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

In response to the question, I have created a SlideShare presentation demonstrated the numerous new media technologies we used throughout our project.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to establish what I have learned from my audience feedback, it must first be analysed. Below is the video created from our feedback.

Question 1: Did you like our music video?
Responses:

• "Yes, it was really good."
• "Yeah."
• "Yes, I enjoyed it a lot. It was very emotional."

What we learnt:
From these answers, it is evident that our music video was enjoyed. This is particularly good for us as we felt that our music video may not be liked as it was emotional. However, the third response indicates that music videos can still be enjoyed even if they leave the audience with a large emotional impact. Additionally, we have discovered that we did successfully create a music video of a professional standard as it was liked by many.
Question 2: What did you enjoy about our music video?
Responses:

• "It was really emotional and powerful."
• "The locations were good."
• "Because it was a very true story. However, when you found out that the boy had died it was so sad."
• "It told, like, a story and it gave you more of an idea of what was going on in the song."

What we learnt:

Again, we can see that the emotional impact of the music video is a reason why people enjoyed it. This corroborates with the professional music videos we see on a daily basis; Christina Aguilera's 'Beautiful' video is extremely emotional yet is still liked my millions of people. 

The locations were also mentioned as being a good part of the video, which shows that our selections were correct at fitted our plans well. Two of our participants also commented on the story, with one saying that it was a real life story. This, in our opinion, infers that our music video is relatable as many people experience the death/loss of a friend or friendship. The emotions portrayed in our music video are emotions that are commonplace in society, albeit on different levels. Therefore, the participant is highlighting that we created an extension of these emotions and feelings, and visually represented it alongside Moss' song. Moreover, a participant also stated that we gave the audience an idea as to what the song potentially meant. This suggests that our interpretation was valid and reflected the lyrics well. We feel this is beneficial as there are many songs with meanings that are hard to follow and are only properly understood when the music video is released.
Question 3: What was your favourite part?
Responses:

• "The whisk as the end. That was really cool. The really happy bit."
• "My favourite part was definitely the montage bit at the end."
• "My favourite part was at the end when it goes to her memories and she was thinking of all the good times she had with her boyfriend."
• "The part where the boyfriend that died disappears, showing that he died."

What we learnt:

As three of the four participants mentioned the section at the end of the video, it is obvious that this was a success. At times, we were unsure whether the montage section would work in relation to the rest of the video. However, we have discovered that its inclusion helped to tie the whole video together. Another participant also enjoyed the part where the male character appeared and disappeared. We thought this part was rather haunting and therefore memorable, a thought confirmed by the answer given. From looking at the 100 greatest music videos, it is clear that the best ones are the most memorable; as ours has two distinctly memorable parts, we have learnt that our video is of a high standard.

Question 4: Would you change anything?Responses:

• "No, it was perfect."
• "No."
• "Not really. I wouldn't change much. I think it was very well done. The music video was very well thought out, and very well edited, and very well filmed."
• "Nope, it was brilliant."

What we learnt:
From the responses, we learnt that our music video worked very well as a whole, as the participants of our audience feedback did not want to change anything.
Question 5: Do you think our music video matched the song?
Responses:

• "Yes, incredibly."
• "Yeah, definitely."
• "I think it did match the song very well."
• "Yes."

What we learnt:

All of the responses agreed that our music video matched the song, which shows that the interpretation we provided was valid and reflected the meaning of the song. Also, it suggests that the participants understood the narrative depicted in our video, which we are relieved about.

We also created a survey as part of our audience feedback; the answers of which will be analyse below.

Question 1: What is your gender?

As with our previous survey, more females participated than males. This means that the results will hopefully be similar to what they were previously; we think that females would expect the same things, and would therefore provide feedback similar in nature.

Question 2: How old are you?

Again, the results of this question were similar to our previous survey, with the 16-20 category being the most selected. This reinforces the idea that the answers to this survey will come from the same group of people that answered our first survey.

Question 3: On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, how much did you enjoy our music video?

With the majority of people selecting '5' as their answer, it shows that our music video was well received. Moreover, only two participants selected '3', whilst no one chose either '1' or '2'. Additionally, when I look at the results in more detail, it was two males who selected '3' as their answer.

One of these males was between 21-25 years of age, whilst the other is between 16-20. This means that neither were completely in our target audience, which therefore means that our music video was not catered to them. We therefore learnt that those who were not in our target audience may not be able to enjoy our music video as much as those who were targeted by us; females between 16-20. However, this idea was disproved to an extent, as one male who was under 16 rated our music video a '4'.

This therefore indicates that our music video is not limited to those who were intentionally targeted by us, and can have the same or similar effect on many different people. This is of benefit to us and Moss, as the product would therefore be extending her audience further.

Question 4: What was your favourite part?

As this section of our survey required the participants to fill an answer box, I thought the best way to present my results was through a wordle.

The wordle shows that there wasn't one answer that was selecting a considerable amount of more than the others, and that our music video had many memorable parts. We were disappointed that the locations or cinematography was not selected more/at all as this was something we dedicated a lot of time towards. As a result, we learnt that the cinematography or locations used were never going to be the main reason people enjoyed the video, but were the medium through which other aspects of the video could become memorable and of a professional standard. If our location choices and cinematography was poor, the audience's focus would have been drawn to these errors, which would therefore detract from the other areas that were performed well.

Question 5: What was your least favourite part?

In this instance, the vast majority of participants did not have a least favourite part. This again shows that our music video was a success. However, there were some other answers. A few people thought that our music video was potentially too sad and that the boy's death was something they disliked. We thought that this may occur, as the issues we were trying to show were rather sad. However, as the other answers infer that our interpretation was valid, we feel that the melancholy nature of the video and the boy's death was necessary. This is also present in many other texts, where a character who is liked dies. Two instances are Rue's death in 'The Hunger Games' and Jack's death in 'Titanic'. From both of these texts, and our own, we have learnt that it is necessary to cause the audience distress as it allows the impact of the narrative to be heightened.

Question 6: Do you think the lip-syncing was in time to the song?

With the responses all agreeing that our lip-syncing was in time to the song, it is therefore clear that this aspect of our music video was performed to a high standard. Additionally, we also learned that our casting decisions were correct. If the actress we selected did not look as though the voice was her own, any mistakes in the lip-syncing would have been emphasized and consequently noticed by our audience.

Question 7: Do you think our music video gave a valid interpretation of the song?

Again, every participant thought that our interpretation of the song was feasible. This also meant that they understood the narrative and the meaning behind certain sections such as the cemetery scene and the section with the female's memories. Thus,we have learnt that our decisions to make these sections separate (the cemetery was filmed on an overcast day, which created a monochromatic mise-en-scene, and the montage section was edited using the 'Colour Corrector' option in Final Cut Express) were successful and highlighted the separate chapters of the story as a whole.

Question 8: Would you be interested in our products after seeing our advertisement?

From this, it is evident that the vast majority of people would be interested in our products after viewing our advert. This means that the advert was a success. Additionally, the two negative responses both came from male participants, which suggests that our target audience responded in the way we expected, even if the other groups of people didn't necessarily enjoy our products.

The pie chart shows that all the females who participated in the survey would be interested in our products - an obvious success. This is contrast to the pie chart below, in which only the majority of the males asked would be interested in our products. This is still a success, although it shows that not everyone would enjoy our product, and that we were correct in focusing our efforts on a particular audience.

Question 9: Do you think our three products work well together?

All of the participants said that our products worked well together, which shows that the relationship between the products was evident to our audience and that our efforts were not wasted.

Question 10: Do you think our three products fit the genre of Allie Moss' music?

All but one of our participants said that the products fit the genre of Allie Moss' music. This means that nearly all of those asked saw our products as relevant to Moss and matching of the music she creates. This means that we stuck to our brief as this is what we intended to do.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of your main media product and ancillary texts (DVD Digipak, Magazine advert)?

Below is a slideshare presentation showing how effective the combination of our media texts are.

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

For this question, I have created a Prezi presentation, which allows be to display my answer in a new and unique way.
As Prezi does not support .gif images, I have had to place them below my presentation; the presentation will tell you when to refer to the image.

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Audience Feedback: Creating a Survey

As part of our audience feedback, we have decided to create a survey, asking the participants about our music video, digipak and magazine advert.
Using surveymonkey, I have been able to create a survey of ten questions. The ten questions include:

• What is your gender?
• How old are you?
• On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest, how much did you enjoy our music video?
• What was your favourite part?
• What was your least favourite part?
• Do you think the lip-syncing was in time to the song?
• Do you think our music video gave a valid interpretation of the song?
• Would you be interested in our products after seeing our advertisement? 
•  Do you think our three products work well together?
•  Do you think our three products fit the genre of Allie Moss' music?

We think these questions were suitable will allow us criticise our work accurately.

Audience Feedback: Filming and Editing

Today, we began filming and editing our audience feedback. Completing this will mean we will be able to complete the evaluation section of our project, as well as being able to understand how our video was received by the audience.
Aside from a survey we will create, we decided to film ourselves asking several questions about our music video. We will then analyse the results.
We asked five questions which were:

• Did you like our music video?
• What did you enjoy about our music video?
• What was your favourite part?
• Would you change anything about our music video?
• Do you think our music video matched the song?

We feel these questions we enable us to gain a good idea as to how and why people enjoyed/disliked our music video.

Audience Theory: Analysis of Finished Video - Uses and Gratifications Model

The post regarding the details of the Uses and Gratifications Model can be found here.
As the model states the audience are active, we expect the effect on the audience to differ between individuals. However, we believe that the majority of the audience will use the model in similar ways.
People will most likely use the text:

• To relate. Those who are grieving or feeling lost/isolated may be able to share a connection with our text and its narrative.
• For pleasure. We feel our text is satisfying to watch and will therefore be used to entertain.
• To escape. By watching our text, the audience may feel as though they have left their world and entered that of the text.
• To compare. As our text depicts the troubles of one individual and her relationship, the audience may wish to compare their self with our protagonist, or their relationship with the one shown.
• To inform. We feel that our text enlightens the audience to the difficulties some people experience, and the audience may therefore benefit from digesting our text.
• To help with personal and/or social identity. Our text portrays a female character isolated and lost, yet eventually finds herself. Others may view our text to reach a similar conclusion.

The main purpose of our music video was to highlight the particular emotions of Moss portrayed through her song, and create a visual text to support and emphasize her message. As a consequence, we feel that both escapism and the informing of others are the most prominent uses of our text. However, it can also be argued that the comparison between fictional relationships, as depicted in our text, and real relationships is the biggest use as many people suffer some form of loss regarding a relationship. Thus, most people would be able to relate on some level.

Completed Music Video

Our music video is now finished, and can be seen below.

We are very proud of the final product, and are glad to have finished it and be able to focus fully on our digipak and magazine advertisement.

Audience Theory: Analysis of Finished Video - The Effects Model

Previously, we had learnt about the Effects Model, which is an audience theory. Information about this can be found here.
How does this model apply to our music video?

• This model infers that the message of the media text must have a negative effect on the audience. However, we feel that our music video provides the audience with a positive effect, as the ending itself is positive. Although our music video does show negative emotions, the overall theme portrayed is one of strength, which is obviously positive.
• We do not feel as though the audience would be intoxicated by our music video, which consequently means that the model is not wholly applicable.
• We also do not feel as though any behaviour in our music video would be copied, thus making the model redundant in terms of our music video.
• We do not see any reason for our text to be banned, as many that fit this theory have been.
• Moreover, we do not believe that the text will cause any moral panics.

Advertisement - 2nd Draft

Today we have finished our second, and hopefully final, draft of our advertisement.

As part of this draft, we added three things: a 'HMV' logo, a logo representing Moss' recording company and Moss' website address.

Below is a screen grab of the design for the logo of Moss' recording company in Photoshop. It is placed on a black background in order for it to be visible.

Below is a clearer picture of the logo. When we placed it onto our design, we had to remove the black fill layer and re-scale it to the appropriate size.

A further detail we added was a HMV logo. To do this, I took the image of the logo from the HMV website, and placed it into Photoshop. I then used to lasso tool to select the areas I didn't need, and then deleted them. This allowed me to only have the text 'HMV' left, which I re-scaled and put onto our design.

Below is the second draft. We are happy with the result and feel it is a continuation of our music video and digipak.

We are happy with the result, and feel as though this design matches our digipak and music video. Additionally, we think that this product works well on its own and is of a professional quality.

Advertisement - 1st Draft

Today we completed the first draft of our advertisement, and we are happy with the result.

We decided to create a simple advert, as it mirrors our digipak and would show a clear connection between both parts of the project. Additionally, we opted to use the same font, as this would be a continuation of our digipak; we also used a hand written piece of text, made using a Wacom Bamboo Tablet. This mirrors our digipak and allows our project to be congruous as a whole.
The colours of the advert differ from our digipak, which makes both elements of our project interesting.

Planning: Advertisement - Initial Photos

Today I took some photographs that could be used for our advertisement. As it was windy, we decided to experiment with placing Sarah's hair across her face, and also lifting it so that it would move with the wind, if only for a brief moment in time. We got several nice pictures, of which I edited. Some of them are below.

 The first image is eye-catching as Sarah is looking directly into the camera. However, we don't think this will make for a good advert as the text will  be placed over her face and probably cover her eyes. Therefore, the main point of the picture would be lost. Also, a lot of the image is filled with Sarah's face, which will mean that the writing of the advert will get lost in her features, which is bad as we are trying to promote our product.

 This image also stood out to us as the movement of the hair contrasted with the stillness of Sarah's face. The colours match those of our music video and the composition works well for the a photograph. However, we are unsure whether the framing would work for an advert, as we would ideally like to place the text in the centre. Additionally, we feel that the mood of the image may not represent Moss' other songs on her album, and will consequently not be appropriate.

 Her is the image in black and white. We all preferred it edited this way, although we expect our advert to be in colour, and it would look more striking on a website, magazine or newspaper.

This image was our favourite. There is a lot of movement in the photograph and the shade of red is really eye-catching. Furthermore, there is an ambiguity in the photograph which means that Sarah could be both happy and sad at the moment of which the photo was taken. Therefore, when a happier song from the album is played, the audience would view this image differently to how they would when 'Corner' is listened to.
In order to see which of the landscape images would look the best for our advert, I created a few samples, using the images and some different sized text.

Out of the three images, the last one is the best. In the first two, some of the text is lost against Sarah's face, which is an obvious negative. We will therefore use the third photograph, unless we take some more images.