Evaluation Activity 1 - Tanaka Bonde

Evaluation Activity 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Throughout the production of the music video, we wanted to conform to the conventions of two different genres to satisfy both audiences and create an image and video for a band that is unique and quite unconventional. Though mostly a rock song and a rock band, their appearance is more towards the mainstream and we made such adjustments in order to satisfy an audience that likes traditional pop bands while keeping to those that like independent rock bands, the following is how we made adjustments in the video to cater to both audiences.

The Relationship of Lyrics to Narrative and Visuals

At this point in the song, the line "drove my parents to despair," is said and we show him making a public post to Facebook, this closely relates the lyrics to the visuals without being too direct. This is also shown in Coldplay's video for Paradise, where the character holds the lyrics, "When she was just a girl," on display in  a similar way to give the audience interaction with the video through lyrics. for our video, showing the parents would have gone against the audience expectation of keeping the cast strictly to young people, this way we were able to show the same situation while satisfying one of the requests from our target audience. As the visuals stay close to the narrative, it also conforms to one of Goodwin's rules of music videos, which is that there is always a close relationship between lyrics and visuals.

The Relationship of Music to Narrative

The instrumental itself is closely linked to the visuals, not only the performance but also the narrative, as the main character repeatedly plays imaginary instruments (air guitar) in tune to the music of the song. This appears twice again in the video as a recurring semiotic and as a symbol also shown in the ancillary tasks (front cover) were he plays guitar as a child. This relates to the theme of dreams and dreaming also shown in the ancillary tasks.

Representation of Artist

Though the focus is the main character in the video, the Record label, "Brit Isle records," is about presenting them as a close, cohesive group while making it clear who the star is. As an unconventional band, their clothing and image is supposed to be casual but unbranded, which reduces the inter-textual references that are conventional of rock bands but establishes the band better. This representation of a group instead of a main star is shown in the ancillary tasks and is very conventional of rock bands such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who's video of Carlifornication is widely used as a representation of similarities between style but different personal traits while prioritizing the lead, though not the same theme as our own video they have a similar appearance in that video.

Setting and Location: The setting we chose was one of the few things we did not take from our audience expectations and appeals more to the pop band side than the rock, a school is not rebellious or urban and does not have the spectacle to be used for performance. However, because of this, a school is a place of order and discipline, a rebellious youth in this environment would be interesting, thus the use of full classrooms (above) and annoyed teachers and pupils. Our video took most of its inspiration from Wheatus' Teenage Dirtbag, especially the setting and how they made school a place of abuse and loneliness for the character, though we portray our character as defiant rather than weak. This defies the conventions and takes it further by making use of the setting to emphasise the character's rebelliousness.

Camerawork and Lighting

Camerawork was important in making the mise-en-scene clear and easy to understand. The majority of shots are the traditional mid-long shots as we were cutting shots in order to maintain the pace, furthermore, these shots were all filmed during the sunniest parts of the day, with the glare of the sun present in some shots. As a result, most of the shots are clear but lack interesting angles, and even the female love interest is not used as spectacle, which defies Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze and we took this further by having shots and angles were her face is not visible as the main character seeks her attention and thus has great respect for her, objectification of her would contradict this. The lighting is however, conventional of pop music though they tend to change their lighting through mise-en-scene as the song progresses.

Editing

The editing of this music video mainly compromised of quick cuts between scenes in order to create humour, and greatly increasing the speed of scenes in order to quickly move to the next scene, mainly because we would sometimes have multiple scenarios playing out at once. This would create confusion and make the audience want to re-watch the video in order to peace it together. We would alternate between a scene of him acting intolerable and immature to a more mature version of him in the performance, cutting between these two shots shows the difference in character and conforms to Levi Strauss' theory of binary opposites to create contrast. Though it is an obvious narrative feature for someone to become a better person within the 4 minutes, showing the two so direct is quite unconventional for both music genres and disrupts Todorov's theory of a beginning, middle and conclusion.

Mise-en-scene

This shot tells a lot about the music video. As mentioned earlier, the girl's face cannot be seen but we cannot see the main character's face either, yet the teacher, in the background, can be seen clearly. This separates the two groups and shows how their actions are hidden from her view. Unlike other shots, this one has a clear separation of foreground, middle and background, which further shows the separation and disconnection of the three in the shot and how the main character is actually a recluse even as he throws her the note.

Evaluation Activity 2 - Tanaka Bonde 9226

Evaluation Activity 2 - How effective is the combination of your product and ancillary tasks?

