Evaluation question four: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

I personally believe that our group’s video was a great success. Many of the viewers whom also watched the music video have shown mutual responses and also believe that it was very good. Having said that, it doesn’t mean that there are not a lot of improvements in which could have made, in order make the music video better overall.

The good thing about my audience’s feedback is the fact that they are within the age range of our target audience which is from 16 - 25. Most of the people which have given me feedback on the music video are aged between 17 - 18 and therefore there responses are useful to me. These comments are particularly useful to me becuase it will give me an idea of any of the improvements which could be made.

Below is some of the audience’s feedback.

Nathan Miller - aged 17

Summary of feedback from Nathan Miller:

• Use of the motif - Japanese writing.
• Likes the ending
• Good shots
• Great editing

Valeza Bakolli - Aged 18

Summary of feedback from Valeza Bakolli:

• Music was time with the beat - this is seen as conventional according to Carole Vernallis.
• The storyline was very intresting 

Nike Bor - Aged 18

Summary of feedback from Nike Bor:

• Use of the motif - Japanese writing.
• The editing made it look very depressional - This was certainely a message that we were trying to get across to the audience

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The audience feedback was without doubt phenomenal. However it has also shown me where I have gone wrong, which means I have certainly acknowledged any weaknesses which I can develop on, when undertaking another project of the same kind. 

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We received some comments about the sharpness of some of our shots. Therefore reflecting on this, I would certainly go back on the decision to use out of focus shots. This decision was made to create obscurity and astatically we thought it would look good.

However it seems that we have not got across our desirable message and it has rather caused a lot of confusion amongst the target audience. Therefore it is something that I have definitely learnt from and would change if given the opportunity. This is because I believe we may have still been able to create the same effect of obscurity with the use of just focused shots and no unfocused shots.

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Another aspect in which I would certainly change is that I would make improvements on the lip syncing. Although this is something which I believe not a lot of the audience would have recognised. The weaknesses in the lip syncing may have not been noticeable by many of the people in the audience because of the up beat tempo and also the fast jump cuts.

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Our music video was publised on both "YouTube" and "Vimeo".

Screen shot of our video on youtube.

Amount of veiws and feedback

As you can see above the video has just under 500 views. This may be associated with the quality of the music video itself.

After we uploaded the music video onto YouTube, people gave their feedback on the video through rating it on whether they like or dislike it: It received “8 likes” and “0 dislikes”. This shows that our music video was appealing to the mass audience. However these likes may not come from people within our target audience. This is because the site “YouTube” is opened to anyone worldwide and therefore can reach the mass audience.

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Screen shot of our video on Vimeo

Amount of veiws and feedback

 

As you can see above the video has just below 50 veiws. This may be associated with the quality of the music video itself.

Since uploading the music video onto “Vimeo”, we have not received any feedback on the video through ratings on whether people like or dislike it. Although I believe that any responses from “Vimeo” would certainly benefit my group and I a lot more than any feedback from “YouTube”. This is because the site “Vimeo” is not open to anyone apart from those whom are members. Particularly the section on “my channels” is only available to city and Islington students. This is very beneficial to me and my group because most of the people in which attend the sixth form range from ages between 16-20. This means that any responses will certainly come from people whom are within our target audience and therefore aged between 16-25.

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EVALUATION: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned 

from your audience feedback?

* CLICK TO ENLARGE *

I created a Wordle above using some text manipulation technology software on a site of the same name to showcase outrightly the main things I have learnt  and will take away from A2 media and through creating my music video and its accompanying ancillary products.

Above is a video commenting on what I have learnt through observing and dissecting the audience feedback given to me and my group - and gives a personal insight through video recording into what I believe we as a group could have done to improve.

With regards to our audience feedback - you will be able to find an archive of three videos below this post that demonstrate the views and opinions of our final music video product.

