After all the feedback I received on my third draft, I decided to take these comments on board to make my final moving image product. Some peers told me I needed to edit to the beat more so I have changed some shots that were too long and edited them so they cut to the beat. I also took on the other comments from my peers about incorporating black and white scenes in my product so they would link in with my ancillary texts more. I decided to turn 'flashback' scenes into black and white to indicate to the audience that these scenes are in fact memories. Overall, I feel as though I have created a professional and realistic product which links to both of my ancillary texts really well.
Evaluation Question One
In this evaluation I am going to talk about all my products (digipak, music video and magazine advert) in depth and I will talk about my choices and why I have followed certain conventions. I will also talk about how I have challenged certain conventions and why.
Music Video:
For my media product, I decided to make a music video along with a promotional package which included an album and a magazine advert. I chose to produce these from an already established song from the artist 'SBTRKT' which is called 'Hold On'. I chose to produce a video on this song because firstly the artist is indie and this is a genre I listen to so I have some knowledge about it and secondly, I knew who the artist was. Although I knew the artist, I had never really seen many of their videos or what the artist is all about so I felt this would be easier to make a video for because I had no narrative to follow, I had to create a narrative myself to match the song.
To create my products, I did a lot of research and planning which allowed me to learn the conventions and follow them and I then uploaded it to YouTube once finished. I uploaded my video in different stages, showing the progression throughout editing. On top of my music video, I also made a magazine advert and 6 panel, 2 CD digipak which promoted my artist and the music video.
The existing artist I chose was 'SBTRKT' so I needed to choose a male to portray the artist because I wanted to create a video with a narrative about love. I already had an idea what stereotypical videos about love looked like but I decided it would be best to look at some more so I was sure of the conventions. These are a few of the videos I looked at:
After looking at these, I felt they were too stereotypical and quite cheesy so I didn't really want to follow the conventions of these. I also felt like they were quite female orientated and because my artist is a male I didn't think this would work. Due to this, I decided I would break conventions and completely reverse them by having the male who is heartbroken over the loss of a relationship rather than the girl. This is quite unconventional in terms of narrative about love in existing products because I have found that a lot of them are females singing about heartbreak, which links to Tessa Perkin's stereotype theory because women are stereotypically seen as the 'weak ones' or the 'emotional ones'.
Despite breaking the conventions by using a male artist to sing about heartbreak rather than female, I have followed conventions in terms of creating a narrative and having the artist perform. Although this video isn't in my genre, one video I looked at in my research was 'Moment 4 Life' by Nicki Minaj because this incorporates narrative and performance. I chose to look at this because I am very familiar with the artist and I know the video very well, so when I thought about doing narrative and performance combined, I knew this would be a good video to look at. Another video which influenced a lot of choices in my video is from the same artist called 'Right By My Side'. This video influenced me in terms of editing and the camera shots I have used in my video.
Here is my presentation talking about how my product uses conventions:
Below are the 2 videos that I looked at that influenced me the most in terms of following conventions and challenging them.
Textual Analysis of my product
Theory applied to my product: Representation Theory
I feel as though I have paid attention to a lot of theorists and their statements when making my music video. Firstly, I have definitely challenged Laura Mulvey's Gaze Theory because I have chosen not to represent my male or female artist in a sexual way because I did not want to conform to the ideologies she states. Due to this, I have challenged these conventions of how women are normally represented in music videos. As you can see below, I have looked at popular music videos which prove Mulvey's theory to be correct and then I have shown screenshots from my own video to prove how I have not sexualised my actress.
From these pictures, you can see how I have dressed my actress appropriately so that my video doesn't conform to the 'Gaze Theory'. You can clearly see the sexualisation of the women in the existing products I looked at and how this contrasts massively with my video.
Richard Dyer's Star Theory:
Dyer's Star Theory is the idea that icons and celebrities are constructed by institutions for financial reasons and are built to target a specific audience or group of people.
His theory breaks down into 3 sections:
-Audiences and Institutions
-Constructions
-Hegemony (Cultural Beliefs)
I have followed Dyer's Star Theory in my products so that my artist would appeal to my target audience. For example, on my digipak, I used the 'spot healing brush' so that I could cover up any of my artist's flaws, therefore making my artist have, what Simon Cowell would say is 'the full package'. If I had not have done this, some of flaws would be seen and the product may not have looked that appealing. I conformed to what is seen in the industry of celebrities always looking flawless.
In terms of the constructing my artist, I have not given him any persona, I have simply given the name 'Lewis Ryan' because it his name and I wanted him to be as real as possible by only having one identity. Hegemony is apparent in my music video because people may relate to how my artist is feeling within the video and may choose to idolise my artist because they may feel like they connect with the artist on an emotional level. Tessa Perkin's Stereotype Theory:
Tessa Perkin's argues that: 'A stereotype is an idea that is adopted about specific types of individuals/group of people. The thoughts may not always accurately reflect reality'. She identifies 5 such assumptions:
-Stereotypes are not always negative
-They are not always about minority groups or the less powerful.
