Evaluation Question 4

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

Throughout the entire production we have used a vast portfolio of media products and technologies. We continually used YouTube to present our practise piece, our draft promo video and our final product. YouTube was beneficial to our production as it helped us to reach feedback from larger audiences when completing the audience feedback section from the research and planning stage.

Blogger has continually helped us to organise our production from the very beginning, all research and planning has been recorded in detail on the blog. Using the blog has helped our analysing skills and our use of different media technologies to differentiate our blog to make it interesting for the reader.

The internet was used frequently in the research stage of the production so we could compare our ideas and the codes and conventions with existing similar products. We retrieved many screen grabs from a variety of online sources so we could compare and discuss; ensuring we created a product that would be professional, successful and popular with the chosen target audience for our product.

The main software used for creating the Digipak ancillary task was Adobe Fireworks CS4 as this enabled us to make a professional product that reflected what we wanted to produce. Adobe fireworks CS4 took some getting used to at first but we persisted; we were very happy to have taken the decision to continue using the software as we believe our technical skills have improved dramatically and the final Digipak reflects this.

We edited the production using Sony Vegas as we were familiar with the format from the previous year. We used extra features from the upgraded version to help our product progress from the year before work. We furthered our ability to use the software by including more technical effects in more detailed areas adding increased professionalism to our work.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?


In the whole journey of the creation process for our A2 music video we had to improve our video step by step with the aid of audience feedback. There were many ways in which we tackled audience feedback using different media and different styles. Every part of pre production we consulted our audience for feedback and advice to sculpt our video to make it the best it possibly could be.           
Before shooting our video we had to come up with a concept, a storyline for our video which correlated to both our target audience and the lyrics of our chosen soundtrack. Our group were undecided and had a few different concepts which we wanted to explore in more detail, but ultimately we knew we could only choose one so there was no point in chasing lost causes. We tackled this by making a quick decision and letting our audience feedback tell us what our demographic would mostly be attracted to. We successfully created a PowerPoint with all three ideas in detail to show to the rest of our media group. The decision was unanimous and we decided to explore Neon Tree’s ‘Your Surrender’ for our final piece as it had strong lyrical/image potential.
          

Secondly we decided to use different formats of feedback. This was in the form of the widely acclaimed social network ‘Facebook’. As our friends and family were on there and the majority of them are in our target audiences age bracket we thought this would be suitable as it also allowed different ages to watch our video. Thus giving us a greater range of feedback as our video is definitely aimed at a specific type of audience but we would also like it to have a universal side to it which would make it watchable for all ages.
           
Initially we didn’t know how to make our storyline universal as it would be difficult to adapt our contemporary storyline to suit an older audience. Again, to tackle this problem we used audience feedback and posted our different ideas in the style of a poll where people could vote. We did this on our own blog pages as this was only available to our fellow media class mates; this was beneficial as we wanted feedback from people with knowledge instead of our target audience.

We also decided to create visual representations of our audience feedback so we could easily compare our results so we could clearly see the majority’s decision. This was produced in the form of pie charts, bar charts and line graphs. This information was retrieved from random stratified samples from our questionnaires which we handed out to ten people from every year. This surprisingly was a success with every year with the students participating taking the questionnaire seriously giving us valid and suitable feedback which we could act upon.

In terms of our universality, after our rough cut was produced we showed our parents and peers to see if they were able to see if the storyline suited the song and also if they could relate to the video. This ranged in success with a low percentage of parents finding it uninteresting but we thought this was because it was an unfinished product. We did take their points and opinions into consideration and implemented them to improve our final video.
         

Again, after our final video was produced and refined we showed it to both our class mates and put it on facebook to make it available to wider numbers of people. We managed to get much more positive feedback with 95% of people liking the video. This was due to people being able to sympathise with the storyline itself.

Overall, after every step of pre-production, whatever we thought of, ideas, techniques, locations we consulted a range of people to see if they hit our target audience. By doing this we were able to design and sculpt our video specifically allowing us to use our time more efficiently while also conforming to our target audience’s demands.

