EVALUATION QUESTION 3

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT FROM YOUR AUDIENCE FEEDBACK?

To first gain audience feedback I used methods that would reach the target audience I attempted to target. For my music video, I posted it on YouTube to see how many people viewed/liked/commented on the video itself. I then posted it on Facebook to receive likes and comments, I did the same by promoting the link to the music video on Twitter. By using social media websites, it means you can contact a large amount of people very quickly. Also a majority of my target audience would have an account on these sites. So far, approximately 420 people have viewed my music video due to me putting it out onto these sites, I have also gained insightful feedback. To receive audience feedback on my promotional package, this would mean directly contacting people face to face to give them a form to fill out, I also asked my peers to give me constructive feedback. 

During the editing of my music video, one of my ideas was to create a montage, however I found myself cutting the shots to short, not giving the audience enough time to establish what was going on in each shot. My feedback was to make sure the short scene could still be established as a montage but making the clips long enough to get an idea of what is going on. From this I made each short clip in the montage 2 seconds each, this meant it was consistent and the audience had enough time to understand that the scene was a montage. 

After I had edited the first half of the music video, I showed it to a wide range of people, aged between 16-50 on an open evening. About 70% of the people I showed it to found the plot unclear and struggled to establish the storyline. As disheartening as this was, it set me a new challenge to slightly alter the shots and what order they appeared in. I had to make the storyline more understandable, as the plot is twisted slightly at the end, so by making the main body of the video as clear as could be was very important. 

Feedback from my print productions part way through was easier to amend. I started my CD cover with the 3rd panel of a picture of the necklace (featured picture) the character Ava wears all the way through the video. However my feedback was suggesting that it looked like I was trying to sell the necklace rather than sell a CD. From this, I chose an image that did not feature in my final cut of the video, however it was one taken on the location of a shoot. It is one of Nile in a red jumper strolling along the coast. I felt this was overall more fitting than one of the necklace, the red also signifies that there will be conflict as red is the colour of anger and love, which is predominantly what the video and the song are about.

First Design

Second improved design

On my CD cover, it was also suggested to me that I changed the colour and position of the writing on the front of my CD cover. Feedback said it did not stand out enough from the image of the rocks and the girl, imposed against the grey overcast sky. So I changed the text to be over the rock at the bottom of the cover and changing the colour to white. I was sceptical at first and thought my design was much better, but after trying it realised you have to 'kill your babies'. Something you've worked with and you like can often not be the best you can do. 

First design

The response to my magazine advert was critical, this could have been because it didn't reflect the rest of my digi-pack and ultimately my music video. Looking back now, I can see that it was not targeting my target audience and was something I was not 100% happy with. There were also some suggestions to move the text around and alter font size. Instead of altering them all individually, I completely scrapped the design and devised something completely new with the guidance of 3 people in my target audience. I chose three images i liked that I would be happy with using on my magazine advert and let them justify which one they though was best and why. 

Second design

After using black font on the previous advert I designed, I decided that it didn't look very strong against the bright colours. So from the image they chose which was predominantly dark, with a layered image of waves over the top, it has the best of both worlds, including dark and bright areas. I thought it would be best to use white font which stands out from the dark and bright image and contrasts it. 

When I had finished devising the new design, I spoke to the same three people and they said that it reaches out to my target audience more and that it is more eye catching and unique than the last design. 

In my Target Audience analysis for the song and band, the style and influence of the indie genre is very unisex, it is also a genre that doesn't care what sex you are, but that they can find common ground with you. From my audience feedback, I wanted to find out whether there really is a minimal difference in opinions between genders.

In his work, Kress references an 'ideal audience', in the indie/electro/rock genre, the fans are the artists' ideal audience, there is also an element of narcissism in this view but surely you'd want people alike yourself to hear and give feedback on your material. The fans of Kankouran may also enjoy bands such as The Cads, Coldplay, Oasis and Oberhofer - some of these are Kankouran's influences.

The questions I posted to my audience once I had completed the final designs were as follows...

1 - "Does the package successfully reflect the genre of music?"

The digi-pack is effective if it reflects the genre, so trying to find similar images or texts, titles, fonts, or performers is important to include. If the music video represents the genre well and you have linked the promotional package and the video together, then it should successfully reflect the genre of music. 

2 - "Does the package successfully promote the band/artist?"

