Evaluation

Advanced portfolio evaluation

For my advanced portfolio I decided to produce a music video, along with an album digipak and a magazine advertisement for the digipak.  My chosen genre is pop rock, and I have tried to follow the typical conventions of this genre in my music video, digipak and magazine advertisement. This genre mixes pop style with guitar based rock. After observing and analysing music videos by artists who are considered to be in the pop rock genre, I noticed that a common convention was for both the music video and song to be based on something negative which has occurred in the artist’s life. This is the reason why I decided to base my music video on domestic violence, and the narrative side of my video tells the story of my artist’s experience with it. One of the conventions of the pop rock genre which I have followed is the use of a combination of performance and narrative in the music videos, so I decided to also combine the two in my music video.  I have also followed other conventions which I noticed from observing music videos of the pop rock genre.  I have followed the conventional mise en scene by having a domestic setting as a location, as the theme is domestic based. I have followed conventions in costume by having my artist wear something black, but at the same time is quite dressy in the performance scenes. I thought this was appropriate as when the theme is quite dark, it is conventional for the artist to also be wearing dark clothing, as I saw in Kelly Clarkson’s “Behind these hazel eyes”, where the artist is shown to be wearing dark gothic style clothing after becoming a runaway bride. My artist gives the typical image of a pop rock artist by wearing natural make up and plain clothes in the narrative scenes, however dresses up for in the performance shots, which is conventional for pop rock music videos. My video is also conventional because the narrative is not in chronological order, which is a particular convention of videos which are a combination of narrative and performance like mine is. I noticed from watching and analysing other videos of the pop rock genre such as Pink’s “Family Portrait” and Kelly Clarkson’s “Behind these hazel eyes”, that it is conventional for there to be shots of photographs of people who have a significant influence in the narrative. For example, in Kelly Clarkson’s “Behind these hazel eyes” an over the shoulder shot is used at one point showing a framed photograph of the artist along with the man who broke her heart.  From this I decided to take an over the shoulder shot of my artist looking at the man she knows she has to leave,  this is also known as a pastiche which is an element of postmodernism with regards to media.

However, my music video is unconventional in some ways. Although it is part narrative part performance, and the narrative is based on a difficult period in my artist’s life, it touches on a topic which is rarely touched upon. I have noticed from analysing other pop rock videos such as Pink’s “Family Portrait”, and Kelly Clarkson’s “Behind these Hazel eyes”, that it is conventional for the narrative to focus on heartbreak, past family issues or drug abuse. However mine is focused on domestic violence which is a different type of heartbreak. Although my artist is shown to be turning to alcohol to deal with her situation in my video, which is conventional for music videos of the pop rock genre.  I noticed during my research on other music videos of the pop rock genre that although the song lyrics sometimes mention drug and alcohol use, shots of them being used in the actual video are seldom. This is why I decided to challenge this particular convention of the genre by having my artist appear to be drinking vodka out of depression towards the end of my video.  I took a shot of my artist actually pouring vodka into the glass, however swapped the contents for water before filming a shot of her drinking it. This is a smaller area of the full narrative, which highlights the issue of alcohol addiction and I have used it to show that she has turned to alcohol abuse due to the depression she gets from the abuse she receives.

