Alice Bunting and Elizabeth Millar
Final Evaluation of Products.
1. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Lilly: A major new technology that we used for our research was the internet. The internet enabled us to research music videos of a similar music genre so that we could identity the generic codes and conventions of the dance/hardcore genre, which were Fast paced editing, a strong narrative structure and a leading female vocalist which we filmed using close up shots and tracking camera movements so the audience could connect with her.
Alice: Some specific videos that we looked at were ‘ Pretty Green Eyes’ by Ultrabeat and ‘ Now Your Gone’ by Basshunter. Some other new technologies that we used were ‘Imovies’ 09, ‘blogger.com’ and the mac computer. The new digital technologies such as the Mac computer were a key structure within our portfolio units. This Contrasted from foundation portfolio, where we were not able to develop our media products to a high standard due to lack of knowledge and experience with the Mac. Imovies was an essential new technology that we used within both units. As a group we used ‘imovies 09’ which was much more advanced software than Imovies 08’ due to better software.
Lilly: For example due to the genre of our music video the tempo is very fast and the conventions of the genre in the music videos to match the tempo of the song with very fast paced editing, so that it goes with the tempo, similar to the video Styles and Breeze’ Amigos’, which we wanted to reflect with our editing. Therefore the ‘Imovies 09’ enabled us to speed up the dance scene for our artist which meant we were able to be more creative and helped fit within the tempo of our song choice ‘Walking in the rain’, by Sublime.
Alice: Another creative feature from ‘Imovies 09’ was adding Filters , such as Sepia onto a specific scene onto the flashbacks, which helped us to break up the footage. This allowed us to apply the theoretic concepts ‘Uses and Gratifications’ in practice for our music video. The filter Sepia helped to engage our target audience as the effect helped them to understand the narrative as the filter Sepia connoted the flashback effectively, helping to achieve a more personal relationship between the artist and the demographic audience.
In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Lilly: During research, we found a lot of the models on the CD covers and posters video’s analyzed were in skimpy outfits which had high sexual connotations to the demographic audience, this was intensified through things like the models pose and expression. Therefore whilst creating our CD cover we reflected this through the choice of our original image, whereby the models pose and costume was had high sexual connotations and the setting reflected the stock setting of a club with neon lighting.
Alice: We also followed codes and conventions whilst producing our music video where we found through research was a strong narratives a typical convention of the dance/hardcore genre. We found we could apply todorovs narrative theory of Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, Seeking to reestablish equilibrium and finally Equilibrium to our music video. Breaking down the narrative structure of the video we can prove that we had conformed to the conventions of a typical Todorovian narrative structure.
Lilly: The equilibrium was where the artist is upset an alone.
The Disruption: was where the artist sends a text message to her boyfriend of the breakup.
Recognition was where the arist seeks to overcome the breakup and begins to get ready for a night out.
Seeking to reestablish was where the artist dances down the road.
New Equilibrium is where the artist winks at the camera which lets the demographic audience know she is Ok.
Alice: ‘Walking in the rain’ which meant it had a strong structure and the demographic audience would easily be able to make sense of the narrative. We also used a stock setting of a bedroom which helped the demographic audience connect with the artist as they were able to relate to such a personal setting and this also helped the audience to connect with the artist on a more personal level.
Lilly: One code and convention we have decided to follow is the colorful nature of the music genre; during research we found that CD covers and adverts were extremely bright and eye catching, which connotes the playful aspect of the dance/ hardcore genre to audience members. This made it more engaging in contrast to adverts from the rock genre, which used mainly black and dark colors. Following these certain codes and conventions will mean that the audience will be easily able to identify the dance/hardcore genre and will make it stand out from different genres.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Alice: We thought our music video and print products were all very effective because the codes and conventions we followed which we identified during research gave the demographic an instantly identifiable product. This was reflected through using emphasized certain neon colors on the cover, which we also reflected in the poster, which gave our texts a more congruent feel.
Lilly: We also used the artist in out poster advertisement and music video which helped to build the brand of the artist and allowed the audience to identify with the artist more than just through the one form of our coursework.
What have you learnt from your audience feedback?
Feedback from audience:
Alex Cockell said...
I really like your poster. I like the colours and the image you've used. Maybe have a different colour instead of white as your background to make it stand out more.
Anna... said...
This print ad is really good and has all the necessary information but you don't say whether it follows the codes and conventions of the print ads you analyzed or if you challenged the genre conventions.
We took this feedback into consideration and changed some of our print products accordingly, namely our CD cover whereby we changed the color scheme to make it look more professional and cohesive.
to editing, trim add music and special effects. Editing has been tricky. We need to make sure our 'target audience' doesn't get disoriented and will easily recognize that this video holds typical codes and conventions of a 'dance/ hardcore' music video. The editing at the beginning is very slow past so represent the slow and sad situation of the break up, however, once the tempo increases, so does the editing style which is fast to represent the music hardcore genre. 
