Question 4 - Evaluation

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Question 3 - Evaluation

Media Evaluation – Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When creating our music promo and ancillaries we relied heavily on our audience’s feedback because it is essential to listen to ideas of our specific audience and make changes accordingly to suit their needs to help keep our audience happy by incorporating into our production and ancillaries what our audience expects to see. It wasn’t just in our production of the music promo and ancillaries when we asked for their feedback; we started in the research by producing a Vox pop. The Vox pop was male dominated but all of similar age around 16-18 year olds which are the ages of our target audience but they were of different friendship groups and backgrounds so we got a range of different answers which was important for us for discovering an artist to use.

 

 

At this stage, as a group, we hadn’t decided or found an artist or band to use for our music promo, we felt it was important to produce this Vox pop to understand what genre of music our audience of that age listen to. That is why our questions were designed to help us found an artist to please the majority of the audience we asked. We also asked what our audience expects to see in a music promo and about narrative and performance. This was important for us because we could understand what our audience expects to see and we would incorporate this into our music promo to ensure we please our audience because that is our main aim, to keep a specific audience and make our audience increase with our work rather than decrease, this is the same for every other artist and the companies they work with.


 

The Vox Pop for our narrative was important information that we had to get from our audience. This is because from the feedback we could understand our strengths and weaknesses. The benefits of doing this is that we could take this feedback into our main production and ensure we built on our strengths and improved and look at different techniques to counteract our weaknesses from our preliminary. The strengths we obtained from our preliminary was the use of quick editing techniques to help continuity and also the overall feel of the music video looking similar to the actual music video. The improvements we were told were to include more cuts to the beat to help achieve a higher grade and also ensure that some performance i.e. lip syncing is included.

 

 

From our rough edit we felt we could give a preview of our final production at a ‘halfway stage’ of the process of creation. This allowed us to receive positives and negatives at this stage. We could identify our strength from another critics eye and make our strengths stronger but also helped us know where to move forward from our rough edit with the feedback we got and knew how to improve. The strengths we received were the strength of the narrative and strong editing techniques which allowed us to have good cutting to the beat. We felt as a group that this was correct but the narrative still needed tweaking to make it even stronger which we worked on after this feedback. The improvements we received were very helpful for making our final production look polished and professional. As the improvements came from our strengths, our audience felt a little more cutting to the beat and a little tweaking to the narrative would benefits us when trying to achieve a very professional look.

We received feedback from our peers at school for our final production and produced a Vox Pop to show our findings. We set targets of achieving a clear narrative that our audience could understand without any difficulty. We achieved this as our audience all responded positively to our narrative which allowed our promo to be appealing and enjoyable to watch. We also wanted to improve our editing techniques from our preliminary to ensure we created a stronger production to ensure we made our promo look very professional. A main aim of ours was to ensure we did a good amount of cutting to the beat to help this professionalism and we asked our audience for their thoughts on our editing and received positive feedback from the editing which was pleasing as they said the continuity was strong. We were also praised for our narrative and performance which we had to ensure was effective to go with our hard work in the technical areas with the camerawork and editing phase. As for our improvements we got a lot of answers offering very little or no improvements which was a real reward for our hard work to achieve a high grade.

The focus group was very effective to do I feel as we could obtain a wider range of different answers from a range of different people. I feel one major advantage over the Vox Pop that the focus group has is the answers are discussed in a group rather than individually. This allows conversation and ideas to flow between the groups which give us greater depth in answers. As I felt the group would build on each answer giving us a greater idea on how to improve and the positives and the detail of the answers would benefit us to go on and tweak our production.

 

The entire listed above are the ways we obtained audience feedback and they were all beneficial for us when deciding our narrative for our chosen genre. Vox Pop’s allowed us to receive information from a range of different people and different audiences to get a range of answers to help improve our music promo. The focus group was essential as we could get a range of answers for all 3 texts we created and gave us quick feedback on all 3 texts which is a strong way of receiving audience feedback. The strengths of a focus group is that we receive a wide variety of opinions which allows us to take all into consideration, a shortcoming of a focus group I feel is the audience we used were shy and didn’t want to be forward with their answers with other listening around them. This is the opposite to vox pop’s, our audience members gave credible information when carrying out a vox pop as they can voice their own opinion and feel free to elaborate. A negative of a vox pop is that they can get very repetitive and find us not receiving good feedback in the end.

