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

Question 4 from Beckyscott1234

Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the courses of production and evaluation we took the feedback from different audiences. At the start of this course, I had to look into the types of audiences who would watch the music video. The first bit of feedback we got was the questionnaire. This was designed to initially tell us whether our audience was more male or female based, or what age was more engaged with this genre.  Our group sat down and we carefully chose questions what would give us the answers we needed. By using the questionnaires we could establish what conventions the audiences would enjoy. When sending out the questionnaire I aimed to get about 20 responses because, this meant I could get a variety of answers. As well as asking questions what would help me find the information about audiences, I also asked questions what would help me with the construction of the music video.

Some questions that really helped during research were If the artist/ band are featured in the music video, do you find this more appealing?; 60% answered yes, this helped us construct the performance side. Additionally,after further research into the genre we discovered that the band was very important to this genre. Another way the feedback helped us was through the question;In a music video, what would you prefer the artist/ band to wear? A very small sample said something unique. We disagreed with this feedback because after looking at case studies like; Lawson, we found that the Casual (Jean) look was more fitted to the music. Although it was helpful to get this research we decided to agree with the case studies. Throughout the research stage many people helped us improve our first image. Another question I asked people was;what other artists do you think can link to our artist; After asking this people said “Lawson, The Script, Room 94, 30 seconds to mars, 5 seconds of summer We found that this audience feedback was the most effective when trying to find screenshots. Each question we asked was designed to help in the construction process.

Furthermore, when the first set of feedback was sent out we found out that people preferred sub-genres to just plain genres. Since we knew more about the pop and rock genre, we decided that we should merge these two and find a sub genre. So the audience feedback was effective because, without the feedback we may not have gone for a sub genre. As well as a questionnaire, we also filmed a focus group so we could get a more detailed opinion of the music video we had planned. We asked 3 people, a set of questions and we wanted them to go into detail. We asked would you want the music video to be more performance of narrative based? All of them agreed that a balance was the best, when in the construction stage we made sure there was a fair share of being narrative and performance. When filming our video and making our storyboard/shot list we always checked the ratio between narrative and performance. I believe our final product was a successful ratio between narrative and performance. According to Goodwins theory he believes there should be a good balance between these aspects.


When we finished our first draft we decided to get feedback from our class peers. We asked 8 people whether they enjoyed it, if so what were the positives and what were the negatives. Although people gave compliments, they gave us some next steps which we were happy to take on body. Some people said the narrative needs to be more natural as in parts of the narrative the performance didn't look believable.



We found the focus group to be effective as people were honest and gave a lot of constructive criticism which proved to be a problem with questionnaires as the participants would usually rush the questionnaire and therefore the results aren't very reliable so therefore it wouldn't be very effective with our audience feedback and wouldn't affect our music video or ancillary text ideas. This is why we listened more to the response have on this like the one what said they should wear casual clothings, everyone agreed that casual clothing is the best, we took it one step further and had the other band members in checked tops and the lead singer in a t shirt, just so he would stick out more. We found this very affective.

To conclude, we used Lawson, The Script and 5 seconds of summer as our main case studies. Before agreeing with each decision we also asked for peer feedback, like the focus group and questionnaire. We only asked our targert aiudience with is teenage boys and girls. Although, we chose a lot of things the feedback helped us gain a more knowledgable span. Unlike last year were we only done a questionnaire. Additionally this year we had 2 theories we could use.




 

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

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

 

 

 

­When creating the Digipak and the magazine advert, we need to make sure there was a good combination between the two. We didn’t use the same photos like some artists but we played on the same colour, same font, same people, etc. We use other case studies to back up the like; The Script, 5 seconds of summer, Lawson and Room 94.

One way you can see the connection between the two is through the use of font, we got the font of DaFont. We used it on both because it is our band logo. A convention of the band was to be seeing the name not the brand that’s why it was important to have a good logo so people will remember it. A case study we use to support this was Lawson, Lawson always use the same logo. Everyone knows there logo because it is on everything, they focus on the name and not the face unlike Rihanna who only focuses on her face. Her face sells the CD’s but that is a convention of that genre.

 

Another connection you can see between the products are the colours used, both ancillary texts are black and white with red ish writing (picture below). We chose to use red because when hearing the song it sounds very romantic so it is important to run that theme all the way through the texts. The text we used to pick the colours was Lawson but we used Ellie Goulding cd and magazine advert to show the colour combination between the two. She uses bright gold colours because his album is called light and everyone knows her for her bright hair. This is a joint convention of all genres because all artists want links between their products.

