EVALUATION

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? there are a variety of ways our product has used and challenged existing conventions. most metal music videos stick to the genre they have created which includes typical features such as, frequent band shots, editing that reflects the pace of the song, story that can be related to, chiaruroscuro (often) and a narrative that reflects the emotion of the song. we feel we have successfully incorporated allof these elements in our own video as well as we can. while the protagonist-sean is the main character and focus the band is also a large part of the video and recieve just as much attention. the main antagonist-charlotte as the ex also is important as she is the cause of the problems sean now faces, showing we have used Todorov's theory of narrative and shown an understanding of intertextuality. The story also moves from equilibrium to disequilibrium and then back again by the end, another example of Todorovs theory. this shows how we have reflected real media products as most rock videos feature a protagonist whose screen time is shared by the band in the video. looking at the videos i have analysed we have also used an appropriate level of darkness and lighting as it has a dark adult theme and this is reflected in the frequently dark locations, with lighting being improvised. in terms of what we have challanged our antagonist is a female which while not uncommon in rock videos, it still goes against the typical media product. the dark atmosphere also fits in with the genre but goes against most media conventions and what is typical in more mainstream videos.

2. how effective is the combination of your media product and anciallary tests? as well as the music video we also created a digipack cover as well as the magazine advert for it. we feel all 3 three of these products link and support each other well as they have all firmly stuck to the metal genre. this could have easily gone wrong as merely the wrong use of colour such as pink or a more mainstream picture or font would have conveyed both the wrong message and advertise the wrong genre. Sticking to the correct genre is what all 3 products are based around and this determined every decison that was made, including editing style and lighting as well as the picture and font. by sticking to the genre throughout we feel we have ensured that the target audience would be attracted to our products and recognise them as authentic metal genre products. the font is similar to the best selling rock/metal magazine Kerrang, meaning the font on our products are instantly associated with that genre. the crying image is dominant throughout, meaning it is easily recognised and will always be associated as the signature image of our products, wherever it is seen. it also reflects the emotional content and more dark atmosphere of our video, something we were very keen on including.

we feel the 3 products link well together as the font is present throughout both printed pieces and the images echoe the videos content and provide an insight to it. our main aim was to create something that when looking through a magazine or browsing through a CD shop, both products would be easily recognised and if seen together, instantly look related to each other.

3. what have you learned from your audience feedback? Based upon our audience feedback both myself and Charlotte have learned a great deal about the depth and complexity of both planning the video and ensuring it is well recieved by the target audience. the easy part was to choose a genre we both liked which was metal/rock music. then we went through various metal bands such as machine head, slipknot and finally bullet for my valentine. the story had been there from the very beginning, it was merely a question of choosing the right song to fit it which. we chose the band bullet for my valentine as many of their songs convey similar meanings to our planned story and after examining many songs and specifically their lyrics, we decided on cries in vain. as well as suiting our story we felt the very name could be marketing well with the image of a crying eye which would both be a direct link to the songs name and the videos atmosphere. we then had to find a way to appeal to our target audience, which we ourselves are part of. using posts and comments on our blog during the planning we could see if the ideas we were coming up with were well recieved by our target audience. the main feedback however came from testing a finished version of our video to a small focus group, comprised of those belonging to our target audience. using what we had learned, such as the timing had to be more precise and the editing fast we changed a few parts of our video until it ticked all the boxes. we learnt it is vital to make the target audiences opinion the main focus of your product as without their support it is nothing it relies non them to fulfil its potential and become a success. from what feedback we have recieved our group feels we have achieved a product loyal to its genre and have learnt what is essential and necessary to both supply this information and use it.

4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation stages? Throughout all our products we used a variety of media technologies. firstly one of the most vital was premiere pro, which was essential for the video to actually be made. it is a very advanced and complex programme compared to the previously used i movie programe used in our preliminary tasks. once we got round the complexity it became an invaluable tool in the making of our video. the internet was also an important technology as we used it extensively for our many research tasks, compiling alot of useful and necessary information in the process. we looked at excisting videos and the editing pace they featured and lighting, as well as typical conventions we would need to use in our video to ensure it fitted the genre. the program photoshop was also used to create my other to products. this was combined with the video and photo cameras used as they supplied the footage and images used in the programs. we used the video camera as often as possible as we wanted to have as many shots as possible to allow us more options in the editing process, and add a variety of shot types. all these technologies were used together by our group to create our products which would not have been possible without them.