For our final production we used a vox pop and a focus group to obtain feedback. The focus group was effective for us as we could get a range of genders and ages to ask in a group about our production, a focus group is effective as the group of people can argue points between them and allows us to get a greater understand on what really went well and what didn’t. The way we exhibited our production was effective for our audience as we used the new media method of YouTube to exhibit our production and allowed our audience to watch instantly and a way we got views on our production was by using another new media method of social media and sharing on our own personal accounts to get a large number and different range of people to watch and pass on their thoughts about the products. We also contacted our chosen artist to show them our final production as a way of saying thank you but also to receive feedback from the artist themselves.

 

 

This is the image from our chosen artist giving his feedback and all his feedback was positive which really helped as we knew we’d impressed our chosen artist and used his song well to create a narrative. We could take this as inspiration as we did a very good job and impressed a member of the Indie Pop genre.

 

Question 1 - Evaluation

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Influences

We had many influences for our music promo but a big inspiration was the music promo we did for our preliminary task, which was Paradise by Coldplay. We really enjoyed the narrative which we took encouragement from and wanted to use the concept behind there narrative and create our own twist on a similar narrative for our music promo. Our chosen song was called ‘Animals’ and a main lyric which we amplified on was the one line ‘Maybe we’re like animals’ we used this key line as an important idea and wanted to follow a similar narrative of our animal which was a gorilla on a journey like the elephant from Coldplay’s paradise; although we used a businessman in ours to create a link between animals and humans being similar to help create a strong link with the main lyric/line we picked out from our song.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


These are stills from our final music promo and Coldplay’s Paradise and I have placed these next to each other to show the similar shot we tried to reproduce into our music promo. We felt that when we found our chosen track that we felt it was necessary to build on our camerawork and editing skills that we learnt in our preliminary by recreating the Coldplay paradise and using these skills and developing them further for our final production. We used there animal idea as an inspiration and used useful shots they used in ours of similar techniques but we wanted to be unique. The way we did this was by putting our own twist onto our song. We introduced a businessman who had a strong link with the gorilla and our lyrics. This proved that we had worked hard together to come up with a unique idea which looks exciting and different from other Indie Pop music promos. We also used Coldplay paradise as and inspiration because they produced an amplification promo which we wanted to do as a group once we discovered our track and deconstructed the lyrics.

Location

For our music we used many different locations but two main locations and one being Dole Wood and the other being Stamford and many places around Stamford were used. Depending on the genre, the location of a music promo is usually chosen around the type of genre and also is usually chosen depending on the mood and atmosphere of the song/music so it can relate to the music. We took this into consideration when carrying out our research and we listened to our song and the music is slow paced at stages but then fast paced at times so we chose busy town scenery which would reflect the fast paced tempo and the quiet, derelict looking woods which reflect the Dole Wood scenery. When doing our research into our genre we found that the genre of Indie Pop is rather mainstream and is up to date with the latest fashion etc in the world which reveals a sense of normality. The choice of location reflects this as we chose the Stamford town centre as it is a busy place and town centres are mainstream places to get the latest fashion and technologies and as we found these aspects from our research and that also the psychographics of our target audience was mainstreamers we felt this was a suitable location to help represent our genre and attract audience members.

The location also had to be chosen to reflect our narrative and help boost the narrative so it was important we got the locations right. I feel the locations were a success when the narrative is taken into consideration as we designated a specific location for the characters. The location of Stamford town was used to show the gorilla in a unfamiliar place and Dole Wood to show a businessman in a unfamiliar place. Stamford is common for having many enclosed roads with dead ends as well; this is effective for us as we used narrow streets to shoot the gorilla in to create a sense of entrapment and reflect the cruelty of gorillas in real life, creating a deeper meaning. We used Dole Wood for the businessman and his scenes and we chose this for it derelict look and the quietness of it. The quietness was very effective for us as it allowed us to create shots of the businessman looking lost and lonely and helps boost the narrative of two characters trying out/living contrasting lives and the unfamiliar look of it all.