Evaluation Question 2

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

 

 

 

There are many similarities between our Ancillary tasks (Digipak and Website) as this was the case with the similar products we researched into. We also ensured there were strong links between the main task and the ancillary task to ensure the audience could easily distinguish the similarities and therefore recognize the product. We made these links strong by ensuring the font type, colours and pictures were all similar throughout.

When tackling the continuity in terms of colour scheme we decided we wanted to create a ‘rainbow’ effect as a rainbow has a continuous pattern throughout. We took this continuous pattern ideas and geared relevant colour through all our different types of media. This technique was also implemented with the use of the actors appearing within all of the products we created, this in turn allows the audience to recognize the products at first glance further keeping the main conventions we adhered to.

As you can see here, the three products we have created all contain similar colours and font. Visually, clear correlation between the images below provides a sense of unity which collectively groups the image to make an overall product for our specific target audience and genre. The images combined illustrate an effective, professional aspect to our work, which is a key attribute we were attempting to fulfil.

All of the similar products we researched used this convention between their media products, as the similar products we researched were hugely popular with the target audience we were targeting. This helped us as a group to collectively agree to meet this convention closely in an attempt to ensure our main product and ancillary tasks were also popular.

We decided to consist our theme of actors and scenery. We did this as normally a digipak directly correlates to the website colours, but as this is a one off video we decided to link all of our products together and we felt the most effective way of doing this was by using these features. Hence, visually our target audience will be able to immediately link our products spreading awareness. Our logo is simply the band’s name, this as well is spread throughout all our products. Finally, we also use symbolic shots on our webpage as again these were directly representational of our overall message.

Evaluation Question 1

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (MUSIC VIDEO)

Establishing Shot
The opening shot of our music video (1) challenges common conventions, as it does not feature an establishing shot. Instead, it features a medium shot of the main character looking on at a projection of the girl he loves, and is shortly followed by a medium closeup of the main character's face showing his emotion. Our opening shot immediately gives the viewer a sense of fantasy due to the obscureness of the scene. This shot also enabled me to show off my editing abilities.

Costumes & Props
The story of our music video focuses on a boy's love for a girl, and as we wanted to make our female character very feminine, we chose a patterened summer dress for her costume (2). To add to the summery feel of our video, we also gave our actress a flowery headpiece to wear. We removed this during the flashbacks to subtlely reinforce to the viewer that the girl wearing the abnormal headpiece was infact a product of the main character's imagination. Other props we used were tin cans on string (6) to give a more natural rustic feel to the scenes, and also bubbles which housed the visual memories of the main character (9).

Setting/Location Our music video is primarily set in an imaginary world thought up by the main character. Through the use of colour correction and lighting, we took a local park and turned it into a tranquile and idylic natural world (3, 6, 10).

Camerawork & Editing

The first shot of our music video shows the main character looking at a projection of the girl in a forest. Using editing, this image was super imposed onto the sheet to give the appearance of a dream-like projection. These editing techniques helped reinforce the fact that the main character was not living in reality (1).

Relationship Between Lyrics & Video
The lyrics to this song are quite obscure, however we did our best to make sure that the video kept relevance to the song throughout. In some scenes, we incorporated the lyrics directly into the narrative, for example, we had the main character write a letter to the girl which contained the lyrics from the section of the song that was playing at the time (8).


http://prezi.com/_gwmsltnyk9b/copy-of-evaluation-question-1/?auth_key=79a78dba0e4e94a505b67ca508cc434936cff577

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Editing and description of process, problems and effects used

Editing the promo video took a considerable amount of time using the sony vegas software round Isaacs. As a group we selected the shots that we wanted to use and disguarded the shots we didnt think were up to the standard we were looking for. Once we had the shots we wanted to use we began joining them together using our storyboard we had previously produced. We wanted the shots to change at to the tempo of the song which follows one of the main codes and conventions of a promo video. The shots were relevant to the lyrics of the song so we had to select the appropriate shots that had relevance to the song lyrics.

