Evaluation Question 4
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
To aid us along our journey we used Macs to help us create our video. During planning we used YouTube, Google, Myspace to research genres, styles, representations and media conventions. Myspace was a saviour as we were able to find unsigned artists and also enabled us to see what type of music was gaining in popularity at the time. To make our video we used Final Cut Express on the Mac and spent a good few lessons experimenting with settings on Final Cut Express to see what was effective and what worked well. We went out shooting with a HD camera and filmed surfaces such as a brick wall to see how the effects would turn out. It was an useful experiment and although was time consuming we were able to see what would fail before actually being in production.
We didn't wish to document our research in a conventional way, so by making an audience research video we can gain a more exciting understanding of what our audience want. This also helped us with our quick shot editing.
The Internet was an extremely useful aspect of technology which aided us in research for our music video. We used search engines such as google to search for images, videos, music and articles on artists and the current music chart.
Due to Final Cut Express being a quick and easy to use media tool we were able to incorporate a vast variety of effects to give our film the professional quality which we wanted to achieve. We used quick editing, slow motion and quick paced cuts to give our film this professional look. this also helps to reiterate the narrative we wished to achieve. The use of a High Definition Camera also does this. Last year we used a non HD camera and felt that the quality was not as good as it could have been and therfore took that quality away from the film.
All in all i feel that this task has been very successful, it has opened our eyes to the changing music industry and also shows that anything can be popular if you do correct research, i think our 600 views on YouTube is a good reflection that we hit our target audience correctly and that we achieved what we set out to achieve.
We all worked exceptionally hard on this project and put in many many hours. i hope it shows and that the hard work pays off.
Grace Pickard
Monday
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience is something that is crucial to every aspect of the Media, however when you begin your media task it is something that gets brushed aside for a while due to all the excitement and the ideas that are there. But you quickly have a reality check and realise that it is essential you listen to your audience as they are the ones who in retrospect are going to be making you money by purchasing your product. So in order to get the best out of our audience we possibly couls we at first used googledocs to publish some house/pop/electro tracks that we were considoring using for our music video. It was when we recieved negative feedback from the audience that we realised it was slightly too much of a specific genre, which is why we searched again for a genre which was house/electro but with a lot more pop encoporated as it was far more popular.
something which i did find particularly frustrating was scanning Myspace for bands which were unsigned, becuase we chose a popular genre of music most artists were already signed.
We also used interviewing as a form of audience research. We went around our school with a camera filming available students after playing them the song and then asking them for their feedback on it. We also asked them that if they were to make a music video for the song how would they direct it.
Many of the students thought about themes such as colour themes and setting, and most students mention involving dance into the video as it is a dance genre song. However what was apparent from the footage was that as we only used a small sample of people who all happen to go to the same school the variety in ideas was not very large. If i was to do it again a would go and ask more people and from differing areas as this will not only give us more insiration but knowledge that we are on the right course.
I feel that for our aims that we wished to achieve we did plenty of audience research but am understanding of the fact that if it was a larger project there would have had to have been far more audience research and more often too, possibly through the course of the task as to keep in touch with the audience and to see if they are continuoisly pleased with the finished product. however it is encouraging to see that we obviously stuck to our target audicence as we have recived a great number of views on YouTube and therefore our research was definatly influential.
Audience is something that is crucial to every aspect of the Media, however when you begin your media task it is something that gets brushed aside for a while due to all the excitement and the ideas that are there. But you quickly have a reality check and realise that it is essential you listen to your audience as they are the ones who in retrospect are going to be making you money by purchasing your product. So in order to get the best out of our audience we possibly couls we at first used googledocs to publish some house/pop/electro tracks that we were considoring using for our music video. It was when we recieved negative feedback from the audience that we realised it was slightly too much of a specific genre, which is why we searched again for a genre which was house/electro but with a lot more pop encoporated as it was far more popular.
something which i did find particularly frustrating was scanning Myspace for bands which were unsigned, becuase we chose a popular genre of music most artists were already signed.
