Evaluation Questions

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


The track we chose to use for our music video is ‘Oh My Gosh’ sang by the well-known R&B solo artist Usher. We decided on this track as it complements with the style of dancing the main subject is used to performing and it is within the genre we wanted use.

When creating our work we took Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory into consideration and identified the five key aspects of a music video, that we as an audience should focus on, these are thought beats, narrative and performance, the star image, relation of visuals to a song and technical aspects of a music video. We have related each of these points within our own music video.

Our media product uses several forms and conventions of real media products such as the professionally choreographed routines by the performers throughout the video. The male dancer delivers an exceptional performance and is accompanied by an attractive female who dances alongside him. The main subject invents a routine which works effectively alongside our chosen track, as he manages to dance to the rhythm of the song and captures almost every beat. This links in with Goodwin’s theory as it is important for an audience to identify the beats within the song through the music video. The dancing and lip-syncing throughout the video demonstrates a real music video, as the majority of videos present both elements, as shown in (Jason Derulo’s video- In My Head-1:07).

Goodwin believes that narrative and performance within a music video work together in order to make it easier for an audience, to watch a video repeatedly without loosing interest. Although this occurs in some music videos, our product challenges this as we have not included any narrative within our music video. Our video is performance based, which gives our main subject the opportunity to display his talent and give the audience the impression that he is not only an amazing singer, but a talented dancer and performer. This is shown in videos such as (Chris Brown-Forever-1:12) as he shows the audience he has the complete package of a true R&B star.

Another convention we noticed is that most male R&B artists include provocatively dressed women in their videos to either show-off their love interest or convey Laura Mulvey’s male gaze theory ‘The pleasure involved in looking at females bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects’ this is shown in video’s such as (Bottoms Up by Trey Songz -2:21). We have implemented this theory within our music video, as the costumes used for the female performer are exceptionally eye-catching and feminine to attract a male audience, as well as a female audience. Similar costumes are shown in videos such as (Eve- Tambourine -0:05) and (Timberland- Carry Out -1:35).

Another aspect Goodwin believes is extremely important within a music video is the star image. The main subject within our video is well groomed, as he is dressed in smart suits and hats which is shown in videos such as (Ne-Yo- Because of you -0:47). Richard Dyer also believes ‘a star is an image constructed from a range of materials’ he believes a stars image should contain a USP that fans can copy and admire. Within our video our male performer wears unique clothing such as neck scarves and trilbies, has the company of an attractive female and shows of his many talents through his dancing and lip-syncing. These are all aspects that we have put together in order for our audience to aspire to be our main subject and create a star image, which is shown in most real R&B music videos.

Our video is uses amplification, to retain a link between music and visuals, as although the performer isn’t doing exactly what the words of the song say on screen, there are still some links shown between the words of the track and what is shown within the video. We have repeatedly used the three initials of the song title ‘OMG’ on screen, to emphasize the words that are exaggerated within the song. We were inspired by similar videos such as (Ne-Yo-Closer -0:54), (Kanye West- Welcome to the good life -0:02) and (Chris Brown- I can transform ya -0:09) all of these videos show the artists writing the title of their songs to highlight a direct link between what we hear and see on screen.

Another factor that relates the visuals of our video to our song is through the beat of the music, we used two clips from our music video of our subject performing and used digital effects to flash the images one after the other, to match the beat of the music and show an increase of speed within the track. This is shown in (Ne-yo’s- Closer -1:00) video and (Kanye West- Gold digger -0:20) as both of these videos show links through the beat of the music and what we see on screen. This also links in with Goodwin’s theory as he believes music videos are related to the visuals of a song through disjuncture, amplification or illustration.

Looking at the technical aspects of our music video we understood that audiences like to see the star a lot in a music video, therefore we used meat shots, medium close-ups and long shots of our performer dancing and singing alone. We edited our video by cutting shots exactly on the beat of the music to add variation and give the video a fast pace as shown in most real music videos. We developed our editing skills by taking inspiration from real music videos and using similar effects such as the effect shown in (Akon’s- I wana love you video-0:12) we thought this looked extremely effective and interpreted it in our own way. We used a black and white effect when filming our footage as we thought it would be a good idea to balance our video taking into account that some of our footage would be extremely colorful such as (Justin Timberlake’s- Rock your body video-1:35). As well as using a black and white and a colorful location we decided to mix them both together and add hints of color to the female’s lips and nails to give a subtle but effective combination. This is also a convention used in a real media product such as (Ne-Yo’s- Go on girl video -0:09).

