Evaluation - 1

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


When I first began this assignment of my media coursework, I did lots of research towards how and where I would create a music video, and ideas for the Digipack and the Advert.
The first part of the research I did was about the different types of Genre in a music video - observing and taking notes of a series of Youtube video's, noting whether it was narrative/performance/concept, and what were the expectations of the music video. I then did a textual analysis of Lady Gaga's 'Paparazzi' music video, again noting the same sorts of things, and how the audience perceive her. I researched the History of the Music Video, and researched the 100 Greatest Music Video's. Once I had gained further knowledge of how and what to expect from a music video, I began to decide my artists and start the research for filming.
Once completing my filming, during the course of editing I started to then think about what I would be doing for the Digipack and Advert. Fortunately for me, I thought ahead and already had taken a variety of photo's that I knew would be useful when it came to the designing of the ancillary texts.

The Digipack research I felt was much easier than the research I had done before, because I had a better insight to which images I would use since I had already completed my filming. Firstly, I researched what a typical Digipack looks like, and how I wanted mine to look like. Then I researched ideas for the Digipack, looking at previous images of The Saturdays, getting more of an idea of what a typical girl band looks like. Once I knew roughly my idea, I began to sketch out what I hoped m Digipack will look like (in a previous post). Since then, I have stuck to all my ideas I have talked about it previous posts.

Finally, the advert research was very simple as I had learnt so much along the way of the coursework process. I knew what image I would be using, and how I wanted it to look. I researched 4 other adverts of various artists and noted what their adverts featured on the cover. In my advert, I stuck to all the same texts and font I had used throughout this process, showing a link between the Music video, the Digipack and the Advert.

Without all the research I have done, there was no way of producing what I had done. As you can see in previous posts, I have included many of the ideas I have talked about, incorporating them into my coursework. I made sure I included them by going back and forth to the posts where I had shown my research. I also felt that It was very important to show a link between the ancillary texts, reflecting on the music video. All the images/scenes you see are all from the music video, and fonts of the texts are all the same. As The Saturdays are a young English band, I keep their image quite new, young and simple. I didn't feel it would work if I went against conventions by doing anything unusual because that is simply not them. I wanted to use the space of the land I had as it was right next door to me, and so I felt that the music fit with its location.
I think its very clear what sort of genre this band seem to theme, yet I didn't feel that is was necessary to bring in the aspect of narrative. At first, I didn't rule the concept of Narrative out, I experimented with it (in earlier posts), but It didn't really work as I had already filmed most of the music video, and the narrative bits that I did film just seemed out of place when I began to edit them. I wanted to show the audience that this was purely performance based to really show off each individual, and what they can do. They all have a different look and a different image, and I think they work really well together as a band. I think this becomes evident throughout the ancillary texts, specifically the Advert cover and it's a really eye-catching image.