We also used interviewing as a form of audience research. We went around our school with a camera filming available students after playing them the song and then asking them for their feedback on it. We also asked them that if they were to make a music video for the song how would they direct it.
Many of the students thought about themes such as colour themes and setting, and most students mention involving dance into the video as it is a dance genre song. However what was apparent from the footage was that as we only used a small sample of people who all happen to go to the same school the variety in ideas was not very large. If i was to do it again a would go and ask more people and from differing areas as this will not only give us more insiration but knowledge that we are on the right course.
I feel that for our aims that we wished to achieve we did plenty of audience research but am understanding of the fact that if it was a larger project there would have had to have been far more audience research and more often too, possibly through the course of the task as to keep in touch with the audience and to see if they are continuoisly pleased with the finished product. however it is encouraging to see that we obviously stuck to our target audicence as we have recived a great number of views on YouTube and therefore our research was definatly influential.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
We as a group spent a great amount of time deciding what we felt would be the best ancillary tasks for us to be able to represent our band through. Due to previous lessons in Media where we read on Collective Identity and studied magazine covers we felt that we had a good understanding of what makes a sellable front cover. We already knew that we wanted to represent our female singer as glamourous and front cover worthy so this gave us confidence to choose a high end magazine, being Vogue,as our template for our magazine cover.
We also looked at the popularity of Myspace and how in the past 10 years it has changed the music industry and enabled any artist to have their music heard. Lily Allen for example began with Myspace. We decided that by making a band website would not only be challenging, but it also would allow us to advertise the band on a larger scale than a designing a poster would due to internet access being so widely available.
Ancillary task. Magazine cover.
Vogue is a fashion bible to many, to some celebrities being on the front cover of Vogue is more comendable than winning an Oscar. It has been said that is is 'the worlds most influential fashion magazine' and is greatly iconic due to its history.
We immediately began researching recent existing vogue covers for inspiration. We look specifically at covers featuring music artists in connection to our task.
Due to Vogue's scope it made it perfect to tie in with our music video as Vogue is centred around celebrity status fashion and beauty and music. Existing Vogue covers show the women who brace their covers in all sorts of ways depending on the issue, some are gerish and loud whereas others are very subtle. We decided to dress our female in a classic black dress and she was wearing little make up, this natural look suggests she is successful but has an innocent side which will help to give her likeability. The image is quite contrasting to how she is portrayed in the music video which only adds to the versitility of the female. The camera shot is a mid shot where she is staring into the lense of the camera, as if she is looking directly at you the audicence member, this helps to attract the audience as it speaks to you on a personal and direct level.
Vogue is a brand which is known world wide and because they have a style which they know works well they rarely tamper with the layout of the cover. We followed this convention and used a similar layout for our cover, consisting of the title at the top of the page with smaller subtitles scattered over the page ranging in sizez and fonts. We used subtitles that would be realistic to a typical Vogue cover such as 'Hottest looks for winter' which was relevant at the time as everyone attempts to look their best in winter especially around Christmas, and '30 things to buy that wont break the bank', considoring Britian is facing a recession at the moment even some of the fashionistas are suffering and everyone is looking for a saving. Yet agian those sort of stories are the sort that would appeal to our target audience and also reflect how we would like the audience to invisage our female singer.
Ancillary task. Website.
Creating our own website was fun as we got to use our imaginations, none of us had made a website before and so to gain some insite into the logistics of band websites we looked at solo female singers profiles for some insight.
Pixie Lott
www.pixielott.com
Beyonce
www.beyonceonline.com
Madonna
www.madonna.com
Miley Cyrus
www.mileycyrus.com
From these websites we noted that there was a general format they all shared which featured a collection of pictures of the artist, a page for fans where they can comment, information about the singer, their music videos and related press. We thought it would be sensible to use a similar format as it makes navagating around the website easy.
