Media A2 Evaluation questionsAndrew Jones

The Questions:1.) In what ways does your media product use, develop, or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

3.)What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

Question 1: In what ways does your media product use,

develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media

products?

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

1- Dreamers 2- When i was a youngster3- Round up4- Down with the trumpets5- Demolition man6- Prophet7- Mama do the hump8- Miss cigarette 9- Traveller’s chant10- Stop with the chatter11- Homewrecker12- Trouble13- Learn my lesson14- Even on a rainy day15- Perfect day16- Garden

My music video does try to develop conventions of real media texts. The song my group chose to do for our media studies A2 coursework was Rizzle Kicks’ ‘When I was a youngster’. The song came from the bands album, ‘Stereotypical’. There are 16 tracks on the album, When I was a youngster being track 2. The track list of the album is as follows:

Stereotypical Album & conventions

After conducting research into Rizzle Kicks album, Stereotypical, i found out that the album reached 5th in the UK album charts, and 1st in the RnB album charts. The album was released on 28th October 2011, and received positive reviews. Being the duo’s first album release, it was a success, and started to raise the profile of the band. The bands conventions are shown throughout the album. The album represents their upbringing from the early life, with songs such as Dreamers, and When I Was A Youngster. The songs focus on the early life, and what they wanted to be when they were older. They always focus on how they have made themselves proud, and the songs can be used as inspiration for others. The album also focuses on the bad points such as rainy day, and homewrecker, which symbolises their struggle to the top, however the songs all focus on the best points of their career even in the negative songs.

Link to Rizzle Kicks Dreamers:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkrO0ItjrvU

Link to Rizzle Kicks Homewrecker:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZAUCROM78A

Stereotypical Album & conventions

Rizzle Kicks’ Down With The Trumpets, has caused controversy within the public as they are not sure what the meaning behind down with the trumpets is. Some say the song is about themselves, and introducing them as two teenagers, and the trumpet signifying their love for music. Another adaptation is the song is about the drug weed. The lyric ‘lighter and rizla, baccy and filter’ has made some question whether the song is about their hobby of smoking weed. Obviously the pair could not use the word within the lyrics as it is an illegal drug, and if they did it may restrict their target audience. Another on of their songs Miss Cigarette, links in with Down With The Trumpets, as the girl/woman is used as a metaphor. The song is about the ‘girl’ who he really wants, but is bad for him in every single way.

Link to Down With The Trumpets:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ip8OsExLJs

Link to Miss Cigarette:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YA_tBIOt8MY

Conventions to my groups chosen song:

The song we chose by Rizzle Kicks, ‘When I Was A Youngster’ was is a song about the pair reflecting on their childhood, and the move to adulthood. The songs meaning behind the lyrics is basic, and that is they had all the dreams of being, Firemen, Police Officers, Firemen, and all the dreams of a young child, but as they started to grow up, they couldn't be bothered with it, and just gave up. For us to portray our own adaptations of the song, we went for the meaning of what we wanted to be when we were younger, to the stereotypes of the modern world, which links in with the albums title. In our ancillary tasks, of making the poster, and album cover, we put theses stereotypes across, by on one side having the stereotype of ourselves, and then what we are.

Link to When I Was A Youngster:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc2iUwMpb8Y

Images from official music video similar to Images from our music video:

The lip sync:The lip sync in Rizzle Kicks official single for When I Was A Youngster, was used about 70% of the way through the the video. In our music video, we have used lip syncing through about 50% of our music video. We open the first verse of the song by using lip sync with Darcy. The official music video also opens the first verse with lip syncing. We believe lip syncing from the first verse gives a personal response to the viewer. Lip syncing plays an important part in music videos and although we don’t use it as much as the official one, it shows professionalism.

The Mis-en sceneThe mis-en scene is an important part to play in music videos. The mis-en scene is the setting, props, and clothing of the video. The mis-en scene is very important and has to be over exaggerated to give a clear perspective of where the video is being recorded. Rizzle kicks use it to the best effect when filming at a school playground.

The mis-en scene in the photo is used to its full effect. The effect we are trying to achieve is a school teacher teaching his class. The use of the interactive whiteboard, the pointer, the robe, and glasses exaggerates the stereotype of a teacher.

The mis-en scene used in the official video is them at a park for children, and the use of the swings, and activity ball in the background emphasises the park element.

Levi Strauss – Media TheoristsConstant creation of conflict or opposition which propels narrative. The

opposition can be seen visually, such as black and white, or conceptual, such as love and hatred.

Our music video uses the the visual effects with the use of young and old, when we change over from being children to adults as the scenes changes. The characters that change from adults to children are the four main characters, which are the four group members.

