Evaluation

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

To begin with my final product challenges forms and conventions of real media products by focusing on different points that in most cases don't seem to be addressed. My whole A2 project has been solely focusing on anti-bullying throughout my very first post. Bullying is a really massive topic on it's own. It's something that all of us subconsciously can commit. I straight away knew that this was something that I wanted to produce as soon as I heard that I'll be creating a music video for my A2 Media Studies. I was really pleased with this because it gave me a chance to create something unique and different to promote a stop to bullying. As I've may already mentioned in my earlier posts that I was inspired by two specific Korean Dramas that I watched in 2015. Both of the story concepts are on bullying and we get to see the cruel side of bullying but, ultimately I found that there was something missing from the pieces of media texts that I was consuming. So after completing the dramas I decided to look more into the situations of bullying. I was seeking out for something that can give me an answer to what that missing piece could possibly be. Then suddenly after creating spider diagrams and thinking of what that missing piece could be it came to me. What a lot of these bullying dramas contain that are very alike to each other is the fact that they always make the main protagonist physically and mentally weak. As I got more into it and thought deeply about the situation I figured out that there's something that these weak characters have in common throughout both of the Korean dramas. Ever since then I decided that I have to produce content that is the polar opposite to these situations in these Korean Dramas. That's how I came about creating a music video promoting anti-bullying and that benefits and help those facing these difficulties.

Usually in real life media texts the victims are never being able to stand up for themselves and that I believe has to change. I wanted to be the first one to create something that no one has ever come up with or what I believe so to be. You can see how detail I go with my project by looking at the end results. Firstly you see my main victim Caxie getting verbally and physically abused throughout majority of the music video. It's really sad and emotional to see and what tops it even more is the fact that the music composed is not your ordinary composition. If I was to be honest it's very different because the instrumental is by far so good and lyrics that I wrote are so powerful and different. The reason I say this is because the lyrics are often forgotten in many songs and the instrumental can sometimes take all the glory. However, in this situation it's different because both of them are very well co-operated so it brings a different flavor to the table. I want to thoroughly talk about conventions that are often used in this topic. Now a lot of the times we would see media texts about anti-bullying showing the stereotypical elements of things in which someone is getting harmed in different formats. In my final product you do see the same element of someone being harassed and being treated very unjustly but at the process of creating my music video I was thinking about ways to move away from that element. However, the more I thought about it I realized that the element of someone being a victim of something has to be shown in the music video. This is simply because without having that basic element inside of the music video would look weird. That is what links up Justnara, Fifi, and Yvana. Thinking from the target audiences perspective they would want something very easy and catchy to the eye. In order for something to automatically grab the attention spam you need something that can without any hesitation draw your target audience in. This is why without any doubt I decided that this criteria had to be met.

My music video is on a hip-hop song and in hip-hop music videos you would usually see loads of stereotypical conventions like money, half to almost naked woman and cars. However, my music video totally breaks conventions and boundaries as I completely make my music video for educational purposes. The reason why the media wouldn't do what I done is because they have a fixed idea of what hip-hop music video nowadays represents and the target audience group it's being aimed at associates with. The whole situation in my music video is creating awareness of bullying and this is so out of the norm as the media would never in most cases release something that completely changes the way hip-hop is viewed as. Everything in my final product from situation, location, themes, and story concept goes against the fixed idea of forms and conventions created over the years for hip-hop music.

To begin with my music video breaks conventions and boundaries of hip-hop music videos as my locations are entirely different to what you would usually see in hip-hop music videos. I chose a school and park with no dancers behind me but two of the characters playing as bullies behind me conveying loads of different unsettling facial expressions. In mainstream hip-hop music videos there would always be dancers and visually appealing locations but in my music video it completely destroys that perception. I did this because I wanted the target audience group that my music video is being aimed at to actually look clearly at what the music video is displaying as well as listen to the lyrics of my song. If I had beautiful oceans and landscapes with dancers dancing behind me it would subtract the whole idea.

As for filming every shot that I took and cut together were really nice and simple. Nothing about them is complicated as I didn't use a camera rig, stabilizer, dolly or any other essential equipment used for mainstream music videos in the media. Everything in my music video was done by tripod and handheld. The reason why I wanted it to be really simple shots is so that I can make the cuts really fast and sharp so that it goes with my music perfectly. Also you don't need complicated shots to make a music video look really attractive and appealing to your target audience group. The media wouldn't in most cases do this because it goes against everything they've created rules for.

