Evaluation Question Four

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback has provided me with vital information that not only helped me to gather ideas for my tasks but helped me to improve and stay focused through out both my production work and my ancillary tasks. After I uploaded my first cut of my music video I decided to get the opinions of both my teachers and my peers in my media studies class. My classmates were given a feedback sheet in which they were able to make a comment after watching my music video and to give me both a level and a mark using the mark scheme. I had mixed responses from this feedback ranging from a high level three to a low level two. The feedback taken from the level two responses mainly suggested that the audience understood the symbolism of the valentine’s card but believed that this slow motion shot of my female character ripping up the valentine’s card should be a bit faster. Some members of my audience also commented saying that the footage of the wooded area dragged on for a bit too long and didn’t have much relevance to my plot or the message I was trying to get across. I took on board this constructive criticism and improved my music video by cutting the wooded area footage down dramatically and included a different scene of my teenage couple which fit much better with both the music and the plot line. I also changed the speed of the slow motion part so it was faster and I used the stabilising function on the editing software so it created a smoother finish. Some good points taken from my level three responses included the use of good mise-en-scene for example vibrant colours used and the direction of the characters body language was successful. A few members of my target audience liked and enjoyed the song choice and thought the editing effects were effective for example the ‘dream’ scene. I learnt from my audience feedback that each person has their own opinion on what they like and what they don’t like and this varies from person to person as it is down to a matter of choice. You can’t always please everyone you want to and some people may love what you do while others may hate it. You just have to preserve until you find a right balance. If I was given this task again I would save myself more time for the actual music video as complications meant that I couldn’t always film when I planned and this delayed my progress which then had an effect on my ancillary tasks and felt it became a bit rushed towards the deadline.

Evaluation Question 3

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

The main purpose of a music video, magazine advert and digi-pak is to advertise both the artist and the song(s).  They need to be appealing and eye catching so that the audience both stops and looks at the magazine or digi-pak which may result in them purchasing the CD or to spend time watching the music video. A music video helps the audience to remember the song, to invoke a reaction or emotion and to help sell that particular song. The music video also provides entertainment and can show the artists other talents at the same time. For example with Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ music video he included a well choreographed dance routine. A music video may also appeal to some people that aren’t to keen on the song but enjoy watching the video so they will purchase it for this reason. A music video helps give the intended audience a better understanding of the storyline and includes visuals which may make the plot of the song more interesting. A music video also helps the artist or band stay in the public eye for a while after the song has been released. This will benefit the record company and the artist as this will keep an income coming in. A magazine advert is important as it attracts the reader’s attention. Having an advert in a magazine can also appeal to a bigger audience and a variety of people. Even though the advert will probably be placed in a magazine that has a similar genre some audiences who may not usually like that certain artist or type of music may be influenced to give it a try. A magazine advert needs to be bold, eye catching yet simple as most people just flick past adverts so it needs to be something special to make the reader stop and take notice of it. Below is a video I found using the internet about music magazine adverts.

How to Promote Your Music in Magazines —powered by eHow.com

A digi-pak consists of an album cover, a back cover and inserts. A digi-pak is a way of getting a message across from the artist or band to their fans and the people that are purchasing their album. It is a direct link and an opportunity for the artist to thank their close friends, family and fans. Most albums include a thank you list that the artist composes themselves. Many fans appreciate this personal touch as they have spent the money in getting the album. Without the audience the artists wouldn’t exist. Many artists include the lyrics to the tracks in this booklet type combination as well. This gives the listeners an opportunity to learn the songs quicker. The album cover needs to stand out as it will be placed with many other albums in a music shop. There shouldn’t be too much going on but should be kept simple and creative. The back cover normally has the track list and how long each track lasts. I believe that the combination of my music video and ancillary tasks is extremely effective. For my magazine advert I used an image from the music video itself. Straight away the audience will be able to recognise the image if they have seen the music video. I wanted the image to be one which would be familiar as they would associate the image with my music video and the actual song. I used this same image on the front cover of my digi-pak. The image was of the teenage couple in my video holding hands but facing away. I used this image because I wanted the couple to look like any other in love teenage couple, however because you can’t see their faces it creates mystery and we as the audience are not a hundred percent sure about what is really going on in the relationship and we can’t see the problems as we can’t see their facial expressions. I think my production and ancillary tasks tie in nicely with each other and create a lasting impression on the audience.

