Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whilst producing our products, we worked hard to ensure that a consistent house style and theme was carried across our music video, website and digipak to create a strong brand image. All three products clearly advertise our band, and without digesting the text, this can be easily identified by the audience, because the fonts, background & text colours and key images, especially the main shots of the band, have remained the same in all of our products. Whilst planning our products, we identified key conventions from the genre we had chosen, and tried to ensure that these were appropriately represented across all of our products, using inspirations that we picked up from professionally produced works, as have been explained previously. In addition, we have used editing techniques to ensure that our works appear as professional as possible, which means only positive publicity will be gained from these products.

Below is a deconstruction of both of our ancillary tasks, showing how they compliment each other:

We tried to ensure that our three products worked synergistically together, so that each product benefits and promotes the other. By ensuring the house style & design is consistent across each product, once someone has interacted with one product, they will immediately identify and relate the other products. However, it is important to ensure that each product offers something unique and different in relation to the others, and so new information and features are offered by each product, including exclusive information, pictures and videos.

Our digipak features our band’s website address, which would encourage people to go online and visit the site, to find out more about the band. Furthermore, the digipak features pictures and stills taken during our music video shoot, which again encourages people to watch the music video.

Our website uses our music video as a powerful promotional tool for the new album release, which is why we chose to include it on the ‘Idols & Upsets’ page, which is specifically designed to promote the new release. The use of our music video not only helps the website, but its inclusion also boosts visibility of the music video.

It was important during the planning stages of this project to consider where each product would be exhibited and made available to the public, and the variety of mediums that we may use to do this. The Prezi below explains why we considered the use of different media forms for each product:



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

Whilst planning and undertaking this project, we constantly consulted our audience for advice and feedback, to ensure that our product would meet the expectations of the people who will be consuming them.

Whilst carrying out our planning, we created a questionnaire, to understand the expectations of our audience. We asked them about their expectations of the genre, the methods they use to consume the texts we would be creating, along with information about their age and gender, to allow us to gauge the typical demographic group that our product will be aimed at. By gathering this information, we were able to plan our music video so that it included many of the features our audience typically expect from the genre, which was absolutely vital to ensure success of the project.

After carrying out our research, we knew that it was vital we acted on the feedback we had received effectively. Our research showed us that our audience expected to see fast editing, shots of the instruments and artificial lighting, and having assessed this information, we tried to incorporate this into our work.  Our survey also showed us that 22% of the sample expected music videos to be set outside, 12% of which agreeing in an urban environment, and from this data, we decided to shoot footage for our narrative in an urban location.

During our questionnaire, people were also asked where, if given £10, they would spend their money. A large proportion (40%) of respondents said that they would choose to spend their money in the clothing sector, which is why we felt that t-shirts and tops would be good products to sell on the online store on our website, again showing how our audience research influenced our products. A further 20% would spend their money on electronic goods, again showing how effective the digipak could be for the brand as a whole, and emphasising how important it was that all products linked synergistically.

Our questionnaire was circulated on paper. We identified that this technique was not very effective, as due to the time constraints of the project, it could only be circulated to a small number of people of broadly the same age. For this reason, we chose to use the Microsoft SkyDrive platform to create an online survey, which could be circulated to a much larger group of people, and allows the anonymous collection of results. By combining the two sample methods together, this allowed us to generate a much larger sample size from a broader age range, increasing the accuracy and validity of our results.

During the project, we created multiple draft copies of the product, allowing us to get feedback as we developed the product. As we were editing, we arranged for focus groups to come and view our work, and to give us feedback, and advice as to how we can improve. We ensured that our focus groups comprised of a mixture of industry specialists, fellow media students and members of our target audience, which enabled us to receive good quality, valued feedback from all involved. They commented on suggested extra footage that should be incorporated, how to editing pace should be increased, and specifically how we should consider restructuring certain parts of our video, such as the sections where the character is walking through the countryside, so that our audience did not lose interest.  Our consultations with focus groups gave us inspiration as to how to move forward with all three products, which ultimately saw us create a very strong final product. However, one of the problems we came across when using this method of feedback was that many members of the focus group gave conflicting advice and suggestions of changes we should make. Therefore, we often had to make our own decisions as to which changes we implemented in our video.

In addition, we felt that it was important to utilise social media as a platform for collecting feedback. For this reason, one of our drafts was uploaded to YouTube and Facebook, to get feedback from our peers, many of whom are also members of our target audience. We found that these people gave us extremely strong feedback, including suggestions as to what they would be wishing to see in a music video, which we were able to act upon in the development of the project.

