A2 Media

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

For my media product music video I chose the song 'Tiptoe' by Imagine Dragons. They are a well established indie rock band, well known due to various singles and their album entering the mainstream charts. However my chosen song has no existing video with it, making the creation of my own media product an original and individual process. I chose the song because I'm already a fan of the band and the song but I was inspired by elements of music videos from other artists like Bastille and Haim to incorporate the similar style within my own video.
Conventions of form define all music videos. This includes a video style of either narrative, performance or abstract along with promoting the song and portraying the songs meaning or message through of variety techniques within mise-en-scene, cinematography, editing and sound. The theorist, Andrew Goodwin, devised this theory, suggesting that all music videos follow either one or more of the 3 video styles, (narrative, performance, abstract). Goodwin states that the meaning can be created from an individual and relation to narrative are highly complex.
I chose to create a more abstract music video linking to the atmosphere that I wanted to present, matching the songs' lyrics and mood. The narrative I incorporated into my video reflects the lyrical meaning of freedom and reinforces key connotations that appealed to me from the song. I didn't choose a performance or miming video style because that wasn't the effect I wanted my video to have but rather portray meaning and ideology from the meaning behind the lyrics. I also thought miming was a specific convention to the pop and RnB genre music videos rather than the genre of indie rock.

The lyrical analysis and lyric timing planning I did before the filming began, was important to do because it made my editing easier when configuring the video. The lyrical analysis also helped my narrative develop from ideas into shots I could use within the filming. I linked key words and connotations I interpreted from it into the video. Another conventional feature of form is fitting the editing to the beat of the song. I was able to do this by using my lyric timings, making the editing easier as well as incorporating the fast edits into my video, keeping them interested, with the intention of enticing the audience. I applied this to Stewart Hall, who suggested the reception theory. An active audience is seen to be actively engaged in the understanding of the media text rather than as passive consumers. Individuals receive texts in different ways. This theory demonstrates that even though one message is sent out, not only one meaning is made from the text. This then allows texts to be individually consumed with a personal understanding.

The textual analysis on existing music videos helped with the planning and filming of my video because I learnt the conventional features of form in music videos and the genre of indie rock which I made sure featured in my video. I analysed three music videos, showing performance and narrative video styles. One of the videos I analysed was the narrative video Laura Palmer by Bastille; another well established indie rock band whose video I took inspiration from. By analysing these videos I was able to incorporate an appropriate target audience for my own product. This included relating the narrative to the audience by showing connotations of teenage youth and freedom. The theorist Tessa Perkins devised the theory of stereotyping suggesting that stereotypes are not always negative and they are not always false. She also stated that stereotypes can be made about ones own group and by using this theory within my video, the character role was made clear to understand. I stereotyped the message by encoding the ideology and value of that message showing the character to 'escape' from the darkness and run into the light; something often related to teenage youth, describing their recklessness. The mass audience would then decode the meaning, relating to the underlying message. It was also important to stereotype the costume used by making sure the colour choice reflected the atmosphere of the song as well as portraying the casual teenager mood.

The conventions of genre are features in a music genre that are specific to it. My chosen music genre is indie rock and the conventions include reflecting the genre through the mise-en-scene; costume, props, location and lighting as well as conforming to technical elements often featured in indie rock music videos like abstract and narrative video styles. The main video expectation used in the conventions of my genre were reflecting the overall mood of the song into the video. My song choice had dark and moody sections as well as fast pace and upbeat sections. This fluctuating sound and atmosphere in the video gave me a lot of opportunity to use to my advantage by matching and fulfilling the mood through alternative costume changes and locations as well as altering the cinematographic style and editing pace.
Changes in costume and location is a conventional feature of music videos. An example of this would be the music video for Falling by Haim. Although it does follow a performance and miming style, the video itself is very abstract and has at least one change of costume (shown below).

Conforming to the conventional genre found in videos from the genre meant picking two costumes that my media product would use to show the feature. I also needed to show continuity within the music video and pick two costumes that were obviously different so the audience would recognise the change. To ensure this, when I changed location, I changed the costume.

