#A2evaluation

[zackmooremedia]

So a few things to cover with the mise-en scene within our music video. First is the characters outfit, a very scruffy look, ripped jeans, big oversized jumper, and a cap. So not a very formal look, showing him to be most likely a younger gentleman because it wouldn’t be seen as mature or adult like to go out with what he is wearing. Also the mobile phone he is holding in the middle picture to the right, another indication of youth as you would tag the stereotype of a younger person on their phones texting. Other props and background item that add to the theme of the music video are the cigarettes, the alcohol, and the pipe. Showing clear signs of poor health, and even depression. Showing that the character clearly does not care about his health and perhaps wants to take this path of depression. The smoking pipe helps add to the following shot of him moving around the bed and the green screen effect as if it were a hallucination from the drugs. Also the weather it ‘self-showing to be a foggy and rainy day, not the type of weather you would associate with a happy or joyful vibe, in fact it's the opposite of that. So the weather helped add to the dark setting as we looked at the weather forecast and planned it for a rainy day. The car also being in the shot where it crashes into the protagonists, showing him wake up within the grave yard. The car was really just used as way of showing the character be knocked unconscious and taking him to the next shot.

[josephmarlesmedia]

Here myself and Ed have commentated over our music video, explaining why we chose some of the shots we did as well as pointing out which shots were our personal favourites as well as showing which areas probably could've been improved if we had the opportunity to do a fourth shoot.

[gabrielkellymedia]

Evaluation Question 4

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

[jessicacookmedia]

Here is my Directors Commentary for my music video.

[milliegoughmedia]

Directors Commentary

This is the directors commentary I created for my final music video. In this video I talk about all the edits and shots we used to tell the narrative we created. I also talk about how we used certain edits to make it more benefial for the audience to watch

[mollyyorkmedia]

Evaluation: To Sum Up

This post contains links to each stage of the course in chronological order: Research, Planning, Production, and Evaluation. 

I have included them both in links below and also in a Prezi.

Research:

https://mollyyorkmedia.tumblr.com/tagged/a2research/chrono

Planning:

https://mollyyorkmedia.tumblr.com/tagged/a2planning/chrono

Production:

https://mollyyorkmedia.tumblr.com/tagged/a2production/chrono

Evaluation:

https://mollyyorkmedia.tumblr.com/tagged/a2evaluation/chrono

[abbybraymedia]

Evaluation - Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This is our focus group. In this we asked our 4 members different questions, for them to answer about our music video. 

What positive comments did your peers, teachers,focus group have about your video?

The main positive comment that we received from almost everyone is the fact that our lip syncing was very accurate and in perfect timing with the song lyrics. This is very good to know because a lot of our music video contains our protagonist performing the song to the audience, and the fact the viewers think it was well done is a success. The audience additionally liked how professional her performing scenes looked, and how her bright lips contrasted with the dark background and costume. In our focus group, we had received a comment that we had represented the past and present in a clever way. We had done this by making the past scenes in black and white, whilst keeping present tense in normal colour. We wanted to edit the footage in a way that had made it really obvious that the music video contained the past and present, and thought that the black and white would signify our idea perfectly. Not only was this mentioned in the focus group, it was also discussed in the comments on You Tube. When my peers watched the music video, a lot of them had mentioned about the cross fade’s we had used. 

They really thought how we had faded in our protagonist whilst crying in over the two actors arguing had presented her frustration and how upset she was well, and efficiently. The second cross-fade we had used was at the ending of the song. Whilst our main character was singing the last line of the song,we faded a video of our male character over her but we still wanted our protagonist to be seen slightly. Our peers had said they liked this part because it related to the last lyric of the song and even though our protagonist was faded out, the audience was still able to see the emotion on her face and how disappointed she looked because her relationship had ended. 

What negative comments were made by your peers,teachers,focus groups?

