Evaluation Q4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We uploaded our music video on Vimeo as we needed a place to share our video which allowed people to watch, rate and comment on. With this website, we was able to see how much plays and likes it got, along with people's opinion. Unfortunately we couldn't gather as much feedback on this site as an account was required but luckily I got the audience feedback in other ways such as interviews and questionnaires. According to the statistics, the video was more active at the end of January because there was a higher number of loads and plays.

Below shows the embedded video from Vimeo along with our statistics (click to enlarge):

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Music Video Feedback

Interviewee #1

What did you like about the music video?

I liked the slow motion effect and green screen effect.

What didn't you like about it?

I didnt like the beginning when make up was used to create words because it was too light and couldnt see the end letter.

Interviewee #2

What do you like about the music video?

What I like about it is the way it's filmed and the way it went into 4 different boxes at some points.

What didn't you like about it?

What I dont like about it is that it was always in the same place, I think it should've been shot in different places aswel.

Interviewee #3

What do you like about the music video?

I liked the split shots and I liked the way they zoomed in on the house at the start. I liked how they moved apart from the sofa and when they were sitting on the stairs when ketchup goes on her shoe.

What didn't you like about it?

I think there should've been more variety of shots because some bits are repetitive.

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Feedback for Music Video - Questionnaire Results

Feedback for Ancillary Products - Questionnaire Results

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Music Video Analysis

After gathering feedback from both interviews and questionnaires, it is obvious that the audience had noticed each and every one of the effects we used. The most popular edit of ours which stood out towards the audience was most likely the box cut edit which ran throughout the music video. Our audience also noticed other effects such as the slow motion, green screen and zoom in effects. When watching the crowds reaction, it was clear that they found it quite humorous especially at the ketchup scene as they bursted out in laughter - we also see this in our Interviewee #2's reaction video. From analyzing my survey results, it showed that 100% of the people who took the survey said that the music video suited its genre which was a relief!

Like every music video, there is always constructive critism and feedback which I must take as it will benefit me in future. The comments that were consistently said were "there should've been more variety of shots", "different scenes" and "more locations". One of the major aspects which affected the music video was the performance of our artist as she lacked the energy and stayed still for a long period of time, this was noticed by 4 out of 6 people on my survey. Unfortunately the majority of the audience who took part in the survey rated it a 2/3 out of 5, which may seem a bit harsh but I wouldn't disagree as I now know what lowered the standards of my music video.

I now know what is required to gain or lose the audiences interests after acknowledging their point of view. It is quite obvious that there are lots of pro's and con's into why people like and dislike our music video. The feedback has definately helped me as the audience pointed out certain aspects which I didn't consider before filming the music video. If I had the chance to re-create the music video, I would guarantee that there would be a far better outcome at hand! I would definately consider having more locations, possibly outdoor too, so the audience wouldn't get bored of watching the repetitive scenes. I would also consider having our artist to perform better such as guiding her and telling her what to do such as dancing. Also different costume for different locations would be more interesting as one interviewee stated. Our filming could also improve in movement as our camera literally stayed still for the whole music video, I would most definately refilm this with camera movements to with the beat of the song to make the music video more lively. Overall I believe I did an okay job but if I had the chance to recreate it, it would be mind blowing thanks to the feedback. Other than that, I am quite happy with the outcome and the reaction from the audience as the target audience we were aiming at were mainly young teenage girls.

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Ancillary Products Analysis

I obtained feedback for my ancillary products, the digipak and advertisement, through a survey and it showed more of a positive result than negative. Judging from the responses, it looks like the viewers enjoyed my ancillary products and each liked different aspects and effects. Some interviewees commented saying that it "literally looked like real products" and it was "very professional". Viewers also acknowledged the colour and theme used, especially the inner panel with the tiles of images. From looking at my results, it is clear that the viewer knew what genre it was out of the 5 different genres which proved that my ancillary products presented itself in the right category. Fortunately, the majority of the audience rated my ancillary products 4/5 out of 5! I was very pleased with this outcome.

