Evaluation

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

As all of our products relate to the genre of Drum and Bass, we researched generic conventions used in different products of the same genre. First of all, we researched into different music videos for this style. As the artist (Stan SB) does not have a music video for any of his songs, we could not search for any conventions or trademarks he may have used in his videos. Therefore we had to rely on our research in to other videos from this genre. One artist/group that we researched in to was Pendulum; we also used their song Watercolour as our lip-syncing practice. Pendulum often uses very fast cuts in their peace to let the editing echo the pace of their songs (as drum and bass normally has a very fast tempo). In most of their videos, the majority of the shots do not exceed 3-4 seconds. The cuts will often be in time with a beat of the bar, for example the video may cut to the next shot in sync with the first bass drum of a bar. They will also use a very large amount of editing in post-production. This will often consist of what appears to be a large amount of green screened effects. For example, in the music video for Witchcraft, most of the video would have been made in post-production. One part in the video that personally caught my eye would be when the black building blocks form a type of tower which is then suddenly shattered.

While the almost over-the-top editing is used in Pendulum’s videos, other drum and bass artist do not follow this particular aspect. For example, Chase and Status do not tend to use a large amount of green-screened editing. They mainly rely on live-action shooting. For example, in their music video for the song Time, they do not use any extra effects to make the video seem surreal. This is most likely to go along with the storyline of the music video (abusive father commit man-slaughter and shows the effect it has on family. A large amount of this video also works in contrast to the song itself as the song is fast paced, whereas the music video often uses lengthy shots put in to slow motion.   

While we have not used a large amount of special effects (and no green screen), we took the idea of pacing our video from Chase and Status. When the song began building up and climaxed at each of the ‘drops’, this is when we started using shorter clips to try and match the pace/tempo of the song. This then changed as the song became more docile and its texture became thinner having only the vocals and one or two synthesised sounds being played. At this point, the video matched the pace of the song by using longer clips, which normally did not include much movement; lip syncing was the main aspect of these shots.

The only obvious effects that we used in the video were in the flashback sequence near the end of the song/video. We edited the colouring of the shots and made them slightly brighter but with some of the colour taken out. We also added a faded black effect around the perimeter of the video to help give the concept the shots being shown are as a flashback. This type of effect, while basic, has been used in a large amount of music videos (or at least similar effects) to convey the feel of a flashback.


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

We began looking at links between different artists’ music videos and their digipaks/album covers. The main artist’s we looked at we’re Chase and Status, Pendulum and Nero; this was mainly due to the fact that not many drum and bass artists have both a music video and a digipak/album for their song (Stan SB included).

Chase and Status – as some of their music videos involved a relatively dark and depressing storyline (father that commits manslaughter, drug and alcohol abusive television host/celebrity), their album covers often mirrored these themes (or at least the emotion they are attempting to convey). This was usually achieve by having a black and white image in the background, often showing something that they would assume would make most people feel sad/sorry about. For example, one of their album covers consists of a black and white image of a pouting dog by itself on a street.

However on all of their album covers, they have part of it as a colourful pattern following the CMYK colour scheme (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key) as it can be seen on the cover above. After researching in to other drum and bass album cover (from Chase and Status as well as other artists), we discovered that this colour scheme was a relatively popular design choice for this genre of music. Because of this choice, we decided to produce some draft ideas of our digipak cover based on this colour scheme.  We used a picture of our artist and then alter the colour scheme of the picture to fit this.

1.       What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

By receiving audience feedback, it has allowed me to focus on what my target audience would be and what they would actually want from a music video. I have managed to see this from the different responses received, specifically about what the respondents favorite music videos are (drum and bass videos include Pendulum's 'Watercolour'.

It has allowed me to make decisions on plot and narrative. For example I could see from some verbal feedback that my potential target audience generally likes to see some form of drama in a media text. Through this I could plan out a storyline that involves drama: a dysfunctional couple.

Using the feedback from each rough cut has also helped to enhance each attempt at the music video. It has allowed me to see what most people thought was a problem, and then rectify it accordingly. I have then attempted to do this with all other aspects that viewer found to be needing improvement. A large amount of these problem were the quality of the shots or the steadiness of the camera. This was then addressed to by re-filming a large selection of shots, specifically the ones that the respondents noted negatively about.


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

I used different media technologies to assist me in these tasks, the purpose of which was because of the efficiency of the different technologies available to me. The most commonly used type of technology was a computer with access to the internet. This was mainly for research purposes as it allowed me to look at other music videos of the same genre. This then allowed me to note down any conventions seen throughout videos of this genre. It also allowed me to see different plot lines used in this style of music, however as they usually consist of exceptionally large parties and raves, I decided to stay with the idea of a dysfunctional relationship.