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

The first shot:



The idea of the alarm clock moving from 7.39 to 7.40, was to show the audience that the video was starting, having the diagetic sound of of song playing from the alarm clock, links to what later happens within the video. The reason we wanted to have quick shots of items around the room was to create a sense of character without showing him straight away. For example, using the boy colour of "blue" and the boy toys around the room, instantly allows the audience to know that they are looking into the life of a boy. The idea of toys is also a running theme throughout of video, which we wanted to make clear from the beginning. The quick and fast pace we used during the editing process, also links to the genre of our song, as our video isn't boring and allows the audience to always stay engaged with the action taking place.

The second Shot:

The next shot we see if of our character's feet. Using a close up of the boys feet, again has the audience questioning who the character is, creating enigma codes. Using the bright colours, along with the lighting (enhanced by editing) it allows the audience to acknowledge the target audience, mainly of an "indie person" from the age of 8 to 20. The cartoon characters on his socks, allows personality to be portrayed by the music video, this will help the audience to build a relationship with our character.
The quick editing allows the audience to gradually see more of the boy as he exits the room, again making them anticipate who the boy is. Having the clip reversed and then replayed, as the boy walks out, also creates a fun atmosphere for the viewer, mainly due to them sensing that something is not right and unnatural.

The third shot:

The third shot, follows on from the unnatural feeling that the previous reversed shot had, this is because of his trainers following him out of the room. This will allow the audience to know (if they don't already) that the boy is our main character, and for the next three minutes, the world revolves around him. The quick steps are in timing with the beat of the music, showing that we have thought about timing during our editing process.

The reason we wanted to add in stop motion was because we felt that us not having lip syncing in our music video, we had to find something to show our skills off as media students.

The forth shot:

Looking back now, i see that we have made a mistake in this process, as he leaves his bed room to then be back in it, however, as our video is based around a dream, saying that everything the boy does, doesn't make sense, and in dreams you always end up going into the same place or not being able to get away.

As previously mentioned, we did not have lip syncing in our video, so as well as having stop motion, we listened to our song a few times before noticing that there was a running clap throughout, which we intended our boy to clap to, allowing us to edit the clap into the right place. This could also be seen as signature "move" for this song, as the video may influence people to clap along if they hear it, an example of this is songs which have dance moves to them, Saturday night?

This is also, where the audience see our character's face for the first time, using a close up so we only see him, having him with blank facial expressions while all of these strange things are going on, makes the audience question; why isn't he reacting? Is this normal for him? All of these answers will later be answered.

The fifth shot:

Keeping in theme with our stop motion and the quick pace of our song, when our character is standing in front of the calender and the days are changing along with his clothes, allows the audience to understand that time is moving very quickly. Again, making the video feel very unnatural, as the boy has still got a blank facial expression. The use of a circled date, makes the audience question what he is waiting for? And today is the day... so are they going to witness what he's been looking forward to.

The sixth shot:

As we wanted to make our video weird and surreal, having a Mr Potato head, again in keeping with the idea of childish toys, we thought it would be effective to have him losing his iconic features. This again makes the audience know that something isn't right, but due to the action taking place being fun, they want to carry on watching it.

The Seventh Shot:

When Steve is walking down the stairs, we used a still shot and had him coming towards the camera. This allows the audience for the first time to see the character fully, creating more of a relationship between one another. Also, the idea of an "image" is very important in music videos, so showing what our character is wearing relates to the audience his style and personality.

Cutting into a shot of his feet coming down the stairs breaks up the shot, making it less "boring" to watch, also making his progress of walking down the stairs seem quicker. Also, speeding and reversing the clips links back to the previous shot where Steve walks out of the room, and the camera is focused on his feet. The reason for this action is to link the whole video together, because if he was walking normally down the stairs, the action would seem out of place.

The Eighth shot:

As we didn't want to have our character walk from scene to scene, we thought of interesting ways to do this. Therefore, having him jump from one room to another allowed us to use different editing techniques, ensuring that all of the timing added up. This makes the audience question again where he is now. Having the two mime artist there too, makes the audience feel tense as they're not awear what their role is. Repeating the shots over and over again, give the action pace and linking to a dream like state of being in the same place twice.

The ninth shot:

Having taken inspiration from other artists such as Kanye West and Owl City, using a musical instriment to keep the action flowing we felt was very effective.