I also gained some advice that the audience gave me which included the font choice, or typography work on the cover - this was commented by 3 out of 7 people. They also recommended to me that I could've used a better picture of her where she looked more professional and possibly more happy. I also managed to show the 2 versions of the advertisement poster and one of the interviewees said that they had prefered the original poster with the image tiles.

As a whole, the feedback were very useful to me because it showed me what was required to catch the audiences eye. The audience seem to like my ancillary product designs rather than dislike for many reasons so I am satisfied. But for the advice, I couldn't disagree with them nonetheless. If I was able to reproduce the digipak and advertisement poster, I would definitely take their comments into consideration. I absolutely agree about the font/typography comment as I used a rather basic type of font and barely applied any outstanding effects on it. I would also take high quality pictures with a white background instead of the usual photos with background interference which may affect the editing. Overall I think I done a brilliant job and I am proud of the outcome myself. The audience feedback was also positive in general as we were aiming at a young target audience.

Evaluation Q3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

*All .gifs made by myself through Adobe Photoshop Animation.*

Evaluation Q4, What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Feedback
by: mpalc


The following clips of our audience feedback are things we've taken into consideration : -

The Link below gives you direct accsess to Vimeo where our video is held, you can see ratings and comments people have given us:-

vimeo.com/32958025

Evaluation Q3, How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?



End result

Below i have included our animatic

Evaluation Q2, How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary text (digipak and advertisement)?

Prezi

Evaluation Q2: How effective is the main combination of your main product and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

EVALUATION Q4: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Music Video

Audience Feedback

 

By using vimeo we was able to upload our music video, and others can rate and comment on it. This allowed us to see other people’s opinions. The Link below will give you direct acess to Vimeo where you'll find our video, and you can see all ratings and comments we have recieved.


http://vimeo.com/32958025

Looking at all of feedback that we received on our music video I can see that people mostly enjoyed the box editing, as the found it interesting to watch. Other positive feedback was also about the slow motion effect, the zoom in on the house, the way the moving apart on the sofa was edited. We also received some negative comments on the amount of shots, as we didn’t have a very wide variety of different shots. Another thing someone didn’t like was the lighting in the begging as they believed it was too bright and some of the letters couldn’t be seen. Looking at our feedback it’s clear to see what we could have changed. Most importantly would be the variety of shots, as it gets a bit repetitive and this could be boring for the viewer. We could have also included more movement as our artist is very static which could again get a little boring. What i’ve personally learned from the feedback we received is that we should have filmed in different places so that it could be more interesting for the viewer, I believe that if we added a wider diversity of shots then our music video would be of a higher standards. If we could improve it now, then this would definitely be the most important thing to fix. The feedback does make me look at our music video in a different light, as there is some particular things that people liked and disliked that I didn’t particularly notice beforehand, but now that they have been pointed out I can understand their comments. An example of this is the comment we received about the beggining of our music video and how some of the letters couldn’t be read because of the light, which I hadn’t noticed before but after that I could see that there might be some difficulty for people to see it from watching the first time.

Digipak
  Audience Feedback


Marcella Rob - 'I really like the your chosen theme, i think that all the colours blend in vey well and it works really good with the main photographs and the graphics. The layout is also visually good and clear. The only improvement I would say is to make the font a darker colour and maybe a bit more simple.'

Mary Walshe - 'I liked the design and layout, and how you made it look pretty and professional.'

Yasemin Guzel - 'I like how the shirt matches the background. But i dont like the effect which has been put over the whole of the digipak.'

