DRAFT Evaluation Question 4 - How Did You Use Media Technologies In The Construction And Research, Planning And Evaluation Stages?

In the construction of my research, planning and evaluation stages, I used many different technologies. Firstly, I used my Sony VAIO laptop:

This was easily transported in my bag and was light which was ideal as I could use it to store images, load photos from my camera, access the internet, download files, use blogger and all of the necessary software which I needed was all waiting and ready to be used. I used my laptop in the research and planning stages to research into bands and videos and then create powerpoints with analysed details on these products. I then used it throughout the evaluation stages to display my answers in interesting and engaging ways and show my ability to use many different technologies.

In order to research effectively with my laptop, I used the Google search engine

Along with YouTube

In order to retrieve all of the information I needed regarding album covers, digipacs, music videos, theories etc. But YouTube was not only used for research, we used it to display our video online and receive feedback from our peers and from our teacher when we embedded the video on blogger.

We used blogger

To display all of our products we have created, the research and planning leading up to them, inspirations, analyses and also to receive feedback from our teachers as well as finding out tasks that our teachers have set on their blogs. This is very useful as I could access blogger from anywhere with the internet and begin posting if I had an idea in my head. This made life a lot easier than hand writing all of my ideas and then combining them in a folder as I would not run the risk of forgetting any of my work as it would all be on the blog. Before creating posts, I would create images and products on software such as Photoshop or Sony Vegas:

These editing softwares enabled me to create products that are unique to me which use common conventions of other media products and entice an audience. These products varied from stop motion experimenting videos on Sony Vegas to creating a digipac on Photoshop. Photoshop made my life a lot easier to fulfil conventions of other real media products as it is hard to achieve the effects the professional products without any editing whatsoever. Before using any text on Photoshop, I would craft what I wanted to say on Microsoft word.

This would minimise spelling errors and I could organise the layout of the writing without any extra fuss on Photoshop. Once I had created these ideas, both myself and the other group members would share these products with Facebook and Twitter:

These social networking sites enabled us not only to share products with the audience and receive feedback but also for us and the band members to convey information to one another about filming dates, costumes, progress and equipment etc.

During filming processes we used two cameras which were very similar, the Sony NEX-5 and the Sony NEX-7

This provided a high quality image and great playback facilities so that we could review what we had filmed in seconds. This camera was also easily compatible with the apple mac we used for editing:

 

When filming, we also used the mac to play music on iTunes so that the band could sing along in time in order to make lip syncing easier for us in the editing process.

Email was another way of communicating with each other along with texting from my blackberry which could also receive emails whilst 'on-the-go' so I could keep up to date with the group's actions and what was happening.

In conclusion, the use of media technologies throughout my media course has enabled both me and my group to communicate with ease, share files with one another, work efficiently and produce work on time. Without media technologies, what we have created as a group would be impossible. Media technologies are always developing their ergonomics and how user friendly they are, which makes them easier to use and more accessible for a wide audience. Media technologies are having an ever increasing impact on the world and are helping people like us media students to create far more professional products than what we would have been able to five years ago. Nowadays, Americans have access to 1,000,000,000,000 web pages and 65,000 iPhone apps - all of this information in your pocket. The modern day phone is a million times cheaper, a thousand times more powerful and a hundred times smaller than the MIT computer in 1965. So what fits in your pocket now, will fit inside a blood cell in 25 years. This media convergence has enabled me to create these products and enabled you to view them in such a convenient way. Thank you, internet.

DRAFT Evaluation Question 3 - What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback?

Before we created our video, each member of our group analysed at least three real music videos that exist on the market today. The feedback I received from them is as follows:

This feedback I received from Mr. Smith told me to look at "elements you could incorporate into your own music video" and to look at the "simple techniques" some videos use. These comments obviously adapted my approach to making a music video and I learnt that the conventions of music videos are not as easy to use in your own music video as you might think - such as lip syncing.

After analysing these videos, I went on to creating an audience profile where I looked at the sort of person who would either buy or use our media products. Here is the feedback Mr. Smith gave me regarding this:

In order to make my target audience clearer, I created a moodboard that showed the types of bands they would listen to and the dress-sense they may have. Mr. Smith said:

From this, we each, in turn, created a band logo and Mr. Smith, along with Meg said:

Therefore i deemed them sufficient and thought they required no more developments and so moved on to taking test shots for the bands real photoshoot for the front covers etc. The feedback was as follows:

This feedback was a valid point, women in the indie genre generally dress less like a woman and in more manly clothes. So this feedback influenced the way we dressed Georgia in order for her to fit the form of the genre.

We then each edited the photos from the Photoshoot so that they suited the indie genre more, I did this by adding levels on photoshop and creating a retro effect. However, Mr. Smith said:

This comment came as a shock to us, but we soon realised that what he was saying is true and so starting creating posts together and working together to achieve tasks more easily. So, we then each took a band member and outlined the clothes they will be wearing and where we drew our inspiration from for these members:

From this comment, we appointed ourselves roles in the video. Harry was the cameraman/director, Jess was the director, Meg was the sound technician and I was the lighting technician and panning cameraman. But before we jumped into our video, we experimented first with stop motion and here is the feedback I received.

