Question 4
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Tuesday, 10 April 2012
Monday, 9 April 2012
Evaluation: Question 3
Throughout our media project we have used audience feedback to improve our music products, we have found this very helpful. Ways in which we have found it useful are; when we were unsure about certain aspects of our products or had a lack of ideas our focus group provided us with helpful ideas, when choosing fonts, when editing our music video, audience have even helped us with the final details of our products that we may have missed such as spelling or slight imperfections. The first audience feedback we received was when we presented our pitch to the class, the written feedback we received was helpful because it told us whether or not our concept was worth perusing and what aspects we had to focus on to ensure that we made our video as authentic as possible. We then held another focus group with our target audience, we showed them the song we were planning on using and explained our concepts and then asked them questions like "Do you think it will look realistic?" and "Does it appeal to you?" we received positive feedback although some of the members expressed concern about the lead singer being female and the lead character being male.
We then began storyboarding, filming and editing our music video. We created a rough cut of our music video and decided to host another two focus groups in order to gain feedback on how they thought the video was coming along and what parts they thought could be improved on. These focus groups really helped us develop our video as they informed us that we needed a performance element to our music video because it looked more like a short film without it, they also suggested that to hide the low quality of the clowns performance that we add a sepia tone to it.
Here is an example of one of our focus groups:
Our focus groups and audience feedback for both our music video and our print work have been very helpful, they have helped us refine our music videos in areas that we may have missed. We have incorporated all of our audience feedback into our products as they have all been very sensible and realistic.
I have also collected some of my own audience feedback from our target audience to get a feel about what they really think about the music video using Facebook:
Overall the interviewee was slightly confused at to what the narrative was, but answered the question about narrative correctly in the end, therefore I think they expected the narrative to be more complicated than it was. They understood the genre of the music video and who it was aimed at. Because the interviewee was viewing the final cut of the music video we cannot go back and change anything now, however I do agree with her that the storyline should perhaps be more simplistic or made clearer. Our video does give the audience something to think about and use their interpretation a bit which I think is a good thing as this makes it more interesting and will leave them wanting to watch it again.
To ensure that our audience feedback was as useful and detailed as possible it was important that the audience feedback was collected using qualitative methods for example interviews or questionnaires that allow detailed answers, this offers more information than quantitative methods usually consist of yes and no answers. This would not be useful when analysing audience feedback because the whole point of it is to receive detailed feedback on where you can improve.
Marketing and brand image is essential when producing a product. Branding is essential as a good brand can make your product stand out from the others therefore creating a wider audience. A brand is more than simply the logo on a product, anything you associate with that product is considered part of the brand. It usually incorporates the values and personality of the individuals you are trying to advertise, this is important because it establishes a relationship with the audience as they will usually share the same values and personality traits as the people you are trying to advertise. House style, these are a set of visual conventions that are used across the marketing materials for the product you are trying to sell, is another aspect of marketing that is essential for successful advertisement of a product. If all of the conventions are included on a marketing product this indicates that they are of a high quality, if the presentation is sloppy this will be reflected in your product and will result in less people wanting to buy the product. The house style needs to be coherent and original in order for it to be appreciated for example the colours have to match and there has to be a consistent theme and font throughout, this will make it more aesthetically pleasing and will help it stand out from other products.
We then began storyboarding, filming and editing our music video. We created a rough cut of our music video and decided to host another two focus groups in order to gain feedback on how they thought the video was coming along and what parts they thought could be improved on. These focus groups really helped us develop our video as they informed us that we needed a performance element to our music video because it looked more like a short film without it, they also suggested that to hide the low quality of the clowns performance that we add a sepia tone to it.
Here is an example of one of our focus groups:
Our focus groups and audience feedback for both our music video and our print work have been very helpful, they have helped us refine our music videos in areas that we may have missed. We have incorporated all of our audience feedback into our products as they have all been very sensible and realistic.