We also felt that it was important to gather audience feedback after our products had been produced, so that we can evaluate how they have been received by the audience.

Our questionnaire can be seen below:

So that we could make the most of the results created, I began by tabulating my results, and then created some graphs and charts to help me evaluate the outcome more thoroughly:

We began our questionnaire by asking people’s age, so that we could see the extent to which our questionnaire sample reflects the demographic status of our target audience. The results show that although the majority of our sample is aged between 11-20, we have a wide mixture of people in our sample, up to the age of 65+. This is an appropriate representation of our target audience, as identified in our audience research carried out at the beginning of our project.

Question 2 enabled us to assess the gender status of the people who we surveyed. We managed to achieved an equal balance of males and females in our samples, which means that our results effectively and accurately represent the views of the people who will be digesting our product.

100% of our target sample felt that our music video meets or exceeds their expectations of an indie-rock music video. This is very good, as it indicates that our music video could potentially be considered as a professional production, whilst also showing that we have considered the expectations of our audience when questioned at the beginning of the project.

All of our sample responded to question 4 by giving a rating between 4 & 9, which is reasonably good, as it indicates that in general, there is little difference between our product and their professionally produced alternatives. This is reassuring, especially as 78% voted with a 7 and 8, showing that our product compares well to professionally produced ‘real’ products on the market today.

Question 5 relates specifically to the  music video that we have created, with question 5a asking participators if they understood the narrative of the video. Pleasingly, all respondents said  that they did understand the narrative, and this is good, as we were concerned that the audience may struggle to understand the plot. In addition, one person commented that the plot becomes more obvious throughout the video, which was exactly the effect we were trying to achieve.

All people responded to question 5b positively, saying that they liked the performance shots in the video, when referring to the composition, shot angle and type. We carried out lots of research into the conventional shot types used in an indie-rock music video, and tried to adhere to these as much as possible, so it is good to know that these conventions were identified correctly by our audience.

100% of people who responded to our video also said that they liked the pace the video had. It was good to see that our video portrayed the appropriate pace for the video, and that this fitted in with the conventions of a typical indie-rock video.

Question 6 asked people to give more feedback about our music video. Many people gave positive feedback, which often referred to the pace, the use of interesting and unique shots, and how professional the product appeared. Someone also commented that they like the way the narrative takes the audience on a journey, which was exactly the effect we were trying to achieve, although one person did suggest that the video could have done with some more shots, and so if we repeated this project again, we could perhaps look at filming some more, creative shots when shooting our video.

Question 7 referred specifically to our digipak, and question 7a asked if people felt it fitted in with the genre. Although 93% of respondents felt that our digipak was appropriate for the genre, one person felt that it looked too much like a product from the pop genre, which is disappointing, considering we tried extremely hard to adhere to the conventions we identified in our genre.

86% of the people who answered our questionnaire felt that the text/image balance was appropriate for our digipak, whilst the remaining 14% felt that there was too much text. Reflecting critically on our work, I can see that the digipak we created does perhaps feature too much text, and could be reduced somewhat to create a more professional feel, if we were to undertake this project again.

Question 7c asked people if they would purchase our product in a shop, and whilst 79% said they would, the remaining 21% felt that the digipak would not encourage them to purchase our album. Again, this is disappointing, but perhaps the front of our cover is not unique enough to stand out when on a shelf with competitive products. To improve this, we could look to reduce the amount of content on the front cover, so that it appears more professional, and helps it to stand out.  

Question 8 asked people to give any more feedback about our digipak. The majority of comments were positive, with people saying that the colour scheme is good, and that there is a strong text-image balance throughout the product.  However, a number of negative comments were identified, including that the photo of the guitarist looks strange, which is something that I had considered, as it does not really link in with the rest of the brand and the products created. In addition, multiple people said that there was too much text on the product, and also that the font size needed to be increased to make it more readable, which is something that we could consider improving. Furthermore, one person added that the eye is scary, and may confuse some people about the genre, which is something we had not previously considered, although we could consider using another image more appropriate for the genre, and perhaps one that we have used on the website, to increase the brand recognition that is present.

Question 9 relates to our website, with question 9a asking if people felt that our website fits in with the genre. 100% of people who responded felt it did fit in with the genre, which is reassuring, as we tried hard to ensure that our website was similar to those which we had assessed in our research. This is also a more positive response than that which was given for the similar question about the digipak, and so we should perhaps have tried to include more themes from our website within that product.