We then looked into using some stop motion in our actual video and then used it in the bicycle scene and also where the band members change position on the lyrics "one night in october". After deciding on what to include in our music video, we thought that all signed artists belong to a record label and so as a group we came up with names and then decided collectively on "ZED Recordings" and then I went on to designing some logos for the whole group to use on their digipacs and posters. Here is them deciding which logo they liked the most: 

After these comments, we proceeded to making the draft video.

This is a moodboard of all the feedback we received from our draft music video:

Click Image To Enlarge

As you can see from all of the feedback we received on our draft video, it was a great success with our target market. With Harry, Jess and myself all embedding the video from YouTube onto facebook and Meg cyber stalking people in order to watch it too, we received nearly 400 views in a matter of a few days and also received many likes. We did receive a few negative comments telling us that the lead singer needed to open his mouth more when he was singing, but we knew this was an issue when editing the video. We also received lots of constructive criticisms from our teachers and fellow prosumers in our class. We respected the prosumers advice more than consumers as the prosumers realise the elements and conventions needed in order to create a successful product, whereas consumers do not analyse in such a detailed manner.
After Mr. Smith had told us exactly what he believed worked and what did not, I created a post on what we had and what we had not changed from the draft to the final video. Here is the post:

Click Image To Enlarge

On one of the pointers, Mr. Smith said "not sure party strobe scene is clear enough (could it begin with an extablishing shot of exterior showing the caravan in darkness really brightly light and ready for a party?)"
However, this is one of the few comments for improvements we decided to ignore and for a very valid reason - Jess cyber stalked Little Comets on Twitter and they gave us feedback regarding our video, as you can see on the collage of feedback I have made. They said "Bit with iPhone lighting is class!" and as they are prosumers, their feedback is very valid. They also target the same target audience that we are aiming for and so know what works for that particular genre.

These constructive criticisms helped us as a group to develop our music video, but maybe restricted us in some ways from doing exactly what we wanted as the scenes we would like to have used would not have used any conventions or forms of the indie genre. Here is the feedback we received on our final video before it was removed due to copyrights from YouTube, which we had to later solve by putting it on another file sharing site.

Obviously, this is disappointing in comparison with the draft, but this cannot be helped due to technical difficulties. However, this feedback still shows that our target audience is pleased with the video we have created.

My digipac went through many stages of development before I got my end product. Firstly, I experimented with fonts to see which best suited it and received feedback on facebook that is no longer available which told me that they preferred a bold font but when I looked back over it I was not certain. However, Mr. Smith commented on my font experimenting:

This gave me an incentive to draw inspiration from many different genres and artists for my digipac and so I developed it further and showed different versions of the digipac. Mr. Smith said:

After using most of these ideas and retaining feedback from other prosumers in the class, I came to my final decision with my digipac and then posted it to facebook. Here is the feedback I received:

People say they like the "retro" feel and others talk of the "depth of field" and one consumer says it belongs in the "indie" genre - which is what I was looking for. From my audience feedback I have received I have learned that the majority like the simplicity and respect the artwork I have created.

In terms of my poster, the feedback was quite positive but similar to my digipac as it uses practically the same elements. But after developing the poster endlessly, the comment I received from Mr. Smith is::

So by this satisfied comment from Mr. Smith, I decided to post the poster to facebook and here is the feedback I received:

This time I received compliments about the "simplicity" and the "retro indie feel", which was perfect as that was exactly what I was aiming for, but I did learn from one consumer that the poster could benefit from an aspect of the poster "being bolder" or making the image a bit "sharper" - however, I made the image purposefully unsharp to achieve the retro indie feel some of the other consumers have pointed out.

In conclusion to these feedbacks I have gained a lot of knowledge from audience feedback and I think it has helped me to develop my digipac, poster and video in order to make them more professional. I have learnt that sometimes what I think may look amazing some people may not appreciate and when you are creating artwork you need imagery and iconography that appeals to a wider audience than just yourself.

DRAFT Evaluation Question 2 - How Effective Is The Combination Of Your Main Product And Ancillary Texts?

I am very happy with how all of the products I have created have turned out, however, I do not think that my music video shows links to my digipac and poster but I think the combination of the products does still work well.

Our music video uses a fast-paced and high tempo song, which means that the video needs to use bright colours, lots of action and people having fun; otherwise the video will show no or little link between the visuals and the music – a convention that cannot be ignored when creating a music video. An example is Vampire Weekend’s quick paced song of ‘A-Punk’:

However, my digipac shows no link or combination between itself and the music video as there are no cross-linking images – only the name of the song on the track list on the back cover. Steve, the lead singer, is featured in my digipac, but you would not be able to tell as the shot is side on and could be any person. On the other hand, the digipac and the poster are very closely linked as they both use the same image, like Two Door Cinema Club do with theirs:

 

This use of the same images creates a sense of branding and makes the audience link images with the band and its music. Although the poster and digipac show very close links, they do not link without perception or deep analysis. But I do not see this as a major problem as many artists in the indie genre show no links whatsoever between their album artwork and their music videos. For example, Two Door Cinema Club use the cat image in any of their music videos that were produced with that album.

