Our finished music video

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

I decided to answer this question using a prezi.

Question 4 - Plan

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

RESEARCH -

• YouTube to search for existing music videos, both student-made and professional, and blogger to share our research findings, allowing analysis of products and development of ideas
• use of google to search for existing ancillary products to find out what styles and conventions are appropriate to use. also finding products that are similar to the genre of music that we are using, to find stereotypical aspects of the certain ancillary products. 
• use of survey monkey to get audience research about general music videos, finding out what people expect of a music video and also to gain some feedback about our rough cut 

PLANNING -

• blogger was the main technology used in the planning section of our coursework - really easy to use and is simplistic. Used previously in AS work so I already knew how to use it and did not have to spend time learning the functions of a blogging site. Also convenient as everything can be kept in one place and is stored online so it can be accessed from almost anywhere
• use of YouTube to research existing products and to draw comparisons to help construct ideas for our own products, drawing on ideas from all that we'd researched before.

CONSTRUCTION -

• digital camera - easy to use/familiarise self with, can carry around with you easily - lightweight and does a mixture of functions (video and camera)
• premiere pro for editing - software that I am already familiar with because I have used it already for AS coursework.
• adobe photoshop for the creation of the two ancillary products: poster and digipak - software that is readily available to us at school so it is easy to access and not too difficult to use. Has many features that allow you to manipulate a photo is almost any way that you want to get a desired effect
• microsoft powerpoint used to make the thumbnail for our music video

EVALUATION -

• Prezi used to showcase evaluative points for some of the question, giving explanations and detail into developments in skills and abilities over time (possible use of video diaries/voice recordings over texts and images too) - used it previously so I am familiar with the software and was able to use it fairly easily to display my ideas
• digital camera to record footage and premier pro to edit it together
• blogger to showcase my planned ideas
• Microsoft word was used to plan answers to the evaluation questions. This is a software that I am familiar with and so it was easy to use and I didn't have to learn anything new to use it

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

We decided to answer this question as group video/discussion.

Question 3 - Plan

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

 

Below is a list of the audience feedback we have received. These can all be talked about in the evaluation and compared.

·         The idea

·         Rough Cut

·         Ancillary tasks

·         Final Cut

THE IDEA feedback

 

What do you expect to see in a music video for the song Barbarian?

Vikings and battle scenes, maybe some shots of the band playing at the same time?

Battling and warriors with people playing the music as well

I would have people fighting and something related to history, with shields and swords etc.

Guitars and bands, maybe a story line involved to keep the audience interested but doesn't always have to be the case.

What did we learn from this?

From this, we were able to compare our thoughts on what the video should feature compared to the thoughts of our target audience, to see how successfully we captured the essence of the song. For example, in the audience suggestions, we used ‘battle scenes’, ‘shots of the band playing’, and ‘something related to history’. From all of the feedback we received for this question, we actually managed to cover every point we were given, which reassured us that the idea we had was as good as we could get.

What music videos have stood out for you in the past?

OK Go's videos are amazing - they are all so unique and interesting, as well as fitting in with the music.

Rammstien - Mein Land, Marilyn Manson - Tainted Love, or Obey the Beard by Psychostick

Any video by the Gorillaz, OK Go! And Take On Me by Ah-Ha!

I don't really watch many music videos, but Twenty One Pilots release some good music videos.

What did we learn from this?

After hearing these suggestions of good quality music videos, we decided to research some of these videos to find out why there were so successful and what conventions they did/did not follow that brought them this success. We later decided that some of the stereotypes of a good music video e.g. a story, were vital in order to make a music video successful, so we began to develop our idea around this.

What do you think of our main idea?

I think it’s a very good idea and if done well could really get you a good grade!

I think it’s a brilliant idea and fits well with the music, the ending will be great if done right!

It sounds like a very good concept, and the name of the song and the genre of music fit together very well with the idea.

I think it's a really different and clever idea. It’s good that you'll end watching it with a different perspective to how you started watching it.

What did we learn from this?

