Evaualtion Qustion 4

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

Blogger is an online platform that we use throughout our media Alevel, it’s a way for us to publish all of my coursework onto a digital presence. Using this online software it allows us to keep a back log of all our research and planning we have done during the course. We are also able to update and adapt any recent posts uploaded at any moment in time. This has proven to be a very useful and easy way of structuring and presenting work to my teachers, as they are able to leave comments underneath each post of what we are doing well, and certain areas we need to improve upon. Overall using blogger to publish and present my media work has been beneficial during my media Alevel.

Throughout my media Alevel I have used a variety of social networking sites from Facebook to Instagram, using these particular sites enabled me to create small online focus groups of my particular target audience, where I was able to receive an overview from the target audience I was marketing my product too, of what they thought of my finalized product both my music video and ancillary task. Giving them a preview of my product they were able to give me criticisms of certain things they personally felt I should change and improve in order to make it more appealing to the audience. Early on during the planning process I created several questionnaires about music videos and what my target audience would expect to see in a music video and album cover of my chosen genre. Using online sites such as Facebook and Instagram it was easy and a time saving way to publish the questionnaire to my target audience as theses social media sites are largely mass marketed into today’s society therefore it was easier to communicate to them and receive a response rather than a written questionnaire.

To produce and create both my music video and ancillary task I had to learn how to use a variety of software ranging from photoshop to adobe premiere. I found using photoshop in order to construct both my poster and digipac fairly easy as I had used it prior during As media, therefore this enabled to be more creative and experiment with designs and texture icons within photoshop as I had already under gripped the basic features of photoshop. Photoshop also allowed me to adjust and blemish my photos beforehand improving the clarity of the image, giving off a more professional look. After finalizing the images with the added effects, I was able to import text, and choose range of stylized fonts that helped portray and relate to mise en scene of both my poster and digipac. However the main software I used was adobe premiere pro which is a timeline-based video editing software application, which includes video editing, graphic design, features and icons. This particular software enable me to create my music video, my importing scenes of my filming footage and attaching a backing track mp3 of my chosen song “Royals” I was able to create basics of my music video. I also able to use features such as the razor tool which allowed me to cut down unneeded footage, it also allowed me to change the speed of scenes in order for the lip singing to link and flow at the same time as the song, making it more appealing and  professional . However I wanted to make my music video more appealing to my target audience, so after experimenting with the software I was found I was able to import transitions and video effects to make it more colour and upbeat. Overall I found the software used throughout my course easy and efficient to follow and use.

The majority of my filming and photos used within my music video and ancillary task were taken and filmed with a digital SLR camera a ‘Canon EOS 450D’.Using such equipment produced excellent quality photography’s due to the high pixel featured on the camera, because the camera had such good clarity and lens focus it was fairly easy to gather the filming footage at a professional standard. I also had access to an SD card which allowed me to transfer both my footage and images across to my computer where I was able to being editing the footage in a simpler and less time consuming way.

Throughout the entire course there were a number of items/objects I used to help me construct my music video. Such as during my filming shoot I used tripods and stands to steady the camera to get a good quality shoot it also allowed me to take my footage in a range on different angles, which was very useful as from an audience perspective, it makes the music video more entertaining and appealing to watch. I used my IPhone 5s to access my social networking sites such as facebook when conducting research and planning questionnaires. I also used Creative GigaWorks T20 Multimedia Speakers to project the music, this was a useful element for my actor as it allowed her to sing the lyrics in time with the music rather than just guessing the timing and pace of the lyrics.

Overall I used a variety of different technology throughout my coursework, it piece of technology played a major part in the construction of both the music video and ancillary task. However all the products work together to make the process much more efficient and has enhanced to standard of my work due to the use of these technical advancements.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback is a crucial element when creating a designing a music video, as it holds a large amount of significance, as it an affect the overall outcome of a media product. The audiences role as a consumer is effectively what helps and determines whether a product is to become successful particularly within the media industry. It is therefore why I felt it was extremely important to intentionally aim my product directly towards a chosen target audience and cater towards their needs and expectations in order to attract their interest. Throughout the course I have constructed serval audience feedback surveys on different formats and used their responses and advice which helped and ensured I constructed both a successful music video, poster and digipac.

