Evaluation Question 3 Draft

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Our target audience are most likely to be British. This is because I believe that British people will be able to identify the location in our music video as it's a very typically British themed with arcade, cafe and beach huts. These are all aspects of location which, particularly, young British people will be able to identify with. We took the location into deep consideration to build and attract our fan base. Additionally, our target audience are more likely to be White Caucasian due to the band and main protagonist in the music video.

The age of our target audience is likely to be between the ages of 16-25. This is because this genre of music, especially my track and music video, attracts a young, youthful audience. The band and protagonist of the music video are also of this age group which audience members can relate to. I chose to target a female audience. This is because I believe audiences who are female will be able to relate more to the main protagonist as in the music video she is very reflective and  females may watch the music video and reflect also, relating to the main character. If a female audience relate to the main protagonist in the music video then they may understand and enjoy the song and lyrics more. Female audiences can relate more because of the lyrics in the song as the song is sung by a male expressed towards a female. Therefore, females are more likely to associate with the lyrics as they may feel that they are being sung to as they listen to the song.

I believe that our target audience's style would be very indie/rock/grunge based as this is this indie/rock genre of music strongly influences that particular style amongst young British people. Shops such as TOPSHOP and H&M display clothing of this style which suggest to me that our target audience would shop there. Below is a picture of our band 'Jungle Doctors'. Here they are shown as a very stylish young group of British males who match my idea of the target audience's style. The scruffy hair, denim jackets and floral shirts all signify the indie/grunge look. By the band having this particular style this would encourage the audience to be fairly similar.

My target audience are likely to be interested in other artists such as Two Door Cinema Club, Foals, Little Comets, Arctic Monkeys as they all have a very similar style within their genre of music. As well as a similar genre, they all have a distinguishable style which the audience can identify with.  

Target Audience Feedback

Evaluating my audience feedback was important to see if my production met my target audience standards. Stuart Hall's reception theory based on encoding/decoding model. The encoder (the producer) and the decoder (audience). The theory states that by meeting audience expectations through genre and themes, the producers can situate the audience so that the there can be an agreement on what the conventions of the production actually means so that they can understand the codes and conventions of the production. By creating questionnaires I was able to get feedback so that I could make possible changes to meet the audiences expectations.

Music Video Feedback

After creating my music video I wanted to receive feedback on my overall production. I did this by creating hard copies of a questionnaire in which I handed out to people of my target audience. The questionnaire asks:

1. How much did you enjoy the music video?
2. Did it hold your attention?
3. How do you rate the camera work and editing?
4. How do you rate the standard of mise-en-scene?
5. Was the music video: too short? correct length? too long? don't know?
6. Would you watch the music video again?
7. Can you suggest anything that could improve the appeal?
8. Were there any aspects that you find offensive?
9. Was there any part you found confusing or hard to understand?
10. What is thee best part of the production?
11. Does the video reflect the style of the music?
12. does the video successfully promote the artist/band/group?
13. One a scale of 1 2 3 4 5 with 5 being the highest how do you rank the music video?
14. Any further comments on how this video could be improved?

 Female, aged 19 believed that there weren't any areas in which she found offensive. She then explained that she was confused and wondered why we chose to use an amusement park as our location but then heard the word 'luck' in the song so it was explained. She further went on to explain that the best part of the production was the shots towards the end of the boats and the water. She stated that the music video reflects the style of the music and that the video successfully promotes the band. Overall she rated the music video a 4/5 with not further comments.

 Male, aged 17 believed that the music video was the correct length and was not at all offensive. He explained that there was no confusion but a clear narrative structure to follow. He stated that the best part of the production was the clean jump cuts of the stills which contained good, vibrant colours. He believed that the music video reflected the style of the music. However, he was undecided that the video successfully promotes the band. For improvements, he suggested that a few of the cuts between shots should've used better transitions such as fade to blacks. Overall, he gave the production a 4/5.

 Another male, aged 17, thought that the production was the correct length and wasn't at all offensive.  He was confused as to what the girl in the video was actually doing throughout. He thought that the shots nearer to the end with the orange sky, boats and beaches were there best part of the production. He believed that the video successfully promoted the band and thought that the video reflected the style/genre of music. Overall, he rated our music video a 4/5.