We were truly grateful for the positive feedback we received about our idea. People generally thought that the choice of song and the idea went together very successfully, which made us feel confident that our product was going to seem more ‘whole’ than if we had used a different idea for the song, or a different song for the idea. They also seemed positive about the change at the end of the video. Saying that it will be ‘great if done right’.

ROUGH CUT feedback

What do you think of our rough cut video?

It's very well shot and edited, I liked it a lot!

I like the slow motion shots and the quick cut editing, I think you've done a brilliant job for a rough cut!

I really liked the shot where the axe comes down on the camera, and it’s a different location to what many media students have chosen to film in.

It was a really well shot and well worked video! The actors you brought in were amazing and it fitted well with the genre of the song.

What did we learn from this?

Generally, the feedback we received was positive, which was very encouraging as we showed it mainly to people within our target audience. As well as this, The Darkness themselves commented on the video saying that it was ‘pretty great’, and that the location was ‘ideal for the song’. This made us very confident in continuing with our video.

In what ways would you improve how the rough cut was edited?

I didn't like the turbines in the background, but I do like your idea of them purposely being there to subtly show that what you are watching isn't real. But personally, if I didn't know this fact, I would try and change that.

There were a couple of shots used more than once that need to be changed, apart from that I couldn't find a flaw!

I think you could at a few faster paced shots to increase the drama of the battle.

There are a few shots that are the same, so I would edit those out. Apart from that it’s perfect!

What did we learn from this?

Firstly we decided what we were going to do about the turbines. We decided, as a group, that we would leave them in. This is because it shows that even though the children are using their imagination, they are not yet fully developed/mature, so even their imagination has limitations. With the comment about repeating shots, we were aware this would be mentioned as the shots were only put in as fillers until we decided what footage was going to fill in the gaps, but it was good that these were pointed out by people as it suggests that they were captivated by the video. We then had to make decisions about the speed of some of the shots. This is because some people commented saying that there needed to be a few longer shots, but others decided that some of the shots were too boring and so needed to be edited to be more exciting and more jumpy. We decided to settle on a mix. With some shots, we would use fast paced quick cuts to make the video exciting, but with the opening shots and some wider shots, we would make the clips longer to emphasize on the length of the battle.

The next part we want to have children re-enacting what you've just seen to show that it was all their imagination. How would you go about filming this?

I would fade in from the warrior on the ground to the other kid on the ground, and then have them fight but less dramatic than the actual battle.

I would have a similar style to what you filmed except have it at a much slower pace, and I would have whoever calls the children in for tea/end of break time turn around and have a sword showing on his back to get the audience to think even more.

The shots need to be longer in length so that it is less dramatic than the actual battle.

I would have it in a different location to where you first filmed it, like a school playground or in a garden. Have the children pretend fighting with cardboard and plastic swords to make it like they are really pretending.

What did we learn from this?

From this feedback, we decided that the final part to the video would take place in a garden of a house, presumably of one of the children. A parent would then come out to the garden and tell the kids to come indoors for dinner, and the children would run indoors as the video fades out to end. We also wanted to make sure some of the shots were longer than in the Viking scenes as people said that this will make the children fighting seem less fast paced, less professional, and more like children. Therefore, we only used a limited number of shots for these scenes, and the camera was always stationary.

ANCILLARY TASKS feedback

POSTER

*INSERT PHOTO OF FINISHED POSTER*

Most responses said that people liked the image used in the poster and thought that it suited the genre of the music (rock and roll) well. They also said that they liked the layout of the poster and that the simple design looked professional and cool. It was also said that the use of social media advertising was good as it directly targets the younger audience of the product.

A common negative response that we got for the poster said that it looked a little dark and dull and that ideally it needed to be made lighter to look more appealing and eye-catching.

What did we learn from this?

From this, we learnt that we should always go to audience feedback before finalizing a product. This is because there were certain things, like the positioning of the children on the poster, and the brightness of the image, that the audience did not like, but that we did not notice ourselves. These improvements made a large difference to the way that we worked on the digipak, as we knew we should get as much audience research as we could along the way. However, on a more positive note, many people seemed to like the poster, saying that it was fitting for the genre and very complementary to the digipak and the video. We were very happy with these comments as they assured us that we were on our way to creating a complete product that works well with all its ancillary components.

