Evaluation Question 4:How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Below i have created slide-shares to explain how we used different media technologies to help with our research and planning and also the overall construction of our music video.

Evaluation Question 3:What have you learned from your audience feedback?

It is very essential to have audience feedback when creating a new product. Audience feedback allowed us to make determination of what should or could be changed in our music video. It is important that we gather opinions as it will surely allow our music video to become a lot more successful. We collected opinions from our target audience by creating survey questionnaires using Surveymonkey.com to gather feedback from them.


Below is our first survey questionnaire we created as you can more people over the age 30 took our survey. I'm not entirely suprised by this because I do believe that the song choice would be listened to by the younger generation.





The questionnaire reveals that more females than males had taken the survey, this result isn't really surprising because of the type of song and video it is. This gave us more liability as we did estimate that this would occur and it has which is something good. 



The survey below reveals that there was no one who rated our music video as poor this is a very good result, most people who view our music video and answered our questionnaire rated out video 'good' and 'excellent'. This result is highly excitable as we now know we do not need to change much in order for it to be as successful as it possibly could.


Below shows our survey result of how people rated the lip syncing within our music video, the results are positive as the majority of the people who answering our questionnaire thought the lip syncing was 'good' and excellent'. We know that it is vital to have lip syncing on point in any music video if not then the whole video would look a mess.



Below we have some positive results about the actor within our music video. The feedback gathered will allow us to realise what a good actor is suppose to be like. Most of  people who answered this survey thought the acting was 'excellent'.



Below is the last questionnaire we had answered by people. The main theme of our video was the location as the Mise-en-Scene is very important to us thats why we went all the way to london to film our music video and thats why we had a lot of lights and colourful parts and the audience gave us feedback which shows that the overall percentage points to the fact that the location was appropriate.

Evaluation Question 2:How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts (DVD digipak, Magazine advert)?

We did a focus group asking the question about what they thought of our digipak and magazine advert. 



We didn't realise that we didn't have the sound picked up from the people we interviewed which is unfortunate, so I'm going to produce a written transcript of the interviews.


First interviewee: I Think the digipak and magazine advert really go well together as they work as a whole with the colours, I like the combinations and the it matches the video and i really like how its been mixed together.


Second interviewee: It was amazing truthfully, truthfully amazing, when I saw it I was just fascinated i was interested I just wanted to read into it more, its really good, think they've done a really good job of that.


Third interviewee: Amazing, it was just amazing, great beautiful.  


Fourth interviewee: I like it, i liked the way the colours matched and the way it relates back to the music video. 







Along with the music video being produced we had to create a digipak and magazine advert to as this is what actually happens with real artist in order to promote and attract people to buy their products. We attempted to create both magazine advert and digipak similar or exactly the same in order to give of an effect and revealing that the music video is related with the magazine advert and the digipak, so if people see either the digipak or the magazine advert then they would have a clue of who it was developed by if they have seen one of the three already. 




Digipak

Magazine Advert


There are many similarities with our digipak and magazine advert as you can see above. The same colour is portrayed throughout the magazine advert and the digipak which is a navy blue colour, this produces effectiveness as it would allow people to see the relation with both the constructions. The digipak and the magazine advert also reveals very similar images, the front cover of the digipak reveals the artist on a boat looking out to the river with his hands folded together, this same image is reveal in the magazine advert but the only difference is that his hands are together and more in the air. Both digipak and magazine advert contain a image of the London eye which also adds to the similarities and allows people to see the relation. The digipak and magazine advert work execeptionally well with each other because if someone were to see the magazine advert first of they will definitely realise it in a shop that selling it. 

The images within the Digipak and the magazine advert have actually been taken from the music video itself. We did this so that people could have a short snap insights of what the music video is going to be like. The reason why we did this was because we thought that these images will have people attracted and would allow them to want to see more, which would be the our music video.

Evaluation Question 1:In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

There are many key conventions within our music video which are of real media that challenged forms and conventions effectively. The music that we chose to use was RnB/Hiphop, the song is very mellow sounding throughout and quite slow paced. In order to achieve a perfect music video we must have our editing correct using the effects needed to meet the criteria of RnB/Hiphop music video. We also made sure lighting and our place where we film were up to high standards, as this has been accomplished we seek have more people interested. 


We collected a few ideas from other music videos that have the same similar music genre as ours. Below are pictures showing a section from our music video a section from Bow wow's music video, both videos are set in London. We were inspired by the way bow wow is walking as the camera follows along at a side view shot. The difference between our shot and Bow bow's is that ours is a close up, we did this to allow the facial expression to show up more in order for the audience to see the emotions of the character.

The similarities of the song allowed us to be even more inspired by the Bow wow's music video. As the video is set in London for most the parts we saw that it was highly effective because of the lighting and the surroundings, so we thought it would do the same for us as both songs are similar. 


our music video is concentrate with forms and conventions of real media products as most RnB songs would included the type of camera shots, style of editing, lighting and settings. RnB songs also mainly involve a male singer who would be singing about a woman in the way he would feel to. 