From start to finish our media product uses forms and conventions of real media products and shows creativity, originality and professionalism throughout. Looking into similar products has helped us understand the level of skill required and conventions needed to make a successful music video.


Sean Farnsworth



Q2. How effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?


The first aspect that is very clear to point out is the similarities that the three types of media share. The same colour theme is consistent throughout in all three media pieces the red showing love and lust demonstrates that through black and white bleak times, love and lust can still be found (screengrab). Kristie and I thought carefully about our choice of colours and we both agreed that it has been produced well and represented outstandingly. The way in which the performers dressed and the presentation of them in the digipak and advert, is almost defining a brand label associated with the genre of music, which we expected to create. Kristie and I viewed similar media texts, which are relevant to the artist’s genre we had chosen, and realised that eye-catching imagery was more important than loads of words describing the genre and artist. The idea of imagery in both our ancillary texts and video are portrayed through the artist’s attire, along with the clothing that the female dancer was wearing.

The idea of New York City (screen grab) in the background is stereotypical for artists and celebrities. Another aspect of the digipak which is worth noting is the fact that there is a road sign with names of famous streets in New York City, but if you look carefully, you notice the inclusion of Ushers name on one of the arrows (screen grab) and the name of the featured album, demonstrating the success of the artist. Coinciding with his theory, we have chosen examples from Jay-Z’s video for “Empire State of Mind” (screen grab)which includes similar street signs and also is based on New York City, claiming it to be the best city in the world and a desirable place to live. The idea is that New York City is possibly the famous city in the world, and like the song “Empire State of Mind” says, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

After watching the music video and looking at the digipak and poster, you will be able to notice the similarities in the colour schemes and the outstanding red in the digipak and video. The colours are also making the female both in the video and on the other ancillary texts, stand out from the male. (screen grab) Information that’s on the digipak is also present on the advert and a big point to make is the inclusion of a close up of the main artist on the front of the digipak. This is also mimicked on the advert as the advert appears again, although one page is different to advertise the tour and album widely(screen grab).

The same font style appears in both the digipak and advert, which could also be linked in with the font we see in the actually video, when the female artist spells out the letters OMG. On the digipak, it is relevant to say that Kristie inputted the spine on the digipak so that it will fold correctly without missing out key parts of the digipak.







Kristie Wilson







Q3.What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our audience feedback has helped us develop our video significantly, from the early stages of our video when our rough cut was presented up until our final cut version. We introduced our rough cut to family and friends in order to receive constructive criticism about what improvements we could make, a number of comments were made about how the video lacked variation of shots and became uninteresting after a while.

Once we had acknowledged the negative criticism we decided to shoot additional footage in a range of locations as we were determined to produce the best possible outcome for our final cut version. When our video was complete we staged another viewing to the same audience, to see if they thought we had improved our work. Our audience were amazed at how far our video had progressed and stated that the video was enjoyable to watch and includes all of the conventions required to make a successful R&B video.

The audience also pointed out that our video had an energetic feel to it through the burst of colour within one of the locations and the upbeat street dancing, this was important to us as we wanted to create a lively atmosphere within our video.

Our college uploaded our video onto Youtube in order for people to view our work and for us to get unlimited access to our music video. So far we have had a large number of views from our rough-cut to our final cut. Comments on Youtube made about our video include ‘this s really good, well done’. We are pleased with our work and hope to receive more feedback in the future (SCREEN GRAB OF YOUTUBE).

Also the male performer within our video proudly posted the video on a social networking site named Facebook, (SCREEN GRAB OF FEEDBACK) the video was well received and gained thirteen ‘Likes’ and over twenty comments from varies people saying how good the video is.

The female performer within our video also stated that she felt comfortable within the environment she was working in and believed we had organised everything efficiently and that she enjoyed taking part in our video (CLIP OF REBECCA TALKING).