DIGIPAK

*INSERT PHOTO OF DIGIPAK*

Many of the responses for our digipak said that overall they liked the design and layout, especially the use of a shield for the background of the jewel case. Responses also said that they liked the use of fonts in the designs and they also liked the fact that we the bands logo and also showed recognition to the re-enactment group that was used in the production of the music video. It was also said that there was suitable imagery used throughout the digipak design and that it suited the genre of the music video well. Some responses also said that they liked the idea that the front cover and the back cover were one continuous image, rather than having two separate images for each.

A criticism of our digipak design was that in some places it looked a bit 'busy' and that we should consider removing some logos or fonts to create more space within the design.

What did we learn from this?

Like with the poster, we missed some things out that the feedback was able to help us with. The main thing that was commented on here was that the image was too ‘busy’, and that album/digipak covers are normally simpler. To change this, we removed some of the unnecessary parts of the album cover, including the band members on the back, and some logos on the front. This made the cover easier on the eye, and the audience were much happier with it after these improvements were made.

FINAL CUT feedback

We showed a room of 13 people (who fit in our target audience) the final cut of our video, and asked for feedback on it.

Positive feedback

·         ‘Music works really well with plot line’

·         ‘Good colour correction’

·         ‘The end makes it all tie in’

·         ‘In time with music’

·         ‘The ending is so good, like a major plot twist bringing it all together’

·         ‘Great use on mise-en-scene’

·         ‘Love the ending’

·         ‘I like the re-enactment group’

·         ‘original and creative’

·         ‘cute ending’

·         ‘I like the overlaying shot’

·         ‘the ending is good’

·         ‘good use of editing to create a sense of disorientation’

·         ‘Interesting use of mise-en-scene with characters and costumes.

·         ‘an enthusiastic singer, helps with the overall song theme’

What did we learn from this?

We were very happy with these comments. They made us feel very happy about the media product that we created, and it showed us which parts were done successfully, and would be done again if we were to do the project again. Considering it was a very last minute decision, we were also very happy about the positive comments we received in regards to the lip-syncing pieces.

The most commonly raised point in the whole of the final cut audience research was that the ending was a ‘good’, ‘cute’, ‘major plot twist’. This is exactly the kind of feedback we were hoping we would receive for this ending, and it made us feel better about the final outcome of our product, as it was able to meet the requirements and the opinions of the target audience.

Negative Feedback

·         ‘A little repetitive in the battle’

·         ‘Some shots are messy’

·         ‘don’t like the live performance’

·         ‘lip-syncing is slightly out at the beginning’

·         ‘the black and white doesn’t go in my opinion’

What did we learn from this?

As much as it is never great to receive negative feedback, this was welcomed as it enabled us to see which parts of our music video were not as successful as we may have thought they were. The most commonly raised point was about the lip syncing being a little bit out of time, and other points saying that they ‘did not like’ some parts. But I think these were just down to opinion as while some people agreed on one thing, they disagreed on another.

Overall, we were very happy whenever we received audience research, as it allowed us to see how we were progressing. Receiving audience feedback is very important with media products as the way in which you act upon these comments can be the decider on how successful your media product is.

How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

We decided to answer this question in the style of podcast/group discussion.

Question 2 - Plan

How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary tasks?

 

Explain the importance in advertising in being able to connect an audience to ancillary tasks and make them refer to a main product when seeing these products.

Types of advertising -

• Trailers in films
• YouTube
• Adverts
• Posters

Talk about how we researched into existing ancillary tasks and advertising methods (SHOW IMAGES OF THESE), and how the things that we have learnt from these were put into use in the planning of the ancillary tasks.

A common theme is good within a range of products. Helps to create a brand/association between the products.

 

THE POSTER

A poster is by far one of the most successful pieces of advertising. It shows, usually in a large format, features of the main task which helps to captivate the audience. (SHOW PROFESSIONAL EXAMPLES).

The stereotypes of a poster include: NAME THEM, EXPLAIN

We decided to use more/less of these stereotypes because…. Explain etc.

From audience research into these stereotypes, we decided that we would need one thing to be apparent across all our products… the band logo. Explain.