 

Another way you can see they are connected is through the costume choice, we have the band members wearing the same clothes as they were in all products. This was very important. We decided to have the two other members of the band is checked tops and the lead singer in a plain t shirt. This worked out well because people said he is the first person they pay attention to. This is the idea we wanted. (Magazine advert above).

The location is the same as in the video, although we didn’t have the school in the Digipak or the magazine advert. We keep the green background for the love scenes in the music video and the pictures in the ancillary texts. When we had the main guy singer we made sure the band were also here, that’s why we had the band outside in the ancillary texts. In the picture below, we can see the field area which also is shown on the magazine advert. The picture to the left is the Digipak and the one to the right is the music video.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Additionally as well as the band logo, we also have the name of the album on both ancillary texts. This was key so people knew the songs name. The script and Lawson also do this on their entire product. On their breakeven album they have the same colours and text of both texts. Before making the creative decisions we had to support it with the target audience and the case studies I have picked.

Another connection we didn’t have was having the girl on the ancillary texts, we didn’t feel the need to considering that she wasn’t in the band and they didn’t need to include her.

A final connection we didn’t have was the instruments. One convention was to have instruments on all the texts but we didn’t agree with this, we felt they would just become the instrument and not the person. The music video has instruments but the Digipak and magazine advert doesn’t. (Look in the video above).

To conclude we have connected all texts well but there were one or two things we didn’t keep the same because we thought if we did it wouldn’t look right. Overall our group and target audience like the final product, they said it was different but not to different that it feels alien.

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

 

Through the construction of our music video, we all kept in mind of the conventions. Our genre is pop rock, right at the beginning we looked into the conventions so we knew what was important when creating a video fit this genre. Although we researched the conventions we didn't always follow them.  Some conventions we followed were the "band" image. Throughout the video, we knew the music video must be split into two sections, narrative and performance. Each of these sides have conventions within them.
 
 

One convention we developed was the "band" image. We made sure that the performance and narrative side were equal. Within the performance side, it was significant to create this image,especially when thinking about this genre. We had to look at case studies, so we had ideas on the camera shots. Some other artists within genre were: The Script, Lawson, 5 Seconds of Summer, Room 94. All of these artists have one common factor, the "band" image. Since we had to make a digipak, a magazine advert and music video we needed to make sure this convention was portrayed throughout all three. In the images below, we can see some case studies our group used.


Another convention we needed to consider was the colour, we looked at The Script and Lawson. Both bands have used colour effects. Lawson had black and white with red writing. The Script used sepia with black writing. Our group agreed this was an important convention. We first planned to use sepia but we thought the song was more rocky, so we agreed that Lawson was a better image for the band we have. One thing we challenged was the text colour, originally it was red but we found it was too bright, our peers agreed so we turned it a little lighter which still had a good effect.

 

One convention we didn't follow when creating the ancillary texts was the instrument convention. In the genre we have picked, a typical convention is the instrument convention. When making the plan, we all agreed that the band image was more important. We believed that this convention wasn't the most important, we didn't want to make this decision without asking some peers. We asked some people who fitted out target audience, they said they worldwide to see something new so they said they would probably be more enticed by something different. As a group we are happy we didn't follow this convention. As you can see from the picture below there are no instruments and as you can see there are instruments in the video, but we still feel we made the best decision.

 

Another convention we stuck by was the narrative side, in a traditionally pop rock music video the narrative would be made up of a love story. At first we werent going to do this but after asking our target audience and looking at case studies, we found it was the best opition to have it. A main case study we used was Lawson, When she was mine. The picture on the left is from the case study I used and the pciture on the right is from our music video. So we were happy that we decided to follow this convention it turned out to be one of the better decisions.

 

Another part of Lawson, when she was mine we followed was the performance side. In this print screen we the band, Lawson all performing in what looks to be an abanded warehouse. Another case study was follows this convention is The Script. We didnt use an abonded warehouse, but we wanted to make it more like teenage love so we located it in a school hall, we used Teenage Dirtbag as a case study. When we originally heard this song we thought of teenage love so we played on that by having the young couple which means peopole can relate to and also having it in a school hall means the youth audience can relate to it.