I have also collected some of my own audience feedback from our target audience to get a feel about what they really think about the music video using Facebook:
Overall the interviewee was slightly confused at to what the narrative was, but answered the question about narrative correctly in the end, therefore I think they expected the narrative to be more complicated than it was. They understood the genre of the music video and who it was aimed at. Because the interviewee was viewing the final cut of the music video we cannot go back and change anything now, however I do agree with her that the storyline should perhaps be more simplistic or made clearer. Our video does give the audience something to think about and use their interpretation a bit which I think is a good thing as this makes it more interesting and will leave them wanting to watch it again.
To ensure that our audience feedback was as useful and detailed as possible it was important that the audience feedback was collected using qualitative methods for example interviews or questionnaires that allow detailed answers, this offers more information than quantitative methods usually consist of yes and no answers. This would not be useful when analysing audience feedback because the whole point of it is to receive detailed feedback on where you can improve.
Marketing and brand image is essential when producing a product. Branding is essential as a good brand can make your product stand out from the others therefore creating a wider audience. A brand is more than simply the logo on a product, anything you associate with that product is considered part of the brand. It usually incorporates the values and personality of the individuals you are trying to advertise, this is important because it establishes a relationship with the audience as they will usually share the same values and personality traits as the people you are trying to advertise. House style, these are a set of visual conventions that are used across the marketing materials for the product you are trying to sell, is another aspect of marketing that is essential for successful advertisement of a product. If all of the conventions are included on a marketing product this indicates that they are of a high quality, if the presentation is sloppy this will be reflected in your product and will result in less people wanting to buy the product. The house style needs to be coherent and original in order for it to be appreciated for example the colours have to match and there has to be a consistent theme and font throughout, this will make it more aesthetically pleasing and will help it stand out from other products.
Sunday, 8 April 2012
Evaluation: Question 1
We chose the song 'Just Don't Care' by All About Flux, it took us a considerable amount of time to choose this song and we found it very difficult to find an unsigned band that we all agreed had the right aspects in order to create a great music video. We wanted a song that was relatively upbeat but with lyrics that had enough meaning behind them to create a narrative that you could empathise with. We did not want our song to be slow as we agreed that the music video might be too redundant and therefore predicable. In the end we decided that 'Just Don't Care' was the best song as it included both a fast and slow tempo which enabled us to use a variety of editing techniques to make our video as interesting as possible.
Many things have inspired us whilst doing research for our music video, for example whilst exploring redundancy and entropy we learned lots of techniques that we could include that would make our music video more entropic. However it also taught us that there are certain aspects that you need in every music video for example at one point we wanted to make our video purely narrative however after looking back over our research we decided this was unrealistic and to make it look as professional and authentic as possible we needed a performance element. Bands that inspired us whilst researching are Paramore, Panic at the Disco and Take That, there was aspects of their videos that we liked and wanted to incorporate into our own. Paramore were very similar to our own genre, their videos particularly helped when looking at the performance element. Panic at the Disco and Take That both have entropic elements that we enjoyed, the videos 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' and 'Said It All' particularly caught our attention and we wanted to include the clown aspect into our own video as we thought this would make our video more entropic and interesting especially when discussing something as serious as the breakdown of a relationship. We then made a pitch on Prezi to incorporate all of our ideas, we used this to present our ideas to our class and received feedback informing us on improvements we could make, things we had to ensure we did for example getting permission from locations and whether they liked the idea and if it was worth perusing.
We have held various focus groups and have all created Facebook groups directed at our target audience this has helped us throughout the making of our video and print work. Their suggestions have helped us improve our music video and view them from a different angle allowing us to polish it and make it as good as it possibly could be. Our focus group also helped us see that we needed to include a performance element to our video which we think has improved it as it then looked like a standard music video. As the video progressed we decided that we wanted a smaller focus group as this would be easier to control and hear everyone's creative opinions.
Sir Ken Robinson believed that every child is born creative however the education system is bad to be wrong therefore depriving them of being creative because being creative is all about making mistakes. To begin we were all finding it difficult to be creative, we had a concept but were having difficulty developing it and making it fit with the lyrics and music. However after a while one of us came up with a good concept and we were all able to elaborate on it, this helped us incorporate all of our ideas. Our group was lucky as we all seemed to bounce off each others creativity therefore coming up with a concept that we all liked and would enjoy filming. It is safe to say that we all made mistake but as a group we were able to help each other and correct them therefore ending up with a video we are all proud of.
