Evaluation Question 1 - Draft

Evaluation Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Hollow's new music video 'The Look' has been under speculation from many critics suggesting that the failure to create a unique video will have a detrimental effect on how much viewers will enjoy the piece. With recent news of this, the bands director Tarun Solanki and his producers have quickly come the the bands rescue with a quick fire, defensive response to protect the bands integrity from the disappointing reviews. The following statement has been received via email in the last few days.

Having read the many reviews that the video has received this recent week for it's failure to challenge pre-existing forms and conventions I felt I had to reply with my own thoughts. Firstly, the success of a piece of work such as a music video is not dependant the originality of it. Secondly I feel it is clear that our video challenges the conventions of a modern video as the song itself is upbeat and quirky whereas we have stripped the video right down so it is focused on the actual music itself. Also the deadpan facial expressions again allows no attention to be lost from the song. Our extensive research proves that we have used and developed forms of real media products. We have re-developed all of our favourite ideas in a different format to create what we feel is a top quality video that our audience demands. We knew what we intended to do and combining what we feel were the culminating parts of videos and re-interpreting them is how we came to construct our video.

The pictures below prove where we have found our inspiration but also are evidence of how we have changed our video to suit our style and make it unique. It is obvious to viewers that there was a heavy influence from the band Metronomy from their video from the song "The Look". We liked their setting of a plain studio so that the focus was on the music and the band. However our video differs from theirs in many ways. We wanted to strip it back even more and opted for a black and white effect as we felt it was captivating and challenged the conventions of many music videos of our indie/alternative genre. These include Mentronomy - The Look and Vampire Weekend - A-Punk. Both of these videos have colour and have a quirky touch to them. However we didn't want to target our audience in this way. We felt to really exploit the music we needed to have our video in black and white and to coincide with this we had every band member emotionless. The deadpan expressions leave the band looking removed and detached and you could say this follows the band name of being "hollow" and having no emotion in them.

 The screenshot of Vampire Weekend - A-punk shows how they have a colourful theme  and the video is quick paced and they have sped up dancing. This is the opposite to our video as we have a basic black and white visual and our video speed is slow to not effect the focus of the viewer listening to the song. They have all the band members wearing a different colour and standing out from the background. We liked this idea and felt that we should have each band member in different clothing (top). However we felt that to look effective that all the band members should wear black jeans as seen in The 1975 - Girls video. Another way we have developed conventions of another real media product would be through the setting/studio we decided to film in. In all the examples below they are based in a plain white studio to focus on the band. However we decided it was better to have a smaller studio as it helps focus in on the band members and them playing the music as I keep saying. Our main priority is for the viewer to really see the music not just hear it and we felt that The 1975 achieved this best which is therefore why we were guided/inspired by their idea.

It has also been suggested that the Advert and Digipak use conventions of Foster the People's posters. We did take inspiration from Foster the People after seeing this poster. We felt seeing as the video was so basic and plain that we would challenge modern mainstream conventions by switching it up and having a brighter enticing colour scheme but still sticking to the simple theme and this explains why our digipak isn't busy. We liked the colour scheme however we decided we didn't like the image and therefore after testing various images we dropped the idea and went for a simple yet quirky look.

Evaluation Question 2 - Draft

When creating my digipak and magazine advert I wanted them to reflect the band in a different way. In the video, the band are very emotionless and detached. This was to create a dramatic affect that would hook viewers and also I feel it looks more professional. It is also very different to what you would expect to see coinciding with the song therefore we thought it would be contradicting and make people interested to watch the video. However in the design of my digipak and advert I wanted to truly represent the bands quirkiness. Therefore I created the digipak and advert in bright, scintillating colours to stand out and try to represent the band in a different way.

The digipak and advert are identical with the style I created. This is because I wanted to keep the simple yet quirky theme. My draft digipak and advert are completely different. My draft has dull boring colours (brown/grey) and the colours did not work well together. The font was poor and didn't express the band how I had intended or express a band/style whatsoever for that matter. After some well needed feedback I was able to completely redevelop my digipak and advert for the final version. I got rid of the amateur font and found a font that represented the bands odd culture and indie style more effectively. I took inspiration from an advert I found whilst looking at different indie bands' twitter pages. Foster the People had loads of different adverts and colour schemes. I chose a colour scheme myself that I liked and complimented each other and made my final version.

