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

Evaluation: Question 4- How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation on Prezi

Here is a list of all the the different technologies used;
 Hardware

• Apple Imac
• Windows PC
• Apple Ipod
• Keyborad
• Mouse
• HD Video Camera
• Tripod
• Lighting Equiptment
• Microphone
• Recording Equiptment
• Digital SLR camera
• SDHC card
• Laptop
• Mobile Phone
• Printed Story borad
• Paper
• Pen
• Pencil
• Workbook
• Tape
• Card
• Cotton Wool
• String
• Reflector
• Roller Blind Backdrop
• Table
• Polaroid camera
• Polaroid film

Software

• final cut
• Adobe Photoshop
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Powerpoint

Technology

• safari
• firefox
• google
• blogger
• tumbr
• Text Messages
• Phone calls
• dafont.com
• unsigned.com
• facebook.com
• slidshare.com
• prezi.com

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

Audience feedback is a vitally key part in the commercial production of any media text. Without knowing and understanding your target audience in the production of a media text, the commercial viability of your product could become compromised as it may not cater for any current audience. Of course there is the argument that you could be catering for a future audience but financially this is a big risk. As the media texts that my partner Shelley Burgess and I have produced, a music video, Magazine advert and digipak, follow the conventions of professional commercial texts of the same format, it is vital that we follow similar production and reviewing techniques in order to gain understanding of the current industry, not only for future reference but as we are using the works of real life current artists.

We have utilised many methods of audience feedback. Initially we conducted a more intimate form of audience communication pre production of our music video so as to achieve a concentrated form of feedback which we creatively were able to feed off more productively than if we had conducted a wider form of collecting feedback. We carefully selected a group of people representing a variation of target audiences including a young and older audience, and proceeded to ask them to review the music we had chosen. This allowed us to develop our own ideas of what we wanted to include within our media text as well as to explore and develop new ideas suggested by the focus group.

‘we received a lot of positive feedback, with people commenting on both the comfortable pace of the song, confirming it as a good choice, as well as the quality of Charlotte's voice, a real confidence booster for her and she was very grateful for all the compliments.

'It's a little bit boring'  Matthew Perkins

'It is really cute' Sarah Warnock
this point of view was shared by quite a few members of the feedback group.

'very emotional' Hannah Sharples


'The Song seems very nostalgic' Connor Murray
this though was shared by the majority of the focus group which was incredibly positive as it means the inspiration behind the song is being portrayed well. In response to this we asked in what way they would expect this to be represented.

'lonely images, like just a person alone.' Elise Maughan

'Rain clouds and gloomy weather' Connor Murray

'Emptiness' Georgia Wigley

we then asked the group to expand on this and suggest story lines for the music video if they think it should have a story line.

'Maybe you could have the story of a break up' Luke Battle

'You should follow the social exclusion of  a person' Connor Murray

'i don' think it really needs a story line, just a collection of emotional imagery and lip syncing' Harley Mason

this was a view that both me and Shelley both shared, it seemed unnecessary to attempt to create a storyline that wasn't the obvious depressive relationship based event, instead keeping the video simple will give the lyrics of the piece a chance to be taken in and felt and expressed through visual stimuli.’

Post Production we decided to conduct further audience feedback but this time on a lager scale, via using ‘Survey monkey’ (www.surveymonkey.com)allowing us to achieve more diverse data. Survey monkey is a fantastic online service which is incredibly simple to use and to understand. It allows to create, distribute and review a survey and the data collected. From a commercial perspective this is a very valuable resource, as it is a free service and its digital format and distribution financially benefits companies as they do not have to finance the production of physical surveys and their distribution.
After having Completed the production of our music promotion video and uploading it to youtube, we were able to produce a survey using survey monkey which we distributed along with a link to the music video on a variation of online platforms including ‘facebook’ and our media blogs.

the data received was quite positive and allowed us to analyze the success of our media text. 78.6% of the people who took part in our survey ‘liked’ our music video and we received positive comments such as;

‘I liked how the girl was singing along to the song, as it was realistic and I liked the scene shots as they were really nice and gave the video a calming vibe.’

‘I liked the naturual setting and smooth transitions between shots’

‘Liked the way the different shots overlapped and their composition, as well as the scenery, and the colours in the video.’

We also so received some constructive comments, highlighting elemnts of the video that could be inproved.

