Evaluation Amy Antoniou

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I have explored my chosen genre of pop through the use of a character to create a comedic effect and apply a humorous quality to the video, digipak and magazine advert. I explored the genre through the various locations used as it can be believed Brighton, the main location, is one of which family day trips are able to take place as plenty of opportunities to brighten up the video were recognised. The conventions which have been used within my music video, CD digipak panes and magazine advert that are generically seen within products of the same genre, is the use of bright and bold colours where necessary, to lift and brighten the mood of not only the comedic character in the video and products, but also my target audience. Leading on from this is the use of a character, a dog, which dressed in a waistcoat and bow tie, has human like qualities and is able to apply a positive outlook on the video and possibly be seen to lighten the mood within each product and draw attention towards it. The human like traits the dog character holds can benefit each of our products in a way that there can be an emotional connection a number of the audience may feel towards them and are able to have their moods lifted. Audience appeal is expanded and broadened through the use of a child character and the communication between both himself and the dog character heightens the comedic effect and enhances the bubbly and activeness of the video. A low angle shot has been used in a few of the scenes, which includes the child as the dog appears quite daunting and superior to him. However, the idea of him actually being frightening is rapidly disregarded when he knocks an ice-cream from the childs hand which has been used to add humour and comedy to the video as the child then proceeds in chasing the dog up the street in a comical style which instantly brightens the atmosphere then leading onto the next scene. This emphasises that the pop genre has been represented within our video through the use of bright colours in the location and a happy and positive vibe throughout many scenes. The main location used was Brighton and Brighton Pier that is known for is bright and vibrant surroundings and scenery, which then involves the audience and adds a positive mood to the video, digipaks, and magazine advert. Todorovs equilibrium theory is challenged within our video as in a typical pop music video, they generally end with a positive equilibrium yet ours has ended with a negative one. By doing this, it has not been used for the audience to then feel down, but instead used to underline the characters freedom and rash decisions he made and stresses the positive aspects of his day and the fact he had the option to run free and express himself. It then returns, almost back to reality, at the end, which leaves an open

question of what is left to come on this characters journey on any other day. This can be seen to relate to Coldplays video Paradise and Daft Punks video Da Funk. Both of these include characters with human characteristics and emotions and allow the audience to witness their journey, much like our video. The album cover is able to challenge stereotypical conventions of a pop genre digipak as the idea of the dog turned away from the camera shot and not inviting the audience in can be seen to oppose to what would normally be seen, such as the idea of extremely bright colours and welcoming messages. There is also a duo of hybrid genres, those being R&B and electronica. These have been challenged through the idea of dark colours or gold, money and women are typical conventions for an R&B album. We have opposed against the idea of this as it would not relate to our other products as well as our song choice not displaying these types of genre as much as it does with pop. This was based on the feedback our group received at the start of creating our products, although it was agreed it would typically be seen, it was also agreed that it would not be appropriate. Although on the front pane of our digipak, the dog is seen to be uninviting, the view in the background of the front pane, allows the audience into an insight of what is to come and be slightly more intrigued. We challenged the Pop genre conventions through the use of a character being included on our album but it not being an image of the artist as many have done before. Many pop albums that I looked into, either had the artist of the album on the front, or nobody at all, just the use of colour and bold text. Therefore by challenging this convention it can be seen to intrigue the audience and make it clear when relating the video, album panes and poster all together. When researching other media products that we were able to relate our own ones too, I came across various music videos, other CD digipaks and posters that were all from the same genre and could be seen to relate in one way or another to our own products or allow our product to challenge them. The music video by the well known pop duo Rizzle Kicks is one I decided to analyse myself. One of the locations within this video happens to be the same as one of ours, that being Brighton, and this then allowed an immediate connection between them both. Another video, which I decided to research into and analyse, was Coldplays Paradise. Many connections are able to be seen within this video and our own media product, the most obvious being that of the use of a character, theirs being an elephant and the audience being able to watch the journey of this elephant along with the journey of our own character in our video we produced. One other video which has a narrative included that I decided to analyse was from the group Chiddy Bang in which various scenes and setting were used, these being of the characters in a basement, church, New York street and a bedroom surrounded in cartoon images. Each of these were very

