Examples of other texts

Preliminary evaluation questions

At the end of my year 13 course work I will have to answer these evaluation questions;


 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?
3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?
4. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planing and evaluation stages?


In preparation for the end of year 13 and as research, I have answered evaluation questions based on the preliminary music video that was a recreation of Rihanna's, Paul mjcarrty's and Kanye West's, 'four five seconds' music video.




1) Pre production 
Before starting the production and filming of the preliminary music video (four five seconds) we created a story board which included the timing of the video, shot durations and type of shot and a drawing of what the shot would look like. This helped us during the production of the video as we had the story boards with all the information to look at while filming and editing the video. We also created a prop list of all the things we needed to use during the making and filming of the video so we had anything we needed on the day of filming. Before shooting the video we went in to the white room and took test photos to see which lighting looked the best and most like the real 'four five seconds' music video; once finding the correct lighting in the white room with the free standing lights we took photos of where the lights were set up so we could recreate the same lighting when we came back to film the actually video.


2) Production. 
Before we started filming the video, we recreated the hair, make up and outfits of all the artists in the original music video. We filmed the preliminary video on the school video camera which is a Nikon.  while filming the video the director had the story boards in front of them to follow as well as playing the official music video the for artist / actors to copy the actually artist movements. We played the song while filming so the actors could sing along as lip syncing and not really singing can be obvious in the finally video as we find out during the lip syncing task. We set the camera up in the right position before every shot so that we wouldn't need to edit the shots to much in the post production. We shot the whole video in one day so that the hair, make up and costumes of the artists\actors would look the same throughout the whole video.


3) Post production (editing footage etc)

 We tried to get the best shots while filming the music video so we didn't have to edit the video as much afterwards. While filming the preliminary video we set the camera up at the right position for each shot so we didn't have to crop the images to change the shot type during eating the video; however we did have to crop the video as the official 'four five second' has a thick black boarder around the shots throughout the video.  We filmed all the shots for video in full colours so had to convert the shots into black and white during post production. We adjusted the brightness and contrast of each shot to make it look like the official music video as some shots had to be darker than others.

'Four five seconds' music video

'Four five seconds' recreatation test shots

Prop list for 'four five seconds' music video

Prop list for 'four five seconds' music video that we will be recreating-


> guitar
> 3 free standing studio lights
> denim jackets for all characters
> camera
> white room

'Four five seconds' recreatation story board

Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory

The Male Gaze, developed by feminist, Laura Mulvey describes how the audience, or viewer, is put into the perspective of a heterosexual male. Mulvey believes that women should enjoy the attention of attracting the gaze, and put themselves in positions to be looked at. The concept of ‘the gaze’ is one that deals with how an audience views the people/person presented. Mulvey states that in film women are typically the objects, rather than the possessors, of gaze because the control of the camera (and thus the gaze) comes from factors such as the as the assumption of heterosexual men as the default target audience for most film genres.
The male gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the perspective of a heterosexual man. It may, for instance linger over the curves of a woman's body.

The woman is usually displayed on two different levels:

-         as an erotic object for both the characters within the film

-         the spectator who is watching the film

The man emerges as the dominant power within the created film fantasy. The woman is passive to the active gaze from the man. This adds an element of 'patriarchal' order and it is often seen in "illusionistic narrative film".

Mulvey argues that, in mainstream cinema, the male gaze typically takes precedence over the female gaze, reflecting an underlying power asymmetry.

Mulvey' also states that the female gaze is the same as the male gaze because women look at themselves through the eyes of men. A feminist may see the male gaze as either a manifestation of unequal power between gazer and gazed, or as a conscious or subconscious attempt to develop that inequality. From this perspective, a woman who welcomes an objectifying gaze may be simply seeking to benefit men, welcoming such objectification may be viewed as akin to exhibitionism.

The Male Gaze typically focuses on:

-         Emphasising curves of the female body

-         Referring to women as objects rather than people

-         The display of women is how men think they should be perceived

-         Female viewers, view the content through the eyes of

     a man

Andrew Goodwin’s seven features of music video

In his book 'Dancing in the distraction factory' Andrew Goodwin points out characteristics and features that can be found in music videos. 

1. Music videos demonstrate genre characteristic. (e.g. stage performance in metal videos, dance routine for boy/girl band, aspiration in Hip Hop)
2. There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with images. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting). 
3. there is a relationship between music and visuals. The tone and atmosphere of the visual reflects that of the music. (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).
4. The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). 
5. There is frequently reference to notion of looking ( screens within screens, mirrors, stages, ect) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body. 
6. The artist may develop motifs of iconography that recur across their work ( a visual style)
7. There are often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos ect).

Preliminary video

Perliminary storyboard

Disjunctive based music videos

These music videos are examples of disjunctive music videos as the lyrics of the song and the events of the video have no connection. Some disjunctive music videos can also have elements of performance of narrative within them which don't relate to the song lyrics. 

Narrative based music videos

These music videos are narrative based videos, meaning that most of the video attempts to tell a story through the moving images. Music videos that are narrative usually have a story line that links to the song lyrics but this isn't always the case. This type of video usually has a fictional protagonist played by the singer or an actor solely created for the music video, the character in the video are mute so that there is a focus on the song and not the video alone.

Performance based music videos

All the music videos below are performance based videos. Performance based music videos feature a solo artist or band performing to the camera. The aim is to focus on the artist and convey them in a particular way to the audience. This category includes the recording live performances. This type of video often only requires a small budget so are commonly used was music videos.

A2 course outline

The course is worth 200 marks in total - 100 for the coursework and 100 for the exam.

The coursework brief consists of:

• A music video
• A CD digipak
• A magazine advert to promote the CD/album

You also have to undertake relevant research and planning and answer four evaluation questions.

The exam consists of two parts:

1. Two  30 minute questions on the work you have completed over the previous two years
2. One question on postmodern media

Mark allocation

Coursework:

• 20 marks - Research and planning
• 40 marks - Music video
• 10 marks - CD digipak
• 10 marks - Magazine advert
• 20 marks - Evaluation

Exam:

• 25 marks - Question 1a
• 25 marks - Question 1b
• 50 marks - Question 2 postmodern media