Matt Flack Evaluation

Music video evaluation, ‘Shark’ performed by ‘Ash’.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
For our music video we have used the aggressive tone and styling of `shark` by ‘Ash’ to come up with the final product. We took most of our inspiration from Justice’s `stress` video, as this too used the same aggressive approach we decided on using. In our video we conformed to a stereotypical look at youth society in Britain, for example most of the characters in shot either lead singer or other members of the band are wearing dark cloths typically with ‘hoodys’. This tells the audience they don’t want to be recognised for the activities they are taking part in because they know what they’re doing is not perceived as the right thing to do. We enhanced the dark nature of the video by editing the video to be black and white as we thought this was pleasing visually and our audience is able to see the depressing, restricted and rebellious view the band members have making it easier to identify with them and discover the type of characters they are. This was also done by conforming to stereotypes as this makes it quicker and easier to identify type of music involved with this particular band.
By looking at previous ‘Ash’ videos we were able to research how they view their own music and genre. Videos such as ‘Polaris’ and ‘Burn baby burn’ showed us they concentrated more on instruments rather than themselves and had a mix of narrative and performance based scenarios, so we incorporated this in our product. This is us conforming to previous rock videos but developing the ideas behind them. ‘Blur’ ‘Song 2’ also has the aggressive alternative rock genre and we tired to emulate their use of lighting in to the new video we created. ‘Just a day’-‘Feeder’ was another video we looked at but decided it wasn’t the forceful intimidating video we had in mind, so we decided not to use any aspects involved in shooting this video but proceeded with the editing, through the fast paced action they have executed. Other inspirations came from ‘Linkin parks’ ‘What I’ve done’ we hoped to recreate the dynamic angles used through out the fast action in this video also scene in the ‘District 9’ film trailer. We could not however recreate a riot scene which we could have used in a way that would work with our product. We also researched the lyrics of the song by Ash and found the line ‘Violent Mind’ repeated several times this added to the strong hostile video we wanted to create, conforming to lyrics and other conventions already set in place by the music. All these factors would point us in the direction of our target audience of mainly males in their late teens to early twenties and others interested in other rock/alternative groups such as ‘Feeder’ or ‘Linkin Park’.
The editing phase was used to design short fast clips that fit with the music adding to the rushed effect and begin the build up to the main chorus and verses of the song, these types of shot are meant to build tension and in our music video it makes it feel faster and more energetic. We feel we have addressed the audience and have captured a music video they will enjoy strengthened by our conventions used in the making a rock music video in the aggressive high tempo manner, set in an average working class scene.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
We have set up our band to be an Indie rock alternative genre this allows it to be open to a wide market audience with different aspects of the music. The video contains younger people making it easier for that part of the audience to identify with the band. This will also be helped by the distribution of the record through ‘Hmv’ a well known music institution making it accessible to most people and ‘iTune’s allows for global selling of the album through at least two recognisable distributors. We have incorporated a competition to attract a new audience to the band and genre this gives them more of an incentive to by the album and hopefully enjoy the music and continue coming back for further albums through this unique selling point. Again we have used black and white on the cover and advertising goods but I feel we have used it in a different way instead of having aggression it’s softer with more meaning and brings out the ‘indie’ side of the band. It could also become their trade mark of having the black and white effect in certain videos or just one song from every album to remind people of how they started and could become the bands unique selling point. The bold orange colour for text stands out really well on this background making the words eye catching and unmissable. The images themselves are also very different, more of a rural setting which makes you feel relaxed apposed to the working class urban background depicted in the video playing on more stereotypes and changing the entire mood of the album. The name ‘standard meeting’ is random much like the music on the album by using it as the first album name its making sure people know who we are through this simple act.

What have you learnt from audience feedback?
As a group we have received feedback both for our ancillary texts and our actual music video. Firstly the feedback was all positive and constructive to help further development in the production and post production areas. Our magazine advert, competition and CD cover received comments fro our peers suggesting we should take more time, as we have made simple spelling areas but also informed us that they were impressed by the photos and also they colour combination that is seen through out the promotion of the band. Another aspect was the postcard competition leading to members joining the fan club. This was well received and peers seemed to like and enjoy the simplistic but affective strategy of enticing people towards the artists. As for the CD cover/ digipak its self observations again suggested an overall positive review with comments touching on the impact of the shots, the professional look and visual hierarchy of the photos drawing your eye towards this product. ‘Beautiful photography that's consistent with the mood, quality and tone of the video. Again there's a focus on the band and an attempt to develop their image as edgey and dark (ish)’. This was one comment posted on our blog which really shows what we were aiming to convey to the audience and how it has been interpreted. I feel this phase of the project went really well and this is backed up by the feedback collected. Continuing on to the main product (the music video) the responses were mixed on the negative side we were told some scenes were to shaky due to the hand held effect we used through out the video. On the plus side however opinions state the quality of camera angles, enthusiasm and good use of real media conventions applied during the filming process, allow the true aggressive nature to come to life through these visual aids.
Gritty in tone and presentation is what we wanted to get through to the audience and this again supports the ideas we wanted to put across to any potential market. The feedback acquired is useful in the sense that we are able to understand our work from an outsiders point of view taking away any bias opinions or self gloating we may feel towards the project. In conclusion we can use this evaluation to adapt and hopefully raise the quality of any future projects we may under take. This will give the viewer more enjoyment and raise our own feeling of achievement furthering our development in the media industry.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
With out ‘youtube’ this would have been a very difficult task as it allowed us to research the band, find ideas, show our ideas and present our work in a way that could give us feedback from anyone at any time. We were also able to find pictures that served as inspiration through out the research phase on various internet sites and in magazines and other albums. Google Earth eas another technology used to find locations as it gave us the geographical position but also enabled us to view the setting and background to any potential sets. We used final cut express to edit the video allowing us to create the desired effect and flowing sequence we aimed for. This is the building block for the rest of the project knowing and understanding it gives us the control to do what we want with our footage. To create the Album design and format we used a ‘digipak’ and ‘photoshop’ to edit and change the photos we had taken allowing us to insert the track names build the competition entry from and advertising to make our product sellable. We have also used a blog to keep track of everything we have done which has made it easier to put everything together and look at how we wanted to create our video and other aspects of the project. Altogether I think we have created a solid piece of work by all means it is not the greatest video we have could have created, but it covers all conventions it needs to. With all the stereotypical codes you would associate with this genre and form of music video and advertising goods.
Some things we could have improved on are; better preparation and planning such as learning the lyrics of the song so we could have used more performance based shots and just spending more time on shots making sure we have enough of what we need. I feel we done a brilliant job on designing the ‘digipak’ and made a product that looks professional and eye catching to an audience, through technologies I have already addressed.

Matt Flack