What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once we finished creating the music video the next step was to get feedback from our target audience. I feel this will be beneficial for us because they will give us some constructive criticism and this will help us make a better product. I feel that this stage is very important so I also showed peers, friends and teachers. I feel that by asking more people it will help generate a better opinion  about the video.

The feedback that I received were really positive and useful because it made us see mistakes which us as a group could not see and it took a member of the audience to see it. One member Alex Crowe said that “I liked the cuts and transitions used because it was in time with the tempo and the song. I also liked how the narrative was shown quite clearly that he was over his head. I thought that the lip syncing was very good in most cases other than a few scenes.”

This section where they mention the lip syncing has made me go back on my video and I have corrected all of the errors with the lip syncing. Another member of the audience said “There is a part near the end where the lead singer is on the bench on his own and it is irrelevant because it is there for one second and it looks out of place.” We took notice of this criticism and I have corrected this error. Other members of the audience complimented the “narrative” and they loved the ending as they said it was “emotional” and “upsetting” and this is the reaction which we wanted.

Overall I feel that audience feedback is vital for any production. I feel it has definitely helped make my production even better through constructive criticism. I have definitely taken all of the feedback I have received on board and I will act upon it. It has helped me improve my product to make is more suitable for the target audience.  

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

From the start of the project I had a huge variety of choice of ancillary tasks to do. I decided to create the website for the band because I have had previous experience in web design with the software Adobe Dream Weaver. My idea was to make all of my ancillary tasks link to the other group’s ancillary tasks and also our video. I wanted to make the house style of my website the same style as the other group’s ancillary tasks. I also had to think about my target audience for the genre of music we are doing.

Website

The website I have created for this project has certain conventions that feature in our video. The first convention that features in my website is the black background and the feel of the website. The black background is meant to suggest emotion and loneliness to the audience and the mise en scene of our video covers that in and an example of this is when the lead singer is on his own at the end and the audience get that sense of loneliness. This helps the audience relate the video to the website that I have creates through the mise en scene of the video.

The costume worn by the band members in the music video are the same as the costume worn by them on the website again so we tried to keep the mise en scene going through out the video and the ancillary products because we want the audience to be familiar with our band. On the website I have shown some outtakes from the video that we have created so by having this feature on the website it means that both of the products link in nicely together because by the audience watching the outtakes they will get a sense of the atmosphere whilst shooting the video.

On the website I have created I have also made a lyrics page which has lyrics for many of the songs by the band including the song which we filmed the video, for which I feel combines both of the video and the website together. I have also made a gallery page which shows some images from the shooting of the main video. I feel this feature combines both the video and website together. I also have a slideshow on the home page which I created which has some more behind the scenes images from the video shoot. I feel this brings both products together because the website informs the audience on the new video which we shot.

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

Throughout the whole process for this project I have used many different new media technologies. This is from the very beginning to the very end of the project. The first step into this project was the research and planning process. I first used the internet to research into existing bands in the genre of Rock. I used a few different search engines to do this and these were Google, Bing and Yahoo. I did this so I could get a variety of research from different sources which will help me construct a better product. I used Adobe Flash to look at some of the websites and watch Rock videos on Youtube and Metacafe to get a wider opinion on the overall Mise En Scene for the genre.

I also looked at these videos to get inspiration on the use of iconography and the variety of shot transitions and camera shots used in that genre of video. I next used Facebook to create an official Facebook group for the band so we as a group could all keep in touch to show our progress and share ideas about this project. This was effective because it was an easier way to communicate with each other as a group and we all uploaded our images to show our progress.

I used a range of software’s whilst working on this project. The first software I used was Adobe Dreamweaver CS3. This software was used for the website development of my website for the band. This helped me create the website in a full html file so it could be previewed on the internet. I already had previous experience in using this software for other projects so I found it very simple to use and create a website. The next software I used was Adobe Photoshop CS3. I used this software to create the brush effect on all of the images to create that continuity on all of the products so they all link. I also used this software to edit all of the images for the website and the mouse mat. This software allowed me to use a variety of fonts and brushes for my work.

The next software I used was Adobe Illustrator CS3. I used this software for creating my mouse mat and guitar sticker, This software helped me in creating the effects needed to link all of the products together with the video such as the colour and brush.  The next software I used was Adobe premiere Pro. I used this software firstly in editing the music video. This helped develop the video and experiment with transitions and effects. I also used this software to edit the outtakes video for the website . To edit the videos we were all assigned our own video editing machine to do this which had Adobe Premiere Pro installed on it.  

I used Blogger throughout the whole process to record my progress on all of my tasks. This was done through text, video and images. This is a great platform to see the progress we have made throughout the task. Whilst shooting for the music video we used a variety of equipment. We used a stills camera, video camera, dolly, jib and tripod. All of these helped me with my understanding of the music production progress. The dolly, jib and tripod helped add variety to video and it helped the audience’s understanding of the narrative.       

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

In the first part of my evaluation I will answer this question whilst referring to my video. In the second part I will refer to my ancillary tasks.

From the very start of our task we knew we wanted to make a music video which used iconography and conventions that was significant to the genre of video. We decided that our Genre should be a Rock genre.  From our research into existing Rock bands we were looking out for conventions that were used in this genre so we could incorporate this into our video. Some of these conventions are having a strong narrative, having band shots, close up of instruments and use of slow motion. We tried to use a variety of camera shots such as mid shot, close up, long shot, zoom, track.