Nor do Magnetic Man with their black and silver line imagery:

    

Or Arcade Fire:

These images are simply eye-catching images that when the audience see them will be instantly reminded of that certain band (they act as an advertisement and brand the products). Therefore by not including a linking element, I am not challenging any forms or conventions, I am simply using these conventions and perhaps developing them further.

PLANNING: Question 2. How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

-The idea of skeleton/ skull on the painted face matches the name of the band.

-Nothing matches from the video,

-Say what I haven't included e.g images of the band or similarities between the video and the album and poster.

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

In order for any of us to be able to improve, we must receive feedback from our target audience to know exactly what they want. This can be done in many ways such as: questionnaires/ interviews, a pitch, social networking sites and many more. Both myself and the group used these methods to get feedback on our video and digipaks. 


Music Video


The first feedback we received was after our 25 word pitch. We presented our idea to our media class (which was beneficial as a few students fitted into our target audience) and followed that were questions and comments about our idea. Questions we were asked were along the lines of 'what the pool was and whether it was related to fun and party?' To this Harry and I answered that we thought it went well with the disjuncture idea and it's an unusual location that probably wont be used in any other video (due to this we thought there was a chance that it could stand out more to the exam board). Another question we were asked was 'whether we were going to try and go a bit wacky and different?' This we all agreed with. The question that followed this was 'why is it the way forward?'. This was answered by myself saying that with disjuncture we were able to do a bit more and have lots more fun than if it were to be illustration and both Jess and Joe went on to say how it was very typical of our genre. Our teacher rounded off the pitch by saying that she understands the concept of what we wanted to create. This lead us to believe our pitch was very successful as we didn't receive any negative feedback and all questions asked weren't too confusing which meant everyone understood what our ideas were. When doing a pitch you can instantly find out whether people think it's a good idea by their facial expressions, comments they make and questions they ask. All of this in our pitch seemed very positive so we went on to proceed with the ideas we had.


The next feedback we needed was for our draft video. It was posted on Facebook and many people commented on it stating what they liked and disliked. This was very helpful as the majority of the comments came from those in our target audience. The comments people gave were very positive and it seemed that they really enjoyed watching it, this was such a reward after the effort put into making the draft. However, I would have preferred it if some people left ideas for improvement, but they probably didn't due to them being friends of ours.











To gain some more influential feedback and opinions as to what could be improved, our teacher commented on the music video post on our blog. It consisted of 22 points telling what he liked and didn't like. This was incredibly helpful because as a teacher that has taught this many times and has seen many outcomes, he knows exactly what will gain you marks, and by telling us we could improve our overall grade and individual. Most of them were ideas we agreed with, such as having the band playing from the start and making the lead singer more enthusiastic with his singing. We took on board all of these ideas and changed pretty much everything he suggested, because as previously stated, he knows what will gain us marks.



Our draft video was uploaded onto YouTube where anyone could watch the video. Each one of us were constantly telling our friends to watch the video. I sent out various texts and links on Facebook to my friends that I thought fit into the target market so they could watch it. The result of this was lots of views which we were very pleased about.



The final video was then uploaded onto YouTube on Harry's account and was once again watched by many. It wasn't as many as the draft but that could be due to the lack of bombarding of links to everyone I know.



I think our greatest bit of feedback we received was from Little Comets as we were using their song for the video so of course we wanted to impress. Each one of us took it upon ourselves when we could to tweet the band with the link to the draft video and asking them to watch it. The perseverance finally paid off and Jess managed to have a conversation with the band asking them what they liked and didn't like about it. In contrast to what our teacher Mr Smith said about changing the iPhone lighting, they described it as "class" so we decided to go against our teacher opinion and keep it in the video.









We also had a tweet back from them about our final video. Unfortunately it didn't go as successful last time as they didn't really give an opinion on whether they liked it or not.



To get some more feedback for our video we are going to go to Jess' form and someone elses to show the video to the classes. The forms range from 14 years to 18 years old and consist of around 20- 25 students. Many of the students also fit into our target audience as they are the right age. I will supply them with questionnaires that I have created that they are expected to fill out after watching the video. They will be shown in form time which lasts for half an hour so it will give us plenty of time to introduce what we are doing, play the video and have them fill out the questionnaires. All of this will also be filmed so the reaction to the video can be seen.

Digipak


I was given feedback from my teacher for my draft digipak. They told me what they liked and didn't like and what should be improved. After thinking carefully about how I could improve it and where I could go with the idea, I came to the conclusion that I didn't really like it and wanted to do something else. Megan Rhodes A2 Feedback Sheet Research and Planning Etc 2011 2012 So I came up with 3 other ideas that I thought would suit the band and the video. The ideas I came up with I all really liked which made it harder to choose which one I would take forward and develop. To come up with a decision I decided to survey 40 people that I believed fitted in my target audience or were 'on the border' so I could see what they would prefer seeing as though they were the consumers. I asked everyone which they preferred and kept a tally as well as taking note of comments they made about why they liked it or why they didn't. I could then take the most popular album cover and go ahead to use this as my final and develop it further.
Questionnaire for Cover