The website has a fun and friendly feel to it, which reflects the nature of the artist and the music that they produce. We cordinated some colour patterns from the Vogue cover in with the website and also had some images from the actual video on there too. Our aim was to have a professional look to the website and i feel we achieved this. As we can have our finished music video on the website it creates an opportunity for advertisment.
http://www.wix.com/SoftToyEmergency/SOFT-TOY-EMERGENCY
We as a group spent a great amount of time deciding what we felt would be the best ancillary tasks for us to be able to represent our band through. Due to previous lessons in Media where we read on Collective Identity and studied magazine covers we felt that we had a good understanding of what makes a sellable front cover. We already knew that we wanted to represent our female singer as glamourous and front cover worthy so this gave us confidence to choose a high end magazine, being Vogue,as our template for our magazine cover.
We also looked at the popularity of Myspace and how in the past 10 years it has changed the music industry and enabled any artist to have their music heard. Lily Allen for example began with Myspace. We decided that by making a band website would not only be challenging, but it also would allow us to advertise the band on a larger scale than a designing a poster would due to internet access being so widely available.
Ancillary task. Magazine cover.
Vogue is a fashion bible to many, to some celebrities being on the front cover of Vogue is more comendable than winning an Oscar. It has been said that is is 'the worlds most influential fashion magazine' and is greatly iconic due to its history.
We immediately began researching recent existing vogue covers for inspiration. We look specifically at covers featuring music artists in connection to our task.
Due to Vogue's scope it made it perfect to tie in with our music video as Vogue is centred around celebrity status fashion and beauty and music. Existing Vogue covers show the women who brace their covers in all sorts of ways depending on the issue, some are gerish and loud whereas others are very subtle. We decided to dress our female in a classic black dress and she was wearing little make up, this natural look suggests she is successful but has an innocent side which will help to give her likeability. The image is quite contrasting to how she is portrayed in the music video which only adds to the versitility of the female. The camera shot is a mid shot where she is staring into the lense of the camera, as if she is looking directly at you the audicence member, this helps to attract the audience as it speaks to you on a personal and direct level.
Vogue is a brand which is known world wide and because they have a style which they know works well they rarely tamper with the layout of the cover. We followed this convention and used a similar layout for our cover, consisting of the title at the top of the page with smaller subtitles scattered over the page ranging in sizez and fonts. We used subtitles that would be realistic to a typical Vogue cover such as 'Hottest looks for winter' which was relevant at the time as everyone attempts to look their best in winter especially around Christmas, and '30 things to buy that wont break the bank', considoring Britian is facing a recession at the moment even some of the fashionistas are suffering and everyone is looking for a saving. Yet agian those sort of stories are the sort that would appeal to our target audience and also reflect how we would like the audience to invisage our female singer.
Ancillary task. Website.
Creating our own website was fun as we got to use our imaginations, none of us had made a website before and so to gain some insite into the logistics of band websites we looked at solo female singers profiles for some insight.
Pixie Lott
www.pixielott.com
Beyonce
www.beyonceonline.com
Madonna
www.madonna.com
Miley Cyrus
www.mileycyrus.com
From these websites we noted that there was a general format they all shared which featured a collection of pictures of the artist, a page for fans where they can comment, information about the singer, their music videos and related press. We thought it would be sensible to use a similar format as it makes navagating around the website easy.
The website has a fun and friendly feel to it, which reflects the nature of the artist and the music that they produce. We cordinated some colour patterns from the Vogue cover in with the website and also had some images from the actual video on there too. Our aim was to have a professional look to the website and i feel we achieved this. As we can have our finished music video on the website it creates an opportunity for advertisment.
http://www.wix.com/SoftToyEmergency/SOFT-TOY-EMERGENCY
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
As an audience we are reached out to by the media. media conventions are used to construct meanings to audiences. how a person represents themselves or how they are represented can have a huge affect on the audience that they then will appeal to. therefore choosing our target audience was a crucial part of the course. we felt that to appeal to the vast majority would be easier than choosing a niche media market. we felt that it was important to attract young adults and teenagers as it is this age group that are influenced by the media the most and who statistically listen and purchase music more than other age ranges. We spent a great deal of time searching and developing our understanding of other media concepts which link to our music video such as popular music magazines such as 'NME', advertising or other bands and their marketing, radio and what is current and has a tie with the genre we selected for example morning radio DJ's are more like to play more commercial and popular music, whereas a late night DJ will have a more selective listener and a more niche sound. We did this in order to create a successful music video which would suit our target audience.
