected the songs themes of youth, rebellion, isolation and aggression within the actions of a male teenage protagonist. The target audience can identify with him, due to the way he is represented by micro aspects such as mise-en-scene and cinematography.

The themes represented and the conventional combination of narrative and band shots were the biggest successes of the music video. It was therefore a good idea to use these successes to link together the video and the two ancillary tasks (CD package and poster). The rebellious nature of the boy is evident throughout the narrative, but is explicitly represented in the Costcutter scene, where he is denoted stealing food.

The theme of crime/ rebelliousness is also represented in the ancillary tasks through the visual signifier of the spray can, which the teenage protagonist from the narrative uses to graffiti band information onto a brick wall.

The target audience relate with this theme, which I think makes for an effective link between the three texts. As previously mentioned, the audience admires the band. This audience need is addressed through the inclusion of a screen grab of the lead singer on the inside cover of the CD package, demonstrating a clear link between the CD cover and band shots.

In terms of colour, we have maintained a saturated, dark and high contrast aesthetic throughout all three texts. This presents another clear link between the texts, leaving the target audience with a solid impression of the band and their song. Both of the Ancillary tasks include the logo of our chosen institution. This institution is called 'Roadrunner Records' who sign artists and bands who fall into similar Rock genres, which the audience would no doubt be familiar with, this makes for an effective combination between the two ancillary tasks.

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

For this section of the evaluation we have collaborated to present an answer in the form of a video.

MUSIC VIDEO: FINAL EDIT

ANCILLARY TASKS (FINAL VERSIONS)

Here are the final versions of our Digi-Pack (CD) and Poster:

Digi- Pack (CD)

                   

             Poster

ANCILLARY TASKS - INITIAL PHOTOGRAPHS

Our actor James joined Me and Labdarbs yesterday in order to take a range of photos for our Digi-pack and poster. As a group we have decided to go with the idea of James (Ricky) spray-painting (graffiti) 'Skid Row - 18 and Life' onto a plain brick wall, in order to connote themes of youth rebellion that we have drawn the the band's attitude and the songs lyrics. These photo's will then be edited to achieve the desired effect. Charlie is a talented user of photoshop and I think that with his help we can produce a creative set of ancillary tasks that meets our audiences and institutions needs.

Here are some of the initial photographs that we have chosen to use: 

RECORD LABEL

We feel that an appropriate record label to release our product under would be 'Roadrunner Records'. This is because Roadrunner Records concern themselves with signing heavy rock bands, and would be supportive and respectful of the genre conventions within our music video and ancillary tasks. It would also  attract the audience as they may be aware of the record label, and if not the product would gain recognition for the label. Similar artists signed to this label consist of Kiss, Ratt and ex Guns n Roses guitarist, Slash.

ANCILLARY TASKS - INITIAL IDEAS

We have recently been discussing the ancillary tasks and bouncing around a few ideas that would work for the digi-pack (CD graphics) and promotional poster. We believe that the entire digi-pack and poster should have a continuous theme, and this theme must be related to the song/ band/ music video, which will therefore be relevant to our audience which targets teenagers/ young adults.

Our favourite idea for the CD cover was to have the videos protagonist, Ricky, graffiti-ing the information - 'SKID ROW / 18 AND LIFE' onto a simple brick wall. Signifiers such as the 'spray can' connote representations of youth as rebellious, which is a theme presented by the songs lyrics and the content of our music video. Our target audience will relate to these images and be interested in purchasing the text. 

MUSIC VIDEO = FINISHED

Like a jigsaw puzzle, our music video has finally pieced itself together. Me, Charlie and James have worked well as a team, and due to this I think that the video is successful in terms of both quality and meeting the needs of the target audience.

FINAL FILMING SESSION

We have now edited all footage to a point where we are content that it's all done, It has come along and is beginning to look pretty tight. Today we filmed our final scene, which when edited, should complete the music video! It consists of Ricky walking into a phonebook to let his mum know that he won't be home, this leads to an explicit argument. The scene continues to develop our themes of youth rebellion, aggression and isolation.  We filmed a good shot from the third floor of a department store looking down upon the phone box. Shooting through the phone box windows also resulted in some good looking shots.

Me filming James entering the phone box.

EDITING PROGRESSION

Throughout this project we have been spending a lot of time editing our footage to the song. (Using the software 'final cut express'). We have been experimenting with the colour corrector tool in order to subtly saturate the narrative shots, this conveys to the audience how Ricky is feeling; he does not have a colourful life. We also thought it was necessary to provide a distinction between the narrative and the band shots. We have done this by making all the band and vocal shots black and white. We have given the band shots quite a strong contrast which makes the musicians look important. We have also matched the pace of the clips to the pace of the song to show a clear connection between visual and audio.

COSTCUTTER SHOOT

We went to Costcutter at around 4.00 to film the robbing scene, but we were told we had to come back at 8.00, fortunately our actor, James, was available and we were able to shoot this scene. In the meanwhile however, we shot a couple of short scenes of James smoking, drinking, fighting and walking aimlessly. These actions were influenced and relevant to the song's lyrics, and help to further connote signs of isolation and aggression within the character of Ricky.

In terms of of quality, I am pleased with the shots, especially those from the Costcutter scene. The lighting was good, they are relatively well framed and the handheld tracking shots were held steady.

FILMING NARRATIVE

I asked the shopkeeper in the local costcutter last night if he was ok with us filming in the store today, he was fine with it. We plan to record Wheeler robbing a few items of food and purchasing some alcohol there, as part of the narrative section of the music video. After this we might film him loitering at the local skatepark, an image commonly associated with today's youth, that the audience can identify with.

VOCAL SHOTS 2

We have re-filmed the vocal shots in the studio, and we are happy with the results. Labdarbs was much more confident, and we were able to capture some vastly improved shots, that embody conventions of rock and roll music videos.

VOCAL SHOTS

Last week we made use of the schools photography studio to film shots of the lead vocalist (Labdarbs). We are happy with both the lighting and composition of our shots, however, Labdarbs was not fully confident with the lyrics, and we think this came through in his performance. We have therefore decided to book the studio in order to redo this shoot on Monday.