To fully develop the convention, my costume choices were based off the target audience of my video and the overall audience of the indie rock genre. I chose costumes that reflected the teenage theme, using vibrant colours against blacks and keeping a stylish yet casual look. It was important to link the choices back to my target audience so they had something to relate to whilst watching.
Another aspect of the mise-en-scene I altered was the changing of location. Throughout the whole of my video I had 4 location changes, with the two main locations being Hessle Foreshore and Bridlington Beach. Hessle Foreshore provided a wood area which I chose because of the connotations of 'freedom' and 'space' which I wanted to show through my video. I also used Bridlington Beach as a location because of the contrasting difference between the wood and beach and it also provided the feeling of 'open space' with the character being able to escape as far away as possible. Richard Dyer suggested the theory of representation and proposed that media texts represent themselves to society and an audience. He said "how we are seen determines how we are treated, how we treat others is based on how we see them and how we see them comes from representation." I used this theory within my own media product by creating a narrative and character that represents themselves to the audience, encoding a specific message through the narrative giving the audience the opportunity to discover their own representation from the video and decode the same message, personally interpreting the narrative.The message I conveyed through the narrative was the importance of not giving up on goals for yourself even if it means keeping your head down and working hard to get there. I devised this message from my own lyric analysis and decided to show this by creating a narrative that began with the character in the dark, showing connotations of being trapped and then as the narrative developed the character eventually escapes into the woods and to the beach; locations with nature and lots of sunlight, presenting connotations of freedom. As well as representing the narrative to reinforce the message I had to conform to the indie rock genre convention and include features which showed teenage youth; by giving the audience something to relate to.

Cinematography is a conventional feature of form and by using different camera angles and movements, varying the different shots, it kept the narrative flowing. A few shots that inspired me to use in my own video included close ups to capture the characters expression and feeling from the music video Laura Palmer by Bastille.

Using the close up shots helped me portray and capture the feeling and atmosphere from the character and narrative to encode the message to the audience further. I also used extreme close ups and cropped frames at the beginning to establish the feeling of confinement and being trapped.
I used pan, track and long shots, establishing the location and highlighting the characters actions clearly. These shots were used most when I wanted to portray the feeling of open space and freedom from the point of view of the audience as well as the characters. Mid shots placed the audience focus on the character and varied the flow of the video, keeping the audience engaged and interested.

Additionally, the editing was another important convention of form and genre that I used within my own media product. Fitting the pacing of the edits to the beat of the song was important to show continuity through out the video, presenting the content of the video effectively in time to the music. I often tried to match the edits with the lyrics, linking both the narrative and the song together. An example of this is when I used the lyric, 'sink into the soil / watch the water boil' and portrayed this by showing a high angle shot of the characters feet against the sea. This helped me show the link between the song and narrative to the audience using editing and my lyric timings as well as portraying my own interpretation of the ideology.

My main target audience for my video was young people between the ages of 16-20 years old and I researched into this demographic in relation to the target audience from the indie rock genre. The indie rock genre targets a specific type of audience of young teenagers who are recognised to listen to it the most. This is because of the relate-able lyrics and situations of love and sadness often being the main focus from indie rock music. Youth and teenage rebellion is also a common theme within the music genre, expressing the recklessness from the stereotype of teenagers. My chosen actress that plays the main character is 17 years old, fitting the target audience range, helping my video appeal to the age group more. The band, Imagine Dragons are also listened to and appreciated the most by this audience, reinforcing the videos goal.

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

As well as filming the main footage at each location, I also took a lot of photographs at both the beach and woods location. This enabled me to have a wide choice of images to use on both my ancillary texts, advert and album case. I used a mixture of the two locations to link the texts back to my main video product, showing continuity and a creating a recognisable feature for the audience. I began editing the images using Adobe Photoshop CS5 to change the levels and tones in the photograph; I experimented and edited a lot of the images of the surrounding location and my actress Jess, drafting the ancillary texts until I had decided on the most professional and effective images.

I chose an image of my actress at the woods with her arms up, connoting freedom and youth; a key theme in my video as well as a landscape image from the beach location. I edited both images before I began creating the advert.

Before editing After editing

I edited each image in Photoshop, changing the levels to make a brighter, clearer and more crisp image as well as using a layer mask on the image of my actress to bring her out from the background by increasing the contrast and adjusting the colour balance of her clothes, hair and face. I think editing the images made them stand out more. I then overlapped each image in Photoshop; changing the opacity and layer style to create a mix of both the woods and beach locations. I felt this added to the link between my advert and video, combining two main locations.

I then cropped the two images into a typical A4 advert, adding the same font for the band and song name as well as 'the new album', matching the font to the song. This is a conventional feature of ancillary text advert posters, fitting my own product into a recognizable convention. As the ancillary text is a magazine advert, I had to use the conventional features of existing products to make it look realistic. This included a personal website for the band and a website link for the music. I made up a website for the band and used iTunes as the main music source because of the wide range of music now available through iTunes, no matter what the genre. I also thought iTunes was a good website to use as most of the target audience would be familiar with it. I also featured a smaller version of the album cover, linking both ancillary text products together. When drafting the product, I swapped the album front choice around a lot, until I was satisfied with the choice.