To start in order to have insight to my chosen target audience, we research into the particular profile type of the Pop genre. I explored several media product to gather more of an insight into my target audience ranging from music video, clothes, hobbies etc. creating moodboard and mindmaps. I felt that doing some extra in-depth research would have really benefited me , as I would have a wider understanding  of the particular type of people I wanted to create my media products towards. My first audience survey I constructed was to give me a sense of inspiration and a starting point within the planning and researching process of my music video. The questions varied and were very open, and questions were based on what certain aspects they would expect and are associated with my chosen genre ‘Pop’. Such as the type of Music video Pop genre usually portrays, whether it be a narrative or performance based video and the mise en scene within the music video, such as costume etc. By obtaining this feedback I was able to use the response and advice from my target audience to draw out a filming plan of the style of music video I wanted to create that being a performance based music video, with one staring actor with extravagant, glamourous costumes.

Once I completed my first session of filming footage, I setup my own focus group randomly selection however making sure they all fitted my target audiences criteria ranging from the ages 12-22 and fellow mainstream style trends set by the media industry such a fashion, music and hobbies. In doing so this allowed me to personally see their response to sort unedited clips of the footage and have an open decision on their overall view and insight of what they thought worked well and things I may want to consider adapting. For instance in some cases the angle I took the shot from was clear and unsteady making the audience feel unconnected to the music video , losing their interest. This was really useful feedback as it allowed me to back note of all of their criticisms and reshoot the particular scenes in my 2^nd filming shoot. From gaining this type of feedback it gave me more of an insight and understanding of how the audiences opinions can have an impact and influence the editing and the construction of my main product.

After my second filming shoot and redoing a few scenes after taking on board the advice I received from my target audience, I began the progress of beginning to edit my music video, adding effects and video transitions etc. After editing half of my music video I thought it would be appropriate to get some more audience feedback, to see whether I was portraying the traditional conventions of a Pop music video. I gathered the same focus group, including all the same audience members, I thought this would be a good idea as I would be able to present my work that reflected their advice and ideas of adjusting the lighting in particular shoots as it was too dark and dull which made it hard to distinguish the artists face. Showing my music video has allowed me to see how they thought I had progress forwards as they saw the original unedited filming footage.

I felt during the process of the ancillary tasks of designing a magazine/poster and a digipac that it was essential that I obtained as much audience feedback as I could as an advertisement poster is a crucial element in promoting both my music video and album to my chosen target audience, the poster has to eye- catching, bold and have a sense of continuity between both the initial music video and album as when my target audience go to purchase the album it will be easily recognisable as I am presenting the same style and theme across all my products. Therefore in order to gather audience feedback I posted several pictures of the progress of my poster on social media platforms such as facebook and Instagram and received a large amount of positive feedback, which reassured me that I was using promoting and presenting tactics that was successfully appealing towards my target audience.

Evaultion Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

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

Final Music Video

Feedback From Music Video

I felt that it would be very useful if I was to receive some audience feedback from my chosen target audience in order to see whether I am successfully engaging and appealing to my music video towards them  , and if not they are able to offer suggestion in order for me to adapt aspects within my music video. At this point I am half way through the production of my music video, therefore it allows me plenty of time to change any areas of my music video that aren’t following the conventions.

Examples of feedback:

 

From the feedback I received which you can see above, I gathered a mixture of responds both on the positive and negative side. 90% of my focus group loved the style and approach I was created in my music video, which was a mixture of Pop/R&B chorography dance performance. Ad they felt I incorptarted at variety of camera angles, making the transitions from one shot to the next very intriguing to watch. Although the majority of my target audience members felt that the lip syncing wasn’t always in time with the backtrack of the song “Royals”, and I felt I should speed up the shots a few seconds in order to make them both in time with one another. In doing these adjustments I hope it will develop and improve the standard of my music video.

Edited Footage Of My Music Video