How did you use new media technologies in the research, planning, construction and evaluation stages of your main text?

Through out all of the stages of my project, the use of new media technology was essential. During the research and planning stages I needed to use the internet to discover the market and audience of music videos, through this I was able to view online, videos, pictures and interviews with bands, directors and audience members. The internet allowed me to communicate to an audience over social networking and explore views of the masses, something that would not have been possible without the use of the internet. I visited blogs of bands to discover their target audiences, as well as joining groups on Facebook, Twitter and Myspace to observe comments expressing the audience response. I used this information to inform my decisions when planning my own music videos to show how my research was helpful to me and how I applied the knowledge I gained to my own work.


Throughout the construction of my music video many aspects involved the use of media technology such as; filming and post-production. To film my music video I used a High Definition handy cam, stored on SD cards it meant I could take the shots I filmed and upload them to any computer for post-production. The use of SD cards allowed me to simply upload the chosen clips and then clear the space for more filming. The camera was obviously the most essential piece of kit needed for the shoot, so from this I learnt the importance of using new media technology. As-well as filming the camera picked up intense detail, making the shots more vivid and realistic. This was down to the quality of the camera, however without a slow motion mode the clips would need to be slowed and sped up in post-production. Through use of movie editing software on Macs such as imovie, the post-production stages allowed me to have total control over my work. Certain aspects such as cutting, colour correction, speed and steadying helped enormously to bring the work together. Some say that it is the editing, not the directing that makes a movie, and I totally agree, through the use of editing I was able to give the video a sense of pace and rhythm through the cutting, choosing the exact moments of footage and applying them to set times in the song. The obvious evidence of the use of media technology in my video is through colour changing to create narrative. I made the skies purple in post production to link with the narrative and story of the piece. This shows how I used media technology to create and convey narrative through my work.

Finally through the distribution and evaluation stages, I used online distribution through sites such as Youtube and Vimeo to show my video online. This also helped to gather a wider audience response and feedback from commenting and messaging. I was able to view my video and deconstruct it to evaluate and analyse it. I also overlapped the original track of music with a voice over of my directors commentary. This allowed me to show my views on the video and express the problems I faced during filming, post-production and more importantly how I solved them.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To gather the audience feedback required for my evaluation of my music video, I used social networking to my advantage. I sent out a mass email asking for constructive criticism, positive and negative feedback, and a link to the actual video on youtube.

The feedback I received was very useful in telling me what worked well and faults that could have been addressed or improved:

Genrally I had positive feedback. It appealed to the wider audience, and successfully communicated the genre and themes. However through the feedback some of the viewers did point out some opportunities for improvement. Some pointed out specific faults and errors in the video, misplacement of mise en scene, including props and slight costume changes among shots. This occurred because of the filming schedule. We had to make sure that the conditions of weather were the same for continuity purposes. This meant it was important to film when ever we could to ensure this continuity. However, filming on different days did make the risks larger when dealing with smaller, more specific continuity errors. Being picked out by the audience expresses the importance of continuity and the improve this in future productions, I would carefully study the shots and list all possible changes to watch out for. This in depth analysis of the shots would prevent the risk of continuity errors in my film.

The narrative and theatrical structure within the piece was successfully recognised by the audience. I received many other positive comments expressing the structure of the story and how well that linked to the genre. Other genre characteristics were also successfully communicated to the audience, and were recognised as being Gothic attributes.
A common comment was containing the costume and more specifically 'the masks'. The reasons for the masks were clearly communicated to the audience, to maintain the horror within the Gothic genre, an essential theme within the narrative. They successfully gathered my intended audience reaction, and were obviously seen as frightening and surreal making them even more effective as a way to convey the sub-genre.

The most common compliment I received was on the 'hillside silhouette' shots, personally my most impressive shot. The reason the shot works so well was due to the natural lighting. Obviously the video is 90% filmed outside and the use of un-natural lighting would have been impossible, however in my opinion this only added to the intensity of the shot. The hillside shots were particularly effective because of the time of day. We arrived at location just as the sun was going down, and as we set up the shot the sun faded just behind the monument. I centred the dancing in the middle of the monument and filmed until the sun went down. In post-production I saw how effective the shot was and it was clear that to make this even more impressive, I would make a direct link to the lyrics of the song and apply 'purple sky' to the shot.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The combination of my three pieces work very effectively because the two ancillary tasks reflect the common themes and genre of the main task. For the main piece I created a music video for the Gothic/Metal band Evanescence. This product used representation, themes and conventions of the Gothic genre to display a narrative. This meant that I had to convey the same themes within the ancillary tasks; a website and a digi-pack. Obviously all the tasks were created for the same band, however to communicate a clear attitude of the band the themes and imagery needed to be constant throughout the three tasks. I aimed to keep the colour very dark and low-key in all my pieces to conform to the style of the genre and common morbid themes which are also expected. The backgrounds to the webpage and digi-pack, as well as the constant dark images in the music video, all reflect this morbid sense of the Gothic nature.

