Evaluation Question Three

Audience feedback is important because it allows you to understand what to improve or change in order to please those who would buy into your product. It also shows you what was successful and went well so you know what to add more of or repeat in the future.  When the rough cut of my media product was finished, I uploaded the footage to YouTube whereby it received audience feedback in the form of comments. One comment I received stated that the narrative was interesting and clear to follow yet more varied transitions should be used between shots. Another suggested the same but to also add more filters. A third comment said that the editing techniques were interest but more performance based scenes of the artist should be added.

I found YouTube very useful for audience feedback because I have now obtained three direct instructions from my target audience on how to improve the product so it appeals more to them. I will make sure to add more performance shots, filters and transitions to my final music video.

points 3, 4 and 6  of question 3
egs of other ways u obtained feedback.

Planning Cinematography - Miss Miller

Cinematography is essential within a music video because it makes the video more interesting and engaging if a variety of them is used. If a music video consistently used a limited amount of simple camera techniques then it will be very boring for the audience to watch and they may lose interest. In order to avoid this, a music video needs to entail a variety of different cinematography techniques consistently throughout. This will allow the music video to portray certain connotations, meanings and emotions. For example, a high angle shot makes the subject look small and inferior compared to the audience which will make them feel dominant and powerful. A low angle shot has the opposite effect of making the subject appear dominant and audience feel superior. Camera techniques are also useful in regards of the narrative. They can establish a setting or situation using a long shot or establishing shot as well as emphasising on a subject/object to show its significance using a close-up etc.

In my group, we discussed the camera techniques we would like to include in our music video and made note of five. The first is a point of view shot of the memory box from the artists perspective. This will be used in one of the first shots of the music video. The artist will pull a memory box onto her lap and open it. The camera will be looking down into the box as if through the artists eyes. This shot is conventional to the indie gene because artists of this genre tend to be very honest and willing to show their audience exactly how they are feeling in a situation because their songs are often written about subject personal to the artist. Therefore by allowing the audience to relate to the song by understanding how the artist felt/feels then they will be able to build a relationship with the artist. This relation ship will be formed on the basis that the audience will believe that they are similar to the artist and also understand that the artist trusts them with personal details about their life. This camera shot represents the artist as sentimental and nostalgic as it will show she is focusing on a box filled with memories. This also suggests that the artist is unable to let go of the past which is conventional to the music video theme of breakups.

Point of view shot

Close up

A close-up of the artists face will be used when the artist is singing. This is conventional to the indie genre because it will put emphasise on the artists emotions so they are easily readable for the audience. This is conventional because indie artists tend to sing about personal and relatable experiences that are high in emotion because they write their own songs and are honest about their lives and problems. In my music video this will represent the artist as honest and emotional for revealing her feelings so vulnerably. It will also portray the artist as sad and regretful about a past relationship.

Thirdly, my group discussed using a long shot. This will be regularly featured in our music video mostly during the memory scenes because this will establish the entire setting and situation, making the narrative clear to the audience. This is conventional to the indie genre because indie artists are known as being quite honest and therefore do not hide anything from the audience. This so why everything in the shot will be shown clearly. This portrays the artist as vulnerable as she is not given the opportunity to hide anything as about herself.

Shallow focus

Shallow focus will be used when the artist is standing in front of the bonfire. The background will be made blurry so the audiences entire focus is directed onto the audience. Also the blurry effect has connotations of being confused which could suggest that the artist has a muddled mind in which she'd not know what to think or do in her situation. This is conventional to the indie genre because indie artists will often sing about their own personal experiences and get them across in many ways including camera angles. 

Zooming in will be used each time the artist is looking into the souvenir box and pulls out an item. The camera zooms into the item putting emphasis on it before flashing to a memory connected to that object. This is conventional to the indie genre because it puts emphasise on the sentimental value of objects and how with mundane items a whole memory can be attached. This is conventional to this music genre because the meaning of songs tend to be personal to the artist yet relatable for the audience. Sentimental value is something that everybody is likely to relate to and the video may remind the audience of past memories of their own. This camera effect represents the artist as nostalgic and possibly confused due to the blur of the zoom which could represent her thoughts and how they are unclear.

My target audience consists of teenagers and young adults. They will be able to build a relationship with the artist throughout hess cinematography techniques in several ways. Zooming and long shots add to thew narrative and make it easier to understand so the audience will understand the story line and be able to engage with the meaning of the song more. They will be able to put themselves in the artists position through the point of view shot which will allow them to empathise with her.  This planning has helped me make sure that my music video will be received well by my target audience through deciding how they will build a relationship with my artist, engage with the narrative and find my video conventional.