Evaluation Question Two

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

In my research and planning stages, different media technologies meant that I could access a wide range of information at the click of a button in a matter of seconds. The speed of the technologies I used really helped me in my research and planning stages as it meant that I could get my tasks done a lot quicker and have a variety of information to hand. Using different media technologies also helped me to present my data in different ways and to make it clear. I created my own blog on the website ‘BlogSpot’. This meant that all my research, planning , construction and evaluation tasks could be kept and presented in the same area which made viewing it much more easier then having to have many different documents. In my research stages I regularly used the well known broadcasting site ‘YouTube’ to look at existing music videos and to gather an idea on what videos were popular at the time I was creating my production. I chose a few videos and shared them on my blog and wrote a detailed evaluation of them, including what I personally thought was good and bad about them; this helped inspire me to be creative in my final piece and give me some ideas I could adapt and improve. I looked at both official music videos such as ‘Just The Way You Are, by Bruno Mars’ as well as other A-Level media studies student’s previous music videos from other schools. This enabled me to set myself a standard and it helped me to recognise the key conventions of a music video. After I finalised my project I uploaded it onto YouTube so I could receive external feedback which would help me in my evaluation. Also in my researching stages I designed a questionnaire to help me with my audience research. I used Microsoft Word to create this questionnaire and was able to print multiple copies. After the questionnaires were completed by members of my target audience, I took the data and put the results into Microsoft Excel. I then used the results to create graphs which made the results a lot clearer to look at and easier to understand. I also used the search engine ‘Google’ to find out more information on my artist (Katy Perry) so that I had some insight into her music as I had chosen to cover one of her songs that wasn’t as well known as her others. In the construction of my music video I used a digital camera and made good use of all the functions available. This included a zoom button, a video light (to make the footage brighter) and a camera function (to take still images that would later help me with my ancillary task).  I did have the option of using a tripod to make the footage more stable but I wanted parts of it to have a homemade feel about it and make the audience think that the boyfriend had recorded parts of it. In the construction of my music video I used the editing software ‘I-Movie’. This media technology made the editing of my video simple and I was able to add effects to improve the quality of the final cut. I used functions such as the stability button to steady some of the more shaky shots. I used the slow motion function to place emphasis on certain parts for example the female character ripping up the valentine’s card and her spinning around. I also used the reverse button in some parts to show that in the characters thoughts she is wishing she could go back and rewind and maybe change things between her and her then boyfriend. For my ancillary task I used ‘Photoshop’ to improve my images I had taken during filming, this included changing the brightness levels. I also used ‘InDesign’ to create my digi-pak. I used a template that I found on ‘Google’ and used a suitable font from a website called urban fonts.  Overall I think I used the media technologies available to the best of my ability and they helped enhance my production work.

Evaluation Question One

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

Throughout the creation of my music video, I kept referring back to the conventions that already exist in the music video industry. Music videos tend to follow many of the same trends and conventions of previous successful videos. I tried to stick to these conventions as closely as possible as I wanted my intended target audience to be aware of the genre of the video and for it to be recognisable as a music video. In existing music videos the camera shots include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. I used these different shot types so the audience was aware of who the artist was, where the location was being filmed and I used close up shots when I wanted to focus on a specific part in the video, for example my main character ripping up a valentines card as this was fairly significant. Camera movement in existing music videos usually follow and trace and include panning shots. I stuck to this movement in my own production. The mise-en-scene of a music video refers to the arrangement of performers or props in the production. An example of good use of mise-en-scene would be that of the music video, Mad by Ne-yo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAYuOc7_TKg . The mise-en-scene involves him walking down a road and being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation he is feeling from his lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. Similarly the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white and this connotes the angry and depressed mood. In my own video I had parts where my actress was dressed in ‘chill out’ clothes including a hooded jumper and had the prop of the duvet to show that she was upset and feeling sorry for herself after the break up. I used the prop of the valentine’s card to re-enforce to the audience the heartbreak in which she was feeling after splitting up with her boyfriend. There were many moments where she was by herself to show the isolation from her friends and ex boyfriend. Next I looked at lighting. Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which puts the artist in an enhanced look. Throughout my music video I used different effects to help create a different mood. I started off by using a cartoon filter. This was to give the feeling of childhood when everything seemed so much easier and there weren’t these feelings of love to deal with. I also used a dream filter. This changed the lighting of a particular scene which was relevant to the lyrics. At the end of my video I changed it to black and white. This was to help mark an end of an era and to show the depressing mood of the situation. Looking at the colours used within existing music videos, it depends on the genre. For example, dark colours tend to be used more in rock songs, such as Kings of Leon and bright colours are seen to be used more in hip hop and pop videos. I used a natural colour for the coat that the female character was wearing but a dark one for the male to show the contrast in emotion. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some celebrities as role models. I kept the clothes I used in my video fairly simple and not to extravagant such as what Lady Gaga dresses like in her music videos. In media terms, narrative is the organisation given to a series of facts. The human mind needs narrative to make sense of things. We connect events and make interpretations based on these connections. In everything we seek a beginning, a middle and an end.Todorov’s theory of narrative states that there should first be a state of equilibrium where all is as it should be. There is then a disruption of that order by an event which happens and recognition is made that the disorder has occurred. There is then an attempt to repair the damage of the disruption and then a restoration of a new equilibrium. Todorov argues that narrative involves a transformation. The characters or the situations are transformed through the process of disruption. To try and break some of the normal and expected conventions of existing music videos I included different techniques such as the use of flashbacks. This helped the audience to understand what my main character was thinking as her thoughts were the flashbacks to her relationship with her boyfriend when everything seemed to be going so well. I also challenged the normal conventions of music videos by jumping between locations as not to be a simple flow of a story where one location leads on from another. The whole storyline was that the female actress was thinking about her past experiences and how that she is now on her own. My music video started of being fairly fast paced as this was appropriate to the beat of the song. Towards the end of the video however I started to begin to slow the pace of the footage down as this helped to show that the video was drawing to a close. I once again challenged what some might expect from a music video. I did this by having my video focusing on just one character, even though this was not my initial plan I think it works quite well because the audience get to understand more of what she is feeling and her personality. In many music videos the artist mimes to the lyrics, however I did not follow this convention as I wanted actions to speak louder then words and more emotion can be shown when the artist doesn’t have to worry about miming along to the lyrics. It also helped me when it came to the editing stage of my production. Overall I think I added my own unique touch onto my music video but sticking with the main conventions that already exist in this particular media.