The Cads album artwork

Using performers who represent the band is important when making the link to the band itself. It is quite common for bands within the realms of Indie genre to not put themselves on their cover art. For example a similar band called The Cads, represent themselves through a picture of the album artwork and one of their thumbs, the image as a whole is the cover of their artwork. 

3- "How do you rate the graphics, text, finish of digi-pack?"

Some of the images I used are screen shots of the video, which is always a risk because of the camera quality. However I shot on my own camera which meant the image was High Definition. I had not trouble with stretched shots etc. This question also meant that I had to be continuous with colour themes, using the same font and the same style on each panel. 

4 - "How did you rate the standard of graphics, print finish of advert?"

Similarly to the previous question, keeping the advert and the album artwork in sync with each other was important. The audience must be able to make the association that they are linked with each other, also that they are within the same promotional package with a similar looking video to accompany them. 

5 - "How successful is the British-ness of the package established?"

By using iconic British location such as Durdle Door, The Cobb and Chesil beach, this gives indicators that it is filmed on British soil, with British actors, inspired by a British written song. 

6 - "Would the covers encourage you to buy the digi-pack?"

This entails the covers being mysterious enough to want to find out what they sounds like, they also have to be a reflective representation representation of what the band sound like, so suggesting the genre trough the image is very important, linking back to the first question. 

7 - "Would the advert encourage you to go to an event by this artist?"

By not using the band themselves to feature physically in the video and promotional package, it means there is an element of anonymity about the band, this may encourage people to go and find out who they are, and possibly meet them. 

FEEDBACK 16-17 FEMALES

This section of feedback represents the younger age of my demographic, my overall demographic ranges between 16-25 years old. I was pleased with the positive feedback I received from them. Before they filled out the forms, I first showed them my music video followed by a preview of my digi-pack and magazine advert.

It starts by strongly agreeing that my "promotional package reflects the genre of music" (I played the music video as the promotional package). A circled number 4 for question 2 could possibly be justified because I did not use an image of the band Kankouran, I used performers acting in the video, however this is what links the two together.
The participant seemed to like they style of graphics and texts throughout my promotional package, it was continuous and simple.
Promoting the British-ness through the packaging was also circled as 5. This could have been because of the link to British history, in terms of Thomas Hardy basing his novels in the part of the U.K. that we filmed in, using some iconic British locations, where he did live. Also the tone of the package is portrayed through the colour grading, using a grey scale wash a de-saturating the colour reflects the British weather, from the pictures you'd automatically know it wasn't captured in Spain.

Circling 'yes' - "encourage you to buy digi-pack" means I have achieved what promotional package's aims are, to get people to buy the product you are promoting, also enticing them to see the band live.
The highlights of the overall packing for this subject were the front cover of the digi-pack, the sea wall with the waves crashing over it (image) and the continuous themes throughout, meaning the same tone of image. This encourages me as I wanted it to reflect and connect with the music video in the sense that you'd think of both when seeing 1 media product. An overall rating of 5 tells me I have targeted her demographic category directly and with effective results.

The second feedback form says that the best parts were the front cover, the back cover and the magazine advert. After having to completely redesign my magazine advert, it made me positive towards it, re-enforcing my decision that I had made the correct choice in the image and colours I decided to use.
The final comments were that is was "eye catching... flows together as a package" which again was one of my aims; to make it continuous.

The message I took from the females' responses was that they understood the message that Kankouran have within their song, also that I had portrayed it through image and moving image. Stuart Hall explains that the producer (in this case myself) created the code, or 'encodes' the medium with a message, and the audience, if they understand it, will be able to decode the message, which in this case I've strongly been led to believe. 

FEEDBACK 19-23 MALES

This demographic is represented as older males within my target audience. The form on the left and right are very different, I will start by describing the form on the left. 

The Cads album artwork (above)
The Cads music video (below)

The participant thought that the "package successfully promotes the genre of music", keeping well within the realms of the indie/electro/rock genre. Disagreeing with the statement that is promotes the band, this could have been because I did not include images of Kankouran in any of my media products, however this is often featured by bands similar to Kankouran like The Cads, they use graphically constructed images for their digi-packs and stop motion for a majority of their media. 

