Evaluation Questions
A significant convention of Indie music is their specific style of clothing, for example the use of slim cut chinos and slim jackets. We felt that sticking to this convention was extremely necessary and relevant as our audience need to be able to relate to our band. We have decided to use the same style of clothing in our video to stay within the conventions of the Indie Rock genre. This has also allowed us to appeal to our audience greatly as they will be able to relate to our band members through their indie clothing. We have chosen our stayed convention shot as being Mumford and Sons who are also an indie band which follow the same clothing style as our band members as shown in the screenshot.This expresses the connotations of calm and independent.
The song 'Hey there Delilah' uses the editing technique of a split screen. We have stayed within these conventions by using this technique in our video also. We have followed this as it has allowed us to show multiple things, in our case multiple band members which allowed us to set the scene for where our shots will be taken. This also shows the audience that even though we are a band we have individual aspects to each band members which is a key part of the indie genre as being an individual and not conforming to the ordinary.
We have chosen to develop the performance of our music video in placing our performing band members in different places such as the use of putting our drummer in a field and our guitarist in a bedroom. This allowed us to focus more on the individual members rather than the band as whole. This has allowed us to hide the fact that we could not play together at the same time. We have developed this convention from Amy Winehouse's song 'Back to Black' which shows members of the band playing their instruments acting as though they were playing alone. We thought this was a good idea to do however we decided to develop this convention due to our band members not being able to perform together all at once.
We have also chosen to develop the convention of our performance as most performance in Indie Rock music videos are shown in normal, everyday locations used in conjunction with close ups used to generate 'Star Power' (Dyer). We developed this convention by instead of placing our band members together in ordinary locations, we decided to put our drummer in an abandoned field which allowed us to put our band away from each other which allowed us to create an easy flowing narrative. I believe we have made it realistic to our audience as we have not used special effects and we have used locations that can be found so the audience can relate to the video and even re-use our techniques.As they will be able to re-create their image and even have the ability to make a fan cut of our video.
We have chosen to challenge the convention of using flashbacks in conjunction with the use of a filter (vinaigrette) to show that it is not part of present time in the narrative. Indie music video's normally have a straight forward narrative which allows the audience to relate to them allowing the band/ artist that they are just like their audience which is another feature of indie music. We have challenged this as our narrative needed to use flashbacks in able to join our narrative together. This has allowed us to use multiple editing effects as well as making our music video quick which allows us to entertain our audience. Additionally as we are not conforming to the ordinary rules of Indie Rock music we are seen as standing out from the crowd which is again another key feature/ convention of Indie rock music.
We have chosen our image from the Hip-Hop genre Eminem's song 'Like Toy Soldiers' which shows that the feature of flashbacks is not normally shown in our genre. In addition our flashback has been edited with a filter which has allowed us to show that it is outside of our narrative. This however is not present in Eminem's song showing that we are still challenging the convention of flashbacks as we have used a filter instead of just editing it using lighting.
We have also challenged the convention of using an introduction in our video to establish our band members as well as set the scene for our main artist the singer/pianist. We have not seen this convention is Indie music videos and it is sometimes seen in rock and pop videos. This has allowed us to break the rules of our convention by introducing our band members. This is additionally important as our band is indie and unsigned it allows our audience to see our band before they start performing. This convention is not normally seen in videos without any music behind the introduction which is another way we have challenged this as we have used the background noise which has allowed us to introduce the ordinary lifelike feel to our music video.
Our other introduction screen shot is from the Hip-Hop genre again which already shows that our genre does not genuinely have introductions in their videos. Our introduction scene are quite similar as neither shot has used a distinct effect or filter which is the same as ours as we have only edited the lighting in our image.
Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts
Question 3: What have you learn't from your audience feedback?
We gathered our audience feedback from handing out questionnaire sheets in our school assembly and by gathering feedback in our own time. This has allowed us to gather detailed feedback from a range of people at one time. However one problem we found with the feedback we got was that some people either did not fill in the questionnaire properly or they had unhelpful feedback. Most of the comments made were positive but all feedback was taken aboard and was used to aid our project. Our negative feedback was used to help our project yet some of it was not helpful therefore we ignored some of our feedback due to our knowledge of the subject.
Question 4: How did you use media technoogies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Media technology's were very important and helpful in the production of our media product. The HD camera used with the tripod allowed us to take steady straight shots which made our video look authentic. The good thing about using an HD camera is that we were able to have a good shot which could be used for either our video or ancillary products. The cameras ability to take photos quickly allowed us to take multiple shots while filming so we could take possible ancillary photos even if we were out filming.
One of our most important media technology was the use of the Final Cut Express software where we were able to delete our videos sound and overlay our music track. This allowed us to put our video in sync with our song easily. Also final cut allowed us to brighten or darken our shots to fit in more with our genre.
