Evaluation Question 2 - How Effective is the Combination of your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

With this video I have visually presented how my overall package compares. So in conclusion, I feel my package could have been better co-ordinated, as my digipak and advert fail to fit well with my music video. Although there are some aesthetic similarities, the overall tone of both do not fit well and lack coherency.
My planning, or possible lack of is a factor into the lack of a house style, as from the start, I planned my digipak cover without thinking how that brand image would translate to my music video.

Evaluation Question 1 - In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop, Or Challenge Forms and Conventions Of Real Media Products

Media Evaluation Q1 on Prezi

Although Prezi is a great idea for brief information, I feel I should extend my level of analysis in written form.

As shown in the Prezi, we were inspired by many metal videos. All of the included videos include an aspect of performance. This is a very common convention of most music videos, but especially metal videos. This element is highly redundant, as it is so frequent in music videos, it has lost any meaning it once had. However, these videos provided ideas for shots and angles to use in our video. For example, the use of extreme close ups within Slipknot's "Before I Forget" led to us also use many close ups of the instruments.

This repetition is explained in Sam Neale's theory towards genre. He says genre is "instances of repetition and difference". This is because without repetition, each video would have to be drastically different, which risks alienating some audiences. However, sticking to conventions without ever attempting to challenge standard forms or conventions risks boring the intended audience. This is why our music video uses people playing Guitar Hero and only imagining they are real musicians. While this is entropic within professional music videos, many fan made videos have already attempted a similar idea, as shown in the Prezi.

Some parts of my music video were filmed using a hand-held camera, as many metal music videos use hand-held cameras, such as August Burns Red's video for the song "White Washed", as shown in the Prezi above. The video also uses very short takes, which inspired me to do the same. This video also played around with the speed of the footage, which led to me using slow motion within my video, although this was partly to help a chosen clip fit better on the timeline.

As I Lay Dying's video for "I Never Wanted" makes frequent use of split screens. I then used a similar post-production visual effect myself, but cropping the footage.

My video conforms to the standard use of cuts to transition from one clip to another, instead of using random transitions. However, I used a plentiful amount of fades and cross-dissolves, which is unusual for fast paced videos.

The mise-en-scene is basic and limited, although videos playing within a messy set is not unheard of, as seen in Blink-182's music video for "First Date", seen in the picture to the right, which although is not an inspiration for the production of my video, it shows how my video does not break common convention.

The costumes were chosen to reflect how bands frequently wear bands t-shirts, as well as to help show who the characters are emulating. Although band members are seen which such t-shirts, they rarely wear these in official music videos, whether that be for legal and copyright reasons or otherwise.

My research of existing music videos within my selected genre led me to find out most music videos are primarily performance based, or featured a basic narrative. It was due to this, as well as early audience feedback that my music video needed more than just performance. This is why the video game aspect was added. This element is entropic, as official music videos have rarely, if ever challenged comparing playing Guitar Hero to learning a real instrument.

Finished Music Video

Here is the final music video.