The "standard of graphics and text" is similar to the females' response of the digi-pack, both circled 5 for that answer. Once more for the simplicity and style of the text that it doesn't detract attention from the images on the digi-pack but settles in with them. 
The "standard print and finish of the product" was rated 4, this could be because they felt like I had repeated the images from the music video to the digi-pack, having used some screen shots of my music video, instead of individual pictures.
The "British-ness" question is circled as 3. This could be because of two possible reasons - the participant didn't make the link between the music video and the promotional package. Another could be because they hadn't experience different places a (possibly cultures) within the U.K. and had not been exposed to it - the British heritage side influences/intertextual references.

Despite this, the participant said it would encourage them to buy the CD, possibly because of their favourite parts of the promotional package - front cover, magazine advert and the continuous imagery. However he is undecided on whether the promotional package would encourage him to go to see the band live.

The form on the right is slightly different, however he is at the later age in my demographic and therefore 4 years older than then person who completed the form on the left. 
He strongly agrees that is "promotes the genre of music", also that it "promotes the band", this could be because similar bands don't use themselves in their promotional work, enticing their audience to come and meet them, to see them live - it creates more of mystery about the band. 
The "standard graphics and text" was circled as 5, leading me to believe that my choice for images, texts and colours were entirely right for the demographic he is representing. 
However the "standard of texts and graphics on the advert" dropped a score down to 4. This could be because it is not as continuous as it is white on the advert and black on the divi-pack (mostly). 
The "British-ness" question was circles as 4. Possibly because I didn't feature iconic images of British culture, the aspects that define Britain, for example, I involved Britain's beaches (the sea) but not a pan of a coastline, which could have been the moment where the participant recognises the coast-line. He also says the images were "accurately portrayed in package & mag ad" once again meaning I linked the two promotional items together well. In final comments he said "you can understand much about the artist through this" - from this he means the calm images, indicating the calm sounding song etc. 

In terms of concluding the males' responses to my productions, it didn't seem to affect the male demographic as much as it did to the female demographic. 
To generalise I could say that 'it didn't affect the male participants in my questionnaires'. However, I can't use these two people as a representation for the entire male audience of my productions. So to say the effect it has on the male demographic, I could reference the 'Two-Step-Flow', thought up by theorists - Lazerfeld, Berelson and Gaudet. They explain that the message or the information from something sinks into the few. However these few pass on the message to the easily manipulated, hence the name 'Two-Step-Flow' - it flows through the masses in two steps.  

Overall the response from my audience have been constructive and positive. After taking into account the wide range of audience feedback I have received, I've deduced that females tend to favour my work more than males. This could be elements of narcissism that I have sub-consciously injected into the package and video, it could also be what the individuals are generally interested in, my work may not be their cup of tea. I was advised to change the layout to give it a more professional finish, using tools like 'the rule of thirds' making the composition of images look impressive.This is also typical of the indie/electro/rock genre audience, looking for ways to improve with a positive attitude. 

EVALUATION QUESTION 4

HOW DID YOU USE MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?

I will divide this question into 4 sections, construction, research, planning and (ongoing) evaluation.

RESEARCH

The internet is a fantastic device making research much more enjoyable and efficient. It enables you to access information from all over the world, within seconds. Due to the type of research I was doing - into British bands and an African Dance tribe/group I needed access to many different websites and varieties of opinions and the origins of the dance. 

Part of the brief was to find a British unsigned band, usually meaning visiting websites such as YouTube, Sound Cloud and Spotify. However, I was confident that my music variety was wide enough to find a British unsigned band that no one else would be using. After narrowing down a choice of three, I chose a band called 'Kankouran'. I originally found their music via an advert for E4's programme Skins series 6 (the YouTube clip) The song is called 'Rivers'. 
Research is a large part of getting the music video and promotional package to be in sync with each other. Without the correct research you may be targeting the wrong group of people creating an image which does not fit into the right genre for the chosen artist, emphasising the importance of getting to know the genre you will be working closely with when going through the processes to complete A2. From this, I looked at what aspects of the band I wanted to find out more about. Not knowing what the name meant, I chose this to research. I used the internet, in particular google, to reach Kankouran, I listened to their music via YouTube, Sound Cloud and Spotify; a free music player. The band make themselves accessible online to their audience, which is clever as they are using the right techniques to target a somewhat niche audience. 

Spotify

YouTube

SoundCloud

After researching 'Kankouran', the genre of the chosen artist is also important. First of all I researched the band's influences to try to deduce what genre they would fit into. From the list of bands and artists that have inspired them, indie/electro/rock is what they would be stratified into, listening back to the track you can definitely detect some aspects of songs from other artists. 

