Evaluation question 4
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Friday 9 December 2011
Thursday 24 November 2011
Evaluation Part 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Evaluation Part 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
I collected my audience feedback by sending the
links that allowed the target audience to see my video and ancillary texts, via
email. They then sent me their feedback via email, which
I then copied and pasted from the email into a word document. I then copied and
pasted the feedback into the website, www.wordle.net. This then turned my feedback into
a Wordle.
I split my audience feedback into two sections; the video and the ancillary texts. The first section that I collected feedback for was the video. I found that in general my target audience really liked the video and said that they would consume it if it was in the real media industry. There were two things that my target audience picked out from my video that they really liked. The first attribute that they really liked was the amount of shots and the vast variety of shots. I would agree with my audience that this is a strong point of my video. I chose to create my video with the variety of shots that it has because although it had to have some repeatability to it I wanted to keep it interesting and I wanted to keep the target audience thriving to see more of the video. This links to Richard Dyer’s ideas about stardom.
“The incoherence of the star image
ensures that audiences continually strive to ‘complete’ or to ‘make sense’ of
the image”.- Richard Dyer
My
choice of many interesting shots ensured that the audience only got short quick
glimpses of the artist in each shot. This meant that her image wasn’t
automatically clear to the audience and consequently they would strive to
understand her star image furthermore giving them the need to continue watching
the video.
The second attribute that my target audience
picked out from my video as a good point was the lighting, colour and the
general mise-en-scene of the video. I would again agree with my target audience
as I do think that the mise-en-scene of the video is another strong point. When
I created the first draft of my music video there wasn’t enough effect in the
mise-en-scene to really make the narrative obvious. Taking this on board I then
went and made more of an effect out of the mise-en-scene by decorating the
backgrounds in both settings with magazine extracts and award ceremony logos so
as to really make the narrative obvious that she was angry with the media. I
also changed the artist’s costume at the beginning of the video to have a red
top to emphasise her anger as it is the red colours that generally have connotations of anger. Once I did this I believed that it gave my video a more
interesting and exciting boost. I chose to do this because a lot of the videos
in the media industry today have a very controlled mise-en-scene which in some
cases can become almost surreal because it is so perfect. They do this to boldly
reinforce their narrative, therefore when I chose to do the same it made my
video authentic.
“Mise-en-scene for many videos is the
concert hall or rehearsal room to emphasise the realness of the performance”.-
Steve Archer.
From the audience feedback I found that there was one bad point that
most of my target audience seemed to pick up on and that was the performance of
my artist within the video. The biggest issue was that my artist, on the day of
filming didn’t put enough effort into the acting for it to be authentic. This
could be because she’s a naturally shy person and no matter how much I tried as
director to give her inspiration, her natural personality overruled and
thus she struggled to perform. I think, however, that she still did well and I
am pleased with the outcome.
“Pop music is a romantic art, all
about truth, talent, and magic, so we need to believe in the authenticity of
the performance first and foremost”.-Steve Archer
The next set of feedback which I collected was
for the ancillary texts. Again the audience generally liked the ancillary
texts, however there were a couple of good points and bad points that seemed to
be picked out.
There was one clear bad point that my target
audience did not like in my advert. This was the fact that there were so many
different fonts on the page that the audience found it somewhat confusing. I
chose to use the different fonts because I thought that I wanted to challenge
the convention, that I found when researching the magazine adverts of only
having one or two fonts for the text as I thought that it might make the advert
more aesthetically pleasing. However, it is clear in my audience feedback that
this did not come across well. If I was to improve I would have
kept my variety of fonts to a minimum.
A clear good point that was given from the
audience in the feedback was the central image on the advert. Generally, the audience
thought that it linked clearly with the album, video and website. They also
said that if they saw the image they would automatically associate it with the
artist and album. I am very pleased with these comments because it is clear
that my intentions of using my subsidiary texts to create the artist’s star
image has been conveyed to the audience. I chose to do this because I found
that when I researched my websites and magazine adverts that there was a clear
link between the artist, their image and their subsidiary texts.
“A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed (as any other
aspect of fiction is) out of a range of materials (eg advertising, magazines
etc as well as films [music])”.- Richard Dyer
The clear bad point about my website which was
clearly shown throughout my audience feedback was that they didn’t like the
amount of empty spacing which they could see in my website. This was also a
clear fault in my own opinion but I struggled to change it when making the product
due to lack of ability in using the software. I minimised the amount of spacing
as much as I could and to the best of my ability, however my knowledge of the
software does not extend far enough to have completely changed it. I feel that
to improve I could have looked up how to completely close the gaps in the
website and if I had more time I would have put more features on the website to
make the website seem busier.