We tried to make the production of our music video and print products as professional and authentic as possible this was difficult however due to the amount of time, our budget, the technology and the lighting. As we were filming in a real auditorium lighting was difficult as it was very dark, we could not use the studio lights as we needed someone with training to use them. We used several cameras during filming, the first was not of a very high quality which was inconvenient. Also due to cameras being unavailable we had to improvise and use a different camera. However in the end I think we made the video look as professional as possible. I think the location (The Assembly Rooms) we used while filming really worked and made the video look professional it also complimented the performance element of the band and the performance of the clown. Regarding the budget we did spend a little of our own money on face paints however most items in our music video we already had at our disposal, therefore budget was not too much of an issue. In my opinion the print work looks very similar to the conventional digipaks and advertisements as we used the program 'Photoshop' that would be used by professionals and the research that we collected previously helped a lot when deciding what to include on our print products.
In the media industry it is very difficult to come up with an original idea for example even Lady Gaga whose videos are entropic at the best of times are becoming more redundant because everyone expects her to do something odd. I believe that our video is relatively original, we have aspects that are realistic and occur in everyday life for example the broken romance however we include entropic elements that make the video fresh and interesting. Our entropic element is the clown, this element is entropic as you expect clowns to be happy, unfortunately because of his complicated relationship he is becoming depressed which subsequently effects his work. I believe that we have a good balance of entropic and redundant elements, this allows for the video to be interesting but not confuse the audience. During our audience feedback sessions some of our target audience were unsure about how we would execute this is a way where it would still be clear, we took this into consideration whilst storyboarding and editing and have hopefully constructed our video in a way as to not confuse our target audience.
Walter Jon Williams suggests that genre labels are only useful for establishing an audience, I agree with this labels can help you find your target audience and advertise towards them however it cannot make them like it. We used focus groups and Facebook groups in order to reach our to our target audience and find what they liked or would change about our print work and music video, this was very beneficial as we then knew how to advertise specifically to them.
Many things have inspired us whilst doing research for our music video, for example whilst exploring redundancy and entropy we learned lots of techniques that we could include that would make our music video more entropic. However it also taught us that there are certain aspects that you need in every music video for example at one point we wanted to make our video purely narrative however after looking back over our research we decided this was unrealistic and to make it look as professional and authentic as possible we needed a performance element. Bands that inspired us whilst researching are Paramore, Panic at the Disco and Take That, there was aspects of their videos that we liked and wanted to incorporate into our own. Paramore were very similar to our own genre, their videos particularly helped when looking at the performance element. Panic at the Disco and Take That both have entropic elements that we enjoyed, the videos 'I Write Sins Not Tragedies' and 'Said It All' particularly caught our attention and we wanted to include the clown aspect into our own video as we thought this would make our video more entropic and interesting especially when discussing something as serious as the breakdown of a relationship. We then made a pitch on Prezi to incorporate all of our ideas, we used this to present our ideas to our class and received feedback informing us on improvements we could make, things we had to ensure we did for example getting permission from locations and whether they liked the idea and if it was worth perusing. 
We have held various focus groups and have all created Facebook groups directed at our target audience this has helped us throughout the making of our video and print work. Their suggestions have helped us improve our music video and view them from a different angle allowing us to polish it and make it as good as it possibly could be. Our focus group also helped us see that we needed to include a performance element to our video which we think has improved it as it then looked like a standard music video. As the video progressed we decided that we wanted a smaller focus group as this would be easier to control and hear everyone's creative opinions. Sir Ken Robinson believed that every child is born creative however the education system is bad to be wrong therefore depriving them of being creative because being creative is all about making mistakes. To begin we were all finding it difficult to be creative, we had a concept but were having difficulty developing it and making it fit with the lyrics and music. However after a while one of us came up with a good concept and we were all able to elaborate on it, this helped us incorporate all of our ideas. Our group was lucky as we all seemed to bounce off each others creativity therefore coming up with a concept that we all liked and would enjoy filming. It is safe to say that we all made mistake but as a group we were able to help each other and correct them therefore ending up with a video we are all proud of.