Music Video Rough Cut and Audience Feedback - Miss Miller

Audience feedback is important to a production because it allows the creators to understand what went well about their media product so they know what elements are received well in their audience and what they should continue to replicate in other media products in the future as it was successful in this one. Also feedback teaches the creators what did not go well and what should be improved. From this feedback the creators then know what they should do to make their product even more successful and therefore more enjoyed by the target audience. 

I received audience feedback from my target audience in several ways. Firstly, I constructed questionnaires asking my target audience about my chosen music genre to find out what they thought to be the most successful elements in this genre and what they would like to see in an indie music video. For example, I asked my target audience what conventions you would expect to find in an indie music video and 'narratives about love' was an answer given which helped encourage us to base our music video on the theme of a relationship.

Throughout the production of the music video, i would regularly show it to other people including teachers, friends and other students. This was to determine I got a lot of feedback and so had a clear idea of what I had to improve at all times to make my music video as successful as possible. When my group and I were happy with our rough cut we showed it to our other class members and asked them to write down positive and constructive feedback  on a piece of paper. This screening of production was useful because we were able to obtain the honest opinion of others in the same position as us - students creating a music video. After improving our rough cut in terms of this feedback, I uploaded the video onto YouTube and put the comments section on public so anyone can comment and leave feedback.

The feedback obtained benefits my production because it game me and other members of my group the opportunity to look at our music video from different perspectives and understand what we could do to improve it and therefore possibly raise our grade. In terms of the music industry, feedback is beneficial because positive feedback shows artists and producers what the target audience find enjoyable to arch and therefore they know what guidelines to follow in the future. Negative feedback similarly shows the, why the audience does not like and what they should avoid in the future.  I received both positive and constructive comments for my music video rough cut.

Based on these comments, I now know what changes I should make to my music video before submitting it as a final piece. I will start with filming and record more performance scenes was the target audience seem to believe there is not enough performance despite enjoying the narrative and finding it clear to follow. In terms of editing, I will use a wide variety of transitions between shots to keep the music video interesting and despite it being repetitive by using the same or similar transitions throughout. Also I will make sure to add the artists name and name of the song somewhere within the video. I will probably do this at the start of the video whereby there is a time-lapse of moving clouds.






go through each comment and say how it made you feel about my production, how took feedback ON BOARD AND INTERRETTED IT INTO production, examples,


relate feedback to rough cut and music industry

Individual Digipak Analysis - Miss Georgiou

I have created a digipak to advertise my artists album and represent her in a way that would entice her target audience to buy into her music. The colours, images and text on my digipak will all help me to portray my artist in a certain way to sell her music and make her conventional to her genre.

I decided to use limited colours in my digipak with focus on only one. The one colour I chose was blue and the rest of the digipak was grey scale. The black and white has connotations of being dull which represents to location and situation surrounding the artist as depressing. This is conventional to the indie genre because it suggests that the artist has experienced negative emotions and moments in her life but remains happy and positive as she is in colour. This shows her as a good role model for the audience and helps the, build a relationship with her because she is singing about personal experiences which creates a layer of trust. The colour blue has connotations of sadness and loneliness which represent the emotions the artist may have felt in the relationship being sung about in our chosen song. Furthermore blue can portray integrity which may show the artist courageously ending the unhealthy relationship. Again this portrays her as a good role model.

The images used are very simplistic yet hold several connotations and meanings. The front cover image shows the artist looking up to the side. This suggests that she could be reflecting on her life and past experiences which is common for an indie artist as they stereotypically write their own songs and so would reflect on their own life for inspiration. The second to last image shows the artist walking across a bridge with her back to the camera. This could suggest that she is overcoming her fears and moving onto the next part of her life. The camera being positioned behind her creates the effect that the audience is behind her and so being invited to follow her actions and face their own fears. 

The layout of the digipak has been kept simplistic and similar throughout. This shows the audience that it is all relevant to the same project and it all makes sense. There are direct links between the magazine advert, artist image and digipak which can be seen through the simplicity of it all. Writing has been kept minimal also so the focus is mainly on the images and the audience do not know too much about what to expect from he artist. This will make them want to buy the album to find out more. However, the typography that is used is bold so it stands out as well as being quirky and unique which is relevant and conventional to the indie genre and style.

I found Photoshop difficult and easy in different ways. I struggled with adjusting the colours and layering because I wanted some elements to be black and white and some to be in colour. This did not always work and I would often by mistake make the whole image black and white or in colour etc. However, I found cutting and pasting images easier than expected. it took some time to crop an image and blend it on to another one while making it look professional but I feel I did this well in my digipak.