We encounted a large problem when editing some of the final shots as it proved highly difficult to place an image of the two main characters together in a bubble that was moving accross the screen. We persisted using our technical abilities and succeeded eventually.

We used effects to improve the levels of brightness to create the illusion that the sun was more prominat than in reality on the day of filming. These effects allow the promo to fit in with common conventions making the video fit in with the mention of the sun in the lyrics frequently.

(Increased brightness)

Digipack

Our Digipack incorporates scenery from the first single in our album 'Your Surrender' in order to establish syncronisation between our media formats, and create an instantly identifiable style for consumers to see.

Making the digipack

Following traditional conventions of CD casing, we have constructed a digipack that follows the themes of the album's flagship music video: Your Surrender, and the band website.

Here is a step by step guide to how we constructed the front cover of our album:



Step 1:
We start with a blank white canvas, 1163 pixels across, and 869 pixels down.

Step 2:

We then added a still shot from one of the scenes in the music video, tweaking the colours slightly, sharpening the image, and increasing the transparency of the image by just under 25%. We removed a central strip of the image to make room for the title and to stylise the image.

Step 3:
We then added a colour co-ordinated light green strip to the back of the canvas, behind the main background image, resulting in a slight overlap to the background image due to their transparancy.

Step 4:
We then added a black strip over the top of the green strip, behind the main background image, resulting in a further overlap to the background image and adding an improved transparancy effect.

Step 5:
We then added the band name in contrasting colours of dark red and a light cream colour, and we were left with our finished piece.

Below is the finished back and font cover of our Digipak:

We also decided to add a whole new level into our digipak to set it apart from other products. By doing this we added two holographic pictures into our digipak to give our audience authentic memorabilia which directly links to our final video. Here is a copy of our final digipak and holographic cards at the bottom;

Here is where our inspiration came from, I previously purchased the avatar collectors edition and found the holographic cards inside;

Brand Identity

Every band has a brand identity. A symbol, a word, a phrase which is directly associated with the band as a easy way of recognising the band visually. We had to create a brand identity for our group which was directly associated with the style of music, band and our target audience. This brand/stamp has to be an on running theme throughout all our products which includes website and digipak. Here is our final branded identity;

The colours, text and font have all been kept consistent throughout the main promo video and the ancillary tasks to keep a brand indentity for the audience to recognize the product and acillary pieces quickly. This is a key convention of a promo video which we all agreed was very important, consequently we have stuck to this convention to keep popularity with our audience.

Website

Please use the link below to access our website!
http://releasingsuccess.co.uk/isaac/website1.html

This is our Website, we have made many clear links to our other ancillary task (Digipak) and the main product by matching font types, colours, images and text. All of these aspects create a clear syndication between the 3 products, we intentially did this so that the audience would find the products recognisable as a brand identity.

Using our research into similar websites we attempted to keep to many of the main conventions we found when analysing. The format was designed by myself but we ensured we included the neccessary information found on many proffessional existing websites for bands today.

The sub-headings we used are commonly used in many similar products along with the use of the large title and images of the band with tour dates and links to merchandise pages.

Finished Product

We have now finished our main product after taking into consideration the audience feedback we recieved from our draft. We have considered the feedback and acted on it, hopefully making the production more popular with our target audeicece, here is the production below:





We are happy with the outcome of our production and believe it is mainly due to the in depth research and planning we carried out in our pre-production stage. We planned the days of filming well which helped us film quickly and efficiently meaning we made far less mistakes and less adjustments were needed from our rough draft.

Our final piece complies with and challenges many of the codes and conventions of popular media products from past and present. We have further discussed in detail how and why we have challenged the conventions in our evaluation. In short; to increase popularity by complying and create uniqueness through challenging.

As a group we are happy with the overall outcome of the promo video and believe we have progressed well taking consideration of a our target audience feedback and group ideas. We believe the product clearly reflects the initial ideas we had as a group and exceeds our original expectations.