Kankouran's influences

When I had researched each genre individually and summed up in conclusion about them, I started to do some research into similar bands to Kankouran. By searching the name and songs of Kankouran into Spotify and YouTube, it brings you related artists, it means you can explore music within the same genre looking for similar artists. Some of Kankouran's related artists were, Lucy Rose, Rams' Pocket Radio, James Vincent McMorrow and The Verve.

This allowed me to associate Kankouran with other bands, not to let them stand alone in my research. 

Post production I wanted to see if my music video had the appeal of the audience, I used Facebook; instantly sharing with 350 people. Twitter; sharing with 170 people, thanks to the internet I was able to do. I received great feedback comments on my music video and was pleased with the outcome. "looks awesome", "this is beautiful", "love this!", "looks amazing", "Brilliant - very evocative" were just some of the comments that people had posted, from all different ages, not just the target audience, some were my Mother's age and giving me feedback. I had not planned for this demographic to be viewing the video. I also learnt that 18  people 'liked' the video, 1 person 'shared' the video and from that 1 share, received 6 more 'likes' on it. 

Some of the Facebook feedback

When researching into Digi-packs and advertisements, I mainly used iTunes as it suggests to you tracks that other people have also bought. It produces the band's album artwork there and then for you. From this I did some more research into the different albums the band/s had produced and used Google Images. After this, I used Blogspot to analyse different types of Artwork and digi-packs that the information from iTunes had given me about similar artists. 
It was also about how to challenge the generic conventions of Indie digi-packs. 

PLANNING

Going down to devon to shoot a music video in a week was always going to be a risk, but by keeping in constant contact with teachers and of course, using the internet to do so, made it possible to know whether we needed to re-shoot a scene or not. Before we went down, we planned exactly where we were going to be filming and when, keeping in sync with the weather forecast. The internet meant I was able to receive feedback from experienced people on the other side of the country, which ultimately meant it was like having a teacher on location with me whilst filming. 

The exposure of the Indie genre is bigger now than it has ever been before, but this does not mean it is still easily accessible. There are online magazines, and radio channels that I often kept up with to keep in check with what was going on in the indie-music scene. www.nme.com was a website that I checked almost every day to check for new releases & tours of similar bands etc, also the website updates daily so it meant I could track for emerging patterns within the indie genre. It was also great for studying generic conventions of the genre and identifying styles of fashion and hair, also what kind of images they use in their promotional packages as well as music videos and interviews. 

www.nme.com

CONSTRUCTION

 VIDEO

Sony A57

Construction is a big aspect of creating your final productions and is very important to get right, taking into consideration that you have create all of your final productions from scratch, using your own ideas; including using a wide range of digital technologies. Whilst shooting the whole video, I used my Sony A57 DSLR camera, being digital is gives you a viewing screen of what you are filming, allowing me to perfect my shots, cinematography, 'iso' settings and focus that I wanted to achieve. Because of the high quality of shot that the A57 gives me, it meant I was enabled to play around with the depth of the focus, the pictures below shows how I changed the focus from the sea wall, to Ava's foot. 

 

Software posed as a slight obstacle as my camera films in HD(1080i), owning an Apple MacBook Pro Retina model means the quality of the screen you're editing on is the best of the best. I was certain that I wanted to edit on my own computer using Final Cut Pro (FCP), however I had not quite saved up the £200 needed for it, this gave me time to create a rough draft of the video on Adobe Premiere Pro - on the school's machines. However only 2 weeks into the rough draft, I had the money and immediately bought it as to not waste anymore time.  

MacBook Pro Retina - Final Cut Pro X editing programme

I used a programme by apple, for apple to edit my video on - Final Cut Pro. It is a great programme, allowing me to swiftly eliminate rushes of footage that were not going to be used in my video. It also allowed me to skim through my work, sorting clips and highlighting the sections which I might like to use, having over 3 hours of footage, this was much help. FCP has tools which allow you to crop, trim, and edit between two screens, this was important when creating cross dissolves, or layering images. 

Final Cut Pro on my MacBook Pro

To hold the audiences' attention for 4 minutes is a challenge in itself, but it meant I had to utilise the professional editing programme to its fullest extent to try to create the best video I could. Within this, it has an 'effects' section, allowing me to manipulate the clips creating transitions between them. By using a cross dissolve in my video, it connotes that the memories are turning into dreams, and the blur between reality and the dreams of a young couple. 