Question 9b asks the audience if our website provided them with relevant information. Pleasingly, 100% of people responded positively to this as well, which is good, as we tried hard to ensure that enough information was given on our website to ensure that the website remains a useful point of information for fans.

Again, all of the people who responded to our website said that it was easy to navigate. This is good, as lots of care and attention was taken into ensuring the website remained as accessible as possible for lots of people, and so I am pleased that the website works as intended.

Question 10 asked for any extra feedback about our website.  The majority of comments were positive, as people commented that the style relates strongly to the band’s image, that the website looks very professional, and that it is well designed, being accessible and with the relevant information. However, one person commented that there was a lack of general knowledge, although this response is confusing, as all people said in question 9b that the website provided them with the relevant information.

Overall, I feel that the questionnaire was a very good method to use for gathering feedback about our product. We were able to get the questionnaire completed by lots of people who are members of our target audience, and by also circulating a similar questionnaire online, the sample size achieved was large enough to produce good results.

We were also keen to use other methods to gather feedback for our project. This is why we chose to upload our video onto Facebook and YouTube, and to also circulate it on Twitter, enabling us to get more informal feedback on our video. The use of social media as a way of getting feedback is highly effective, as it reaches out to many people who are members of our target audience. It also invites more informal feedback, and people are more  likely to give honest feedback via social media, as they often feel more relaxed, and less pressured than when completing a questionnaire, for example. This sort of feedback is often left anonymously as well, encouraging people to give more truthful opinions. This method worked effectively, as it enabled the products to reach many members of the target audience for this genre, whilst also increasing the potential reach of our video. However, when we used this method to get feedback for our final video, we did not receive as much response as we did for the draft of our video, although this could perhaps be down to the fact that people felt not many changes had been made, and so didn’t see it worthwhile to comment again.

Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

When undertaking a project of this size and scale, it is important to embrace the use of modern technology to enable the finished products to be as successful and effective as possible. From the project’s inception, technology was used throughout to aid the research, planning, construction and evaluation process.

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Technology, and particularly the internet, played a vital role when searching for our unsigned band to base our project on. For this reason, we chose to use the website www.unsigned.com, which holds a database of unsigned artists, and enables us to listen to their music, and is an great way for websites to gain exposure with record labels, with reasonably little financial outlay, which is ideal for small bands with relatively little income. Sites such as this are another good example of how the internet has made music distribution more democratic, and shows that nowadays, money and fame are not necessarily the key to success. This acted as a very good starting point for our research, allowing us to compare the different genres of music available. With this website, it is possible to add favourite music and artists to the music player, enabling us to develop a shortlist of potential tracks, which we could then filter down. In addition, the free logon to the site was shared with other members of the group, so that everyone can access it, and add to the playlist.

 

Social networks also played a key role in our project, as with many unsigned bands, social media is the only way to get in contact. This is why we used social media to contact potential bands, and ask for permission to use their songs in our project. This proved to be a very successful method, as we contacted our chosen band, Chasing Tigers, successfully through Facebook.

Email was another medium we used when contacting potential bands. As you can see above, we sent lots of emails out, to try and request permission from bands to use their music in our project. This was our preferred method of contact, as it is free and gives a more professional feel in comparison to social networking sites, which often have message character limits, which means vital information often has to be withheld.

 

Whilst undertaking our research, technology played a vital role yet again. By using YouTube, we could watch lots of different music videos, both those that have been produced professionally and in an ameteur fashion, from a variety of genres, to gain an idea of the conventions that are usually included in such videos. Again, this was an effective method, as it was easily accessible, and as YouTube is available on a variety of platforms, it made carrying out research much easier. In addition, lots of content is available on YouTube for us to study, meaning that we could use a wide variety of videos for our research.

 

This project has given us the opportunity to develop our video filming skills, when compared to our foundation production at AS level. When producing a music video, we knew that it was vital to include lots of unique and interesting shots, and that we had to be more creative with our shot types. Because of this, we used platforms when shooting the production part of our video to enable us to get some high angle shots, whilst also appreciating the value of occasional handheld shots, which adds to the authenticity of the project. With this project, we also developed a steady-pan technique which we learned from YouTube, whereby the tripod is slowly tilted forward onto its front two legs, and the head of the tripod panned upwards, creating a smooth, moving motion. We used this for a shot with the drum kit, which proved to be incredibly effective.