We tried to make the production of our music video and print products as professional and authentic as possible this was difficult however due to the amount of time, our budget, the technology and the lighting. As we were filming in a real auditorium lighting was difficult as it was very dark, we could not use the studio lights as we needed someone with training to use them. We used several cameras during filming, the first was not of a very high quality which was inconvenient. Also due to cameras being unavailable we had to improvise and use a different camera. However in the end I think we made the video look as professional as possible. I think the location (The Assembly Rooms) we used while filming really worked and made the video look professional it also complimented the performance element of the band and the performance of the clown. Regarding the budget we did spend a little of our own money on face paints however most items in our music video we already had at our disposal, therefore budget was not too much of an issue. In my opinion the print work looks very similar to the conventional digipaks and advertisements as we used the program 'Photoshop' that would be used by professionals and the research that we collected previously helped a lot when deciding what to include on our print products.
In the media industry it is very difficult to come up with an original idea for example even Lady Gaga whose videos are entropic at the best of times are becoming more redundant because everyone expects her to do something odd. I believe that our video is relatively original, we have aspects that are realistic and occur in everyday life for example the broken romance however we include entropic elements that make the video fresh and interesting. Our entropic element is the clown, this element is entropic as you expect clowns to be happy, unfortunately because of his complicated relationship he is becoming depressed which subsequently effects his work. I believe that we have a good balance of entropic and redundant elements, this allows for the video to be interesting but not confuse the audience. During our audience feedback sessions some of our target audience were unsure about how we would execute this is a way where it would still be clear, we took this into consideration whilst storyboarding and editing and have hopefully constructed our video in a way as to not confuse our target audience.
Walter Jon Williams suggests that genre labels are only useful for establishing an audience, I agree with this labels can help you find your target audience and advertise towards them however it cannot make them like it. We used focus groups and Facebook groups in order to reach our to our target audience and find what they liked or would change about our print work and music video, this was very beneficial as we then knew how to advertise specifically to them.
Saturday, 7 April 2012
Friday, 6 April 2012
Advertisement Feedback
I added my advert to the Facebook group I created, I received positive feedback from my target audience with some suggestions on where I could improve and some tips on how I could improve certain aspects I think that these tips have helped me improve my advert and I have taken them into account.
Thursday, 5 April 2012
Digipak Feedback
I posted my digipak onto my Facebook group to receive feedback from my target audience, they were all positive however there were some suggestions of where I could improve for example some images were slightly stretched and the blurring effect needed some improvement. I took all of these suggestions into consideration and hopefully improved my digipak because of them.
Digipak Production
Here is a post showing the development of my digipak. First I gathered a selection of images that we taken previously and decided which I wanted to use on my digipak. I chose a selection of photos of the band members as the point of the digipak is to advertise them, a still of the clown to advertise the video and a photo of the seats in the assembly rooms, I chose this as I didn't want an image that would distract from the text I would add. I added a sepia effect to add more contrast to the images.
I then added the text: the bands logo, the album name, a short message of tanks, the music tracks, the additional DVD, website and copyright notice. I also blurred the background of the front cover image in order for the band name to be easier to read. Finally I added the bar-code and label logo.
Monday, 2 April 2012
Fonts
Thursday, 29 March 2012
Possible Front Cover Ideas and Digi Pac Template
Also below is the template I will be using for my digi pac.
Wednesday, 28 March 2012
Performance Filming Updates
When filming our performance element we were keen to get it right in one lesson, we took into consideration our audience feedback and used a camera with a higher quality, also we opened the shutters in the Assembly Rooms to let more natural light in. Whilst filming we shot some lip syncing, playing of the instrument and performance from a range of different angles. We also took some stills for our print work, we have now begun editing the performance into the narrative sequence.