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Furthermore - through video format I will attempt to answer the following questions in an attempt to answer and find out what I have learnt from my audience feedback:

How did the audience in the cinema react to your video?

How could/would you change your product in relation to feedback?

Does the feedback given make you look at your products in a different light?

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The videos above should effectively say what I have personally learnt as a result of the feedback given to me and my group for our product. The audience feedback was phenomenal, but it also brought about some lessons to be learnt, when undertaking another project of the same calibre, which I'll summarise below:

- Investing more time in planning

- Beware of framing when executing E.C.U shots

- Use a variety of angles when constructing montage sequences

- Only challenge music video conventions if completely necessary

- The importance of shots being "in-focus" ESPECIALLY when it comes to the moral message of a video

- Music videos aren't made to have narratives, though I believe they should be considered and can be pulled off effectively - however utilising non-linear structures can be a good thing

Evaluation question four: What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

(ARCHIVE FOR WHOLE GROUP) EVALUATION: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Finale blog post

This unfortunately is the final blog for my A2 media coursework, i have had much fun using blogger and will miss it, i just want to take the chance to say a big thank you to all my group members who i believe have become my close mates, that is Ayub Ali, Jerome Holder and Abid Khan. I also want to say thanks to both my teachers Louisa and Mary. I would also like to say a big thank you to technicians Marissa and Mickey.

Evaluation

Question 4

In this question i will discuss the audience feed back and how the online feed back process works.

We uploaded our video onto Video sharing sites 'Vimeo' and 'YouTube':

Our video on YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oP-Ap-tSAI

 

Our video on Vimeo

http://vimeo.com/32962635 

Upon uploading, people gave their feedback on the video through rating it on whether they like or dislike it via YouTube:

This shows us that 8 people liked our videoAfter teh cin and no one disliked it (or atleast havent shown any disinterest towards it)

 After the trip to the cinema in which we got to see everyones music video, we went to other student who do media and asked them what they thought of our music video as a whole:Audience Reactions

Here are some visual interview feedbacks:

What would I do different next time round?

If we were to do the music video again, i would certainly change a few things for the better.

The final scene of the music video would be removed as i believe that it doesnt really have much of an effect on the viewer. In contrary to this, i would end the video off with the female charcter finding out that she's pregnant. This is becasue it would be a contrasting climax to the video as the whole video was about partying and 'living a good life', yet the ending would be giving off a message of 'every action has its consequences'.

I would also next time round take shots which are more clearer in order to place in my video. This is because it will make the video look a whole lot professional if the shots weren't blurry without it intending it to be.

And finally, i would change the actual song itself. I believe that a narrated music video would be more effective if the narrator was actually singign out what was happening on teh music video itself, rather than it being amplified. This is because the audience will have a better understanding of the video and what is going on inside it. This alteration idea of mine was inspired through the many responses i recieved from teh audience in which tehy said they didnt understand what the lyrics meant or what was happening inside the video itself, causing much confusion and making it less satisfying to watch.

Evaluation of Finished Work

Question 3

In this question, i will explain how I used numerous technologies in order to carry out our music video and to create the digipak. 

Planning and Research

In our Research, we had to use many websites to carry out research. This included YouTube, which we used to find our remix edition of James Blake's 'Wilhelm Scream'.

One feature of YouTube which helped us a lot in our research was teh fact that we were able to look at the original, as well as related videos, which helped us find alternatives to the song. This lead us to decide which genre suited our storyline the best.

Another form of research which we carried out, was the official website for our chosen song artist, James Blake. The use of this site helped us understand more about the artist himself and what type of music he makes. This lead us to make a decision on what our storyboard will include, bearing in mind the sort of genre and lyrics the artist represents. We also used the artists website to our advantage when creating our ancillary products. This is because for my advert and album, i was able to write down some of the producers and websites links, simply because i was able to easily obtain it from the official website.

The key tool which was used throughout the A2 media course, was Blogger. We used this to post blogs on each tasks and to provide an extensive step by step guide throughout the year on what/how we are completing given assignments and practical work.