I originally used the actual band name, 'Imagine Dragons' for my ancillary texts as I really liked it and felt it fitted with my own product. I also drafted a few examples using the name, but for the brief of my coursework, I had to create my own name. I found this quite hard as I wanted to portray a similar atmosphere as my video did within my band name and creating something original and effective wasn't a strong point. To help with the creation I made a moodboard of selected words from lyrics and words which i felt related to the indie rock genre. After a few options I settled on 'City Kids', a name which I felt reflected the stereotype of teenage youth in the genre and a trend in my own video. I also unintentionally used irony within the name, creating a contrast between the locations of the video and 'City', reinforcing elements of the music genre. I used a font, similar to Imagine Dragons font they use, from the website dafont. This created the link from my own product to the target audience of the band, conveying a more realistic approach to the process.

Overall, I thought it was important to link my advert with my video, showing the main ideology of youth and freedom in both products. I think this was represented well, reinforcing the abstract feel and indie rock genre through the image location use and my actress.

audience theory

To create my digipak album case I also used the same images from both shoots on location, adding to the continuity of both texts with my video. I used the same images within my album case which appeared on my advert, further linking the texts together. I chose a mixture of images from the locations, showing the link between my video and ancillary texts. I experimented and drafted the layout of the album case, visualizing the drafting process and possibilities of what could work well together. I experimented with the album front, mixing different images and font placement for ideas, until I settled with an image of the ocean that was simple but effective and I really liked.

After I had sorted the front cover I started to create the rest of the album case. After previously experimenting with different images and layouts, I settled on particular images which I thought had an effective look. These included different shots from the beach and woods all mixed together. A feature I had found effective whilst drafting was images filling the space of the CDs. I experimented and cut out different circle shapes to fill the shape on the template to see which worked best.

Once I had created a layout that I was happy with, I added the conventional features which are recognizable to album cases. This included the song and band titles on the front and on the spine of the cover, a track-list on the back cover, web contacts and a bar code. Incorporating all the features helped make my ancillary texts effective and professional as well as recognizable to the target audience.

As well as analysing my products in detail showing the links between the separate products, I asked a select few to share their opinions on my ancillary texts and explain the combinations. Audience Feedback for Ancillary Texts
Ancillary Texts Review by SasHalman on GoAnimate
Ancillary Texts Review 2 by SasHalman on GoAnimate

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For my audience feedback, I first researched into my target audience, creating a blog poll with various questions that discussed topics such as the preferred music genre that was most listened to and if they watched music videos. I presented the information results in pie chart format, giving a visual representation of the type of target audience I would make my product appeal to. Since the majority of my audience were females, aged 16-20, I chose to target this group the most. The poll results also revealed that my chosen band were well known and a high charting song from them was the favourite. The genre of music, indie rock, was the most popular and most listened to genre, making my band a popular choice. I used several methods to define an appropriate target audience for my media product. This consisted of using my draft feedback and focus groups to create my own audience profile taken from my blog poll results and overall feedback.

Once I had generalised a specific target audience, I was able to create my products with that in mind, referring back to what would appeal to the audience and what would potentially become more popular and sell more. The benefits of specifically appealing to a target audience helped form more constructive audience feedback, because I had potentially fulfilled the expectations for my music genre and narrative style, leaving the conventional features and techniques to improve on.

Throughout the drafting process, I asked a select group of people to give me some feedback; showing them my music video at different drafting stages, asking them what they would improve on and how I could develop my ideas further. Through the use of written feedback and a focus group, I was able to relate my progress according to my target audience and ensure that I featured elements that they would expect to see in my future drafts of the video.

I constructed a survey for a range of people asking questions that related to my finished final products; my music video and main ancillary texts. I not only asked my target audience but a range of people from all age groups for a wider variation of both positive and negative feedback. To first gather the information, I placed a post on Facebook stating my intentions as well as showcasing my final product for feedback.

Using the social media site Facebook to collect feedback from audiences, allowed likes, comments and shares from my friends and other people to be made, giving me a first impression to the overall opinions on my video, which was positive. I collected the survey information after asking 10 questions in relation to the basis of my music video, ancillary texts and any improvements for all products. I gathered a decent amount of results from my main target audience.

The questions I asked within the survey were;

What is your gender?
How old are you?
What genre do you think my music video is?
Did you enjoy watching my music video? If not, what would you improve?
After watching the music video, would you buy the song on iTunes?
After watching the music video, do you think the abstract narrative matches the song?
Does the narrative of my video reflect the lyrics?
Do my magazine advertisement, album digipak and video all link together?
If yes, how do they link?

