What did you learn from Audience Feedback - Video

We asked our audience for feedback after a viewing of our music video for "Superman". A range of questions were asked from what they liked about the video, to what they didn't like about it and their overall view. The answers we gained were similar from the participants involved but insightful nonetheless. We have condensed their answers into these two videos.

Final Blog Post!

My blog has finally been completed! I hope you enjoy looking through my various posts to gain an insight on my ideas and final designs, as well as influences and research that were important throughout all the tasks.

Here is our final music video for your enjoyment,

ENJOY! :)

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

Throughout the research and planning stages to the construction of my music video, digipak and advert I have used different forms of media technologies such as Youtube, iMovie, and photoshop for the construction. of these products.

During the research and planning stages, I found YouTube a very useful resource in aiding my ideas into my own music video. Watching videos from a similar genre allowed me to pick up the conventions of the pop/rock genre and later on in the evaluation stages I was able to highlight where I used, developed and challenged these conventions. Instead of watching a music channel on TV that would not always show the specific genre I was researching, YouTube allowed me to specifically search and select what I needed. Pausing the videos meant I could analyse and go back and view over multiple times. Google Images and Google itself was useful in the research and planning stages of my digipak and advert, as I had an essential range of examples to search for. It was particulary vital for researching into directors of music videos and artists of the pop/rock genre of our music video and I had a rich amount of information at my fingertips at all times.

When constructing our music video we had access to a video camera and tripod at our sixth form. The tripod allowed us to use tracking shots, and steady long shots while the camera allowed for zoom ins and close ups. iMovie was then used to upload our footage onto and then to finally edit. Throughout this process, our work was backed up to an external hard drive, but unfortunately there was a problem with this as at the middle stages of editing, we lost a majority of our edited footage and had to start from scratch. Nonetheless, the rest of the experience was pleasant enough, and we used YouTube clips for tips on effects and cropping as the software was updated and therefore brand new to the production team. Photoshop was used for the majority of the construction of my digipak and advert. The ability to crop images, add effects and use different fonts and tools was a great help in making the products look as professionally done as possible. Using it during the planning stages meant I could create a draft for a certain product and then ask for essential audience feedback, before moving on to develop a final design.

How effective is the combination of your advertisement, digipak and music video?

In order to create synergy between the music video, digipak and advertisement, creating the latter two with similar imager, techniques and fonts was essential in creating a familiarity for the audience while easily relating the three products to each other. My final designs for the digipak and advertisement are below.

Firstly the image of the female artist in the digipak and magazine advertisement are identical. While the image used for the advert is not the cover's main image it is still used in the production and I felt myself it was a more effective image to draw attention to the advert itself. However, it still allows the audience to make a direct link between the two products. The strong female image is also present in our music video. The female protagonist, while used in other music videos as demeaning and weak, was strong and in control of her own decisions in our own video, challenging the female stereotype. She was the character to take control and choose who she wanted to date, the plot/narrative of the video itself. As the image on the digipak and the advertisement are (mostly) a full body shot, this may attract a male gaze so in some ways this hindered the stereotype challenge.

The cartoon effected images and the thought bubble/speech bubble from the digipak and advert reflected our editing techniques from the music video for "Superman". Using this effect for the Superman character and the female protoganist's imagination highlighted the cartoonish, youthful effect we wanted to establish in the video. I myself developed this idea further in my digipak and advert to create a recognisable theme for the band. The logo was created using the graffiti tool, emphasising the youthful aspect of the three products. The music video uses scenes of childish play in the park. The theme of love is used for all three products. The digipak and advertisement emphasise the band's love of music with the image of the heart incorportated onto the image of the female. This theme was also the main plot to our video, the female character on her mission to find love at a speed date. I produced a red glow around the heart, while in our video to emphasise the theme we used the romantic effect to add to the speed dating scenes.

I used the segoe script font for both the advert and digipak to create a signature style for the band, but to also again emphasise the synergy between the products. Although no font was utilised in the video, it reflected the genre of Pop/Rock with its "real handwriting" effect, as well as being a popular choice with my audience. The glow effect used around the images of the female adds to the surrealness of the album, but again creates a synergy between the products. It also ties in with the theme of Superman from the video, and also one specific editing technique where we used the dream effect to reflect the excitement and surrealness of the imagination of our protagonist.

Overall, I feel the combination of the digipak, advert and music video are effective due to the carefully selected characteristics in all three products, which in turn creates an effective synergy and a personal image that fans would instantly recognise. Some features are more obvious such as the colour scheme and logo from the digipak and advert, with the Superman/cartoon-related connotations/ influences becoming obvious once the music video is viewed.

In what ways does your advertisement use, develop or challenge forms and conventions?

As stated previously, in order to gain inspiration and ideas into the design of my own advertisement I researched into the conventions, the main ingredients, included in the production of a successful magazine advertisement. The most important conventions such as the release date and outlet retailer were present in all of the advertisements I came across, while I also specifically looked at advertisements that highlighted the conventions of my own genre of Pop/Rock. Therefore in my own production of my design, there were stages where I have used, developed and challenged the conventions and I will highlight these here.