 

Filming our live performance section also demanded the utilisation of a wide variety of skills. In order to sustain an appropriate pace when editing, it is important to get lots of shots from many different angles when filming, which is often very difficult to achieve with just one camera. For this reason, we dedicated a whole day to filming this section of our video, meaning that we could run the song multiple times, enabling us to get lots of shots. In addition to our main HD camera, we also had a secondary camera in use, along with an iPhone, which could be used to get close up shots of certain instruments, with the 1080p HD camera sustaining good enough quality for our project.

As we did in our AS project, it was also important to ensure that a tripod was used at all times for steady shots, and that we used the tools on the tripod, including the built in spirit level, to keep the shots steady. Furthermore, when panning, this movement should not be completed too quickly, so that the viewer does not begin to feel ill. It is also important to consider the framing and composition of each shot, using techniques such as the Golden Mean line and Rule of Thirds to ensure that a shot is constructed correctly.

This project also gave me the opportunity to develop my editing skills. We predominantly used iMovie to edit our project, and with this production, I developed the challenging skill of syncing the drums, guitar and vocals to the track provided by the band. This skill takes great precision, and I developed this skill by completing a short preliminary task before our main project, so that we could get practice at this.

In comparison to our Foundation Production, this project required much a faster editing to be performed. This meant that more care and attention needed to be taken over the edit, and often involved lots of precision work using the built in clip adjuster, which allows you to adjust the length of a clip numerically (see right).

 

Below is a video tutorial I have prepared, which explains the basic skills needed to edit in iMovie:
 

 

 

Although iMovie allows for basic editing adjustments to be made, more advanced software needed to be used to create some of the more creative elements of our video. For that reason, NCH VideoPad for Windows needed to be used to create the section where the photos of James & Jess are overlaid into the scene (see right), as we felt that this effect would hold the audience’s attention, as they want to find out the link between the photo album and the overlaid images. By using NCH VideoPad, I could overlay the selected shots for a very small amount of time, and then adjust the transparency, to control which shot appeared more dominant. I could also control the filter effects used on the images. Once this was completed, I then exported this complete section, and re-imported it back into iMovie for inclusion within the rest of the project.

 

We also used other pieces of software to create some other sections of our music video. For example, the stop-motion sections of our video were made by take a series of still photographs, kept steady with the use of a tripod, and then edited in Windows Live Movie Maker, by playing each photograph for just 0.2 seconds. When played back, this gives the illusion of movement, and could then be imported back into our iMovie project.

 

When creating this project, we did encounter a few problems. When filming the performance part of our video, it was important the lighting was correct, so we invested a lot of time in ensuring that this looked as good as possible. We used the pre-installed lighting rig of our staging environment to provide a general wash effect, and then installed some parcans on the floor, pointing up at the band members, to focus in onto the people on stage, which proved to be very effective. It was important to ensure that as well as the lighting looking like it may in a typical staging environment, all of the band members could be seen, and that there were no issues with shadows, as it was important to ensure that no shadows of tripods or of the camera operator appeared in the shot. To overcome this, we did a few initial shots on the filming day, and then reviewed the footage on the camera, to ensure that it looked acceptable.

 

One of the largest technical issues that we encountered during the project occurred after our first shoot day when we filmed the performance element. After the shoot, we discovered that the camera settings had been changed prior to our shoot taking place, and these settings had meant the camera recorded all of the day’s footage in AVCHD format. Although this format produces extremely high quality footage, which was good for our project overall, the .MTS files produced are not compatible with iMovie. Therefore, it took around two days for a computer to convert all of our footage into .MOV files using Prism File Converter, due to the size of the original files created, so that they could be imported into iMovie and then be edited. Learning from this issue, we ran more tests with the camera prior to completing the 2nd and 3rd days of our filming, to ensure that the camera produced the footage in .MOV files, because as our 14 day free trial of Prism File Converter would run out before the next filming days, and because budget limitations of the project meant that we would not be able to purchase the software, it was imperative that the problem was rectified before next use of the camera.

 

The narrative section of our video was filmed across two consecutive days in three locations, including Peterborough, Morton Fen and Skegness, and for the continuity aspect of our video to work, it was preferable that the weather conditions were similar across the two days.

 

For this reason, we used a weather app on my smartphone to monitor the weather over the two days in the days leading up to our filming, to try and pick the best time frame for filming, and to adjust our production schedule accordingly.

