Evaluation

On both the technology and production techniques pages are details of the technologies I used and -In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

 real media products?

One way to look at whether my piece challenges, develops or uses conventions is to examine it under Andrew Goodwin's conventions of a music video. Goodwin's conventions are as follows:

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristics

(e.g. stage performance in metal video, dance routine for boy/girl band).

2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals

(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

3. There is a relationship between music and visuals

(either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

4. The demands of the record label will include the need

for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may

develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual

style).

5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking

(screens within screens, telescopes, etc)

and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female

body.

6. There is often inter textual reference

This piece can be placed in several genres, the first genre and the more obvious of the genres is the Christian Rock genre the other  genre I feel that present is rock specifically indie rock and folk rock. The main crossover spaces where these genres overlap is where my product aims, in order to widen the audience from merely Christian listeners. Consequently I feel the key genre characteristics are 

1. Use of a Guitar/instruments
2. Spiritual imagery
3. Purity/simplicity in editing and sound
4. Strong identifiable narrative
5. Casual Appearance
6. Joy in the music

My video certainly contains all of these characteristics there are many closeups of instruments, as shown later alongside spiritual imagery. I feel that there is a simplicity in the editing with the only post production effect being the black and white coloration. However, this could be argued as a complication to the video and perhaps subvert the independent image slightly. There is clearly a narrative in my piece highlighted by this effect and appearance and joy are evidenced by the photos below. What is controversial is my choice of the Star. Some have argued that a rock star has to look a certain way and my star is certainly not the typical rock star in appearance. For one thing rock stars with glasses are not typical. Elvis Costello and the Reclaimers are the only two famous names and even they have faded from the mainstream. However, it is in subverting the typical look of a rockstar that I may have conformed to the stereotype of a Christian artist. This stereotype being of a cooky slightly weird individual,(as detailed in my research on the star page)

As this image shows there are close ups of the artist during my piece. This would be expected from a performance piece and thus it is conforming to the conventions and the demand of the record label , in this case Kingsway who produce much of the British Christian music at the moment and who are featured on the back of my digipack. In terms of a visual style as there is currently only one video clear motifs are hard to find. Instead we can see several themes that could be placed into other videos. These include the artists appearance especially the jacket and guitar as well as the use of the symbolic black and white 

Goodwin's theory also details a relationship between the music and the visuals. In my products case this is an amplifying relationship with shots of the instruments reinforcing the beat of the music as well as telling the audience that the star is playing the piece himself and amplifying his reputation.

It can also be said that there is an illustrative relationship between lyrics and visuals in some shots as there are shots where it isn't clear who is playing  the instrument, but they are used to show that these instruments are indeed playing . This is a result of my inability to get adequate people together whilst filming. However, I think it adds to the feeling that this video is independent and like a session being played. There are separate people playing together but coming together to make this sound. It conveys a notion of a raw and rough artist. This is an effect that artist like Alex Goot utilize in their music videos

This screenshot illustrates the relationship between the lyrics and visuals. The line in question here is 'waves that empty out your life' with the visual showing the boat's course being changed by the ripples on the water. This is one of many examples of an illustrative image in my piece, another being the more subtle wine glass tipping for the lines regarding the spilling of blood. These were used as illustrative images but alternative, they require some aspect of thinking on the audiences behalf.

Voyeurism of the male figure is counter hegemonic according to Laura Mulvey's theory of the Male Gaze. However, in my video there are certainly notions of looking. This is due to the fact that as a director I felt it important to show the journey of the artist from destitution and coldness to the light. Consequently the opening signs have an air of voyeurism with the camera panning and following the star from a distance.  

It could be said that the grounding of this piece in the Christian genre could be seen as an inter textual reference in its self. This is the only glimpse of an inter textual reference in my piece. I think that this is partially down to the fact that the genre is new and upcoming in terms of music videos and consequently there is nothing to nod to as a mark of respect. Moreover it retains a separation as a genre and consequently references to other genres seem somehow inappropriate.

I have also applied Todorov's Narrative Theory to my production , Todorov's theory lists five principles that all narratives will follow:

A state of equilibrium. 

A disruption of the equilibrium. 

A recognition of the disruption of the equilibrium. 

An attempt to repair the disruption. 

The equilibrium is restored.

My narrative can be seen to follow this structure in a few ways. Firstly it follows a very circular structure in its imagery, the picture below illustrates some of the structure of my piece. Whereby the image of the mixing tape is repeated several times as is the image of the tipping chalice. Consequently there is a equilibrium established and ended upon. This is then disrupted by the walk in the park, recognized on the bridge repaired with the blood being spilled and the chalice tipping before reaching a new equilibrium / returning to the old equilibrium of performance and the mixing desk.

In conclusion I feel that it is easy to apply the principles of Goodwin and Todorov to my video. This is largely due to a directorial decision to try and make the sometimes alien idea of Christian music to the audience. There is adherence to the principles of the theorists as the audience responds to these familiar conventions for a reason. However, it can be said that there are more conventions of non-religious music than religious music in my piece.

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

My ancillary products are a digipack and an A3 album release poster and they combine with the music video seamlessly. This is mainly because of the fact that they were built up together with all of them using images taken from the same locations. The poster uses an image from the park the music video was filmed in whilst the digipack uses images taken from the filming in the church, where the performance element of the piece was filmed. The poster and the digipack are also linked intrinsically by the font and choice of styling. I decided early on in the creation of my star that I was going to use one font to unify his looks and create a brand image. This font was Mistral as it had the personal touch of looking like handwriting. ( for further details look on the star page) I also decided that there was going to be a color palette ( of a maximum of 10 colours) that I relied on these were pastel colors that ranged from a turquoise to a mustard brown. Consequently when producing my products I had to coordinate there color schemes. As well as having a stock set of colors I had a stock set of images, one of these was the image of the Gibson guitar. This formed the front of my Digipack frontage as well as being featured on the poster, albeit in a different coloration. However, there is still a weakness in the strategy I employed. Although the poster features the words debut album and Sepia Masquerade it does not picture the digipack and consequently the link in color schemes and style is not visible. On reflection this is something I would alter if I were to do similar projects again.

-What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The feedback process started with my AS production. This is because a large volume of the feedback  I received regarded production techniques and consequently I could use this advice in my production. One of the main pieces of advice I garnered was to take as many shots as possible on the same day in order to avoid many trips to the location and possible continuity errors. This is  advice I took to heart in my production, which meant that I had to bring several SD cards to locations when shooting , as on one particular day I shot over 2hrs (16gb) of HD footage. Other advice stemming from that production was that the use of equipment such as Dollies and steadycams really elevated my project and stopped it looking amateurish.

Before I began to create the piece of work I needed to establish and audience, the generic conventions and the personal likes of the audience. I did this primarily using JICTAR analysis and then using a survey monkey survey to generate more detailed analysis of the audience. Details of these can be found on the audience page.

Some of my main feedback came from other media students when in the editing suite. They pointed out the fact that there was an issue regarding camera orientation that meant I had narrow frames that needed addressing and they also highlighted that some shots may need post production editing such as stabilization

As mentioned on the star page I attempted to create an internet presence for my star as a method of receiving feedback and building up his image. This was done by using twitter and Facebook to create pages for the audience to interact with. I then shared these pages using my only personal social media and mailing lists. As a result I was able to start building an audience following the star and gather quite a substantial amount of feedback. Some of the questions posed and links posted on the Facebook page (detailed on the stars page) helped guide my production and helped me decide on imagery.

Another method I used to glean feedback was the use of several small screenings to those who are familiar with the genre, those who have studied media and those who don't fit any of those two categories. These were conducted often individually as to get the full spectrum of opinions and get original individual opinions not the rephrased opinion of the person sitting opposite. It was during one of these screenings that several issues were pointed out. I was aware of the camera shake in the video, but the main issue some of the people I was showing the video too was one of continuity. 'I like the premise of the video, however you need to sort out your hair and the position of your glasses on your face from shot to shot, it looks strange with them all over the place from shot to shot' Luckily this screening took place early on in production which meant that the issues raised could be corrected and that the idea was fresh in my mind when it came to later filming. What was especially worrying was that this screening was to a group of those not familiar with the genre and not media students, so it showed the issue was deep rooted.

On completion of my video I showed the film to some members of a local church and some religious family members to gather their views. They felt that the video reflected the religious aspects of the song well and noted the well-lit scenes however, they struggled with the black and white and the cup being refilled. This meant that I had to explain to them  how the image worked in terms of keeping the narrative cyclical , i.e the fact that the process of blood being spilled/ communion was continual. Here are parts of the discussions I had with the aforementioned people

'The choice of locations is fantastic and interesting, .... The singer looks like he is enjoying himself which I liked........I don't understand why the singer is in the park originally'

Middle-aged woman at local church

'The film matching the instrumental was really good.... The paper boats are really creatively used .... the only question I have is who is playing all of the instruments aside from the drummer?'

Teenage family member who had heard the song before

There was also some feedback during the process of creation of the work, This came via twitter on the stars twitter feed that i had created. This was particularly useful in directing what the audience appreciated and what they did not like about my project. One key example of this was where Rachel Gates, an unknown follower of my star suggested that I use some photos from filming in my ancillary products which ultimately became one of my plans. This sort of feedback enabled me to govern my production and decide how best to create my products.

Feedback also came in the way of tweets and conversations with enquiring fans some were as above just congratulations on previews etc and comment on released material whilst others were comments on what they did not like in regards to posters and ancillary products.

Some comments such as the one above where disregarded, As I felt that there were certain lines that had to be drawn on regards to my personal feeling of the artists direction. I could not allow the audience to have complete governance over the artist and thus I ignored the comment of one of the twitter followers.

Feedback also came after the video was uploaded onto youtube. I shared it on social media asking for comments and here is a snapshot of some of the selected comments. They include comments on the black and white effect and imagery but also some analysis of the variety of shots I used.

Conclusions:

From my audience feedback I can determine certain things that I could improve and focus on in future productions, these are:

• Care for continuity
• Making narratives clearer by not making them multi stranded
• Using illustrative imagery appeals to the audience
• Stick to generic conventions as they are what the audience recognises
• Use a greater shot selection

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

how I implemented them.