Here is a step by step guide on how to use Blogger:

We also used Final Cut Pro in order to edit our music video:




Also using Final Cut Pro, we used tools to slow down some shots so they carry out the desired effects we wanted it to. Below is a demonstration on how we did it:




Throughout the course of the editing, we had to make many alterations to the music video, the following is how we managed to add teh logo onto our music video and how we changed its colour, transparency, positioning and how we rendered the video:

This is how we added the borders to our video to give it the 16:9 aspect ratio look:

While creating my digipak, i had to use many programs such as Fontcase and Adobe Photoshop, heres how i did it:

No title - slideshow maker

For some of our Video Clips in which we explain certain questions, we used a Flip Cam and uploaded the video straight to Blogger using the Blogger upload tool.

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Animatics

http://candipop11group28.blogspot.com/2011/10/planning-for-music-video-animatix.html

Evaluation question three: How did you use media technologies in the construction and reseach, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout the construction, research, planning and evaluation of the music video and ancillary texts, I and my group have used a number of technologies in order to produce the optimum possible outcomes.

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During the filming process of the music video, a lot of technological equipment was required. Luckily enough we were privileged enough to be able to use these in the production of our music video. We as a group have used a lot of technological equipment which include the following:

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“Three 16GB SD cards” – The memory cards allowed us to save all the footage, in which we recorded. It also allowed us to save all the pictures that were taken.
 



Memory card

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A “JVC semi professional camera” – The camera had enabled me and group to record the footage. This camera was of very good quality and had high resolution; this meant that we were able to produce a music video of outstanding quality.


Camcorder

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“Two lighting kits” – The lighting kits had allowed us to film even when natural light was not available. In other words this meant we could film even when the atmosphere was not bright and had low key lighting. Therefore I have learnt how to create the correct type of lighting for each scene. I am now using the lighting more appropriately throughout the recordings.

In our music video the lighting was manipulated in specific ways to create a mysterious and eerie perception of the artist “Ayo”.

Lighting kit

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“The tripod”, by the way I have acknowledged that this is not part of the technological equipment used, although it is a fundamental piece of equipment which had been used in the production of the music video. The main function of the tripod is to hold the camera still and prevent it from any unwanted movements.



Tripod



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This year in A2, I have gained a lot of knowledge and have now developed the skills in order to use the camera and tripod to their optimum use.

I have learnt how to handle the camera in more effective ways, and have become better at altering the focus of the lens in association to the scene. For instance, using non-focus and focused shots in appropriate scenes. For example there are many shots our music video, in which we have blurred out the background, to draw the audience’s attention to what is actually going on. I have also understood that the tripod does not need to be used every single time that we are filming. I have also now learnt how to do panning shots freehand without the use of a tripod. In comparison to the last academic year, when I was recording my thriller, I have certainly understood more about when it is necessary to use the tripod.

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Final Cut Pro:  Throughout the production of our music video, final cut pro played an essential role. The programme allowed us to cut out bits of our recorded footage and storyline and put it all together in our preferable order into a simple timeline.

We also used final cut pro to edit some of the clips. For instance we reversed a shot, in order for it to move in time with the beat. This is another form of convention. Carole Vernallis once said “the camera may move in time with the beat”. This shot in reverse is shown below:

Final cut pro also allowed me to switch from one shot to another smoothly. This was done by the use of an effect called "cross dissolve".

Final cut pro has also allowed us to lip sync the clips that we recorded with the original track. This was done by placing markers on each clip at the same point, so it could easily be matched and in sync.

Final Cut Pro Logo

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LiveType: We used the LiveType programme in order to add subtitles on the music video. For example, we used Japanese texts throughout the music video.

However we as a group decided not to use too much text. This is because it could take away the audiences attention from the most important aspects of the music video. For example, if we used a lot of text throughout the music video, the audience may not pay close attention to the mise-en-scene and also the storyline of the music video.

