How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In this video I discuss the various technologies I used during the whole process of developing our final product(s), whether it be physical hardware devices or software I worked with.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our rock music video wouldn't have been a
rock music video if we didn't apply certain conventions. I feel we did well in portraying our band and video to meet rock clichés and conventions.
Use
One convention we used was making our music video's colour desaturated. This creates a 'retro' feel and we used it to reiterate the "back stage", "band on tour" look, by reminiscing the past, and inviting the audience, back to the past and behind the scenes. The extreme close up of the bass guitar, which actually had its motion slowed down, and with the desaturation of colour, reinforces the retro feel. This has been done many times in rock videos such as
Bon Jovi - Livin' On A Prayer (see screenshot below).
Another convention we used was showing the band performing together on stage. This is used in the majority of all rock videos. We thought it was a necessity to show the band playing together on stage because it is really what rock music is all about; a band playing coherently together. It is probably the most expected thing to expect when watching a rock video, so it was pretty necessary for us to include this, it also authenticates that the band are real, and it shows the audience, what band members are doing/playing what.
Develop
Within the back stage feel and look of our video, the bands rehearsals were shown, to give viewers an inside look of what goes on behind the scenes. As you can see here in the first screenshot, is Axl Rose rehearsing, performing a sound check, in the video
Pardise City by Guns n Roses. We took this and developed it by videoing the lead singer testing the microphone and saying to turn it up while gesturing too. By doing this clearly shows the bands genuineness, and makes the behind the scenes/ rehearsal theme seem even more authentic. We used a mid camera shot here, like Guns n Roses did, to fully portray the sound check and contain it within the frame.
Costume and Mise en scene plays a part in conventions in music videos. Here you see Travis Barker, the drummer of Blink 182, sporting a 'Famous Stars and Stripes' T-Shirt which is the clothing line he created. So to some extent he is subliminally advertising the brand. We developed this by having Andy wear official band merchandise during the recording session. This is to do with
Horton and Wohl's parasocial theory of having a relationship with the audience. By sporting goods that fans could potentially sport themselves, it may make them feel capable of having a relationship with the band. Whereas fans of certain rappers, may feel unable to relate to the expensive clothes, suits they wear.
Challenge
The song 'Everything's Undone' is very much about love, heartbreak and it has some deep meaningful lyrics. In the same context, the song
You're So Last Summer by Taking Back Sunday lyrically explains the sad remorse of heartbreak. The first screen shot is the ending scene in the video for 'You're So Last Summer'. It shows the lead singer looking lonely, and the his head positionally facing down implies he is sad. Also with hands in his front pockets, he looks quite withdrawn and closed up. Compare this to the ending in 'Everything's Undone' in the second screenshot, you see the lead singer, looking strong and rebellious by gesturing a rude finger signal to the camera. This shows a typical, bad, rebellious, doesn't care, type rocker/lead singer. Which is fine within the genre, however it challenges the forms and conventions within the context of the song as it is more of an emotional rock song about love and heartbreak etc. So it doesn't have much to do with being a rebellious punk.
Having a 3 piece band within this genre to some extent challenges conventions of the overall ensemble of the band. Being without an extra guitarist causes our band's image and music sound to be different in relation to bands in the same genre. As you see here in the first picture,
Avenged Sevenfold feature 5 members and within the second picture
Foo Fighters have 4 members. Whereas our band (bottom picture) only feature 3. Having 3 members, and the absence of a rhythm guitarist, makes the sound of The Croft different to similar bands. It also adds extra responsibility to the lead singer by having to operate a guitar as well. This may add to the desirability of the artist by multi-tasking roles within the band.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Due to the absence of other group members, Andy and I took it upon ourselves to discuss the combination and relationships of our main product, the music video, and our ancillary texts, the digipack and the website.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We received audience feedback from a group of people that viewed our video. We then processed the results and annotated our video with the feedback we received.
Our audience feedback firmly tells us that our video is authentic and seems real. This is good as it what we was aiming for. However some viewers felt that certain areas seemed fake (the settings and the instrument playing) and that throughout the video it was repetitive. So I've learned that the video fits the rock genre because of the mise en scene as one viewer stated, and that it is very authentic and realistic due to black and white effect as many of the audience declared.
On the other hand, it didn't satisfy some watchers as they felt it was quite repetitive and some areas could have been developed. With this information taken into account, had we the chance to improve upon our video, I would record more adverse footage, perhaps even adding a narrative to counterpart the video. I would also organise a live performance including a full crowd within the audience, and enhance the setting by having various lighting, and possibly a more technical recording studio.
