Evaluation

My media product is quite conventional as a music video for a progressive rock song, featuring many conventions of the genre. Like the original music video for my chosen song, the video is an abstract montage of shots relating to the theme of money, cut together in time with the music. Many of the shots, after being edited and used in the video, are approximately one to two seconds each, so as to accompany the relatively fast-tempo music used, as well as allowing for many shots to be used. Partly as a result of this, there is some repetition of shots. This is also a result of my attempts to match the content of the shots with the lyrics; there is a saxophone solo in the song, followed by a guitar solo, resulting in much of the song not containing any lyrics, and so little direction as to what to include.

Many of the shots used in the video are close-ups, as a number of shots are of money or business signs. A number of these start of as mid-close-ups, then zoom slightly into a close-up or extreme close-up. The opposite is frequently done for wide shots of buildings, when the camera often zooms out. Pans are also used frequently in such shots.  The effect of this is not only to show the scale of the subjects of the wide shots, but also to emphasise certain points of shots, such as the word “bet” on the roulette sign; as well as the camera movements being in time to the music at times.

Stop-motion animation is used in the music video. This was done by taking a shot of something, then changing it slightly and taking a shot of the new image, later editing them together to create animation.

My ancillary texts were also fairly conventional, using simple money-related images and pictures of those who are implied to be members of the band whose digipak it is. Likewise, the magazine advertisement uses similar imagery, with a simple colour scheme, the colours purple and green used to connote wealth.

I do not think my ancillary text were particularly effective. The digipak was reasonable well-made, its images matching the themes of my music video. However, due to a lack of planning and time constraints, I was unable to acquire images which were as effective as I would have liked. Time was especially a problem during the creation of the magazine advertisement, resulting in a rushed, albeit still somewhat effective, product. It would also have helped if I were more proficient in using Adobe Photoshop; this would have allowed me to create a better-quality product. The ancillary texts and main product would work well together if the digipak were to go on sale – there is a recognisable, consistent theme of money throughout them, and the magazine advert and digipak are eye-catching, largely due to the colour scheme. This would help the digipak to sell as more people would notice it.

Problems with time also affected the effectiveness of audience feedback; though audience feedback allowed me to gauge what people thought of my music video, it was finished with not enough time left to change it, so it was ineffective. Furthermore, the feedback I received did not give details of how to improve the video, anyway, and so would still have been ineffective even without time constraints.

I used a variety of technologies in the creation of my products. For the music video, I used a video camera to film footage, and the computer program Adobe Premier Pro 1.5 was used to edit the footage together. Furthermore, the song I used was from a CD of The Dark Side of the Moon. For the digipak, I used a digital camera to take photographs, and Adobe Photoshop to edit them together; I used the same program to create my magazine advertisement. I used the website “Blogger” to create and manage the blog onto which I uploaded my work, and the website “YouTube” to view the original music video for ideas. Lastly, I used a scanner to scan a hand-drawn storyboard in order to upload it. I knew how to use all of these pieces of technology from previous coursework assignments, and I the case of YouTube, day-to-day life. I would not say the technical skills I had with regards to this technology improved for this reason. However, I did learn to some extent the ability to synch audio and images during the editing of my music video, something which I had only done on a basic level at a previous time. I used Adobe Pro to also create an animatic of my music video, though this was not entirely helpful, as my finished product was considerably different to the animatic. I originally wanted to create a mostly narrative video, but changed it to the finished abstract piece instead, as the original video contained scenes which would have been impossible to effectively film. The narrative of the original was also flawed; the story of the video did not go well with the song’s lyrics. Therefore, I decided to use an easier-to-film abstract music video which would go well with the lyrics of the song and provide a more coherent audio-visual experience.

I am reasonably happy with my finished portfolio. The main product – the music video, is, in my opinion, of a decent quality, though the ancillary texts, while not terrible, are of a lower quality. With better planning and time management, the portfolio could have been improved, as there would have been more time to create the ancillary texts, and gain more audience feedback, which could then have been used as a basis upon which to improve the main music video.  

Digipak

Digipak Draft

Music Video

Animatic

Analysis of original music video

The video opens with a montage of close-up shots of cash in time to sounds of cash registers opening. After a few seconds, shots of things relating to a wealthy lifestyle, such as a wide shot of an expensive-looking house and a tracking shot of a jet taking off, intercut the shots of cash and become more frequent as the intro progresses and a drum beat starts to sound. There are also shots of the song's album, Dark Side of the Moon, being made, a self-referential nod to the band itself. These shots begin to appear through a filter, appearing as though they are being viewed through an old television. This refers to how many people watch the celebrities who are appearing in the shots on TV and aspire to be like them by earning money, hence the newly intercut shots of crowds of people in business suits travelling around a busy city; it is implied that they are going to work by the mise-en-scene of these shots, particularly the people's suits. It is also suggested by the lyrics "You get a good job with its own pay and you're okay", which can be heard at this point of the video.

As the song progresses, the montage of shots of cash, celebrities and their possessions is also intercut with shots of athletes and cheerleaders, referring to the line "Think I'll buy me a football team".

The shots of celebrities begin to be replaced with mostly wide shots of factory workers, still intercut with close-ups of cash. These shots are followed by a tracking shot of a woman in an expensive-looking dress walking down a staircase, presumably to get to the jet seen in the next shot. The setting of the building in which the staircase is located is grand-looking with many large windows. This continues the theme of people working hard to earn money in order to be like the celebrities and athletes shown earlier in the video. The shots of cash are still in time to the sounds of cash registers and coins being moved around.

As the tempo of the song speeds up slightly, so does the montage of shots. The focus of the montage shifts towards expensive restaurants, followed by a high-angle, extreme-long shot of a bridge, with skyscrapers nearby. The montage continues to use the filter to appear to be on an old television, continuing the theme of aspiration. This is perhaps conveyed by the extreme-close up of a person's eye which is intercut as part of the montage.

Along with the shots of people working, shots of homeless, starving people are intercut. They only appear very briefly, and unlike, the shots of celebrity lifestlye, do n pot move; the shots are static. This suggests that the people in the other shots try not to think about them, and they are ignored. As the montage continues, more shots of poor people appear, many in black and white, possibly to continue the idea that they are ignored. These shots are intercut with more frequently-appearing shots of rich people and celebrities. A number of these are in slow-motion, bringing attention to them, moreso than the shots of starving people, continuing this theme.

Shots of factory workers begin appearing more frequently, moreso than the images of the celebrity lifestyle. Shots of cash begin appearing less frequently, possibly suggesting that the people working are beginning to dream of becoming rich less, and are seeing reality, as conveyed by the fact that shots of poor and hungry people begin appearing more often. This is also conveyed in the way that the extreme close-ups of a person's eyes begin to get even more close-up. There is then a shot of an explosion as the guitar solo begins, possibly to symbolise how people have become less fixated on celebrities and more aware of reality.

There is a montage of a number of shots followed by explosions. A Dark Side of the Moon album explodes, followed by a speedboat. The tempo of the music increases, as does the frequency with which shots appear in the montage. This perhaps represents a person being driven mad by how the money and celebrity-obsessed lifestyle. This is evidenced by the fact that insanity is a major theme of the album itself.

There are then a number of representational static shots of the members of Pink Floyd, then shots of money being burned, continuing the message of the video - that being obsessed with money, and living only for it, is not recommended.



Brief

Create a promotional package for the release of an album. Include a music video, along with:

A cover for its release as part of a digipack.

A magazine advertisement for the digipack.