What did you learn from Audience Feedback - Video

We asked our audience for feedback after a viewing of our music video for "Superman". A range of questions were asked from what they liked about the video, to what they didn't like about it and their overall view. The answers we gained were similar from the participants involved but insightful nonetheless. We have condensed their answers into these two videos.

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

Throughout the research and planning stages to the construction of my music video, digipak and advert I have used different forms of media technologies such as Youtube, iMovie, and photoshop for the construction. of these products.

During the research and planning stages, I found YouTube a very useful resource in aiding my ideas into my own music video. Watching videos from a similar genre allowed me to pick up the conventions of the pop/rock genre and later on in the evaluation stages I was able to highlight where I used, developed and challenged these conventions. Instead of watching a music channel on TV that would not always show the specific genre I was researching, YouTube allowed me to specifically search and select what I needed. Pausing the videos meant I could analyse and go back and view over multiple times. Google Images and Google itself was useful in the research and planning stages of my digipak and advert, as I had an essential range of examples to search for. It was particulary vital for researching into directors of music videos and artists of the pop/rock genre of our music video and I had a rich amount of information at my fingertips at all times.

When constructing our music video we had access to a video camera and tripod at our sixth form. The tripod allowed us to use tracking shots, and steady long shots while the camera allowed for zoom ins and close ups. iMovie was then used to upload our footage onto and then to finally edit. Throughout this process, our work was backed up to an external hard drive, but unfortunately there was a problem with this as at the middle stages of editing, we lost a majority of our edited footage and had to start from scratch. Nonetheless, the rest of the experience was pleasant enough, and we used YouTube clips for tips on effects and cropping as the software was updated and therefore brand new to the production team. Photoshop was used for the majority of the construction of my digipak and advert. The ability to crop images, add effects and use different fonts and tools was a great help in making the products look as professionally done as possible. Using it during the planning stages meant I could create a draft for a certain product and then ask for essential audience feedback, before moving on to develop a final design.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? - Digipak and Music Video

When designing my own digipak, it was important to consider the ways in which the combination of the music video and digipak were effective. This is otherwise known as synergy and would allow the audience to build a relationship and spot connections when viewing the music video and digipak design.

Digipak

Music Video
Our group's own music video production to the song "Superman" portrays a strong female protagonist in control of who she wants to date, and so I wanted to further reinforce that theme onto my digipak. I used the image of a young female as the face of the band "Amber Rhythm" and as she is presented on her own and as a main focus of the front cover of the album, she is seen to be independant just as our female character in the video is presented. However we did include a male gaze in the video, the female's chest area highlighting the female stereotype, and so my images for the digipak show this, particularly the third cover, albeit hindering the female's dominance of sorts.

The theme of love is involved in the storyline of our music video and so this theme was also something I wanted to integrate onto my digipak. The heart on the cartoon image of the artist symbolises the love of music as the musical notes flow from within it and in the music video the CD's are placed in the shape of a heart to portray connotations of love.

The scenes involving the female protagonist and her "superman" playing on the swings in a park emphasised the childlike tone to the video but also highlighted the freedom the youth have. And so my digipak portrayed this feeling too with the use of graffiti to create the logo of the band's name as it is seen as an expressive tool to create art.
I created cartoon images on my digipak to reinforce the idea of the song's title "Superman" as the video itself uses aspects of cartoon effects inspired by Marvel comics, the creators of Superman. It too highlights the youthful aspect of both video and digipak.

Using, developing and challenging forms and conventions - Music Video

Our music video was based on the conventions of Pop/Rock music. But there are instances where we have challenged these forms, as well as developing them in our own production.

Used Conventions
Our song "Superman" used conventions of a pop/rock music video. Firstly our video is mainly a narrative, which is based on love. This theme is popular and most common is Pop videos. We used archetypes/sterotypes of different types of characters, that have been exaggerated for humour and recognisability. These were the Hunk, the Punk and the Geek. As Pop/Rock is mainly aimed at a younger, youthful audience, over exaggeration is common in the music videos of this genre to make them more humourous. Lip synchronisation is a traditonal convention and we incorporated this into our own, having the female protagonist sing along to the chorus, dominantly shown in Pop videos like Pink's "So What". Furthermore, it is traditional for these types of videos to use an illustrative narrative where the lyrics are accompanied by an illustration. We used scenes that literally followed the lyrics such as "the devil did him a deal". Two shots emphasised the theme of love and the relationship between the characters, something that is employed in other Pop/Rock videos.

