Note to moderator

I have blogged my journey from the beginning to end, showing how my creativity and ideas have developed over time. In total, I have 73 posts; 57 of which are research and planning posts, and the rest are drafts, final copies and answers to the evaluation questions. I have tried to make it as clear as possible which posts are my research and planning, as well as showing which posts were 'group posts' and which posts were individual. 

Q1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q3- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

When conducting target audience research, I started with a questionnaire to find out what a range of people from different ages and gender would look for when watching a music video. This was very useful as looking back at the results, I could compare on what had more votes than others and was able to try out the more popular results. 

Following on, social media was a major part in collecting feedback. It allowed us to find research from a much larger audience, being able to post on networks such as Facebook and Twitter. As well as this, it allowed us to ask specific questions or find opinions from people of all ages. 

I think that being able to post via social networks was very successful, as most people were very happy to watch our video and give us the feedback that we needed. It was interesting to find the different ideas that each individual had, and what they thought stood out more or less. I tried to make sure that I had feedback from just as many males as females, as it gave me a better idea on what different ideas both genders had on the 'love story' that is presented within the music video. 

Another way I collected target audience research was carrying out focus groups. This is something I found was most successful, as we was able to carry them out with the specific target audience that we had set, as well as asking specific questions that we needed. 

Example of questions used in our focus group:

• Is the music video edited to make the narrative (story-line) obvious? Do you understand the story?
• What is your opinion on the locations used? Which is your favorite?
• Does our singer convince you? (Is it synchronised properly)
• Which shots do you think were most effective?
• Would our music video convince to you to listen to other songs by this artist?

Again, it was interesting to find the different ideas and opinions from the focus group. It supported the idea that we wanted to give people there own ideas from the love story, with there being a question of 'why' they shouldn't be together. We learnt from the focus group that some of our shots were out of sync, as well as some shots that were too long or seemed repetitive. From this we were able to make some changes to improve our video. 

Using different ways of conducting target audience research not only gave us a wider range of responses, but it gave us the opportunity to get feedback from individuals that have minimal media knowledge along with individuals who do. Using social networks we were able to respond to the feedback, which was an advantage in being able to expand on their thoughts and ideas. This wasn't the case with the focus groups, but we still managed to receive a large amount of useful feedback. 

Following on, a large majority of our target audience had said that our narrative was clear, as well as producing different ideas on the background of the relationship. The consistency within our feedback reassured us that the narrative was clear to all of our audience. 

Overall, I was very pleased with the feedback I received within my research. If I hadn't of used various forms of target audience research (such as the use of social media) I may not of found the research that I had hoped for, as it was able to reach out to wider audience. I had gained ideas and thoughts about the music video that I didn't initially have, but this was something I enjoyed as I was able to develop my own ideas along with the ideas of the target audience. It also related to Barthes enigma code, which I was keen to include within the music video. Upon reflection, I would of liked to use networks such as Polldaddy which I had previously used in my AS portfolio, the use of this may of given me a wider range of technology used within my research.

Q4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Part 1


https://www.powtoon.com/online-presentation/fbNWrqGGQMQ/?mode=movie#/


Part 2 - Research and Planning

During my research I mainly used forms of social media to find out what my target audience looked for within a music video. I allowed to find out the specific information that I wanted, as well as it being trustworthy. I also found alot of my research from existing music videos of the genre I had chosen. Both of these together allowed me to develop my ideas together.

I used YouTube to analyse existing music videos which helped in picking out the key features to what people may look for in a music video and develop my ideas into what shots I may or may not use during the filming of the video. 

Following on, using software's such as Prezi, Slideshare and Powtoon made presenting my research a lot more easier and fun. It allowed me to show my skills at the same time as presenting my skills, allowing the presentations to be a lot more fun than the same thing every time. 

I found the process of researching for my music video very enjoyable. I like finding new ideas and developing my ideas into something bigger, as well as finding it interesting to see what other people look for. 

Following on, planning for the music video was something that was very important in ensuring that our music video was successful. Firstly, we creating storyboards and scripts that helped us to know what we had done or needed to do. 

We found Celt-X online which was a software to put together scripts. From using this we found that we were a lot more organised and made sure that we had got down every shot that we need to fill the music video. I did find that Celt-X was the most beneficial source of planning that I used, as I knew exactly what I needed to do in a more organised manner. 

Blogger was another way that we were able to stay organised with our planning. It enabled us to keep all of our shot lists and storyboards together if we needed them. 