Here are some stills of the performance:
Here are some stills of the performance:
Performance Actors and Filming
Because we decided that we needed a performance element to our music video we needed to find actors that we hadn't used before, as a group we decided that Jack and myself would play the role of the band due to our lack of time and this guaranteed that we would be able to film quickly because we already knew each others schedules. After we decided who was going to play the parts we set about deciding the costumes and props we would need ready for filming. We decided that we didn't want the performers in clown makeup but we didn't want a circus appearance, we also decided that we wanted them to perform in the same place as the clown this would give the audience something to relate to and was appropriate because we already had permission to film there. Below is a moodboard of some of the ideas we came up with for props and costumes for our performance actors. We chose a black, white and red theme as this reflects the circus/mime theme we are looking for and also stands out in the Assembly Rooms (our set).
Rough Cut and Audience Feedback
For the past few weeks we have been editing the footage of our music video, we have also created a rough cuts and have held a focus groups to gain insight into where we could improve. This also allows us to explain the decisions we made whilst editing our music video. Here is our rough cut:
We were unhappy with some aspects of our music video for example we were having trouble with camera quality which slowed down the editing process, we discussed this with our focus group and they suggested changing the colour of the clowns performance, we took this into account and we think this has improved the appearance of our music video. Our video was going to be purely narrative however our focus group recommended that we add performance as it may not be clear that it is a music video, we decided that this was a good idea but put us behind schedule because we had to go back and film some more footage. We think that by adding the performance element it has improved our music video significantly. To catch up we decided that we would do an extra day of editing.
The questions we asked during our feedback sessions were:
We were unhappy with some aspects of our music video for example we were having trouble with camera quality which slowed down the editing process, we discussed this with our focus group and they suggested changing the colour of the clowns performance, we took this into account and we think this has improved the appearance of our music video. Our video was going to be purely narrative however our focus group recommended that we add performance as it may not be clear that it is a music video, we decided that this was a good idea but put us behind schedule because we had to go back and film some more footage. We think that by adding the performance element it has improved our music video significantly. To catch up we decided that we would do an extra day of editing.
The questions we asked during our feedback sessions were:
- Does the music video appeal to you and why?
- What is your favourite part of the music video and why?
- Is there anything you would change or improve on?
Thursday, 22 March 2012
Time Management and Changes Updates
Below is the March calender we created to help organise our time more efficiently.
Thursday, 23 February 2012
Update
On Monday 20th of February we finally completed all of our filming, over the next couple of weeks we will be editing our footage. We hope to have finished all of our editing by the 5th of March, there may be some scenes that we have to shoot during or after editing but this shouldn't be a problem.We have adapted our storyboard slightly, removing some scenes and changing some ideas, Luke who played the clown for our video had some good ideas which we have incorporated into our video.
Overall we are all very happy with what we have achieved so far and think we are on track to complete our coursework to the best of our ability and in good time. Below is a calendar to show that we are meeting our targets.
Monday, 13 February 2012
Filming Photos
These are the photos from when we were filming with Luke in the Assembly rooms on Friday 10th of February, we were very happy with how the filming went and were able to capture the rest of the clown scenes that day.
Filming photographs
Filming photographs
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Thursday, 9 February 2012
Filming Updates
We were unable to film on Monday 6th as our actor was unable to make it into college due to the whether, therefore we have postponed the scenes we were planning on filming on Monday until after the half term holidays.
We plan to film the rest of the clown's scenes with Luke on Friday 10th which will take place in the Assembly Rooms, we have permission to film there whenever it is free.
We plan to film the rest of the clown's scenes with Luke on Friday 10th which will take place in the Assembly Rooms, we have permission to film there whenever it is free.
Sunday, 5 February 2012
Filming Rearrangements
Our main actor Luke was unable to film on Thursday 2nd of February, we decided that it would be sensible to look for another lead actor in case Luke was unable to perform the part any more. We scouted around college to find someone of a similar standard to Luke and that fit the brief, however we were unsuccessful. Later we received a phone call of Luke saying that he would be able to film the Friday and Thursday after.
With our free time we decided it would be productive if we arranged what shots we had to get, the makeup, props and costumes we needed and when we needed them for. After doing all of these things we were able to film on Friday 3rd of February.
With our free time we decided it would be productive if we arranged what shots we had to get, the makeup, props and costumes we needed and when we needed them for. After doing all of these things we were able to film on Friday 3rd of February.