Our choice in song was due to it being conventional and therefore targeting our audience. We spent many weeks researching popular music genres and discovered that genres such as Electro, Trance and House were not aimed at specific listeners as they once were, they were in fact being mixed and produced with a popular music influence, and because of this becoming far more mainstream. Statistically there has been a huge change in the audience purchasing genres such as Electro and the 2009 charts show that it is rapidly gaining in popularity. Due to these statistics we found that Soft Toy Emergency and their song Critical had the correct mix of genres, and would be enjoyable to use in our project.
Also tapping into recent trends in the music industry we noted that most popular artists are ones which have a Solo career. Artists which were once in a band such as Beyonce
who was once in Destinys Child
has created a far better name for herself since going solo, this is also apparent for Robbie Williams who after quitting Take That has a prospourus solo career. The group 'Soft Toy Emergency' are a band that consist of five members, their lead singer being a woman. we felt that it was important to follow the trend of the music charts and for our music video present the band as a solo female singer. Bands which consist of a female lead singer usually have more of a market scope than male bands as they appeal to differing ages. By chosing a young and attractive female to front the band in our video yet again taps into our target audience, she can be present as a woman that is to be admired by men and boys and someone that females can aspire to look and behave like.
Artists such as Cheryl Cole
are a prime example of this, men want to marry her and women want to be like her. Not only this but she is seen as a national treasure and someone that people will listen to and also attempt to steal the style of celebrities such as her. Madonna for example has her own fashion rang because music and fashion go hand in hand as media conventions. In Madonna's
music videos for example there is a huge amount of product placeement in order to promote and sell her style as it were, this can also been seen in artists such as
The Pussycat Dolls
who have their own fashion label, and also with artists such as Lady GaGa. These artists are frequently featured in media conventions selling or sporting the latest in fashion wear, and this look that they maintain is also in their music videos.By researching into this gave us some ideas of how to present our female singer. Our target audience also happens to be the target audience for many popular media conventions and this is due to the fact that our target audience are highly afftected by the hypodermic model. We link this model to our music video by believeing audiences see music as part of their identity and their aspiration to be like their idols.
Contiuing on with our research into the music genre we listened to the lyrics of Critical very closely. The plot of the song is about a strong woman who is bored of her love sick ex boyfriend and she wishes he would get 'positively over it', 'it' being thier dead relationship. This led us to look into songs with similar narratives such as Katy Perry's song Hot n Cold,
and after watching the video we decided that the cheesy and humourous narrative was what we wanted to achieve, this concept is best shown in Mariah Carey's video for her song Touch my Body.
Not only is Mariah's music video visually exciting and humours it also contained a very classic image of the 'nerdy' boy who wants the beautiful girl, this being a concept which an audience can relate to. This gave us the inspiration to have a 'nerdy' figure in our video who is besotted with our sassy lead singer. The use of a narrative like that is important as it keeps the audience engaged with the song and also enables them to compare themselves with the life of the singer which is being portrayed.
We as a group did not want to break or twist conventions, we kept our music video to the existing trends as it is easier that way to have a target audience and to keep to the conventions they expect.
As an audience we are reached out to by the media. media conventions are used to construct meanings to audiences. how a person represents themselves or how they are represented can have a huge affect on the audience that they then will appeal to. therefore choosing our target audience was a crucial part of the course. we felt that to appeal to the vast majority would be easier than choosing a niche media market. we felt that it was important to attract young adults and teenagers as it is this age group that are influenced by the media the most and who statistically listen and purchase music more than other age ranges. We spent a great deal of time searching and developing our understanding of other media concepts which link to our music video such as popular music magazines such as 'NME', advertising or other bands and their marketing, radio and what is current and has a tie with the genre we selected for example morning radio DJ's are more like to play more commercial and popular music, whereas a late night DJ will have a more selective listener and a more niche sound. We did this in order to create a successful music video which would suit our target audience.