I think my digipak conforms to my genres convention because it portrays my artist as reflecting on her own personal experiences and being a role model which both allows the artist to build a relationship with the audience and be conventional to the genre. I think my digipak appeals to my target audience because they will be inspired by the artists positive nature and intrigued by the fact that not much is given away and so will want to see more. 

Photoshoot - Miss Geourgiou

I have taken a selection of pictures to use for my magazine advert and digipak. These will promote and advertise the artist to her audience so will need to portray her in a light that will be conventional to her and the genre as well as appealing to the audience. It is important to include a variety of pictures so there are a lot to choose from when editing.

The first few pictures I took where of my artist standing against a brick wall looking up to the side and looking down.I chose to take these pictures because the artist looking away from the camera which creates an effect that she is reflecting and reminiscing on her life. This is typical of the indie genre because indie artists tend to write their own music about personal subjects and so singing them would be a way to reflect. This will help the audience build a relationship with the artist because they will develop a level of trust and closeness through the artist sharing their personal experiences with them. I intend to use this image on my digipak front cover because I think a mid shot will work well here as the audience can see the artist at closer detail than they will in the advert whereby the image will be more of a long shot. However, because the artist is looking away she is not directly addressing the audience. This means that there is more to her that she is not revealing which will make her appear mysterious and the audience want to find out more about her.

ADD OTHER BRICK PICTURE

On the same day I also took this picture of my artist standing against the fence in her back garden with leaves wrapped around the wood. This is be a mid shot and so allows the audience to see the artists entire costume which allows the artists indie style to come across. This will also portray the artist as both down to earth and natural. Indie artists typically have a natural and stripped back style as they are not dressed up as much as artists in mainstream genres such as pop. Having a natural setting puts emphasise on this as well as the fact that the artist is down to earth and laid back.  This allows the audience to build a relationship with the artist as they believe that she is being herself and remaining modest despite her fame which makes her likeable, I am considering using this image on my magazine advert as it is simple and so will not be too busy paired with the writing on the advert.

ADD PICTURE

These picture were taken on the same day at the local fields. One is of the artist walking across a bridge and the other shows her sitting by a tree. I like these pictures because they continue the natural connotations. The natural background of the greenery further highlights how the artist is very natural and down to earth. I will use these pictures in my digipak as an inside image. They will appear very simplistic as there will be no writing over the images and so the audiences focus will be directed onto the image itself and its connotations.

ADD PICTURES

I found it very useful organising days in which I would take the photographs as it meant I could organise my thoughts and get as many of my ideas turned into pictures at once. Therefore I had the majority of my photographs relatively early on in editing and so was able to incorporate them into my magazine advert and digipak.

Meetings & Discussions

It is important to meet regularly with your group so you can discuss and share ideas as well as making sure that every member understands the aims and how everybody in the group is going to achieve them. My group organised our time to fit around lesson times. Each lesson we would discuss our music video, what we had to redo and film next.

Date	Action	To be done by	By whom	Discussions
15.09.14	To decide on an artist and a song	15.09.14	All group members	Various ideas were discussed and a mindmap was created by the group. Eventually we decided on creating a music video by Gabrielle Aplinand the song panic cord
16/09/14	Applying for music copyrights	16/09/14	By All group members	We were asked to find out the contact details of our artists record label and email them asking for permission to use the song in our music video to prevent us breaching the copyright act
22/09/14	Lyric Analysis	22/09/14	All group members	We were asked to analyse the lyrics of the song we are using ‘panic cord’ and incorporate it into the video we are using, this allowed us to have ideas that related to the lyrics and truly understand what the artist meant by the song
23/09/14	Planning Mise-en-Scene	23/09/14	All group members	For this lesson we was made to plan the mise en scene we was going to use in our video (eg. Character positioning, camera shots, setting, costume, facial expression/body language) this allowed us to plan for our video and make sure we do not miss out planning any key details.
25/09/14	Planning Cinematography	25/09/14	All group members	For this we decided which camera shots we would use, for example we will use lots of close ups to show off the artist and help the audience memorise her face and therefore help her create a relationship with her audience. We will also use long shots to show what is happening in the scene and show the surroundings of her, showing she has nothing to hide.
29/09/14	Planning Artist Image	29/09/14	All group members	We want our artist to be represented in a way which will make her seem more down to earth and likeable to our audience, this will help her create a relationship with them, this will be based off artists like Nina Nesbitt and Gabrielle Aplin
30/09/14	Planning editing Styles	30/09/14	All group members	For editing styles we decided that we would use fast editing for filler shots when the speed of the music increases, these intrigues the audience and keeps them engaged due to the change in tempo, exciting the audience as they are used to the slow tempo of the song. Also we will use shot reverse shot when the boyfriend and artist are talking to each other, this allows the audience to see the artist and boyfriends emotions during the scenes, allowing the audience to see what the mood of the scene is and be able to relate to the artist as they feel they know her better due to being able to tell what she is feeling without her speaking
13/10/14	Group Storyboards	13/10/14	All group members	For the storyboard we all got together and discussed how long each shot would be, the editing style and camera shot that would be used and drew a rough image of it, this allowed us to all understand what we needed to do for filming and help us all know what is next to film and make the video feel more professional as it was sorted what was coming after what, helping us know what needed as a group
14/10/14	Filming Schedule	14/10/14	All group members	The filming schedule allowed us to know what days were being used to film what and who would be able to make it, by doing this we was able to keep certain days free and make the filming more efficient and organised between us
16/10/14	Risk Assessment	16/10/14	All group members	We got together and created a risk assessment to make sure that the public and filming crew were all safe from harm, we covered all possible risks, from low impact to high, allowing us to prepare for our video and film in a safe environment where we knew what to do to prevent possible injuries
28/09/14-17/10/14	Filming Music Video	17/10/14	All group members	Our group filmed different scenes for our music video to edit in lesson, we tried filming mostly in rural locations although we did mix it up and do shots in London as well, preventing the audience from getting too bored of the same setting constantly.
11/11/14	Photoshoot	11/11/14	All group members	The photoshoot was used to get photos for our digipak, we done this by going to a field and taking different shots from different angles and areas, allowing us to get multiple pictures for our digipak.
15/12/14	Music Video Rough Cut	15/12/14	All group members	The rough cut was made to help us briefly understand what was needed within our music video and if we needed anymore shots to help it be more conventional to the indie genre and therefore appeal more to our target audience

