Evaluation Q4

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

We spent much time on sites like unsigned.com trying to find a band or singer we liked and had usable production ideas for.

There were several key components in how we selected our musical artist, the most important of these was how well the music could be applied to a visual medium. In most music videos the music must be able to be translated into a visual medium by lending itself either tonally to performance or lyrically to a narrative in order to let a set of visuals be easily built up around it. Eventually we chose Kristen falconer an artist on unsignedbands.web for her pop tones and how easy it was to construct a narrative and ideas for performance around it.

We then attempted to contact the artist through this website but did not receive a reply for unknown reasons. We also saw a pre existing video for this song on YouTube, given that it was not produced under the eye of a label it did not have large amounts of revenue behind it and was obviously produced on the capital of the artist rather than a production company. By being able to easily view the video on sites like YouTube and Vimeo we were able to easily pinpoint the features that helped make the videos popular and the flaws that were its shortcomings such as the scene transitions being few and far between. In addition to this early research we also used YouTube to conduct research into similar artists and bands that helped to influence our techniques and processes. We were inspired early on by artists such as Lady Gaga and Ke$ha who have personas that revolve around being artists dedicated to their public images as exciting pop musicians and party girls. Aesthetically and relating to technique we watched videos such as “Don’t You Want Me Baby?” by the Human League and Ke$ha’s Tik Tok which both convey the type of visuals and narrative we want to see.

Of course the most important piece of equipment we had during filming was our camera, the standard media studies Sony DCR SX34. This camera was the same on we used during our thriller shooting and it’s high quality image capture and the excellent adaptability of the video it produced were essential to producing the video at a near professional level. The camera was also extremely important during our planning stages as we needed to map out what its exact limits were concerning zoom and range.

It was important for us at the advance of A2 from AS to expand our range of technical skills. This included developing our technique in regards to movement of a camera during shots which needed to be improved given that we did not have any professional equipment such as cranes or camera dollies. A music promo required a different set of shots to a thriller opening given that we needed to induce a different set of emotions. We needed to use shots that showed a singer in full view and hid nothing unnecessarily. The most important skill we developed was the ability to choose shots appropriately during planning and apply them in the field.

It is important of course to note the large difference in the set of skills required to build a music promo as compared to a thriller opening. The editing in a promo is different in many regards not least the inducement of emotions required, whereas in a thriller the idea is to induce the emotions of fear and bewilderment a promo is meant to excite and interest. In no area besides subject matter is this more apparent than in editing. Although a thriller has few edits from shot to shot in order to take time in establishing things a music promo must have lots of fast edits and excellent special effects in order to bring in an audience. The biggest difference I have found in editing the two pieces is in regards to lip synching. Whereas in the thriller this was unnecessary due to the spoken word being recorded in conjunction with the action, however as the music video is required to sync up many shots with one long continuous track lip synching is one of the most important skills needed in both our actress and our editing team.

It was most fortuitous that we had apple Macs to work with, using programs such as iMovie and Final cut allowed us to utilize editing techniques such as transition and layering that would have been impossible to use otherwise. We learnt many new skills that were not essential in the previous unit such as how to use scene transitions and titles to their full effect and how to perform certain editing special effects such as using image alterations to affect problems we had during shooting in regards to natural light.

We also learnt much during our shooting such as how to overcome problems in regard to space and lighting. Often we were faced with the problem of a shooting space not being what we required of it. We were called upon to rearrange props and learnt much in regards to stage lighting which helped us immensely whilst filming interior scenes. We needed to learn how to overcome many problems involving lighting such as when we filmed outdoors having to rely on natural darkness which during winter can be rather unpredictable.

During production of our ancillary tasks we used programs such as Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher to produce our magazine ads and our Digipack covers. We found both products invaluable in our production given how easily they allowed us to edit images in regards to subjects such as light and contrast.

 

Of course in the end the most invaluable technology I have found is the sites on which we hosted our material such as blogger and YouTube which allowed us free exhibition of our material and an easy method of correspondence during the task.

Evaluation Q3

3.  What have you learned from your audience feedback?

During our initial planning stages we underwent much audience research from questionnaires to a Q and A session. The first stage was to establish a target audience based on the genre and style of the music. Pop and rock attract a mainly younger audience and a female singer draws an audience of both male and female (as opposed to a male singer which would draw a primarily female audience). We reasoned from this that our audience had to be a mixture of male and female and within an age range of mid teens to young adults. We began with a series of ideas laid out in a presentation which we tested on our media group, the perfect mixture of male and female between the ages of seventeen to nineteen. We then asked them for feedback on our initial ideas and handed out questionnaires to a select focus group who we believe represented what we wanted in our audience.