We had certain ideas and themes that we wanted present throughout the music video and the ancillary tasks, and these themes affected the art style and appearance of the album cover or the way certain scenes are edited together in the narrative of the music video. These themes were the idea of a personal journey, childish dreams and hopes becoming a reality and isolation, the following shows how these themes were present in our ancillary tasks.

Evaluation Activity 3 - Tanaka Bonde 9226

Evaluation Activity 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

For the production of this music video, we targeted males of an adolescent age and above with an interest in independent, rock music but with the look of a more mainstream band, this was to get a larger audience as the traditional look of a rock band would discourage people with interest in more mainstream bands thus the band's appearance is a combination of the two. We chose this audience because after first listening to the song, we realised that the disconnection of the song is common amongst many teenagers and is something many young people must face, thus we could achieve an even greater audience.
To get an idea of what this audience would expect from the video, we simply asked people our age to listen to the song and give us some of the words that came to mind as they visualize the song in their minds. We then created the Wordle shown below from this information.

It is clear in the final music video that we incorporated some of the features from the Wordle;

• The performance aspect of the video was the first thing that we filmed, we immediately performed the song multiple times from various angles so we could go back to it in-between narrative scenes to allow the narrative to flow better. The high request for performance was a result of the strong use of instruments in the song, the catchy tune was apparently more memorable than the lyrics and thus we showed this a lot in the video, even having the band members pretend to play closely in tune to the song.
• We combined the funny, carefree and youthful parts of the song and put them in middle of the song, showing the character "pranking" classmates when he was still very young, shown by the uniform before changing to the older more tolerable version of him.
• Though we understand the request of a retro mise-en-scene, we could not add this because it would contradict the approachable, mainstream look we were going for that could appeal to more people, and even though both were equally suggested, we went for the school setting to better target our audience.
• The theme of love and relationships was touched upon early in the video with the character's brother and showing how close they were, then showing him going after the girl he likes later in the video, constantly pursuing her with the words, "let's stay together."

Trying to satisfy the audience using these words was difficult as some are so contradicting due to the many possible themes of the song, our first attempt was darker and more obscure than funny and ironic as we had someone of a different race play the brother and had fewer cuts, resulting in a slower pace and filtering it to reduce the brightness and lighting. We also had more scenes of the character brooding and walking to emphasize his loneliness, however, looking back at our original Wordle made us realise we were straying away from a band that could appeal to people with interest in more mainstream bands and more to the conventions of rock music with the additions suggested above, thus we removed certain scenes and maintained colour to produce the final version.

Audience Interviews

Another way we were able to get audience feedback prior to filming was through interviews which we filmed, both interviewees are 18, Joshua Esselen and Jeremy Tang. Though the Wordle was much more general and vague about audience expectations, personal interviews are more accurate as they can say exactly what they expect, and as a video that is supposed to appeal to multiple audiences of young people, we did not defy these expectations much so we could satisfy this audience.

The interviews show that they both had very similar expectations for the video. Both expected the band members to look casually dressed, they also wanted a fast pace and quick cuts between narrative and performance, both expected humour. The first interview specifically requested we have young people throughout the song, to not only relate to the target audience but to also keep the idea of youth and recklessness.
We did not at all defy these expectations and they are clearly present in the video, all scenes that would normally have adults shows adults either unaware or removed from the shot.

The majority of the scenes in the video are filmed to be funny, even the scenes that are supposed to create sympathy for the character are either ironic or turned into jokes, this was our way of maintaining the mood requested in the interviews without ruining the slight impact of these situations. The verse about the older brother is written so that we feel sorry for the character's brother, who's life is in danger as he has "joined the army and they said he might get shot." Instead, we showed him playing violent shooters with his brother, a controversial issue for soldiers in order to make the situation ironic.

The appearance of the band was also taken from these interviews, the "casual" look requested perfectly fit our target audience. The main band member would wear dark clothing when he was younger, all conventions of the rock music genre. Even when he is older and in the performance aspect of the song, a band-mate wears a dark brown shirt and black trousers while the other has the iconic long dark hair. also conventional of the rock music genre. The lead singer, however, wears a red checkered shirt and jeans, which clashes with the conventional clothing of rock music and our way of making the band more casual and seem approachable. As a result, the band's look overall makes them look like members of both a rock band and a normal mainstream band. This is how significant these interviews were to our final music video to satisfy our target audience.