The feedback that I received on my digipak was very positive and helpful. Looking at the feedback as a whole there wasn’t much that I could improve on. As I received mixed negative and positive comments, this meant that if I was to have changed one thing to please one person another person wouldn’t have liked it. An example of this is the scrunched up effect, as Marcella says ‘'I really like the your chosen theme ... and the graphics’ and Mary says ‘'I liked the design and layout’ which is contradicted with Yasemin’s comment ‘But i dont like the effect which has been put over the whole of the digipak.’  This shows that there is a mixture of feelings towards this particular editing effect. I received other positive comments like ‘I think that all the colours blend in very well and it works really good with the main photographs and the graphics. The layout is also visually good and clear.’, 'I liked ... how you made it look pretty and professional.' and 'I like how the shirt matches the background.’. I also received a comment on how I could improve my digipak ‘I would say is to make the font a darker colour and maybe a bit more simple’  this was very helpful as from this specific feedback I can see where I could have improved my work in order to make it more clear and for it to look even better. From all the feedback I received I can see that there isn’t a lot I could have changed. Personally I think that if I made the font more clear by changing the colour or font, my work would look more professional and the text would be easier to read. What I’ve learned from this feedback is that maybe I should have made the design even more simple, as some people may think it looks a bit clattered. If I could improve my work now, I would definitely change the fonts used on the front panel for the artist name and album as I don’t personally think they look good. The feedback that I received has definitely made me look at my digipak in a different light as there are things which I don’t personally like which other people thought was a positive contribution towards the digipak.

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Audience Feedback

Mary Walshe - 'I liked the colour scheme and mixture of photographs. But i think that you should have made the photographs natural.'

Yasemin Guzel - 'I like the font and the way it's all set out. I also like how the shirt of the artist matched the background. But like i said about the digipak i don't like the effect over it.'   

Looking at the feedback which I received on my advertisement seems very similar to the one on my digipak. I received positive comments like ‘'I liked the colour scheme and mixture of photographs’ and 'I like the font and the way it's all set out. I also like how the shirt of the artist matched the background’. I also received a negative comment on my choice of edit which was used ‘But I think that you should have made the photographs natural.' and ‘i don't like the effect over it’. From all the feedback I received I can see that there isn’t a lot I could have changed, but the scrunched up effect. However if I was to change this in my advertisement then it wouldn’t link with my digipak and clear connection would not be seen through my ancillary work. Personally I think that if I was to change the editing effect on my advertisement it would make it look dull and uninteresting. However as two people have made the same negative comment, to improve my advertisement I could maybe tone it down, as this would make the photographs look more natural. I’ve learned from this feedback that I should have made my advertisement more simple, as this would maybe appeal to more people. The feedback that I received has certainly made me look at my advert in a different light as there was both negative and positive comments which I didn’t expect, so now that they have been pointed out I can understand to why someone would think this.

Considering my target audience I believe that I have questioned a similar group of people in order to obtain audience feedback. My artist’s music and therefore my music video and ancillary work are focused to attract young women and teenagers. So looking at my audience feedback I believe that is quite accurate to the reaction I would receive.

EVALUATION Q3: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To film our music video we used brand new state of the art camera's which allowed us to get a better quality of filming. The camera also allowed to focus each shot manually, which was very helpful as it made our shots look better. The zoom in/out effect on the camera allowed us to zoom into the house for our opening shot effectively, it was smooth throughout. Having two memory cards was very helpful as if one got full up, it would automatically start using the second one, so we didn't have to worry about running out of space. Also on the camera there is an option to delete clips so if there were any un-needed clips and we were running out of space we could delete them.

Blogger allowed me to keep a record of the progression I was making during the creating of my music video and ancillary products. Both my planning and research was recorded on blogger, during the process. I posted all of my ideas and inspirations on blogger so that I won’t forget them and this helped me to keep all my work organised and in one place. This was way my teachers could also see how I was getting on wth my work.

We used the internet for research purposes throughout our project. We used different websites at different times in order to help us plan. For example before and throughout filming our music video we used youtube to look at other music videos so that we could get inspired. This was in fact very helpful as  it allowed us to get ideas on different shots and editing techniques. For example our idea of split editing came from watching Beyonce's 'Countdown' music video. When doing research on the real artist of the song we used her official website, which helped us to find out more information about the artist, some personal like photos and information about her music and some more open like tour dates. Before starting to create my own digipak i used google in order to look at other digipaks of the same genre, which helped me to see what kind of conventions I had to include.

Creating a digital storyboard

(closer view of what our storyboard looked like)

After drawing out our storyboard and the taking pictures of each shot we then put it into final cut pro so that we could create an animatic storyboard, we also added our chosen song so we had an idea of how long each shot will be. This was very helpful in the editing process as we had already planned where each shot should go and around how long it should be. Even though we made some changes from our original idea, the anamatic storyboard was very useful. Below you can see the animatic storyboard.

