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

Task 1 from AvGoh

Task 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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

Audience feedback can be seen as a key element in our product as all of my group members welcome constructive criticism or even opinions to widen our options. One of the key reason for listening to audience feedback is that it allows you to bring in opinions from outside the group as there could be a section our group hadn't even considered.

Conceptual Stages (Personal)

In the beginning of term everyone in the class presented our ideas for products we could later on develop. However these concepts were still in the preliminary stages as it was our initial idea. Therefore we needed people to review and critique the concepts form the beginning to see if it could be developed further. There I pitched 3 initial ideas to the class and recorded the response.

The Main feedback

I recorded the responses using my phone and the main comments I received was a mixture between positive comments and constructive criticism, which lead to to a cleared path so I could tweak my ideas before joining the group.

The Key Feedback comments: 

Find other alternatives of the fade away technique i.e. Use one shot where the camera pans way from subject then when it turns back to the subject it is gone, therefore this will only require the actor to move before the camera pans back.

Make the relationship (music video) of the situation more surreal as they are less cliche/strange. This would help the music video stand out more.

Can shift the focus. So instead of focusing on the son, we focus on the father who has passed away. So he is in the shot but no one realises he is there because at the end it reveals he is dead.

Based on the feedback given it lead to me scrapping all my initial ideas they were all restricting the focus of the music video. This would be a problem later on in production as we would try, develop one of the ideas.

Outcome - construct new ideas with my group

Conceptual Phase (Group Work) -First Idea

After the 3 initial ideas, we were set in groups in class with the aim to make a music video combining all our ideas together. The first thing our group did together was that we eliminated some ideas that were not properly developed or that were too technically difficult.

Our Main Idea was an indie rock song called Trip Switch by Nothing but Thieves. The concept was meant to focus on people's hidden sides, as I picked up inspiration from Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan at the beginning when you see the same face but a change in location (dissolve). Then after our group discussed possible activities people could do behind closed doors. Our group attempted to make them binary opposites i.e Business Man wanting to suicide…

Our Main Idea was an indie rock song called Trip Switch by Nothing but Thieves. The concept was meant to focus on people's hidden sides, as I picked up inspiration from Spielberg film Saving Private Ryan at the beginning when you see the same face but a change in location (dissolve). Then after this, our group discussed possible activities people could do behind closed doors. Our group attempted to make them binary opposites i.e Business Man wanting to suicide…

As we pitched our idea towards the class. The general response was positive however we need to focus on making other people's lives interesting, which could be the make or break of the music video.

From the feedback, we were told that we should focus on creating more variations between the narrative of each character. For example, a good way of doing this is by having each character have a different theme so they are presented in different situations.

Outcome - Construct the narrative element for the music video

Conceptual Phase (Group Work) - Second Idea

Therefore, our group has chosen to focus on a song where the lyrics aren't as narratively strong as our previous song Trip Switch. This makes our group focus on cool technical areas rather than a powerful narrative.

The song our group decided to go for was Sail by Awolnation which is within the electronic rock genre. The general concept of the video is based on a guy breaking a room in reverse as the song conveys anger.

When we spoke to Luke he told us that he did not enjoy our song choice Sail by Awolnation. As Luke said he didn't want our group to compete against a really popular mainstream video. Therefore, I found a song that allowed us to use the exact same narrative and performance with a different song. Plus Luke also found our concept to be very short lived as he said you can't possibly keep breaking the same thing.

In sum, we went back to the drawing board and shifted our focused onto finding a song that was less mainstream. This was because our group didn't want to compete against high-end production music videos

Outcome - Finding a more suitable song (that is less mainstream)

Conceptual Phase (Group Work) - Final Idea

The new song is Jungle by X Ambassadors, Jamie N Commons

Our teachers and Luke were not the fond of the idea of the room smashing up with the new track our group proposed. However when we spoke to Luke we decided to use our old location of the car park as it suits with the tone of the song. We decided we would have the band playing in the car park, which would have a powerful image.

Luke said he enjoyed the vision of the band playing in the car park however we would need to find the third stand to buy up more time of the song. Therefore, by next week, our group would need to focus on different stories to why the band is playing on the room tops. Our group would look at a couple of sets and get inspiration and see how other rock bands make their music video impressive.

This feedback that was given was able to guide our group a pathway in which was doable as most of the members of the group were all optimistic with bizarre and crazy ideas as we initially build our inspiration based on big budget music videos or Hollywood blockbusters.

Prototype Phase

First I made a timeline in order to clearly orchestrate what would occur in our music video. However we also made a Test Video to help convey our idea more clearly.

When we were talking to Luke he concluded it would be better to film the majority of the music video in the carpark and the security guards office. As in this case having the third element doesn't suit this music video narrative, as its would be better time spent filming in the carpark a majority of the day. Luke said that having the band playing in the carpark would give a more dynamic look for the music video. This meant our group would have to start to focus more towards the narrative to ensure we would enough or surplus footage.  Now my target is to get the storyboard done to ensure we have enough of footage on the day of your shoot.

Outcome - Construct a storyboard for the new narrative

Focus Group Phase

After we finished developing the product we decided to get feedback from a key demographic of late teenagers whom would help analyse all three of our products.