The strengths of this method of research are mainly its ability to produce thorough results on a select audience that best represents our target market(as opposed to a more broad form of testing such as handing out questionnaires at random to people on the street). The major fault of this method is that the range of our audience created a mixture of results which made it difficult to create accurate changes to our first ideas. Using comments on our initial ideas and our questionnaire results we made small changes to our product before and after filming.

Research is important because of the changes it causes to the process of making the video. Without a focus group to test our initial ideas we could have run ahead with a bad idea or missed out on including something important that would have drawn people in. the initial feedback regarding our production ideas was very positive and the bulk of our audience feedback and suggestions were relating to our style and whether we should produce a video of a narrative or performance based structure.

Our initial research showed us many things such as how we should edit the final piece and what we should focus on in regards to props and location. Although there were a lot of compromises made in regards to locations and mise en scene due to our lack of performance space and having to rely on an actress. We think of our audience research as important mainly because it shows us what our target market want and that we should meet their needs to ensure capital and popularity among a large base of fans.

To gauge reaction to our video we performed an audience survey with members of our target audience and solicited the opinions of two other media students.

We asked that each audience member who filled in our previous questionnaire (relating to our music choice) fill out this new one (relating to our video)

1-Kingston Capes-male-student-age 18

2-Evan Davies-male-student-age-19

3-Timor Kaya-male student-age18

4-Emily Reeves-female-student age 17

5-Rachael Evans-female-student-age 17

6-Shannon Tate-female-student-age 18

What did you like most about the video?	The singer
	The singer
	The locations
	The style
	The locations
	The editing

From this question we hoped to learn what the greatest asset in the video is with specifics regarding whether it was our singer or something we did during production such as special effects or selection of locations. The most interesting response is the selection of editing and style as the best part of the video. This would imply that the main focal point for these viewers was not the singer but how she was portrayed and what effects were used to make the video. Knowing all this we can assume that because only two people stated the singer to be their favourite thing about the video that although she was intended to be the main focal point that she didn’t come across as such. If we were to make changes to our video based on this we would have to revolve them around bring out the singer and using flashier effects to hopefully improve audience reaction to the editing.

What could have been improved?	The editing
	Costume
	The lip synching
	The locations
	Costume
	The lighting in certain scenes

From this we hoped to learn exactly what we could have done better and what we may still be able to improve before the final release which is of course the purpose of this method of focus group testing. I find it interesting that someone brought up the lighting and that someone also brought up the editing. The editing was what in the end had the most time spent on it given the use of effects and fast paced shots. I think the main reason this was brought up was the use of shots that extended beyond others in terms of length. This was done intentionally to allow the audience to adjust to a situation before ripping them out of it for shock. I also can see why the lighting may have been brought up as there are some scenes where we had to edit saturation and hue of colours in order to create a sense of darkness due to actual darkness being impractical on some days of shooting. I was not expecting anyone to comment on costume given that it was one of our focal points during early production that the costume reflect the character and the perceived stereotype of the party girl. I chased this comment up hoping to discover more about it and found that the party found the costume unusual for a pop video as it defied conventions somewhat in that it was not very scandalous. It has become a theme in pop music for the artists in videos to be fairly overtly sexualised obviously we found this a problem whilst working with a student as our actress for the video. The second person to comment on costume noted that the “erratic” way in which it changed was strange. This was done to represent changes in the song so we decided to take this as someone not quite understanding what we were trying to do. All in all I expect for this knowledge to greatly influence our design we now know we have several points to alter that we wouldn’t have known about beforehand. This will really help us make any necessary changes to the lighting and editing.

Does the music match the video’s genre?	Yes
	Yes
	Yes
	Yes
	Yes
	yes

From this question we hoped to learn how well the images and video mixed with the song and its genre style. It is one of the most important factors in the music video industry that what is produced is relevant to the genre, styles and context of the artist it’s representing. We were very happy to see how we were able to match the music with the video.