We were also inspired by another music video by Bow wow called Baby. Below are the similarities of our music video and Bow wow's. We took the idea of where Bow bow is sitting on the stairs lip syncing, in this image Bow wow is very passionate with the lyrics that he rap as you can by his body language and facial expression. As the song is similar to our own as he is talking about a girl we were able to include the similar emotions by using the same expressions and body language.

My finish music video

Our digipak

Feminist film theory within our music video

Our music video doesn't really associate or comply it's self with the feminist film theory in my view. The reason for this is that our video does not reveal or talk about women in a provocative way. Also there are no images of women in our music video that could be gazed at by the male audience and cannot force the female audience to view such a thing. Women are not seen as an object within our video, there are no women being perceived as a form of erotic desire. 

Suture theory within our music video

The suture theory could said to have associations with our music video, the reason for this is that we have edited the way we wanted it to be edited and it does really only reveals one message which is loneliness but this is the true message within the song of our music video we have not attempted to deceive or hide messages from anyone. Of because the song choice we had to edit our music video in a way that it will fit to the song, this would for our audience to have no control over what they feel when viewing the video. 

Uses and Gratification within our music video

Our music video can definitely be used and gratified by people. People who may use our music video may use it to feel a certain way below is list of things people may use our video for. 


Relaxation- the song that we chose is very relaxing itself it would allow people to be happy on their own thinking about certain situations maybe. 


Educational- the song could be educational toward people as the song is truly about being lonely because of the mistakes he has done in his love life with a particular girl

Is the Effects Model perceived in our music video?

There are no relations to the effects model within our music video as it reveals no aspect to violence. Our video persist many colourful imagery and smooth video transactions and editing, which relates to the lyric and the genre of the song. Our music video cannot have anyone influenced by violence as there are no violent imagery or lyrics which is something positive. 

feminist film theory

Laura Mulvey is a feminist film theorist. In 1975 she wrote an essay called 'visual pleasure and Narrative cinema'. Mulvey explains that media text specifically film show relations and reflects our society as patriarchal. The essay talks and questions the way the patriarchal society develops itself within the world of cinema. 


Mulvey's theory;
The Male Gaze  is where the gaze of the camera is predominately shot from the males gaze. Mulvey concludes that the male gaze is active and the female gaze is passive. Within film text the male character put their gaze towards the female characters. One argument that Mulvey persist is that men view women different to how women view men as the male gaze as the male characters within a narrative guides their gaze towards the female characters. 
The speculator is made to identify within the male gaze as the camera films only the male gaze, this is the males character's point of view. This is known as the cinematic gaze which is the camera, the character and then the audience; Mulvey says that all three are made to objectify the female character in others words we perceive women as objects in film media text. 


AUDIENCE
 



CAMERA'S GAZE 
 






EXAMPLE OF MALE GAZE


Agency 
In classical Hollywood cinema the male protagonist has agency as he is the one with the power and has all control of how the plots are perceived within an narrative. He is the agent around whom the dramatic unfolds. The characters are passive and powerless and she is looked at as an object of desire by the audience and the male protagonist. 


Erotic Desire  
Mulvey proceeds to argue that women only have two roles within film text which are: 
An object of erotic desire for the male characters
An object of erotic desire for the spectator 

An example for this is Megan Fox in the film Transformers she is seen getting off a bike in an unusual way which men would become lustful over. 
 

The Suture theory

It has been suggested that audiences are sutured to see only the editing that has been put together in Hollywood films allowing them to only see one possible message of the text. The audience are forced to have one reading of the text no matter how conscious of the position they are in as it is dominant because the text only allows one reading. Manipulation easily overcomes the audience because of the techniques the film producer uses. It is impossible for the audience to escape from the feelings that they gather from a film no matter how much knowledge they hold or experience they have and they cannot interpret it in the way they want to. 

The reception theory encoding and decoding

 

Stuart Hall developed the reception theory as he discovered for himself that both the gratification model and  the effects model were vague. He analysed how media texts were encoded by the producers as they would be the one to producer the actual intentional meaning of the text or the messages the produce wanted to be conveyed. The may then be decoded and the audience will come to understanding of what is being portrayed. The audience can interpret the messages, which may not be what the producer is attempting to portray. One example that I can give for misinterpretation is the song 'Born in the USA' by Bruce Springsteen. The song was about how life in the USA isn't so pleasant, as people get hurt and it is very hard have a good life there. People didn't pay much attention  to the lyrics of the whole song but only toward the chorus they did which was "Born in the USA", so when people listened to it they believe it was something pleasant and they should feel joyful when listening to it. There people who decoded the messages that producers to trying to portray and understood them. 


There are three ways that media text can be understood or decoded by audience these are:
Dominant; this is where the audience would decode the messages as the producer wants to do and would broadly agree with it.