-They can be held about one's own group.
-They are not rigid or unchanging.
-They are not always false.
I feel as though, in terms of my music video, I have evidently used stereotypes but I have broken and challenged the stereotypes. In my video, my artist is singing about the good relationship he once had with this girl but they are now over and he is continuously thinking about her and what they used to be. I am showing him as the emotional one. I feel as though I have challenged this stereotype because stereotypically, it is the girl who feels heartbreak and upset after a relationship ends. Then, I am showing my female actress as the tough one who doesn't really care about what is going on, I have reversed these stereotypes because normally, it is seen as the other way round. In terms of a negative stereotype, I do not think I have created this because there is nothing negative about showing emotion. The only bit of negativity may be the attitude of the female actress towards the events that occur in the narrative.
Uses and Gratifications Theory:
By the audience consuming my music video on sites like YouTube and social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, they are being an active audience as they are choosing to watch my product. It is their own choice that they are consuming it and they are not being forced by anyone, they are doing it on their own accord. The reason the audience may be watching it is because they may have come across the song on iTunes and are wanting to watch the video, someone may have recommended them, they may have heard positive reviews and therefore they want to consume it to see why it is so good. Doing this supports Blumler and Katz 'Uses and Gratifications Theory'. Another reason they may be watching this product is because they may feel like they can connect with it emotionally because the video does contain existing scenarios that people go through in everyday life, so there is nothing out of the norm in this video, it is a video in which the audience can easily connect to, especially at a young age which my target audience is.
Hypodermic Needle Theory:
"The media injects ideas into our heads".
The theory is the earliest way of reading how mass media influences us and it developed in the 20's and 30's. The media injects ideas into a passive audiences mind.
My video could possibly seen as what the Hypodermic Needle Theory describes. As my video is about love and it shows my artist being sad and constantly reflecting, it could be injected into the audiences head that all relationships end badly and this is what will happen. As most popular music videos consist of some type of love story, that near enough ends badly most of the time, the idea of relationships being bad may be injected into the passive audiences mind because they have consumed all these videos consisting of the same themes. Whether the audience choose to believe what my media and other sources of media have shown is up to them but I feel as though my video is portraying this message, even though this is not what I intended.
Stuart Hall Reception Theory:
He states that media texts are:
-Encoded by the producer, meaning that whoever produces the text, fills the product with values and messages.
-The text is then decoded by spectators.
-Different spectators will decode the text in different ways, not always in the way the producer intended.
Dominant- This is the reading of a text is that the audience view the media text in the way the producer intended. The audience agree with the ideology and message behind the text. The audience will view the product how the producer wanted them to. Negotiated- Compromised between the dominant and oppositional readings, the audience accepts the views of the producer but also has their own input and understanding in relation to the text. They do not agree or disagree, they however can see the point being made in relation to the media text. They don;t disagree nor do they agree, they understand the point given but still have an opinion of their own. Oppositional- The audience rejects the preferred reading and creates their own reading of the text. The audience reject the meaning fully as they do not agree with the message that is created for the audience
The Dominant reading of my product would be: if you have tried your best to hold on as long as you can and that certain person doesn't care anymore, it's probably time to move on and you can forever hold on to the memories but it is now time to let go of the relationship.
The Negotiated reading of my product would be: the video is telling the audience to move on and they accept that message but they feel as though the video is being contradicting because the artist is constantly reflecting on the relationship and how much he still wants her.
The Oppositional reading of my text would be: everybody's situation is different and maybe that couple has been through different things so it is ok to let go and move on but the person consuming it may think they don't want to move on because it is not time and they still want to hold on to what they have got. The audience may think the video is odd and unconventional and therefore don't want to conform to what the video is saying because the male is emotional over the relationship and not the female, which is the norm.
Narrative Theory
From looking at Tim O' Sullivan's theory, I feel as though my video backs up his statement that 'all media texts tell us some kind of story'. The reason I feel it does is because my video has a narrative that tells a story about a boy and a girl who were once a happy couple but the girl has fallen out of love with him and he wants to get her back. The way I have represented this is by using photographs as part of my props to make my actor reflect on their relationship. I have also featured flashback scenes, which again demonstrates how he is reflecting on their relationship.
Kate Domaille:
Kate Domaille (2001) says every story ever told can be fitted into one of eight narrative types. Each of these narrative types has a source, an original story upon which the others are based. These stories are:
Achilles: The fatal flaw that leads to the destruction of the previously flawless, or almost flawless, person e.g. Superman, Fatal Attraction.
Candide: The indomitable hero who cannot be put down, e.g. Indiana Jones, James Bond, Rocky etc.
Cinderella: The dream comes true, e.g. Pretty Woman.
Circe: The Chase, The Spider and the Fly, The Innocent and the Victim e.g. Smokey and the Bandit, Duel and The Terminator.
Faust: Selling your soul to the devil may bring riches but eventuall your sould belongs to him, e.g. Bedazzled, Wall Street.
Orpheus: The loss of something personal, the gift that is taken away, the tragedy of loss or the journey which follows the loss, e.g. The Sixth Sense, Love Story, Born on the Fourth of July.
Romeo and Juliet: the love story, e.g. Titanic.
Tristan and Iseult: The love triangle, man loves woman.. unfortunately one or both of them are already spoken for, or a third party intervenes, e.g. Casablanca.
My video proves Domaille's theory to be correct because my video would fit in with the 'Romeo and Juliet' narrative because of the theme of love that is apparent throughout. The narrative type 'Orpheus' could also be applied to my video because of the boy who is experiencing loss and he is showing his feelings and what he is going through during this loss.
Sven Carlsson(1999) suggests that music videos fall into two rough groups: performance and conceptual clips. When a music video shows an artist singing or dancing, it is a performance. If the video shows something else within its duration, often with artistic ambitions, it is a conceptual clip.
According to Sven Carlsson's theory, my music video would fall into the 'performance clip' category because my artist is seen singing in my video.
The performance can be of three types: song performance, dance performance and instrumental performance. Almost every music video includes song performance. Some videos combine both song and dance performances.
A narrative clip is if a music video is most understood as a short silent movie to a musical background. This type of clip contains a visual story that is easy to follow. A pure narrative clip contains no lip-synchronized singing.
As stated, my video would be both performance and narrative because I have featured my artist singing and I have also included clips that contain a visual story that is easy to follow. Genre Theory
Rick Altman (1999) argues that genre offers audiences 'a set of pleasures' which are:
Emotional Pleasures - the emotional pleasures offered to audiences of genre films are particularly significant when they generate a strong audience response.
Visceral Pleasures - the visceral pleasures (visceral means internal organs) are 'gut' responses and are defined by how the film's stylistic construction elicits a physical effect upon its audience. This can be a feeling of revulsion, kinetic speed or a 'roller coaster ride'.
Intellectual Puzzles - certain film genres, like thrillers or the 'whodunit' offer the pleasure in trying to unravel a mystery or a puzzle. This is derived from working out the plot and predicting the end or being surprised by the unexpected.
I feel as though in terms of this theory, my product follows the 'Emotional Pleasures' and 'Intellectual Puzzles'. My product is about love and the theme seems to be quite an emotional subject in terms of how it is presented. My audience may feel emotion towards the actor in the video because of what he is going through. As the video progresses, the audiences emotions may keep changing because they may feel excitement about what is going to happen and this may change quickly to feeling sad about what is going on. The audience may relate to the video somehow if they have been in a similar position, therefore my video creates more emotional pleasures. In terms of intellectual pleasures, my audience may be speculating throughout what is going to happen with the couple in the video, therefore they are using their brains to try and figure out what might happen. If they have figured out the plot, they may have worked out the ending already. The way my video ends, with the hands letting go, this may lead to many different interpretations, leaving people puzzled and they are left to work out from the signs what happened to the couple in the video.
Jason Mittell (2001) argues that genres are cultural categories that surpass the boundaries of media texts and operate within industry, audience and cultural practices.
Industries use genre to sell products to audiences. Media producers use familiar codes and conventions that very often male cultural references to their audience knowledge of society.
Genre also allows audiences to make choices about what products they want to consume through acceptance in order to fulfil a particular pleasure.
For example, my video is about love so if people were wanting to feel emotional or relate to something like love, they would choose to consume it because of the subject matters covered in the video. If a person was wanting to watch something related to horror because they wanted to feel some kind of adrenaline rush, they wouldn't watch my video because they would be let down because my video isn't of this genre.
Steve Neale (1995) stresses that "genres are not 'systems' they are processes of systematization". This means they are dynamic and evolve over time. The processes of systematization are as follows: costumes, props, locations, transport and narrative spheres of action. In my video, I have different costumes(black t-shirt and jeans, white t-shirt, jeans and a grey hoodie etc), a range of locations(studio, wall, foreshore (grass area), pier, tunnel) and props(phone and photos). I have used a range of these things mentioned because I feel like in a video it is good to have a variety because it looks appealing and professional. Also, it keeps the audience entertained and they are less likely to become disinterested and go onto a different video or carry on with something else. Digipak
Before making my digipak, I carried out a lot of research on existing products and their conventions. Doing this made me aware of the type of things I would need on my album to make it look professional and realistic. I looked at many existing products and one album I took inspiration from was Sam Smith's 'In The Lonely Hour' because I really liked how simple but professional it is so I decided I would follow a similar layout to his. Although most of the digipak was influenced by Sam Smith, the idea behind the theme of hands holding stemmed from 4 existing products which I have talked about in the presentation below. I realised after looking at a lot of existing products from Indie artists that they don't normally have a picture of themselves on the album so I followed these conventions and made the hands symbolic because they make a recurring appearance in the digipak. I have also featured my actor and actress holding hands in my music video so this shows continuity through products. Below I have created a Prezi talking about my digipak and the different choices I made.
