Video Review

Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of Real media products

Music videos from the Genre Drum and Bass usually have an Art-house music video. There are three types of music videos that can be made. Performance, Narrative or both also there is an Art-House, which consists of a video that doesn’t go with the music of the song. The music video we have done is drum and bass song witchcraft by Pendulum. Although our video takes conventions from the Dubstep genre as the song has a very fast beat and the when the beat breaks there is a transition that we have added so mostly every time the beat drops there is an earthquake transition with a different colour added.

A usual music video from the Dubstep Genre mostly includes different montages of images or a transition where two moving images are put on top of each other. There is another type of the Dubstep, music video. Through some research of the whole genre and the videos mostly include short clips from different cartoons e.g.: Misshin - Wabbit (Dubstep) Looney Tunes. The Cartoon style music video goes quite well because the actual track that is put down usually is quite fast and the track also ends quite quickly the example is only 2 Minutes 47 Seconds.

Our Music video doesn’t go with the usual conventions of a drum and bass music video as our music video. The music starts at a quite slow tempo. The first lyrics of the music are “It’s in your eyes, a colour fade out” when this played the video part goes nicely in sync as the camera has an extreme close up of Lukes Eyes then when it says “Fade out” the scene fades into a different part of the video.

There are some parts of our music video that goes with the conventions of a drum and bass song a typical drum and bass song usually contains a performance with a band. Our group has done this in the studio although rather than having the band play out the song in our video we have merged the band playing with the surrounding areas in Manchester town which we have filmed when we have been out filming for extra footage this has came in good stead when editing the music video. In the actual music video for Pendulum Witchcraft there is a full performance by the pendulum band. The Band consisted of six members where in our studio scene we had four people three guitars and a drum kit. Most of our music video doesn’t go with the right codes and conventions of usual drum and bass tracks. There are parts which are connected from the music and the video although most parts of the video are montages of graffiti in Manchester.

Evaluation - Question 2

To evaluate the effectiveness of our work we had to consider and address many points such as how our advert and CD case compliment each other and how the advert works in selling our product.

We feel that our project is very effective due to a combination of factors. Firstly the magazine advert has several features that create a successful promotional device. One of the features that work’s well is the bright, large aesthetically pleasing texts. The choice of color - white, promotes a clean and fresh image of the band, we felt this was beneficial to selling the product as target audience would develop an interpretation that this is something new from the band, text being used for a particular effect is conventional throughout professional versions of our product.

Another aspect of the advertisement that positively highlights our product is the choice of imagery. The background is a shot of a mellow, yet mysterious forest that relates to the album and in particular the song “Witchcraft”, this conjures several connotations of myths and legends of spiritual and paranormal ideas relating to the practice of witchcraft.

The date of release is clearly displayed for the audience to see, this is important as without it people would not have the information needed on making the purchase, thus would affect the sale of our product.

The advert design features several quotes from well renowned newspapers, this supports a positive view of the album, further enhancing the sale of the product. Having such well known names present on the advert adds to professionalism and sophistication in design.

The CD cover is positioned in the centre of the advert, this prioritizes the product and creates a powerful and important effect which assists in creating an appealing advert to sell the product.

The CD has been designed in a much different way, following a design path that consistent throughout the finished CD product, this is featured on the advert, and is much different to the base design featuring the trees. The CD is based on a number of ideas, such as the use of supernatural or extra terrestrial entities, hence the strange vortex lime image.

The music industry has millions of customers that enjoy listening to and purchasing the latest music. Many people may want to experience new music, and so one way for them to decide on this may be based on the album cover alone, if it represents a style they find attractive.

Evaluation - Question 3

In order to get our audience feedback we decided to post our video on the social networking site Facebook. We decided to use this site due to its access to large numbers of people relatively easily and quickly. We also decided to video some of the friends and family who had watched our music video, in order to capture their opinion in a more interesting way.

In general, the response for our video was good, with most enjoying the diverse layers and the widely used effects added during the editing process. Due to Facebook’s large amount of users we were able to gather some useful feedback, which enabled us to look at our video and how it could have been improved. In order to post the video on YouTube, various members of the group had to use their personal profiles.

This restricted the exposure of the video as only friends and family could view it, this may have resulted in some biased or inaccurate feedback. Nevertheless, of the few relevant comments we did receive regarding feedback, all of it was positive.

Due to the limited exposure on Facebook, we decided to upload the video to YouTube, the, the most well known website we could think of for uploading videos. Using this website would have allowed us to tailor how the video was found via ‘tags’ meaning that only those the video is relevant to will find it, such as those searching ‘A2 media’. However, once we uploaded the video we soon realized that our video had been blocked, based on copyright grounds. This meant that nobody could view the video, and that Facebook would be our only source.

As a result of us being unable to upload our video to YouTube, we decided to video our classmates, who have done similar projects, on their opinions about our video. We started by asking people we know would give relevant, useable feedback and then videoing them in an interview like scenario. This enabled us to gain a more in depth analysis on a video, from people who have been in the same situation.

