How did you use media technologies in the construction and research planning and evaluation?
Saturday, 4 January 2014
Friday, 3 January 2014
evaluation question 3
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
We have done several focus groups and interviews that we have used to get feedback from a variety of age groups and what they think of indie music. Our feedback told us that people have different views on the indie culture and its many subcultures. The majority however prefer the more popular indie genre like Mumford and Sons or Imagine Dragons (our chosen artists). The group we interviewed all had different opinions on what they think an indie music video should be, some said it should be all about the band, others said the story they're trying to tell. This feedback taught us that no matter what we did, there are some people who still wouldn't like our video. We learned that people of different ages have different views on the indie /alternative genre and those in different social groups also have different views. We chose to cater to the wider audience so that our video would reach more people. We then got feedback from the other media students and they told us that a narrative style video would be better than a performance for our genre. This variety of feed back helped us shape the video to be as appealing as we could make it. I believe we catered to our media group more than the focus group we interviewed but despite going against the conventions of what they wanted to see, we still got very good feedback and we are proud of our final product.
We had several feedback sessions with the media group to comment on each others progress and improvements. We took advice from the rest of the group such as reducing the speed and opacity of the light leak footage. We gave feedback to the rest of the group and they followed what we said as we did with their advice. We had our video shown to the year 8's 11's, 12's and 13's. The feedback we got from them was all very positive. The majority of year 12's said our was their favourite which was very good to hear as we did not think our video would be the one to get such a good reception. They year 8's said that we should have added more surreal and paranormal elements to the video but they liked it nonetheless. They year 11's, much like the year 12's, thought ours was one of the best and we were grateful for their positive feedback. The year 13's enjoyed our video but it was unclear whose the most popular video was.
In the end it was not down to popularity as that is not what indie music is about. It is about the music, the story they're trying to tell (if they're trying to tell one), what the music symbolises and what it means to the artist. Our video symbolises what we believe the song to be about and we wanted others to understand it too. Given the feedback we got, they did and they could see the connection to the music. We then worked on our digipak and advertisements. We worked on our first drafts for a week and then had a lesson for feedback. I had done our first draft on photoshop but the others had done theirs on paper. The feedback session was very helpful. The group liked our idea of the interlinking triangles and the landscape theme. It was mistaken for the actually digipak art for our song which was good as it means I had created a convincing piece of digipak artwork.
We liked our first draft so much that we chose to keep it as the final piece. We altered the image and added legal information, barcodes etc. We had another feedback session and the group told us the best places for our additional information etc and we took on their advice. We used the same image off the front of our digipak as our poster, making it fit an A4 size and altering the image slightly. We had yet another feedback session and the advice we got was very helpful. we were told that if we moved the iTunes logo to the top right corner it would stand out better and fill the void space. We changed the colour tone of the poster and darkened the bottom so that the text would be more visible to the viewer. We had a second feedback session in which we showed the group our improvements and we had very positive feedback. This was because we met their expectations and followed their advice through to achieve a better looking poster.
In the early stages of planning and development we conducted this focus group interview to see what our Target Audience wanted. The feedback we had gotten was very positive and it helped us figure out what we had to do in order to cater to everyone's needs. Because the views were so mixed we chose to go down the narrative path rather than performance as that is a convention of Pop music videos which we tried hard to stray away from in order to stay true to the indie and alternative genre. They all liked our song which was good as we chose a song that was popular at the time in the indie charts and we wanted to reach a wide audience within our demographic. We then had another interview with the rest of the class and they backed the decision to do a narrative based music video rather than a performance based music video. We took on board all the criticism and feedback we received in order to shape our music video into something that would hopefully cater to everyone in our target audience.
We uploaded our video to youtube once it was finished and waited for a response. In a month it has gotten 174 views and 2 likes. In terms of youtube success this isn't much but for a media student, any views is good. We have not had any comments yet but we have not asked for feedback directly other than on facebook. We got feedback from the school drama teacher who watched all of the videos. This is the feedback we got on our video "stories seemed initially random in story but then nice sense of intrigue built up with wanting to see where everyone was going, effects treatments kept it interesting". With the feedback we got from her we were able to see what elements are best for a music video as she has a knowledge of the media and acting field. With all of the feedback provided we were able to make a critical analysis of our video and decide what aspects of it should have been removed and those we preferred. We thought that it could have been more intriguing, add more surreal elements like that of a Bastille video.
We then uploaded our final edit of our music video onto Facebook, perhaps the most popular social network ever so this was a brilliant way to get our video across and get some feedback from non media students. We also sent emails to staff with our video included so that we could get their feedback as well. One teacher replied with her constructive criticism and explained what she enjoyed about the video. She said 'story seemed initially random, but then nice sense of intrigue built up with wanting to see where everyone was going, effects treatments kept it interesting.' We took this on board and we were very proud that someone out of our target audience enjoyed our music video and understood it. Here is the response we got from her.
Jess uploaded the video to Facebook and as you can see from the feedback we have gotten the video was widely enjoyed by a variety of people of different ages, classes and all with different interests and ideas. This proves that even though we catered our video to a specific demographic, the video is enjoyed by many other people. This has helped us greatly as from the start we wanted to make something for our target audience as well as catering the largest possible audience.