Video

One of the key comments they made was that they felt that all the products should be made to suit it other more collectively as they felt that it was quite different and therefore we should have something constant through all three products. Which is why we are planning on bring in the lion into the digipack.

Digipak

High-quality final digipak link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwkO_4MCwuQ-c3l1VWNROGd2Rzg/view?usp=sharing

When we questioned the focus group on the genre of the band based on the digipak, there was a mixed response between genres, one of which was 'techno'. However many felt it could be more of a group band which could be a 'punk band'. However  they said it did remind them of bands like inkin park to green day both of which we took our inspiration from to make our digipak.

Many of them thought we should integrate the lion onto the digipak as it would bring some consistency towards all three products.

In conclusion, they all generally thought the product looked very professional with a high standard however we added a lion on the ticket and added some text on the CD which helped make the product more complete.

Website

When we showed the focus group the website they said the website seemed to make the genre seem more hard and heavy compared the Digipak. However, they felt the logo of the lion was the best part of the logo, however they felt that the lion seemed incomplete and the quality of the wasn't of a high enough quality (picture on the left). This lead to them feeling that the sign seemed like a template rather than a website for the band.

Old Website

Updated Website

Another key element that we changed was our bio page this is because during our focus group we realised that our biography page didn't look professional enough. Later on, as our group researched other bands we noticed that not many of them have a bio page, this lead to us removing the bio page as a whole.

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

Focus Group

Today our group showed a focus group our digipak, website and our music video. This would allow allow our group to get a second opinion outside our group on our products, as our products are limited within our groups ideas. During the focus group we will ask common questions in order to get useful comments out of the audience on our products. Then from this we could change/add or remove things we agree with he focus group. I feel having focus groups are much more flexible than surveys as they allow question clarification and a follow up making their opinions more clear.

The preparation our group made was the we had to print out 3 digipak (albums), finalise our website and show them the video. In order for our group to prepare I had to export out the music video. That would allow us to show the target audience.  Our group also had to print out the digipak and stick them together allowing them to fold like a album cover. We also had to finalise our website so all we had to do is publish our website.  We had also conducted a very brief questions that will force a good response like "what do you think about the digipak" or "what do you think this band is like".

This is the voice recording of our audience feedback

Therefore when constructing the questions we had to consider:

• questions should be open ended in order to avoid "yes" or "no" responses
• The questions should  have a natural flow and feel towards it
• Allow for anticipated questions

During the session the aim of it was to have a very relaxed and chilled and relaxed environment. Therefore our teacher bought along snacks and sweets to loosen the mood. The order in which we shown our products was digipak, website and music video. When we shown the digipak everyone looked at the model of the album. Then after that we projected the website onto a wide screen and we showed them all the different features. At last we projected the music video onto the wide screen.

Comments we received on the products:

• Digipak

- They felt on the CD it should have some sort of text on top of it

- The target audience also felt that they were confused over the message of the band in terms of weather or not its a serious or fun band

- They also felt that the lion should be mentioned somewhere on the digipak

• Website

- The preferred to have the lions stand out on the more for the homepage
- The photos page they said they preferred to have either have the photos to be professional or normal (i.e. instagram pictures).

• Music Video

- The general vibes that was received was all positive and they felt that the best part of the music video was the sense of believability

- They also felt that all three products should link into the music video

Back page of Digipak

Imagine Dragons back page

Our group took inspiration from the back cover from imagine dragons. As we felt that imagine dragons back page conveyed similar conventions as our band.

The colour of the digipak is primarily black with simplistic white text. The small text to prove copyright was also very hidden and discrete which our group felt that we should continue.

Our groups back page

Despite our group taking inspiration from the imagine dragons back page our cover page still looks completely different.

The background is the same as the front page as my group felt that we should continue the texture throughout the digipak. The text we used was to carry out the continuity with the front page. In order to enhance the text behind the text I had to use the paint tool to add a black colour on the text allowing it to stand out.

Adding to the Digipak

Background

I want the background to be very stylish look for the space therefore as I was in school I noticed one guy that was wearing a very stylish jumper. The colours suited the colour of outta space but looked very interesting. However to bring out the black colour I had to add the pin light effect onto the texture without getting rid of the white in the picture.

The Planet

As i didn't want to copy a picture form google onto our band cover I felt that I had to find a picture of a rock or something with a similar shape. However my friend recommended taking picture of a  teachers bald head this immediately was brushed off. However once I saw my bald math teacher Mike playing pool it immediacy reminded me of the planned therefore I sneakily took a picture of his head!

Band Members on the planet

 The concept was tho have one of the band members standing on the planet alone a bit like the Imagine Dragons songs. As I was truly inspired by the image on the imagine dragon logo. However this didn't work out for our band album as the background is too dark and doesn't stand out enough.





 However as I was walking back after I took pictures of the drummer I saw and interesting shadow that gave me an idea on what to add onto the planet. I though it would be simple yet artistic. This seemed perfect however all of the shadows was all the same therefore I had to add the paint tool to fill in the hands to make them all seem different.

Title

 

For the title Perry found a bunch of different fonts to see, which one would suit more with the band. Then I used a paint brush tool to make a paint look towards the album with some wavy text. However Perry wasn't fond of this idea therefore as we were looking though different font he preferred called long distance call regular.