Evaluation - Video

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

Music Video

Before creating the video itself we undertook some research, this was finding the genre of the band, watching the original video and noting the conventional shots used in music videos of the genre.

We found out that The Fray are an alternative rock/piano rock band and that the types of shots used are conventional of rock music videos, these shots are band shots, close up of singer or other band members and close ups of instruments being played. The message behind the song and the lyrics were the influence for our narrative, the message was about how the lead singer has been fighting with his brother and in our video we have a conflict not between people but our singer and the creation of the band, also in the chorus the line "She's on your mind" is repeated but we have changed that to represent the thought of being in a band is on the singers mind.

Here we replicated the shot because we liked how the space created a sense of distance but the only difference is in the first image the shot is used during the narrative were as we have used it as the first shot of our singer. Another difference is that in the actual video they use a pan and track so that there is a parallel movement but we added a zoom so that the distance is then removed and the focus is moved to the singer.


This isn't the only shot we replicated there are often close ups of the singer and we have done this slightly differently because in the actual video the singer is with the band on stage whereas we have isolated the singer in seperate locations and rather than already zoomed in we have added a slow zoom. Also we noticed that a typical shot in a rock music video is close ups of instruments being played and we have followed this convention from the start.


But most of our video is nothing like the actual video were they have tried to portray a boy who doesn't fit in and is looking for acceptance, we have created a different story in which the singer tries to create the band. However there was a shot in the actual video that had influenced the groups most difficult shot and this can be seen partially in the first image above. As that shot continues along the lockers the lyrics appear and it says "I'm in over my head" we changed that and rather than show the lyrics we wanted to show the singers main thought and this was "I need you" which referenced the need for a band.



The biggest difference is that The Fray fall under the genre of Piano rock and the actual video often has close ups of a piano being played but we have not replicated this instead we replaced them with lots of shot with the band members playing instruments or close ups of their instruments. This can be seen in a short series of clips in which we use a constant cross dissolve revealing the individual members and then have a short close up of each instrument but we have kept each close up in the same order as the band members close ups just before them so that the audience knows who plays what instrument.

Evaluation - Main and Ancillary Task

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

At the beginning of the project I chose to create the concert ticket and billboard poster but also gained the t-shirt design and throughout there creation and development I have tried to link them as closely as possible to the video.

All of the images I have used have always contained every band member and this links to the video because every band member  is referenced and each seen several times during the video. I have also tried to ensure that the band wear the same or similar clothing to what they wear in the video but this was not always possible.

On the concert tickets I used the same style of images but on The Fray special ticket I have used an image where the singer faces a different direction to the other members but all the others face the same way, this was done to link the ticket to the video. In the video the audience find out about the band but don't find out till the end whether they are actually put together and on the ticket I created that image to show the message of our video.

For the billboards I used different images but the New York billboard I used an image that reflected some of the audiences feedback, this was confusion. Some audience members couldn't differentiate between our narrative and band shots and I decided to use that as a theme for the image used which is the band staring forward with a confused look on their faces. Although not directly linked to the video itself it could be seen as linking to a hidden theme presented in the video.

Evaluation - Audience Feedback

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the development process audience and peer feedback has been an important factor to creating our video. We needed both because the audiences opinions would tells us if the video was appealing to watch or if it wasn't but peer feedback from other media students allowed for more technical criticism, by utilising both opinions it allowed our group to create a stronger video.

From our target audience we had often been told that the video may have been "to jumpy" or "the lip sync is out a little bit when he's singing" so after receiving this information we would return to the video editing machines and add transitions like cross dissolves so that the video flowed better or cut the clips so that the lip syncing is in time. 
The peer feedback we received could vary depending on who we asked some may have said "that transition doesn't fit" or "you should remove that zoom" these constructive criticisms gave use the chance to test new ideas and challenge our skills and build a better understanding of the program we were using.

Any feedback received helped to broaden and develop our ideas to create the final video and they also allowed our group to challenge ourselves in terms of difficulty of shots, the most difficult shot was the poster on the water shot but thanks to audiences telling us they liked that we then went to reedit or reshoot this footage.

Evaluation - Technology used

How did you use new media technologies in the construction research, planning and evaluation stages?


Throughout the process of creating the music video and all the ancillary tasks a range of programs were used and some different new media technology. The most frequently used programs was Adobe Photoshop CS3 which is a image manipulation program, this aided in the creation of all the ancillary tasks and editing of the images used.
Photoshop from the start was used to remove the background of the range of images used and this is evident in some of my previous posts. The program has also allowed me to enhance the images whether that be darkening the images or rearranging the image to make a better one, the program has allowed me to test my skills and develop them.
The next program used was Adobe Premier Pro CS3 which is a video editing software which allows the editing of clips to arranging shots in the chosen order. Although at the start I didn't have the knowledge of how to use the program throughout the construction of the video I gained valuable knowledge which gave me the experience to add motions to clips for example zooms and rotations or using the layers to create a graphic match. Premier Pro also allowed me to change the video as I wanted and this could be changing the transitions added or removing a clip and using the razor tool to cut the clip to a more appropriate section.
Premier Pro also has a conversion function which allowed our group to convert  different versions of the video and transfer them via a USB memory stick to another computer so that we could play the video to any audience to gain feedback ensuring that we made a video with a clear narrative and was entertaining.

Evaluation - Ancillary T-Shirts

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

Band Tour T-Shirts

The image of the ACDC t-shirt was the best design I found from my research because it clearly shows the conventions of a tour t-shirt. I also chose to create different designs because from my research I saw that there are sometimes a variety of t-shirts sold at concerts.

I followed the convention of the ACDC shirt mostly on the third t-shirt this can be seen with the image on the front of the shirt and the tour dates on the back. All of the designs created follow the conventions of the band style and these are incorporated with the shirt conventions. For example all text seen on every t-shirt has the band colours and font but the second and third also have the band logo, which is a different custom brush but they are also all from the same pack.

The only differences between my designs and the ACDC shirt is that the image I have used contains all band members where as they have focused on guitarist and also both sides of the shirt have the band name but I have only placed them on the front and used the tour name on the back.

Evaluation - Ancillary New York Billboard

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

New York Billboard

For this poster I used the previously created poster as a reference point.  This time I decided to text wrap  the information, this was due to the shape of the image included. The positioning of each piece of text allows the advertisement for the song to be the last thing read by audiences. Again I have used minimal text so that the advertisement is straight forward and follows the convention of billboard ads, also like before I included an image of the band so that audiences know who they are looking at. This was also a convention used on other band posters.

Evaluation - Ancillary Band Ticket

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

Band ticket

I chose to create a seperate ticket because along with the research mentioned in the previous post I had found that some venues don't have any tickets that specifically have their venue or a house style so I also chose to create a band specific ticket for the other venues.

There are similarities between the images above and these are an image of the artist/band in the foreground and the logo with the band font. The image for my ticket was important because for the products I have created I have included a band shot. The design was simple because the image takes focus the font needed to be above but unlike the Prince ticket the information on the ticket is also in the band style.

There are a few differences between the tickets for example my ticket still has two bar codes so that the side of the ticket can be scanned and removed so that the main part of the ticket can be kept but also the sponsors aren't included on the ticket.