 

 

 

We decided that since it is a relationship between the lead singer and the girl it has to be focused on him but having the balance of the other memebers. When we heard the song we heard certain sentences which we connotated in actions throughout the video. Like when they we will make it through, we hav the couple holding hands and walking together to emphazize the love between them. According to Andrew Goodwin, it is important to have the links between lyrics so we made sure we included that. Additionally when we had the feedback they said they wanted links. The Script and Lawson were the man bands who played on the lead singer and girl image. Below are some shots of the lead singer and the girl.

 

 

For our Digipak,  we decided to have the band apppear on most of the panes because it links to the band image. we included the band on 3 out of 6 panes. We included how band shots because it relates to the band image.

 

 

To conclude, our group have used a good share of conventions and they ones we havent used. We have backed up with reason why we havent included them. I will attach all the case studies I have used below.

 

 

 

Music video

Magazine advert

This is our final product, this is the Magazine Advert for Arrows to Athens, Alive.

Digipak

This is our final design for the Magazine Advert. This is for the product Arrows to Athens, Alive.

Magazine advert analysis

Magazine advert analysis

The Script

 

In this picture, the first thing what grabbed our attention was the name of the band and the name of the album, this is an important convention for both the magazine advert and the genre. The picture used, we believed let it down because a traditional image would have been of the band. 

A thing were surprised to see was the review, we believed this helped the band because, it meant people who dont know the name can see if other people think they are good. 

The colours used didn't jump out  like the past ones, but this one had it strengths in its own way. Unlike the other two this one was landscape, this wasn't something we had seen but we all agreed that we preferred a portrait one because the band shot would fit better.

 

Magazine advert analysis

Magazine advert analysis

Lawson 

The above picture is the Lawson magazine advert we found, in comparison to 30 seconds to mars, they also have conventions and challenges. Again the colour scheme grabbed our attention right at the beginning. We have found that in both this magazine advert and the last one the red is emphasized by the black and white background. 

One thing we really liked about this one was that the band were conclude and you can tell that the singer has been slightly separated to show he is the lead. Another positive in the way the title is laid, it is big which helps it stand out and it is well placed so it is the first thing what grabs your attention. 

Like the last magazine advert, the band are missing the reviews and we again agreed this is because they are a popular band and they don't need to worry about following the conventions. 

Magazine advert analysis

Magazine advert analysis

30 seconds to mars

 

The above picture is the magazine advert for 30 seconds to mars, although there are traditional conventions of a magazine advert, there are also so things what are missing. When looking at this advert, the first thing what caught out attention was the colour scheme, we liked the black and white because, it just emphasized the red which is the important bit because it is the name of the band and this is the fact we want to remember the most. Another convention they have on there is the name of the album they are promoting, this is vital to artists because then the audience know what it is called and will buy it. 

 

Some things the band haven't included is the typical band shot, this was a big let down to me personally, because not only to a magazine advert but this is a convention of the genre of music to focus on the band. But after a discussion we agreed because they are so big they don't need to worry about selling there faces instead of the name. A final thing which isn't included is the reviews, in most magazine adverts it is important to have reviews, but again we agreed they weren't there because of the popularity of the band and they don't need to worry about the conventions. 

To conclude, this digipak helped us get a variety of ideas and additionally told us that popular bands don't need to worry about the conventions but since we are a ammeter makers, we need to include all conventions so people are more appealed to the band.

Conventions of magazine advert

Conventions of Magazine Adverts from Beckyscott1234

Digipak analysis

Digipak analysis

You me at six

Digipak analysis

Digipak analysis

The Script

The front cover of this Digipak (bottom right) shows a picture of two hands together, additionally there is a colour change, and the band has chosen to make the colour look faded. With the use of this colour it makes me think of a script, so maybe they used the colour to signify the band name. Additionally on the front cover they have the band name bigger than the rest that is to show that they are natural and nothing over the top is needed to sell their album. As there genre is soft rock, this genre connotes that the band is “natural”. Furthermore, the band has chosen to use a woman and males hand this could suggest that the songs are going to be about love.  Finally, the album is called Science and faith and I believe they have used the touch to show the science aspect. To conclude I find the front cover to be very affective and it does follow the conventions of other soft rock artists/bands. 

Digipak analysis

Digipak analysis

30 seconds to mars 

 

When looking at the 30 seconds to mars digipak it is a straight away representation of the rock genre. The colours used are very plain and simple, which suggests that they are trying to show the star image code.