‘to many faded transitions its quit sickening’

‘Too much going on and too static’

Concern for the lack of movement through the music video was something that is quite a prominent problem and was discussed on many occasions during the editing faze of production, however given the time we had left before the completion date me and Shelley opted to work with the footage we had already acquired. However if given the opportunity, this is something we would change about our video. We also posed this question in our survey. What would people have done differently or change about our music video? We received allot of helpful constructive criticism in these results, highlighting some areas that could be improved, all of which were quite valid.


For example;

‘more straight cuts and more movement in terms of acting’

‘change the guitar that she’s using to an Older looking acoustic one maybe?’

Despite these criticisms, overall the music video receive very positive results, with over half the people surveyed stating that props were used appropriately, and 57.1% of people reviewing the lip syncing as being good whilst the other 42.9% reviewing it as very good. However possibly the greatest indicator of the success of our music video is that no one rated the video below 5 on a scale of 1 10 (with 10 being good) and 71.4% rating it 8 and above.

in addition to our Survey, we also conducted a post production Focus group with the same people we drew feedback from preproduction. by using the same focus group we are able to review how well we have portayed the concepts proposed in the intial focus group. for this focus group we asked the following questions;


1. Did you enjoy our music video?
2. Why did you enjoy it?
3. What was your favorite part?
4. Is there anything you would change?
5. Do you think the music video matched the song?

Evaluation: Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts(DVD digipak, Magazine Advert?)

Producing media texts of different formats to work in relation to each other is common practice in the media world. Promotion is a key element of any media production as it makes the audience aware of the text you are or have created. In our case we had to produce both a magazine advert and digipak to correspond with and promote our Music Video. In regards to the relationship between the three it was important to create some form of continuity to allow the texts to coincide. Me and Shelley in the production of our music video became aware that themes and messages within the audio piece we had selected were incredibly important and powerful and decided, in order to allow this to be fully conveyed to the audience we would not detract from the lyrics by producing literal referencing that would overwhelmed the sentiment of the piece. Instead we produced a montage of imagery of which allot referred, not to the lyrics, but what inspired them. this concept could be considered post modern as the video could be considered as a product of the song looking in on itself, like a simulacra, you are not seeing what is there lyrically but a representation of what it was prior to lyrical interpretation.

As a concept, visually in terms of promotion it is hard to convey and so in the construction of our magazine advert and digipak, Shelley and i chose to convey an image, rather than a concept. The image of Shelley featured on both the digipak cover, CD print and the advert develops continuity which intern has been pushed further via the creation of a border using the same image. The constant reworking of the image in a sense forms that simulacrum, a constant reinterpretation forming a further link with the video. Although this is quite a complex link, when combined with other more obvious visual and themed links, it creates a very powerful bond of imagery that opens the audience up to the concept of the music video. For example; the use of half dead flowers in the image used creates a lyrical link to ‘love of death’ as well as the nostalgic theme of the video and song. Also by using the same model for the promotional image as the actress featured in the music video (Shelley) we have been able to create a very simple but effective visual link.

The digipak explores a few more obvious links such as the quoted lyrics form the song printed onto the inside panel. However the digipak creates a stronger link to the music promotion video than the magazine advert as it links in imagery used in the montage of the video. A silhouetted rollercoaster is printed onto the interior panel extending out from the already discussed pattern, connecting and contrasting with the inactive desolate theme park featured. Furthermore the digipak contains the largest visual link to the music video with the inclusion of photograph of Shelley stood amongst the red berry bush featured in the video. Not only does the use of areal Polaroid film create that nostalgic feel, but it also further endorses the idea of reinterpretation as a photograph is a prime example of a simulacrum.

It is because of the intensive concentration of links between all three texts that we believe their combination is quite effective. They intertwine on many different levels that promote not only the lyrics and images from the music video but also the concept.

in order to judge the success of my ancillary tasks in relation to my music video i set up a wall wisher account and created a page on which people can add comments talking about my work. the feedback was quite positive with people recognising the and liking the visual links, 'i like the black and white theme and the way that only a little color is used to break it up.' (sarah) however there were some less successful feedback with georgia calling the theme 'bland'.
overall i believe that my ancillary tasks work very well with my music promotion video, something that has been confirmed by the feedback acquired through 'wall wisher' and maintains a professional persona. 