Used
The main conventions that I incorporated into my own design included vitally the name of the band/artist. By using the same logo that was used on my digipak design thus creating synergy, it also promotes the band/artist and their profile in the public eye. Using details of the band's website promotes them further, allowing people to research them at their own leisure while allowing their own fans to be in contact with them with information like tour dates. The release date is a vital ingredient for an advertisement for the obvious reason of informing others when to buy it. It also creates an anticipation for their fans, counting down the days until its release. Stating the name of the retailer on the advert, while not seen as essential can be important in the album's release. As my own design states, the album is only available at HMV. This has been the case with some release posters I have seen in my own experience and so I incorporated that idea here. Using the similar background from the digipak creates a synergy between the two products and will be recognisable to fans when the digipak is brought in the shop.

Developed
As mentioned before, using the name of the retailer on the advertisement is not something necessarily used in the production of this product. However I chose to develop the technique here myself, and used the HMV logo with the slogo "available only at..." This informs the audience while promoting the retailer too. The image of the artist looking away from the audience does not seem conventional in itself and is rather rare as normally looking at the audience engages them immediately. However, with influence from Florence and the Machine's own advertisement, I used this particular image to make the artist more mysterious while slyly inviting the audience in. Additionally, the quotes from magazine reviewers I found in my research to be quite rare. However I developed the idea here, using two quotes from Q and NME magazine, showing to the audience that the band has been approved by the "experts".

Challenged
When looking at my design, I do not feel I challenged many conventions drastically as this would maybe divert the audiences attention elsewhere. However it could be said that I haven't conventionally used the album's main image for the advertisement as many traditionally do. The exclusion of the form of the album i.e available in digipak was due to their being no room left for this information, making the design appear too full and confusing.

Final Advertisement

After taking note of the feedback I recieved last week, I have produced my final design for a magazine advert.

I have included more action in the background with the inclusion of the musical notes, thus creating more effective synergy with the digipak. I have also taken a technique from Florence and the Machine's own advertisement and bordered the information of the release date. I have added a purple glow to the image of the artist so she blends in more with the background, while adding back the speech bubble from the first design to highlight the influence of comics.

Audience Feedback to the Advertisements

As mentioned in my previous post, I would be allowing friends, family and school peers to view my two designs of a magazine advertisement, promoting the debut album of the band Amber Rhythm. This task helped me to to decide which advert I would develop and then become my final design.

My results show that out of the fifteen people questioned, 9 preferred my second design to the first design, where only 6 people chose this.I then asked all of the candidates a range of questions on both design to gain the critical feedback I needed in order to develop the advertisement. These were:

1. What aspects of the advertisement did you enjoy?
2. What did you not enjoy about the advertisement?
3. What would you improve on the advertisement?

1. For the first question and the first design many of the candidates stated that they enjoyed the fact that the advertisement adhered to many of the conventions of magazine advertisements. They picked out "...the release date, shop retailer and information of what the album was released on very professionally done..." which only enhanced their enjoyment more. Secondly the image of the artist was picked up, and some candidates "...recognise this image from the album cover..." This showed that I successfully created a synergy between the two products and that it would be recognisable to the audience when viewed in a shop etc. The musical notes in the background were another popular idea with most of the candidates as it was used on the digipak cover but also because it links to the band's name but also their overall image in music. For my second design feedback on this included that this advert was the one that defined the link between itself and the digipak, "...although the image isn't from the front cover it is still included in the digipak and the background colour scheme is also the same making this the more effective poster..." The band's logo being placed in the center of the advertisement was said to be eye catching and authorative as to some this is the most important aspect to gain their attention. Another candidate stated that "...while the first design looked more pop/rock, I prefer the second design due to its simplicity, and that it isn't so "in your face". Also as the image of the artist is looking away, something that I picked up myself in Florence and the Machine's advertisement poster, means that "...there is an air of mystery to the band, but it looks like she is inviting you in "on the sly". Finally, the quoted reviews were enjoyed by most of the candidates as they felt it made the ad look more professional but also it adhered to conventions of an advertisement.

2. Aspects of the first design many candidates didn't enjoy were that the colour scheme was too dark and "...wouldn't catch my eye unlike a brighter colour in the background..." The fact that it did not carry any synergy with the digipak turned off one or two candidates as well. The speech bubble was said to be a good idea as it made the poster look a lot more fun, but not much was done with it and it seemed to "float" there without doing much. For the second advertisement, while some liked the simplicity, others felt that it was too plain and there needed to be "...more action in the background like the first design..." Others noted that they thought the image of the girl was good in its effect, but she seemed to be floating in anymonity, which wouldn't be appealing to an audience. One person told me they would of liked to have seen the speech bubble replicated in the second design as they felt the logo again was just "floating". One other candidate said that the website for the band's font was far too small, and it is "...an important factor when advertising so it should be made much bigger for audience members to pick up on..."

3. For the third and final question I only asked what could be improved for the second design as it was the more popular. Points that were stated included improving the background scenery more, by taking the technique from the first design and importing the musical notes onto the second to "...jazz it up..." but to also enhance the genre of Pop/Rock. Also a few pointed out that the image of the artist should blend in more, rather than just floating anoymously. The website font should be made bigger as said in the last question.

Taking on board what has been said in this feedback I will make more developments to my second design in order to improve it further.