EVALUATION

Music Video Feedback

Finished Digipak and Website

Critical Evaluation

   We have stuck to our music video genre of Rock by choosing a traditional live performance and narrative styled video. As the specific choice of song genre is Grunge Rock we researched different grunge artists such as Nirvana and Sound Garden, this gave us a clear idea and style of how we wanted our video to look. Our set reflects on the style of the song which is stark, intense with a raw edge, this was complemented by our lighting which further created a moody atmosphere and helped set the scene for the song and lets the audience know what to expect throughout the visual performance.

   We have also remained consistent to the Grunge/Rock genre for our Digi Pack as well as the video, our website has dull and dark images synonymous with the Grunge genre, being attractive to the viewer as a typical example of most rock band websites. Links to other media are included such as pictures, videos, store and biography were added because of additional research of bands sites. As with the website we have designed a 4 side CD cover in keeping with Grunge imagery. It has information and pictures in the inside sleeve and blue textured/background with text and includes a picture of the band playing live for the front and back covers, which are typical features of the rock genre.

    The music video has a straightforward narrative which is not intended to be in a post-modern style.  It was important to keep the narrative of the song which was of a loud grunge band keeping up their neighbour, who is suffering from insomnia brought on by his drug fuelled lifestyle. The lyrics portray this frustration until he flees the building for escape. This and similar topics are often used in Grunge song lyrics. As this video is shot with a particular genre in mind and to a particular audience eg Rock fans the challenges would naturally be that the appeal is only to this audience.

We have focused on the grunge/alternative rock side of the music and have portrayed this in each of our separate creations (music video, website, digipak). For example; dark colours are often associated with this genre of music so we have used this throughout our campaign. In the music video the room in which the band play in is painted black, the CD digipak consists of a lot of dark colours, and the website has a dark green header (dark green is often used to create a grunge effect).

The music video, website and CD cover are all interrelated in the fact that they all serve to promote the band, ‘Alaska’. We have also, for example, included the music video on the CD digipak and on the website. This ensures that, although each of them have their own individual style, they are all interrelated and familiar.

They all have one purpose in common: to promote Alaska (our chosen band). We have researched the target audience for the band, and have included the things which we think would appeal to the target audience. We have used these in each of our products and believe that it reflects the nature of the band whilst also appealing to the target audience. The music video and song also tackle issues which could be related to the target audience such as insomnia and drug taking. The website features functions such as a members area in which the band could upload exclusive content to engage with their fans.

The audience feedback was very positive and was gathered through a questionnaire filled in while the audience were watching our music video. The results showed there were almost no issues with the video in terms of performance, lip-synching, suitability, shot types, mise en scene and how convincing it was. The video met the audience needs through variety in shot types to keep the audience engaged in the content of the video and even though the song is quite downbeat the video keeps the attention of the audience through using visually appealing shots and effects. We changed some of the original idea to increase the amount of performance as opposed to narrative to create a more effective music video of the style and mood of the song. I agree with the audience feedback as I believe it has overall been a better success than the original realisation of our ideas when listening to the song. The only problem with the audience feedback in questionnaire format is that they cannot give more detail into their opinions and may not give a completely accurate representation of their feelings toward the video.

   In the editing process we used iMovie software and edited in accordance with the storyboard and musicality of the video.  For example editing the footage to correspond to the instrument/vocal you hear at that part of the song.  We also used some tranisitions and video effects such at 1:25 when the two tracks overlap and fade into eachother. For the Digi Pack we incorporated more technology such as Photo Shop CS5 for designing all the art and images; we also used iWeb to get the website on to the internet ready to start promoting.

We used technology to research and plan our production by looking at similar artists and their CD covers/music videos on the internet, using the bands’ websites and YouTube. This helped us to gather information on what we thought would be useful to our creations and would appeal to our target audience. We have uploaded our finished music video to YouTube and our blog and have been receiving audience feed back on it.


We used the website and youtube to promote our video to the world wide web and these examples of Web 2.0 have made it a lot easier to promote and show our ideas clearly to the target audience and get the artist’s image out there. We also used the blogger page to show the various development stages and how the idea became a final realised video.       

Final Video

The Music Video So Far

We have now almost finished the intro section for the video and we'll be filming the narrative part of the video on Monday or Tuesday. This is a screen grab of what we did today.

Our Music Video So Far