Evaluation - Ben Vanlint

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

 Our media product uses common forms and conventions of real media products in various ways. Firstly, we have tried to make the music video as memorable as possible, by entirely transforming the way in which the music artist (Justin Timberlake) is portrayed whilst adding controversy to the music video to aid in making it memorable as well as unique. We also used a familiar technique used in many music videos which is changing the artists image; this plays an important role in music videos as it enables a music artist to be reinvented continuously allowing them to be perceived as ‘new/fresh’ to the audience. In doing so, the audience will not see the same types of music videos repetitively, but a change, from the same music artist. In our music video, we altered our music artist’s image by portraying a mysterious side to him which is not a common way of reinventing a music artist’s image. Typically, music artist's try to ‘reinvent’ themselves in a positive manor in an attempt to appeal to their target audience, where as we have done the complete opposite by emphasising our music artists problems and exaggerate them, in this case portraying him as a stalker. Another popular motif amongst music videos is the use of a narrative which gives the music video a structure. We also included breaks from the narrative to show the music artist singing which is very common motif within music videos; it has almost become a certainty within a music video. This is an important feature within a music video as it allows the audience to feel engaged instead of bored watching a music video based only on a narrative or just a music artist singing; where as both aspects enhance the music video. We have also included sexually objectifying shots and de-fragmented body shots in our music video. This creates a positive effect on the audience as they can engage with the video as well; as making it appealing, more abstract and creative.

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

I think that the combination of our product and our ancillary texts are very effective and work well together. The ancillary texts we created, the CD cover and the website, use bright and bold colours which suggests that the music video will have a positive theme to it, however in contrast the video is actually quite the opposite to that as the theme of our video is quite dark and mysterious. I think that the video and ancillary texts work well together as they contradict each other and add a sense of surprise when watching the video. The ancillary texts help to enhance the music video and the music artists ‘new’ perception. The images we created of our music artist also work well with our music video as the images show the artist looking mysterious and unhappy. These images can be misinterpreted if they are seen before the music video as the audience will not realise till after the watching the video, how they fit into the theme or narrative of the song.


 What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 Our audience feedback was very useful and allowed our group to learn from it. Firstly, we learnt where we needed to improve our video to make it more appealing and clearer as the narrative had a tendency to drag on. We also learnt what worked well within our video for example when we split the screen into four different images; this was appealing to the audience as it is not usually seen. The main issue with our video was the amount of repetition; there were a lot of repetitive shots in our video. This was due to the fact that we did not have enough clips and we needed to fill time by repeating the same shots as well as using ‘filler’ shots. We have looked to improve this by spending some more time filming and creating different scenes to get more clips so that there the repetition is removed and the video is more interesting. In addition to this, we learnt that the audience had a mixed review on the new artist portrayed. The typical fans prefer the usual artist they say, however, the younger audience liked the fact that we changed his character and portrayed him in a different light allowing them to judge which ‘character’ they prefer. Overall, I think that the audience feedback was constructive and positive as it allowed us to make amendments and take credit for the positive aspects of the music video and ancillary texts.


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

 In our video we have used many different media technologies at various stages to get the best end product possible. We used green screen to add a background, fitting in with the narrative, while the artist is singing; making the scene more interesting and the video look more professional. We have also used a number of different software programmes such as Garage Band, Photoshop and Premiere. We used Garage Band to create a radio show promoting the song which we are doing for the music artist. We used Photoshop to create the CD cover for the song and other images which were used for the website, again helping to promote our media product. We used Premiere, which is a user friendly software to edit the music video. We also used websites such as Wix and Survey Monkey. We used Wix to create the artist’s website, which we used as another promotional method to represent the artist. Survey monkey was used in the evaluation stages to find out from the audience what worked well and what needed improving in the music video. Media technologies were extremely useful throughout all stages of our product and ancillary texts. These technologies were very helpful but most importantly necessary as we would not have been able to create a video or quality images without some of these technologies, for example without premiere then we would not have been able to edit our video or even put the clips in order and without Photoshop we would not have been able to edit the images and make them look of a professional standard.