Evaluation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Below I have attached other blogposts containing examples of audience feedback:

http://wayvsounds.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/audience-feedback-final-cut.html

http://wayvsounds.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/audience-feedback-rough-cuts.html

Evaluation Question 1

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

With regards to conventions within media products, there is overall generic conventions which can be applied to any media product. The generic conventions allow individuals to easily identify what the product is and its purpose. But if you are wanting to delve deeper into the analysis of conventions, you will understand that conventions will essentially vary between genres, thus forming genre conventions. This is when conventions are based on the genre in which the format belongs to rather than the format itself.

In terms of the 3 media products I have created: A music video, a digipak and a magazine advert there exists, generic conventions which I will identify in the table below.

I can then compare my own texts to the generic conventions shown in the table above. 

In terms of the 3 media products I have created: A music video, a digipak and a magazine advert there exists, genre conventions which I will identify in the table below.

I can then compare my own texts to the genre conventions shown in the table above. 

In summary to these findings, I am happy with how close I have kept my media products to both generic conventions regarding what is physically on the media products, and also genre conventions with how I have followed my specific music genre of Drum and Bass along with purposely incorporating elements of social realism to give these products some moral standing. I did find that, however, with drum and bass only really just emerging into mainstream culture, The boundaries of conventions have not fully been set due to lack of publicity and awareness.

Audience feedback - final cut

 As you can see from previous posts, I carried out a survey monkey in an attempt to receive feedback on my final cut version of my video. I posted this in group chats on social media sites and on twitter, despite this however, I was unfortunate to only receive 7 responses.

From this first screenshot, you can easily tell that the thing people liked was how they could personally relate to the story which places emphasis on the fact that it is suited for its primary audience.



This screenshot tells you that there was little that the people taking the survey could comment on that was negative about the video. This is good as it suggests that it is now definitely at its final cut stage.

 This screenshot also suggests that the video has also reached its potential in terms of catering for its primary audience in the sense that teenagers will be enticed to the familiarity of the video.

 This screenshot shows that the level of verisimilitude was successfully reached by using the hand held camera in a professional way.

 This screenshot shows that 100% of people responding to this survey understood the clear story line suggesting that it makes perfect sense.

 This screenshot suggests that all people who responded apart from two could identify the strong relationship between the lyrics and music video. This allowed my music video to achieve a conventional structure.

Here on this screenshot, you can see that overall, it was argued that my video was professional but still had slight room for improvement. 

Here is some footage of me filming my primary target audience with the addition of my mum who is part of the secondary target audience due to her age.

Evaluation question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Evaluation question 4

Audience feedback survey

Create your own user feedback survey

Are able to watch the final cut shown below and then carry out my survey?

Final cut

I am now at the stage where I have successfully put together a music video which is to the professional standard where I can class it as a finished product. This music video is now ready in terms of the overall aesthetic as I have altered the colours of each clip in order to create a concise level of continuity. I have also edited the clips in a way to tell the story of the narrative as well as I can by making it clear what the audience wants to see. I am now happy with how the clips work in terms of order and how they tell the audience a specific story.

Audience feedback - Rough cuts

Rough cut 3

I am now at the stage where I have done a number of editing techniques to my video in an attempt to improve the aesthetic of it. I have decided to add darkness to many of my clips in order to produce a continuous aesthetic which is apparent throughout the whole film. I have also added a number of effects to certain clips in an attempt to reduce the level of noise which can be seen in the clip. I decided to utilise the preset effects shown in Final cut Pro X to my advantage by using 3, all together in order to produce the correct aesthetic.

Production update 10/3/17

I am now at the stage where I am happy with the 2 ancillary products which go in collaboration with my music video. I am happy with both the overall aesthetic of these two products, but I am also happy with the message that the images used in these product give off due to close interpretation. The products and music video are at a professional standard where I am able to show off new skills I have now understood and developed. I am also still in the position, however, where I am needing to work on the finish of my music video in terms of 3/4 clips in the video where it is too noisy and effects the aesthetic of it.

Magazine advert final version & ideas

This is the final version of my magazine advert. I have made a few conscious decisions along the journey of creating this piece of media. One decision was to exclude the ratings and reviews from companies in an attempt to boost advertising and entice more customers. I chose to not include this based on the popularity of the artist and to allow the advert to look as simplistic as possible whilst still following the conventions of a media product of this type. I also decided to depict the writing in text apart from the date of the release. This is simply to place emphasis on the date and to highlight it as vital and important information which must be read by the audience.

Magazine advert development

I started off the process of the development of this magazine advert by importing my chosen photo into adobe illustrator.