My music video is postmodern, as there are elements of it which borrow or pastische from other media texts, namely pop rock music videos. For example, in the shots where my artist is getting hit by her boyfriend, which pastiches one of the shots used in Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of you”, with the use of the same camera angle.  I also used a domestic setting, which suited the narrative as the narrative focuses on domestic violence, and Kelly Clarkson’s “Because of you” also focuses on a domestic dispute.  In order to prepare the location and setting however I had to remove certain things such as washing boxes and bits of clutter which would look out of place within the mise-en-scene. I also had to make sure I had a wide space to film, especially in the scenes where my male actor pretended to hit my artist, which proved challenging in a domestic environment.  I chose a neutrally coloured background for the performance shots, as I want all the audience’s attention to be on my artist. I decided to change the narrative shots to black and white, as it is conventional for narrative shots to be shot in a dark environment in the pop rock genre. For example, in Kelly Clarkson’s “Behind these hazel eyes” although not black and white, the narrative shots are in what appears to be a dark and gloomy setting. I also did this because it is conventional to use black and white in the narrative when it is showing something negative happen to the artist, which in the case of my video is domestic violence. I initially had a problem with finding out how to turn some of the clips black and white using Adobe Premiere, the editing programme I have used to create my video, however I quickly overcame this by trying out lots of different things to see what turned my shots black and white on the effects toolbar. In some of the shots I had my artist facing a mirror and looking at herself angrily in it. I did this because I noticed it is a convention of the Pop rock genre when the artist has issues with themselves, for example in Pink’s “Don’t let me get me” she punches a mirror and smashes it when she sees herself in it. I initially faced many problems when shooting, as many shots had to be re-done for various reasons. The shots of my artist looking at herself in the mirror had to be re-done, as after the first shooting I noticed parts of the mise en scene did not look right, as I had forgotten to remove some bits of clutter out of the way in order for me to film. I overcame this however by re-shooting these shots and making sure I completely cleared the area before shooting. Another issue I faced was when I was using a backdrop as the background in the performance scenes, as when I played the shots back on the edit suite I noticed it gaped slightly at the sides. In order to prevent this from happening when I re-filmed those shots, I had to adjust the camera position, type of shots and camera height.  I used a Cannon MD205 to film my footage, and it was recorded onto a Sony mini DV tape in order for me to transfer my footage onto Adobe Premiere. I used a tripod for filming most of the shots, particularly the performance shots. However I held the camera by hand whilst filming some shots, such as over the shoulder shots. I found the tripod and camera easy to use, and it didn’t take me long to figure out how to use them.

My digipak and magazine advertisement are of a simplistic theme, as like with the video, I wanted to keep the focus of the audience just on my artist. I decided to take a variation of different types of shots, ranging from long shots to close ups, in order to give me a wide range to choose from for pictures I could use for my digipak and magazine advertisement.  When I initially started to create my digipak and magazine advertisement, I was initially faced with some problems as I had not used  Adobe Photoshop for a long while. I particularly faced problems when trying to create my album digipak, as I was not able to work out how to get my images onto the template, however I eventually overcame this by asking for assistance. I also had to learn how to create the look of the inside of a cd case using Photoshop, and this took me a while as it was something I hadn’t done before. I had to ensure that when I created my digpak that my images fitted the measurements on the template, in order to make it appear the same size as one which would be bought in a shop. Both my digipak and magazine advertisements follow conventions of the genre as I have noticed Pop rock albums and magazine advertisements tend to be simplistic, and have the artist as the main focus.  The simplicity also appeals to a mainstream audience, as I have noticed from analysing simplistic digipaks and magazine advertisements for mainstream artists, for example Oasis’s Acoustic album, which I have analysed on my blog. I used a template to create my digipak, in order to get all the right measurements and a guideline so it looked more professional and convincing.  This also gave me a guide as to where each of my different images needed to be for my digipak.

Before starting my production, I made a point to research my target audience beforehand. I initially created a poll on my blog, which I advertised for people to fill out via Facebook, as my target audience are likely to be Facebook users. From this I found out that all of my audience are over eighteen, however the majority are in their early to late twenties. I also discovered that they are most likely to be students studying social sciences, therefore they are mainstream because students are a large audience group, as this subject area is very popular at the moment amongst young people and university students.  I discovered that most the people who filled out my poll prefer either the rock or pop music genres, therefore it seemed a good idea for me to combine the two and make a video of the Pop rock genre, in order to appeal to as wide of an audience base as I can.  My audience are also more likely to be female which I found from my poll, therefore I decided my artist would be female, as a female artist is more likely to appeal to a female audience.  As well as giving my artist the typical conventional look of a Pop rock artist, I also made sure she looked like how the target audience is likely to look in order to appeal to them more. I did this by having my artist wear quite plain clothing and natural make up, in a sense of style that the target audience would have. Unlike other genres, in Pop rock the audience don’t necessarily aspire to be like the artist, but rather empathise with them as often Pop rock videos cover sensitive real life issues which the audience can relate to. My video appeals to the target audience because it covers a subject which women in particular are likely to empathise with, and the majority of my target audience are female. My video also appeals to the target audience because unlike in other music videos my artist has a plain appearance, therefore is a more realistic portrayal of the average woman. After studying the demographics of my target audience, I discovered they would be in the E1 demographic, which covers a large base of students however also covers people in their late twenties/ early thirties with full time jobs.

