EVALUATION – PETER HAZZARD

Media Studies Music video

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

In my music video I have used some conventions of real media products. Such as Andrew Goodwins theory that music videos are a simple extension of the lyrics and Tzvetan Toborov’s theory of narratives having an equilibrium – disruptive force – disequilibrium – oppositional force – second equilibrium. For the narrative part in my music video, it starts off peaceful and normal with nothing happening apart from my main character waking up. This is the equilibrium, which leads to my disruptive force. The disruptive force is the text message received from his girlfriend; this creates the disequilibrium that is him dealing with this situation, showing the character drinking a lot of alcohol, which he is using to help him get through it. The oppositional force is him desperately trying to call back his girlfriend and make things right, this continues until the end when he passes out from all of the alcohol and it cuts to the phone ringing and shows two missed calls from her. This then suggests the possibility of a second equilibrium with a cliff-hanger.

My music video also displays the use of ‘Binary Opposites’. A theory by Levi Straus, which is frequently used in real media products. The main character is depicted as the hero however he is represented as an unstable alcoholic, overreacting about his girlfriend leaving without an explanation.

I have also challenged forms and conventions of real media products by going against Vladimir Propp’s theory of basic character roles within narratives. In my narrative I only used two characters, which were the Hero and the Princess. The hero is the main character and the Princess, his girlfriend. However the main character could also be portrayed as his own villain due to the fact that he is deliberately destroying himself with alcohol to deal with the situation (referring back to Levi Straus’s ‘Binary Opposites’ theory).

2. HOW EFFECTIVE IS THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND ANCILLARY TASKS?My music video relates well to my poster and CD, using the same style and theme of a Blues music genre. The images chosen for my poster and CD contain the same subjects that are shown in my music video, including the two people from my cast, the main character in my narrative and the main singer/guitar player from Whoppa (the band who originally play the song) I also included objects such as alcohol due to the constant use of it in my music video, where my actor is shown drinking away his sorrows from his girlfriend leaving, I used a tie due to the relation between my narrative and performance where my actor and the band all wore shirts and formal wear. I did this due to the influence of old blues players that would wear very formal outfits to create their image. I also used a bass guitar, amplifier and microphone to help represent the music in the video. These features help target my audience and are identifiable to my genre.

3. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

From one of my audience feedbacks, I learned that the audio and visuals were good quality for my limited budget and that I captured the band very well. The only thing that might need improving would be different colour lights for the performance side of my music video, and more camera angles.

From my other audience feedback, I also learned that the visuals were good and the cutting of the scenes, one to the other, were good. I have some good enounces within my video. For example, when the lyrics talk about prescriptions and the visual shows a bottle of whiskey. Another feature was when the visuals showed a broken bottle next to the actors feet, wearing nothing but socks. In this scene my feedback said that you feared for the actors feet. Lastly he said that it was a very good story, well put together and the narrative was very strong.

I agree with this feedback and if I could re-do my music video I would use more and different camera angles within the performance side, using a blue light as well to give it a more blues atmosphere.

4. HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES? I used media technologies in my research to help find a suitable track to use that I could envision a music video for. After listening to many different songs and genres on different media platforms such as YouTube, Sound cloud, ITunes and Spotify, I found a track that I liked. I did this on an IMac, PC and mobile phone. I asked for the bands permission to use their song on one of their social media sites (facebook) and they responded with conformation that I could use it. They also agreed to star in the performance side of my music video.

I also used media technologies to research theorists such as Andrew Goodwin and for my audience research. For this I used Survey Monkey to ask candidates questions such as “what is your favourite Genre of music?” I used Survey Monkey because I find it a very quick and easy site to use. After collecting this research I created a word document showing the theme and style, which I was aiming to create.

In the construction of my music video I used Premier Pro CS5 to edit my clips and put them together with my selected track. I used Premier Pro because I am more used to using it and know where most of the features are. I also used Photoshop to edit my print media for my album artwork, adding the title of my song, lyrics and production information. I used Photoshop because it gave me plenty of options to experiment with my photographs, to get the best outcome for my album.

I used Blogger a lot in my project to write about my work as I went along. It helped me to keep track of my progress, from my introduction to the evaluation of my project.