Media evaluation

4. To be able to produce the 3 media texts I had to research a variety of different Digi Paks, adverts and music videos so that I had an idea of what was expected. I created a list of the codes and conventions found for each so that I knew what I needed to include in my work. When creating my work I followed some codes and conventions and I subverted others so that it was slightly different.

14. One particular music video which stood out for me was Basshunter’s ‘Angel In The Night’ video. I liked this one because it had a similar plot line to what I wanted. The video that I had planned was to have a girl trying to decide between two boys that liked her, and them having a drag race to see who wins. However, when it came to filming this I couldn’t get the right shots, and I had difficulty finding somewhere for the cars to drag race. Since I couldn’t do this as my video, a started re- planning what I could do. I managed to find a racetrack in Middlesbrough where there was go – karting. I filmed all different parts of the race, and some parts which built up the atmosphere to the actual race like the people putting the helmets on and getting into the karts.

16. This is near the start of the video, so I made sure that I included the characters, which is a convention of most music videos. In this shot, I showed the characters getting prepared for the race. They are wearing the racing helmets and checking they have fastened them correctly. I did this so that it built up tension, for the race and kept the audience watching. They are wearing the typical clothing of a person who would be racing, so we can see that they are about to race. Also as this is the start of the video, we are introduced to some of the characters, who will be involved.

17. For my video I decided to focus on a go – kart race, so when filming I had to think about the key areas which are associated with this such as the black and white chequered flag being waved to signal the last lap. In the video, the clip of the marshal waving the white flag is about 5 seconds long, which is long enough to be in the video but isn’t too long that it drags on.

18. In this clip I used a pan shot to follow the go karts, while I stood still. I stood quite far away from the track, so that using a long shot gave the audience a view of most of the track, and where the vehicles were going All of the go karts are in a single line, quite close together so the audience can tell that it is still near the start of the race. The clip on the video before this was when they were all lined up ready to go, and the next shot was from here where we can see the track. From this shot you can see the advertisements around the outside of the track, showing it is an official course for go karts and other vehicles. By being able to see the advertisement the audience will be able to associate more with the location.

19. I filmed all the go karts lined up, which shows that they are about to race. They are all in the correct places for starting the race, and shows the audience that the race is about to begin. Also this shot shows some of the course, and helps to set the scene. Near to the end of the race the go karts all drove back into the pits, so I filmed them slowly entering the pit lane. This suggests to the audience that the race is over, and they are leaving the course.

20. After creating my video, Digipak and advert I think that they all work quite well together however the advert and Digipak link together better as they both include similar styles such as strobe lights, and cars. The video is based on go karts therefore doesn’t link as well.

21. I used a variety of colours when creating my advert and Digipak but the main colours that I used were pink/purple, black, white and blue. I used the neon colours as they are associated with things such as night clubs, and night time events. The colours used for the tracks are a similar colour to the strobe light on the advert which helps to link them together.

22. To begin with I used DVD’s, YouTube, television and the internet to look at music video’s and see what themes there were. I looked at different types of music video’s so that I knew what keeps the audience interested. For the advert I looked in magazines such as ‘NME’ and ‘Kerrang’ to see what adverts were like. For the Digipak I looked at existing one’s such as KT Tunstall, Damien Rice and Jack Johnson.

23. After gathering many idea’s together for my video, I planned out what I wanted to film, taking into account; time management, location, characters and the availability for certain camera shots. When planning the advert I used similar codes and conventions because I knew that the current adverts would attract the audiences attention because they are in well known magazines. For the Digipak I planned to follow some codes and conventions of existing one’s however I also chose to subvert some and create it slightly differently so that it stands out.

24. My initial idea’s for the video were too difficult to film so I changed them to something that was actually possible to film. I had planned to do shots where I couldn’t get the camera in the right place, or the area where I wanted to film was unavailable. I gathered my footage and used Adobe Premiere Elements to edit it together.

25. To edit my footage I had to start by opening Premiere and selecting add media. Once this was done a dragged the footage into the video bar in the bottom and used the razor tool to cut out the sections that I didn’t need. After this I put all the clips together and let it run through to make sure that it made sense for a storyline. After this I used the effects to put a fade from black at the start of the video and a fade to black at the end of the video. I chose not to have other effects within the video as I wanted it to seem more spontaneous. Once I had completely finished the video I added the song to it then saved it as a move file.

26. I had a similar problem when constructing my advert and Digipak as the ideas I had were too plain and I needed to change them so that they were more appealing to my target audience. I changed my initial idea’s to something which I thought was more interesting and used Adobe Photoshop Elements to create my advert and Digipak.

27. To create my advert and Digipak I used Photoshop because it has a variety of tools which are useful for changing images and manipulating them to suit the style of music that I wanted. This was my original idea for the Digipak however I thought that it looked to plain therefore I changed it and used the image of a car. In Photoshop I used many tools such as colour chooser to alternate the colours of the strobe light. After changing the colour I used the image for my advert and then started to edit images for my Digipak. For the Digipak I had to cut around the car and colour in the background so that the main focus was on the actual vehicle.

28. Once I had completely finished my final products I compared them with existing video’s, Digipaks, and Adverts to see how they were similar and different. I found that my Digipak was similar to Jack Johnson’s as I had two focal colours for the images, and very little text on the front.

29. The target audience for my video and ancillary texts were for young adults. I had to keep in mind when creating my products so that they would be appealing. Once they were made I asked different people to watch the video and comment on it. I put my video on a memory stick and took it home so that my family could view it and I could get their feedback also. I used a memory stick rather than burning the film to a DVD as it was an easier way to show the film.

30. The editing keeps the pace of the video continuous. The choice of song reflects what is seen in the video. The clips can get slightly repetitive. Some people had seen my previous plans and thought that they would worked better than the final piece. The feedback I received for my video was…

32. I also uploaded my video onto YouTube so that people from around the world could view it. I have received a lot of feedback from that as well which has helped me understand what I need in order to make the video more interesting.