Finally there was one good point that was
picked out by many of my target audience and that was the clear layout of the
website. Even though they had said that they didn’t like the amount of space in
which they could see they said that due to that it meant that the layout was very
clear, making it easy for them to view the website. I didn’t intend to have so
much spacing in the website but I did choose to make my website with a clear
layout. I am pleased with this outcome but I only chose to use the clear layout
for the simple reason that it then makes it easier for the target audience to
view the website furthermore, encouraging them to research more into the artist
and thus promoting her further.
Friday 11 November 2011
Friday 21 October 2011
Friday 14 October 2011
Tuesday 11 October 2011
Filming Evidence
Filming Evidence
This myself filming my actress in location 1, my bedroom.
This is myself filming my actress in location 2, George Spencer Academy's School Hall.
Sunday 9 October 2011
Track
Track
I have chosen this track because it is a fun and upbeat track. The track is about how celebrities make us feel when they are made to seem so perfect especially in the media and magazines. I also chose this trick because I know the artist and she lives locally this makes her extremely reliable. I chose this track because its meaning applies to the target audience in which I have chosen as they face the feelings and emotions caused by the media and the visions of celebrities that they see.
Camera Angle Positions for Performance Video
Camera Angle Positions for Performance Video
This is a plan of the first location I will be filming in which is my bedroom. There will be a mixture of long shots, mid shots and close ups taken of the performer and the majority of which will be taken on the bed where she will be acting with the magazine. For this the camera needs to be positioned near to and at the end of the bed so as to capture her angry expressions and to capture her actions. For the second part of filming within my bedroom I will be taking long shots of her throwing the magazine and a cushion in anger. For this the camera will need to be at the back of the room so as to get the effect of the long shot in front of the bed and to capture her actions.
This is a plan of the second location that I will be filming in. The majority of the shots that will be taken are tracking shots, close up shots, mid shots, long shots and panning shots. The first group of shots will be taken at the front of the hall against the white backdrop so that we can use the lights within the hall. These shots will consist of a tracking shot, close up shots, mid shots and long shots. The camera will be positioned according to the type of shot to capture her facial expressions and actions. The next group of shots will be taken at the back of the hall so that we can use the spotlight. The shots will consist of a panning shot, close up shots, mid shots and long shots. The camera will be positioned appropriately according to the type of shot I will be filming. The panning shot will be taken at the same distance away from the performer constantly as I film a the 180 degrees panning shot.
Location Permission
Permission to film in my chosen locations is not necessary as I am filming in my own home and in my college where I have the automatic right to film in.
Risk Assessment
Risk Assessment
The main risks will come when filming in the main hall of
the school. There are a few things such as chairs and tables stacked to the
side of the hall which we have to be aware of so that we do not hurt ourselves
on them. Also there is a main risk is the interruption of the filming process
as the hall is a main walkway for staff and students to get through the school.
I cannot stop this however; I can make people aware of the issue by sending an
email and putting up signs requesting people not to walk through the hall when
I am filming. Most of the health and safety risks are covered by the fact that
the school is a functional public school. This means that the hall is regularly
inspected by health and safety officers and thus I have booked the hall under
the assumption that it is regulated for health and safety. Also there will be a
member of staff with myself and the actors and stresses at all times assuring
that we will be safe.
The main risks that come with filming in my home comes with the
fact that my room is quite small and quite cluttered. To assure the health and
safety of everyone when filming I will make sure that anything risky such as
objects on the floor that could be tripped over will be removed from the
location and anything that cannot be removed will just have to be made aware of
so that no one hurts themselves on the objects.
Props
Props
The first
prop to be used in my video will be a Hello magazine. The magazine will be used
as a prop top show the overall theme of the music video. The actress will use
it to show her anger at the perfect pictures of celebrities in the media. She
will have at the beginning and the end of the video. She will be pointing at
the photos in the magazine accusingly and at the end of the video she will
throw the magazine of the bed to show her anger.
The second
props will be used together. They are the microphone and its stand. This will
be used in the middle and the end of the video. She will use the microphone and
stand to emphasise her singing scenes. She will be using it mainly in the slow
solo scene when she sings the slow part of the song alone. She will use it to
help emphasise her singing talent and to give some more visually to the video.
The third
prop will be the camera. The camera will be used by the paparazzi character. He
will use it to take pictures of my artist as she walks down the “red carpet”.