What did you think of locations?	Good
	Appropriate
	Good
	Could have been better
	Excellent
	Fitting

From this we hoped to learn if our locations were well suited to the song and video and if so how much. I find it interesting that we received results calling the locations fitting and appropriate, I take an interest here because I wanted to know if these locations were as such because of the reasons we originally chose them or because of something else. Our original plan was to use the locations of the underpass and the streets to create a image for our artist revolving around her being a young urban party girl. We chased up these comments and we were told that the locations of the streets fitted the song itself rather than the theming and were also told that the changing of location to location via cues in the song was well implemented. The singular comment of “could have been better.” Surprised us somewhat of course we were expecting somewhat for at least one of the people we canvassed to react in a negative way and we of course were not surprised that they were the same person we saw suggesting an improvement in the locations earlier in the questionnaire. From these comments and singular and somewhat negative reaction we summarised that we had done all we could to the video concerning location.

Costume?	Good
	Could have been improved
	Good
	Strange at times
	Too erratic it was strange that it kept changing
	I liked them

The costume question was intended to get a precise definition of what we did and did not do right. We had already chased up earlier negative comments on costume so we were not really expecting a comment saying that it may have been “strange at times.” We can see how this could come across in perhaps the moments we filmed where we had our actress wearing a police cap. Of course this disconcerting news about the costume has caused us to rethink some of our ideals concerning it and although we were placed under limitations such as money and having to use clothing our actress already owned we believe that we came out well.

Actress?	Good
	Very good
	good
	Very likeable
	Attractive
	Good and used to full effect

From this we hoped to learn of exactly how our actress came across to our audience. We wanted to know whether we had made the correct choice concerning the aesthetical implications of our actress and how well people believed she performed. We were pleased to find results that called her both “attractive” and “very likeable” and also were pleased to know we “used her to full effect”. Our intention was to use our actress in a way that made her identifiable from scene to scene as well as creating the image we hoped for. Our results show us the correct choice we made and reflect very well on her skills concerning things like lip synching and maintaining herself in front of a camera.

What would you like to see more of in the video?	A more straightforward narrative
	More performance(who played the music)
	Narrative
	Special effects
	A greater range of shot types
	narrative

This question is a slight revision of the earlier question “what could we improve” however it is reworded so we know exactly what we did right and how we could expand on it. The first thing I noticed whilst reviewing the answers was the call for “a more straightforward narrative” this is something we planned for but were unable to carry out due to restraints of time and the availability of certain locations. It was also interesting to see the call for special effects given that the video and song do not lend themselves easily to them. I was also not expecting to see the call for more performance pieces. The actual artist of the song (Kristen Faulconer) does not actually have a regular backup band and usually relies on synthetic computer generated sound for her songs instrumentals. Knowing this we know we should have put together a narrative that did not require overly complex set and prop use and that we may have been better received had we focused on our artists supports and skills rather than just her as a scripted individual.

How well produced do you think it is? 1 to 10	6
	7
	8
	7
	6
	8

From this final question we wanted to learn overall how well put together and planned. People obviously felt that whilst below any professional level our video was enough to merit a higher mark than a five which we were initially quite worried was going to be the reaction. From this summary we can learn that people both enjoyed the video and that it was well received for both the video itself and the choices we made to make it. we expected a small gap between our highest result and our lowest result and we think the two point gap between six and eight. Our final audience feedback is quite positive and shows us that the original ideas we expanded on with help from our test groups have been improved greatly. Our feedback has shown us the changes we made were essential to the video and our construction of it.

Evaluation Q2

2.  How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of all three tasks was important as they all act as advertisements for the singer. The video is meant to draw people to the singer’s style and tell you about her music and both of the ancillary tasks make us aware of how the singer presents themselves. I believe we have the perfect combination of tasks given our interesting and exciting video and our eye grabbing colourful posters. The common theme between each one is the use of our actress and the recurring backdrop and I believe that is among the most important things that link these pieces.

We took these photos at a location used in our shoot in order to link it directly to the video. We brightened up the colours in order to make the attractive to the eye and used graffiti text in order to give the idea of a young urban girl lifestyle. As you can see the mise en scene was taken straight from the video itself.

 

The singer’s image in a video is among the most important things to consider during the making and development stages. The image of a pop singer is based greatly around their lifestyle choices, how they choose to act, dress and perform. In our video we feature a singer whose image is based around the “party girl” archetype and we tried to bring this across in all three pieces of work. In our video we showed a girl out on the town and we attempted to carry this image of a fun and pretty girl into our ancillary tasks as well. Our video is made up of lots of shots of our singer that quickly send her from location to location which brings across the correct image for our genre as one of a girl who is changing very quickly and having a good time whilst doing it we feature shots of her out on the town in fancy cars and scenes that indicate that she may be a heavy drinker all things our chosen audience would associate with the conventions of the party girl. In the headshots we used for our Digipack and the photos taken that we constructed our magazine advertisement with we used similar costumes and style and the font and images we used were made to resemble graffiti tags, this would also help to convey the young urban night life we so wanted to convey.

