1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
We decided to use the techniques seen previously in our research of other bands and their pop promos, meaning we used the codes and conventions of other music videos rather than develop or challenge them. We have incorporated both a narrative aspect and musical performance in our video, This makes the pop promo a stereotypical music video for this type of genre. I feel that our pop promo uses the same codes and conventions as the bands we researched, which include video's from artists including Ronan Keating, Pink Floyd and Journey.
The characteristics of this genre are simple, these are a clear narrative with a performance element, which are kept very simple. The bands appear in their own music videos to promote themselves and their song.
We decided to incorporate a live performance into our video, as the band are primarily a live band, performing to different audiences every week. The variety of shots of the band were created so that the video audience can feel as if they are there , also introducing the band to the audience. The cameras were not set on tripods, as we decided to give a more realistic view of the band adding to the idea of making the audience feel like their there. The bands wardrobe was chosen so that they looked smart and respectable that would be worn on a live performance so adding to the idea of making it real. The drummer was also wearing a jumper which had the bands logo adding to promotion for the band. The black and white is to separate the live performance from the narrative, we decided to use colour on the fictional scenes, showing they are in the real world.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The used a similar idea throughout our DIGIPACK, we did this by targeting there already existing fan base while trying to attract a wider/younger audience. This I feel worked well as a the imagery of the graffiti with the guitar and the cup of tea show the bands personality, the guitar representing their passion for music, while th etea shows that there of the older generation but are not afraid to admit it or show it too their audience as they want to be real and not a manufactured band. The graffitti demonstrates a younger edge and involvement.
I think that our print ad and CD cover worked together with the pop promo, whilst in the music video the band themselves reach out to their existing audience and younger people performing the narrative reaches out to a younger audience who can relate to the characters we had created.
The CD cover and the print ad have the same picture as the focal point linking the imagery makes it easier for an audience to recognise the bands products, with the same message running throughout the video as well. Our aim was to appeal to a broader audience by using elements which appeal to both the mature and young without alienating either.
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
When showing are pop promo to the class everyone said they liked it some of the good points, That we made the two characters realistic and with good chemistry. The negative feedback was mainly about the band, that it was hard to know who the lead singer was and that they didn’t portray the enthusiasm of an expected live performance.
The class gave a lot of positive feedback of the mix of narrative and performance, as it makes it interesting to watch, because they enjoy seeing the band but also want to find out what happens to the narrative making them want to watch the whole thing through. One specific part of the narrative they liked was the slow motion look between the characters.
The locations we used suited the video and the costumes matched the description of the characters in the narrative. They also mentioned that the timing of the changes from narrative to performance was good because it didn‘t get boring of watching too much of the same thing. However they expressed that some of the cinematography looked amateurish at points, in addition they also mentioned the lack of close ups as we used more long, and medium shots that didn’t show the full potential of the performance.
Overall was a good promotional package as it suited the bands target audience, as they believed it would appeal to both young and old, meaning that we accomplished our goal to widen the audience.
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
I feel that the project would not of been achievable without the use of Media technologies, from pre-production work right through to the editing. As all of this technology enabled us to take our project from a series of ideas to a completed pop promo.
In the early stages we started a blog on blogger.com to keep a record of our progress, which we could use towards our coursework also creating our coursework more interactive.
The internet and websites such as YouTube.com was crucial for our research and to analyse them. This helped us to understand the forms and conventions for different genres. We used other text based site including Wikipedia to research the history and uses of pop promos.
We needed the cameras to film the action. Then to create our project we then used Programmes such as Photoshop that were essential when it came to planning and creating the CD cover and the print ad. Then Final Cut pro to create our final pop promo.The technology this software provided also allowed us the opportunity to add the final touches to the promo including fading in and out, and slow motion effects.
An example of what Fianl cut pro looks like.
an example of what Photoshop looks like.
Other technology and equipment used in our project included digital cameras to take the pictures for the final CD cover and print ad. By doing this we were able to create a well edited CD cover and a print ad for the album. Also Microsoft word proved helpful as we were able to write out pieces for our blog before putting them online.