This is to make the video seem more realistic and to make the video more
visually interesting.
Costume
Costume
In my video there are two characters. The first
character is my artist. She will have two costumes. The first being a more
casual costume. The costume consists of a shirt and some jeans. There will be
no shoes in this costume as it will be filmed in a bedroom and not many people
wear shoes in their bedrooms. Her makeup will be very minimalistic and natural
looking so as to just emphasize her features. Her hair will be straight and
worn loose to emphasize the casualness of the outfit. This is shown in figure
A. The costume was chosen to be casual as it is the type of attire that a
teenager may wear in their spare time and it is this average teenager that I am
trying to represent. The second costume is a smarter, formal looking costume.
It consists of a purple cocktail dress, a pair of black leggings and a pair of
black high heels. This is the type of attire that a celebrity might wear. The
makeup would be heavier so that she would look more like the celebrities in the
media. In this costume her hair would styled and curled to make the costume
seem more special and formal. This is shown in figure B. The transformation
from the first costume to the second costume shows that the average teenager
can be anything that they want to be and that they shouldn’t be put off by the
perfect portrayal of celebrities found in the media.
A. B.
The third
costume belongs to the third and much smaller part in the video. The third part
is the member of the paparazzi. His costume consists of a black jacket, a polo
neck jumper, a white shirt, a pair of jeans and some black shoes. His makeup
would be very minimal and he would have a rough hairdo and a slight stubble as
he needs to look slightly dishevelled as most members of the paparazzi camp out
to get even the smallest glimpse of the celebrities. I have chosen the colour
of his outfit to be mainly black and white so that the main artist stands out
over him as she is the main part of the video.
Actor/Performer Decisions
Performer
There will
be two performers taking part in my video. The first performer is my artist who
I am creating the video for and is the main actress in the video. Her name is
Ellie Keys. I have chosen Ellie to play the part of the main actress as she is
the artist I am creating the video for and thus I want her to be in it so that
I can advertise her to my target audience. Also the actress had to appear to be
an average teenager aspiring to be a pop star to allow the target audience to
be able to relate to her story and thus to attract them. She had the
appropriate age and look to be that relatable teenager within the video. In
this video she will have two costumes. The first one will be a casual costume
mainly consisting of jeans and a T-shirt. Her make will be very minimal and
natural looking so as to only emphasise her features. The second costume will
be a much smarter costume consisting of a cocktail dress and heals. Her make-up
with the second costume would be bolder and more glamorous to emphasise her
transformation from aspiring teenager to pop star.
The second
performer taking part in my video will be Haydn Bowley. He will be playing the
part of the paparazzi within the video. I have chosen him to play the part
because he is a photographer outside of this part and thus he knows how to work
his camera and what sort of poses the paparazzi would take. This is a smaller
part and thus I want her to stand out more and so I have chosen a costume that
will make her stand out against him. I have chosen for him to have a more
dishevelled outfit as it is common for the paparazzi to camp for a long time to
catch these small glimpses of the celebrities. His make-up will be minimal and
of a natural look so that it just emphasises his features. I would also like
him to have a stubble to emphasise the fact that he looks dishevelled.
Video Location Shots
Locations
There
will be two main parts to my video. The first of which is where the performer
will be acting and representing the average teenager who aspires to be like the
pop music idols that they see in the magazines. To show this I needed the location
to be an average teenager’s bedroom to keep the representation accurate. From
this I decided to choose my bedroom in my home. I chose my bedroom because it
will be easy to prepare ready for filming as I have complete access to it and
also as I am an average teenager this location is appropriate for the theme of
the music video. Also this location is a good location as it is easily lit with
natural and manmade sources.
The
second part of my video is where my performer shows that anyone can be who they
want to be and shows how she becomes a pop star in a matter of seconds. For
this I chose my school hall as it has a good plain backdrop and is a big enough
area that we can transform it into a red carpet area. Also it can be darkened
enough that we can make it seem like a solo performance area for her to have
her chance in the spotlight. This area can be lit easily with the stage lights
already fitted into the ceiling of the hall.
Treatment
Treatment
The song that I am using is called “Who Are
You” by Helena Keys. The song is about her expressing her over her anger about
the way that the media make celebrities seem so perfect which can make us as
the target audience feel ugly. The video will reflect this as it will be set
out like a story.