Each of these elements was made to be distributed differently. The video of course would be exhibited online and on popular music TV channels such as MTV and 4Music which reach a large amount of our young target audience. The video would also be made downloadable from online shops where for a price someone could download the video, places like Itunes and Vimeo. It is also sometimes a popular marketing ploy to work in conjunction with other groups for instance offering the video as a free download for people subscribed to certain companies for services or perhaps for people using certain technological brands and makes such as tablet users.

Although these channels may become outmoded eventually by online media they are still the best way to ensure your video reaches the correct audience. Both channels have the perfect demographic of mid to late teens and early young adults. This makes these channels perfect for the video. I would then endeavour to find out when to exhibit the video the most obvious time would be at around five pm to early evening, this is a good idea as my target audience would mainly be comprised of students who would be taking the time to watch these channels after a day at school, college or university.

The Digipack would be distributed online to collectors at a price based on its demand. It would most likely go on sites like eBay and Amazon and sell en masse. It may also be distributed in bulk for a price to any still operational high street music chains. Finally it would be the duty of the production team to make sure that the magazine advert was distributed properly amongst magazines that were popular in our target audience. Examples of these magazines include Q NME and possibly even Uncut magazine all of which are popular amongst music lovers of all ages but particularly the younger audience we wish to reach. The only drawback to this method of distribution as opposed to the more traditional system of selling in bulk to big name record stores(which have gone out of favour in recent years) is that if the Digipack does not sell well it will cause economic damage to the production companies rather than the distributors.

I would use these magazines as the space for my advertisement as their main target audience overlaps greatly with mine and they are both always seeking revenue from advertisement. This makes them both perfect from a marketing and budgeting point of view of course it would be better if we could land an article in either magazine but otherwise and advertisement would run in both magazines that would be seen by thousands of people.

Lastly the three products are branded together visually by links of location and of course the actress. The entire mise en scene of the ancillary tasks was lifted straight from several shots in the video and we insisted on remaining loyal to the established costume and actress personality laid out in the video. Although not strictly speaking a performance piece we had to bring across the personality of the artist that was established in the video. Our actress brought across the aloof but happy personality as set in the video very well.

Our Final Production and Evaluation Q1

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

for the convinience of readers my evaluation will be split into four posts

We were assigned the task of creating three promotional pieces, a full music video for a single song, the graphics for a digipack(a special release album with extra features) and a magazine advert. Through all of this we had to establish a brand image with our chosen musician and bring that across in each task. The purpose of all three of these pieces of advertising in a real world scenario would be to promote the musician behind them. Firstly a series of adverts in magazines and on TV would go out to herald the release of a single or an album from the musician, this would be then backed up by a music video that would garner interest in the songs in the album and eventually the digipack would be released either after the album as a special edition or simultaneously as a collection of fun extras including behind the scenes information and the musicians thoughts and opinions relating to the songs.

In many ways our finished video was made to conform to the standards and conventions of the real videos that people enjoy. When discussing conventions in the music video it is most important to think of things in terms of the genre of the song chosen, for example our chosen song was Fun by Kristen Faulconer which constitutes a pop song. Several conventions of pop music include ideals about what the singer should be wearing, where they should be in the video and how to frame certain shots. When looking at videos of a similar genre one can easily build up a repertoire of elements to build the promo around.

In pop videos by popular artists such as Madonna and Ke$ha there are many things to note such as…

·         Heavy amplification of lyrics, an idea that is expressed lyrically is explored in the figurative through metaphor rather than being directly played upon. For instance in the video for Bad Romance the idea of a wrong love is explored through the narrative. This video of course picked up on the Bad Romance aspects of a primarily sexual relationships or in the case of the narrative the using of women like slaves by a man.