LiveType Logo

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Photoshop: Throughout the production of my ancillary products, Photoshop played an essential role. There are many tools in which can be used within the programme. These have allowed me to produce my ancillary products, and helped me make them the best I possibly could.

An essential tool in which I used very often was the "crop tool". The crop tool allowed me to resize any images to my desirable size.

I also used the "Rectangle Tool" in order to separate certain bits of detail from each other. For example on the front panel of my digipak, I used a grey rectangle to separate the image from the title. 

I also used the “Magic Wand Tool” which allowed me to select an area of an image based on its colour. The “Magic Wand Tool” usually works better when the colour you are trying to select is different to the rest of the image. For example if I was dealing with a picture of a person – It would be easier to select the surrounding colours if they were a different colour the person and what they are wearing.

In the options bar it is also very important to select the right level of “Tolerance value” (0 to 255). This determines how closely to match colours – the higher tolerance means the larger area selected.

I usually use the “Magic Wand Tool” when there is a picture of a person and I am trying to get rid of the background. This is done by selecting the whole unwanted background area, and then clicking “Shift+Ctrl+L” all together, and then pressing "back space" to ultimately rid of the background. “Shift+Ctrl+L” is an alternative way of locating the “inverse” button.

Lastly I also used the "Horizontal Type Tool" to enter all of the text on my ancillary products. I decided to use the Horizontal type tool as a substitute to "Quark Express". Quark Express is a programme which our teachers had advised us to use. Quark express is particularly made for adding texts to a piece of work.



Photoshop Logo



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The Internet: Throughout the process of planning, production and evaluation, the internet has certainly played an essential role. This is because it has allowed me to use many fundamental sites such as YouTube, Google images and Blogger.

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YouTube: This is the main site which has allowed me to research music videos of the “dubstep”, “pop” and “dub-pop” genre. This is done by typing artist’s names into the search engine. Researching these videos and then watching them allowed me to identify and use the conventions amongst many of these videos and implement them into mine. This may sometimes be referred to as intertextuality.  

Watching these videos over and over again has certainly given me an insight onto how a music video of the “dub-pop” genre should ideally look. I researched any artists which included “James Blunt”, “James Woon” and also the main artist in which has song is being used for our music video – “James Blake”.

We also used YouTube to create our shortlist of songs that we took under consideration and may have used. We also used YouTube to embed the music video directly onto the blogger so that the video can be watched on the blog itself. This was done by pressing embed and then copying the code onto the “Edit HTML” of the blogger. The width and length of the video had to be changed on many occasions. This is because the original size used for YouTube was fair too big when transferred onto blogger.

In order to get the official version of the music video we chose we used YouTube. We used YouTube to download the track and import it into Final Cut Pro to use in the production on our music video.

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Google images: This is the main site which has allowed me to research all areas of my ancillary products of the “dubstep”, “pop” and “dub-pop” genre. This is done by typing artist’s names into the search engine alongside with the words “Digipak” or “Magazine advertisement”. By typing in the name of the chosen artist, within seconds I had access to thousands of images of digipak’s and magazine advertisements.

Looking at as well as analysing many of these I have been able to identify and use the conventions amongst many of these ancillary products and implement them into mine. This may sometimes be referred to as intertextuality.  I paid particular attention to the positioning of the artists and also the colour schemes.

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Blogger: This the main site in which I used to update my progress on any media work or my own interest. In other words it has allowed to blog progress of all stages of this unit so that fellow group members and teachers can read about what I have been up to. They can simply do this by locating my blog which is in “group 28” and go to “Ayub Ali” on the section of Labels.

Blogger as a site is a convergence centre allowing me to incorporate videos, images, slideshows and audio recordings all into one place. This allows me showcase my A2 media blog and demonstrate it in an effective manner.

