Evaluation

By Leah Baber

A typical punk video consists of the band usually either messing around through a story, or playing their songs at a gig. It’s usually a fast pace and is quite jumpy. Punk is a genre which is known not to take themselves to seriously and a genre known for enjoying their music.

We have kept within the similar characteristics of the genre, by the actor performing rude gesture, and with the video having quite a ‘strange’ story line. We have kept a strong relationship between the visuals and the song as that’s a typical convention used throughout all music videos in all genres. We used the mise en scene of the park as it’s one of the places in which you associate with stalkers. In conclusion I believe my video does follow the typical conventions of a punk music video as it moves at a fast pace, and presents the bands fun personality clearly, and uses lots of jumpy shots.

In what way does your media product use,

develop or challenge forms or conventions of

real media products?

I would say that my video has an element of comedy in it, even though it’s quite a dark comedy. But I believe that making a joke out of something slightly more serious is likely to stay in your head, which I’m hoping this video does. But with the element of comedy being quite dark means that it shortens the wideness of my audience. I wanted to have that individual aspect in my video that made it stand out from the rest (the clown mask).

In different parts of my video the character mimes the words in time with the music, which is a common aspect used in the majority of punk rock videos.

My video keeps within the forms and conventions of a typical punk rock video.

My first Idea was to use a different song by the same band, it was

called Henry the hoover, me and my group started to come up with

ideas but then our friends came up with a new song called ‘Stalker’,

and we agreed that it would be a song that we could have a lot more

fun with. So I mind mapped ideas so that I could come up with a

theme that was abstract and different. With changing my idea it

allowed my video to fit into the typical forms and conventions of the

punk rock genre, but I still believe it to stand out and grab the viewers

attention.

The reason why I’ve decided to use text in my task is because it highlights the important words that I want to have stuck in my audience’s head. E.g. the bands name and the song. I intended for the opening theme to look like the start of a film as my video is kind of like a creepy story.

Angles & shots

All of our shots were carefully planned out to create suspense and give of the stalker vibe. The use of different angles portray the sense that a stalker can watch you from anywhere they like.

This is one of the first images if the video, so the close up familiarises the audience with the central character.

The high canted angle of the shot shows that a stalker can watch you from anywhere they please.

End shot

A lot of thought went into the final shot, as it would be the last memory of the video stuck in the audiences head. The final shot of the central character chasing the camera is meant to send the message to the audience that the clown is chasing you as the video finally finishes with the face filling the screen.

Main/ancillary taskTo promote my music video I decided to create an advertisement and a cd cover. After researching into a variety of other different music advertisements, meant that I could include all of the typical aspects in mine of that of an existing one. I decided that I wanted to keep my theme similar throughout my ancillary tasks, that being the clown. I decided to use this throughout as it reflects what our song for our music video is about which is a stalker.

Digipak album cover

This is my final design, I decided to create the back cover of the album as well so you could get a better understanding of my theme. I have gone for a

cartoon like effect as it resembles the bands fun like persona. I have used the clown character throughout all of my work as it links all three tasks together,

by having that running theme. I wanted the text on show to look like newspaper rip outs as again it links in with the whole stalker theme.

I used Leeds edutainment for my record label, as they have similar acts to this one signed. I used Photoshop to create both of these, I used a filter on both images to make the image appear more cartoon like, and also It makes the red stand out a lot more clearly. The reason why I wanted it to be mainly red is because then the clown looks like it blends into the background, just as a stalker would.

I didn’t feel the need to include the whole

band on the album, as you don’t necessarily

need to see the people to appreciate the

music. I wanted the band to be portrayed for

the quality and crazyiness of their music not

necessarily for them. But I feel as though the

audience are being drawn in to buying the

album because of the creepiness of the clown

mask. I believe the image to represent the

bands style clearly.

I felt I had to have a strong link between both my ancillary tasks, as with the research I have done professional bands have the same image on their poster and album, so that the album is easily recognisable when they would go to buy it without the struggle of finding it.

The bands logo is important to include whilst advertising especially on the album cover.

I chose to advertise my advert in a typical punk/rock magazine i.e. kerrang,MOJO etc. as it’s then more

widely available to a larger scaled audience.

As you would see if you looked through my blog, I experimented with different images on Photoshop to find the best style to present my work, and I’m happy with the outcome that I ended up with.

I kept the text the same throughout both my ancillary tasks as I believed it to work well. The image is kept similar to the digipak as you can tell that they’re both linked. I wanted to keep the poster quite simple, because when I did my research I noticed that professional posters did the same. I made the same point earlier for my digipak, but the reason why I’ve blended the writing in with the image is simply because stalkers blend into the background. But I believe it stands out, because of the colour used, and because of the creepiness of the image as it’s an image which sticks in your head. Red is also a typical punk colour, as well as it being a typical clown colour so I thought that that would be a good way to attract the right audience. I didn’t want to ruin the image by overcrowding the poster, and I also think that it leaves some sort of curiosity to find out what the song and the band are about.

CD Advertisement

I think that my video and both my ancillary tasks worked well together as the poster promotes the album clearly, and clearly states the song and the bands name so that it’s easy for it’s audience to access.

What have you learned from audience feedback?From the feedback which I’ve had they’ve said that the clown character is eye catching and engaging which was the outcome in which I was hoping for. They said when the clowns face turns around it’s quite shocking an unexpected, again which was the aim in which I was trying to gain. I also had a comment to say that the font on my ancillary tasks fits into the typical conventions of a stalker. I have learned that the audience enjoyed the fast pace of the video, and the choice of the hand held camera as it gives you the impression that your being stalked.

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

I posted my finished music video onto

YouTube, where it’s open to the whole

public to view. As it’s a band that

currently play gigs in a majority of

different bars around Bristol, it helps to

promote them. Unfortunately the

video hasn’t received any feedback on

that particular site, but from the other

videos that the band has posted its

clear to understand that they appeal to

their target audience. Also with all of

my work being on Blogger it allows

anyone to look at my work.

Me and my team used a handheld camera throughout the filming of our video. We used a simple SLR camera to take photographs for our ancillary tasks which we then edited on Photoshop. Without any of this new technology and computer programmes are video would not have gone the way in which we planned it, and neither would our images. We used IMovie on my friends MAC to edit our film as it then meant that we could work on it from home. Without these two programmes we would not have been able to speed up our film, or make our images look different.

I used Google to carry out the majority of my research as it was easily accessible. YouTube helped me to research and analyse similar bands videos, as you would see if you looked far down my blog. It allowed me to pick out the main conventions of the punk rock genre so that I could include them in my own production.

During the process of creating our video IMovie allowed us to speed up parts of our film and include text. We constantly played the song whilst filming so that we didn’t run over the length of time, and so that we could fit the speed and harshness of the actions to the right parts.