Compared to other genres like Rihanna and Ellie Goulding, they also show the star image but they do this through a different way, Rihanna focuses on her lips because her music is seen to be seductive, but Ellie Goulding focuses on her face, because her face sells music, people will know her when they see her.

By the first appearance on the cover, it automatically shows the rock genre, the use of skulls shows it is dark and suggests it is not going to be up beat music.

Additionally the band have made good links between all the panes, this shows the band are professional. On the inside pane there is a picture of the band, this relates to Goodwins theory of star image. When researching the codes and conventions of this genre I found that this genre like the 'natural' image, when look at this case study I agree that it follows this well.

Digipak planning

After we had a rough image of what we wanted to create, I thought it would be important to link it to some case studies and theories. An earlier theorist we looked at was Goodwin, he argues about star image and how it is very important for the band/lead singer to be center image of slightly forward to the rest of the bad.

Focus group analysis

I will be analyzing the focus group. We decided to do a focus group because, we thought it would give us a more broad representation of our target audience. Although we only asked 3 people they helped get a image in our heads. When we constructed our focus group, we had to sit down and decide what questions we wanted to ask, these are the questions we choose;

What is your name?

·         How old are you?
·         What is your favourite genre of music?
·         Do you prefer narrative or performance? (Why they preferred this option)
·         What would you expect to see in a pop/rock music video?
·         How often do you watch music videos?
·         Where do you watch music videos?
·         What costume design would you expect to see in a pop/rock music video?
·         Do you feel star image is important in a music video?
·         Would you prefer to see the links to the lyrics and image in the music video?

We asked 3 teenage boys. The participants favourite genre of music include indie/pop, rock and rock/pop so this was good as they all had an interest in our genre of music which makes the results more valid when we are considering ideas for our music video as these people are a part of our target audience.

When we asked whether they preferred narrative or performance all of the participants agreed that they would like to see a mix of both performance and narrative in a music video because 'it is good to see both sides' and one participant went on say to that 'every artist gives a sense in every music video'. This was something we were very happy to hear because, it meant we could link it to Goodwin's theory. When it came to construction stages we sat down as a group and figured what parts of the song belonged to what. One thing we hadn't thought of was about the personality being portrayed, the second and third person mentioned this. So we agreed it is important that we get the artists personality across in the music video as our target audience would be able to create a personal identity and relationship with them.

When the participants were asked what they expect to see in a pop/rock music video they all expected to see the band performing on a stage, lots of shots of the band playing instruments and many shots of the band in general. They also said they expected a dark atmosphere so we could do this by having low lighting to get across the pop/rock element. One participant also said that the narrative should be based around the main member of the band. This was a trend we discovered both in the questionnaires and focus group, which just proved to us it was a key thing we couldn't afford to miss. Additionally after looking at case studies like, The Script, Lawson, 5 seconds of summer. This just backed up the research we had received.

Another question we asked was, do you watch music videos and where they watch them? Overall our participants didn't watch music video very often which suggests that the music video isn't very important to them but it stills needs to be enjoyable to watch when they do watch it. An overall consensus we got was that YouTube was the main place to watch videos was YouTube. This was a very good for us because, this was so accessible to us and this meant that we could get lots of feedback for out evaluations. It also relates to the active participant theory, this is when "ameteur" producers makes films / music videos. This is what we are so we were happy to hear that people didn't mind that.

When asked about the costume design they expect to see in a pop/rock music video they all agreed that the clothing should be casual such as jeans and t-shirt so the audience could relate to the band. When planning our costume design we will very likely to go with casual clothing because of our audience research and research into other music videos as all the bands we have looked at dress casually. This was a good support to our earlier research, when we done the conventions at the beginning of the year, one convention we found was the jean look. To support this we looked at similar case studies like, Lawson. Each band member looks similar but have that one significant thing which means you can tell the difference, this is what we wanted to achieve.

Finally when the participants were asked about their feelings towards the importance of star image (relation to Goodwin's theory) in a music video, there were mixed responses as dependent on the song they feel it is important however another participant said that it isn't important but it is good to see what the person singing looks like so when we are planning our music video we will include the band as our target audience would like to them in the video. Additionally each participant said that they would like to see the links to the lyrics and image in the music video so again when we are planning our video we will try to include links to lyrics when it is suitable.