The negative comments often always referred back to the quality of filming. The comments on You Tube revealed that they had thought we rushed filming some of the scenes because they were not up to the standard they could’ve been if we had taken more time and care during the production stages. One example that was pointed out to me was the camera angle we had used when our protagonist had gotten our of bed. They weren’t too keen on seeing just her legs and claimed it “wasn’t very entertaining”. Furthermore, it was mentioned numerous times that we had too many scenes of our actor lip singing and performing to the audience, and they would’ve preferred if we had seen more flashbacks of the relationship. A criticism we had received from the focus group is that a lot of shots were quite still, and it would be good if we included some pans/tracking shots within the music video however this was very hard to do with the ideas we had because in a lot of them a pan or tracking shot was completely unnecessary and we didn’t wanted to ruin the footage by adding shots/angle purely for variety, and not meaning. It’s not exactly a bad comment but i feel like a few viewers didn’t fully understand the story line of the music video. From the focus group one of the members asked “is she meant to be romancing Ed or Gabes?”, and we have been asked  few times about the story line, and the relationship she was/is in. Even though, we were told by one of the viewers that they really enjoyed the story line, re watching the music video now has made me realise that someone who was watching this video for the first time without any insight of the idea we wanted to propose through the music video might not have been so clear.

How will the comments change the way you work in the future as a group or an individual?

I’m definitely going to make sure i’m way more organised in the future when it comes to doing all the filming and production. I feel like some of our footage would have been a better standard if we had used our time more efficiently and didn’t leave some of our filming dates so late. This wasn’t intentional at all however as a group we should have been more persistent when it came to filming and tried to do a lot of it before the deadline so we had enough time to edit properly and be able to re-do any of our filming we thought wasn’t up to scratch. 

What have the comments taught you about the process of producing and editing a music video?

The comments I have received from the audience have taught me that filming and editing a music video takes a huge amount of time and effort over a long period of time. You need to be consistent with filming and make sure it is all up to the same level. You can’t expect to get all your filming done within a week or two without it being low quality, and mistakes to be made during the filming. With the editing I have learned that it is a long process that takes patience, especially when learning things. It takes a lot of thinking as you want to put the clips in the right places to make it look the best it possibly can. With editing comes a lot of rearranging because when you think you’ve found the perfect place to insert a clip, you change your mind and move it, even if its just slightly to the left or right. You must have high patience as well because some of the tools take time to get to grips with and be able to use correctly on the clip. 

[laurendaviesmedia]

Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

[gabrielkellymedia]

Evaluation Question 3

 What have you learned from your audience feedback?

This retrospective focus group was a very positive exercise, as it produced a lot of positive feedback. The first three comments from the group, when asked about things they liked, complimented our editing, cinematography and narrative one after the other. The only criticism the video received was on the pace of cuts, as some people we’re confused about location changes. Both cases seemed very minor and by their reaction, didn’t seem to affect the viewing. The messages and themes of oddness, loneliness and self-confidence were evidently communicated, as each member of the group referenced at least one at some point. Samson’s comment, though comic, was also valid “Orange… doesn’t rhyme with anything… loneliness”. It’s good to know that our use of costume has evoked the idea of loneliness and Gabriella’s comment at the end was very nice to hear. The focus group was a success in the sense that I got to know a mixture of viewers’ opinions. Maybe in future, I could pick a group with more 'film focused' eyes to get detailed analysis of the film language.

 Going to the platform on which we released the video, YouTube gave us some feedback from members of the public who were uninclined to enjoy the footage. The criticism I hoped to receive only came in the form of more praise – by this point I was confident in my work, but I wanted to know deeper opinions of peers within the target audience, in order to accurately gauge what went well and what didn’t.

 However, it was very pleasing that Tikikiti – a group dedicated to finding and sharing the best indie music videos – commented saying “great” and listing most aspects of film that exist. I’m not sure if they featured our film on their blog/channel, but with assurance like that from fellow filmmakers it doesn’t matter.

With not much other feedback, I decided to ask my friends to give me some more pointed notes on the feature.