Negotiated; the audience may accept reject or refine the elements of the media text. They wouldn't agree or disagree or they may not be interested in the messages be portrayed.


Oppositional; this is where the dominant meaning is recognised but is reject because of cultural, political or ideological reasons. 


Producers= dominant or preferred
Encodes= negotiation 
Meanings= oppositional 

The effects model

The effects model attempts to portray how people are affected by media text consumption and also how it influences people by changing their behaviours. The effects model is also know as the hypodermic syringe model. The theory explains that people who consume media text become powerless and are controlled by it as they are passively consuming the text, they cannot resist being influence. It is also called the hypodermic syringe as they say the consumption of media text is like a drug that keeps being pumped into to you forcing to become addicted to the media texts provided. 


 

evidence of the effects model

The Frankfurt School was theorised in the 1920's and the 1930's that the mass media acted to restrict and control the audiences to the benefit of corporate capitalism government. 


Albert Bandura created the experiment of the bobo doll which was conducted in 1961. The experiment was based on having a group of children view adults using hammers and their own hands to beat the doll and throw and kick it around the room. 88% of the children who watch this repeated this action of the adults when they saw the bobo doll in front of them. Its is said that 8 months after the experiment 40% of the children actually did this violent act. The experiment proves that children can be easily corrupted when seeing violence and would repeat such behaviour. 


In 1993 James Bulger was murdered by two children who were then charged. There were many media reports about this event, people began to blame media text for this indecent. Child Play 3 was the film blame for this disaster that occurred as the film had may elements of violent content.
These issue lead to the film being banned for 15 years in the UK.
 



 



A game called Man Hunt which was blamed for the death of Stefan Pakeerah as the game is full of violence missions. Stefan Pakeerah was murdered by his friend Warren Leeblanc in 2004. Man Hunt 2 was banned in the UK because of this tragic incident.  


 



Severance was another blamed for another murder incident. Simon Everitt was murdered 


 


Although these incidents occurred and related back to the effects model of the bobo doll experiment it's still not proven that violent media text would have children minds corrupted and force them to take part in violent behaviour. The reason is that not every child who took part in the experiment were affect as only 40% of the children repeated the act of acting the doll. If all the children copied the action of attacking the doll then may be the experiment would be more reliable. But of course many will not see this as proof because the doll was actually made for this purpose, the doll isn't actually a real person that the children are attacking. 

audience theory- the uses of the gratification model

There is nothing definitely shown clear about how the consumption of violent media text influences their audiences', this has an detrimental affect on the theory of the effects model as many people will believe the theory as bogus. As there are many audiences for the view and hearing of violent text and many are not influenced by it, this will also be a down fall for the effect models theory. 


The Gratification model is the opposite of the effects model as the effects model reveal audience consuming text passively and gratification model show audience as active when consuming media text. Consuming media text actively, means that we as and audience are in control, the gratification model will also emphasise how and why we would use certain text. 


Here below are some particular reasons why audiences will use certain text to gratify their needs:


Information; People may want to be informed about something so that they are knowledgeable of occurred or occurring situations. 
Pleasure; People may want to feel pleasure or entertain by their consumption that may make them feel happy and influenced. 
Escapism; audiences may feel trapped and uncomfortable because a particular situation that might have occurred, they use text to feel more free and relaxed.  
Sexual stimulation; A male or Female may feel the need to consume text that would stimulate their lustful desires. 
To compare; People may compare similar text with other to overview what makes one better than the other. 
Diversion; People will use text to move away from other things such as doing homework.


People do find the Gratification model as controversial because it informs that when people view violent imagery or violent lyrics within a song it can assist someone allowing to deal with aggravating situations in a more pleasant way that violent. This is said because when people play or watch something that is violent it will eventually stimulate them allowing the angry from a certain situation that has occurred to disappear and they may become more relived. 

First lesson about media text theories

There are many reasons why people use media text one may be that they are looking to extract information to build up their own knowledge, entertainment is definitely another reason for media consumption by people or it could be that it is more preferred by the certain individual. 


When we consume media text it influences us to produce opinions or change opinions or make indoctrinated.     


In lesson we discussed the model of the media and how audience uses different media text such as the internet, TV and music for consumption and how this can have an affect. In future stages of this course we will be deeply analysing different theories such as the uses and gratification model, the effects model, the reception theory, the suture theory, application of feminist theory and Godwin's theory. 

Reconstruction of magazine advert

Here below is the reconstructed version of our final magazine advert. The first magazine advert we constructed wasn't at all up to standard as very limited information was provided. This reconstruction has additional information which will effectively help advertise the song.

Final magazine advert

Here below is the final construction of our magazine advert as you can see it is quite simple but we believe it relates and match two the song we used and the music video. To form this image we took a clip from our music video and added the artist of the song and where the song will be available which is iTunes. It also reveals that the song is available now.