To conclude, we found doing a focus group was very helpful and beneficial for the research stage. Although there were some responses what didn't find our genre, it was good to hear the criticism so we were prepared for the construction stage. We plan to take the advice on and act on it all.

Focus group

Shooting schedule

Shot list

Shot list for Arrows To Athens - Alive
Scene	Shot	Shot length (Seconds)	Location	Description
1	Close up	5 seconds	On stage	The guitar solo begins and is playing along to the music.
1	Long shot	5 seconds	On stage	The guitar solo is continuing  and is still playing
1	Mid shot	5 seconds	On stage	The singer is walking to the microphone preparing to sing.
1	Mid shot	7 seconds	On stage	The singer begins to sing the song whilst looking directly into the camera.
1	Mid shot (Low angle)	4 seconds	On stage	The back of the bass guitarist playing along to the song with the lights shining down on him.
1	Close up	4 seconds	On stage	The guitar playing his instrument along with the song. (Not looking directly into the camera)
1	Extreme close up	2 seconds	On stage	The lead singer closing his eyes to match with the lyrics he will be currently singing directly in front into the camera (Goodwin’s theory).
1	Mid shot	2 seconds	On stage	The guitarist being relaxed on stage whilst playing along to the song.
1	Mid shot	3 seconds	On stage	The camera is following the guitarist, from the back, walking over to the drummer.
1	Long shot	3 seconds	On stage	The guitarist walking away from the drummer closer to the front again.
1	Long shot	2 seconds	On stage	A group shot of the entire band each showing performing their own part of the song.
1	Close up	4 seconds	On stage	A shot of the drummer to build up the sound of the drums.
1	Mid shot	4 seconds	On stage	A shot from over the drummers shoulder whilst he is playing along to the song.
1	Long shot	4 seconds	On stage	A group shot of the entire band each showing performing their own part of the song. (Not looking directly into camera)
2	Long shot	10  seconds	Backstage	A shot watching the guitarist setting up and then the camera panning across the equipment.
2	Close-Mid shot	3 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer, facing the camera, singing the chorus of the song.
2	Mid shot	3 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer, from the side, singing the chorus of the song.
2	Long shot	5 seconds	On stage	A shot showing what the guitarist is doing at the moment in the song (facing the camera but not looking directly into it).
2	Close up	3 seconds	In the crowd	A fan in the crowd singing along to the lyrics being sung by the lead singer. (Not looking directly into the camera.)
2	Mid shot	1 second	On stage	A shot from the side of the drummer beating in time with the song drums.
2	Mid shot	1 second	On stage	A shot from over the drummers shoulder whilst he is playing along to the song.
2	Close up	1 second	On stage	A shot of the guitarist hands playing the guitar in time with the song.
2	Long shot	2 seconds	On stage	A group shot of the entire band each showing performing their own part of the song.
2	Close up	1 second	In the crowd	A fan singing along in the crowd. (Not directly looking into the camera).
2	Mid shot	5 seconds	On stage	A shot of the lead singers face from the side looking into the crowd and singing.
2	Long shot	5 seconds	On stage	A group shot of the entire band each showing performing their own part of the song.
2	Mid shot	10 seconds	On stage	Individual shots of all the members of the band with the lead singer having arm movements to emphasise the emotions in the lyrics.
2	Long shot	10 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer closing his eyes and bending his knees to emphasise the lyrics whilst looking into the crowd.
2	Long shot	5 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer holding onto the microphone stand and singing the song whilst looking into the crowd.
2	Close up	10 seconds	On stage	A shot of the singer looking into the camera.
2	Mid shot	7 seconds	On stage	A shot from over the drummers shoulder whilst he is playing along to the song.
2	Long shot	8 seconds	On stage	A shot of the lead singer singing into the crowd with the drummer and part of the guitarist in the background.
2	Long shot	7 seconds	On stage	The singer pointing into the crowd with some of the fans in the shot.
2	Mid shot	6 seconds	On stage	A shot of the guitarist looking into the crowd and showing emotion on his face.
3	Long shot	10 seconds	Backstage	A shot of the band setting up the stage and laughing with each other.
3	Long/Mid shot	15 seconds	Backstage/On stage	A shot of the band walking up the stairs as they are about to start the show.
3	Mid shot	10 seconds	Backstage	The band setting up the equipment before the show.
3	Long shot	10 seconds	On stage	The band finishes the song and thank the audience.