Many commented on the colour of the video, especially the protagonists costume:

Coni 18: Her clothes show she's different and difference in her world seems to be frowned upon, which is very relevant to a target audience of young people, really relatable. I felt like I was routing more and more for her as the video went on

Samson 18: The use of costume to represent a distinct singular character (Girl with orange sweater) in an environment where all other characters are the same (shown by the recurring black clothing) was interesting and highly effective at communicating to the audience that the orange girl is the focus of attention and different to the rest of the on screen characters.

George 21: Overall I thought the music video was very entertaining, captivating and technically complex. The use of contrast in terms of the colours used in the video was a clever idea and was visually very appealing - the orange jumper of the protagonist stood out against the otherwise muted and desaturated colours, making her stand out and clearly depicting her as the main character.

Another mutual point of interest was the animation and dream sequence within the film.

Coni: The dream sequence was metaphorical and really effective in the sense that you definitely understood that it was more than a dream, as it actually helped her find the box

Samson: The animation perfectly matches the psychedelic musical genre, and the handmade quality of the animation style again creates a piece that doesn’t feel overproduced. An interesting and unique concept that was also well executed. saturated

George: In addition to this, I thought that the inclusion of animation was very clever, especially given that it matched the music perfectly and was blended very well with the other shots. 

Each gave me very more interesting notes on the film with George making valid judgement of the shakier shots:

George: The choice of setting for the video again helped to make it much more interesting, with a huge array of different locations. The outdoor shots such as in the foggy field or in the forest drew me into the video as they were somewhat surreal and I enjoyed the way in which transitions were used to seamlessly blend such shots in different locations whilst tracking with the main character as she runs.The only piece of criticism I have regarding the video is that at the start I felt as though some of the shots were shaky and could have benefited from the use of a gimble - it felt almost out of place given the high level of professionalism shown in the rest of the piece. That said, it didn’t detract from the overall enjoyment!

I’m glad that the foggy environment didn’t seem out of place, as I hoped the non linear and slightly more conceptual editing of the film would make it blend in like the journey was longer. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get my hands on a gimble and to rent one would have been quite costly. It would have been nice to have some kind of camera stabilisation but one of the last shots actually benefits fro the chaos of the cinematography.

Coni: I like how the end mirrors the start and we never actually know what's inside the box because it highlights the importance of her journey, rather than the outcome; it's how she's developed as a character because of her journey and what's inside the box doesn't matter, only that she got there with everyone being cold and pessimistic.

It’s good to see that people felt the film to be poignant and it’s positive to see that Coni has appreciated the narrative structure. The song, I think, really helps create the pace and feel of the video.

Samson: The main character is also established effectively with an extreme close up at the beginning of the piece. The diversity of shot length and shot type also maintains audience attention, without being complex or feeling overproduced. Some shots were obviously filmed on a foggy day, which I imagine would have been problematic for filming, but colour correction and a nonlinear plot meant that this is not an issue.

Samson has picked up on both the cinematography and the colour grading of the film. Molly and I worked together on the colour correction and I based each shot on the colour of the protagonists jumper.

The extreme close ups and all other shots were meticulously planned by Molly and I.

We were evidently successful in establishing the characters and plot through a variety of film techniques both in production and post. From the feedback I have received, I can see that we have made an entertaining, relatable and emotion provoking work, that can be appreciated both in video and narrative by the target audience. 

[harrietjonesmedia]

Creating My Advert

After making my plan I knew I wanted to continue the theme of flowers and using the main protagonist on the front. This time I wanted to make the advert mainly black and white with little colour. But to show that this and the digipak are related I would use the same font and similar images. 

To begin with I found an image of hydrangeas but this was a different images from any of the ones I used on my digipak. I resized it to make sure it was a4 and then I brought the contrast and brightness right down so the image wasnt very bright or colourful. 

After I put the main image in, this was an image that I had previously used on my digipak but I did this as I wanted it to be clear to the audience that both products were linked so I thought I should used an image that was features on the digipak instead of adding in a screenshot of the digipak itself. To make it different I made the image black and white but I increased the lightness to get a white overlay. 

