Analysis of a Student’s Blog

Ellie Zambikidies• The student’s blog that I’ve decided to analyse is Ellie because she was a full mark student and her music video was the best one from last year, in my opinion. I’m going to be following a similar narrative layout to my music video as she did in hers.

• Just by looking at Ellie’s blog you can see the huge amount of effort she put in due to the number of blog posts. Moreover, she has tried to use a range of different media platforms to display her work such as: emaze, sound cloud, word documents, blog posts and videos.

• The navigation and layout of her blog is simple and easy. There are instructions on this on her home page ensuring that every visitor to the blog can use it with no difficulty. The tabs at the top allow the examiner to see her progress and how her work has developed from the start to the end of the year.

• All of her work is such a high level that it inspires me when doing all my blog posts. Also, I can now see how important all the first steps are in order to make a successful music video.

• The visual aspects of her blog stand out well and link nicely to her music video. The colour scheme corresponds with that in all her print work and her video.

Research• This section of Ellie’s blog was detailed and informative. She

definitely thought carefully about presenting these by using a range of media platforms to present these highlighting her strengths as a media student. Although there aren’t many videos of Ellie sat in front of the camera which would make her blog more personal for the user.

• Her similar product research was vital in allowing her to be aware of what she can achieve in her time frame with the recourses accessible. This will help her develop her own work and make it like the real life success products she has analysed.

• The genre sub-category of the research allows Ellie to look in depth at her chosen song and the conventions that this genre has for music videos meaning that her product will be successful if she follows these ideas. Also, it helps her to decide on Mise-en-scene that could be relevant to her music video so her genre is more recognisable.

• The final sub-category of her blog is Institution which is one of the least exciting section of her research due to the lack of videos however for these 4 posts she has used a different media for each one. My favourite post here is her ‘Research into Directors’ because of the prezi used and the detail she goes into when describing each one.

Production• My favourite section of Ellie’s blog is the production because

this is when her blog becomes to come alive. This section definitely uses the widest range of platforms for the different posts which is why it’s so interesting to read/watch.

• Shooting is the first in which Ellie has 4 videos under ‘raw footage.’ This suggests her dedication to her video as she got so much footage in order to see what works best with her song. She uses so many different locations and shots which I believe is why her video got full marks as well as her editing and performers used.

• The drafting section is when the examiner sees the video put together for the first time. Ellie’s video uses both black and white and colour which creates an emotional aspect to it. All her shots link nicely with the song which adds more success to her video. Moreover, this draft allows the examiner to compare this with her final video and see how Ellie has made progress over the term.

• Image manipulation suggests how Ellie changed her photos for her digipak and advert to make them suit her video and link together. She obviously thought very hard when deciding what colours to use as they link back to her final video well.

Evaluation• When I thought about this section of the blog I assumed it

would be heavily worded and not appealing to the eye however Ellie’s was the complete opposite making this stand out to me.

• Ellie used a magazine in order to present her evaluation questions. She did this in a programme called InDesign which allows you to easily create a magazine. This is quite unique like the whole of Ellie’s block and her video.

• By looking through this, I can see she’s used both images and text so it isn’t too heavy with either. She doesn’t cut anything out of her analysis and goes into lots of detail which makes her evaluation well-built. It kept me involved throughout and I didn’t get bored which shows she didn’t say anything irrelevant which she did by constantly referring back to the question.

• But Ellie didn’t stop at the magazine, she also created a video answering her questions. This is the only video of Ellie being herself and talking in front of the camera which makes it very exciting for the user as they can finally see the person who’s work they’re looking at. She could’ve looked at the camera more rather than looking at written work but overall her evaluation was very strong.

Why Ellie’s blog successful?• I believe Ellie’s A2 media coursework blog was so successful

due to how relevant every post was, she didn’t go off on tangents or cut corners. She did a great job in making sure her journey from the research to her final products was dramatic and highlighted her development as a media student.

• Ellie went way above the expectations of the specification which is one of the many reasons her blog was successful and got full marks like some tasks that weren’t compulsory such as 4 raw footage videos.

• The range of media platforms she used for the posts makes her blog go that extra bit in terms of success and detail as it ensures the examiner wouldn’t get bored. Moreover, it shows her experience within the media field.

• Her music video and blog are both unique and she makes sure they both link as her blog features screen grabs from her video.

• I believe that I can learn so much from Ellie’s blog including the variety of formats she’s used to present her work as before looking at her blog I wasn’t aware of scribds or sound clouds.