Evaluation Question 4 - Megan Marsh 7103

https://prezi.com/view/kUr8ZHAFhLYmq5kfZsxN/

Follow link above for question 4

Evaluation Question 3 - Megan Marsh 7103

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We recorded audience feedback from a range of people of different age groups, gender and ethnicity in order to get an acute and varied response. we carried out audience feedback through out the production process in order to identify and address thinks we were able to improve on. 

Our first lot of audience feedback was received when we had made a rough cut of our music video and uploaded it to YouTube. At this point we were aware that the video was incomplete however we decided that we were at a point in production where by we were able to show other members of the public our video in order to make amendments earlier on in the process of editing. I've documented our findings below;



Rough Cut 1

Audience Feedback 1 

Audience Feedback 2 

Conclusion 

Below is an analysis, I am the student on the Right with the Dark hair; 

Below I have attached videos of us receiving audience feedback for our digipack and magazine cover. 

Digipack and Magazine cover

We printed out each of the products and showcased them to members of the public with in St Marks Catholic School in order to gain feedback and help finalise our decisions. The 2 images below were the options we were choosing between. 

Feedback For Digipack

 Group Conclusion 

Final Music Video Feedback 

    

Conclusion;
Overall i believe the use of audience feedback greatly benefited our project because it allowed us to see the different perspectives in which the audience viewed our media product. we were also able to gather constructive cristism which lead to several developments with in our media product. 

Evaluation Question 2 - Megan Marsh 7103

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text? 

The interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, 

“Synergy is the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts"

Our Final Products

Evaluation Question 1 - Megan Marsh 7103

Here we challenged forms of a real media product due to the way that youth is usually represented, based on this setting we have represented teens as joyful in a skate park, if we compare our representation of youth to an artist like 'Stormzy' we can see that the use of setting presents youth as more intimidating which challenges our representation of youth and therefore challenges the conventions of real media text. 

however through the use of our skate park theme we have also conformed to real media texts conventions; 

Rihanna - We Found Love ft. Calvin Harris

slow paced shots conform to media products such as; 

Fast paced shots conform to media products such as; 

ZAYN - Still Got Time ft. PARTYNEXTDOOR

Our Product

Comparison to Ellie Goulding

Our Media Product

Conforming to real media products in terms of lighting and close ups; 

Catfish and The Bottlemen

Our Media Product

Sexualisation

Party

Evaluation Question 4 - James O'Rourke 6124

Evaluation Question 3 - James O'Rourke 6124

What have you learned from your audience feedback? 

Here our some videos of audience feedback to our magazine advert, our digipak and to the music video:

Audience Feedback on our magazine advert 

Audience Feedback on our digipak 

Audience Feedback on our digipak 

Audience feedback on our digipak design and layout 

Audience Feedback of our first rough cut for our music video (1)

Audience Feedback of our rough cut for our music video (2)

Overall, we have found that audience feedback is vital in order to create a successful and genuine media product. That listening to other people's opinions on a certain product can help the creator to design a product that has the interests of the audience at heart, whilst still showing your own creative opinion. The audience feedback we received for our three products allowed us to make more impactful changes to our three products, which allowed us to create products that were genuine and that helped to create a synergistic element to them. (For the audience, memory by association)

Magazine Advert 

For our Magazine Advert, we had two different design ideas, which we pitched to some of our audience to ask them which one they preferred. For both of the design ideas we had the same image of the main artist (Megan) positioned in the centre of the frame for the advert, many of the people that viewed both said that it was a good use of the rule of thirds, and that it allows the image to stand out. Also for both of the designs many people liked the fact that we had the use of the warmer colour scheme (the pink, red colours), as they had recognised from our music video which they had watched prior to the viewing of our magazine advert designs, some of the people said that the colour can be linked between the different products (so an idea of synergy between the products) and that it allowed them to remember the products from the colour scheme. However, there were subtle differences between the two designs. One had the band name and the name of the song at the top and 'New Single Out Now' towards the bottom. The second design had it swapped round so the band and song names were at the bottom and the 'New Single Out Now' line at the top. From showing both to our audience the overall feedback was they preferred the first design as they said it highlights the new single and the band name, however, due to the fact that the band 'Junior Empire' is less well known as it being an unsigned band many people got confused with what the band name and the name of the song was. So as a result we decided to change the wording so it emphasised what was the song name, by saying 'featuring new single' followed by the name of the song, and we decided to have the band name in larger font at the top to make it stand out. 