Final Cut Pro was a very important media technology for the construction of our music video. We used it in order to edit together our music video. Final Cut allowed us to edit our music video to qualified standards. It also allowed us to use a number of different edits in order to make our music video look better and more eye-catching. For example the use of ‘chroma key’ editing which allowed us to use the green screen. Below you can see a video which I made showing how I used the ‘chroma key’. I believe that this edit was very helpful in making our music video more interesting to the audience.

Another edit which I think was very important in making our music video look better and more lively was the change in colour. I did this by adding a video filter called ‘Colour Corrector’. This allowed us to edit the lighting of the shots, in the video below you can see how I done this in our music video. By changing the colour of the shots it made our video brighter and more vibrant, and this would more enjoyable for the audience.

 

In order to construct my ancillary products I used the programme Photoshop. In the images below you can see the different stages of each product being made. Photoshop was very useful and once getting the hang of it, it was quite straightforward to use. Through the process of making my ancillary products I changed my mind a couple of time, as you can see in the images below, and as i saved my work as a Photoshop file I could edit as many times as I wanted which was very useful.

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Back Panel

Front Panel

As you can see in all my ancillary work, I carried on the same idea throughout of the scrunched paper effect. This was done on Photoshop, below you can see a step by step of how I created this effect.

EVALUATION Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?

Evaluation Q1, In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Question 1, In what way does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions for real media products ? on Prezi

My ancillary examples

Box cut editing example

Performance Narrative example

Illistrative

Other Music advertisments

Evaluation Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

We were influenced by a range of existing music products which we were able to gain initial ideas from. When researching, we had to make sure that we didn't copy the ideas exactly but to create the ideas in our own way. Our group looked and covered all aspects of a music video which included camera work, editing and mise en scene and had to consider what was and was not suitable for the genre of our artist.

Before starting our music video project, we researched conventions from Andrew Goodwin and Carol Vernallis's theories on music videos. When looking at music videos, we found that their theory was correct and that a majority of music videos had followed their ideas and conventions.

Our music video follows the following conventions:

• Our video uses the artist both as narrator and as a character
• Our artist often looks directly at the camera as an extension of performance to try involve the viewer
• The use of jump cuts
• A master shot (base track) is used to give the video a structure
• Our video is repeatedly edited to the beat of the song

We were influenced by a range of different artists from editing, camera work and visuals. We also decided to challenge the conventions of the genre and tried to think outside the box by studying different genres.

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          Jay Sean - 2012                                                   Reem X - Foundations

Jay Seans' video, 2012, has influenced us in editing because there is an effect which they use in the beginning where it zooms in from space to the building. We have also used this effect for our intro and zoomed from outside the house to the inside as shown below. When filming and editing this part, we encountered a problem as we took a still shot at first and were unable to make a zoom in effect on the editing software. Therefore we had to re-film this scene and zoomed in using the camera itself so that later on in the editing production we had to fade it smoothly into the next scene.

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Beyonce - Countdown                                           Reem X - Foundations

 

Beyonces' new music video, Countdown, is packed with box-cut edits which influenced us in using the same kind of effect. This music video has used it as a motif and has created it effectively to suit the theme and colours of the video. We used this effect around 4 times for scenes such as the close ups of facial expressions and a scene with the beers.

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    Rihanna - Hate That I Love You                                   Reem X - Foundations

 

Rihannas video, Hate That I Love You, is one of the many love songs that involve the artist inside a house, or their home as their location set. Although her song is a lot more deeper with feelings and emotions, we kept it at a similar location of our artist being at home.

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Digipak My digipak was inspired by the 2 album covers above as I grabbed different aspects for inspiration. Adele's album inspired me in many ways as her cover design is very simple yet effective, she is presented as an artist who is a serious musician and doesnt seek the male gaze. As our artist is similar, I got my artist to do a similar pose and then captured a close up of her. Pixie Lott's album was also an inspiration because she is also in the Pop genre and coincidently her album cover had a big X which could relate to my theme. Her use of colours such as hot pink and white really inspired me as it added a feminine touch towards the design.