I then selected the rectangle tool and created a clipping mask with the image onto an A4 size background.

I then selected the type tool shown to the right and typed the date in which the song was to be released using the road rage font which I obtained from daft.com. 

I then decided to change the fill of this font to the Rastafarian colour gradient which i had used previously in the digipak. I chose this in order for the date to stand out on the poster from the rest of the information.



 









I then went onto my digipak document and selected the text in which I was going to drag across onto the magazine advert in order to retain the formatting and size. I the altered the colour to white and changed the band name text so that the words were on separate rows in order to fill the space better.





I then dragged the record company logo, the band logo and the disclaimer and placed them at the bottom of the magazine advert. By choosing to do this it allowed a level of continuity to be shown across the documents associated with this song.

Magazine advert research

Along with the music video, in this a2 course I have been presented the task of completing two separate auxiliary tasks which collaborate with the music video and the song choice. I will make sure that these 3 separate pieces of media have relations in aesthetic, themes, genre and also hidden messages being portrayed.

I have undergone some research into magazine adverts in order to increase my knowledge and understanding of what a magazine advert is and its conventional features. This will allow me to recreate my magaazine advert to a minor professional standard which will in turn allow it to be more realistic within the real world as a genuine product.

Conventions of magazine adverts are:

Song/Album title
Visual links to the video - Intertexuality
Reviews (Newspaper, Music press, Celebrities/DJ's-Trend Setters)
Condensed information on content
Release date
Artist name
Where it is available to purchase (iTunes, HMV, Amazon)
Record Label Logo
Website (official artist site)

I then looked at a few magazine adverts in more detail:

JayZ - The Blueprint 3
This advert follows a very simple format, giving the audience the basic information and little else. This technique of not giving much away is something that is often done throughout all types of advertising when anticipation and buzz around a product is high. It helps to keep the buzz going right up to the official release. Personally, I feel the reason for this simplicity throughout the advert is down to the fact that Jay Z is such a huge name in the music industry and therefore positive quotes from reviewers and fans aren't needed as Jay Z has already earned the public's high expectation of his work due to his previous releases. Jay Z doesn't need to prove that this is a good album as, especially as it's from the infamous 'Blueprint' series, his previous work would suggest this will be good - his name as a brand sells itself.



Kanye West - Yeezus
The simplicity in itself makes the advert stand out due to its uniqueness. It is also unexpected, suggesting that the music is also. The color scheme is mostly black and white, making the red tape on the digipak really stand out. The whole effect of this advert suggests that very little effort has been put into the appearance. This implies that the music is so good, and West is so successful, that it doesn’t need to be overly extravagant. This presents West as very confident and somewhat arrogant. The text looks as though someone has written it out in a black marker pen, and the small smudges gives the page a rushed appearance. The album name and release date are the largest pieces of text, highlighting their importance. West’s name is the next largest; this attracts his fans and is also self-promotional. The use of capital letters gives the appearance that the advert is ‘shouting’ at the reader, and implies that it is important. This reflects West’s public image, which has been shaped by many controversies, including anti- Semitic comments, disrespecting Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Music Video Awards and attacking paparazzi.

Prodigy - Invaders must die
The first thing you notice about this advert is the image in the centre of the page however it does not use photography of the band to promote the artist although the graffti layout of the text promotes the bands new album name. The orange text also makes it stand out and the bright colours make the advert more eye-catching. At the top of the advert there is the bands logo this acts as the bands identity as the logo is easily recognisable and stands out against the pale background. The other main text on the page is the caption that the album is out now, reviews of the music and the album website. The reviews from a variety of media industries promotes the album as it makes the band sound extremely good. Like the previous advert I looked at the advert is also split into 2 panels. The panel acts as a frame to the text which makes the important information within the advert stand out after the initial image has caught the attention of the audience. Overall this advert is successful as the large image attracts the audience and the logo emphaises the advert making it clear what the advert is promoting. The continuous use of the logo font also works well as it makes the advert more attractive.

Wretch 32 - Wretchrospective
A trait noticed in most grime and R&B magazine and album covers is that the male looks away from the camera, usually depicting a side on profile which gives off a careless demeanour about the artist. In an attempt to promote the album further there is a list of other well known and famous artists that it features, which in turn, promotes the artists success and popularity. Instant knowledge of where the audience is able to purchase the album from, is a clear example of conventional information found on magazine adverts in an attempt to boost sales. The artist Wretch links the album title to his name the word ‘wretch’ forming a pun in his album heading, this will be an attempt to grab the readers attention. The city blocks in the background give off connotations of him being ahead of the rest of the city, another common trait among grime and hip hop album covers and magazines.