 Female, aged 17, thought that it was the correct length and said that they would chose to watch it again. They said that there wasn't any parts which were offensive or parts in which they found confusing. However, for improvements they thought that we couldn't rendered our transitions so that they would flow together and go to the beat more. They said the best part of the production was the camera movements and mise-en-scene, especially of the boats, as it fitted with the lyrics and song title. They believed that the video reflected the style of the music and successfully promotes the band. Overall, they gave the production a 4/5.

 Male, aged 18, said that the production was the correct length and that they would happily watch it again. They didn't think any areas needed improving nor were there any aspects of the music vidoe that were offensive or confusing/hard to understand. They believed the best part of the production was both the camera work and mise-en-scene - the location. They thought that the video strongly reflected the style of the music. However, they were undecided about whether or not they the video successfully promotes the band. Overall, they gave the music video production a 4/5.

Female,aged 18, said that they would happily watch the video again. They also stated that there were no offensive aspects of the video and that it was not confusing/hard to understanding but "was all straight forward - fun!". She said the production was all exciting and believed that the video reflected the style of the music and that it successfully promoted the band. Overall, she rated the production 4/5. Further comment was "It has exciting imagery - flashing lights!".

Overall, all of the feedback was very positive and reassuring. All of the people that returned the questionnaires gave our music video an overall score of 4/5. Most of the respondents said that the best aspects of the production was the mise-en-scene of the boats, beaches and sea. The majority of respondents thought that the area in which was most appealing were the camera shots used. From this feedback I've learned that the main area which needs improving is the transitions of shots. The respondents recommended that I used more of a range of transitions such as fade to blacks.

Print Productions Feedback

To receive constructive audience feedback for my print productions I also produced hard copies of questionnaires in relation to our print productions. This was to see if there was any areas of our print productions in which we could make improvements on.

The questionnaire asks:

1. Does the package successfully reflect the genre of music?
2. does the package successfully promote the band/artist?
3.  how do you rate the standard of graphics, text, finish of digipak?
4. how do you rate the standard of graphics, print finish of advert?
5. how successfully is the Britishness of the package established?
6. Would the covers encourage you to buy the digipak?
7. Would the advert encourage you to go to an event by this artist?
8. Were there any aspects that you find offensive? 
9. What are the 3 strongest features of the ancillary tasks?
10. rate the package overall (1=low 5=high)
11. Any further comments?

 

 Does the package successfully reflect the genre of music?  

All of the questionnaires that I received back were all 5/5. This was very satisfying as it made it clear that the audience thought there should be no changes to they way in which the print productions should reflect the genre.  

 Does the package successfully promote the band/artist?

 My responses to this question were fairly good. I received some 5/5's, one 4 and one 3. The two lower scores were easy to understand as our print productions didn't have any images of the band and just a small name of the artist on the front panel. However, I decided to stick to the original print productions as I believe the two 5 scores 

outweighed the 4 and 3 scores. 

How do you rate the standards, graphics, finish  or digipak?  

From all of my respondents I received both 4's and 5's. This was pleasing as this was the question in which I wanted to well in the most as the standards, graphics and overall finish of the digipak was very hard work and so be receiving positive feedback from this, I was sure that I wouldn't have to make amendments and improvements to this area.

When asked what were the 3 strongest features of the ancillary task, I received these responses:

• "Images well shot, edited well - circles are unique"
• "Clear and crisp images really reflect the genre well. Nice design/layout, poster promotes the band well"
• "The photography is very strong and professional. The editing is also very strong"
• "Colouring and images runs extremely well with theme and genre".

 

Panel 1

Feedback for Panel 1

 The comments I received for my panel 1:

• "Jungle Doctors title should be bigger"
• "Really pretty image - draws attention to the artist"
• "Great, minimalist photograph. I really like the circle frame and I think the placement of the text works well. You could maybe experiment with fonts?"
• "Represents the indie culture you are aiming for very well. A smart, clear, simple yet very affective layout and design. Top job!"
  
  These comments were all very positive and because of this I learned that the theme of my front panel strongly represented the indie genre which I was aiming for. It also told me that the simplistic, minimalist theme is very effective. 

Panel 2

Feedback for Panel 2

 Feedback from my panel 2:

• "The scenery is very calm and beautiful making it appealing to look at for the audience"
• "All images are nice generic conventions and link to your video - really nice".

These comments on my panel 2 are also extremely positive. From this positive feedback I was informed that the image strongly links to my music video which is what I was trying to achieve. The audience also believed that the photograph used was very appealing to the eye.  