This is our final product for our magazine advert

Our discussion about our final product (I'm the student furthest to the right) 

Digipak 

For our digipak we had different design ideas, so we presented our ideas to our audience to see which one they preferred and which had the most impact. For example we were going to decide about what type and size of font to use for a track list on the back panel and what preferred orientation we should use for the track list. We thought about having the orientation of the text rotated so it was sideways, however many said that it would be less convient for them as they would have preferred to just have the text normally orientated, so they could just pick up the case and look at the track list instead of having to turn the case or their head. Also they liked the synergistic elements that we placed within the digipak, in order to link it to the magazine advert and the music video itself, for instance the image of the main artist (Megan) is used on both the magazine advert and the front of the digipak and the fact the colour scheme is used throughout all three products. In the video above we also talk about our final digipak. 

This is our final product for our digipak:

Music Video

For our music video we had multiple stages where we asked feedback from our audience about ideas for our music video. For our initial ideas and brainstorms for our video we presented a group pitch to our class, where we told them about our ideas and they responded with some feedback for us. Some of the feedback was really helpful and useful especially for our filming stages, for example some people said they liked the idea of showing urban youth as they thought that the images we could use of teenagers having fun would work well with the song itself. We also had audience feedback 

to our rough cut of our music video, from this someone suggested that we take out a scene from our rough cut that showed someone smoking, they said they didn't understand why this was in the video, so we removed the clip and replaced it with another, this turned out to be better as the images from the clip matched with the pace of the song. Another example of audience feedback we were given was that with our raw footage and our edited cut of the music video, to make sure that we didn't just throw in clips in order to fill a space, it has to mean something and make sense. As a group we found some of the editing process difficult especially when we used most of our raw footage, we also found out that we would spend a while in one section of the music video because some clips made the section look either boring and unprofessional, but in the end we found the correct clips to make our final product. Moreover, when watching our rough cut many people said that some of the clips of raw footage needed to be stabilised especially the clip of the panning shot within the restaurant/bar. However, there were clips we found to look worse when we did fully stabilise them and so we took off the stabilisation in order to make the clip flow and run smoother. In Addition, many people thought that our party scene and the quick cuts that were on the beat of the song were very effective and that it allows the images and the music to sync together. Another person stated that they liked the cut between lip syncing scenes, where the main artist (Megan) looks to the side during a mid-shot and then continues when there is a close-up of half her face, they believed that it was a very good shot, that made it look more professional. 

This is our final cut of our music video 

Evaluation Question 2 - James O'Rourke 6124

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

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3 (Some audience feedback for our three products) 

Evaluation Question 1 - James O'Rourke 6124

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

Created using Visme. Free Online Presentation Software.

Evaluation Question 4 - Harsh Makwana 7101

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

Evaluation Question 3 - Harsh Makwana 7101

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Here are some examples of our audience feedback of our magazine advert, CD cover and the music video itself:

Evaluation Question 2 - Harsh Makwana 7101

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

Evaluation Question 1 - Harsh Makwana 7101

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

Conventions of an Indie/Pop music video:

• Live performance from the artist 

• Main settings are in studios, cities, parks, streets 

• Narrative is shown through the visuals 

• Dialogue is often used to either begin the narrative or conclude the story 

• Extreme close-ups are common as it introduces the artist or the antagonist to the audience 

• Tilt shots and pan shots are commonly used 

• Handheld shots are also used, often to show a memory 

• Filters are often used to give the audience a certain idea - eg. black and white filter is often used to show a memory or to represent the past 

• Fast and slow cuts between shots are used, often to reflect the pace of the music, creating an atmosphere for the music video 

Goodwin's theory states there are 5 key aspects to a music video:

1. Relationship between the song and visuals
2. Narrative and performance of the song
3. Thought-through beat
4. Technical aspect of a music video
5. Star image being made the centre of attention

There is a relationship between our visuals and the lyrics of the song to some extent. There are lyrics linking to independence, freedom and travelling, and we have incorporated that into our visuals, with shots of trains and a lot of walking shots. There is no fixed narrative; we deceived upon this as it would give us freedom and allow our creativity to take over, illustrating the theme of freedom and independence. In terms of a thought-through beat, we had every clip in our music video cut to the beat, with that changing to every half-beat during the second half of the chorus. We did this as there was a guitar added to the track at that point, making the tempo sound faster, so we decided to reflect and enhance that change of tempo through the visuals. We also decided to increase the speed of these clips to again amplify the change of tempo.