different from one another although the basement scene is where the beginning and end of their video each with a clear indication as to where the characters main location is as it constantly refers back to this scene right the way through the video. Although our music video doesnt have a constant indication that our character is still situated in the same place, it is apparent, much like Chiddy Bangs video, that exactly the same location is used at the start and end of our product. This relates to our video as the one main location used is Brighton Pier and this is clarified within one shot we took shown here in this screen capture. Another being a department store where an effect was used, to blur and fade the edges to highlight that it was a dream sequence, demonstrated here. This then highlighted the clear narrative is shown throughout as the scene then changes back to the character after he had fallen asleep, then back to reality. This also relates to the existing videos by the Rizzle Kicks and Coldplay where a narrative is included and this is intriguing for the audience as it can be seen to involve them. Similar camera angles and editing shots can be seen within these already existing music videos and my groups product. Shots included in in the paradise video include the use of close ups of the characters face along with mid shots of the elephant holding up a sign as people walk past. This then relates back to our video as similar circumstances take place where passers by hardly acknowledged the dog character and treated it as though an everyday occurrence adding a the use of verisimilitude to our video. The close up shots are used to heighten the characters emotions and state of mind at the time and this was presented this to the audience. The target audience in which our video was aimed towards, was that of 15+. Knowing this, we were able to create questionnaires into finding out what would be the best qualities for our video, CD digipak and poster to have. By doing this, it allowed us to gain a greater insight into what was expected from each of our products and how we could make them attention grabbing and the most appealing they could be.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Each of our products we created, the music video, CD digipak panes and magazine advert, all relate to one another and a sense of consistency is seen throughout each of them. There are a number of running themes throughout my three products and they all work together and are relatable. This instantly emphasises the connection between them and a clear link can be witnessed. We have used the same character, being a dog in waistcoat, in the video, digipak panes and magazine advert so this clearly establishes a resemblance between each product. This is then supported by the main location, being Brighton, particularly the fairground, also present on each of the products created. This leads onto the idea of youth and freedom being classed as a running theme as the fairground represents youth and fun yet the idea of the dog running through many shots of the video, as well as the back pane of our album, underlines the idea of freedom. Express Yourself was the perfect choice of song for the fact the idea of freedom and youth, with the dog undoubtedly expressing himself and doing what he wants, then stresses this idea. Rockwell typography and the colour scheme of black and red with images of the character and location for our digipak and magazine advert, clearly resemble the video. When gaining audience feedback, the response was positive and it had been acknowledged that running themes had been used throughout our products, they were

attention grabbing and bright and overall, presented a cheerful and positive feel to it. As a group, we decided to edit our art work on the software Photoshop. This allowed us to constantly refer back to what we had previously made and edited and change anything we needed to, to make our products better. We could constantly refer back to the Photoshop software to allow us to edit anything we had to, whether it be after a group discussion and conclusion made, or after referring back to our audience feedback we had gathered through various ways. This was helpful as it allowed us to constantly improve our products until we were happy with them and a selection of our target audience approved. The typography and colour scheme was based on a group decision and confirmation from a selection of our target audience when gathering information and feedback from our questionnaires. The fact our character within the music video, wears a piece of clothing with the colours of red and black, this allowed our group to contemplate this idea and expand on basing our colour scheme around that which worked to our advantage when gaining our feedback from our audience who had a positive attitude towards this idea.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? From my audience feedback I was able to learn that the music video we created, allowed our audience to feel a positive energy and a sense of enjoyment when watching it. I was able together information from our questionnaires and market research of our audience and gather an overall extremely positive response for each of our products. We listened to each and every piece of feedback we received and all was taken into consideration along with anything that we felt should be altered due to an audience members response, we worked with and improved if necessary. The fact the typography and colour scheme were a success along with the imagery and use of humour and a use of narrative and consistency, allowed a clear resemblance to be seen between each of our products. We have been able to successfully represent our genre through the use of bright and vivid imagery and may times throughout along with creating a sense of comedy to heighten our audiences reactions and feelings towards each of our products in a positive way. When collecting my graph results from the questionnaire based on our magazine advert, we had an even amount of male and female audience members answering our questionnaires and so therefore we were able to gain a fair and even amount of answers. With various age groups included, this helped us to gain a further understanding into our target audiences preferences and what is expected and appreciated with our work. When collecting our the results on whether the magazine advert was eye catching, the whole of our audience that answered this question all agreed the poster was eye catching. This was seen to be due to the colours that stand out, the character stands out right away as well as the text, the main characters outward stare instantly grabs the