·         Heavy sexualisation in female artists-playing off the sexuality of a female singer is popular especially in videos such as “material girl” by Madonna

·         Narrative-in a pop video narrative can either be heavy or light. This is directly affected by the director’s decisions regarding whether the lyrics of the song should be illustrated(which would create a straightforward narrative based upon the song) or amplified(which would create a video drenched in symbolism and metaphor)-an example of illustrated lyrics could include the use of lyrics to construct a narrative and character background in the Ke$ha video Tik Tok

·         Camera work and editing-a pop promo as a standard is composed of lots of short sharp shots that are edited together to maintain continuity into one another. This is only ignored in the case of dance routines or performance pieces which are made up of longer shots

Of course it is incredibly important to reflect on our initial influences, We had many influences both for our overall style (artists such as Ke$ha, Madonna and Lady Gaga) and individual shots. For instance our car shots at night were inspired by similar series of shots found in the Human League video for “Don’t You Want Me Baby?”

 

Initially we had planned for the video to follow a narrative drive by illustrating the lyrics in the song and making them into an easy to follow narrative of a downwards spiral after a girl feel betrayed by her boyfriend and ruins herself with drinking and a party lifestyle. However due to constraints of location and time we could spend with our actress we were forced to rethink this. We eventually turned the  video into an amplification of the lyrics through it’s representation of the party girl lifestyle with at times mild disjuncture from them for the purposes of artistic expression such as when we feature our singer in a costume that includes a policeman’s cap meant to be representative of the change in the music during the bridge where the music becomes more repressed. The song lent itself quite easily to a performance angle as well which is why the video never cuts from the singer except during the bridge in the song during an extended guitar solo.

We had fewer influences for our construction of the Digipack and the magazine advert although we did find early on in our research that examples such as the Dethklok and Kings of Leon adverts that we had to make the advertisement as artistically produced as the video. To this end we decided to build our ancillary tasks around the video using a similar scheme of costume, location and mise en scene. This translated into the Digipack covers inspired by earlier scenes in the video

we made significant changes such as brightening up the colours and using a daytime exterior shot rather than a nighttime one this would ensure the advert would be more attention grabbing and draw focus when placed in a magazine or on a wall as a poster, a idea we considered as we designed it in order to make it versatile enough to be advertised anywhere.

·         For our Digipack we decided a colourful and eye catching approach would be an excellent idea based on previous examples such as the one seen above (the cover of the CD Digipack for popular Japanese band Project Delta). We saw things like this on the market being sold online and knew that they were the prime example to base the aesthetics of our Digipack around. Notice that the cover is colourful and draws the eye to it. The titles are placed in a way that makes the noticeable because they are placed at the focal point of the design. We followed a similar idea when constructing our Digipack making it almost humorous in how it draws your attention to the titles. We followed a theme throughout making the pack and stuck to the themes established within our video such as Fun, and the party girl lifestyle.

Costumes and Locations

Costume

In our original plan we stated that costume should be a primary focus due to its connections to establishing a character in our actress. This was the plan during the original idea where we planned to focus mainly on the narrative and not amplification of the lyrics. When we decided to go for a more performance focused video it was decided that we would make costume changes quite common whilst remaining similar and containing a set piece, many artists work around these changes quite well for example Lady Gaga in the video for Bad Romance was known to change costume several times. For our actress every costume change was done to cover the dress she wore in every scene. Costume changes were made on cues given by the song for instance when the actress dons a black cardigan and a police hat this is more for the more rhythmically stable part of the song during the bridge it indicates authority and subtly sets a mood of repression also indicated by how the singer is much less active during these shots. Following the bridge when the song speeds up the actress dons a blue hoodie jacket. This is a symbol of the change in the music to a faster more upbeat tone like that seen in modern rap and hip hop which this style of dress has become a symbol of.

Location

Our locations were originally selected from places that we could easily access in and around our local area. This was made difficult given our rural background when the song is so reminiscent of city life particularly the club scene. We did initially attempt to record inside a club but were turned down by all night spots we asked. We needed to improvise an interior set in the school’s drama studio but were restricted to only being able to use it for one day out of the week so we could not use it to its full potential. When we became limited in this way we decided to take most of the shots outside which presented little or no problems. The highlight of the exterior shots should be noted to be the shots taken in and out of a subway outside Bourne which I believe helped create a very urban atmosphere when used against the shots of our actress in the streets and alleys of Bourne. The convention for location in such videos is to establish a connection between artist and background. This is important in order to finalise the cultivation of the artists image. In our case it was very important to create the image of a young girl from the streets which is why we mainly used exterior locations and tried to stay within the framework provided for us by our artist choice.