Panel 3

Feedback for Panel 3

Feedback from panel 3:

• "Nice continuation of theme and clearly represents the genre of the track and music video"
• "Very detailed and fits well within the frame".

This feedback is also very positive and from it, the audience also believe that this panel represents the genre nicely, similarly to panel 1.  

Panel 4 Feedback

 Feedback for panel 4:

•  "Good placement of text"
• "Print OK and bar code needed"

 This feedback was very simple but effective because I learned from this and added in a bar code to make it more effective and realistic. I took into account this feedback and below is the new panel 4.

New Panel 4

Magazine Advert

Feedback for magazine advert:

• "The whole print production represents Britishness very well, as well as reflecting the genre. I like the way you've coloured and edited the shots"
• "Very good, represents band and Britishness well"
• "Very relevant to song of music video. Represents Britishness well. Font stands out well compared to the sky, attracts audience's attention. Red boat could represent girl dressed in red in music video"

Feedback For Magazine Advert

From the feedback I have learned that I have stuck to the criteria of our target audience. It is clear that from our audience feedback, the music video and print productions received strong responses and appeal to the target audience well. The target audience particularly enjoyed the location and mise-en-scene in the music video. From the print productions, the target audience thought that the photography was very professional and reflective of the genre. The use of circles in the digipak were thoroughly enjoyed by the audience. 

Evaluation Question 2 Draft

Questions 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?

After completing the music video, I had to create a Digipak as well as a magazine advertisement to promote the product. The digipak and magazine advert had to fit the same genre and theme. I had to try and create a continuous theme for my design.

One example of a band that I came across that used a continuous theme in both the music video and the artwork is Foster The People's album 'Supermodel'. Foster the People are a band with a similar genre to our band Jungle Doctors with the theme of indie/pop.The artwork on the side of the building features on the front cover of their album. The graffiti artwork strongly portrays the indie/pop genre theme.

Foster The People's Facebook Page

Foster The People advertising in London

The artwork is also on the Foster The People's Facebook page. This is to make fan's more aware of the new album. The Facebook page makes fans intrigued to listen or buy the new album. The graffiti is also around the London area to advertise for the new album. This quirky style of art is memorable to audiences so that they may be able to recognize the artwork in shops or online.

Album Cover

Another example of an artist that uses this idea of a continuous theme in both their artwork and music video is Taylor Swift's cover for her album Red. In the music video for 22 (on the album Red), she uses the same style as the album cover indicating a running conventional theme. She does this my having a recurring motif of costume, camera angles, lighting and props are all used to create a continuous theme. This helps the audience to familiarize themselves with the album cover. The relation between the music video and album cover create an effective combination with a continuous theme.

Music video for 22



It was important when planning my digipak and magazine that it was relevant to our key themes and key styles. For all of my panels in my digipak I tried to stick to the theme or art and photography.

Digipak

Panel 1



 When creating the front panel I focused on enhancing the brightness and saturation when editing with Photoshop. This was to create a sudden, vibrant feel to the music album. The use of the hanging lights strongly reflects the concept of a festival which is a convention of indie/rock music as this is the genre of music that is often played at popular festivals such as Reading and Leeds Festival and V festival. The lights

Lights at Reading and Leeds Festival

Panel 2

This photograph I took at Lowestoft Docks. Many of The Jungle Doctor's songs are very 'feel-good and calm. For audiences who are unfamiliar with the album, they would get this impression instantly from the images as they give off a calm and relaxed impact. This second panel also strongly fits the concept of our  music video 'Boat Song' and the album 'Waves'. 

 Panel 3  The third panel carries on the idea of the 'festival lights'. This is also a Goodwin's theory which I have developed amongst my Digipak productions. In my music video I've also included the lights that I've used for both Panel 1 and Panel 2. This was so that the panels within my digipak would have a link to some of the aspects within my music video.   I've also tried to include the use of silhouettes within my artwork. I done this because I thought it might a unique type of artwork as it gives a sense of mystery. Another artist that uses the idea of silhouettes is Jack Johnson's album cover for To The Sea. This creates a theme of mystery because we, as an audience, can't make out what's going on; creating an enigma.