The feedback for from these interviews brought a number of interesting points about then our music video to the surface. For example, a number of the interviewees noted that then performance-based elements of the video were all cut quickly. As a result of this we re-assessed our video and added the band performance part of our video, largely enhancing the quality of our video.

In conclusion the feedback received on the video, both from Facebook and the video interviews was generally good and very useful as the feedback was used to enhance the video, making it a piece that although could still be improved greatly, much better than the original.

Evaluation - Question 4

During the making, planning, researching and evaluating processes of our video we have used media technologies in a number of ways. Originally, just the most basic equipment was used, such as the camera and editing facilities (final cut pro). However, once we analyzed the reviews we decided that more advanced technology was needed in order to make the video the best it can be.

Whilst filming the video itself we have been able to make the best of the colleges media technology in order to make the best of the. This was mostly used for the band performance aspects of our video. After looking back at the various reviews on our video, many including experts within college commented on the lack of performance in the video.

As a result we decided to use the green screen facilities available in college. This enabled us to layer multiple angles of the same image at the same time as filming; creating a unique effect that once layered onto the music video vastly improved its overall quality.

Final cut pro was key to the success of our video (if its successful) as many of the effects that made the video interesting were added at the editing stage, such as the various filters. The program also allowed us to accurately shorten the length of the song, as we joined to separate parts of the song to create an ending for the song.

CD Back

CD Front

Advert Final

CD Inside

Video Analysis - Goodwin's Theory

In relation to Goodwin's theory our video consists of many of the key characteristics that should be in a music video.

Firstly, our video follows similar genre characteristics to other 'drum n bass' music videos with the fast cut editing used to keep a fast pace to the music video. In addition to this the rock aspects of the song are also showed via the performance aspect of our video, which features most member of the group (Luke and Jordan) and a few friends performing the song as a band in a studio.

Generally, the relationship between the lyrics and the video could have been improved, although some film has been specifically added to match a lyric. For example, the line in the song 'a snap shot from where you were born' in the opening lines of the song is played alongside a piece of film featuring discarded objects outside a warehouse setting, giving an insight into our interpretation of the deeper meaning of the lyric.

The relationship between the music and the video is much stronger than that of the lyrics. The video was specifically designed to have a fast cutting edge, as well as being slightly dark meaning that all the shots filmed were done so in an appropriate fashion. This meant most of our filming was done in Manchester's northern quarter, well known for its graffiti walls and underground music scene.

We decided based on the bands style that the demands of a record label for our video would include dark, abstract images to match the bands style. Pendulum are well known for their unique style and dark videos, often with performance aspects, something that we felt necessary to follow. In our video the performance elements are evident throughout, placed over fast cutting graffiti images, making our video fully relevant to the bands style.

Although Goodwin's theory on the use of notions about looking and watching, along with the use of the female form are not used in our video, other shots are based on similar ideas. For example, throughout our video visual effects are consistently used over our film, such as the use of ripples and earthquake effects. These were added to change the way the viewer sees the video, giving many of the shots an unusual look.

In our video there is no inter-textual reference to any other music video, TV program or film as we felt it was necessary to make our video unique. However, there is a brief reference to the popular conga dance, in which groups of people join together in a line. This is briefly used in the video when the characters begin moving back and forth across the screen.

In conclusion many of Goodwin's ideas about music videos are evident in our own video.

Genre Research

Drum and Bass has quickly progressed over the 15 to 20 years that it has existed. Although Drum and Bass used to be more of an Underground genre of music, it hasn’t been a mainstream genre because of the amounts of followers. However now drum and Bass has since been easily recognizable thanks to its fast paced beat and has been widespread to the younger audiences who attend nightclubs and raves. Contemporary Drum and Bass has urbanized to a more electronic sound, and helped to build upon the reputation of other sub genres associated with Drum and Bass such as Dubstep.

Likewise to that of Brit Pop, Drum and Bass have originated and developed within the UK. Another comparison with Brit Pop is its popularity with young, up and coming British artists this is due to the amounts of Raves and nightclubs that are open nowadays, which play this genre of music. Famous artists Pendulum began their music career using the original Drum and Bass sounds, though they developed their sounds and fused rock with the fast beat's to create their own original Drum and Bass music. They have since been extremely successful, reaching number 1 in the UK charts with their latest album "Immersion".

Magazine Advert Research

This is an Magazine advert for Pendulums Album Called Immersion. The genre of the actual music is Drum and Bass. This album include the track that we have done a music video to "Witchcraft".This Advertisement is very simple as most of the A4 page is taken up by the front CD cover.The Background of the page has a similar effect to the CD cover.There is minimal text on the advert.There is a Date for when they are playing live and where the band will be playing.It also has a website,It says the album name and OUT NOW in a larger font then anything else. The font used is quite formal and the text colour is White to contrast with the blue background.It has two record label logos at the right hand side bottom of the page one of the labels is the well known conglomerate Warner Brothers,this is the Warner Music Group.This looks very simple nut effective as it has all the information that is needed.We think that this is the best way to show and present a magazine advert so ours should look similar to this.