From the feedback we received over the course of all our feedback sessions, interviews and social media comments, the most popular aspect of our video was the feel good vibes that it gave off. Everyone liked the fact that the video was uplifting and left you feeling happier. They liked the variety of characters and the way they were relatable to our target audience. From the feedback sessions we had done with the class we could tell from the start that they liked the idea of our digipak. They told us how much they liked the symbolism of the triangles and the way that it was a convention of our chosen genre (Indie/Alternative). Some of our audience liked the ambiguity of our video, they liked that it didn't spoon feed them and that they were left to fill in the gaps themselves. Some others preferred if we had explained things more and made the video clearer to understand for everyone. If we did this then we would not have stayed true to our genre and we stand by our decision to remain ambiguous. If we were to make this video again I would have liked to follow a more conceptual path. Imagine Dragons are famous for their bizarre music videos and I would have very much liked to have done a video like them.We knew we could not cater to everyone but we achieved what we set out to do which was to make a video that fit the Indie and Alternative genre.
We have done several focus groups and interviews that we have used to get feedback from a variety of age groups and what they think of indie music. Our feedback told us that people have different views on the indie culture and its many subcultures. The majority however prefer the more popular indie genre like Mumford and Sons or Imagine Dragons (our chosen artists). The group we interviewed all had different opinions on what they think an indie music video should be, some said it should be all about the band, others said the story they're trying to tell. This feedback taught us that no matter what we did, there are some people who still wouldn't like our video. We learned that people of different ages have different views on the indie /alternative genre and those in different social groups also have different views. We chose to cater to the wider audience so that our video would reach more people. We then got feedback from the other media students and they told us that a narrative style video would be better than a performance for our genre. This variety of feed back helped us shape the video to be as appealing as we could make it. I believe we catered to our media group more than the focus group we interviewed but despite going against the conventions of what they wanted to see, we still got very good feedback and we are proud of our final product.
We had several feedback sessions with the media group to comment on each others progress and improvements. We took advice from the rest of the group such as reducing the speed and opacity of the light leak footage. We gave feedback to the rest of the group and they followed what we said as we did with their advice. We had our video shown to the year 8's 11's, 12's and 13's. The feedback we got from them was all very positive. The majority of year 12's said our was their favourite which was very good to hear as we did not think our video would be the one to get such a good reception. They year 8's said that we should have added more surreal and paranormal elements to the video but they liked it nonetheless. They year 11's, much like the year 12's, thought ours was one of the best and we were grateful for their positive feedback. The year 13's enjoyed our video but it was unclear whose the most popular video was.
In the end it was not down to popularity as that is not what indie music is about. It is about the music, the story they're trying to tell (if they're trying to tell one), what the music symbolises and what it means to the artist. Our video symbolises what we believe the song to be about and we wanted others to understand it too. Given the feedback we got, they did and they could see the connection to the music. We then worked on our digipak and advertisements. We worked on our first drafts for a week and then had a lesson for feedback. I had done our first draft on photoshop but the others had done theirs on paper. The feedback session was very helpful. The group liked our idea of the interlinking triangles and the landscape theme. It was mistaken for the actually digipak art for our song which was good as it means I had created a convincing piece of digipak artwork.
We liked our first draft so much that we chose to keep it as the final piece. We altered the image and added legal information, barcodes etc. We had another feedback session and the group told us the best places for our additional information etc and we took on their advice. We used the same image off the front of our digipak as our poster, making it fit an A4 size and altering the image slightly. We had yet another feedback session and the advice we got was very helpful. we were told that if we moved the iTunes logo to the top right corner it would stand out better and fill the void space. We changed the colour tone of the poster and darkened the bottom so that the text would be more visible to the viewer. We had a second feedback session in which we showed the group our improvements and we had very positive feedback. This was because we met their expectations and followed their advice through to achieve a better looking poster.
In the early stages of planning and development we conducted this focus group interview to see what our Target Audience wanted. The feedback we had gotten was very positive and it helped us figure out what we had to do in order to cater to everyone's needs. Because the views were so mixed we chose to go down the narrative path rather than performance as that is a convention of Pop music videos which we tried hard to stray away from in order to stay true to the indie and alternative genre. They all liked our song which was good as we chose a song that was popular at the time in the indie charts and we wanted to reach a wide audience within our demographic. We then had another interview with the rest of the class and they backed the decision to do a narrative based music video rather than a performance based music video. We took on board all the criticism and feedback we received in order to shape our music video into something that would hopefully cater to everyone in our target audience.
We uploaded our video to youtube once it was finished and waited for a response. In a month it has gotten 174 views and 2 likes. In terms of youtube success this isn't much but for a media student, any views is good. We have not had any comments yet but we have not asked for feedback directly other than on facebook. We got feedback from the school drama teacher who watched all of the videos. This is the feedback we got on our video "stories seemed initially random in story but then nice sense of intrigue built up with wanting to see where everyone was going, effects treatments kept it interesting". With the feedback we got from her we were able to see what elements are best for a music video as she has a knowledge of the media and acting field. With all of the feedback provided we were able to make a critical analysis of our video and decide what aspects of it should have been removed and those we preferred. We thought that it could have been more intriguing, add more surreal elements like that of a Bastille video.
We then uploaded our final edit of our music video onto Facebook, perhaps the most popular social network ever so this was a brilliant way to get our video across and get some feedback from non media students. We also sent emails to staff with our video included so that we could get their feedback as well. One teacher replied with her constructive criticism and explained what she enjoyed about the video. She said 'story seemed initially random, but then nice sense of intrigue built up with wanting to see where everyone was going, effects treatments kept it interesting.' We took this on board and we were very proud that someone out of our target audience enjoyed our music video and understood it. Here is the response we got from her.
Jess uploaded the video to Facebook and as you can see from the feedback we have gotten the video was widely enjoyed by a variety of people of different ages, classes and all with different interests and ideas. This proves that even though we catered our video to a specific demographic, the video is enjoyed by many other people. This has helped us greatly as from the start we wanted to make something for our target audience as well as catering the largest possible audience.
From the feedback we received over the course of all our feedback sessions, interviews and social media comments, the most popular aspect of our video was the feel good vibes that it gave off. Everyone liked the fact that the video was uplifting and left you feeling happier. They liked the variety of characters and the way they were relatable to our target audience. From the feedback sessions we had done with the class we could tell from the start that they liked the idea of our digipak. They told us how much they liked the symbolism of the triangles and the way that it was a convention of our chosen genre (Indie/Alternative). Some of our audience liked the ambiguity of our video, they liked that it didn't spoon feed them and that they were left to fill in the gaps themselves. Some others preferred if we had explained things more and made the video clearer to understand for everyone. If we did this then we would not have stayed true to our genre and we stand by our decision to remain ambiguous. If we were to make this video again I would have liked to follow a more conceptual path. Imagine Dragons are famous for their bizarre music videos and I would have very much liked to have done a video like them.We knew we could not cater to everyone but we achieved what we set out to do which was to make a video that fit the Indie and Alternative genre.
Thursday, 2 January 2014
Wednesday, 1 January 2014
Friday, 13 December 2013
Final Advert
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Editing process
The editing process for the digipak was fairly simple to do. I set up a canvas with the correct digipak dimensions and then inserted the background image into it. I didn't want to stretch or distort the image so I left it as it was. I tried to get the trees to be as symmetrical as I could so that the triangle effects would look better. To make the triangles I found a vector of a triangle on google and used the magic wand tool to highlight it. I then made the area transparent and placed the images within the triangles. I then placed the triangles in the centre of the image, the smallest within the largest. I chose to do the landscape within a landscape look after seeing similar digipak covers done with the same landscape. I put a twist on a common theme which is really what indie is about, straying away from the norm. I went onto DaFont.com to get the font for the "Imagine Dragons" Logo. I chose this geometric font as I thought it would be like the kind of font that a band like Imagine Dragons would use in their artwork. I didn't use their logo because we were making their artwork in our style, we weren't copying their style of work. The font for "On Top Of The World" was a standard photoshop font. I decided upon a thinner, more spaced out font to stand out from the bulky geometric font for "Imagine Dragons". I placed the text within the triangle symmetrically on top of the triangles. 
I used this image taken by Greg Rolfes as the first triangle. Like the background image this is also a horizon shot. I liked the idea of mixing the vintage looking photographs with the HD, it is contrasting in terms of quality. I also Liked the idea of interlinking a desolate landscape with a livelier scene. 
For the smaller triangle I used this image. Here we can see two astronauts walking across a desert, mars like landscape. They did not make it into the final cut of the digipak as I thought it would draw focus away from the concept of the triangles.
Wednesday, 11 December 2013
Digipak Advert Feedback
The group preferred this design the most due to its appealing colour scheme and simplicity. There is clear brand identity which they noticed straight away, something we had in mind whilst making it. Overall they decided that this idea and idea 3 were the best as the black background did not suit the advert in the way that the other adverts did. They said that we should remove the DVD logo as it was not necessary due to the fact that no video would be featured on the Digipak. They also told us to have some ratings and a link to the record label and the band website. We took this into consideration and decided that it was a good idea, we are currently working on where everything should go with the new additions.
They liked the QR code as all of them knew what it was and what it would do. This is exactly what we wanted when we added it to the advert, we wanted our target audience to be able to feel as if everything had been catered towards them. The QR code would allow them to have easy access to our product, using the devices we expected them to have. They also like the itunes link as it shows that we are focusing on the platforms our target audience uses in order to listen to and purchase music.
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We were very pleased with the feedback from the class and it should not be difficult to incorporate their ideas into our work. For an Alternative and Indie Digipak we wanted to keep things simple which they understood and appreciated, the feedback they gave helped us with this as we made everything that needed to be there as simplistic as possible. We hope that the final advert should cater to their needs as well as maintaining the standard for Alternative/Indie Digipak adverts.
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