MUSIC VIDEO

First draft;

WEBSITE

DIGIPAK

EVALUATION TASK 4

EVALUATION TASK 3

  Audience feedback throughout the creation and development of our products:


Pre-production of products: Music video

Before, we began planning the creation and development of our products, we began by researching into what different people enjoy/look for in a music video. This was helpful as it enabled us to learn what a potential audience may look for. For example we found that this audience member isn't a fan of music videos, therefore our other products (digipak and website) would have to be equally as strong in order to draw him in to our artist and become part of our niche target audience. 

This clip also shows possible target audience responses to what they look for in music videos. The majority of people we spoke to like pop music videos because they find them fun. This feedback confirmed what we know that pop music videos attract a mass audience because they don't contain specific values and beliefs like alternative and organic products do. Additionally, a lot of people said that they enjoy a music video that shows a narrative/story because it captivates them. This is something that we highlighted and took a note of when it came down to coming up with different ideas for our artist's music video. Furthermore, audience's enjoy when the narrative of the music video correlates to the meaning of the song, thus the is also something that I highlighted for when I was going to create and develop the products for our artist. Moreover, audiences enjoy music videos that reflect everyday life struggles amongst teenagers such as drugs, alcohol and mental illness. This is once agains something that we picked up on when developing and creating our products. Therefore, by conducting research on possible audience members we have learnt what they enjoy about music videos, which helped us realise what is effective in music videos, thus allowing us to develop and create a cohesive package for our artist. 

Mid-production/creation of our products: Music video

This clip is audience feedback via a focus group and is feedback on our first drafted idea. This was effective because enabled us to see where the strenghs and weakness of our music video. The majority of people said that they liked the idea and enjoyed the song choice. However, at this point we only had 1 narrative strand and after this feedback it became apparent that we have to introduce several narrative strands which means we would have a wider variety of shots to use, thus making our video more exciting and engaging for our target audience. 

This clip of audience feedback via a focus group once again is gives us feedback but on a changed and improved idea. This video shows audience members that would fit into our target audience respond positively to our new music video concept. This was effective because it showed us that through the changes we have made we have improved our music video, thus we felt comfortable to start planning for our filming day and start casting actors to be in our music video. 

Post-Productions of music video feedback:

In this clip we asked audiences what they like about our music video. Majority of audience members enjoyed our music video. One thing that stood out to a lot of people was the cross eye shot. This is because this a cross over of the performance and narrative and thus emphasising the importance that the artist places on these serious issues and struggles that some people face. Additionally, many people enjoyed the narrative and they thought that this music video represents issues that need to be addresses in society, thus they said they would watch it again. This shows us that our music video is successful because it encourages repeated consumption.

In this clip we asked audiences what they didn't like about our music video. Most people didn't have something they didn't like. But we found that those who didn't like something about it was because they aren't organic and alternative music fans or they aren't effected by the serious life struggles that are represented in our music video. Therefore, this reinforced our knowledge that we know that our music video is only going to attract a niche target audience because of the controversial and serious themes that are displayed. Therefore, this was effective because it has confirmed that by conforming to conventions of organic and alternative music video, we have attracted these fans.

In this clip we asked people to decode our narrative. The majority of feedback from our target audience took a preferred reading and understood the narrative which is the music video is representing the unrepresented issues and struggles in society and the media. Therefore, our music video shows an artist who is willing to discuss this issues and alongside this there is clips of a girl suffering from these issues. However, a minority of people took a negotiated reading and misinterpreted the message of the music video. This can be construed as a negative because they didn't get our meaning. However, we feel that this is a positive as music videos are designed to be polysemic and open to interpretation because this will still encourage repeated consumption which is the main purpose of a music video. Multiple readings and layers are something that we had planned for because we wanted the audience to engage with Jack on a multitudes of levels and by having an opaque narrativoe we are doing this.

Feedback for our Digipak:

In this clip we asked people what they thought about our digipak. One thing that majority of audiences said was they liked that the digipak corresponded to the other products that we created. This is because all these products come together to form a cohesive package which all connote to the artist being a organic and alternative singer and songwriter. Furthermore, through the products corresponding to each other, the cohesive package becomes recognisable amongst audiences and thus it creates Jack his own style. Furthermore, although this is somethings that is in common with our other products, the audience liked the basic and simple colour scheme that is found on the digipak. This is because this highlights the artist as organic and simple, just like his music, thus the audience recognise him as a alternative artist. However, some people argue that the use of an image of Jack on digipak contradicts his message as being organic and alternative because it suggests he is trying to sell him and not his music. However, this can be juxtaposed by the basic colour scheme which again reinforces the image of simplicity and basic thus focusing solely on his music. Nevertheless, a minority of audience members said that they think that the digipak was too basic and could be more colourful. However, this is because they have picked up a negotiated reading and have misinterpreted the message that we tried to send. This message was that we wanted the audience to easily recognise him as being organic and alternative through simplicity because a convention of organic and alternative artist's is that they focus on the artist's music instead of the artist himself. 

Feedback for our website:

In this clip we asked people what they thought about our website. The majority of possible target audience members said that they thought that the colours worked well together on the website. This was because our website also followed the simplistic theme that follows throughout all our products. Therefore, this feedback confirms that this theme was effective because it enables audiences to identify the artist as being organic singer and songwriter. However, once again, criticisms included that it was too similar to other artists. However, we don't see this as a negative because due to our artist being unknown and in the process of establishing himself, we wanted to make the website similar so that audience's would immediately be able to recognise the artist and what his values are, thus they can recognise him as being similar to artists like James Bay, Hozier and George Ezra. Furthermore, feedback has suggested that our website is well organised and easy to navigate which is effective because it means audiences will be able to 'get to know' our artist easily and be able to follow him throughout his career. However, some people suggested that there it too little detail. This problem would be combatted over time because as the artist's career develops, as will his website because there will be more information and products available such as more merchandise, albums and information about things like tour dates. 

Feedback from Survey Monkey:

A massive limitation of our focus groups and interviews is they were all carried out in our school and thus this was a limited sample because it meant we were only getting feedback from people around the same age and people who had the same values and beliefs. Therefore, we decided to create a survey on survey monkey online and distribute it to other schools. The survey included questions about our products that we created and participants had to view our products and then answer these questions. Above is a summary of the responses that we received. Overall, the feedback we received from the survey monkey was consistent with the feedback that we received from the interviews that we got. This shows that the focus group and interviews were a valid way of receiving feedback of our products.

Feedback from Facebook:

Before we were going to uploaded our music video to YouTube we wanted to upload it to our friends and family on Facebook in order to gather feedback from possible target audience members. As you can see above, we received a lot of compliments and little constructive criticism. Therefore, we decided to not make any further changes and then we knew it was ready to be posted on YouTube and shared with the rest of the world. 

After showing our music video to members of our target audience and sharing it on social media, we gathered numerous video back that can be seen in previous blog posts. The main thing we gathered from the video is that the song ends abruptly and thus this looks like a mistake and contrasts the smooth flow of the music video. Therefore, we acted on the feedback we received and made changes to our music video. Although our original intention was to completely cut off the video with the tilt down shot to the busy road at the end, thus allowing the audience to interpret their own ending, feedback suggested that a slow fade out would be better for our music video. Therefore, we listened to what the audience wanted and dragged out the song where it had previously cut off and then added a fade to black to the end of the clip too.

First draft: 

Final draft: 

EVALUATION TASK 2

EVALUATION TASK 1

Evaluation question 1- in what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?