Digi-Pak

Album Cover:

Back Cover:

Inserts:

Final cut. My music video

Evaluation Practice

To what extent was the intended audience a major factor in the creation of your A2 Advanced Production Portfolio?
At the beginning of my media production portfolio I spent a fair bit of time thinking about my intended target audience. I thought about who I wanted to appeal to and what age range I wanted to focus on. I thought it would be appropriate to choose a similar age to myself as I could gather information from my peers about what they would like to be included in the music video and I could use my own preferences which would make the task more enjoyable for me. I decided on the age range of 15-25 years of age and I started by conducting some audience research.

Audience research is a systematic and accurate way of finding out about your audience. The most common method of audience research is the survey. This is where a group of people are selected and they are all asked the same questions, and their answers are counted. I decided to create a questionnaire with ten relevant questions on and handed them out to classmates that were aged around eighteen. I decided to design this survey because some people were happy to help me in my research but didn’t want their answers to be filmed.

The intended audience impacted the creation of my production portfolio to a major extent. The answers which I gathered from both the recorded footage of people voicing their opinions and the graphs I was able to calculate from the filled in questionnaires helped me greatly. If I had used my own opinions and idea’s then it would have had a very narrow approach on it and would have been purely on my own thoughts and idea’s which don’t appeal to everyone. The answers which were collected from my audience feedback helped me to realise that everyone has different tastes but that some similarities can be picked up on. An example of this would be that some of the answers stated that the person enjoyed music videos more when the footage was relevant to the lyrics. However some people disagreed with this and said they preferred when the video wasn’t relevant to the lyrics in any way, shape or form. Many believed that a music video is merely a marketing device for the actual single and that it should be created with this in mind. Others thought that it was more then that and thought that the video told the story of the single and is used to help the audience imagine more about the actual song itself.

All through out my planning and research as well as my practical and evaluation the intended audience was always at the front of my mind. Without the audience then there would be no point in creating the music video apart from to watch it for my own gain. I wanted to involve my target audience and I wanted them to have a say in how my music video went. I looked into locations, costumes and the storyline all with the research from my audience I had. At points during my editing I would stop and view the footage, imagining that I was in fact a member of my target audience rather then the creator and director of the video. This helped me to place myself in their shoes and to see it from their point of view which helped me to improve my video.

The intended audience helped to a great extent towards the end of my production portfolio as well as the start. As I had gathered thoughts and opinions to help be creative in my planning and research stages I thought that it was only right that the audience should have a say and give me constructive criticism in the final stages. I uploaded my first cut of my music video onto YouTube and I asked for my intended audience to give me positive and negative points about the actual video. It was really helpful to get this information as it allowed me to gather more then my own opinion and helped me to spot things that could have been improved which I might not have picked up on, had it only been me watching the end piece. This allowed me to change the parts in my video which my audience said could be improved and become more appealing to them.

The audience is a vital and key part of any product or production and should always play a major part through out the whole process. The audience should always be referred to every so often for their thoughts, ideas and expectations. However boundaries should be pushed and sometimes an audience is more impressed when the creator thinks outside of the box and puts their own unique stamp on their production. The more creative a music video is the more wow factor it can be said to have. In music videos there is a tendency to move in the same direction as similar artists and previous videos that have been successful. However this is a safe option and sometimes the audience likes to experience something fresh and new rather then the same old. Some directors don’t even listen to the song before they create the music video for it. This idea could be placed into thinking about audiences. Music video’s are made for the enjoyment of the audience, but shouldn’t be created by the audience.