Survey Monkey

To further understand the target audience, we used "SurveyMonkey" and "Scribd" to put together the following graphs from audience feedback we'd collected after allowing people to hear the song without any idea of the video.

The graph shows that the most popular location suggested for the music video was a rooftop or any other urban environment, one of the few audience suggestions that we did not follow in our final video. The use of a school made much more sense for the story of the song as a school is a more appropriate environment for handling social issues than an isolated urban environment.

A more appropriate way to have incorporated the requested environment is if it had been in the performance, separated from the narrative and would make sense as a place the character goes after struggling at school. An abandoned field does not represent rock music as well as an urban environment and if we were to ever repeat this to correct mistakes, we would use a different location for the performance but keep the narrative at the school. This way we could have maintained the natural flow of the narrative with a more interesting performance beside it, however, finding an isolated urban area would have been difficult.

Feedback after Final Music Video

Once we had finished the video, we had our classmates, also producing their own music video, give us feedback and criticism on the video in a free-form discussion. Having them review the video was better criticism than having a general audience criticize us because they have been through similar issues and appreciate our successes better but can spot mistakes better than the general audience, resulting in more accurate criticism.

From their reactions in the video, the music video was overall successful but there were some issues they pointed out. The parts in which we were successful were;

• Editing the scenes together  with fast cuts to allow the narrative to flow.

• The lighting and cinematography is placed to make the video crisp, clear and easy to understand.

• The character in the video is easy to understand and it's clear hi's funny.

• The performance parts of the video are in tune with the song

• The attempts to make it funny suited the song. 

• The development and arc of the main character is not clear in the music video

• There is no clear conclusion for the relationship between the character and the girl.

• There were not enough variation of shots, simply medium to long shots.

• The short verse about the hoodlums attacking his parents' house was rushed.

However, some parts of the video were not successful;

• The development and arc of the main character is not clear in the music video

• There is no clear conclusion for the relationship between the character and the girl.

• There were not enough variation of shot types and angles, simply medium to long shots.
• The short verse about the hoodlums attacking his parents' house was rushed

Conclusion

The reason we did not have more interesting cinematography was because of the pace of the song, having different non-traditional angles in-between such short scenes would make it difficult for the audience to understand some of the scenes. We should have found a way to use more interesting cinematography to really emphasize the character's isolation, recklessness and humor without sacrificing how clear the story is.
We also should have made it clear how the story ended, as a traditional narrative driven music video, Todorov's equilibrium theory should have been clear, there is an equilibrium then a disruption (the character's brother leaves to join the army and he attempts to pursue the girl he likes) but there is no resolution to this, though it is mildly implied she has no interest in him it is not enough. As a result, the character's arc is not complete, which was mentioned in the discussion and if we had another chance, we would simply add a scene where she kindly puts him down and he accepts it, then a transition to the more mature, tolerable version of him in the performance. this would have concluded the story nicely and better connect the performance to the narrative.

Evaluation Activity 4 - Tanaka Bonde

Evaluation Activity 4 - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

The following is an evaluation of each media technology used throughout this project, from Wordle to the actual hardware we used, such as the Apple Macs and even the camrea.
Evaluation Activity 4 Prezi

Completed media products

Here are our completed media products - the music video, and the ancillary texts to go with it.

So, here's our complete music video:



And the following are the associated ancillary products - each side of the digipack, and the magazine advert. Each one's included as an image, but they'll also be put into PDFs embedded using scribd:


Album Front Cover







Inside left image (acknowledgements)





Inside right (under CD) image



Album spine

Album back cover

Magazine advert page

Here's all the sides of the album cover:

All digipack sides by jamesthered



and here's our magazine advert PDF embedded:

A4 Magazine Advert

James Hedgecock 9277 Evaluation Activities

The following are links to my evaluation activities on my separate blog.

Evaluation Activity 1

My first evaluation activity can be found here: http://jameswhmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/back-to-blog-evaluation-activity-1-in.html

Evaluation Activity 2

The second one's here:
http://jameswhmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/2nd-evaluation-task-how-effective-is.html

Evaluation Activity 3

Here's the third:
http://jameswhmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/evaluation-question-3-what-weve-learned.html

Evaluation Activity 4:

The fourth and final evaluation activity can be found here:
http://jameswhmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/evaluation-activity-4.html


James Hedgecock (9277)

Evaluation question 4 Sarah butler 9232

<iframe src="http://prezi.com/embed/7yaqbergyb44/?bgcolor=ffffff&amp;lock_to_path=0&amp;autoplay=0&amp;autohide_ctrls=0&amp;features=undefined&amp;disabled_features=undefined" width="550" height="400" frameBorder="0" webkitAllowFullScreen mozAllowFullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe>

Evaluation question 3 Sarah Butler 9232

Intro:

In this post I will be answering the following question: what have you learned from your audience feedback. Our target audience is western males and females.16 to 30 year olds are out target age group as this is the age group that we feel are most attracted to the indie rock genre. Also we feel that people in this age group can best identify with the themes of the genre, song and video.