Magazine Advert
Here I have produced a presentation on slides.com to talk about what conventions I followed when producing my magazine advert. I also talk about existing products that influenced me, why I chose to follow these conventions and any conventions I challenged. As I speak about in my presentation, Hobbie Stuart's Tour poster influenced a lot of the choices I made when producing my magazine advert as I felt like I could relate to his with him being a new singer in the music industry.
These are my 3 products, my music video, my magazine advert and my digipak (without the discs). I am going to talk about how effective the combination of all 3 of my products are in a slideshare, an emaze presentation and also some written evaluation on this post. I am also going to see how effective other people think my products are and the appropriate pricing and advertisement for my products.
Below is an emaze presentation:
By looking at all 3 of my products(main product, digipak and magazine advert), if they were successful in reality, I feel like they could lead to cross media convergence which means different media coming together to create related products, for example: merchandise etc. As you can see, my products have a consistent theme of black and white so it can be seen that they are effective and work really well together. In terms of being recognisable products, I feel like they are because of the continuity throughout them because I have used my artist in all of my products, I have used a consistent font and I have also followed a colour scheme so therefore people will be able to identify the products and link them together. The font in particular could become something that signifies the artist, therefore becoming something that fans use to symbolise their favourite artist. As many people have stated, they think it looks like an existing product (even as far as someone saying it reminds them of the band 'The 1975') so this makes me confident in believing the products would definitely sell because of how realistic and professional they look.
Feedback
In a survey I did as part of my audience feedback, I asked my audience the question: 'Do you think all 3 of my products are effective and work well together? If so, how?'. I asked this question because I wanted to see how my products looked when they were all placed together. Out of the 5 different people I asked, all 5 of them said yes so this is very positive as it shows how the products I have made fit well together and they look realistic. As well as having them choose between the answer yes, no or not sure, I asked them to comment the reason behind their answer so that I could see exactly what people thought made the combination of them effective.
By looking at the comments from my peers, I can see clearly that a lot of them thought having the artist appear in all 3 was effective as it made the products identifiable to the artist. One also commented on how the colour scheme throughout the products made them cohesive. A few also thought the use of black and white was effective because it is quite conventional of the indie genre.
From this feedback, I felt confident that my products fit well together and they are effective. The feedback clearly shows how people feel that my product looks professional. Also, the comment about my colour scheme being conventional made me happy because this showed that my peers had picked up on the fact I had followed conventions, so this was good because it shows how my product looks like existing products, making it appealing. The feedback I have gained proves that the combination of my products are very effective.
Below are 2 videos of audience feedback that I filmed to find out how effective my products are. I ask them a series of questions about my video but the main focus is on how effective they think my products are. Their feedback is quite similar as they both mention about the hands holding on the front that interlinks with the holding hands at the end of the video. This is good because it shows how more than one person has picked up on this and I am happy with that because my aim was for my audience to make the connection between the 2. Overall, I feel as though from looking at this feedback, I have made products that look professional and effective due to my use of conventions etc.
Promotion
To promote my video, I would definitely use YouTube as a source to share my video because it is a well known site which many people around the world use so this would introduce me to a mass audience straight away. Also, YouTube allows you to embed videos onto other sites such as: Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr so this would mean people could share the music to other audiences who may not have seen the artist before, therefore introducing the artist to new people. My magazine advert would feature in magazines such as: NME, Q and Billboard because I feel like these are most suitable for my genre and they are also well known magazines so this would open up my artist to a mass audience, therefore selling more products. I would advertise the album and the music video on iTunes as this is a very popular site where people purchase their music from. Due to my target audience being young people/students, who are placed in social group E, I would price my digipak at £10.99 because I feel like this is a reasonable price for CD's, from what I have seen and from my personal experiences when buying CD's, especially since mine contains an extra disc with the music video and behind the scenes footage. I personally, coming from this social group, would not spend above this price on a CD unless it was an artist I really really liked. As well as selling my digipak at £10.99, I would advertise the music video alone for £1.99 because I feel this is a reasonable price, especially for a brand new artist and it will be affordable for my target audience because of them not having a lot of money. I would also sell each track at £0.99p each because I feel like some people may not want to purchase the full album so therefore, by doing this, I am giving them the option on what they want to purchase. Also, from looking at iTunes, I can see that existing artists also have their individual songs priced at this.
Below is some pictures that I have edited by putting my magazine advert in to see how effective it looks in the real world. I have put my advert on a billboard, a magazine page, iTunes and the Top 40 Charts.
I put my product as a single and also an album to see what they would both look like at the top of the charts. It shows the type of artists my artist would be competing against.
Above is my album and single advertised against all genres but I decided I would place my product up against the genre my artist is in to see the type of people my artist would be competing against.
Throughout the time I spent researching and producing my ancillary texts and my music video, I often relied on audience feedback as this helped me notice things I may not have noticed and also it gives me room for improvement. I used the site surveymonkey.com to create all of my surveys as it is an easy site to use and is very reliable. Before the whole process, I created a survey to gain some basic audience feedback on their music taste, what they prefer etc, this can be seen on my post 'Audience Research'. I also got feedback on my chosen song which can be seen on my post 'Audience Research: Feedback on My Song'. Also, when creating my magazine advert, I created 2 designs but was torn between which one to use as my final advert. Due to me being unable to decide, I thought it would benefit me if I made a survey and got people to tell me their opinion and eventually this helped me decide on which one to use. These survey results can be seen on my post about 'Making the Magazine Advert'. I also created a paper survey in order to gain feedback about my CD cover. The results can be seen on my post 'Making the CD Cover'.
In my first initial feedback, I put up a poll on my blog where I then sent out my blog link so people could vote. The poll I posted asked the audience: 'What interests you the most within a music video?'. Then the choices I gave them to chose from were: Narrative, Performance, Abstract, Meaning and Artist Appearance. The reason I chose to ask this question was because I wanted to know the main thing which attracted people to watching music videos so that I could incorporate this in my video so that it would be most appealing for my target audience.
The results I got were both what I was expecting and hoping for because I initially wanted to make a music video with a narrative. As most people wanted a narrative, I decided to follow this because I felt like then it would show how I listened to my audience and also I knew from my feedback that my product would appeal the the audience. So that my video appealed to a wider audience, I decided to listen to some of the further feedback and also incorporate performance because, from doing some research, I saw that most successful existing videos do have both narrative and performance. From listening to this audience feedback, I feel as though I have made a successful product that appeals to my target audience.
As well as this poll, I also sent out a survey via social media and email for my media teacher to send out. This survey was some general questions for my audience to answer in regards to their music preference and how they consume music videos etc. Click here for the link to my survey. The results of this survey can be seen below in a SlideShare. The basis of this survey allowed me to collect feedback on how often people consumed music videos, how they consumed them, whether they watched videos only of their favourite genre, what they expect to see in a music video, whether they prefer narrative or a performance, whether they liked it if the artist appeared, their favourite videos so I could look at them and possibly get some inspiration and if there is anything specific that would cause them to stop watching or not watch. A lot of this feedback led to me making precise decisions when planning my music video as I wanted to make my video as appealing as I could for my audience and I feel as though listening to this feedback allowed me to make a product which was successful. I learnt a lot about what not to incorporate in my video so that people would not stop watching it and I also learnt what to include so that they would stay interested.
For some more feedback, I decided to create a survey based on the song I chose to create my video to. The reason I did this is because I wanted to know how people would feel with my choice as I knew the song would be quite unknown due to the genre and style. Although some people disliked it, there were many people who gave me positive feedback on the song and thought if I presented the video in the right way that it would be successful. Below are the results I got and I have explained how I felt about the feedback. From this feedback, I learnt that quite a few people didn't like my chosen song but this didn't put me off from choosing another. I can see from my recent feedback that people thought the song and the video fit well together and they thought I presented the video well so this shows I made the right decision with the song. I also learnt by choosing an unpopular song that people would not conform to the ideology they may have previously seen. Having this song allowed me to create my own ideology and therefore making my product unique and in the long run, this proved successful.
Some more feedback I learnt from was the surveys I sent out for my digipak front cover and magazine advert. When making my magazine advert, I wasn't too confident in my product so because of this I asked some of my peers to comments on my first draft.
This was my first draft and when I showed it to my peers, the main comment I got was that it was good but it was very bland and colourless, so this made it unappealing and they said it didn't catch their eye much. They also commented on how they thought it would be better to make it more clear what I am advertising by possibly adding the hit single (which is the song I am making my video to). I listened to this feedback and the second image was my second outcome. I then asked for comments on this and the majority was positive but thought it would be better if there was some advertisement for where you could purchase this product. I then went back to editing and added what my audience felt I needed. Below is my final outcome after listening to this feedback.
Above were the two outcomes that I created and were left to decide between. The reason I made the second one with the overlapping ghost effect was because this fit in with my front cover on my digipak so I felt by having continuity throughout my products, that they would be appealing and the audience would be able to identify them as coming from the same artist. As I was unable to decide myself, I decided to send out a survey through my media teacher by email so that I could get feedback from both media and non-media students. I felt by choosing both that I would get more comments on my products and also the comments wouldn't be biased. Below are the results:
The last survey I did was different to the way I sent out all of my other surveys. I decided to make some printed physical copies of my survey about my CD cover. I chose to do a paper survey because I felt like having my survey online was becoming repetitive and I felt like having a physical copy allowed my peers to put down exactly what they're thinking. I gave them to a range of different ages, some media students and some non-media students so that my feedback wasn't all the same.