The themes of horror ran constant throughout the three pieces. This is because of intentions to emphasise horror through the narrative, which appealed strongly to me as I discovered this is very individualistic and specific to the Gothic genre. To convey this I crated a strong visual images, such as the masks worn by the characters in my music video. This creates an obvious link to the horror sub-genre as well as playing a hugely important role in the narrative. This narrative link to horror continues with my final cover designs for the band's album, taking the Gothic story of a haunted house and applying a narrative to the album as a whole. This is a positive and direct link to the music video and suggests the style of music, conventions and expectation of a very theatrical and narrative based album.

I think I have successfully communicated the themes and aims of the band, and their style of music through the three tasks. I see this as an effective combination of the website, to express the mindset and target audience of the band, and the common narrative, and representation used within the album's digi-pack and the music video for the song 'Imaginary'.

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

Through research I have managed to gain a sufficient knowledge and understanding of the typical forms and conventions of music videos. I understand through analysis of Goodwin's theory what is expected and unexpected of a music video. Obviously music videos differ for different genres, some 'Hip-hop' or 'Pop' music videos might focus on images of the artists or a live performance suggested through Goodwin's theory, where as I chose to do the Gothic Metal genre, which often contains some sort of narrative. Often in music videos of this genre there is a strong narrative flow so I did choose to conform to this style of video. I wanted to make sure the narrative was the most important aspect of my music video, so I created a storyline that would reflect the genre its common themes and conventions. I gained this information through research, learning that common themes within the Gothic genre include: horror, romance, nature and fantasy, all of which I intentionally presented within my video.

Horror

Being probably the most important theme of the genre I needed to presented the theme through many different techniques and visuals, linking with the lyrics, style of music and the genre itself. I feel I emphasised the horror through the narrative and story, in which a girl explores a very surreal and nightmarish landscape, constantly being watched and followed by a monstrous, skeleton masked figure, dressed in black. Because the link is so strong between the horror theme and the Gothic genre, common genre characteristic can be automatically linked with horror such as the conventional Gothic clothing, dark and black cloths worn by the two main masked characters in my video. The masks themselves generate horror and a frighting and menacing atmosphere. In many shots I used the horror theme as my main focus, for instance the shot when the female character looks into a window and sees a horrific reflection of the skeleton character standing behind her. This was intended to be a strong emphasis on the horror within the piece and I feel it was successfully communicated to the audience.

Romance

The Gothic genre usually focus on the link between the themes of horror and romance, and by juxtaposing these two themes it creates a very individualistic and unique style. I intended to present this conventional combination to apply the expected to my music video. An important part of the story was the main focus on the relationship, the whole reason for the song was the female character trying to escape the problems of the real world and her dysfunctional relationship.The relationship is introduced at the beginning of the piece when we see a shot of the girl looking at a photo of her and her boyfriend, this specific shot makes it clear that the relationship will be a significant part to the story. After this introduction the relationship is later referenced when the masked female sees memories of her own relationship, images of the couples romance, showing the two, very loving and caring for one another, symbolising the beginning of the relationship. We then see tension between the couple and an uncomfortable sense of division. Finally the shot shows aggression and violence, we see the couple in an argument and then physically fighting to display the unhappiness of their relationship and emphasising her reluctance to wake up. The final reference is at the end when she wakes and her boyfriend is at the door, he steps in with an uncomfortable look on his face, creating the tension and we see the unhappiness in the girls eyes as she closes the door. This leaves the story on quite a negative view, but open allowing the audience to input their own thoughts on how the story really ends.