Digipak final version & ideas

Above is the final version of digipak with the template lines shown and below is the final version without the template lines.

I have created this specifically and put a lot of thought into it. The front and back cover, which will be seen first by the audience, is intended to have a black and white, grimy and sinister aesthetic which portrays the reality of the two characters within the music video. Once the digipak is opened, the audience is greeted with an explosion of purples and blues which is there to symbolise the nature of the image. This image portrays many people dancing to music and enjoying life for a couple of hours where nothing else matters. The contrast of the outside to the inside matches the contrast of reality to escapism depicted in the music video.

Rough cut 2

I am now at the point where I have filmed all of my footage needed apart from maybe a few cut away shots which will add to the level of professionalism in this. I have got the footage of the final scene which was filmed in the shed. This footage allowed me too crack on with the editing of the full production which has allowed me to produce my 2nd rough cut which is a clear improvement from the first rough cut. This rough cut however has issues with the aesthetic and the lighting. I will attempt to overcome this issue by making sure I have de-noised the footage and corrected the colour balance levels which I can do by using the inbuilt features within Final cut pro. I have also managed to create a final version of my digipak by obtaining the right photography last night.

Digipak development

Firstly I went onto the internet and accessed the website 'dafont', this website allowed me to browse an entire gallery full of different downloadable fonts. I used this gallery to find a font which would suit the aesthetic and style of my digipak. I firstly looked in the 'script' section of the website and picked out the 'trash' option in an attempt to find a grim looking font which looks almost graffiti like. I chose two fonts which I then downloaded in order to see what they looked like on the digipak. These 2 fonts: 'basterds' and 'road rage' are shown here. I then added both fonts to my digipak and decided I liked the 'road rage' font more due to its aesthetic and how it fit in with my digipak on a whole.

I then searched through the existing footage I have from the rave scene of my music video and found a still frame which I then exported as an image. 

I then exported the still frame image and imported it into photoshop. Where I made the adjustments which you can see on the right. These adjustments included reducing the noise of the image as it was taken from a moving video. Other adjustments included altering the contrast and exposure levels in order to give it a purple vibrance and to sort the lighting of the image out.

I then exported the image as a JPEG so that I could edit it in Adobe Illustrator.






















Once the adjusted still frame had been imported into adobe illustrator, I fit it to size by creating a clipping mask which was the size of the space in which the image will fill. I chose this method so that I avoided cropping it and squeezing the image down which therefore didn't distort the image in any way.




























I then had to flip the image horizontally in order to make sure that the image is not upside down when it comes to implementing the physical copy of the digipak.

I then found two vectors on the internet which were both copyright free and used them in the digipak. I used the record label logo and a template for a barcode in order to meet the conventions of this product type.

I then moved on to the editing process of the text itself. I chose to place a gradient fill inside the text but could not decide between two different colour schemes. The 1st colour scheme was a light blue/purple gradient which would coincide nicely with the colour and aesthetic of the photo being used on the inside of the digipak. The 2nd colour scheme I came up with was the Rastafarian colour scheme which contains red green and yellow. This colour scheme, in my eyes, was more aesthetically pleasing and more contrasting to the other colours in the digipak. I felt that due to the contrast in colours this colour scheme would produce it would effect the simplicity of the design and therefore make it too busy.

I then copied an pasted the title and rotated by 90 degrees in order to place it on the spine of the digipak.

I then found the commonly used chase and status logo on the internet and imported the image into flash where I attempted to copy the logo by using the onion skin feature. Once I had my own drawn version of the logo I could then choose the colours within the logo. I had another dilemma at this stage between the previous 2 gradient colour schemes and incorporated both versions into the adobe illustrator file.

I also used the black and white version of the logo, rotated it by 90 degrees and incorporated it into the spine in between the artist and album name.

I then had the issue of facing another dilemma in the sense that I didn't know whether to use both versions of logo or just the Rastafarian colour schemed version. I then decided, with the advice of both my teacher and peers to use both in an attempt to utilise 'the best of both worlds'.

Once I had taken the appropriate images for the digipak front cover, I was then able to edit them within photoshop in order to achieve the right aesthetic to make it work with the digipak.

I was able to reach the intended, grimy and sinister aesthetic by turning the image into black and white by using the inbuilt feature within photoshop.

I then imported the JPEG into adobe illustrator. once this file was in illustrator I created a clipping mask with a rectangle of the exact size in which the image will fill on the template. 

I then placed the image into the correct space and found that I couldn't see any of the other graphics as they were now hidden underneath the image. I then had to move the layer the image was on to the bottom and reduce the opacity in order for all the graphics to be seen at the same time.