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Evaluation Question two: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

As you can tell my digipak and advertisemnt both have direct links between them. This also makes it very conventional becuase they are also linked visually. They both use the same image. The image that i used on the front cover of the digipak is the main picture used in my advert. Therefore creating a distinct link between them.

In addition i made sure that was i was using the same font throughout my digipak and advertisement. It is also very convention to use the same font throughout both a digipak and advertisement. As you can see below the same font named "Ambient" is used everywhere.

Digipak

Magazine advertisement



Futhermore, with all my ancillary products, the main reason that direct links were made so clearly was because some of the images in which we used where taken from the video. In order to take a point in time from the video and change this into a picture, a quite technical process is needed to be carried out. Firstly you must pause the video and then click Command + Shift + 4 all at the same time and then crop out any bits which we need to use.

For example the images from my "Inside left panel" and "CD Housing" were both taken from a point in my video. Because some of the images used in my digipak come from the actual music video, i believe this will mean the audeince will be able to recongnise the digipak and advertisement after wacthing the music video.

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I believe the success of  ancillary products are determined by the amount of audience it attracts. In order to attract the audience to the point where they wish to buy the album will mainly be dictated by the marketing of the digipak and advertisement.

I believe the ancillary products have been very successful because of the use of conventions of the genre and of the products themselves:

The Digipak features a bonus track called "Focus". This should certainly appeal to the audiene. This is because they may want more than what is featured on the CD. This also also thems to connect more with the band. The word "bonus" can also sound like the artist is giving this track to the buyer as a present when bought with the actual CD.

The advertisement also uses star rating from newspapers and music magazines. I have shown 4 star ratings from very well know newspapers called "The independent", "The guardian" and "The daily telagraph". I decided that since i am a new artsist i shouldnt put 5 star ratings becuase they may be seen as unresonable; although many new singers have been able to obtain a 5 star rating. I believe the star rating will give the buyer information of the quality of the album. This should ultimately lead to an increase in demand for the good.

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Ayo is a music artist and when looking at the genres of music, he may well come under the dub-pop category. Ayo being a dub-pop artist can be seen as a dichotomy. This is because dubstep, “dub” is quite a niche market and therefore is aimed at satisfying specific market needs. On the other hand the “pop” elements of the artist “Ayo” will cater for a mass target audience.   

This dichotomy did not make it easy to cater for our audience. Although I believe we achieved this by mixing simplicity/minimalism for the niche dubstep market. We did this through the use of bright, extrovert - attention grabbing colours for the pop market that are used to being served more gimmicks. I certainly believe that this contrast was effective particularly so in the magazine advertisement where the two markets cultivate to create a simple but strikingly bright and effective piece of art work.

Evaluation Of Finished Production Work

Question 4; What Have You Learnt From Your Audience Feedback;

I personally believe that my music video created alongside with the help of my group members has been a great hit, saying that it doesn't mean that there aren't any improvements that need to be done.

Below is a wordle of the comments received by class mates and videos clips of fellow pupils who have watched the music video.

From the above videos of my friends you can tell that the lip sync in mine and my groups music video wasn't that great, you can also tell from the feedback of the above pupils that our music video involved minimal amount of lyrics the majority of the music video involved listening to the base line of just edited beats, The things that i would personally change to improve my music video is, i would include more shots of my artist Ayo singing but in time this time and would also chose a different version of The Wilhelm Scream that includes more lyrics.

 Our music video was published on both Youtube and Vimeo

 

Above is a screen grab of our Music video published on Youtube, and below it is a screen grab of the views it received, you can see that there are 8 people likes and 0 dislike this proves that are music video was enjoyed and appealing to a vast majority of our friends and fellow pupils.

 Above is our music video published on Vimeo

Below is a screen grab of the ratings that both mine and my groups music video received this week.



Below is a gif of all the reactions observed by viewers whilst watching our music video;

Gif maker

A lot of people were either shocked amazed or jealous.