(insert survey and results)
I did this survey to gain feedback on my the front cover of my digipak as I was unsure on which front cover to use. From this feedback, I learnt that the majority of the people preferred the third one as it looked most effective and realistic. By doing this survey, it benefited me well because I was able to choose my front cover and then put it into my digipak as a whole. After putting it with the rest of my digipak, I was able to see how it would look to my target audience and I was very pleased with this because when I showed my peers, they gave me really positive comments and said it was very professional and if they saw it in the shop or online, that they would purchase it, based on how good it looks.
As you can see, these survey results influenced my choices throughout these stages and I learnt from them as I was able to see things that I perhaps did wrong or things that didn't look appealing and I got to improve my products because of the audiences feedback.
To gain feedback on all 3 of my products, I asked some of my peers a couple of questions about them. I did this before completing the final draft for my music video so this is based on my previous edit. I asked a few people about my products via a survey online which I sent out and I also filmed some people giving me verbal feedback. The reason I did this is because I felt by filming them and seeing them verbally talk about my products, I would receive genuine feedback as opposed to if I just did an online survey because I have had past experiences where people have gone on my survey but not really taken them seriously so this would not benefit me.
I am going to be showing all my peers my third draft of my music video so they can give me feedback and hopefully I can improve my video.
I asked 6 questions overall, these are the questions:
1. What is your gender?
2. What is your age?
3. Do you think all 3 of my products are effective and work well together? If so, how?
4. After seeing the video, what do you think the narrative is?
5. Is there anything I could do to improve my video?
6. Would you watch it again?
Here is the link to my survey: Audience Feedback and below are the results on a prezi.
These are the videos of me filming people to get feedback:
Maise, 12 Years Old
The first person I got verbal feedback from was my sister, Maisie, who is 12 years old. I chose to film her first because I wanted to get feedback from a younger persons perspective because this is who I will be aiming my product at and I want to compare her feedback to an older persons perspective. Before filming, I showed my sister my ancillary texts and explained the questions I would be asking her so she understood. I asked all of the above questions and I feel as though she answered them really well, bearing in mind her age. At some parts I felt she was a bit nervous and wasn't quite sure what to say but despite this I think she understood the questions very well and gave me some good feedback that I can learn from. At some parts I do feel she was a bit shy about saying what she liked because when she was off camera, she mentioned to me that she really liked the dissolves I have used to transition to different shots because of how the clips blend together. I am happy that she likes this because that is one of the things I was hoping people would like in my video. By looking at my survey results and her verbal feedback, I can see that one of my peers has said the same as Maisie which was to edit some of my footage into black and white because of my other products being in black and white, so this shows how she is not the only one who thinks this. She also mentioned about the hands holding on the album front cover and how I have used it at the end of my video, which can also be seen in another of my comments on my survey. This is good because it shows more than one person has picked up on this, showing to me that this is obviously a really good use in my video. Overall, I am really happy with this positive feedback and it gives me an idea on how my target audience may feel when watching it.
Alison, 45 Years Old
The second person I got verbal feedback from is my mum, Alison, who is 45 years old. I chose to get some feedback from both a young person and an adult as I felt I could compare the feedback. Before filming, I showed my mum my ancillary texts and then my music video so that she was fully prepared for the questions I was going to ask and also so she had them all fresh in her mind. From looking at both videos, I can clearly see that when my mum was giving feedback she was less hesitant than my sister as she had more knowledge on what I was asking her and understood the questions more. I am really happy with the feedback I got as I feel like the feedback on how they all link together matches what other people have said so it shows that everyone has picked up on the good things I have used. Also, it shows how it is obvious how effective my products are because of the fact they have mentioned similar things. I felt like asking my mum for feedback was a good idea but may have been a bit biased due to her being my mum but I believe she was being honest about the information she was giving me. I like how she picked up on the digipak's front cover having the holding hands that interlinks with the video at the end because this was my aim as I wanted people to make the connection between the two. Overall, I am really happy with her feedback and I feel as though it confirms that my products are effective and I have done the right things, like following conventions, to make them look like professional products.
Throughout the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages, I used a lot of different media technologies ranging from different computer programmes/apps, different websites and different types of technology like cameras and laptops. I am going to talk about all the different media technologies I used and also how I used them. Below is my Prezi showing all of the different technologies I used throughout the construction, research. planning and evaluation stages.
I have also created a slideshare talking in detail about all the different media technologies I used throughout these stages, how I used them and any problems I faced when using them.
This is my third edit and it is the complete version. Overall, I am really happy with how it has turned out. I still feel like I could improve it in some ways so I am going to use audience feedback to ask people what they think I could improve in my video to make it better.