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

For our media coursework we created a number of different media text to work in conjunction with each other in order to promote an artist of our choice, in our case Charlotte Webster. It is key that we understood and were able to apply conventions of real media text to our own products not only for future reference and understanding of the media industry but also as we are working with a real current artist. In order to aid us in our endeavour during in the planning and development stage of our media texts we observed and analyzed professional media texts giving us examples of what currently is successful for our chosen texts of a music promotion video, a digipak and a magazine advert. It is important to understand why and how media texts appear and work within the commercial world and to critique these examples in order to develop an understanding of what should be included in the production of our media texts.

Ancillary Tasks- Digipak and Magazine Advert

Promotional media texts surround and influence our daily lives, and so as consumers it was easy for us to identify what we liked, what we disliked, what we considered to be successful and unsuccessful. Making the transition from consumer to producer, was made easier by this fact. In relation to our magazine advert created to promote our chosen artist ‘charlotte webster’ and her debut album ‘simon,’ there are many features that correspond with the conventions of real media texts. For example both the magazine advert and digipak market an ‘image’ (a portrait of Shelley) rather than straight way marketing the concept and theme of the artist. This is a popular marketing strategy that focuses on enticing an audience with visual stimuli in order to open them up to the concept of the artist, or in our case our music video. Examples of this is real media texts include this poster for the libertines.

 The use of a portrait develops a visual relationship with the audience enhanced by the use of eye contact. The image does not rely on any former knowledge of the band with no attention concentrated on producing a persona for the members, and simply exposes two figures which intrigue and entices the audience.

Similarly our magazine advert uses the promotion of a portrait in which eye contact is used to found a relationship with the audience. However unlike this image, our magazine advert tries to create and develop a persona for advertisement purposes. This persona reflects the themes of the song, such as vulnerability, beauty and intensity, and therefore promotes the concept of the artist and her album. An example of this used within real media text comes in the form of a magazine advert for Jessie j’s album ‘who you are.’

The portrait is extremely strong and creates  a strong, independent, individual persona, the themes explored by the artist and her music. Another similarity between this magazine advert and our own is in the layout. The promotion of a name is key with most magazine adverts, an audience needs to understand or at least be given a reference point of what it is you are promoting. In terms of the music industry a name is a key element, as it is an audio based industry visual stimuli are not accessibly at all times for example when a song is broadcast on a radio station and so the name of the artist is key.

Our digipak also promotes both the name of the artist and the portrait creating an immediate link and therefore enhancing the commercial viability of the two. Like the album for ‘jessie j’ our digipak reuses the same image that is used in the advert, however the different edited interpretation begins to promote the concept of our artist. One of the key elements of many professional digipaks is the continuation of a theme, something that we have achieved within the production of our digipak in which we have continued the reinterpretation of an image in the form of a border which appears both on the digipak and magazine advert.

For the production of both our digipak and magazine advert we have utilised professional level software in the form of adobe Photoshop. A software used globally throughout music industry as well as advertising, media industry and the art world etc. Although complex, the results achievable with this software can be incredibly successful and perform to a professional standard.

Music Video

Our music video was created using the software ‘final cut’ a great software used both professionally and for recreation around the world, although seemingly complex, it is quite simple compared to the software used by larger institutions and has allowed smaller institutions to achieve similar levels of success in term so editing, and so was creates more competition. although it is not as advanced as the editing software used by large institutions, the editing process is still a convention of real media thatwe have used and explored. The music promotion video that we have produced contains multiple examples of conventions from real media texts. For example it explores montaging of visual stimuli in order to enhance but not distract form the music, something also explored professionally by many of the music videos for ‘lana del rey.’

Our idea, although not originally influenced in terms of planning and production by this artist as she had not yet achieved global acclaim, there are very clear similarities between the two. For example the multiple examples of mid shots of lip-syncing used in both, as well as the creation of nostalgia.

The music video that we created also included the title of the track and artist in the bottom left had corner both at the start and end of the video. This has been inspired by the format of music channels used to broadcast and exhibit music videos for example ‘MTV,’ however recently artist have begun to produce this themselves, giving more control over the presentation. A prime example of this is in the paparazzi video by ‘lady gaga.’

Overall, both in production, and exhibition our media texts follow the conventions or real media texts with the music video being uploaded to youtube, a fantastic free platform for worldwide video sharing, and we both consider our media text to be successful.