Panel 4

For my back panel I've kept to the seaside theme. The genre is well suited for this theme as it's a tpically British sounding band so I've kept to this motif by displaying a British seaside as the back panel. For the lettering, I've used the same font and colour as panel 1 and the magazine advertisement. This is so that my design is continuous throughout the digipak and is recognisable to audience members. I used photographs that linked visually

 My magazine advert is a very conventional layout which is very neat and clear making vital information easy to read and understand such as the release date and rating. The picture as well as font strongly reflects the genre of indie/pop which would appeal to our target audience. I increased the contrast of the image to make the photograph more appealing and professional. I tried to conisder Goodwin's theory of "illustrating the relationship between the lyrics and the visuals". This main visual link in the magazine advert is the obvious relation is the boat pictured in the advertisement to the song title 'Boat Song' as well as the lyrics 'can we row my boat tonight?'. Not only have I included visual links between the lyrics and visuals by have tried to make a connection between the visuals in the magazine advertisement to the visuals in the music video. I done this by trying to make the red boat almost like a metaphor of the girl in the red top. Not only is the colour of red the relationship between the advertisement and the music video, but the boat is different from the other and is on it's own almost like it's isolated; this is how the girl is portayed in the music video - isolated. The girl in the music video is almost inseparable with the landscape, my magazine advertisement amplifies this visual metaphor.

Evaluation Question 1 Draft

Question 1: In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Location

Location is an important aspect of mise-en-scene and I believe that the mise-en-scene for the music video was extremely important. We chose to go to Lowestoft to film our music video. This is because it strongly represents the iconic  British  seaside resort. (Image)

We were strongly influenced by bands of the same genre that had also used British themed locations. Two Door Cinema Club are a Northern Irish band with an Indie/Rock genre which has a fairly similar sound to our band, Jungle Doctors. TDCC use a very British seaside location an introduce use of beach huts. Both the seaside and beach huts are themes which are strongly associated with the British theme. Our music video consists of beach huts, seaside scenary, arcade and a cafe which creates the generic convention of our typical British location.

Beach huts are a strong aspect of mise-en-scene in our music video. They're used to enhance the scenes as it gives the audience more of an understanding on where the music video is shot (the seaside).

 

Protagonist's Costume

Costume

In our music video I have developed indie conventions with the costume worn by the actress. This is also to attract audiences of a similar style. I tried to include traditional recent trends i.e. the leather jacket. Another aspect of the protagonist's costume is the Nike shoes. These 'Nike Blazers' that our protagonist wears are very typically indie and are worn by other indie artists in the music industry. Indie styled artists such as Eliza Doolittle and Ed Sheeran often wear these. Both of these artists have a very similar target audience to both me and Zoe.

Eliza Doolittle wearing Nike Blazers

Ed Sheeran wearing Nike Blazers

Arctic Monkeys wearing leather jackets

 Another aspect of our costume is the leather jacket. The leather jacket is an extremely trendy fashion statement worn my iconic artists such as the Arctic Monkeys (above). The Arctic Monkeys are an extremely contemporary band with exemplary style. They are seen wearing leather jackets in many of their music videos/photoshoots. These leather jackets are found on high street fashion shops such as Topshop and H&M. These high street fashion shops attract young people of around the ages of 16-15 especially, which would be appealing to our target audience.

Narrative Structure/Editing

In our music video, me and Zoe decided to use a the conventions of a linear narrative which focus on a day in the life of a girl at the seaside. We made our music video a montage of images/shots as we thought this would be more creative. We used continuity editing to emphasise the concept of storytelling. We achieved continuity editing through costume with the performer wearing the same clothing throughout the day. This was done so that it was clear to the audience that the girl was at the seaside throughout the same day. This was also emphasised by starting with a bright, sunny sky and ending it during the twilight/darkness of the evening. We also agreed that if we were to include a complex narrative structure it could confuse the audience. During the editing, we tried to incorporate transitions  that were in time with the rhythm. This made the footage compliment the music video nicely. I have tried to include close ups influenced by Goodwin's theory. Goodwin states that "the demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups". The use of these close ups helps the audience to identify and relate to the main protagonist as they can get a good feel of her emotions through her facial expressions. Throughout our music video we have included many fade to black transitions to cut to the next shot. This was effective as it was a montage so shots moved nicely from one to another. As well as this, we included match on action. This was when the song suddenly got faster so that the shots moved quickly from one to another at the same pace of the up-beat music. This was influenced by Goodwin's theory as he stated that "there is a relationship between the music and the visuals in that the transactions reflect the beat".

Representation

We challenged the reperesentation of gender in our music video.  Often in music videos, the female characters very much dominate the video with their confidence and 'sexiness' to appeal to the male audience. The "male gaze" is Mulvey's theory by which women are viewed by men in a sexual way and are given sexual attention.