Props

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I spoke about with location about our genre we found that Indie Pop is a rather relaxed and mainstream genre. We found that this is portrayed through locations and props and felt we had to adhere these expectations. The newspaper, for example, is an effective prop for adhering the mainstream look and has created a link to our psychographics. This is because a newspaper is an everyday item which links to our audience and narrative. The location helps link the newspaper as a town is an everyday place used by many people and so is a newspaper.

The costume choice for our music promo was the most effective for us, especially when it came to reinforcing our genre into our music promo. This was because we attempted to make the character look rough with the shirt untucked, top button undone and specs of dirt on the suit. This helped us reinforce our genre as it can reflect the audience members lives. Our target audience are a range of 16-28 year old and those are stressful ages. We found in our research that Indie Pop reflects stressful situations in promos whether it be through the narrative or lyrics. The costume supports this in our promo, the rough and lost look reflects the situation for most Indie Pop lovers, the stressful look and lost facial expressions and the unfamiliar location all support difficult situations audience members will or have gone through but the narrative offers support as the businessman does sort himself out appearance wise and his journey indicates this. This is showing a deeper meaning in our narrative for our audience to link to.

Question 2 - Evaluation

Script:

Question 2

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

All of our products we produced are effective to help create appreciation and acknowledgment for our artist KYKO and help boost his brand image and popularity. The whole promotional package is providing convergence and it is all for the benefit of the audience. We created a visual music promo for our audience to enjoy and watch and offering other alternatives such as the digi-pak and the music poster gives the audience other things to enjoy.
 

All the 3 texts we had to create are part of a promotional package and the purpose of all 3 is to increase sales for artist and they are ways of portraying different types of media convergence as this refers to two media texts coming together to make a package which is what we created. We created a digital music promo with a music poster and digi-pak the other two texts which we created to make a promotional package which is a sign of convergence. The point of using convergence is to increase sales and popularity for artists and it was important that we made this promotional package and to the best of our ability. Convergence increases sales because there is more to offer and for our audience to look at. They have the music promo which they can refer to and create links to but also the ancillary tasks help massively. The music poster is essential because audience members can buy this and see the artist in details and conventions of a music promo is having tour dates on them which help audience know when tours are available for tickets and also they can place the music poster on their bedroom walls. The digi-pak also gives the audience a chance to buy an album and listen to the song but also a digi-pak also offers information about the artist/band so we had to use these conventions in our digi-pak to give ourselves the chance to get a very good grade.
 

With the whole promotional package will mean that synergy will exist within the package, synergy means when two businesses work collaboratively to promote their products, by co-operating the products are more successful than if the businesses worked alone. An example of synergy in the music world would be music artists working with producers that can promote their artists and raising popularity. Also another important aspect for bands/artist is merchandise which the music poster can come under and creating merchandise is helpful for sales and popularity by working with companies who can create this merchandise.

 

In our task we had to create the promotional package and there had to be synergetic links and I feel we included this very well in our promotional package. The package help promote one another because of the landscape and location choices for all 3 texts. The digi-pak and poster have very effective scenic shots which show roads/tracks within them and helps create a message about the use of the tracks and will attract the target audience to watch the music promo to understand the images. Also the use of the characters was another good idea of ours to use on the digi-pak and poster as the title is called animals and there is only one animal out of 3 characters. This creates questions about how can it be about animals and will excite the audience to watch to understand the narrative and images. Another effective factor of our work was the use of the same titles throughout and this was used as from our research we found that bands/artist rarely ever change the titles on poster and digi-paks as it all counts towards brand image and the effectiveness around this is that it helps the audience automatically recognise the band/artist from the typography.

