Evaluation Question 4

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

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 

Throughout our planning, production and finalising process of our video we made sure that we took into account what kind of audience we were aiming for and what they would want to see in a music video. Moreover, we knew from the beginning that aiming for a niche audience would be a unique and ideal choice for us, due to the fact that an artist with songs that attract a mass audience would be the choice that many people would take, where as we wanted to take the unique and different approach. That is why we chose Indie Rock as our genre of choice.
In addition, I began our target audience research by creating a questionnaire where I asked different questions based around what we were going to include in our video; whether that be themes, camera shots, editing techniques, what kind of characters or storyline etc. In more detail, the first two questions were asked to get some basic information how what kind of audience we would be producing our video for. From this I found that we would be targeting 17-20 year olds which we were happy about as it enabled us to choice a deeper and meaningful topic to base our music video on, without the worry of it being to controversial for the target audience. But we did not go with the Pop genre which happened to be the most popular choice; We knew from the beginning that targeting a niche audience was important as it is a more unique approach to a project such as this. In addition, from research I knew that overall a niche audience appreciates the music they listen to a lot more than a mass audience based artist. That is why we choose one of the second most popular choices in the survey (it was between Rap and Indie Rock who got the same amount of votes). After some discussion we had decided that Indie Rock would be an effective and positive choice for us as it would give us a broader area to work with; in terms of different camera shots, unique editing techniques, possible storyline opportunities etc. Moreover, through out the rest of the questionnaire I wanted to find out as much as I could about what aspects our audience like to see in a music video. Those aspects would be; what they like the most about a music video, their favourite bands/artists, how they listen their music etc.

From a lot of this audience feedback I learnt that we needed to include a lot of what they wanted to see in order for the video to be popular, enjoyable and effective, such as; having a storyline, having a female actress as the protagonist, having a subject to base our video on which was mental health. In addition, having a female actress as the protagonist was something we wanted to have before we began planning but to have the audience want the same was a bonus. In more detail, the vast majority of mass music videos have a male protagonist, however I learned from this particular part of the audience feedback that the audience wants to see this change too, which was positive to see. On the other hand, some of the questions that I had asked we decided on not going for the first answer, as sticking to a niche based audience was also very important to us. For example; one of the questions I asked was which song they would prefer to listen to between Walking the Wire by Imagine Dragons or Way Down We Go by Kaleo. It was fairly close however the more popular choice was Walking the Wire. But we had decided on Way Down We Go instead as it not only catered to a niche audience but also helped us add our own ideas and touch to our project. As I had learnt throughout the audience feedback stage that taking in and including what the audience want is important, but it is also important to add your own unique ideas to the project. In order to give the audience something they did not expect.


Through out the production and finalisation side of our project we had feedback which influenced the decisions we had made, this included the music video, digipak and magazine advert. I would continuously ask others around me what they thought of each of these aspects, in order to come out with the best final product. An example would be when we did our target audience interviews where we would ask questions surrounding magazine adverts. The opinions they have were very important as they were all in the age range our video was targeting (17-20) and all shared a passion or at least an interest in Indie Rock. After discussing and asking questions many took an interest in the Kings of Leon magazine advert due to its unique approach to its design using several images of a person and a hawk, splitting them, and merging them together. We noticed this and used it as inspiration for our own, where we used pictures of our protagonist (Hannah) and our 'artist' who is singing (Aiden). This also turned out to be a success and the outcome was praised for its design and overall composition.

Evaluation Question 2

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

To answer this question we filmed our responses and discussed how effective the combination of our main product and ancillary texts were (our video, digipak and magazine advert).

Evaluation Question 1

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

At the beginning of our project we had to make the decision on what genre we were going to base our music video on. We originally knew that Indie Rock was a top choice due to its unique and interesting conventions. We finally made the decision and chose Indie Rock and the song we wanted to do was Way Down We Go by Kaleo due to its deep tone and powerful lyrics; we knew we could create a storyline along with these lyrics. Sticking to the conventions was important to our project as we wanted the theme to fit with the song itself, if we chose a theme that was different to Indie Rock's conventions the product as a whole would look odd.

