Our Focus Group

FINAL COURSEWORK PIECES

Wonderland < LINK TO WEBSITE

Director's Commentary

EVALUATION TASK 4
(I'm furthest from the camera)

Time Lapse of Shoot Day

(I'm in the green jumper)

EVALUATION TASK 4: Part 2- Offline Technologies

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
 
The digital hardware I used in this creative process was:

This is the logo for Final Cut Pro- this was the main editing programme I used to create the video. After we filmed the shots we needed, I edited it together on here. I also used this hardware to add the music to the video and make sure it all matched up properly so that the lip-syncing was accurate. We did this by using a digital clapper on an iPad, we matched the time signature of the clapper to the correct place in the song and this meant that the lip syncing, instrumentals and movements were all accurate.

This is the FS100 which is the camera I used to film the video. It's fairly easy to use once you're used to the controls and has a good quality without being too large to edit on Final Cut Pro. However, saying this, we filmed on this camera in HD then reduced the quality for editing and then put it back into HD afterwards otherwise it would've been too big and made the editing process too slow.

We used the right fixed focal length lens to rotate between shots. For example, the 18,mm we used for a wide angle shot and an 85mm for a close up and we rotated between lenses to get different shots, cut between scenes and therefore get the feeling that there were many scenes going on in the house at once. 

Photoshop is the hardware I used for creating the digipak. I started off by coming up with a design and drawing it by hand. I then scanned it in- another digital tool- and edited the thickness of the lines, the layers and the colouring. I added the title, changed the background and added the production values and list of songs on to the back as well.

Photoshop is one of my favourite pieces of technology as really there are no limits to what you can create and it's a fun process when creating something new.

I used After Effects to de-saturate the colouring of the band section of the video to make it look more gritty- this was something I had originally planned in my research and planning at the beginning of the process and by using After Effects I was able to accurately choose the colouring that I had in my mind's eye.

 

By using digital media technologies I have used technological convergence to ensure that I have produced three products as a part of a successful campaign.  The use of Final cut pro as a piece of editing software has taught me how to select and organise a music video to a very high standard using semi-professional media equipment. The products mentioned above have allowed me to become the prosumer as they’re all readily available to semi or non-professional directors; a key characteristic of the online age I’m experiencing. Making use of these technologies, as I have, and gaining an abundance of skills throughout this process is imperative to being able to create new, interesting and current pieces of work in the ever changing media world.

EVALUATION TASK 4: Part 1- Online Technologies

 How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
In my A2 coursework I used lots of digital technologies which helped me to create my coursework to the best quality possible. Some of these technologies were online software and others were hardware on the computer.
Here are some of the online digital technologies I used:

       

Storyboard That is a website that helps you to create professional looking storyboards as it gives you cartoons to choose from in order to create your own storyboard. This meant that my storyboard was more professional looking and accurate and furthermore meant that my storyboarding was a more effective process.

I used YouTube, an online, free, video sharing platform in order to research our chosen song to check if it had an official video before we created one of our own. Also we used it as a platform to share our own video and to determine which audiences liked it the most. In the research and planning section of the course, I used YouTube to establish the different styles of music video and could also identify the conventions of an indie-rock music video so I knew what to create in my own video. As well as this, I looked at the demographics of the audiences of certain videos and the genre they belonged to and this helped me to both establish the target audience and also to establish the conventions of a video that appeals to this audience in order to actively recreate these in my own coursework production.

I used dafont to choose the best font for the band's logo, website and digipak. I found through my research that often the font of the band acts as the logo so I felt it important to choose a font which is more original, rather than one from the menu on word or PhotoShop. Furthermore, the style of the font also depicts the genre of the music and so I used the categories on dafont to find the style of font that fitted the genre 'indie-rock' the best.

I used blogger to keep track of my progress and it has been a really helpful way to check that I've covered all the areas which I need to in order to create a successful campaign. Blogger also helped me to establish sections of my coursework that I may have missed which would hinder my work and so I could follow this up in order to have the most effective production experience possible.

I used google as my search engine because it's quicker and easier than going to a library; it was the start point for my research and so this was a vital part of my whole process.

 If I didn't have google I wouldn't have been able to create my products as quickly as I did or to the best standard that I could. I also used google to come up with creative ideas.

In conclusion, I used many online tools and NMTs to create my coursework products to the best of my ability. By using these online tools the products I created were accurate to how I had planned them as the abundance of information on the Internet meant that I could pick and choose, re-create, develop and edit ideas into exactly what I wanted.

 My use of the internet and NMTs has therefore enabled me to become a prosumer, a creator of media products to a near professional standard.  I have also been able to share ideas and research global and industry standard products.  Online digital technologies have made available to me opportunities to upload, share and distribute my products using YouTube as a free online broadcast platform.  It is also interactive – audiences have been able to feedback, like and comment on my products using features such as the comments box at the bottom of YouTube and SurveyMonkey for direct qualitative feedback.  These new skills learned on this course have enabled me to gain experience not only as a user of digital technology, but also to also become a producer – important to an understanding of the media in an online age.

 

Encoding/Decoding Model

Stuart Hall (above) is the man behind the idea of encoding and decoding within media texts.
He believes there are three types of decoding, after the producer of the text has imposed their encoded meaning:
Intended Reading:
The meaning which the audience has interpreted is the one which the producer intended.
Negotiated Reading:
A meaning which is similar to the intended meaning, is understandable and the reason behind the audience reading it in that way is negotiable, but is not the exact meaning which the encoder intended.
Oppositional Reading:
A reading of the video with opposes the one which was intended by the encoder.

EVALUATION TASK 3: Part 2

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

EVALUATION TASK 3: Part 1

Focus Group Material

Full Digipak

YouTube Demographics

FONT

This is the website I got the font from and the font, BEBAS NEUE is the one I chose.
As you can see from my previous blog on typography ( http://lydiah72.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/typography.html ) I spent a fair amount of time researching the font as I feel it's very important to the marketing of the band because the font acts as the logo and the main part of the branding.

Audience Feedback

We're going to collect audience feedback in a number of ways.
Firstly, we've made a questionnaire on SurveyMonkey which asks questions about all three of our products. We've included yes/no questions, questions which ask the respondent to rank on a scale of 1-10 and open questions which require the respondent to write their answer in a descriptive text box. To collect all the answers we need we decided it was important to ask a variation of open and closed questions to collect both quantitative and qualitative data.
When sending this survey out to people, by email, we're going to use a quota sample in order to get feedback from our target audience, secondary audience and third audience.

As well as this, we're going to hold a focus group in which the participants will belong to all our target audiences; adolescent boys, adolescent girls and middle aged men. We will film various sections of the session, such as when we show the participants the CD digipak, let them use the website and show them the pop promo. A plus of using a focus group is that we can ask follow up questions and collect much more quantitative data which we couldn't collect from the survey.

What is a focus group?

Designing the Digipak

 

This is the cover of our Digipak which I put together. Firstly, we all discussed what style of cover we would like and I then went away and created it.

I drew the doodle design using a black fine liner pen and tried to incorporate ideas which were random as we decided we wanted our cover to be focused on hallucinations. This is why there are irrelevant drawings included in the design such as the mushroom holding the flag, the bird smoking and the cracked eyeball in the centre. As our band are an indie-rock group we thought that this style would suit the style of the band. The alternative style of the artwork clearly connotes the alternative style of the music but the bold use of colour also connotes that the music is upbeat and interesting to listen to. The hand-made aspect of the design reiterates the fact that the band are focused on their music and not the fame. I chose to add the image of the Earth to the design because I think it suited the style of the band. The contrast between the light sphere and the dark sky are more serious looking which was useful because the doodle design could look childish and girly which is not what we were going for.

 

For the back, I chose to put the doodle design but edited it so that the lines are thinner and blue. This makes it look more professional and less cartoon and childish. I kept the idea of the galaxies which I thought was useful when marketing the idea of 'wonderland' - the name of the band. I changed the saturation of the colours to make it more blue and green in order to ensure that the cover is boyish and suits the star image of the band.

Making the Digipak

To make the Digipak, I used Photoshop and a website which allows you download fonts- http://www.dafont.com/
This meant that the Digipak had a more professional look and didn't use the conventional fonts that are found on Word or Photoshop's default settings. Using the categories on the site, I could find the exact type of font I wanted so that it was specific and accurate to styling and design.

Evaluation Task 2

Star image from LydiaHansenLH

CD Digipak

 

Conventions on Our Website

EVALUATION TASK 1
On our website, we have both adhered to and subverted the common conventions of a band's website.
We stuck to the conventions which we thought were vital such as the home page, contact page and "gigs" page but chose the other pages ourselves.

With regard to the conventions of the home page itself, we adhered to most, including a large feature photo of the band, their name in large bold font, a promotional sticker of their work and clear links down the side to other pages of the site.

A feature which we chose to add was the music tab at the top right. We chose to do this to reinforce the style of the band- they're all about their music and so it made sense for the audience to hear their music as soon as they enter the site.

A convention we subverted was having the link to purchasing the music and merchandise on the home page. The reason behind this was because we felt that this may go against the ethos of the band; they claim it's all about the music and not the money so by putting a link urging the audience to buy their merchandise on the home page, we thought this might deter the audience and taint the success of the band.

Website

Wonderland

Conventions in Our Music Video

When making our media products, we explored the effects of subverting and adhering to the conventions within the form.
Conventions which we would expect to see in the music video are things such as; a performance element, including close ups of the main singer and the band playing instruments; a narrative, either using the performer or actor(s) as the characters; shots of the singer lip-syncing; length of the video, three minutes in length and consistent styling of the band in both performance and narrative.

When making our video, we adhered to some of these conventions such as, firstly, the length of the pop promo.

As you can see, from this screenshot of the video on YouTube, our video uses the whole song and is 3 minutes long. We chose to adhere to this convention as we think it is a convention for a reason; songs that are much longer than this cause the audience to lose interest, this is especially relevant for us as our target audience are teenagers who generally have shorter attention spans than adults. On the other hand, if the video were too short there would not be enough substance and the audience may not feel satisfied with bot the song and the video.

Another convention we adhered to was the choice of shots we used. We focused more on the main singer than the band and did so by using many close ups of his face whilst lip-syncing: another convention which we adhered to. Our reason for adhering to this convention was that it reinforces the star image of the singer which is, fundamentally, what determines the success or failure of an artist or band. We still focused on the band playing their instruments however; to show that the band is important as a whole and to show that all the sounds heard in the song are organic and made by the band themselves. This will appeal to our target audience and hopefully ensure success for the band.

Including a narrative in the video is another convention which we used. We did this to reinforce the idea that the band’s music has a meaning behind it and so they make music because they have something to say, not for material gain.

The styling of the band in the narrative was the convention which we chose to subvert. We did this because we thought it would highlight the narrative over the band performance and therefore highlight the meaning of the song. The band, being indie-rock, focus on what their music means and how it sounds rather than their style or fame and so by highlighting the narrative by juxtaposing it with the style of the performance, we hoped to draw the audience’s attention to the meaning of the song.