After I had gotten all of my filming done, I uploaded it all on to an edit suite with Adobe Premiere as the editing programme. It was at this point when I discovered which shots needed re-doing by playing each shot on the screen. I was also able to choose the shots I did want to keep, and was able to drag them onto the timeline where I could then edit the length of each shot and fit them all together. With the performance shots, I had to take extra care that I fitted them into the correct place on the timeline so that the miming done by my artist fitted in time with the song. I also had to take care to remove any unwanted sound that had been recorded with my shots. I decided that I would make my narrative shots black and white, purely for the reason that black and white is often associated with negativity in music videos, and the narrative was covering a negative aspect of her life. In order to do this I had to figure out how to change the colour of a shot on Adobe Premiere, which was relatively easy. I then copied and pasted the attributes to each shot which I wanted to be black and white. Another thing I had to learn whilst using Adobe Premiere was how to add effects on the transitions between shots. Once I had figured out how to do this I chose to use the dissolve effect on all of my shot transitions, partly because I wanted to keep the transitions consistent throughout my video and partly because the soft slow transition I chose fitted in with the genre.

I think I have done well to meet the genre conventions with my video, as my video is about real issues which could occur in the audience’s lives, and are similar to the issues other music videos which I have analysed are about. With the domestic violence scenes I made sure they were in a domestic setting in a living room, as this is where domestic violence would normally occur. I also placed a half empty wine bottle in the background, so it would have immediately become apparent to the audience that there are also some issues surrounding alcohol involved. I also took shots of my artist drinking alcohol afterwards, to give the audience the impression that she is trying to use alcohol to numb the pain. This is conventional because often music videos of the Pop rock genre have some element of drug or alcohol abuse, whether it is a small element or a big one.  However, one aspect of the narrative which has made my video unconventional in comparison to other music videos of the Pop rock genre, is the fact my video has a happy ending to it. This is because I initially took close up shots of a helpline for domestic violence victims, then took shots of my artist picking it up, and the final shot was one of her picking up the phone and dialling the helpline number. This gives the impression to the audience that her issues are about to be resolved and everything will work out ok again in the end. However when I watched and analysed other music videos of the Pop rock genre, such as Kelly Clarkson’s “Behind these hazel eyes” and Pink’s “Family Portrait”, I realised that it is conventional for the narrative of music videos of the Pop rock genre to not have a happy ending.

I believe my overall production works well as a successful campaign, as I have done my best to keep a consistent theme across all three of my products, keeping neutral colours in all of them. I also thought the use of black coloured text on my digipak and magazine advertisement were appropriate as in the performance scenes on my video, my artist is wearing a black coloured dress on a neutral background. I have also kept the theme consistent taking pictures of my artist in the same dress that she is wearing in my video, this also allows the audience to make the connection between my two ancillary texts and my music video production.  In order to gain audience feedback on my video production,  I created a questionnaire on Microsoft word, and then got people who are likely to be within my target audience to fill it out on the computer. The people I chose to fill out my questionnaire were fellow college students at my college, this is because my target audience is young people and students, as I have stated earlier. I managed to get about five responses, and I have put a few examples of my responses on my blog. From my audience feedback I found that my video was generally enjoyable to my target audience, however I learnt that I could have chosen a better suited song to the narrative. I also gathered evidence which backs up my thought that my audience is mainstream, as the majority of the of the respondents chose either Pop or Pop rock as their favourite music genre. However, I learnt that I could have appealed to my target audience more than I did. This is because most of the respondents put down that I could have added more special effects.   I think my lack of special effects on my video is due to the fact I had little experience with the edit suite, if I could go back now I would have made an effort to learn more about the edit suite in order to meet my audience’s requirements.