One Indie Rock convention I find to be fairly obvious in our music video is the Setting. A number of Indie Rock music videos are known to be quite low budget, the main settings in these music videos are in studios, cities, parks, towns etc. These are places that can be accessed easily and can create a mysterious atmosphere. In addition, the settings are kept simple because producers want the music video to focus more on the artist/performance. For our product we used this convention to our advantage and chose locations and settings that followed other Indie Rock music videos. Our chosen locations were in Rainham, Canterbury and Rochester. In Rainham we only used the train station where we had to get on the train Canterbury; we took advantage of the opportunity to use the train station as it was easily accessible and is a part of our protagonist journey, as we would still need to get on the train to get to our other locations. In Canterbury we used the High Street, King Ethelbert Garden, Love Lane, Outside the Marlowe Theatre, Dane Johns Gardens and Westgate Gardens. All of these locations were used as they reflected the conventions of an Indie Rock music video and created a certain feeling and atmosphere for the video. They are also all very accessible. Places such as the gardens and high streets had fairly secluded areas that reflect a mysterious and intriguing atmosphere that is captured in a lot of Indie Rock music videos. The gardens had fields, rivers, and seating areas that can reflect someones state of mind and how they are trying to escape. Whereas the high street is usually very busy and overpowering for the beginning and middle of the video and the kind of message we were trying to create about mental health. However we knew that this particular high street had pathways and alleys that could create the idea of feeling trapped and separated from others. Which we found to be successful. In addition, one idea I had in mind was to include a lot of the statues and architecture that is in Canterbury because in a Indie Rock music video it can have a much deeper meaning. A statue of a face or person can represent an influential person. However some are pieces of art that people have created to make an impression to the world around it, meaning statues can have a much deeper purpose. That is why we wanted to use them in our video. Moreover, on a separate filming day we decided to use the High Street and The Vines in Rochester as this was where the running scenes began and where the double-ganger was caught. This is where the High Street benefits our video as it was easily to access (more than Canterbury as it is closer) and the fact it is busy intensifies the scene. This part of our video defiantly challenges some of the conventions of our video as Indie Rock music videos are known for their secluded locations which are subtle and simple in order for the focal point to be the artist. However we wanted the message of our video around mental health to be obvious so the intensity of the high street was effective.

Another convention of an Indie Rock music video is the use of cinematic effects and filters that are often used to make the music video feel like a mini movie. This is a convention that we used and developed in our video/product by not only having a continuous montage of our protagonists day but also used different effects, filters, overlays, cuts etc. to link back to this convention. The reason we had chosen to have a story behind our video and have an on going montage of different shots as it draws the audience in more and involves them. They want to find out more about our protagonist and where she is going, what's going through her mind, who is the hooded figure. To achieve this storyline effect we used multiple montages that combine different shots in different locations, along with different editing effects. For example; an effect I really liked which I made using Final Cut Pro was an double exposure/overlay of different shots in order to make a unique and cinematic transition between two parts of the montage. The transition was going from a shot of our protagonist outside the Marlowe Theatre next to a statue to a shot of her walking along a river close by. I decided to use several shots of Aiden (our 'artist') who was 'singing' the song to overlay onto the other shots in order to get a smooth transition, In addition, this is how we developed this convention in order to suit our storyline and the effect we were trying to create; the lights I had used at the time helped brighten the shots and distract from when the transition occurred. The reason I has chosen several shots instead of just one was because it allowed there to be a moment of intensity as a lot of Indie Rock music videos are duller, this moment in our video allowed colours to contrast from the screen and liven the video up.

Indie Rock conventions in a music video were always something that we had in mind and thought about all the way through the planning and production process of our video. We ensured that we used as many as we saw fit in order for our video to link to Indie Rock and that be recognisable when the audience is watching. However, we found ourselves challenging one of these conventions due to our original ideas and plans we wanted to do and meet. The convention was to do with the Camera work side of the video; extreme close ups of the artists/actors are often used throughout an Indie Rock music video to capture and represent the emotion they are feeling at the time. When filming I took this on board by trying to capture a few extreme close ups of Hannah (our protagonist and actress) at the end when she is panicking in the street and others at the beginning when she is near and in the train station. However we challenged this convention by using a variety of different shots such as; long shots, pans, mid shots etc. This made the video a lot more entertaining and aesthetically pleasing for the audience due to the fact that the variety of shots means that the video is not boring and repetitive, drawing them in till the end.