Developed Conventions
A number of conventions were developed in our music video since the genre was a mix of pop and rock and so we used conventions from both genres, carefully mixing them together in our production. We made use of special effect editing techniques, such as the cartoon effect, which are present in Pop videos. And we used the speeding up technique, creating short quick transitions between scenes, seen in Rock videos.

Challenged Conventions
The group challenged the conventions of Pop/Rock a lot throughout our production. Watching 50 Cent's "P.I.M.P" video, although not of the same genre but a predominant theme seen in a lot of other music videos, allowed us to the challenge the conventions of the role of a female in a music video, where she is portrayed as weak and an object of the male gaze. However in our own video we used the female as our protagonist and showed her in control of her male counterparts as she made her choice in who to date. We emphasised this by using close up's of her face to show the emotion in her decisions. Also the urban setting of the video, with flats in the background appeal to an audience of a middle class background living in an urban environment.

Final Editing

The production of our music video is nearing the end and so Reena and I went in our free time to make an issue of the narrative, editing techniques and the video as a whole to alter areas which needed to be improved. Since the video is supposed to be promoted to a much wider audience, we both thought our own views into what should be inputed would be irrelevant and so we asked for criticism, both positive and negative. After showing the class our music video, some suggestions were made in order to improve our video as a whole.

More Cut-ins
It was stated that some areas of the video were too repetive with certain scenes appearing more than once, also some played for far too long. Therefore it was suggested that we should introduce more inserts to construct a more fast-paced video. In order to make this successful we made sure that the clips changed on the beat of the music. This would also conform to the conventions of a Pop/Rock music video as the clips change on the beat which creates an upbeat feel and emphasises the continuous heavy drumming of the song. The use of cut ins foreshadow the narrative of the geek turning into superman.

Lip Synchronisation

Many noticed that the image didn't synchronise with the music as the female protagonist wasn't singing in time with the music. Speeding up and slowing down the clip deemed unsucessful and therefore we decided to use a cut in of the Superman character, deleting the clips of the female singing. But the new Superman clips still played were not fitting with the music as the song played the lyrics "He's a Superman". By doing this, the conventions of a Pop/Rock music video were challenged and developed as it is common for the chorus of Pop/Rock Music videos to be lip synchronised. However, by using both a short lip synchronisation and a longer insert of another scene, the group has developed these conventions in order to improve our video.

Using, Developing and Challenging Conventions

To analyse the ways in which our storyboard uses, develops and challenges the conventions of pop music videos, I have compared it to three popular pop videos; Taylor Swift's You Belong With Me, Miley Cyrus' Party In The USA and Jonas Brothers Burnin' Up.

You Belong With Me



Party In The USA


Burnin' Up


Conventions:

• Many scenes exaggerate humour, which appeals to a young audience.
  
• There is a balance of domestic and public scenes, which relates to the stereotypical lifestyle of young adults.


• The artist/band might want to develop their own star iconography, which becomes their star image.
  
• Pop artists usually promote themselves in music videos by starring in the video themselves.
  
• Edited transitions such as fades and wipes are used in order to create a surreal atmosphere .


• Mise-en-scene in all the videos for example the street dancers, bikes, couples and clothing style are all associated with youths.
  
• Long shots are utilised, revealing the costumes and Mise en Scene which appeal to youth culture, as well as close ups illustrating the emotions behind the songs.
  

Although our song was created using computer software, the variety of instruments and vocals gives the impression that a band was involved. In this sense, our video is challenging the conventions of a pop band's video. The artist/band usually appear in their own video in order to promote themselves, sometimes as a part of the narrative, sometimes separate. However our team have decided not to have a band feature and focus rather on the narrative as it is quite strong to carry the whole video through and address the audience through its comic elements. We made use of lip synchronisation, close up shots and the repetition of chorus scenes. This engages the audience and repeating scenes will allow the video to flow better as it links the different verses.