Location: Country Park (Little Switz) (completed) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 2, 3, 13, 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 28, 29, 37, 38, 39, 40, 47, 49, 57, 58, 59, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 78 -Who will I need to take? Actor/Artist, Actress and Crew -Props needed:
Camera
Tripod
Pictures (preferably polaroid)
Clothing/Footwear (white t-shirt, black jeans, Superdry jumper and Nike Janoskis for artist/red dress, coat, leggings and ankle boots for actress)
Location: Bus Stop (completed) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 7, 8, 9, 10 (9 and 10 were originally filmed at my house but I decided that to have continuity editing it would make sense if they took place at the bus stop). -Who will I need to take? Actor/Artist, Actress and Crew -Props needed:
Camera
Tripod
Phone (for artist/actor use)
Clothing/Footwear (white t-shirt, black jeans and Nike Janoskis)
Location: My House (completed) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 14 and 15 (outside of my house), 79, 80, 81, 82 -Who will I need to take? Actor/Artist, Actress and Crew -Props needed: Due to the difficulty of getting most things together to do these shots, I have decided to change my shot and incorporate my artist and female actress holding hands then letting go at the end because I feel as though this will be a better ending and will fit in with the rest of my products, specifically my digipak. I have also decided instead of doing shot 14 and 15 with my car, I am going to use some already filmed footage of my artist running through a tunnel, this shows more of a consistency.
Location: Studio (filming 1/12/14, 4/12/14, 5/12/14, completed) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 41, 42,46, 48, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 60, 61, 62, 63, 73, 74, -Who will I need to take? Actor/Artist, Actress and Crew -Props needed:
Camera
Tripod
Lighting (soft box)
White paper/sheet for background
Clothing (black t-shirt and light jeans for artist/black t-shirt and leggings)
Location: Humber Bridge (filming 29/11/14, completed) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 75, 76, 77, 83 -Who will I need to take? Actor and Crew -Props needed:
Camera
Tripod
Clothing (white t-shirt, black jeans, Superdry jumper, Nike Janoskis)
Location: Pier (near The Deep) (completed) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 43, 44, 45, 71, 72 -Who will I need to take? Actor/Artist, Actress and Crew -Props needed:
Camera
Tripod
Photos (preferably polaroid)
Clothing (white t-shirt, black jeans, Superdry jumper, Nike Janoskis for the artist/red dress, coat, skirt and boots for actress)
I have decided that Friday 27th March will be the best time to film the last shots for my video as me, my actor and actress have free time together then. Although this is leaving it really late, there is nothing I can really do about it because this is the only time we will be all together to shoot. I am choosing to shoot these parts at college as I need a brick wall and some grass and college is the best place for this type of mise-en-scene. Obviously, I will make sure I will not get any of the college in the video as this will look unprofessional.
I have spoken to my actor and actress in person and they have agreed to this but I have also text them to see they are still available to do it. They do not need to bring anything, only their coats they used within the video because for the shots I am filming I only need their arms. If they were wearing different coats it would not be continuous and therefore would look unprofessional,
This is my second draft of my music video. As I filmed the other day, I had new footage so the missing footage from before has now been put in. It is not yet fully complete but I am going to be filming in the next few days or so to get all of my shots finished. Also, there is a few parts where the actor/artist is running through a tunnel and I re-shot these parts because I felt like the lighting and the mise-en-scene in the other one wasn't very clear so when I found this tunnel, I thought it would be better to shoot there so this is what I did. In my opinion, re-doing that scene has improved the shots a lot opposed to how they were previously.
When filming, we encountered a few problems. These were:
When filming the shot of the pair taking a picture, I had trouble panning around them because firstly you could see the bags we took in one of the shots and also you could see my shadow in both of them. You can see this in the video below:
When we went to the pier, it was really cold so the actor/artist and actress were really cold and this made it harder to film because you could tell a little bit when I was shooting the shots.
On the pier, there were some shots where they had to hug and they felt a little bit awkward about doing this.
How did we overcome these problems:
I decided to do this shot later on in the day at the other location because I knew that the sun would not be shining right on us. We did this and it proved successful.
To keep them warm I made sure they kept wrapping up in between shots so they weren't so cold. This worked a little bit although it was still a bit chilly. Also, I re-shot some of the shots where I thought it was obvious they were too cold.
Even though they felt awkward, they put this past them and they were really professional. I am happy because if they had looked really uncomfortable, the shots would have looked really unrealistic.
Overall, I am really happy with the shoot and think that planning well in advance has helped a lot. I am hoping that all of my shots prove successful so we don't have to go re-shoot but if this is the case I will re-shoot as soon as possible. After doing these shots, I have around 10 more quick shots to film before my music video is fully finished.