Having the toys move towards him, as if they are drawn to him, while using stop motion to do this, was still in keeping to the audience questioning what was happening, creating their own enigma codes.

Cutting the shots allows the audeince to see from different angles that the toys are moving, again creating a sence of unrealistic actions taking place.

The tenth shot:

Keeping again with Steve not walking shot to shot, making the video seem boring and unimangitive, using him steping over the camera gave a sense of power as we were looking up and him, which was a different shot to the mid-close up head shots which had previously been used.

Again, the audience is questioning where he's off to now.

The eleventh shot:

In keeping to the dream idea, we wanted to add more "scary" aspects to the video. Using plain white masks makes the audience wonder who the characters are and what they're doing.

Using cutting shots of Steve walking through them, sticking the the 180 degree rule, allows the audeince to see Steve from different angles.

As steve has had a blank expression throughout the video, this makes it hard for the audience to make more of a relationship to him, but they also question why he doesn't express any emotion, which is later answered.

The twelth shot:

Here is the first series of shots were the action taking place seem normal, as it's a group of teenagers partying. Using different shots to show all the chacters taking place allows the audience to feel involved. The first shot is taken so the audience feel as though they are part of the party, cutting to range of low shots, high shots and panning, allowing to see and feel the atmosphere, also by use of proxemics. Using the bright colours links to the toys as they're bright colours and playful. Having the characters laughing and not acting as if they're having a good time also allows the audience to relax and watch as they don't feel tense.

The use of the fish eye lense links to party scenes which our audience would be used to seeing on t.vs due to Skins and Misfits, this again allows them to know what kind of genre

Cutting the dancing up with Steve going to a girl, makes the audience know that something between them is going to happen. This makes them want to see the romance go further, giving the video a feel good aspect. However, having the girl be the only one in a mask, makes the audeince question who she is, making them feel the same as Steve, wanting to find out more about her.

The thirteenth shot:

In these next series of shots, we allow the audience to see the girl more, also showing a relationship build between the two characters. With use of slow motion when she pulls him in, and they nearly kiss, this leaves the audience wanting them to kiss. Making them feel part of the action, wanting these two characters to be together. Having both characters be natural and happy together also creates a sense of realism, as their relationship seems natural.

The Forteenth shot:

Cutting the next shot from either side of the characters, keeping to the 180 degree rule, allows the audeince to see more of the characters, and get an idea of where they are.

Also, having the shot at a low mid angle, as though the audience is looking up at them, makes the characters the main focus, with a plain night time background behind them. However, with the use of proxemics, Steve's character is looking up at the girl, so this makes it clear to the audience that she has more power over steve, even though she is not the main character, but it does make it clear to the audeince that Steve is fantisised about this girl, therefore putting her before him, creating the idea of the boy being a love sick puppy.

The Fifteenth shot:

The use of having a low shot, focused on the girl giving Steve a braclete is a very iconic moment in our video, so making sure that the lighting was bright and that the audience could clearly see the action taking place was very important. Also, the bright colours helped to exagerate the action, as the back drop was a clear black night.

Having her stroke his hand, also made the action of putting on the bracelete more heartfelt and meaningful, which would be conveyed to our audience.

The Sixteenth Shot:

The next shot, is when all the enigma codes of questioning the unrealistic action that has taken place, for example the stop motion, becomes answered.

By focusing on the girls face, the audience see for the first time what she really looks like, seeing that she's a very pretty girl. The idea of us leaning into Steve, to tell him a secret, was to make the action look as though she was about to kiss him. Slowing down as she reached his ear, to make it clearer to the audience what she's saying to him; "Wake Up", which will make the audience relaise that it was all just a dream.

The Seventeenth Shot:

Again, in keeping with the transitions between scenes, using editing skills to allow the action to flow easily made a bigger impact once you see Steve land on the bed. This is the final part of the video where the audience know once and for all that he was having a dream. Before he falls on his bed, in keeping with the unrealistic action of having the girl push him and bring him back to push him again, adds hesitation to the action.

The use of natural day light in the bed room also makes it clear that is it morning, again allowing the audience to know that he was a sleep and dreaming.

The eighteenth shot:

The final shot of the video beginns with the first shot of the entire video, the alarm clock changing from 7.39 to 7.40, which again allows the audience to see that he is only just waking up.

Cutting to a shot where the audience is at an angle above him, allows them to see the action taking place, and to see Steve waking up. The audience can see the bracelete on his wrist while he is waking up, which will create more enigmas, questioning was it really just a dream? Using Steve to show the audience his bracelete, focusing on it with a confused expression, allows the audience to know that it's not his and him, himself is question his dream. Using a close up and flash back allows the audience to see what the camera and Steve are focusing on, making them confused too.

Having the video end this way, allows the audience to make up their own ending, whether it was all just a dream or was it real life?

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

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Abbi: Hello, I’m Abbi.

Emma: And I’m Emma, and we have our first caller of the day… A Mr Ford?

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

Abbi: Hmm, that is some very disturbing news… Well, the way in which we combined both of our products was by keeping a running theme throughout.

Emma: This was shown in our music video by the aid of toys and dreams. In our ancillary products we came up with the idea of a comic book strip, which can interlink with the toys presents in the music video.

Abbi: The way in which they link is we researched that people use toys and comic books to unlock new adventures and as a form of escapism from reality.

Emma: Yes, I agree, this can also link to dreams, as dreams are an illusion of reality and inner unconscious thoughts. The idea of reality being illusions links to the theme of superheroes, as they too are fantasy characters.

Abbi: The use of colours was also a main focus within both of our media products, this is because we felt that the use of colours attracts the eye away from the surrounding environment, again allowing you to slip away from reality with the use of colours.

Emma: Referring back to the toys, the use of colour there plays a significant part in keeping the action unrealistic and playful. (Turning to Abbi) But what about the colour blue?

Abbi: Oh. Em. Gee! The colour blue! Well Emma, making our main character Steve Taylor wear blue in both our media products makes Steve straight away stand out, in comparision to the other characters, scenes and drawings in the background, this conveys that Steve is the main focus.

Both: Top boy.

Emma: The name ‘The Old School Hates Clowns’ for the band ‘Power Rangers Rendezvous’ debut album, gave us the idea of hidden identity, as clowns wear makeup to hide their faces from others, this is like a super hero. This hidden identity as also present in our music video, as the girl is hidden behind a mask.

Abbi: Whilst we are on topic of the girl, we wanted to again interlink our two products, we did this by making our girl in the ancillary product who is also unreal… or referred to as “unreachable”

Emma: In the opening of our video, Steve’s character is wearing Bat Man’s arch nemesis, The Joker on his socks, this refers to the album with the use of clowns, also as the joker is a well known comic book character, created by the DC franchise.

Abbi: Also, referring back to the hidden identity, we are firstly introduced to two mime artists, who’s identity is hidden with makeup, this is then followed by four new characters who introduce the party scene, however them wearing the white masks creates a tense atmosphere for the audience.

Emma: In the party scene, bright colours are again used, this time with also with balloons, which catch the camera with aid of the lighting. This again creates a playful feel to the music video.

Abbi: There is a relevant shot in the music video, which refers back to the comic strip album design, with the side shot of the boy and the girl together, smiling at one another.
This makes the audience want something to happen, as watching people fall in love generally makes others smile.

Emma: Well, I hope that’s answered your question Mr Ford?!

Abbi: And on that bombshell, it’s the end of the show

Emma: Stay tuned for next years evaluation… oh wait, we wont be here!

Both: Tehe. Bye.

Evaluation Question 3 - What Have You Learned From Your Audience Feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback? on Prezi

EVALUATION 4.How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The way in which we used modern media technologies in the research and planning stage of our music video was by firstly looking at other media texts, which included films and music videos. We researched a full range of different genres which we may not necessarily watch or listen to. This was done by using YouTube, we then uploaded what we had found onto our blog, using blogspot.com, and this was our way of logging what we had found for future reference. Once we had thought up a genre which we would like our music video to fit, we opted for an “indie” genre, we then researched a range of bands by using a website which pulls out similar bands to an indie band http://www.last.fm/music/The+Drums/+similar , we used The Drums for an example, which then pulled up other bands like; Two Door Cinema Club and Passion Pit. We used YouTube again to research the bands that the website pulled up.
Once we’ve found the band and song that we liked; Sleepyhead by Passion Pit, we began to think of some solid ideas of what we could do with this music video.
Using iTunes we downloaded the song and began to blog our ideas and create a storyboard.
We decided to research the lyrics of the song using Google and search ‘Sleepyhead lyrics passion pit’; this showed us what the meaning was behind the song.
Thinking up a new band name was very important in making our band different and original. Using a band name generator we were given a whole range of names that we could use. We decided that the more random the better, hence the reason for; Power Rangers Rendezvous, which then also gave our band a childish appearance and feeling, which we worked upon in our construction.
We found out that image is very important to a band, for example; Kings Of Leon, who uphold a very individual image, therefore, we knew that our band members had to be iconic in the way they dressed. We came up with some costume ideas by, again, researching other bands such as Two Door Cinema Club, to see what they dressed like, and also using Lookbook.nu which shows unique and up to date style image, which we then adapted to our own image of our character.
When finding our work, we wanted to make our work presented in different ways, as this will show our ability to use new media technologies. We used a range of websites, such as; prezi.com, animoto.com (showing pictures of our construction and process of creating the video), slideshare.com and scribd.com.
During our ancillary process, we had to research ideas to show off our band, we thought of the genre of music that our band fitted, again going back to the indie style. We asked our teachers for ideas of what kind of unusual band album cover we could look up, of a similar band and with an unusual random taste. We did this by using Google images and researching such covers as; Black Grape and Butthole Surfers. This gave us a taste of what appeals more to an audience than if the cover was plain and boring.
Using the name generator again to think up our album name gave us the name of; The Old School Hate Clowns. This gave us the idea of using a cartoon, comic book, clown image to work with. From this idea we decided to base our digi-pak around a comic book, which we searched images from Google, searching marvel and DC, we found images which we got inspired from, and made our own.

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We used all the same websites for our evaluation; this is because we found that it got our message across easier. Also, the skills we had gained during the research and planning stage allowed us to use the websites more to our advantage and we found them easier to use, as we were used to the way that they work and the effectiveness of the work that is presented.
However, we had to plan in advance the way that we intended to answer these questions. This was done by using Microsoft word and emailing each other our answers to the question; Hotmail and yahoo.com.
For one question we also used photobooth on a Mac to answer a question, this allowed us to use new technology to interact with our audience and share reasons for our media work. We then had to upload our video to YouTube, adding labels onto our video. We did not do this in the research and planning stage, as we made no videos to be uploaded. This answer will allow our audience to visually and aurally listen to what we did and the reasons for it.

In the construction stages of creating our coursework, we used iMovie to create our music video. iMovie enabled us to cut down and edit the shots that we had filmed. In the construction we also used iMovie to edit the contrast and lighting effects on most of the shots in order to give it a ‘comic book’ style effect, linking to our ancillary products which are in the form of comic strips. We also used it to make our main character stand out more, as with editing the contrast and him wearing brightly coloured clothes; it was obvious who the focus was meant to be on, for the audience. iMovie also enabled us to speed up or slow down a clip, 2 things that we used quite regularly throughout our video. We mainly used sped up shots in the scenes of Steve by himself and the slower one during the party scene with Steve and Chloe to show the change in the narrative, as Steve is no longer the only focus.

We also used a video camera in order to film all of our footage needed to create the video. The camera also allowed us to zoom in on certain shots, in order to get close ups of Steve that we thought would work well, for example, him playing the recorder.

To create our digipak, we used photoshop. We used this to edit the colours on the pictures we had taken of Steve, in order to extenuate his make-up as we want him to stand out as a clown, relating back to the album name, 'The Old School Hate Clowns'. We also used photoshop to make the pictures that we drew, more precise with sharper colours. In creating the poster for the band, we subtly added pictures of Steve into the window of a destroyed building, which was surrounded by superheroes. For our back cover of the album, we used photoshop in order to create the layout of a comic strip, and used the magic lasso tool, to cut out pictures of Steve and place them within frames of the comic book strip and then added the titles of the songs included on the album. We used a band name generator in order to find names for our songs, although some we thought of ourselves, it was becoming hard to think of new and interesting ideas, therefore leading us to turn to the name generator which helped a great deal.

We also created a 'Twitter' account for our fictional band. We did this to make our band, Power Rangers Rendezvous, more believable and to help promote our work. Also, Twitter is becoming extremely popular and a lot of bands have a profile created in order for their fans to 'follow' them and see the band's progress, by having our band have a profile, we are making them as real as possible.

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