Tzvetan Todorov – Media TheoriesTzvetan Todorov’s media theory was based from narrative theory, however he also added his own interpretation of film texts. His theory is split up into parts. The first part of his theory is, the fictional environment begins with a state of equilibrium. His next part is that it then suffers disruption also known as disequilibrium. The final part is that new equilibrium is produced at end of the narrative.

In my music video, Todorov’s theory is expressed by:Equilibrium. The flashbacks to being a child and on the swings and imagining life in the future, as an adult. Disequilibrium. Being an adult again, and realising any hopes of being a childhood dream have faded. New Equilbrium. The pair have done well for themselves by making it as musicians.

Intertextuality:Intertextuality is the relationship between different sorts of media technologies. Intertextuality exists within media technologies and usually the audience are made aware of the relationship as it will exist as part of the main part of scenes. In rizzle kicks’ video they did not use any form of intertextuality. In my music video we used two forms of intertextuality. The first form was the interactive whiteboard used for the teacher scene (the first picture on the left). The second form of intertextuality was when I myself was using an Apple Mac as seen in the second picture on the right. Intertextuality is important as it shows a more modernised way of portraying life, which our music video is doing.

Question 3: What have you learned from Audience

feedback?

Audience research:Audience research is an important technique needed when

creating a music video. The music video is being created by amateur production teams, such as myself and my group. We needed to determine where would be best to throw our product out there and who too. Audience research, also known as target audience, helps the distributor get an understanding of what the public want. By using audience research you can estimate views, and also preferences.

Prior to the creation of our music video, we decided to film a group of sixth formers, to get an understanding of what they expect out of a music video, and other questions such as if they would actually watch an amateur music video. Audience research isn't just only what you do well in, it is also a way of using critical analysis, to make your creation better. By being able to accept what you do right and wrong, it makes your product better in the long run. You can conduct your audience research in a number of ways. The two main ways are with a focus group, or a questionnaire. We had a focus group, as well as a questionnaire.

The Questionnaire:

This was the questionnaire we made as a group. The questionnaire asked the basic questions at the start from how old are you, and the gender, to more complex questions such as what they expect from a music video, and question 10, the most important question. The tenth question was the most important, because if they do not watch music video remakes by A-Level students, they would not be interested in our production.

The Results:Are they male or female?

Here we can see there was a slight majority in male volunteers.

How old are you?

In this analysis we can see the majority of our volunteers were aged 15-17.

What genre of music do you prefer?

In the result to the right, we can see most of our audience prefer pop music.

Results (cont.)

What do you expect to see in a music video? From the result to the left, we can see that

the result was close. The majority of the volunteers prefer relation to lyrics within music videos, however in closely in joint second, the volunteers also like relation to music, the artist, and CGI.

The result from the left shows that most prefer story lines to dance routines.

Results (cont.)Do you watch mainstream or

independent videos? As you can see, most of the group watch both mainstream and independent videos. This enables us to target them as most will watch an independent video.

Would you watch a mainstream remake created by A-Level students?

Thankfully for us, the majority of our audience would watch a remake of a mainstream video.

After conducting analysis into the questionnaire results, i have seen that the results have been to our benefit. Most of what we predicted to use in our music video, was approved of by the group. The benefit of using the audience research was to our benefit though, as if we didn't use it, and was wrong, we wouldn't get as many fans as possible.

Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, and

planning stages?

Cameras:Making all of my products, from the ancillary texts

to the actual music video, our group used one camera. The camera we used is called ................................ The camera is Francesca Sarno’s camera. We had the option of using a camera the school was going to supply us with, however after last year and the poor quality of them, we decided using Francesca’s would only benefit our aim for a good music video. The camera to the left was a similar one to the one offered to us.

Francesca’s camera that we used can be seen to the left. The camera is a professional camera, and i believe this gave us a slight advantage over other groups. Another advantage was that we did not have a time limit until we had to return the camera.

Apple Mac’sThe software we used to create our product

music video was an Apple Mac. The Apple Mac’s are able for use in school, however we need a teacher to supervise us, and when studying for A-Levels, we need to be flexible when editing, and making the ancillary texts. Luckily for us, Francesca also has an Apple Macbook Pro. We was able to use the mac, and edit, as well as make the ancillary texts, at any point of the week, whether it be a weekend, or after school. The software we used when on the

Apple Mac’s was IMovie. IMovie is a program used on Apple products. It is a basic movie making system for amateurs such as us.

Blogger:When i started this year, and creating my

portfolio for the second year, I once again used Blogger. Blogger is a webpage that allows anyone to blog for free, run via Google. I used the blog to update everything that I have done throughout the year, from filming dates, to problems, to the finished article. My blog carries all the research I have gathered, and any single idea I may have thought off. I have benefited from the free blogging website, as otherwise I would have to have kept a written diary of everything. Keeping everything on paper would have meant there would be no way to back it up, unlike the internet.