What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I showed my finished product to a number of people using questionnaires, the majority were my aimed target audience, so female and aging from teenagers to 30's. I used questionnaires because that way I could get quite specific answers on the areas that I wanted to know about. I did a separate questionnaire for my ancillary tasks then another that included my main task as well.

Overall I received positive feedback:

'very professional'

'loved the triptych of the horses'

'2 photos overlaid creates a very professional appearance'

These were comments on my two ancillary tasks. I had changed theses two tasks quite a few times previously due to some opinions and also the fact I felt it did not work very successfully or look professional. I changed the overall colour and 3 of the photos so that I used one image to cover 3 sides of the digipak. I am pleased with these views and that the changes I made have made a positive outcome.

Before...

After...

 

My digipak ancillary task. From doing primary research and asking my target audience what they thought throughout to process of making this worked greatly to my advantage. I have learnt that you can never experiment enough or have enough opinions. The end result is a lot more appealing and colour co-ordinated than my first, original idea. I kept the same font and layout but to create more variety I changed the colour correction so that it is more crisp, brighter and cleaner and used a triptych along the inside faces. Feedback from peers has been very important. As well as making my own decisions my tasks and music text thoughts and opinions from a possible consumer or member of my target audience helped me to see what someone other than myself would see, what would catch their eye and what works and what doesn't work.

 

When I received the results from my music video questionnaire they were also very positive. I received good feedback on the range of camera shots, angles and editing. For example the use of colour correction to distinguish the differences between the role-playing scenes and the scenes with the music artists.  However, there was some feedback on what I could have done to improve it. Such as plan my time better. I agree with this because some of the scenes that I have used were not very clean due to the technology I was using, battery running out and focusing problems. It was also because so much of the filming I had done for my video was outside I had no control over the weather and this proved to be an issue. The weather was also an issue because continuity was difficult keep too as the weather kept changing frequently which often meant downpours of rain. Ideally I would have liked to of re-filmed quite a few of these scenes to create a more professional look. There was also another view from one of the questionnaires saying how some of it was a bit out of sync. However, this was due to the transfer from Final Cut Pro to Youtube which I didn't have any control over.

 

My music video was based majorly on the emotions and the story that is being told throughout. Through colour correction and the use of camera shots I tried to show this important aspect, for example, using high angle shots and eye line shots to help express the situation the character is in. The feedback was good and received high marks in the questionnaires. I found it especially tricky for holding my target audiences attention as my music text is 5 minutes long so making sure I used my scenes successfully was key.

 

Overall, I agree that there were things I could have done to produce a better piece. I have also found that audience feedback is very important, especially if wanting to produce something successfully.  In future I will put more planning into my filming schedule and carefully consider the uncontrollable aspects such as the weather and location. I would also questionnaire a wider range of people to get a lot more views and ideas. This would be carried out at the beginning of the project as well as at the end of the project when it is finished.

 

 

 

 



How did you use media technologies and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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

For my music video I decided early on what I wanted my video to look like and come across to the audience. My music video automatically fell into the forms and conventions of a general country music video. Even though some things remain different. A few non-country music artists inspired me into my ideas, especially when it came to having the artist and the story-line and colour difference between scenes.

Katy Perry's video shows similar emotions due to losing a loved one. This is expressed due to the words she is singing and the emotions shown by the character throughout.

My music video has a strong story line from beginning to end. Although set in a number of different locations, I wanted to encourage the outside, nature and general country look and feel to the video. Also my artist was in the video both singing and acting. These are all typical aspects of a country video that I have incorporated into my video.

Throughout the video the scenes switch between the artist who is singing the story and the actor who is role playing. These scenes can be distinguished due to the effects added, the deliberate difference in clothes and the different locations as the singer stays at the same location throughout the whole of the video whereas the acting is staged at two different locations.

Camerawork

For me, camerawork was a very important aspect to the production of my music video, especially when it came to the role playing side of the video. It could help indicate the feelings and emotions of the character, the location and generally make the video a lot more interesting. Among trying to get the feelings of the character across I tried to use as many angles and shots as possible to make this video interesting for the audience. I also used the camerawork to signify important objects as well as character feelings. I used the close-up shot to help do this.

Editing

This also played a major part in my video. At the beginning of the video I opened it with a title sequence as there is a long intro too the song. This worked well with the panning shot to the right to introduce the artist to the audience.  I used technical codes such as colour correction to help distinguish the difference between the scenes. So, the scenes with the singer were a rich and warm colour. This fitted in with the country theme. The role play scenes were totally different as I wanted a sad, lonely and cold feel to come across to the audience. In order to create this effect I changed the colour correction and played around with the saturation, exposure and hue. The end result was a more blue/purple tint. The transitions were quick cuts to help flow the scenes together and I feel this works successfully.

Sound .

Due to this being a music video I did not incorporate any other sound apart from the music.  I muted all the scenes as there was no sound effect needed like there is sometimes used in other videos.




These photos are from Avril Lavigne's video 'Nobodys Home' that helped inspire my idea of different effects on the scenes where the singer is telling the story and the character role playing it. Although the story line is different to my video it is very similar in emotions,  the distinguishing of the singer and the character as being two different people although played by the same person, the different colour effects on the footage and the using of a number of different locations.

This video was a major part in my planning as produced strong emotion which is what I was working towards when creating my video.

Mise en scene

 

There is one symbolic code that I used within my video. This was inspired by Katy Perry's 'Thinking of you' video. The song is about losing someone and this photo shows who it is. The fact that there is a stage where the camera is just looking at the photo signifies how important this person was/is to the character. This shows how critical this prop is in the video. Clothing was also important. Because there were two different sides in the music video I had to make the decision of what would work better. I chose to keep darker and more casual clothes for the role-playing scenes and brighter more fashionable clothes for the music artist. This way both could easily be distinguished and the mood of the character and singer would be more represented to the audience.

 

Katy Perry's 'Thinking of you' inspired my scene in my video.

 

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

When creating my ancillary tasks I ensured that I kept to the country dream like theme.

 

My two ancillary tasks show consistency throughout. There is continuity in the fonts, lighting and location. More specifically I kept continuity in the music artist; what clothes she's wearing, hair style and make-up.

Both these texts give off the same warm country feel that I wanted to create. The fonts are the same so that if either these are seen by a consumer, they will link together and will help to relate to the artist. One of the fonts is in a handwriting type font to signify the country and natural look. Whereas the title of the album is big, bold and although simple, stands out to the consumer. The name of the artist and CD name is also laid out the same way to help link everything together. The fact both the ancillary tasks are done with a more simple design, creating a less 'busy' attitude works quite successfully. It is enough to attract attention and give need to know information and not turn people away as there is so much writing. The continuity of the clothing and location is also carried on into my main task. All of my photography was done at the same location.  My music video shows two sides of the music artist with the role-playing and the actual singing scenes. This is hidden from the audience at this point in the ancillary tasks which I think makes it better as there is more of a surprise for the audience when they watch the music video which will then create a more interesting text. It also means that I am not giving too much away to the audience.

There are also a number of things that I have kept the same in my music video. The clothing of the music artist is the same, one of the locations are the same. However, rather than sticking to the same location all the way through I have filmed at two others to help make my 5 minute video more interesting. This is also why I added the role playing, keeping that separate from the singing scenes to help create different atmospheres and emotions for the audience. I also thought it would be more effective on the audience as it is heartfelt and many people have lost loved ones so can relate. 

Synergy has been used throughout. Because the video links so closely with the ancillary tasks it will sell more copies. The video is mainly promotional so this would work well with the digipak and magazine advertisement because they match and from audience feedback, tells me that they work well together.