Evaluation

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

My partner and I initially chose rock music from Escape the Fate as we both listened to the band and other bands from he same genre. This was helpful because we already had a deep insight on the music the band make. My research including my Star image analysis, Video analysis and artist summary helped me understand the main elements that make a rock music video the way it is. I analysed Numb by Linkin Park and watched I'm not Okay by My Chemical Romance as a secondary video. Both videos were narrative and performance based allowing one or more members from the performance to intervene within the narrative. In Linkin Park the band tell a story using first person as if they are in the protagonists shoes. In Im not Okay by My Chemical Romance, the performers (band) are the protagonists within the narrative also. However, I thought it would be more accurate if we used a female protagonist with the lead singer intervening within the narrative as the song is about Make-up (typically used by females). The song I chose is Make-up by Escape the Fate. I believed that having narrator intervention would be useful as the lyrics use the pronouns 'you' and 'we' whilst talking directly to the protagonist. Unlike, other videos that stick to the rigid border between performance and narrative, we challenged the typical convention by merging the two creating greater meaning to the music video. We put focus on the singer from the band as the vocalist is the most convincing and interacting member of a band who sings the lyrics. This meant there was more emotion attached to the video and having the vocalist within the video emphasized upon this as he played the role of a witness and spectator rather than a distant narrator. Although we challenged a convention as certain rock videos do not consist of narrator intervention, we also stuck to some conventions. For example, we used live performance within our video to remain with the traditional rock music video concept making the audience aware that the genre is rock. The benefit of the conventions and challenging a convention helped the audience familiarize themselves with the protagonist and the lead singer who could also been seen as a secondary protagonist. As rock music is generally aimed at teenagers as they tend to rebel at those stages, our music video was based on high school bullying- a popular problem amongst teenagers. The video encourages viewers to open their eyes to the consequences of bullying encouraging them to avoid it. We felt the lyrics suited the theme of bullying mentioning typical teenage things such as a girls 'dress', 'make-up' etc. Within the Linkin Park video -Numb I saw that the protagonist was also lonely and was undergoing a different indirect form of bullying where she felt pressure to fit in and belonged no where. We decided to take this theme a step further making the bullying direct to have a greater empathetical impact upon the audience. Furthermore, we used typical conventions reinforcing the idea of a rock band by keeping all the performers as males. The four piece band typically consists of lead guitarist, bassist, drummer and lead singer.We focused on aspects of the mise-en-scene so the video reflects its genre. This included the mise-en-scene such as the black outfits, rebellious hairstyles, band t-shirts, boots, converses, wrist bands and the particular use of instruments that make it a particular genre (For example electric guitars). Other aspects such as the lighting, shot type, angle type and lyrics contributed to the genre of the music. For example, the bright spotlight allowed the performance to seem more polished and professional making the band look like rock stars. The performance mainly consisted of long shots to distance the band from the audience allowing them to appear as distant idols/rockstars in a typical band. The fact that we used more shots consisting of the whole band reinforced the idea of them being a band that work together and make music contributing to the genre. Lastly, we also challenged the typical beginning to end structure of a music video as our video was cyclical building suspense at the beginning and ending the video via the same method.

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

I believe that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is very effective for many reasons. My ancillary texts' design helped promote and advertise my music video. The album name was also the song title Makeup. Therefore, For my main cover I used the image of the protagonist. The protagonist is looking away from the camera and the shot is taken from a high angle making the character appear as vulnerable. The fact that the character looks down suggests that they're being intimidated or bullied. This tied in with the theme of our video on bullying immediately being very effective. The use of runny mascara also helped create an impression of the protagonist being bullied reflecting the music video. Also the black blotches of blood in the background represent the themes of bleeding and suicide at the beginning and end of the video. I believe the hand gesture on the front cover is very effective as it attempts to push people away but ironically attracts more people and encourages them to watch and find out more about the protagonist. I have also, placed the name of the song and artist on the protagonists hand as it is the most eye catching and largest feature of the album cover, allowing me to advertise and promote the video. Also, the protagonists hand is a form of interaction with the audience as she placed it right before the camera, as if she is aware of the audience. This creates a sense of realism amongst the audience making the music video seem convincing. For the back cover of the CD I have used an image of the lead singer. This perfectly matches the music video as the audience are more familiar with him than the rest of the band. Because the story, is personal based on the lead singers first hand experiences I thought it would be best to put the lead singer on the back cover. The lead singer stares right at the camera sitting in a careless manner, reinforcing the image of rock portrayed within the video. The chair he sits on, appears to be royal suggesting that he is a rock star- matching his image within the performance scenes. Within this image, Vinny's facial expressions also portray attitude creating a sense of rebelliousness, which is also visible within the performance scenes of the video via the Mise-en-scene. I edited the image of the lead singer (Vinny) to make it look as if he is glowing giving him a rock star look. (I did this via Adobe Photoshop). Moreover, the inner page of my Digipak is mainly of an image without other additional details. This is so the audience are able to focus clearly on the image. The image is of the protagonist leaning against a cracked mirror, appearing different from her reflection. This links in with the theme of image orientation within the video as the reflection represents someone she aspires to be- flawless. The cracked mirror represents the harshness of reality portrayed in the video and reminding both us and the protagonist about the unreal image one desires to have. The use of the mirror for my Digipak was effective because the protagonist is often seen in front of a mirror within the video and this linked with the video. I also used a line from the lyrics 'Found that you are lost again' as it is part of the chorus and is therefore often repeated. I believe the line had significance as the video is based on not belonging anywhere. Lastly, I decided to leave the CD compartment + CD more simple looking with animation blood rather than an image. The CD directly represents Emo subculture with the use of blood. This links in with my video due to the suicidal theme. If i could improve my Digipak I would add text on my CD so even if it was without the case, the target market would be aware of the contents within it.

Additionally, my magazine advert was also, something that combined well with my music video. This was because the protagonist was visible on the advert with sad facial expressions reinforcing the video's negative themes. The black and white hues of my magazine advert allows my target market to believe that the protagonist is from the past and may no longer exist. The fact that the protagonist is standing under a tunnel with light at the side metaphorically suggests that theres a light in the tunnel. However, withing the video, from the beginning we are aware that the ending will be negative. My magazine advert encourages the audience to feel that theres hope for the protagonist, so they are encouraged to watch the video. Through out my ancillary texts the font style I used from www.dafont.com remained consistent. This helped my ancillary texts flow. The images of my ancillary texts helped my video link in with them very well.