However with my final video I decided that a black and white colour scheme would be more suited as we wanted the audience to feel the unconventional and unusual theme of the band in a different way.The deadpan expressions also adds to the detached feeling of the video. I feel this combination between my digipak/advert and final music video is something that not often happens and is different in a good way. The controversial change in colour scheme is the band being represented in a different way. The colours of the digipak and advert truly represent the indie and peculiar personality of the band. Whereas the music video was made to be emotionless to look more professional and smart, as I feel it adds a clean crisp finish to the video. Although this idea is unusual, Peace have used a similar idea. Their video "Lost on Me" starts with a plain white colour scheme whereas all of their advertisement campaigns are full of vibrant colours.

Evaluation Question 3 - Draft

Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The overall feedback for our video was good. Both our teachers Mr Ford and Mr Smith liked our styling for the video as it fitted the genre we were trying to portray. I feel the teachers feedback is the most important as they have the most knowledge of the subject and can mark our work like the exam board would. Both the teachers liked our draft video and explained how we could improve it. The feedback we received helped us as they liked our drummers deadpan facial expression. We then used this feedback and improved our final video and made sure that throughout the video all of the band had deadpan facial expressions. Other feedback we received was that we should make sure all of our camera shots had a consistantly professional look. This meant more use of the tripod and more precise angles making sure all of the band members were balanced correctly in the frame.  I also got feedback from all of my friends that are the target audience we were aiming our video at. They all enjoyed the video and gave us good verbal feedback. Some of the feedback we received included; liking our fashion/costumes for the video, liking the black and white theme, liking the detached emotionless effect. I also got feedback from family, they all enjoyed it. Especially my brother who is a media student also. He fits the target audience that we are trying to attract (indie/alternative) and he thought it was a really interesting video. He said he liked the attention to detail and the research behind being able to look like we are playing the instruments properly.

For my draft design of my digipak, I recieved feedback off my teachers and many of my peers. The general feedback was very critical and showed me where I had gone wrong and how I could change it. The feedback included, changing the colour of the digipak, this was because it was dull and boring and had no thought or reasoning behind why it linked with the media I was trying to produce. Also the font was wrong and didn't have the quirky edge that would be expected from an iconic indie band. I also hadn't placed the bar code in a very good place and it was wrongly sized. The record label wasn't on my digipak either. All of the above led me to change my digipak and advert completely. Also with feedback from my peers, they helped me decide that I need to include a lot more colour in my digipak and poster. This is because they explained to me that I need to keep my digipak and advert simple but I need to incorporate an unconventional theme such as use of colour which differs from the anti-climatic theme in the video and coincides with the song that can be heard. I then recieved feedback from my peers for my final product. My peers like that I have changed the unimaginative theme with a more bizarre theme and that the digipak and advert looks like it fits the song that can be heard.

Evaluation Question 4 - Draft

Evaluation Question 4 (Media)

Evaluation Question 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?- Tarun

New band Hollow have released their first music video featuring the song "The Look", however the music video has come under a lot of criticism due to the fact that the video looks very similar to the original piece. The director and producers have received many complaints about the video not being new/fresh in the music world. Now the director and producers have composed this letter to state why their music video is not "copying" other music videos and why.

Since the release of our first music video "The Look" by Hollow, me and my co-workers have been receiving a lot of criticism about the video stating that we have copied the original piece. Working with my co-workers and the band themselves, we wanted to create a music video that would homage the original video and that would develop and challenge it to make it modern and suit our target audience. We did extensive research and planning meaning that we had a huge amount of inspiration and ideas from the videos that appealed to us, so when producing the video we used ideas that we liked and challenged them. So for people saying we copied the original music video we have gathered ideas that we liked to make a music video that would be enjoyed by our target audience.


 We were heavily influenced by the original music video by Metronomy and Vampire Weekend as they both have their music video in a white studio, we thought that the video would look best with a plain background as the viewers are able to focus on the band rather than what's going on around them. As an establishing shot we wanted to have a static long shot of the band as it gives the video a sense of style. Hollow themselves wanted this shot as it fits in with their look and how they want people to view them. We have also used other conventions from our inspiration as you can see with the position of the band members, having them spaced out gives the video a simplistic feel as if all the band members are playing their instruments separately and this is what we wanted the viewer to think when watching the video. However in the facial expressions of the band members we wanted to show no emotion, so we went for a dead pan look to archive this goal. That is where we have developed or challenged other music videos because in any other music video the band members are usually have a lot of enthusiasm and many facial expressions and in ours there is no facial expression. This gives the video a very simplistic yet stylish look. Doing a performance video is another convention we have used, inspiration came from Peace- "Lost on me" and many other band videos, however I don't feel that we copied them as we have a very minimalistic video where as they have energetic performance videos. The shots as you can see from the video are editited to fit in with the beat of the song, this is so that all edititing feels semless when watching the video . All music videos follow three narrative forms: narrative, conceptual or, performance. We are just using what has been successful for many other bands.

