A2 Media Studies Blog: Evaluation

EVALUATION

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

When developing ideas, for my end media product I researched various forms of music videos. I did this to prepare myself for when I develop my final music product. For example when identifying music genres and how some convey generic conventions, which we expect to see as consumers: for example when analysing the camera work in Tom Odell’s Another Love (which on my blog is the third case study.)

I was able to identify that many music videos, such as this one heavily involve the artists in the video, through the use of close ups and mid-shots, with the artist sometimes looking into the camera this is done so that audience feels a unique connection between them and the artist which can be seen as a form of textual schizophrenia.

I wanted my music video to challenge these types of conventions where the artist needs to be prominent in the video, and I looked into other avenues where this was not case this lead me to music products of more niche production values such as the video I analyse in my first case study of a music video I found called Hello Brooklyn rapped by the artist Jay Z and Lil Wayne. What struck me when analysing the conventions of this video, is how much it challenged other music products.

There were no artist/artists in the video, this hugely challenged theorists such as Andrew Goodwin who states that an artist needs to appear in the video. The music video is a rap, which are usually associated with derogatory visual references to women; however this confronts that stereotype with no sexualised female references also contrasting Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory.

The video displayed a series of moving images and typography, this is something I have depicted in my video. By using typography and imagery to cooperate together, as in the original Hello Brooklyn video; the images where actual images that had movement implemented, using the software After Effects. I developed upon their media product, by filming my scenes using the camera, instead of just capturing them by still image; which would not fit in with my task outline. So my product used similar conventions to the Brooklyn video by using similar movements such as pans, tilts and close-ups, but developed upon them by using different shooting methods and software’s as instead of using After Effects I used the software Avid, which allowed me to add typography to my video clips.

Similar to the Brooklyn video I also wanted a mise en scene that did not involve the artist; so I selected a series of nature and outdoor shots. Due to my my music genre being folk/indie the imagery was more outdoor orientated unlike the Brooklyn video which was a homage to the city.

Overall my music video has challenged mainstream music conventions by not depicting generic semiology, such as the artist being in the clips; however it has developed on and used more niche media products, which challenge mainstream products.

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

When forming the ancillary texts, I needed identify how to make a design that matched my bands requirements; and fit the final products genre. I researched various cd and album covers, to see how certain artists communicate their brand through their ancillary texts. One of the album covers I looked at, in my researching stages was Janet Jackson ’20 Yo’, this album followed generic conventions of the artist being the centre focus of the cover; this is very common on for RnB and Pop music artists to have themselves as the focus, I wanted to challenge this form ancillary.

I wanted to confront popular music when I came to the design of my ancillary texts. So I looked into how more niche genres such as indie/rock and folk bands present their ancillary texts bands such as The Kaiser Chiefs who do not show themselves on their ancillary texts. This is in convergence to my main product where the band is also not in the text. So when design my ancillary texts I wanted the design to colligate with this and not show the artist, this provides the viewers with hidden narrative and also gives out the message the artists are publishing their music for the art and not the fame.

When talking to the band I asked what their requirements where for the ancillary design; as in a lot of cases the artists have key roles in the development of their brand. So I was a designer and they were the client. They wanted a 20’s theme golden lavish looking design. This cover matched my main product, in the sense that the key artists where absent. However did not completely correspond to the video, which was more natural then lavish which is what the band wanted the ancillary text to look.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After I completed my final media product, I needed to identify what people’s opinions where on my final product. I learnt that the reason for producing such surveys; was to establish whether my message or concept had gotten across to the audience… This relates to audience theory: where a product is read by an audience, this is Stuart Hall’s reception theory in which me as the producer of the end product has encoded a message or concept into the narrative; in the hope that that message is then understood and decoded by the reader. This therefore either creates a preferred reading, or for those who did not understand the message that had been encoded forms an oppositional reading.

What I was able to determine was that: questionnaires/surveys like this are key in establishing feedback; which helped me understand, what had been understood in my final media product and what had not. Which if I where a real producer, I would need to work upon improving; as if the audience did have an oppositional reading of my final media product; and therefore did not satisfy the audience needs, I would have failed in providing pleasure for the audience, creating an unsuccessful product.

Theses are some of the questions asked in my survey bellow;

1 – How well does the music video follow the codes and conventions or effectively subvert or break the conventions of the genre it belongs to?