Overall everything about my final product goes against the ideal media product for mainstream television as it breaks so many conventions and boundaries. From my view point I would never see the media release a product like mine as it's totally different and gives a complete opposite insider to hip-hop music videos to what the media portrays of hip-hop music videos and hip-hop music in general. I always like to create products that have a positive message and something that's not trending.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I believe that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts are very effective. You can immediately see everything linking together which makes it a strong case. Not only do I focus on the OCR side of things but I include my
own research. There's only so much you can do following one set of text so therefore, I wanted to introduce some of my own originality. Also, to go even more in-depth into making my final outcome look extremely well established I had to do extra work. I really enjoyed working on this project because it is such a strong topic to express and also I have a lot of contacts who are interested in spreading positive messages. So if I was to rate how effective the combination of my main product and ancillary text are out of 10 it would be a strong 9-10 because I focus on all aspects of my work and not just one. If you go look back at my very first post up until my very last you can see how well developed everything is, and you'll be able to spot all of the extra research that I put into making this music video.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I have learnt that everyone believes in justice. From the feedback that I received I've noticed that everyone understands that bullying is wrong and it should be stopped without hesitation. However, at the same time I say this I have also learnt that it depends on what audience group you give the survey to. I'm pretty sure that there are people out there who believe that bullying isn't wrong. Even so I'm glad that everyone was on the same page because it's just lovely to know that there are people out there who know that bullying shouldn't happen at all. That's the main thing that I have learnt from my audience feedback. On the other side I have learnt a lot of interesting facts and figures and even quotes throughout this whole year. I'm actually really pleased about my A2 it was such fun working on this project with my little team. I have also learnt that I work really fast and am dedicated to whatever projects I'm on. The one thing that really interested me from the audience feedback is when some of the audience group answered some of the questions with really good concept ideas. Some of them I really liked and was planning to input them somehow to the media text but I decided to go with my ideas instead. Audience feedback has such an importance in shaping the final product as institutions such as myself would need to know what target audience group my final product is being aimed at want. By understanding what the target audience group I'm aiming my final product to want helps a lot in the research and planning for my final product because I can then essentially use ideas my target audience group want in my final product to satisfy their needs and this is why audience feedback is so significant in my product because it helped me have an understanding of what they would like to see from this music video based on bullying.

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

As you can see throughout my blog I used many different and creative ways to produce my media texts. For example, I done a podcast, I made posters, I made plenty of videos, talk shows everything you name it. I love establishing my work by using all methods possible. I been making YouTube videos and music videos even before I started doing Media. This meant that I already knew what to do and how things would play out. With the use of technology I been able to do so much for my media studies as I was able to connect to my target audience group and other groups which has allowed me to develop my research even more than what I can gather just by myself without the help of technology. I was able to understand my target audiences opinions as well what other groups think. The results that I got from a lot of my target audience groups and other groups really pleased me because they agreed with what I was creating awareness of. As you should know by now my whole blog has been based on anti-bullying and with the use of technologies it is a vital part to have as technologies allow me to create this awareness. Furthermore, technology has allowed me to obtain worldwide information based on anti-bullying. If it wasn't for technology we wouldn't have this information or media texts that convey different stereotypes. I'm usually the type of person that get's more of my influence from media texts that I enjoy. In this case it was my Korean School Dramas which gave me the big push to make a stop to bullying. Constructing this music video has been absolutely a delight as I introduced shocking scenes like an egg being cracked on one of the casts head. When this particular scene was shown to some of the younger students as well as the teachers it really opened up their eyes even more. Bullying is something that no one in the world should have to feel they have to go through for no reason whatsoever. It is never the correct way to solve a situation.

The beautiful thing about technology is that it doesn't just help us obtain worldwide information about anything that we desire. Technology has advanced so much now that we have applications like Adobe Sweets which help us to construct our own music video and imagery. However, you have to study the application to understand how to create music videos and imagery. Thanks to technology I am able to use these beautiful applications to create music videos and imagery! Alongside with music. I can create so many music video as it's just something that I find natural to me and extremely fun.

Also, I helped other groups in my media class with behind the scenes of their music videos as I was working by myself because I tend to do everything so I can now say that I did work with a group part time. Here's a video of me and one of the groups that I helped talking about their music video and answering the evaluation questions for it as well as a clean snap shot.