Evaluation of Audience Feedback

     Audience feedback is essential in order to find out how successful my production was as well as gaining information about how to improve my production. Audience feedback allows an interaction between the producer and the audience therefore breaking the fourth wall. This interactivity was very positive as it allowed me to take a step back and see how to improve my music video through the unbiased eyes of others. There is not just a single benefit to this process, rather numerous benefits of audience responses such as: an Increase knowledge retention, Improve attentiveness, Track individual response, Confirm audience understanding of key points and narratives.

Matthew Horton Talking About Our Music Video

      I was able to gain audience feedback in a variety of ways. Predominantly I showed my music video to a range of different people in my school. I asked a group of people in my form group, ageing between seventeen and eighteen, of which most enjoy pop music and they responded with the following feedback, “good use of locations…loving the saturated effect…excellent use of angles…but change the font at the end of the song.” Obviously this feedback is very positive, therefore reassuring myself that I have produced a good music video. There was one criticism, however, as the asked me to change the font at the end of the song. In reflection, I can understand why this has been highlighted, this required the least concentration and attention, therefore it has become obvious that I neglected this small feature in my production. I can see now that the font which is used is very dull and stale, two words which do not fit the genre stereotypes of my music video. I will take this into account and quickly eradicate this oversight. Without the audience feedback I would have kept the boring font, however, this exercise has given me and opportunity to take others opinions into consideration, and I agree with what was suggested. As another means of gaining valuable audience feedback I filmed two classmates immediately after they had watched our music video, to gain the instant first opinion. This didn’t give them much time to think about their answer therefore, it would be a very basic yet concise answer singling out the main points which stood out for better or worse.

Michael Smith Talking About Our Music Video

     Another way I gained information about my product was by uploading my Music video up on YouTube, an Internet site where four billion people, according to stats taken in February 2016, worldwide view videos every day. I then waited a week and checked my YouTube video page discovering that 150 people had viewed my music video. To get more information in dept i clicked on “insight” on the YouTube page and this is what I found out: people tend to loose attention after 1:31 minutes which could suggest there is a necessity for engaging content around this are within the video.

     I believe that there are many benefits of asking individuals as I received a concise and straight to the point answer. However, the group identified weak points within my music video and offered a solution which was far more advantageous. We chose to film my classmates as this enabled us to conform to our target audience of teenagers. After receiving the feedback I have learnt that our target audience is very pleased with the music video as it adheres to most of the pop stereotypes. Furthermore I have had much praise about the editing and flow of the music video,” even being acknowledged as “like a real music video.” The feedback which i have studied is very pleasing and promising emphasising that our music video is more than acceptable to be categorised in the Pop genre.

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

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? from Patrick Brennan

Does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

Mathew Horton: Quick Fire Review of The Omega's Music Video

As you can see Matt is pleased with the music video. He did have a minor criticism which involves the lip syncing, however we believe as a group it is synced to the best of our ability, but we will take Matt's points on board and give the music video a second look.

Michael Smith: Quick Fire Review of The Omega's Music Video

Music Video Feedback from Class Members

This is more audience feedback from our media group and again it is visible that they like our video! "Don't get Paddy & Ben's input" in the video is understandable as it is slightly confusing, however we were trying to produce a meta-narrative which include Luke, Ben and myself signing separately from the narrative.

Music Video Feedback from Class Members

As  you can see the feedback given here is very positive with a few minor problems, which can be resurrected easily. I am glad we did this activity as it allowed our group to understand points that we possibly wouldn't be able to see ourselves.

Music Video Feedback from Class Members

Feedback from a media group within

Production: "Shine" by The Omega (Patrick Brennan, Luke Jamison, Liam Edwards and Ben Sherlock)

Audience

      Our music video engages with my target audience in several ways. Firstly, my research suggested that music videos from the pop genre were best received on YouTube especially on the ‘Vevo’ subscription page. Evidence for this can be found in the enthusiasm for new artists such as Zara Larson who has recently built her career through the use of YouTube, where she was discovered. The pop market is extremely large and the most explored by artists therefore it is essential to tap directly into this market.

My video features teenage male singers and actors, engaging with the essential ‘tweenie’ market which we aimed our video towards, this is essential; as teenage girls especially will be the main source of audience as they would purchase our merchandise and tour tickets. When we showed our music video to a sample group aging between 13-16 year old girls they were quick to pick their favourite band member exemplifying gratification theory as the girls maybe imagining which boys they could go out with, this is a major factor in the success of bands such as One Direction, The Wanted and 5 Seconds Of Summer.

The music video also needs to engage with our male audience. Luke is shown driving around in his car, an aspiration and cliché of young “boy racers” Ien Ane talks about treating audience members as individuals and we hope the individual clothing choice and appearance would encourage young men to see the band members as unique and different which they could identify themselves with. Moreover our narrative displays a harsh breakup, which many young teenage girls may go through, however our band are sympathetic to Luke, the group semiotic is of a group of friends helping Luke to overcome the mental health implications of losing someone you love, therefore our male audience may be able to sympathise with this.

Our music video and music genre choice is specifically aimed at youths as our upbeat song “Shine” can be played in clubs which are predominantly filled by younger people therefore further engaging with our target audience. Our audience may also enjoy our music video simply due to the social interaction motive, explained by Dennis McQuad. He suggests that friends of the production team will watch the music video to be socially interactive. Moreover our music video is engaging for an audience therefore it adheres to the entertainment motive where an unexpected audience may choose to watch our music video for enjoyment.

Ancillary Task: Magazine Advert

Ancillary Task: Tile

The page consists of all our band members, i thought this would be a useful slide as it displays all of us together as a group representing the unity between us. Despite Liam cheating with Alice, Ben and I represent our groups close bond helping Luke get back on his feet. Furthermore this tile will include a free poster of the same art work included in the DigiPak as a sign of appreciation for our fans for buying our first album.

Ancillary Task: CD Tile

This tile will be where the CD is placed within the DigiPak, I chose to keep this tile simple, therefore not reducing anything from the CD or taking the importance from it.

Ancillary Task: Meet The Band Tile

This slide is the "Meet the Band" section, just in case our fans didn't know what we looked like I chose to include selfies of us, putting them at the bottom of the slide, keeping the attention on Liam and Luke, our two main band members, by changing their colouring to yellow, drawing in the attention of our audience.

Ancillary Task: The OMEGA Tile

This is my title slide, it is obvious that Luke, our protagonist and lead band member is our key figure, cartoonized to only display his basic features as the album is about returning to reality after being in a troubled relationship.The Neon flower of life representing life as a journey which is never ending, hence it isn't a circle; jiggered edges representing the semiotics of difficulties and changes within life. The Neon colours which were used, juxtaposes the idea of reality adhering to conventions of dreams and mystery two ideas confused during a troubled relationship.

Ancillary Task: Track List Tile

This is the Track list, as you can see, I have ordered in size the importance of each song; "Shine" being the largest therefore they will attain more attention for our audience who may look for our songs along the isle. The same background has been used as well as the font which is edgy and bold representing Luke's bold choice to leave and break off his relationship, giving him a sense of relief, yet the bold writing is slightly 'in your face' representing Luke's anger at Alice's betrayal.

Ancillary Task: Lyrics Tile

This is the lyrics page, as you can see Luke is again a main feature on the slide, however I have included the whole song on the slide so that our audience can sing along with our hit song "Shine" whilst they play it on CD. The background is slightly different here as I have included a scene of tranquillity, a photo taken by myself on the River Thames in London. I chose to include this as it is harmonious with the semiotics of water and peace which we used in our music video.

Template for DigiPak

This is my DigiPak template, as you can see I have ordered them in the way in which the templates will unravel. For example (bottom left) "The Omega" page will be the title page which once the DigiPak is closed over will be the first image viewers see, I have chosen to make this the title page as it clearly displays the name of the band causing no confusion with other albums.

How is genre represented in your media product?

    Modern music has now created divisions in the music population as genre based clans have become prominent causing young people, who stereotypically listen to music such as pop or punk, to adapt their dress sense and style according to the conventions of their favoured genre. Their image represents their music choice and personality; they may even adapt their speech to adhere to the colloquial language of said genre.

   My chosen genre was pop / Indie Pop. As I researched these genres and in viewing videos from Lana Del Ray and Florence and The Machine it was immediately obvious that the genre had a exclusive dress code. The dress code can’t be defined as fashionable as the whole concept of being individual is subverting ideas of trends and mainstream ideas that are seasonal. Being indie appears to express the idea of appreciating what is or was good; it is timeless. Because of that, indie people generally appreciate vintage items and ageless pieces. This is obvious in “Summertime Sadness” and “High by The Beach” by Lana Del Ray and “Shake it off” and “Dog Days are Over” by Florence and the Machine as their clothing adheres to an almost bohemian theme diversified by the inclusion of vintage wear. Typically the Indie Pop artists and followers attempt to distance themselves from conglomerate brands such as Top Shop, Nike etc as they pride themselves on being individual, therefore, buying clothing from boutiques. My chosen genre was also Pop, a very mainstream idea, gaining its name as it refers to “popular” music. Typically the Pop genre uses branded lavish clothing and “Hollywood” ideas such as saturating and colourising it’s music videos vivaciously trying to grab and attain the viewers attention. In reference to clothing Pop music stereotypically display males, well dressed in branded styled clothing and females in short tight clothing’s displaying their features, in many ways pop music sexualizes its music videos.