On Saturday, I met my artist/actor and actress when I finished work as the location both me and Lewis was wanting to film in was near by. I finished work at 2:30 so they met me at this time and Lewis brought all my stuff for me so I could get changed, this made it a lot easier because I didn't have to bring all of it to work, especially my camera which is very valuable. After I ate and got changed, we walked to the location which was about a 5 to 10 minute walk from where I worked. This is the location:
When we arrived, I let Lewis film the shots he needed of me first then I set the tripod and camera up for what I wanted to film. This is how I set my camera up:
I only needed about 2 or 3 shots here so overall, it took around half an hour/45 minutes. This was good as we needed as much time as possible to get the main shots in town. After shooting these shots, we made our way to the bus stop and waited for the number 15. It took about 5 minutes to come so this was good because we wasn't waiting ages for it to arrive. Luckily, on a weekend it is £1.50 for a leisure rider so I saved some money on the journey to where we needed to be. It took about half an hour to get into town, a bit off schedule but we still had about 4 hours before we all needed to go home. As we wanted to make full use of our bus tickets, we decided to get the bus straight to the marina rather than walking, we ended up getting there quicker due to this. When we arrived at the location (the pier), Lewis helped me set up my camera and I got my storyboard out to look at the shots I needed to film.
This is the pier that we shot on. I did want to film at the other side but due to there being construction work, I was unable to do this so I had to shoot at the other side. Despite this interruption to my plans, the mise-en-scene was still good for the shots I wanted. It was already really cold when we was making our way to the pier but due to it being near the sea, it was really windy and even colder. This didn't really affect us that much but there was a few complaints of how cold it was, this made me feel a bit guilty about making them film in the cold. Despite all this, we ended up getting all of these shots done within half an hour/45 minutes so we progressed onto the next location, which was at the bus stop.
Here is the location with the actor/artist in the shot:
After shooting the bus stop shots, we then headed back to the bus station as I had completed all the shots I planned to film. On the way back, Lewis decided he would film one of his shots as it was a really good location so we did this. After all of the filming, we ended up finishing about half past 6 which I thought was quite good considering the time we spent traveling to each location, I thought it would take a lot longer than this.
Overall, I checked all of my shots to see how they turned out and I am really happy as they are successful. I am planning to edit on the week commencing 16/3/15.
Location: The Deep (some filmed 29/11/14, some filmed 14/3/15, still some tbc) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 2, 3, 13, 16, 17, 18, 26, 27, 28, 29, 37, 38, 39, 40, 43, 44, 45, 47, 49, 57, 58, 59, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 78 -Who will I need to take? Actor/Artist, Actress and Crew -Props needed:
Camera
Tripod
Pictures (preferably polaroid)
Clothing/Footwear (white t-shirt, black jeans, Superdry jumper and Nike Janoskis for artist/white t-shirt, grey skirt, tights, green coat and boots for the actress).
Location: Bus Stop (filming 14/3/15, completed) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 7, 8, 9, 10 (9 and 10 were originally filmed at my house but I decided that to have continuity editing it would make sense if they took place at the bus stop). -Who will I need to take? Actor/Artist, Actress and Crew -Props needed:
Camera
Tripod
Phone (for artist/actor use)
Clothing/Footwear (white t-shirt, black jeans and Nike Janoskis/white t-shirt, grey skirt, tights, green coat and boots for actress)
Location: My House (filming tbc) -Shots needing to be filmed there: 14 and 15 (outside of my house), 79, 80, 81, 82 -Who will I need to take? Actor/Artist, Actress and Crew
For these shots (79,80,81 and 82), I have decided that instead of creating photos of the future, I am just going to incorporate some existing images of both the actor/artist and actress to show how he misses the memories. This is a lot easier as I was unable to get a lot of the props to create what I was going to do before.
Finally, I have managed to find a day where me, my actor and actress are all free. On this date (14/3/15), I am planning on completing all of my left over shots because they are mainly all in the same location. I have spoken to both of them in person but I also messaged them just to double check they were still available and also I have told them what they will need to bring or wear.
I have a part-time job so I have had to work around this to go out filming with my actor and actress.
I finished at 2:30pm and I work about 10 minutes away from their houses so we have all decided as a group it would be best if they met me at work and we would get the bus and go straight to the location I need. I think we will be getting the number 15 bus, which goes from Kingswood to Hull Interchange and it costs £3.00 for a dayrider. The reason I am choosing to get a dayrider is because I think it is a lot more cost efficient as I have to also get back home and the ticket is valid all day so if I need to get on the bus more than twice, I am saving my money. Here is the bus timetable for Saturday 14th:
I have also checked the weather for this date, I have used BBC Weather because I know that they are a reliable source as I have used them in the past. Here is the weather forecast for Saturday:
The weather looks bad up to 10am but then it looks as though it is going to be cloudy for the rest of the day. This is good because I am going to be filming from 3pm onwards. It says in the summary that there will be scattered showers so I am hoping that these showers miss us as we go out to film. I am fine with it being cloudy as it is the type of mise-en-scene I want because of the theme of the video.