Through our narrative we tried to make our audience feel as though they were close to the character; this was done by using the same location for the characters in the music promo and the main artist in the music promo. The message behind this is showing the closeness and it helps create a message about similarities about the characters and the artist and the whole aim of our music promo was for our audience to put themselves in the situations of the characters. Our music video isn’t very serious as we used the gorilla which is visually pleasing to watch but the deeper and serious meaning behind the narrative is important. The Indie Pop genre explores the darker side of love and reflects problems that go on in the world for the target audience and we wanted to show this in our promo. We portrayed this through the characters in our promos being in unfamiliar territory and we also tried to make the businessman look scruffy, the message behind this will reflect the stress and problems our target audience may be experience at a stressful stage in their lives. The journey of them getting back on track and in familiar territory is explaining an important message, that no matter what troubles they may experience they can pull through them and sort themselves out and the use of similar/locations for the main artist and characters provides reassurance and closeness to the audience that they aren’t alone in those troubles experienced whatever they may be.

The point of talking about that is important as it helps provide the link and meaning behind the images used for our digi-pak and music poster. The important aspect in the whole narrative explanation above is the use of similar locations for all involved and we wanted to ensure this was similar in our promotional package throughout. From all the 3 texts you can see we have used similar images of landscape shots and the importance of this is to reflect our artist and is also conventional of our genre, it reveals a sense of nature and reflects the main artist. Many artists in the music industry are quite fake now and don’t put over their true personalities and the use of naturalistic images to represent our artists provides a message over his personality and that he defies the majority of the music industry but adheres his genre of music. Also another factor to use these images and locations was of course because of the title of the song, animals is associated with these locations, they are open spaces which reflect the wild and this is another factor behind the use of images.
 

The images and typography that we used were the ways we created links between all of the 3 products. The images with the use of landscaping images were on link we created. We tried to create a naturalistic look as the song refers to animals and running wild which creates messages about a naturalistic look so we wanted to have that link with the lyrics and in all 3 products. For the digi-pak and music advert poster we used different images of landscape and this was to provide images and locations that exist within our music promo, this attracts the audience as they get an understanding of the narrative and locations but also provides the naturalistic link between the promotional package. This is effective as the natural look is a convention of our chosen genre as when we carried out our research we found that Indie Pop subverts the conventions of Pop with the fake look portrayed through make up and location is stayed away from. The whole natural convention is important for Indie Pop because it is all used to create a link with the audience. The typography was also used effectively as we used the same titles such as the same font and style throughout all 3 products. This is effective and useful as it helps with brand identity and allows our audience to easily recognise us from the simple title. This will help audience members identify other products if they've only seen one or two products and easily recognisable from a simple piece of text.

 

 

This is an example of an Indie Pop/alternative group’s digi-pak and magazine advert and they have adhered the conventions I have just spoken about with the same typography and also the images used are the same. The whole point of this is to create a link between each product so that the audience know how to link them all together. They have created this through the typography with the same font and style being used for both pieces of work which helps with the brand recognition and allows the audience to instantly know who they are and what the album is.

The exhibition part of the music industry is important for every single band/artists and we have exported our music promo under new media ways by offering it on YouTube to be able to stream. This is an effective ways and a positive factor new media has over traditional media techniques. This is because in the past music promos were view on TV channels such as MTV which was a music channel that showed none stop music promos 24/7. Although the industry has changed and promos are streamed from YouTube and this is an effective way to view promos as audience members can view whatever promo they like and not have to wait for a specific promo on a TV channel, shows the benefits of new media techniques. This may all sound brilliant for the new media techniques but the new techniques are hampering the effectiveness of digi-pak and the magazine poster. This is because the new media techniques are meaning digi-pak are digitally downloaded and people now start to ignore the specialty of a digi-pak and the importance of a digi-pak is becoming extinct.

When looking at our 3 texts all individually they are very effective but as a whole they work very well as a promotional package and I feel they look very professional all together and would be effective for increase sales and recognition. Our music video was a success although one weakness that I would say we would aim to improve if we did it again and dedicate the film around narrative. I feel the narrative is difficult to understand for some people and I feel we could have made the narrative a bit clearer and have a better relationship between the businessman and the gorilla and I feel we would have nailed the narrative and got a very successful music promo. As for the music poster I feel it is a very professional looking poster from the titles and images but I feel it wouldn’t be a very successful poster if it didn’t have the synergetic links and I feel this is the same with the digi-pak. They are unclear from the images and without being all as a package they wouldn’t be as strong being individual texts.