Our poster connects to our music video by…. song, photo, theme, etc.

To improve our poster… Quote audience research "image needs to be lighter" etc.

 

THE DIGIPAK

Next, we had to create a digipak for our video. This would consist of a cd front, back, and inside, with some of the stereotypes of a digipak. These stereotypes include… logo, image of artist or an album cover image, text on back (explain), and simple things e.g. barcode, other logos etc.

The stereotypes that we decided to use were… logo, album cover image, text on back (explain), and simple things e.g. barcode, other logos etc.

The digipak relates to the poster by… logo, images, fonts, themes, colours, etc.

The digipak relates to the main product by... images, theme. We chose to use photos of the Vikings rather than photos of the band to relate the digipak and the poster to the main task, and create an association between these products. Explain more...

 

OVERALL

The combination of all these tasks is very successful with many people from the audience research making comments such as ‘it works with the theme’, and ‘it all suits the video’. We are happy with these comments because…

We wanted to make sure there was a clear connection between these ancillary tasks because… it connects an audience to the products, it makes the brand stronger, and it allows a variety of ways for the product to be communicated.

 

We plan to present this question as a podcast discussion style video with the entire group using cues from the above plan. In the editing process of this podcast we will add in pictures from our coursework and other relative products to help demonstrate our ideas better.

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

I decided to answer this video as a vlog.

Question 1 - Plan

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

forms and conventions of music videos in general -

• repetition of shots to emphasise the point that songs tend to repeat themselves with repetition of the chorus and certain lines that have particular importance to the meaning of the song. Also helps to identify any key moments to the music video. 
• the visuals - characters, setting and actions, should all relate to the general theme and genre of the song. By looking at these visuals it should be easy to see what genre the music video is. 
• typically show all members of the band and can show personalities of the band, something that the audience can familiarise themselves with about the band
• a character/main artist that the audience can easily identify as being significant to the music 
• a narrative that is not very clear, making the audience pay close attention to the video and the lyrics so they can make sense of what is happening.
• usually represents the band positively

specifically, forms and conventions of rock music videos:

• characters in this genre are typically bold and rebellious guys that go against mainstream society and fighting conformity - this is shown through the artists confidence and stage presence (usually being centre stage and at the front of anything)
• quick cuts and close ups of instruments being played, keeping in time with the fast pace of the music
• few or little special effects as the main focus of the music video is the band and their music - although some rock music videos do use slow-paced editing to emphasise any certain points within the song or the narrative, running in parallel to fast-paced parts of the song
• narrative is usually linear (shown in sequence) and tells a story
• most commonly performance-based narrative 
• iconography - satanic symbols, negative imagery like drugs, alcohol and headbanging
• lighting for the genre tends to be stereotypically darker than other genres
• typical props include the instruments that the band are playing
• setting is usually based around the theme of the song or is a big open stage with space for a big crowd

conventions that we used -

• linear narrative of group of characters that connects with the theme of the song and makes sense - viking battles and then transitioning to the children playing in the garden
• use of some performance-based narrative - using close-ups to show the instruments of the band. close up of the singers face and actions - actions could be depicted as rebellious and confrontational, fitting the genre of the music video
• slow-motion editing used to emphasise a certain point within the narrative, a certain point in the story and drawing attention. use of fast-paced editing to keep the video interesting and in line with the upbeat pace of the music, however some of the shots are not quickly edited and last longer than normal for the genre of the music video
• most of the characters relate to the genre of the music video, vikings, but the location is not necessarily that of a rock genre, however I think that from the video you could distinguish what the genre of the music was 

conventions that we challenged -

• no use of stereotypical genre iconography - in comparison our music video is pretty 'clean' in comparison to other music videos in the genre. No references to satan, drugs or alcohol
• we specifically used a filter on our video to make it lighter and to make images stand out, completely going against the convention of the genre about having dark shots and lots of low key lighting
• more focus on the story telling elements of the music video rather then the performance part of the narrative, typically rock music videos are more band orientated and contains more of them playing instruments and singing
• music videos typically feature the band playing the characters if there is a story telling element to the video however we use a whole different set of characters for the narrative pieces
• some elements of the video do not directly relate the genre of the music video but the overall concept of the music video fits the rock genre

video snippets to use in evaluation -

• our own music video
• the all American rejects - gives you hell à challenging the conventions of typical rock videos (uses light colour schemes and plays around with humour), although follows some conventions (boisterous lead singer, band-narrative shots, band also play as characters in the story line) - contradictory: has both a good character and a rebellious character (stereotypical)

Evaluation prep

For the final section of our coursework we have to answer four evaluation questions for about the research, planning, and production processes of our coursework. Below are the four questions and some ideas to include in each question. Each question will be presented in a different format so I have also made notes about how each question may be presented. 

 

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages? - possible use of prezi, allowing for use of animations to focus on certain aspects in more detail. Use of screenshots and video clips to emphasise points.

• construction - digital camera & premiere pro for the music video filming and editing. adobe photoshop & filming pictures for the creation of the two ancillary products: poster and digipak.
• research - internet/YouTube to search for existing music videos, both student-made and professional, and blogger to share our research findings, allowing analysis of products and development of ideas
• planning - blogger was the main technology used in the planning section of our coursework, also use of youtube to research existing products and to draw comparisons to help construct ideas for our own products, drawing on ideas from all that we'd researched before.
• evaluation - powerpoint/slideshare/prezi used to showcase evaluative points and give explanations and detail into developments in skills and abilities over time (possible use of video diaries/voice recordings over texts and images too)

 

What have you learned from your audience feedback? - group discussion, filmed. 

• mostly learned about how to tailor our designs to fit the needs and ideals of the target audience better.
• something that we may have considered to be good when designing something turned out to be not so good in the eyes of the target audience, using their opinions to help make our products better.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - written text, may be used as a script for a vlog or a commentary over some pictures or clips of video.

most music videos feature a mixture of live performance and a simple narrative - a convention that we have stuck to but also challenged a little. Use of band and lip syncing sticks to conventions, and use of narrative - however we decided to split the narrative into two sections, creating a miniature storyline within the music video (kids daydreaming about being Vikings with the end scenes showing the children returning to reality).

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? - voice recording with possible images of ancillary texts to emphasise certain points. Potential for a collaborative podcast with the group, allowing us all the discuss certain aspects of the coursework

• made sure to use a running theme throughout the music video and in the designs of the ancillary products - Viking theme is continuous.
• every product uses the same fonts and the bands logo

 

Obviously these are not notes for the full answers but they are some rough ideas that I have begun to note down.

Thumbnail

We decided that a Thumbnail should be made for our video, since most professional music videos have a Thumbnail to go along with it. So we used Photoshop to edit one of the photos we got when filming and kept all the same fonts and logos that we used on the poster and in the ancillary work for this project.

Here is the finished thumbnail:

Update: lip-syncing

Previously, we posted on the Darkness' fan page asking for musicians who fit the following to be in our video:

• Willing to participate for free
• Able to play an instrument
• Know the song 'Barbarian'
• Lives in either Norwich or Gorleston (filming locations)
• Free next week (half term)

It has now been a while since this was posted and we only received 1 reply.

As we are nearing the deadline of our video and cannot organise more of a band, we have decided to use people we know to imitate the band in the lip syncing parts.

We will use close up shots to cover up the fact we are using people we know, and fast paced shots to fit with the fast paced action of the battle scenes. We will be filming this today and editing asap.

Update to rough cut

After a few hours of editing, we realized that quite a few shots are boring/mediocre. Therefore, we plan to give ourselves more work by adding scenes of a lip-syncing and a band playing. As our deadline is quickly approaching, it may be difficult to get this done. To confront this problem, we will be editing the video now with the scenes that we have, and will also be creating another edit if we are able to get lip-syncing done.

To go in search of a band, we have posted on the Darkness' fan page asking for musicians who fit the following to be in our video:

• Willing to participate for free
• Able to play an instrument
• Know the song 'Barbarian'
• Lives in either Norwich or Gorleston (filming locations)
• Free next week (half term)

Hopefully we get enough replies asap that we can plan and film before the deadline.