    We considered this for our video and attempted to adhere to the stereotypes of the genre, on choosing the outfits for each band member we rigorously looked through our combined wardrobes choosing unbranded, unique clothing, for example, the jacket I wear in the film is from a boutique for Cadiz in Spain! The unbranded clothing wasn’t a problem, however our music video also adheres to the pop genre therefore we had to incorporate stereotypes of this genre also, therefore we decided to created a combination of Indie and mainstream clothing to create an element in our music video that represented both genres. We subtly introduced pop culture into our clothing as Luke our protagonist wore shoes from Top Man whilst I wore Vans, these are two stereotypical popular brands and subtly incorporating them into our music video gave us the right fusion of the two genres. Moreover our antagonist wore uniform, a clothing closely associated with standard, repetitive and typical ideas juxtaposing the clothing of our antagonist, therefore visually portraying contrast in styles of the Pop and Indie genre. This is an example of Levi-Strauss binary opposition- unique vs. mainstream.

    Pop and Indie Pop bands are usually shown playing their own instruments. Coldplay in “Hymn for the Weekend” often play their instruments in the middle of the on-going narrative therefore creative a meta-narrative and using their own music playing as a sub plot s making their own music playing a sub plot. We didn't use this idea in the final cut of the music video however we planned to cut shots from live music interspersed with the narrative that made up our main plot line. Instead we chose to use a narrative which incorporated a sub plot, of our singers, which took place in locations visited in the video (maintaining the continuity), this occurs in the pop song by Rhianna “Love The Way You Lie,” This proved opportune as the continuity of the narrative was undisturbed. Despite the clear grand narrative, Jean-François Lyotard would approve of our work as the separation of singing and the main narrative provides our music video with a meta-narrative an idea which Jean-François Lyotard was keen to introduce. We chose to do this as our plot would be too complex if we were to include singing within the narrative, therefore the separate singing offered viewers a break in action to contemplate what has happened.

    Indie Pop artists are usually male and in there twenties therefore music video narratives tend to explore love and fulfilment from a different point of view form that of the rose tinted clichés in Pop music. The 1975 begin their song “Girls” with a speech from their lead singer “were not a pop band and this video feels very poppy and that’s not really what were all about.” This displays that Indie Pop is a totally different genre to Pop and artists seem desperate to distance themselves from the “cheesy” stereotypes of Pop music. Instead of displaying sweet teens on their first date, they include women playing instruments dressed in lingerie a sexualisation which wouldn't be suitable for the target audience of a Pop genre, however as the 1975 are a individual group they can choose what they want to do and their audience, who a like minded will respect the unique ideas they display. We couldn't replicate this as our product had to be Catholic friendly therefore we played on stereotypes of a Pop boy-band, however instead of replicating the typical two band members fight over a girl we added a refreshing twist to this, introducing the idea that our female antagonist cheated on our lead member with and other member; an individual idea which is ambiguous and unstereotypical of a Pop genre yet unique such as a Indie Pop genre. Our Artist was, however, alone singing identified by Saussure as a semiotic linked to self-reflection and the idea of music acting as a problem solver. We felt this also suggested gratification theory as viewers may put themselves in the shoes of the artist as they may have experienced a break up or being cheated on therefore, allowing the audience to relate to our product. We used this device to show the protagonists personal struggle to overcome his anger, jealousy and frustration prevailing as a single independent male.

    The editing was a huge part in our production, in most music videos it is a general rule that shot changes should be in time with the beat (typically the drums) This occurs in Bastilles “Pompeii” we chose to include this in our production as it adheres to the conventions of both the pop and Indie Pop genre, moreover it allowed our narrative to develop naturally as the picture and music converged fluently allowing us to produce a coherent music video.

Representation in my A2 Media Production

     Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective. Rather than examining media representations as simply reflecting or mirroring “reality,” we will be examining how media representations serve to “re-present” or to actually create a new reality.

    Media representations are the ways in which the media portrays particular groups, communities, experiences, ideas, or topics from a particular ideological or value perspective. The groups and communities portrayed in the media can include gender, age, race, sexuality, and social class. In our production, both genders are represented, with both male and female characters this worked in our favour as it broadened our viewer demographics. It is normal that male characters are more often associated with the public sphere of work, rather than the private sphere of the home, yet we chose to pursuit the issues and problems related to personal issues as we believed it was a change from the monotonous issues of work life, therefore making our production a niche market. Luke is portrayed as the ‘Strong Silent Type’ as he regains power acting decisively, yet he also subverts the stereotypes of this genre as he fails to contain emotion displayed through the numerous close ups within our music video displaying Luke’s dismay. This stereotype should reinforce the assumption that men should always be in control, and expressing one’s feelings is a sign of weakness yet we use the emotions of Luke to our advantage subverting the genre. Laura Mulvey suggests the theory of the male gaze yet we subvert this idea as my research shows that 44%–81% of music videos contain sexual imagery. Women are far more likely than men to be presented in provocative or revealing clothing and sexually objectified, however we subvert the convention as Alice is fully clothed and unsexualised within our music video as we would prefer our audience to understand our narrative rather fixate on Alice . Furthermore women are frequently portrayed as decorative objects that dance and pose such as Emily Ratajkowski in “Blurred Lines,” they do not play any instruments. Our music video adheres to this stereotype as Alice is objectified and is portrayed as a lusty character as she cheats on Luke.

Our age range is predominantly between 17-18, we tried to adhere to our target market as the viewers were able to relate themselves to the situation playing on the media theory ‘two step flow’ as our audience witness the breakup of Luke and Alice and are able to decode the narrative as a story of hope to whichever situation they have experienced in their own lives. Our cast are all of white British origin as we have an all-white cast, heterosexuality with heterosexual relationships portrayed, and we portray the upper class, as the young characters live in a stately house people their age can rarely afford. Our video adheres to Marx and Gramsci’s idea of hegemony involving the domination of a culturally diverse society by the ruling class, who manipulate the culture of that society, as we feature white characters in a society where other races are still minorities, this was not on purpose as we live in an area lacking racial diversity, however we believe that as the rest of the band is of White British origin, they can help Luke to overcome his problems.

      Saussure developed the idea of signs and semiotics. In semiotics, a sign, something that can be interpreted as having a meaning, which is something other than its literal self, and which is therefore able to communicate information to the one interpreting or decoding the sign. In our production, we use examples of semiotics. We used light as a signifier, depicting the idea of hope and a new way of life after Luke’s breakup. Our music videos lighting is key as after he breaks up with his girlfriend the background is always dark, yet in the later stages of our video the lighting and contrast increases displaying Luke overcoming the depressing shadow which covered him previously.

     Our production boasts a strong, positive message to our audience, about relationship breakdowns and friendship helping with recovery. By showing this breakup and how the heartbroken character fights to recover his broken heart, it empowers those that may have struggled with the same situation themselves, (two step flow) moreover it sends a positive message to the youthful population: they can recover from broken heart, there is always a way out of problems with the help of their friends. We don’t see a resolution within the music video, but it is obvious that Luke will overcome the depression he immediately feels, the fluctuation of emotions another representation of the pop genre.

Most Updated Version

I am currently in my Media Studies lesson and have just finished what i think my final version of my front cover for the DigiPak will be! I may need to fiddle around with it slightly and i am debating changing the opacity of Luke's face, however apart from that i am happy with the cover!

Timeline of Digipack Tile: Track List

This is the earliest stage of production of my Track List, as you can see i have merely established the track names and dark background. 

I have now began to incorporate the 'rainbow of life' into the background 

Luke's face has been layered behind the text on purpose, therfore he takes nothing away from our tracks which is the main focus on this tile. 

Lastly the background has been layered, the deep blue blurred colourisation reflecting the emotions of our protagonist in our music video. 

Digi Update

Right... I have completely changed the design of the DigiPak i have kept Luke's cartoonish face however i have incorporated the flower/rainbow of life in the background which represents our album, as it is an album of regeneration and exploration. i also love the NEW title font i think it compliments the background so far!

First Attempts At DigiPak

Photoshop Work

This is just a post updating you on my progress on my DigiPak, i am coming up with a few ideas at the moment but i really like the idea of putting Luke's cartoonised face on every slide as he is our main band member.

PHOTOSHOP!!!

So, this morning our DigiPak 'Ancillary Task' began and i have chosen to use the Photoshop software which we have in school, therefore i thought i would be usef

ul to give you a lowdown on the software itself and what tools i will most likely be using .

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor which is fancy for a computer program that allows users to create and edit images interactively on the computer screen, it was developed and published by Adobe Systems for Windows and OS X. It was created in 1988 by Thomas and John Knoll, starting off slowly, but then dramatically gain ing in popularity as it has become the industry standard software in graphic editing, so much so that the word    "photoshop" has become a verb as in "to Photoshop an image!" 

I will essentially have to use the Magic wand tool on all of my images as that removes the background or a whole selected area leaving behind the rest of the image which I want. I would also like to use some of the filters and special effects which are provided by Photoshop, I have never used them before in my experience of Photoshop, therefore I am looking forward to exploring them.

FINISHED EDITING

Ben seems very happy about the editing being finished!

Phewwwww.....

I have finally finished editing our music video and I have to say it looks pretty dam good in my opinion! A lot of effort and time has gone in to finish this music video in 3 months and the export has been duly noted it looks fab and I can't wait to get it uploaded!!!

Editing Process is Underway :)

Today continued editing our music video, before i began editing, myself and Liam went through all the bloopers deleting them so i could work efficiently, without worrying about clips which could spoil the Final Production.