The advertisement to the left is an example of the 'male gaze' as the attention is focused onto the attractive women (the men on the side of the curb gawking at the woman passing by). This type of  advertising helps to sell to women so that they can recieve this male attention. Other music videos use this idea of representing women as sexual objects in which men can gaze at. In Beyonce's video 'Dance For You', she dances in a sexual/ voyeuristic way to capture the man's attention. The camera angles and ways in which it is edited make the audience see Beyonce dancing from the man's point of view; unfluencing the audience to comply to the 'male gaze' theory.

Fish Tank (2009)

We chose to represent our female protagonist in a different way so that perhaps the music video would appeal more to both genders. Our representation of females is seen as rather iscolated, alienation and self-reflective. This is also a repesentation of youth as both iscolation and alienation is viewed as a contemporary issue amongst youth. This illustration of youth is also displayed in the film Fish Tank. Fish Tank is a British film produced in 2009. It follows the life of a troubled girl named Mia who lives on a council estate in East London and is expressed as soically iscolated and volatile teenager. We used this idea of a young, iscolaed girl as we believed the audience can identify with the emotions and feelings throughout the music video. This relates to Lacan's Theory of identity. His theory is specifically about audience engagement. Lacan states that certain aspects of music, videos, lyrics and artists can be related to as audience members may fit in with the particular social group that is being displayed.
Throughout the music video we tried to use recurring motifs. Recurring motifs is another of Goodwin's theory. We used recurring motifs in different aspects of the music video. One way in which we did this was by showing our female protagonist in the same outfit throughout. This was illustrate that it was throughout the same day.  We also used a distinctive visual of the British sea by disaplaying at the beginning and nearer towards the end. This way our music video had recurring signifiers throughout so that the audience could identify that the music video is set in the same location from start to finish.
 

Print Productions

My Panel 1

Pink Floyd Album Cover

My Panel 4

 For my print prodcuctions, I tried to develop conventions of artwork from other bands and artists. I focused on using the theme of shapes amongst my artwork. I did some further research and found that amogst bands of a similar/same genre, they also used shapes in their work. One that I cam across was the album cover for Pink Floysd's "Dark Side of the Moon" which became the 3rd best selling album of all time. There is so album name or artist name but it's been an extremely effective and capturing piece of artwork ever. The reason behind it being successful could be the fact that it could create confusion amongst the audience and so make them curious as to who it could be, making them look at the album up closer. I tried to develop this idea of a a simple shape and tried to make it more artisitc with the use of photography inside of the shape. Another band I came across which use this idea of shapes was Keane. Both Pink Floyd and Keane were both influences for our Digipak. For both panel 1 and panel 2 I kept the font fairly simple as it compliments the images; drawing the attention to these. This is also because, a complex font could be difficult to read or understand. For the layout of the digipak, I used the conventional 4 sided panel. I felt that my design would be best suited for this layout as it  represetns my genre of indie/rock and attract to a wide audience.

For the magazine I stuck to the 'British seaside/location' theme which relates to my digipak. The reason for this was to stick to a recurring motif; creating a theme behind the band. The layout of the magazine advert was influenced from other artists such as Florence and the Machine and The Acrtic Monkeys.

Magazine Advert

Florence and the Machine Advert

I was strongly influenced by this magazine advert from 'Florence and the Machine'. Like my magazine advert, it provides the name of the artist, album name, the release date and a website. These four pieces of information are vital to be shown on the advert as the name of the artist and album inform the audience of what the advert is for. Also, the release date and website are important as its further information on the album that the audience may be interested in. The layout for 'Florence and the Machine' magazine advert is a fairly traditional layout which influenced my magazine advert with the layout of the artist name at the top and the name of the album underneath. The album name is all in capitals which gave me the idea of doing all upper case lettering for the band name and all lower case for the album name. The image, similarly to mine, is centred in the middle which attracts people to read further into it. 

The Arctic Monkeys Advert

 Another band that influenced my magazine advertisement was 'Arctic Monkeys'. Like my advertisement I made the photograph central to appeal and attract the audience. The 'Arctic Monkeys' use a very interesting and controversial image to captivate the audience. Similarly to mine, the advert has star ratings. This verifies the quality of the album and will intrigue audiences to buy the album. The layout like my advert and the 'Florence and the Machine' one is very similar and traditional.