We have learned a great deal from both negative and positive feedback as we value people’s opinions and understood were improvements had to be made which pushed us to do the best we could with the equipment and resources we had.


Sean Farnsworth


Q4.How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

In order to construct a video of the highest quality and relevant to the genre of Hip-hop and RnB, both Kristie and I conducted research through the means of surveys and also our own observations from looking at our related artists such as Ne-yo and Akon. To track our progress and findings, we illustrated them onto a blog site called Blogger (screen grab), which allowed others to access the information we found, and also teachers to confirm that the ideas we were attempting were actually possible. To retrieve the track, we accessed YouTube to find the original video with the best quality, and then converted it using a converting programme called ZamZar (screen grab), in which we stripped the media of the video and just had the track to play around with and use.

The ideas presented on Blogger varied from different media conventions, present in the modern day. The simplest ways of presenting the findings were the use of basic Microsoft programs such as Powerpoint and Word which allowed us to express ourselves blandly. We realised that new media conventions needed to be used in order to keep the audience entertained and also to show our vast improvement from AS to A2. Whilst our Word and Powerpoint documents could be uploaded by using an internet site called Slideshare (screen grab), which basically allows other people to view work that we have produced, but we had the option to privatize the documents, we stumbled across a great new way to express ourselves and present our work efficiently.

Prezi (screen grab) is an online service which allows the user to combine many different areas of media in order to create a singular, overpowering presentation. Media such as videos, music and images can be included to appeal to the audiences’ eyes, however little text is usually added for entertainment purposes. As far as copyright laws stretch these days, permission had to be vital in order for us to follow through with the task at hand; so another new media convention, which is very common in today’s society, is the use of social networking. We messaged Usher on his official MySpace (screen grab) page which is accessed regularly by all the artists and representatives, as well as using Facebook (screen grab) to conduct our surveys and question people on certain topics of the genre.


To construct our video and to get a general image of what the actual video would look like, Kristie and I created an animatic (screen grab) of the types of shots and how long they would last. To capture the images and upload them onto the MAC, we used the Nikon D80 and then we used the program iMovie in order to import the downloaded track and to edit the length of shot, to give us a general idea of how many shots we would be using and what type.

After completing the animatic and all other research tasks to ensure we were fully ready to record, we began plotting locations and settings times in which to meet up with the equipment and props. Whilst recording in the studio, we used the green-screen to give us a smooth, consistent background, along with the use of the Sony HDV cameras, (screen grab) which provided top quality recording and also a steady shot. The shots used were not only recorded onto the tape within the actually camera, but they were also captured on the MAC which was connected to the equipment. The MAC also provided the effective given to the final cut of the video, in which the majority of the shots are black and white, with a hint on red on her lips to show lust and for them to stand out; established using the spill (screen grab) tool on the editing software.

In order to film in different locations, we used a camera which provided the same quality of the studio cameras, but at the same time was portable and easy to set up. I received a tutorial on the basic functions of the Canon XL2 (screen grab) in order to operate it to my best ability, and as you can see in the final cut, the camera served its purpose well.

The beginning of the music video includes a brief introduction which gives the audience background information about the track, such as the name and when it was released. The inclusion of the “MTV Base” logo is used to coincide with our audience factor, as we are aware that people, who will like our music video and music, will associate themselves with the content on MTV Base (screengrab).

About half w ay through our video, we use a piece of technology which rivals what is seen in Kanye West’s video for “The Good Life” (screen grab) in which the artist writes on the screen. We used a program called Live Type (screen grab) to import and create the letters we needed to put in our video. The result of it wasn’t as good as we expected it to look however we believe the audience will be able to identify what we were trying to accomplish.

Like previously stated in the planning section, Kristie and I used the online service of Facebook to gain feedback from both the people involved in our video and also the general public on what they thought of the video (screen grab). Screenshots are given to show audience feedback and comments. The recording studio was also used again to interview the actors in our music video to evaluate the planning and effort shown by Kristie and I (screen grab). The filming was then edited by Kristie and I on the program Final Cut again, which also included aspects from Live Type to introduce the actors and ourselves. Zamzar was used again to download the videos from YouTube and to import them into the evaluation, along with using them to take screen grabs.