EVALUATION Q1: In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

MUSIC VIDEO

One convention of a music video that we used is the singer looked directly at the camera which we wanted to involve the viewer in performance. I believe that this worked very well as it captured the attention of the audience. This is very commonly seen in music videos and it works very well in attracting attention so this is why we were influenced to use this in our own music video.
Another very conventional technique that my group used is a base track, which meant that we kept coming back to the artist in more or less the same place. We repeated the same shots of the performer (some from different angles) in order to establish her as the artist. This is very often used in music videos, so that the audience are aware of who the performer is. An example of a music video that inspired us is Christina Perri's 'Jar of Hearts' where a base track is used in order to establish a new artist.

         Our Music Video                                                                          Christina Perri - Jar of Hearts

Me and my group were influenced by different videos, incorporating different editing techniques. One video that particularly inspired us from the start is Jay Sean’s ‘2012’ music video. Even though it isn’t the same genre, we believed that a particular editing technique they have used will look good in our music video. In ‘2012’ they use a zoom into the city, and we included this kind of idea at the beginning of our music video, from the outside of the house into the living room. As we got this idea from a music video of a different genre I would believe that this would be challenging the conventions of our own genre which is indie pop. We decided to do this in order to make it look more interesting to our audience. 

Carole Vernalis observed that edits in music videos come more frequently than they do in films. Many stand out as disjuncture and their editing seems to have a rhythmetic basis closely connected to the song. She believes that the usual rules of ‘continuity’ editing are broken in order to draw attention to what is on the screen. We follow this convention in our music video. An example of this is when we used split screen editing, we used this perticular edit as we thought it would grab the viewer’s attention. We were inspired to do this by Beyonce’s Countdown.  I think ‘Countdown’ was definitely very influential as the split editing was done very well, and made the music video itself more interesting and eye-catching.

Andrew Goodwin feels that traditional narrative analyses don’t apply to pop videos. He believes that there are three types of relations between songs and videos. Both illustration and amplification are involved in our music video. For example we use amplification through our mise-en scene which was influenced my Katy Perry’s ‘Thinking of You’. The lyrics in the song portray a relationship break up, which is exactly what our song is based on. So we decide to take the idea of setting out music video inside a house, as this would make it more personal and it portray the message we wanted. Amplificationis when a music video introduces new meanings that do not contradict with the lyrics but add layers of meaning, which is what we are doing with our choice of mise-en scene.

DIGIPAK

My digipak was inspired by Adele’s ‘21’. This is mainly because the design was very simple and elegant which portrayed the artist as serious, which is the message I also wanted to get across. Also the image the used of Adele was simple, and through the soft and graceful make-up she was wearing they convey femininity, and this shows her as a positive role model for females. Even though the music Adele makes is a little different, I believe that this was a good way to represent my own artist.

Another digipak which influenced me was Amy Macdonald’s ‘A Curious Thing’. I particularly liked this digipak because of the colour scheme, as it is very mellow and peaceful, it runs throughout both panels which I really liked. I tried to interpret this in my own work, as I believe that the colours portray the artist as normal and simple. The design is very simple but effective which is what attracted me to it. The image they have used of the artist influenced me as it was only of her face which showed that she wasn’t interested in attracting the male gaze, and it portrayed her as elegant and a serious musician. This is exactly how I wanted to represent my own artist. I tried to make my digipak conventional for its perticular genre, so this is why i tried to keep it elegant and not to clattered. I believe that i succeeded in making my digipak conventional judging from my two inspirations

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I wanted my advertisement to follow its genre convention. So i looked at number of different advertisement which were of the same genre. The one that influenced me the most was Ellie Goulding's as it very simple but at the same time it stands out. In her advertisement you cansee that they have included her achievements such as a number one album in the UK. Unlike this I included tour dates, which is also conventiol information. The image used is very simple which another thing i tried to take in on my own advertisent. I also followed all the normal conventions of advertisements, like including the record label, the artist name, when the album would come out and an image of the album it's self.