Our choice in song was due to it being conventional and therefore targeting our audience. We spent many weeks researching popular music genres and discovered that genres such as Electro, Trance and House were not aimed at specific listeners as they once were, they were in fact being mixed and produced with a popular music influence, and because of this becoming far more mainstream. Statistically there has been a huge change in the audience purchasing genres such as Electro and the 2009 charts show that it is rapidly gaining in popularity. Due to these statistics we found that Soft Toy Emergency and their song Critical had the correct mix of genres, and would be enjoyable to use in our project.
Also tapping into recent trends in the music industry we noted that most popular artists are ones which have a Solo career. Artists which were once in a band such as Beyonce
who was once in Destinys Child
has created a far better name for herself since going solo, this is also apparent for Robbie Williams who after quitting Take That has a prospourus solo career. The group 'Soft Toy Emergency' are a band that consist of five members, their lead singer being a woman. we felt that it was important to follow the trend of the music charts and for our music video present the band as a solo female singer. Bands which consist of a female lead singer usually have more of a market scope than male bands as they appeal to differing ages. By chosing a young and attractive female to front the band in our video yet again taps into our target audience, she can be present as a woman that is to be admired by men and boys and someone that females can aspire to look and behave like.
Artists such as Cheryl Cole
are a prime example of this, men want to marry her and women want to be like her. Not only this but she is seen as a national treasure and someone that people will listen to and also attempt to steal the style of celebrities such as her. Madonna for example has her own fashion rang because music and fashion go hand in hand as media conventions. In Madonna's
music videos for example there is a huge amount of product placeement in order to promote and sell her style as it were, this can also been seen in artists such as
The Pussycat Dolls
who have their own fashion label, and also with artists such as Lady GaGa. These artists are frequently featured in media conventions selling or sporting the latest in fashion wear, and this look that they maintain is also in their music videos.By researching into this gave us some ideas of how to present our female singer. Our target audience also happens to be the target audience for many popular media conventions and this is due to the fact that our target audience are highly afftected by the hypodermic model. We link this model to our music video by believeing audiences see music as part of their identity and their aspiration to be like their idols.
Contiuing on with our research into the music genre we listened to the lyrics of Critical very closely. The plot of the song is about a strong woman who is bored of her love sick ex boyfriend and she wishes he would get 'positively over it', 'it' being thier dead relationship. This led us to look into songs with similar narratives such as Katy Perry's song Hot n Cold,
and after watching the video we decided that the cheesy and humourous narrative was what we wanted to achieve, this concept is best shown in Mariah Carey's video for her song Touch my Body.
Not only is Mariah's music video visually exciting and humours it also contained a very classic image of the 'nerdy' boy who wants the beautiful girl, this being a concept which an audience can relate to. This gave us the inspiration to have a 'nerdy' figure in our video who is besotted with our sassy lead singer. The use of a narrative like that is important as it keeps the audience engaged with the song and also enables them to compare themselves with the life of the singer which is being portrayed.
We as a group did not want to break or twist conventions, we kept our music video to the existing trends as it is easier that way to have a target audience and to keep to the conventions they expect.
Ancillary Task. WEBSITE. research
Due to our groups determination to succeed we decided that we wanted to create a website for our band, a website being more challenging and creative compared to a Album cover.
We browsed through myspace looking at band profiles and also focusing mainly on bands with a female singer as this is what are band has.
http://www.sugababes.com/home.php
http://www.blackeyedpeas.com/
http://www.pcdmusic.com/
http://www.madonna.com/
We browsed through myspace looking at band profiles and also focusing mainly on bands with a female singer as this is what are band has.
http://www.sugababes.com/home.php
http://www.blackeyedpeas.com/
http://www.pcdmusic.com/
http://www.madonna.com/
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