Nature

The theme of nature is very strongly connected with romanticism, since the 'Romantic Poets' of the second half of 18th century, showing poetry written emphasising the beauty and romantic side of nature and life. I strongly presented this view within my music video, because I wanted the character to find beauty in the Gothic and nightmarish surroundings, which we would see as very frightening. By painting this image of the female dancing an elegant and romantic ballet in the setting, I intended to communicate the view of the beauty of nature. Through the females love for the surroundings we understand her reluctance to wake and return to reality. Nature was presented throughout the piece, showing shots of monuments, hillsides and forest. One of the most impressive and surreal shots in my opinion was of the fallen tree, interestingly an unintentional idea that came to life. The shot fully expresses 'the fall of nature' or the end of such beauty, which reflects the Gothic style in an extremely effective way, linking nature to destruction and death, strong aspects of the Gothic genre.

Fantasy

Fantasy is another huge theme which recurs in the Gothic genre. From research I viewed many images presenting fantasy within them linked to the Gothic genre. The fantasy in my piece is a fairly straight forward and can be recognised in the title of the song 'Imaginary'. The imagination is the source of fantasy, and presenting dreams and nightmares allowed me to fully express fantasy elements in my imaginary world. The main fantasy elements are created through the use of modern technology, through colour correction I managed to make the direct link the lyrics in the visuals showing the 'purple sky' which is quite obviously fantasy. The focus of dream allowed me to create the fantasy, from the frightening masked characters within the dream to the series of surrealistic locations. The fantasy within my Gothic music video, were due to the combination of all these important narrative factors, through which I created a truly imaginary world, to reflect the state of mind of a troubled girl.


My Music Video In Relation to Goodwin's Theory

Andrew Goodwin has had probably the most influential effect on the theory behind music videos, the belief that all follow a certain pattern and include similar factors to communicate to their target audience. I specifically aimed to challenge as well as conform to factors of Goodwin's theory to reflect the individualistic nature of the band 'Evanescence' and the whole style and genre of music. I did not want to conform to Goodwin's theory of showing the artist or performance. Because of the fact that I wanted the narrative to be leading the video I did not want the combination of the two. Gothic music being predominantly based around narrative and theatricality through the music and lyrics, I felt that this would be accepted by the target audience as an impressive means of telling a story. The target audience would recognise the Genre and understand that the narrative is more important that actually seeing the artist/band.

However I did conform to Goodwin's theory in some ways. In many cases I applied obvious relationships between the lyrics and the visuals, and links between the music and the visuals. It can be seen in my previous planning, where I intended to make the obvious links directly between the common factors, such as the line 'I linger in the doorway' placed with a visual of the female lead standing in front of a large door, I also applied the 'Purple sky' constantly mentioned in the chorus through colour correction. Linking the visuals with the music consisted of cutting to the beat to create a sense of rhythm and pace, on some occasions on the hill for example the female character was crying, this links directly to the softness and the innocence of the piano playing in the song at that moment. There was an overall Voyeurism which is common in the Gothic genre when applied to costume and style of females. This is shown as the main character wakes up in the dream, she wears suggestive, black, leather clothing and through the ballet we see the delicate, beauty she portrays. In some ways I have challenged this theory, considering she wears a mask at all times during the dream sequence, which in some ways draws more attention to her body and asks the audience to see beauty beyond her physical appearance, in a more symbolic way.

The strongest aspect of Goodwin's theory that I supported and conformed to was the presentation of genre style and characteristics. I stuck closely to the expected within the Gothic genre, presenting common themes, iconography and style such as clothing and narrative structure. I intended to conform strongly to the genre to clearly communicate with the target audience of Gothic music, predominantly teenagers and young adults (information gathered from research). However no matter ages, all fans of this kind of music understand the genre and know what to expect from a music video presenting the genre. For those people unfamiliar with the genre and style of music, I believe that through my music video they would gain to clear understanding of the typical forms, convention, characteristics, themes and expectations of the Gothic genre.

Production Stills

I chose the Skeleton mask to emphasise the horror within the piece, a strong part of the Gothic genre. Even through the mask was plastic, it gives a reflective, metallic effect which gave a great effect on camera making it look more frightening.





I wanted the other mask to also have this metallic effect, so after painting it we sprayed it in glitter.

However when it came to filming we discovered that if we filmed for a long period of time, the condensation on the plastic would make the glitter run, so we made sure that we filmed in small sections and regularly dried the mask to keep it from affecting the actors performance.

Music Video with Commentary

This is my music video with directors commentary.

Storyboard Stills