viewers attention, the shot it different and unexpected camera angle, the character and the title. When finding out whether or not the poster was informative, I was able to discover the whole audience in which we asked, all agreed the poster was informative with all the necessary information being provided on it along with the text being easy and visible to read. This is highly important with our poster as we need the relevant information to be shown. Also with the background or the poster being quite eye catching and attention grabbing as a photograph, with the pebbles on the floor, it was a challenge when attempting to make to writing visible to read and stand out however with all the positive feedback we can understand how successful it is. With the question of whether the typography relates to the pop genre conventions or not, our group once again gained positive feedback with the typography choice as people believed it did for the fact it was fun and bold, stands out, expressive and colourful, reminds the audience of a fairground, relating it to the music video and album panes, the date is shown to be like a fairground which is enticing. Is there a clear link between the album panes and the poster? Gathering the results from our audience feedback, the overall answer for whether there was a clear link between the album panes and magazine advert was a yes for the fact they both clearly relate to one another. This was for the fact the dog character and beach are on both, the text and locations relate, because there is a continuity with the same beach and character, consistency throughout. Everyone who answered our questionnaire believed the colour scheme suited the genre of Pop. It was agreed the colour scheme suited the genre for the fact the red works well for the pop genre, it was bright and happy yet stood out, the pop genre is bright and vibrant and so it therefore stood out brilliantly, the choice of warm colours is inviting to the audience, the contrasting colours (red typography against the blue) is conventional. As a group, we were able to develop our products and improve them from gathering our audience feedback of our first questionnaires designed to gain an overall outlook on general information to do with and be provided on each product. We listened to the feedback and everything was taken into consideration. The positive responses helped in guiding us to complete our products to the best they could be along with the various opinions and input from our audience who had contrasting ideas to one another allowing our group to contemplate what would be best for each product which ultimately resulted in each final product being approved by our target audience.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages? The Mac computers allowed our group to use Safari and Word when completing any research we needed to for our ancillary tasks. Safari helped us in supplying our group with any information we needed to continue in our coursework successfully, whether it be information in the Pop genre culture, to images we needed when discussing other media products already existing. Microsoft Word allowed us to type up and keep any information we would need for future reference and helped when it eventually came to planning our work. We used USB sticks to allow us to save any work or information we would need for the future and it was all able to help and guide us when referring back to it. When planning our work, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint were both used as we were able to create all necessary documents to help guide us and allow us to continue with making our products. Monkey Survey was a website used to create and produce our questionnaires and was an easy and simple way to make them that was extremely helpful. For our main product being the music video, we used various programs to help us complete it. FinalCut was used the most, due to our entire video being made on it, after being transferred from iMovie. We could cut, add and adjust any footage we needed, developing our skills along the way to make it the best it could be. Along with this we used LiveType that provided us with the ability to create our title sequence. Completing our ancillary tasks involved the use of PhotoShop and Microsoft word. When filming our video we used a Nikon Camera for high definition and clarity along with a tripod to balance and even out the camera so there were no shots that were too uneven or slanted and this also made it easier to handle the camera. We took photographs on each trip we took to the locations and these were used for our ancillary products which allowed a sense of consistency to be witnessed throughout each of our three products. Using the SD card from the camera permitted us to upload our work successfully and quickly onto the Mac computers. As a group we could use FinalCut to edit and cut up our Voxpops, individual evaluations and feeback we received from our music video. LiveType was also used to add the questions we asked, into the video. We could edit and refer back to work previously created and altered the photographs we had taken for each of the products to adjust them and paste them into our ancillary work. PhotoShop provided us with the constant ability to edit, with the capability to overlap photos and text and alter it to the best we thought it could be. By adding boxes or colour or slightly transparent over some aspects of the ancillary tasks, this let us paste text over each box that then made it clear and visible for the audience to see. I used Blogger to upload all my work onto my blog and Scribd to assist me in uploading various pieces of work.