I believe that my group did work well together because we all contributed different ideas and played different roles in filming and editing. It was beneficial to keep track of what was discussed at each meeting because it prevented us from forgetting any ideas and allowed us to plan what to work on next.

Individual Magazine Advert Analysis - Miss Georgiou

I have created a magazine advert for my artist to promote her and her upcoming album. The advert allows me to create connotations about the artist so the audience will have an idea of what the artists music style is and know what to expect from the album.

I have decided to keep my advert mostly black and white because it is very simplistic so will not give too much away to the audience so will leave them wanting to know more. Simplicity is also conventional to the indie genre because artists tend to have very simple and natural images and stripped back acoustic music. Indie artists do not wear bright and bold colours like those in mainstream music genres such as pop. Instead they wear simplistic yet quirky clothes which is what I am trying to get across in my advert. It also makes the small use of colour stand out. I only subtly used one colour. I have used blue for the background of my advert which is of clouds. The clouds create connotations of the artists mind being muddled and confused which suggests she does not know what she wants.This is conventional because it is the subject matter for my chosen song. 

The opacity of the blue is turned down so it blends in with the black and white and does not stand out too much. Blue has connotations of sadness which is relevant to the theme of my chosen song as it is about breakups. It also portrays loneliness which will link in with the clouds of the background as it suggest that the artist may feel lonely due to her confusion and alone in her thoughts. I have also used mostly simple fonts to make the advert clear and bold for the audience so the advert is easy to interpret as a whole as it is not too busy or complicated. I used one image on my advert. The image is of the artist looking up to the side which is conventional to the indie genre as artists are often seen as reflective and reminiscent. This is because artists of this music genre commonly song write about their own personal experiences as a way to reflect on their lives and learn.

Overall, I think my advert has conformed to the conventions of the indie genre as it holds many connotations about the artists life and that is the main focus rather than what the artist looks like or is wearing like that of mainstream genres. Instead this advert has been kept single and you cannot see the artists full body and she is not placed in the centre of the advert but top the side. She is looking up to the side which directs the audience to see what she is looking about and wonder why she is looking up. The audience may also wonder what the significance of the clouds are and so their attention is focused on the connotations created.

I used Photoshop to create this advert which I found both useful and difficult. I struggled with cutting and blending images because it was hard to make it look realistic. I cut around the image of the artist to paste it onto the background of clouds.When doing this at first the picture of the artist looked unevenly cut and I had to use the blending tool to make it look as though it was one picture. I found this difficult because it was time consuming and still did not look realistic. After a few attempts though, I managed to blur the images together evenly.The easier tools on Photoshop include the layering and colour effects. It did not take long to change the colours, opacity and to layer the images. This was useful because it made up the majority of my advert.

I think my advert conforms to my genres conventions because it has many connotations and it has been kept simple. As my chosen artist is in the indie genre it is assumed that she is relatively unknown. Therefore her audience will not know much about her and so this advert appeals to them because it does not give much away and will make them want to find out more.