We have chosen to include both males and females in our target audience as we think that it will appeal to both. Though the song's themes and lyrics very much assert 'masculine' views and the video is very male centred. The lead singer is portrayed as 'macho' and a typical 'lad' . This is why it will appeal to a male audience. On the other hand some of the lyrics do express emotion and show the lead singer's sensitive side. This is why it could appeal to a female audience.

We have decided on people from the west to be the target audience because the song and video does fit with western youth culture (particularly British and American culture). The social group of our target audience is people who listen to a lot of indie rock music so punk rockers verging slightly in to the mainstream.

 

Wordle:

• Performance: we fulfilled this expectation as the majority of our video is performance. We chose this because it  fits with the conventions of the genre and our video wouldn't have worked with out it.
• Relationship: we definitely fulfilled this expectation a relationship was the whole basis of our narrative and what the song was about
• teenage: This expectation was fulfilled in our video when bits of the narrative should the lead singer when he was young. We decided to show the lead singer's youth because it is the second biggest theme in the song so our video wouldn't have related to the song as much as it does.
• retro: this was a bit of a surprise for us that people were expecting this and we didn't fulfil it because we couldn't come up with a way of doing so with the props and costumes that we had to hand and no budget.
•   school: the video certainly fulfilled this expectation this is because as mentioned above, the lead singer's youth is a big theme in the song and using a school for the setting and school uniform for costume was the best way of making James look younger.
• Partying: we definitely didn't meet this explanation in our video because there wasn't any thing the lyrics to do with partying so we were a bit surprised when people suggested it.

Survey Monkey:

Expectations:

Preferred music video genre:

People would have preferred a narrative video and we did have quite a bit of narrative in our video but it was mainly performance.

Expected genre of video:

We definitely fulfilled the expectation of a performance video as performance footage makes up most of our footage because that is a convention for the genre.

Expected themes:

The majority of people expected recklessness in the video and we definitely fulfilled this with the rebellion parts of our  narrative.

Age of main character:

lots of people expected the main character to be 20 to 25 but we didn't fulfil this because there wasn't the possibility of casting any one older than James as it would have been a logistical mess.

Expected locations:

as you can see from the graph most people expected a rooftop or an urban area we used neither. We didn't use a rooftop because that would have been extremely dangerous. We didn't use an area as we came to the agreement that it wouldn't suit the song.

Interviews:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhYrsmKnqHM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GX9ot_QCpUc


with the interviews we pay attention to people's expectations and what they didn't want and we decided whether or not what people wanted, fitted with the song. The interviews were a big part of the decision making about what should and shouldn't go in our video.

The expectations of the interviews was that the video should be fast passed, up tempo and there should be a lot going on, that the video should be 'young'. We definitely created an up tempo video as it contained no serious narrative it was all light hearted. It wasn't as fast passed as may be people were expecting that was down to the fact that there was a lot of performance in the video. There was a lot going on in the video but may not as much as people wanted. We definitely fulfilled the young criteria the members of the video's cast were no older than 17/18.

You tube:

Youtube comments analysis:

Female: 1
Male:  0

17- 18 year olds: 1

Analysis of comments:
The feed back was positive, even though it wasn't entirely useful. Based on the comments we could have made the shot changes slower, (but that wouldn't have matched the song). Over all there isn't much information to gather from the comments as none of them are constructive.

Class video:

Steph and Gabriel (the people we interviewed) gave very positive and useful answers, they definitely understood our video and answered are questions correctly. They didn't link it to theories  but that was our fault for not asking them a question that allowed them to do so.

Fun video

This is my fun video which was done in the style of the TV programme goggle box it tells me that the audience was possibly a bit under whelmed by the video


Summary:

WWW:

The video met the majority of people's expectations and in the class video and youtube comments it received positive feedback.

EBI:

We should have made our video a bit 'busier' and fast passed because we really didn't fulfil that expectation at all.

Q2 Sarah Butler 9232

Q 1 Sarah Butler 9232