This first screenshot is from the opening of our video. This shot of the close up of the drum is a very iconic shot. We have taken inspiration from some existing bands for this shot because it is very conventional to have a close up on the instrument.

This is a screenshot from another band's music video and this shows a close up of an instrument and in this case it is a snare drum.

This is a close up taken from our music video. This again is a very iconic shot of a close up of a guitar which from research into existing bands turned out to be a very conventional shot

This is a close up of a guitar taken from another rock music video. this shows that this shot is a very conventional shot

In our music video we used a range of shots but our most common shot was a mid shot. This was something we found common in a lot of music videos bevause it allows the audience see the meotion of the character and so they can see that they are lip syncing to the music. This is also an effective shot because the audience can see the character's surroundings which helps the narrative. If all of the shots in our video were close ups then it will be hard for the viewer to understand that narrative because they will not know the character's surroundings. 

In this shot the location is very clear to the audience and they can see where the character is. They can see that he is in the park sitting on a bench. This can also help the narrative because it is showing that he is alone on the bench. 

This shot is taken from another band that we researched. We found out that a mid shot is a very conventional shot for a Rock band.

From our research we found out that a very popular shot for our genre of music was a band shot. In every rock music video there is always a band shot because it is a very iconic and conventional shot and we wanted to make sure that we also include this shot.

Here is a screenshot from our music video. This is a band shot and this shot is a long shot so the audience can see the surroundings. We have used a slow zoom into the band as this again was a conventional shot in Rock music videos.

This band shot is taken from an existing music video which we looked at in the researching process. We found that this shot was a very conventional shot and was used a lot to help the narrative.

We used only a few transitions in our editing of our music video to show continuity in our video. We used a lot of cross dissolves to make the video flow a lot smoother. If we used a lot of different transitions then the video will be confusing and it will distract the audience’s attention from the narrative of the video.

Another conventional shot which we found out through researching into existing products is a mid shot of a band member playing the instrument such as a guitar or drum kit. This is an effective shot because it allows the audience to see who is playing the instrument and it helps the audience understand their surroundings

This shot shows our drummer playing the drums and the audience can see the whole drum kit and his face. This is an iconic shot in any rock band video.

This shot is taken from a music video from an existing rock band and we had researched them and this is a conventional shot for any rock music video. This is because the viewer has to see who is playing the instrument for the narrative to make sense.

Ancillary tasks

From the start of the project I had a huge variety of choice of ancillary tasks to do. I decided to create the website for the band because I have had previous experience in web design with the software Adobe Dream Weaver. My idea was to make all of my ancillary tasks link to the other group’s ancillary tasks and also our video. I wanted to make the house style of my website the same style as the other group’s ancillary tasks. I also had to think about my target audience for the genre of music we are doing.

The first step I took was to research into existing Rock band’s websites and I observed their navigations style, house style and font. I also wanted to look at how they link to the other ancillary tasks associated with the band. From my research I saw that the home page had to be eye catching and it had to link to the band’s theme. I instantly thought of having a slideshow to add interactivity to the website. I looked at the house style’s of existing band websites and I saw that they all link to all of the other ancillary products so the album covers, mugs, tickets. I then looked at the group’s ancillary products to work out a style for the website. I saw that they all used a gold colour effect for the logo of the band and I made sure my website incorporated this into it. During my research I found out that the home page has to be eye catching and they all have interactivity on their home page.

This is the home page from my website. It also has some images of the other ancillary tasks and they all have the same style and brush.

From my research I also found out that all band websites feature some videos and behind the scenes footage. I felt this is a conventional aspect for the genre so I decided to include this feature on the website. I put together an outtakes video for the website for the audience to get a feel what it is like on the sets of our video.

The first image is from the website I have created and the second image shows an existing website and it shows the Gallery page. My page also has an outtakes video which I edited and the second image shows they have a behind the scenes video.

The font styles that I had chosen were important for my website because I had to keep the same font style and colour as the other products so the target audience can recognize that this website is for the band. From my research I found that all bands use the same font style as their album cover on the website so the audience can familiarize with them.

This is a screenshot from my home page and this shows the font for the title of the band. I have used the same effect and brush so it is kept consistent to the other products  which are on the second image so the audience can recognize it is part of the group.

This is a screenshot from another band’s website and this is showing another product that the conventions are associated with the band and all of their style is still the same so the audience can recognize it is part of the band. They have used the same sans serif font with the album cover.

Last minute editing of video

Today Alex and I decided to edit the video one last time before submission tomorrow. This I feel has benefited us because it means that we can listen to our feedback that was given yesterday and it means that we can make those last minute corrections to the video before handing it in. We added some cross disolves to make the video flow more and so the video does not jump. I suggested that we have a zoom in and out on the last scene and we added this in to the video and it looks a lot better and stronger. We also sorted out the lip sync issues that came up when we were given feedback.

second cut of video

today we showed our second cut of the music video to the class. The class liked the video and they praised the narrative and use of camera shots for the video. The only issue is a few scenes were out of sync which I and my group will correct for the final deadline which is Friday. We also want to change some transitions into scenes to make it flow better.

Outtakes

This video is some of the outtakes that happened on set with the cast and crew.