Prior to filming our music video, we as a group had to decide what conventions we planned to adhere to, and what conventions to challenge. Taking inspiration from many different Indie/Pop music videos, here is how our media product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products:

Gender Neutralisation and The Fourth Wall

Initially, we intended to use a male actor to lip-sync the male vocals however as a group, we decided it would be interesting to go against the stereotypical music video and have a female lip-sync a male's voice. It has been done previously, most notably in The Hunna - Never Enough music video, where they too have a female lip-syncing a male, however it is not conventional. During our lip-syncing scenes, similar to that of The Hunna - Never Enough music video, the female actress is positioned centrally, linking to one of Goodwin's features of the star image being made the centre of attention. Our actress is against a black background and is seen wearing a fur coat, with her collar bones on show. Although many music videos do feature sexualisation of the female body, most notably the works of Robin Thicke and Miley Cyrus, it is not necessarily a convention of the Indie/Pop genre and so we decided to stay away from that, with our actress' collar bones only being made apparent to highlight natural beauty as opposed to sexualising her.

Something that we explored and that comes under one of Goodwin's features is the fourth wall and the breaking of it. Regardless of the genre, the fourth wall is almost always broken in music videos, with the actors or artists looking directly into the camera. We decided to adhere to this convention as it would be easier to film and make the acting more authentic. We also decided to break the fourth wall to build up rapport with the audience. As mentioned in the costume section of this blog post, all the actors are of a similar age as the target audience, and so we made the decision to further this empathy between the audience and the video by having the lip-syncing done directly into the camera and by also having the actors looks into the camera at various points in the video. As seen below, no matter what genre the music is, the breaking of the fourth wall is a reoccurring theme. 

Our breaking of the fourth wall

The Hunna - Never Enough

Pop/Rap Song

Rap Song

Indie/Pop

Mise-en-Scene

Costume

As we, the members of the group, were the actors in the music video, and we are all of a similar age to our target audience, we decided to wear our own clothes in order to enhance the relationship between our video and our audience. Our costume also reflecting the theme of that sort of 'urban youth' lifestyle. Our costume is also similar to other Indie/Pop songs, for example The Wombats - Give Me A Try, adhering to a convention of the Indie/Pop genre:

Our Media Product

The Wombats - Give Me A Try 

Setting

As mentioned before, our music video aims to highlight freedom and independence, reflecting the fast paced lives that teenagers live. One way that we encoded this into our video is thought the use of many different settings. One setting in particular that takes up the majority of our music video is God's Own Junkyard, a neon light shop. We used this as a setting as the venue itself is bright and vibrant, which was what we initially set out to achieve. Another one of our settings was at a party. As seen below, the party was a neon party, which fit the theme of our music video perfectly. This is something many music videos have explored, espeicially when focusing on the youth and young adults as it is an aspect of youth life, especially in Indie/Pop songs, such as The Wombats - 1996.

Our party scene

The Wombats - 1996

Editing

As mentioned previously, lip-syncing directly into the camera is a convention of all music videos, not only the Indie/Pop genre. The editing of the lip-syncing shots against the audio line was difficult to perfect due to the timing. We as a group wanted to perfect this piece of editing as it was vital in establishing rapport with the audience. We used stabilisation in may of the party shots again to enhance the rapport with the audience; party scenes are very common in music videos and because our target audience are of a similar age to us, parties are very much a part of the youth's lives and in stabilising these clips, we made the content of the video more immersive. We also edited our footage to have many quick cuts and jump cuts. We included these clips to accentuate how quickly life goes by, and how in particular the teenage years fly by. This is a technique also used by other music videos, such as The Wombats - Give Me A Try:

Quick cuts in our music video

Quick cuts in The Wombats' music video

Conventions of a Digipak

Front Cover

• Eye-catching
• Album cover art
• Usually has the same artwork as the CD

Internal Panels

• Booklet
• Name of band/artist
• List of songs on album
• Song lyrics
• Personal Messages
• Artist information 

Our Digipak

Overall, our digipak conforms to the conventions of real media texts. We took inspiration from Michael Jackson's 'This Is It' as well as many other digipaks with the track list on the back panel. We also took inspiration from many other digipaks with the featuring of a lyrics sheet on one of the inside panels. We also took inspiration from the digipak below in that the protagonist of the music video is at the forefront of the digipak cover. 

Magazine Advert

Real media texts are very similar in that they do tend to feature the artist on the front cover. In a similar way, the magazine advert for 'Said and Done' also features the protagonist in the forefront. We took inspiration from the way they used the rule of thirds and in response, positioned our protagonist centrally to create an rapport with the audience as seen below: