Tuesday, 12 March 2013
Friday, 8 March 2013
Audience Online Questionnaire
Through the use of SurveyMonkey, I created a questionnaire in order to find out more about my target audience, what types of music they listen to, the common age group.
Here is the data collected:
From this graph we can see that the peak audience age was between 13 and 17. Before collecting the results, I was unsure of what to expect as the alternative genre of music can appeal to a variety of audiences.
Here we can see that the gender proportion was slightly in favour of males. This does not come as a surprise as my background research into the alternative genre found that predominantly the listeners were male.
These results came as a shock to me as they were relatively evenly spread out and there were no extremes. What surprised me the most was that 'other' was the most picked choice.
The purpose of these last two questions was to find out more about my target audience and common trends. To find out what part of the alternative genre appeals to them the most could help me to get an understanding of the importance of matching lyrics with visuals. For example, Rhythm was the dominantly chosen choice. This shows that it is vital that the theme of the video matches the rhythm (e.g. slow soundtrack = depressing narrative)
Here is the data collected:
From this graph we can see that the peak audience age was between 13 and 17. Before collecting the results, I was unsure of what to expect as the alternative genre of music can appeal to a variety of audiences.
Here we can see that the gender proportion was slightly in favour of males. This does not come as a surprise as my background research into the alternative genre found that predominantly the listeners were male.
These results came as a shock to me as they were relatively evenly spread out and there were no extremes. What surprised me the most was that 'other' was the most picked choice.
The purpose of these last two questions was to find out more about my target audience and common trends. To find out what part of the alternative genre appeals to them the most could help me to get an understanding of the importance of matching lyrics with visuals. For example, Rhythm was the dominantly chosen choice. This shows that it is vital that the theme of the video matches the rhythm (e.g. slow soundtrack = depressing narrative)
Audience Reception Interview
I interviewed a few people who had watched my video to get intake into what they thought. I asked them a few questions and got their opinion of what worked well / didn't work as well in the video.
Tuesday, 5 March 2013
How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?
Both the ancillary texts, such as the magazine advertisement and album cover, and the main product serve the same purpose of promoting the artist to and expanding his reputation in the music industry. In order to do this, I ensured that the artist is labelled throughout, so that he is more recognisable.
The album cover followed the theme of the song, showing two contrasting sides. The first side uses a variety of bright colours, representing the happier 'past' within the narrative of the music video. The other side uses a dull dark green colour to represent the more depressed 'present' side of the main character.
For the promotional magazine poster it was important that it stood out and that the message was clearly put across to the reader. This was done so by using colour-drained images with large text in yellow showing the key details. This means that the reader doesn't have to waste time finding what they are looking for and it also stands out more. Once again the promotional poster also shows who the artist is so that he is more recognisable.
In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop, or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?
If we take a look at Andrew Goodwin's 6 Conventions of a Music Video, we can see a pattern emerging as common trends are repeated throughout numerous videos.
1) There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with visuals
This is shown throughout the video with the use of lip syncing at various stages. The flashbacks were also used accordingly to match the lyrics of the song. For example, when the lyrics "Without you to hold I'll be freezing" are used, the shot changes to a flashback of the male and female characters together.
2) Music video demonstrates genre characteristics
I feel that this was done throughout the entire video. The idea was to create a narrative where someone is looking back at a previous time where he was with someone he is not now with. This creates a sad theme to the music video, common with alternative / indie songs.
3) There is frequently a notion of looking, particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
As the theme to my music video and also the song is very downbeat I thought that it would not follow this idea if I used a lot of voyeuristic shots. However, the are a few shots which are from the point of view of the main character.
4) There is a relationship with music and visuals
As this question closely ties in with genre characteristics, I have already partially answered how the the sad narrative corresponds with the down tempo, slow music.
5) The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). For example visual trademarks
This convention is very difficult, if not impossible to follow as the persona I have created for the main character and that of the record label are for just one song. This convention could possibly have been reproduced if numerous songs were released, however, as this is a one time thing, I could not do so. However, there are numerous close-up shots of the main character throughout.
6) There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc)
The only intertextual reference included in my production piece was I included part of the Gangnam Style dance in one of my shots. However, this had been done in a joking manner.
1) There is a relationship between lyrics and visuals. The lyrics are represented with visuals
This is shown throughout the video with the use of lip syncing at various stages. The flashbacks were also used accordingly to match the lyrics of the song. For example, when the lyrics "Without you to hold I'll be freezing" are used, the shot changes to a flashback of the male and female characters together.
2) Music video demonstrates genre characteristics
I feel that this was done throughout the entire video. The idea was to create a narrative where someone is looking back at a previous time where he was with someone he is not now with. This creates a sad theme to the music video, common with alternative / indie songs.
3) There is frequently a notion of looking, particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body
As the theme to my music video and also the song is very downbeat I thought that it would not follow this idea if I used a lot of voyeuristic shots. However, the are a few shots which are from the point of view of the main character.
4) There is a relationship with music and visuals
As this question closely ties in with genre characteristics, I have already partially answered how the the sad narrative corresponds with the down tempo, slow music.
5) The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style). For example visual trademarks
This convention is very difficult, if not impossible to follow as the persona I have created for the main character and that of the record label are for just one song. This convention could possibly have been reproduced if numerous songs were released, however, as this is a one time thing, I could not do so. However, there are numerous close-up shots of the main character throughout.
6) There are often intertextual reference (to films, tv programmes, other music videos etc)
The only intertextual reference included in my production piece was I included part of the Gangnam Style dance in one of my shots. However, this had been done in a joking manner.
What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Product and Why?
After looking into various Distribution Companies, I found that Proper Music Distribution would be ideal in getting the music video and artist known and extending their reach to the public.
Proper Music Distribution Ltd is the largest independent music distributor in the UK, meaning that they already have a largely known reputation. This should help to make distribution much simpler. The Company would be able to distribute my product in a number of industries, such as: market traders, high street stores, internet retailers and supermarkets. Proper Music Distribution's known reputation means that I would benefit from major levels of market access. The company has tie-ins with key national chains like HMV, Amazon, Play and Borders.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stagES?
For the primary stage of my production piece, I looked into a variety of optional song choices. I needed something seemingly simplistic in it's rhythm and inclusive of lyrics in order to promote the main character. This was done so by using BBC Radio 1's chart singles and also by scanning through popular songs on Youtube.
For the process of planning my storyboard, the only media technology I used was Google Maps. This was done so to find ideal filming locations nearby me.
After collecting all the footage, came the editing process. Throughout the entire process, three editing programmes were used. These were: Adobe AfterEffects CS3, iMovie, and Adobe Photoshop CS3.
The editing programme I used most was Adobe AfterEffects CS3, purely because of the fact that I was new to using it and it is quite complex. AE was used solely for making the overall video look more professional and for creating effects on certain shots, mostly to help the audience understand when a flashback is happening onscreen. I spent a lot of time just messing around with the features available, trying to get used to what I had access to. After spending over four hours, I had probably only touched about 10% of AfterEffect's resources. The effect that I repeatedly used was one to do with the colouring, Tritone. This was one of the more simplistic effects available but it made a big difference nonetheless. This is the effects i used to show when a flashback was happening, along with messing with the opacity of the core video so that the two layered each other. Overall, I was unable to fully explore the full potential of AfterEffects because there was no need. As my song choice is quite saddening and slow, I felt that any drastic changes might make the final product look less professional and quite childish.
The second editing product that I used, which I already had some minor previous experience using, was Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop wasn't used to edit any of the footage, however, it was possibly the editing programme I used the most throughout. Photoshop was used to create a lot of the advertisement products used, such as the Poster for the song release and the Album Cover. Both of these were very time consuming as a lot of editing techniques were used (too many to name) and also I tried to keep a common theme between the poster and album cover. Adobe Photoshop was also used to create the small effects on the character bios to make them seem more professionally shot.
The final editing product, used to put together all of my footage and create simple edits, was iMovie. My previous AS media production piece was also created using iMovie, making the editing process much easier and faster as I already had a good understanding of all of the effects and how everything worked. One of the issues I found when using iMovie is that the effects that are available are few in number and I was quite restricted in this aspect. Luckily enough, my understanding of Adobe AfterEffects helped to create the required effects at a later editing stage. Another fault that I found was that the stabilisation feature can sometimes cause a jittery effect.
THE OFFICIAL UK TOP 40 SINGLES CHART
After spending a few hours finding preferable song choices, I narrowed my search down to five choices and then my final choice 'Ed Sheeran - Drunk'. I chose this song because it would be easy to incorporate slow changing shots to match the flow of the song. I also enjoyed the song at the start of my project (I can't say the same thing now after repeatedly listening to it) so thought it would be best to chose a song i liked.
For the process of planning my storyboard, the only media technology I used was Google Maps. This was done so to find ideal filming locations nearby me.
After collecting all the footage, came the editing process. Throughout the entire process, three editing programmes were used. These were: Adobe AfterEffects CS3, iMovie, and Adobe Photoshop CS3.
The editing programme I used most was Adobe AfterEffects CS3, purely because of the fact that I was new to using it and it is quite complex. AE was used solely for making the overall video look more professional and for creating effects on certain shots, mostly to help the audience understand when a flashback is happening onscreen. I spent a lot of time just messing around with the features available, trying to get used to what I had access to. After spending over four hours, I had probably only touched about 10% of AfterEffect's resources. The effect that I repeatedly used was one to do with the colouring, Tritone. This was one of the more simplistic effects available but it made a big difference nonetheless. This is the effects i used to show when a flashback was happening, along with messing with the opacity of the core video so that the two layered each other. Overall, I was unable to fully explore the full potential of AfterEffects because there was no need. As my song choice is quite saddening and slow, I felt that any drastic changes might make the final product look less professional and quite childish.
The second editing product that I used, which I already had some minor previous experience using, was Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop wasn't used to edit any of the footage, however, it was possibly the editing programme I used the most throughout. Photoshop was used to create a lot of the advertisement products used, such as the Poster for the song release and the Album Cover. Both of these were very time consuming as a lot of editing techniques were used (too many to name) and also I tried to keep a common theme between the poster and album cover. Adobe Photoshop was also used to create the small effects on the character bios to make them seem more professionally shot.
The final editing product, used to put together all of my footage and create simple edits, was iMovie. My previous AS media production piece was also created using iMovie, making the editing process much easier and faster as I already had a good understanding of all of the effects and how everything worked. One of the issues I found when using iMovie is that the effects that are available are few in number and I was quite restricted in this aspect. Luckily enough, my understanding of Adobe AfterEffects helped to create the required effects at a later editing stage. Another fault that I found was that the stabilisation feature can sometimes cause a jittery effect.Friday, 1 March 2013
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