The video will start with the first few scenes
of the actress in a bedroom with a magazine on a bed. As the song progresses
she will do some pointing actions at the magazine as if to accuse them of how
she feels. Furthermore she will then go on to sing about show how they don’t
know who she is and how she can be anything she wants and as she is doing this
I will have her walk out the room in beat of the song. She will walk out of the
open door and then the how scene will fade in and out of white to reveal our
performer wearing her formal smart wear on her very own “red carpet” showing
who she wants to be and could be. She would be making gestures of frustration
and determination to emphasise the lyrics of the song. Whilst she is doing this
there would be a photographer taking pictures. This would represent the
paparazzi. He would have his flash on and at the point when she gets onto the
slow solo part of the song the scene would fade in and out of white. This would
then reveal her standing solo in a spotlight with a microphone stand singing
the slow part. At this point the shots would slow down to slow panning shots
and close ups of her singing. After this scene the narrative would then revert
back to her walking down the “red carpet” whilst close ups and long tracking
shots would be taken of her. The scene would fade back to white and back out
again to her walking back into the bed room in casual clothing where she would
walk to the bed in the rhythm of the song and knock the magazine off the bed at
the last beat of the drum in the song. I think that this narrative in my video
will truly represent what the lyrics of the song mean and will also give the
young, starting out performer the ability to present herself and showcase her
abilities to the target audience.
Magazine Research: Codes and Conventions
Codes and Conventions of Magazine Adverts
The Layout of each magazine depends on the target audience that the artist is aiming at. For example Paramore’s advert was aimed at a young target audience and so the layout of the magazine seemed very busy. To a young teenage this would seem exciting and thus it would attract them to the magazine. The layout also depends on the image being presented by the artist. For example Stereophonic’s advert had an image of the band sitting on chairs at a table whilst the see swells around them and yet you can see they are calm because of their facial expressions. This presents an image of them as calm. To convey this image further the layout would be very simple so as to seem calm. This would also attract the more adult audience which they are targeting.
The advertising of the artist and their image appears to be the most important thing on an advert even if the adverts main purpose is to advertise a CD or album. All the magazines which I have looked at all had a large image of the artist and a big bold title for their name. The image mostly takes up the whole page. These aspects of the magazine dwarf any other part of it including the image of the album in which it is it’s main purpose to advertise. The large image and their name highlighted in bold allows the advert to attract the target audience’s attention so that even if they buy the album the may still follow the artist and purchase other products in the future.
The image of the album and the information about it is not small itself but compared to the image and name of the artist is small in comparison. They are the made to be small enough so that it doesn’t take away from the main image but it is enough to get itself noticed. Also the information placed on the page is limited. The main information placed on the page is only the most vital information; what the album is, when it will be released and where the audience can find more information if they need or want it. They do this to make the advert easy to read for the consumer so that they feel inclined to read it.
The last thing that I found is that on most the magazine adverts they all had a website link written in small writing at the bottom. This is placed there to encourage the target audience to research further into the artist.
Website Research: Codes and Conventions
Codes and Conventions of Websites
The first thing I noticed about the website was the layout. The layout, like the magazine advert, the layout was designed depending on the artist and their target audience. For example Rihanna has an image of being quite tropical and quite calm and her website has been designed to have a theme linking to a calm tropical beach. Also her image is aimed at a more adult target audience and thus her website has been set out in a more serious manor and thus attracting an adult target audience.
Every website had a large image of the Artist and the name of the artist was written in large letters. This is there to advertise the artists image and name. It is a method of making sure that the image stands out from the website and the consumer will remember who they are and what they are about.
There was one thing that all the websites had in common and that was the links to the artist’s pages on social networking sites. This is just another way of advertising the artists on other websites. Facebook is an extremely good method of advertising because once one person has said that they like the artist their friends can see that and this might encourage them to also follow the same artist on their pages which causes a chain reaction between people.
All of the websites that I had analysed had a menu bar which links several other pages to the website. This is there to categorise all of the information about the artist onto several easy to find pages to encourage the target audience to look further into finding information about the artist.
Each website had a small area where you could find the latest updates on the artist for example, tours, news on their life such as health and promotions that they are doing for companies. The latest news being on the home page allows the target audience to find out the latest news about the artist quickly and easily. This encourages the target audience to keep coming back to the website for more updates.
Each website has samples of the artist’s songs and videos. This is to help the target audience decide whether they like the artist and their material or not and thus enticing them to buy their albums. It also gives the target audience a way of accessing their favourite song when they want access quickly and easy. This encourages them to come back to website in the future.