 

Although we were reasonably lucky with the weather over the two days of filming, when we were filming in Morton Fen, it did start to rain somewhat. Although this did not really affect the final outcome of our video, and is not really noticeable in the video, we did have to protect the camera equipment with a plastic reusable bag, so that it did not get damaged. It was, of course, important to partially remove the section of plastic bag covering the lens cover when filming, so that the shots did not appear blurry, although this was monitored throughout the shoot.

 

Overall, we were reasonably lucky with the weather, as it was relatively overcast and gloomy whilst in Peterborough and Morton Fen, which represents negativity, whilst being sunny in Skegness, which reflects the positivity and a new beginning.

 

When creating our ancillary tasks, technology also greatly assisted us. We used Adobe Photoshop to edit the eye for the front cover, and by layering orange stripes and gold effect spray to make the eye more realistic. By doing this, we developed our skills in using specialist photo editing software, so that the final product was as good as possible. A video explaining the skills needed to edit with Adobe Photoshop can be found below:

 

To create our digipak, we also used Microsoft Publisher. This premium Desktop Publishing Software product allowed us to use a template sourced from the internet to get the sizes of the digipak exactly right, again adding to the realism. As we already had experience with creating products using Microsoft Publisher, we could ensure that our product appeared to be as good as possible.

 

Our website required specialist programming knowledge to be produced successfully, whilst being inline with industry standard programming languages. Using my skills that I have developed whilst studying Website Production as part of my BTEC ICT course, I wrote the HTML and CSS coding out for our website myself. To build my website, I wrote the coding in Notepad, which is an application installed on all Windows computers. Although this software is not particularly advanced, it provided the ideal platform to write my HTML and CSS coding from.

 

Once I had completed my website, I then used a website domain that I had previously created to upload our site onto the internet. To do this, I used FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software to upload my website to the server, which is hosted remotely. By doing this, it ensured that our website is accessible by our audience as easily as possible.

 

Whilst undertaking our advanced production, we also used other pieces of technology to produce our work. Blogger is a service that we have used very often, to evidence our research, planning, construction and evaluation for our project. By using Blogger, we can present our work using a variety of media forms, including images, text, video and presentations, and makes adding work easy, because it is accessible from web browsers, and also from mobile applications.

To present our work in an interactive manner, we also used Prezi. This enables us to present our work in an engaging and interesting way for the audience, and can also combine text, videos and images to further enhance our work.

 

The internet has played a pivotal role in the exhibition of our products. Once our product had been completed, we uploaded it to YouTube, so that when people searched for Chasing Tigers or Idols & Upsets, they would come across our video. This helped to increase the exposure of our product, and as most of our audience will use the internet as their primary method of accessing our website and music video. YouTube is the most popular video website, with 900,000,000 unique monthly visitors, compared to NetFlix, which is in 2nd place, with 55,800,000 visitors a month, so is by far the most sensible video streaming service that we should use. In addition, viewers can choose to share our video via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, again increasing the reach of the site.

 

We also shared our video on our Facebook profiles, as this increases the amount of people who will be able to view our music video. To increase viewability further, we could also have considered creating a Facebook Page for our band, so that fans of the band would be able to see our music video there.

 

The internet played a vital role in the exhibition of our website also, as the primary method for viewing our website is via the internet. We used web servers to host our website, so that it can be viewed by fans, and the development of technology in recent years, with smartphones and tablets becoming more popular, has meant that it is easier than ever for fans to access our site.

 

By exhibiting all of our products on the internet, a large amount of people were able to see and access our works. It also means that, as our research showed the majority of our audience were young people, most of our target audience will either hear about or interact with our products. Because of this, and because of how influential the internet is within the music industry, there is the potential for interest about Chasing Tigers to increase, which is one of the main goals of the three products we have produced.

 

Ancillary Task: Final Digipak

Chasing Tigers: Idols & Upsets

Here is the final version of our music video:

Ancillary Task: Development of our Digipak

Above is the first draft of our digipak. Although we like the concept, there are a few changes that we could consider making to improve our work further.

For example, we feel that there is perhaps a little too much text on the digipak. Therefore, we will replace the text on the About the Band page with images of all three performers, to give the impression that there is more space, which is something that we have seen done on other digipak's we have studied. We really like the eye that we have used on the front cover of our digipak, and feel that the eyeball could perhaps be used in other places across our work, which is why we have added it to the centre of the CD pane. We also feel that to create symmetry across the product, a closed eye could be used on the back pane, where we presently have no image.

Overall, I feel that our digipak is progressing well, and that the final product should look impressive.

Ancillary Task: Detailed Analysis of Website

Below is a detailed analysis of the Oasis website: