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.

Advertisement - Ideas for the Advert

We have decided to gather some ideas for our magazine advert, as this will help us in the future, when we come to design it. All of the images shown were taken by me.

This first image is one which we could recreate if needed, as we feel that the image is emotive and congruous to our music video. The natural lighting is dramatic and effective, as there is an obvious bond between the two subjects. Moreover, we could easily place text over the image, meaning that we have a number of options when creating the advert, as we could include the photo as part of it.

This image is the my favourite, and would seek to recreate it for our advertisement. The photograph is strong and eye-catching, and would fit the relationship portrayed in our music video. White text could be placed over the top of the image, or place around it.

This image is the weakest out of the three in terms of us being able to use it. The image looks too happy, and therefore would not mirror our music video. As a consequence, we would not look to capture an image that's similar.
Overall, it would beneficial for us to take a variety of different images, all capturing the same mood, and then decide as a group which is most suitable for our advertisement.