As I needed to add titles I decided t use the same font that I used throughout my digipak as this continues the house style and almost makes it recognisable for the audience. To make all the text stand out I put it all in capitals and in big, bold and black. I put the artist at the top in the space and I decided to put the release date at the bottom as this is a typical convention of adverts- the artist name is at the top and the release date is generally at the bottom. As I needed to have the album name somewhere I decided to place it under the artist name but it would be on top of the main image.

It was clear that I needed to add in more things to the advert as it was looking quite bare at this point so I decided to add a little quote ‘Includes the hit single ‘Paris’’, I also wanted to include at least one review from a respected company by doing this it gives the audience more information about the product but it also gives them positive information maybe making them want to buy the advertised product. I also included their website address as this means they could search them up and find more information about them and decide if they would buy the products. 

[cearachaplinmedia]

Question 2 evaluation - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

INTERVIEWER                                                                                                                

Good evening everyone and today i have with me the director and producer of the hit music video “aint got far to go” Ceara Chaplin. this music video features the hit singer Jess Glynne. Today we have Ceara here with us because she is going to tell us about just how important it is the develop brand identity and the effect her music video had on her audience. Welcome Ceara, and why dont you start off by telling us how you created your brand identity and why you think it is so important to have one?                          CEARA

It is an honour to be here at MTV extra talking about the success of my music video. i think one of the main reasons why my music video was so successful was because of the brand identity i created, i believe by doing this my artist was really able to connect with the target audience as they would feel like they have something in common with her and are able to look up to her and really connect with her music. For example Sia has a brand identity of wearing a wig which covers her face, by doing this is shows her to be different to all the other artists which makes her stand out, this therefore keeps her audience on their toes hoping one day she removes the wig from covering her face. The way in which we created a brand identity was by dressing my artist is fashionable yet mainstream clothing, because our target audience was of the younger generations we wanted our artist to dress like them. We did this by dressing Ceara in bright and vibrant colours and this of course linked well with the lyrics and type of song because it is happy and unbeat, and wouldnt really work well if we dressed Ceara in basic black and white clothing. INTERVIEWER

Well that does seem very interesting and a great way for your artist to really connect with her fans. Now aswell as the music video you must of had to try and sell your track in different ways, what were these ways and do you think you continued to use your brand identity throughout these?  CEARA The ways in which i tried to sell the track was by creating a Digipak and a magazine cover. The ways in which i was able to use my brand identity when creating these was using the same ongoing theme that i used within my music video. for example during the photoshoot for both my magazine advert and digipak i dressed Ceara in the same outfits she wore whilst filming the music video. i thought it would be a good idea to do this as it would show the same mainstream trends in which the target audience would be interested in. And also if audience members were seeing the digipak being sold in shops before they had actually seen the music video, they could be attracted to it due to the bright colours and trendy outfits which could interest them in watching the music video. The locations i used to take pictures for my ancillary tasks were the same urban areas in which my music video was shot which creates a link between the two types of media INTERVIEWER

Good anwser Ceara, now my last question is, why and how do you think this type of brand identity will help sell your digipak and magazine advert? 

CEARA

 i believe this brand identity will help to sell the magazine and digipak because the bright and vibrant colours i used aswell as the trendy outfits and the locations is what attracts the audience to this type of music because it involves what they are interested in. i also believe that my music video aswell as my arcillary tasks follows the typical forms and conventions of a pop music video. it incorperates a lot of dance as the music is very dance orientated. the fast upbeat tempo links well with the bright colours and locations of the music video, just by looking at the digipak you could already tell what type of song it was going to be. The magazine advert and digipak also have to include things which are going to help sell the song such as feedback from other music companies, luckily with my music video it included all positive feedback, which makes it easier to sell. Overall i believe the brand identity i created allows a relationship to be built with the artist and audience, and the audience members are able to feel like they are close to the artist without even knowing her, just by having the same interests as her. 

 INTERVIEWER

 Thankyou for coming ceara it was lovely talking to you.