I think the range of questions I asked, discussed conventional features and key topics I research into covering the opinions of the target audience. I received a range of positive feedback, demonstrating the overall appeal of my music video to the audience and the understanding of the conventional links between the ancillary texts and video, highlighting the importance of the promotional campaign.

The overall age group and gender that responded to my survey were both male and females in the age group, 16-20. This shows I have appropriately ensured my target audience have been involved in the feedback. I also managed to receive feedback from the 30+, an age group not intended as my target audience but interesting to see their own opinions on my product.

The first question showed the majority of my feedback responses to choose indie/alternative for the music genre, the most accurate choice that related to the original band's genre. Interestingly, over a third of the answers thought the video was pop, which could relate back to my poll question at the start of the research displaying the favourite song from Imagine Dragons which featured on mainstream charts suggesting that the representation of bands once they feature strongly on a main stream chart are more likely to be classed as pop. This would show the change in music genres and the meaning behind each one.

When asking 'Did you enjoy watching my music video? If not, what would you improve?' all responses said yes, with added feedback such as shooting the sparklers against the trees to bring them out which I thought was an excellent idea. Due to the fact that shooting that particular scene in dark time conditions was not possible and was a shot that I had also thought about improving, I felt that the improvement idea was a positive reaction and gave me extra ideas if I were to create the video again.

The responses to buying the song on iTunes after watching my video showed a mix response, with mainly people saying they would. I think this is because of the different age ranges, relating back to my audience profile with the younger generations most likely appealing to this song through the ideology and connotations of youth referenced. The indie rock genre is also popular among my target audience and age range of 16-20 year olds; the majority age range from this survey. I would also say that personal preference to the music style would also have an effect on the choice and sale of song. This shows that the preferred music genre has a big impact on the purchase of songs.

In response to 'After watching the music video, do you think the abstract narrative matches the song?' all the responses said yes, with some leaving feedback such as editing to the beat of the song and using shots that were effective. These comments were good to hear from the audience, as they were typical music video conventional features; something that I had tried to show throughout the video editing process and creation. Another response also left a specific comment, 'I feel once the actress holds her hand up on the beach you really connect to the song as well as the video.' which related to a certain frame shown in the video. This type of comment suggested that the audience were engaging with the video and picking up on parts that I had intentionally linked the video to the lyrics, showing the specific song ideology.

Positive feedback was also shown through the response to question five, highlighting the engaged audience even more so with strong imagery and shots that I had used to display the connotations of the lyrics through the video. The response to this question made me realise how important it is to follow music video conventions and relate at least some of the song to the video because that's what the audience is expecting, making the song come alive through imagery and narrative portraying a more realistic idea that they can relate to in any situation.

This response regarding the combination of all my products linking together was also positive, showing 100% of viewers agreed. This was a good result as I had conventionally used features from existing magazine adverts and digipaks to present the most realistic representation of my products that would fit in with the target consumer market as well as using images and linking themes to show continuity throughout. I think this is especially important in promoting the artist and song to the potential audience because they would need something to recognise when going out to purchase the music in stores, with the chance to encourage more sales.

When being asked to explain why they linked together, all responses picked up on the key features of the theme, layout and images chosen from locations and scenes within the video. Because the audience picked up on the visual elements of each product, it showed they recognised the strong visual link I had created, by using the same font and general theme. An example comment of this is, 'The image matches the narrative and video. The digipak is a bold representation of the genre and holds conventions. I feel you have portrayed the genre conventions for a digipak very well.' This was also encouraging as it shows that any audience are able to establish a link between the main video and it's relevant ancillary texts as well as portraying the music genre; adding to the expectations music videos are expected to show.

Finally the last question I asked relating to improvements for my ancillary texts consisted of mostly mixed responses, ranging from little changes at all to making the texts look less busy and adding more text. Because each improvement was only a slight change, it suggested that they were more personal to the audience rather than a challenge to conventions. Taking on board each improvement meant I could have drafted more examples and experiments to discover the most effective ancillary text. I could have even developed the feedback further and created a range of drafts for the audience to choose their favourite and going with the majority vote.

Overall, the detail and positive feedback I received in relation to all my products has showed that my planning and research was highly important to correctly use the right conventions in each product as well as showing features of my specific music genre that the audience would expect to see. The link between my ancillary texts and music video was also a key part of the process because the magazine advert and digipak were the main features in the promotional campaign, which would ensure the target audience could recognise the two products that linked with the music video. Knowing that my target audience picked up on the features ensured that I hadn't challenged conventions but conformed to them.

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

I used a variation of media technologies in the process of creating and evaluating my music video. Each technology was equally as helpful in the creation, presentation and final evaluation stages of the project and crucial in portraying my own ideas and making them realistic, as well as to a good quality and professional standard.