Audience Theory
The Cultural Studies Approach to Audience:
Morley suggests that audiences are not just passively affected by media, that they actively take part. His approach attempts to understand the intended effects of media, Morley states that different audiences adopt different standpoints in relation to the values expressed in media. The different standpoints are:
Preferred - the audience recognise the values being offered and accept them as being natural and correct.
Negotiated - the audience recognise the values as legitimate and accept them in general but adapt their reading to fit with there experiences.
Oppositional - the audience understand the values but disagrees with them and rejects them.
Ideally we would like our audience to look at our music video in a preferred way, in order to achieve this we will make the rich man look like the bad guy by emphasising the idea that his is having an affair with the clowns girlfriend which subsequently affects the clowns performance. The affair will be made obvious by showing its progression throughout the music for example they go to coffee, give and receive presents and go for a meal; all of this happens while the clown is getting gradually more upset. Also he will be dressed in a black suit which will make him appear sinister and not to be trusted. Close ups of the clowns reaction and expression while he is getting more upset will create a sense of empathy for the audience. Hopefully our video will inspire the audience to take the side of the underdog, however there will enevitabley be those who take a negotiated or oppositional standpoint.
Morley suggests that audiences are not just passively affected by media, that they actively take part. His approach attempts to understand the intended effects of media, Morley states that different audiences adopt different standpoints in relation to the values expressed in media. The different standpoints are:
Preferred - the audience recognise the values being offered and accept them as being natural and correct.
Negotiated - the audience recognise the values as legitimate and accept them in general but adapt their reading to fit with there experiences.
Oppositional - the audience understand the values but disagrees with them and rejects them.
Ideally we would like our audience to look at our music video in a preferred way, in order to achieve this we will make the rich man look like the bad guy by emphasising the idea that his is having an affair with the clowns girlfriend which subsequently affects the clowns performance. The affair will be made obvious by showing its progression throughout the music for example they go to coffee, give and receive presents and go for a meal; all of this happens while the clown is getting gradually more upset. Also he will be dressed in a black suit which will make him appear sinister and not to be trusted. Close ups of the clowns reaction and expression while he is getting more upset will create a sense of empathy for the audience. Hopefully our video will inspire the audience to take the side of the underdog, however there will enevitabley be those who take a negotiated or oppositional standpoint.
Thursday, 2 February 2012
Risk Assessment and Location Shots
As a group we have discussed what locations would be suitable for our music video.Ideally they will be somewhere we can all get to easily and that will look authentic. The main location of our video is the theatre our clown is performing in, we have chosen the Ludlow Assembly Rooms as it is a professional theatre that suits the style of our video.It has a large stage and dressing rooms and our group has links with the people who run the theatre, which is important as we will need permission to film and possibly some technical help. We had a meeting with the stage manager at the assembly rooms and he gave us permission to film, as well as emailing us information about when we should schedule our shoot.
Our other locations are around Ludlow town centre, outside a cafe, a jewellery shop and by the river. We have decided on the places in town we wish to use and we will ask permission from shopkeepers on the day, as we are only shooting outside their shops and we can easily find replacements if necessary. When looking for locations we took note of any health and safety problems and then wrote our a risk assessment table.
Our other locations are around Ludlow town centre, outside a cafe, a jewellery shop and by the river. We have decided on the places in town we wish to use and we will ask permission from shopkeepers on the day, as we are only shooting outside their shops and we can easily find replacements if necessary. When looking for locations we took note of any health and safety problems and then wrote our a risk assessment table.
Costume/Props | Source | Potential cost | Person in charge |
Suit (patch work) | Charity shops/dads | ||
Wig | Rachel | Free | Rachel |
Rings | Rosie-diamond Plastic ring? | Free Free | Rosie Emma? |
Props-spinning plates/Diablo | Rachel | Free | Rachel |
Bowler hat with flower | Rachel | Free | Rachel |
Tight skirt | Rosie | Free | Rosie |
Blouse with buttons | Rosie/Rachel | Free | Rosie/Rachel |
Posh suit | Joe? | Free | Joe? |
Clown Makeup | Emma | Max: £3 | Emma |
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
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