Most of the websites which I analysed had adverts for other products from other companies but promoted by the artists on their website. The artist promoting the product is there to entice the target audience to purchase the products because they are promoting it. This means that the company gains money from it, the artist gets a percentage of the profits and the customer believes they have something special because the artist is promoting it.
Lastly on most of the websites they have an area where the target audience can sign up for a news letter which is sent to their email and where they can leave messages on a forum for the artist and where the artist can answer back. This is there to entice the target audience because it makes them feel special because they have the opportunity to be a part of something special where there is a chance their favourite artist can answer them back and that they can know all about the artist through a newsletter.
Friday 30 September 2011
Target Audience Research
Target Audience Research
In order
to create a successful music video I had to learn what my target audience would
like to in the music and music videos they consume. To do this I have created a survey devised to
learn who are the most popular artists of my target audience, how much they
consume this medium, what genres they like, why they like the genres in which
they do like, what about the artists they like, what aspects of the artist’s
music that they like and what aspects of their music videos do they like.
The
first few questions I asked were questions such as age, gender and occupation.
This was so that when I came to analysing my results I could see if their
answers might have been influenced by anyone of these simple factors.
The first main question was what
genres did they like most. The most popular genre was pop but this was closely
followed the genre rock. I think a target audience of this age is probably more
likely to favour this genre as this is what most of the well known artists are
famous for. Also most pop artists have other genre influences than just pop.
The most popular influence would the rock genre. Most teenagers hear these
influences through their favourite pop artists and their songs and thus it
would then introduce them into other genres such as rock. My findings would
suggest that I should choose a rock/pop genre of music to create a music video
too as that is the most popular genre. This chart displays my findings.
I then
asked my target audience why they liked the genre. Most people who chose these
genres felt that most of the music that belonged to this genre was upbeat and
thus they said they liked it because it was catchy and exciting. They also said
that it allowed them to easily dance to it. These findings suggest that I
should make sure that the music is catchy and upbeat so that they will be
attracted by its exciting danceable rhythms.
The next question which I asked
my target audience was how long on average, did they spend consuming music and
music videos per week. The majority of my target audience spent on average
eight to fifth teen hours per week consuming music and music videos. From my
findings I have found that my target audience must spend approximately one to
two hours a day consuming music and music videos. This suggests that my music
video must be of the highest quality and it must apply to the tastes and
preferences of my target audience for it to be viewed by them in the limited
time that they spend consuming music and music videos.
The
following question I asked my target audience was, “Would there be anything
that music artists could do to make you more willing to spend more time
listening to their music or watching their music videos?”. I asked this
question because after asking the previous question I found that my target
audience spent a limited amount of time consuming music and music videos and so
I wanted to find out if anything could persuade them to watch or listen to
music and music videos for a longer period of time. This was so that I could use
this in my own music video therefore persuading them to watch it. From this I
found that the majority of my target audience thought that music videos should
be generally more interesting and more unique in general. This could be having
some more unusual shots or clothing and having brighter colours within the
video. Also they said that they would
like to have some more upbeat music videos. From this I now know that I should
have a more visually interesting video and that it should be upbeat.
I asked my target audience which
were their three favourite artists so that I know who is most popular and so I
know who I should be inspired by when creating my video and therefore
attracting my target audience as they already like similar videos. There were
so many different artists that my target audience favoured that I decided to
only note the artists that came up in the results more than once. The most
popular artists were Lady Gaga, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Katy Perry, JLS and Pink.
I have since decided that I shall be inspired by some of these artists.
The next
question I asked was why did they like the artist(s) they had chosen in terms
of their image. The majority of my target audience said that they liked the
target audience firstly, because of their good looks and secondly because they
are successful role models and make them aspire to be as successful as their
celebrity role models. This tells me that I shall have to make sure that my
artist looks good and I will have to make her appear extremely successful in
order to attract my target audience.
Following the previous question
I asked my target what aspects of their favourite artist’s music did they like.
The majority of my target audience said that they liked the lyrics put to the
artist’s music as they have meaning that moves them. This tells me that the
visuals in my music video should draw from the lyrics and really make them
stand out.
The final question which I asked
my target audience was what aspects did they like about the artist’s music that
they had chosen as their favourites. There were two answers that seemed to be
repeated many times by my target audience. They said that firstly they liked
the more wacky and unique videos as they are different and its more interesting
when you haven’t seen a certain aspect before. Secondly they said that they
like a video which has a narrative. This tells me that my video should have a
story tied to it where the artist takes a journey and secondly that it should
be fairly wacky and unique so that it attracts the target audience.
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