Storyboard

Evaluation

With the media production task this year being to create a music video with two ancillary products, it was very important to consider the forms and conventions of existing media products, and whether my group and I had used, developed or challenged those conventions.

The band that we promoted was a local unsigned band called The Vees, this meant that we could form their identity as a band, and no issues with copy write would arise.

After listening to the song that The Vees asked us to use (entitled ‘Don’t Matter’) it was clear that the genre of the band was classic rock, similar to bands such as Bon Jovi and Snow Patrol. Conventions required for a music video for this type of genre include: band performance, narrative to develop the meaning of the song, close ups of the main singer (to establish him), particular attention of the instruments used, and quick cuts for an upbeat song and slow cuts for a mellow song. Therefore, many classic rock videos are ‘illustration’ videos, as opposed to ‘amplification’ and ‘disjuncture’. 

Our video is made up of a dominating performance, with a smaller narrative injected to reflect the meaning of the song. The performance is set on a stage to reflect a gig, which shows the band’s playful nature and gives them individuality. The setting also enables the audience to see that they are talented musicians who play authentically. My only suggestion for improving the performance aspect of the video would be to have an energised crowed, so that the audience can feel more connected to the band, and so it would fit more of the conventions as seen in many of Bon Jovi’s videos. However, due to lack of resources and willing extras, this was difficult to achieve, but I do feel that we used our resources effectively and I also feel that the use of close ups, particularly on the lead singer, Wolfie, enabled the audience to feel connected with the band, as shown in Snow Patrol’s ‘Just Say Yes’ video, as they don’t use a crowd.  Another place of improvement would be the lighting on the stage. I feel it looked a bit too washed out and didn’t give the atmosphere of a gig. But something which had been a very prominent criticism of my preliminary task was the dark lighting, and as a group we were very weary of lighting and didn’t want it to be a problem, so decided to light it sufficiently, so the image was clear.

The narrative we kept very simple, which enabled the audience to understand the meaning of the song. It consisted of images of a boyfriend and girlfriend, who were arguing and breaking up, mixed with happy memories, shown in black and white to reflect the past. This mixture of happy and sad images evokes an emotional response from the audience as they see the trauma the couple go through. This reflects the song, because the lyrics say ‘but it’s true to say some time away will bring us closure, bring us closer’. The image of the male driving away in his car reflects the lyrics ‘load the car I drop the hood’, ‘rear view mirror sees me turn my back on your town’ and ‘every road soon leads here’.  The scenes when they are on the phone reflect the lyrics ‘when I called you tried to keep me from talking’. My group and I felt it important to include this narrative that reflected the meaning of the song as it showed our creative abilities and also conformed to the conventions Andrew Goodwin put forward in his theory; suggesting that narratives must reflect the lyrics of the song.

The editing, I thought was fairly conventional. It had simple cuts that were to the beat of the music and were to the pace of the music too. This enabled comfortable viewing for the audience, so that they may enjoy the music video. One aspect that perhaps wasn’t so conventional for a classic rock video was the use of fade transitions. Fades are more associated with acoustic genres and slower songs, however, when editing the video we decided that fade transitions between the performance and the memory scenes would be appropriate as it enforces the use of black and white to show the past.

Also in the task set was to produce a magazine advertisement and DVD cover, complete with DVD and menu selections. This combined with the music video helps promote the band as a whole, which gives them a certain style to appeal to their target audience.

With the magazine advertisement we kept the photo of the band a very dominant part of it. This is a very striking image as all members of the band are looking at the camera, so it gives the impression they are looking straight into the eyes their target audience. Furthermore, the black and white effect creates almost a harshness which promotes the band’s image of the classic rock genre (as shown in some of Bon Jovi’s promotional stills). The band’s logo is centred above the heads of the band members, so that band members and the logo are associated together. The text was kept quite simple, so that attention wasn’t taken away from the picture of the band, but at the same time it got the message across that their single ‘Don’t Matter’ was going to be realised on the given date.

While the music video and the magazine advertisement enabled the band to be promoted as a group, the DVD cover and content inside the DVD enabled each band member to be shown individually. On the back of the DVD cover, are photos of each individual member with their name in different positions and different style texts to reflect their handwriting. This not only creates a very personal link between the band member and the audience, it also enables the band member to be known as an individual.

Audience feedback is very important to consider when evaluating, because it reveals areas of improvement that the target audience have suggested. When showing our production to the class, they all agreed that it was a well constructed video with a large variety of shots and accurately synced. However, there were a few areas of improvements that were raised. Although they said they understood the narrative and thought it added a different dynamic to the production, there were issues as to whether the acting was convincing. This was a difficult issue during production, because we knew that we wanted fairly good actors and the cast that we chose had been doing drama at college, so from our resources and budget, I believe we did the best we could.

Another improvements that was put forward was the location of the performance. They did not give a reason for this criticism, however I imagine it was to do with the fact that the band wasn’t playing to a crowd even though they were on a stage.

The band member’s clothing was another issue with the audience’s feedback. They thought that it wasn’t ‘fashionable’ enough and therefore, didn’t appeal to the target audience. I must say, I do agree with this statement. However, we did ask the band to wear something contemporary and suitable for their target audience such as blue genes and coloured converses, but unfortunately we couldn’t have much control over what they wore.

Technology was at the forefront of the research, planning, production of the music video, advertisement and DVD cover, and even this evaluation.

In the research I used the blog to present my findings and used websites such as YouTube to research into existing music videos.

In the planning stages technologies such as Facebook and Twitter were primarily used to communicate between group members, and communication between the band members was through email.

On the recce that we made I took my camera so we were able to take photos of the hall, even details such as the booking forms I had to fill out. This helped us present everything on the blog and was proof that we had researched the venue before booking it.

During filming the main technology we used was the HD Canon cameras, four altogether. They enabled us to shoot the video to the highest quality available, which made the video look professional. We also used simple technologies such as tripods to keep the cameras steady whilst filming, which again, made the video look more professional. We used a high quality canon camera that had different lenses that could be attached in order to achieve a different effect, to take the promotional stills. This greatly increased the professionalism of the pictures, and I was very pleased with the results.

To edit together the main music video, we used Adobe Premiere Pro. In the programme we had to import all of our video files, from each of the four cameras, and cut them where appropriate and assemble them on the timeline. As we had used this in the preliminary task and at AS I was quite familiar with the programme, although throughout this project I leant even more. The music video was then copied onto a DVD disk, so that it created a pack together with the evaluation and photo gallery.

With the construction of the DVD cover and the magazine advertisement we used Adobe Photoshop, which enabled us to edit and create the products to a high standard. One of the tools I was most impressed with was the ‘clone stamp tool’, which enabled us to edit out some unwanted items in the back of one of the pictures we wanted to use for the magazine advertisement.

With this evaluation, I have presented a written copy on my blog, but constructed it using Microsoft Word. I also decided to produce this, almost video style blog, to enhance communication. This video has also been through Adobe Premiere Pro and been transferred onto the DVD, much like the music video.