Finally, without the organisation of the storyboards, shot lists and scripts, our music video would of been extremely difficult to carry out. It may of been difficult for us to know what we needed on a particular day of filming, or what we have and hadn't done. 

FINAL- Music Video

FINAL- Advert for digipak

FINAL- Digipak

I have decided to edit in the green from the background of the Ethan shot. I feel like if we only had this panel of the digipak in black and white fully it would make it look boring at first glance. Now there are four parts of the digipak that include the bright green and I think this emphasises the synergy more and definitely makes it a lot more eye catching at first glance if someone was to see it on the shelf in a shop. As a result of not having too much text on the front I feel like the simple editing technique of including the green in the background makes it look a lot less boring and more unique. I changed the opacity I feel it looks more like what a real CD would look like. Having Charmaine smiling at one side and Ethan looking into the distance puts across how she is happy even when she is making Ethan's life hell, this is one way our ancillary products link with our music video narrative. 

Group post- Digipak: Draft 8

We have added a UK tour and European tour dates to our digipak as we feel advertising in the digipak will mean more people will see it and go see our singer live. My creativity skills have developed massively while putting this digipak together as we was going to leave this part of the digipak black with only 'Seasons change people don't.' on it. By using my creativity I put the green background in and this brightened it up a lot a it looked very dull and boring beforehand. I think by adding the green and the tour dates makes it look more eye catching and appealing to our target audience who probably wouldn't be attracted to this digipak if it was boring and dull.

Group post- Digipak: Draft 7

This is out digipak draft 7. The major change we had made from the previous draft to this one is the inside cover.  We text wrapped the 'seasons change' around her head as it looked stupid covering her forehead. I also duplicated the text layers and moved the bottom layer to give a 3D effect. The background looked dull with just the wall there, so I decided to create more synergy and edit in the leaves from the CD and also the leaves featured on the magazine advert. I feel like making these small  changes made a big difference as it makes it look more appealing and eye catching. We are adding UK tour dates on the left Europe tour dates on the right. We are adding more text to make it look less boring and to add more information to the debut album.

Group Post- Digipak: Draft 5

This is draft 5 of the digipak. We have added a border and little text to the inside cover as we didn't want it over crowded, yet without a border it looked quite plain; the border makes it stands out more. 

Magazine Advert: Draft 4

This is the next draft of our magazine advert. We found that centralising the text looked a lot better and professional. As well as adding another layer to 'Debut Single', which allowed the heading to appear more bold and stands outs to the reader. 

Further Research: Focus Group Feedback

Focus group feedback from joliequirke

Group post- Digipak: Draft 6

On this draft we decided to text wrap 'seasons change' around her head to make it look a bit more professional and the text looked stupid going across her forehead. We have also added a spine.

Group Post- Digipak: Draft 4

Here is draft 4 of our Digipak. We have named the album 'seasons change' as we feel like we have a range of seasons in our music video and photographs. The seasons in the video are clearly shown, in some hots Ethan is surrounded by trees and is dressed in a shirt (summer), whereas in other shots they are shown to be throwing eaves about and dressed fully in coats, hats and gloves (autumn/winter). We thought this album name is creative and links with the leaves on the CD.

Below are some close ups of parks of the digipak draft that are difficult to see properly on the screenshot of the digipak as a whole.

Magazine Advert: Draft 3

Group post- Digipak: Draft 5

This is our draft 5 of the digipak. We have added a border and little text to the inside cover as we didn't want it over crowded yet without a border it looked quite plain. The border makes it stand out more. We also added our song list on the back of the songs featured in the album.

Group Post- Digipak: Draft 3

Group Post- Digipak: Draft 2

Magazine Advert: Draft 2

This is the second draft of our magazine advert. After looking at numerous existing advertisements, we decided to completely change the layout starting with the image. We found that the advertisements with a close-up image of the artist, really stands out a lot more and captures attention from the audience.

We have decided to use white for our font colour with some green. The white font links with our digipak and our music video, this creates synergy within our products.

Tools used of Final Cut Pro-X

Blueprint Film Visit

We were lucky enough to have another visit from someone from Blueprint Film in Lincoln. Having Dave from Blueprint come visit us proved to be very beneficial; showing someone who had never seen our music video before but has experience with film, allowed us to receive a fresh opinion and any criticism that we could use to our advantage. Even though Dave didn't give us any major criticisms that he thought was crucial we should change, he helped us with a few minor things that helped to make our music video more professional and effective, this was changes such as cutting on the beat with a couple of shots and changing the length of our longer shots. 

Use of colour in our music video

In our music video there are only two shots that we have used in colour. The reason we did this was to show the thoughts of Ethan and how much Charmaine means to him; it shows that she's in his thoughts. We thought that shots of Charmaine in colour could symbolise that she 'brightens up' Ethan's world, as well as making it more easier for the audience to understand the relationship between them. We also thought that using using these shots overlapping other shots, made it look a lot more effective and professional as it may of looked like a mistake if it cut straight into a shot in colour. 

Magazine advert: Draft 1

This is our first draft for our magazine advertisement. Even though our music video is black and white we have decided to go with the idea of keeping the advertisement in colour; we think that it will be a lot more eye catching and we can use the green as synergy for our CD. 

Group post- Digipak: Draft 1

These are our first drafts of our Digipak. We are going with the idea of having all of it in black and white, except the back cover where there is a shot of them both together. We thought this would shots the contrast and maybe make the narrative of our video clear to the audience that he is madly in love with her. I think the shot shows that anyway, but emphasises it more by having it in colour. 

These are our first drafts of our Digipak. We are going with the idea of having all of it in black and white except the back cover where there is a shot of them both together. We thought this would show the contrast and maybe make the narrative of our video clear to the audience that he is madly in love with her.I think the shot shows that anyway but emphasises it more by having it in colour.

Problems during editing

Whilst editing our music video we found that there were a couple of occasions during our chosen song, that has up to 15 seconds of instrumental. This is something we had to fix as we didn't have enough shots of both Charmaine and Ethan together that could fill these gaps; in conclusion to this, we had to arrange another day of filming, where could collect a number of shots of Charmaine and Ethan together in various locations. This wasn't a major problem as we already had a couple of shots that we needed to re-film, but it is something that we maybe could of organised earlier on, as it could of speeded up the time we spent putting all our shots together.

Group post- Planning: Final shots, Story boards

I have made a gap filler storyboard for the shots we need to use to fill up the instrumentals, and also some more shots we thoughts would look better for the ending as we used our original shots at the beginning. Although there was quite a few shots needed, we know exactly what we want, so filming should be quick and efficient. I have organised with the actors that we are going to film the very final shots on Monday the 23rd of November in the morning. There are a lot of shots on this story board, however I have learnt from editing that this song is very slow and if we didn't get a lot of shots the ASl would be very long and people would get bored easily. 

Group post- Planning: Storyboard for final shots

This is a story board for our final shots. This is going to be very helpful as it will make the filming efficient and as short as possible. I put our final shot list into a story board as it is simple to follow and the simple drawings gives us a rough idea as to what shot and angle we need so we can get to it straight away.

Further Research- What we found out from The 1975 concert

On the 12th of November 2015, myself and Charlotte were fortunate enough to go and visit The 1975 in concert. Above is a video of them performing their song 'Settle down', which is our chosen song for our music video. Watching it performed live gave us different ideas of the colours to use within our music video (synergy), as we have been quite indecisive about whether to keep the colour in our video or to use black & white. During this performance, the main colours that were used were green, pink and blue. Green is a colour that is very dominant colour in our music video, so the use of colour in this performance has made us more confident in keeping the colour in our video.
Something else that we took from watching this live is the body language of the lead singer (Matthew Healy). It gave us more on an insight into how to instruct our star image to act on camera during performance shots, so it works well and suits the song.

The 1975 have just come back from a year break; before this break numerous of their music videos were edited black and white, and previous occasions I have seen them perform live, their stage design was black and white as well. However during this concert there was no black and white, and instead various different colours were used, this could be to signify they're returning with a new image. This could link to the idea that we found in our target audience research; at the beginning of our music video it could be black and white, and as the relationship in the video starts to blossom, we could revert to colour. 

What have we changed?

Whilst out filming we found that using are shot lists made our organisation and time efficiency a lot better. However there were some occasions whilst filming, that we came up with a better idea than what we had originally thought, or tried out different shots that we hadn't already tried. For example, when filming some performance shots with Ethan, we decided to try some high angle and low angle shots, which is something he hadn't put in our shot lists; we actually found that these shots looked and worked a lot better, as well as giving us a wider range of shots. Something else that we changed whilst filming was some locations. We thought that we wanted a wider range of locations throughout our video, so we found some more locations where we were able to film shots of Ethan and Charmaine together, and also some performance shots of Ethan.