 

This is one of the opening shots to my music video, it is played alongside the lyric "don't sigh", the action in the shot shows he is frustrated with the situation - re-enforcing Goodwin's theory of linking lyrics with visuals. I felt it was important to show the frustration in the song, visually through the image. This image also establishes Nile as possibly the victim of the relationship. 

This is another example of where I have used cross dissolve to connote the dream/reality conflict throughout the video, once again re-enforcing Goodwin's theory of creating a common motif the the artist will develop across their work. 

I altered the colour of many of the clips, changing the memories in highly-saturated images, implying it was like an idealic dream world to the characters, and the present day in a grey-wash of colour, de-saturating the image. This was important when trying to understanding the video, it distinguishes what the story is about. For example, below is the originally filmed clip on the left, and the manipulated image on the right. 

Similarly when creating the highly-saturated look for the video, I manipulated the original clip to create a brighter looking image. The original image is the one on the left and the edited one on the right. 

For contact I used my iPhone 3GS. Between myself and my project partner, we kept on tab with each other throughout the planning and throughout the shoot when we were in different locations etc. From this phone I can also access my emails which meant I could email my tutors from on-set filming, updating them immediately on what we are doing, keeping us on track toward the right outcome. 

To scan in much of my work I used my home Epson printer/scanner. it is very efficient, meaning I can print scan and send work via the printer through to different computers. It enabled me to upload my hard copy's of my audience feedback sheets onto my blog, without this I would have had to have used me camera, taking much more time and being less efficient. 

 Blogger was one of the most important things, in keeping track of where my planning is, my references and a great place just to store all of my work. It is also great to look back and see where you are, looking back at my original ideas allows me to see how far my idea has developed, it also shows the research and processes that I have gone through to get to where my music video and digi-pack is at now. 

Finally YouTube was as important as any other digital technology that enabled me to complete this project to my best ability. It was a place to exhibit my work and gain valuable audience feedback from a different range of people. It also shows how many 'views' my video has and highlights whether it is becoming popular or not. Without YouTube I would not have as much audience feedback as I would currently have, and it would not have given me as much indication that my audience liked it. 

DIGI-PACK

After having a successful edit of the final music video, it was more important than ever to have a did-pack that was as good as the video. I needed to complete tasks like resizing, cropping, shaping and correcting images. I had taken plenty of shots whilst filming in Devon, many of them on location, which helps when trying to make a connection with the video and the promotional package. 

Photoshop

I used Adobe's programme Photoshop to create my digi-pack and advert. For my front and back panels I used screenshots from the video rather than images I took myself. I felt they were more appropriate than the images I had. I felt the front cover represented the current situation that the character Ava was in. the image used on the back was also a screenshot of the raw footage before the editing of text over the top from the music video. I thought it represented the sound of the band well, calm, contrasting and beautiful. 

In order to resize the images to fit the template for the CD cover, I used the "Shift & Drag' command, it resizes the image without making it stretched or elongated - essential when trying to make a professional looking CD case. The colours reflect the saturation contrasts in the video, this challenges the indie/electro/rock genre and the typical digi-pack covers, usually they are coloured, graphically enhanced and bright/unusual looking - similar artists cover work featured in the pictures below. In a sense, this attracts more of a niche audience. 

For the font, I kept it simple, using a font called 'Myriad Pro' and changing the letter and line spacing. I used monochrome colours, black and white, which connotes their relationship- half of the video showing the are together, and the other half, they are not.    

These were my text settings for all
of my promotional packaging,
however on my magazine advert,
the font size changed.

After correcting the font and colour grading, I then layered a barcode and a record label name over the top of the design of the back cover. Without a record label name, it would not be believable that my production was authentic. 
Creating the other panels was an easier job, all I had to do was import the images and save them into the right proportions for the template of the digi-pack. Apart from one image which I place the CD on. I layered the outline of a circle, to indicate that was where the CD was to be placed. The image below shows how I did this, it was very simple, I just selected the right tool and then traced an outline of it over the image. 

Photoshop was invaluable to my creating of the digi-pack. Without it, it would have looks amateur and almost lazily done. It gave the final finish of professionalism to my promotional package. 

ONLINE RESPONSE

After posting the final cut of our video on YouTube, since then we have had 409 views of our video, 13 likes and 2 comments. 

Alongside this, I promoted it on my Facebook as my friends are within the target audience for the music video I created, I encouraged people to give me some feedback and their thoughts on the video itself. this was their responses.