We as a producers of the music video felt that we wanted the video to look retro and simplistic, to do this we added black and white colouring, we felt that it fits in with the tone of the song as it is very simple. The black and white colouring adds class and professionalism to the video. Doing a good amount of research also helped us making this decision, bands such as The 1975 use this colouring in their videos and it is also used in many successful songs. Again we are not "copying" we are just using developing conventions and not the first to do so.

The digipak and magazine advert use the same conventions as most digipaks and magazine adverts. It uses the convention of having a picture, however like some digipaks the picture does not relate to the band its just a picture that we thought would go well on the digipak and advert. This is challenging the convention as many album covers relate to the band. The picture it self is in a way challenging the normal conventions as it uses a well known toy to replace people, whereas in mainstream digipaks they have people.





EVALUATION 2.- Tarun

When creating my Digipak and magazine advert I wanted them to look similar to the band and try and reflect them in a way. As seen in the music video the band do things differently because they have a dead pan face and are not very energetic, so I wanted to used something else rather than people in this case a Lego figure. The Lego figure links in with the music video as we have a lively song however the band have no energy and very stiff in their movements, so using the Lego figure in a place where its not meant to be and doing something it shouldn't links to the music video because the band are behaving different. I also wanted to use a Lego figure as it is different and not been done before by another band, this means that it will stand out from other ancillary text. The picture that I've used on my ancillary text correspond with the title of the song which is "The Look" as the Lego figure is looking for the perfect picture around the city of Leicester.

I wanted to carry the minimalist tone of the video over to my ancillary text so I went for a simple layout of text, and my picture, I did this so that people will know that I am going for a simplistic look. The colouring on my ancillary matches the colour used in the music as I have used black and white colouring on both. Using black and white allows the viewer to know that all three products link, however on my ancillary text the picture is in colour.

When designing my ancillary text I wanted to make links between all three products so that a sense of branding was created. I feel that using a Lego figure will add exclusivity to the band Hollow and people will know when they see that figure they will know which band that relates to. It was difficult trying to link all three products together but by using a simple tone to them and adding the Lego figure to the ancillary text I feel that sense of "branding" has been created.

Evaluation Question 3- Tarun

The feedback we received regarding our draft music video was good. Our teachers Mr.Ford and Mr.Smith both liked the styling of the band as they fitted with the genre of music we chose. On one of our band members face they had a deadpan face, which both teachers thought looked really well so when re-filming for our final video we decided to make all the band members have a deadpan face. The camera work and framing of the shots was also praised as they all looked good. The only problem was trying to make sure that the band members were playing at the right time so that it fitted in with the music . I think that the feedback from the teachers is the most important as they know what the exam board are expecting and they can give back the best short of feedback saying what we have done well and what needs improvement. I wanted to get more feedback so I asked friends and family that were not in the target audience, they all liked the music video and thought that it fitted of genre of music really well. This feedback is also important as the people I asked were not our target audience but still enjoyed watching the music video. Lastly we had feedback from the rest of our peers and again they all enjoyed it and thought that the shots were framed well and that all band members fitted the genre really well. When asking people that fitted with our target audience they really liked what we did with the band members as it was something they had not seen before with such a lively song. They felt that all band members fitted great with the genre of music and gave a great performance.


The feedback that I received for my draft digipak and magazine advert from my peers was good, they thought that I had a unique idea and the concept of the picture. However there were some concerns about it, my peers were concerned on how I was going to take striking picture like the ones on my digipak and magazine advert. This was the same for the feedback that I got given back from the teachers, as they wanted to know how I was planning to take pictures similar to the ones on my digipak. They had also pointed out to me that I had missed out inportant features on my digipak such as the legal requirements and the record company label. For my final magazine advert and digipak my peers commented on it saying that my pictures were not as striking as the draft versions but the layout of it was completely better than the draft. The font on the final version was much better then the draft because it matched the genre of music more and fitted well with the pictures. I feel that comments and feedback from peers especially ones who are not in our target audience are important because they can identify if it looks like a digipak or not and this can really help when designing it.