Evaluation 3 - Audience Feedback

The use of the internet and social networking gave us a huge advantage to gaining feedback on our music video as we were able to reach a large group of people in a short amount of time and for no cost. We still used a few more traditional methods like getting the students from our class and teachers to watch the video with us but we mainly used modern methods. I think the combination of the two allowed us to obtain some genuine feedback and allowed us to see what went well and what we could improve. I also think that using different methods of gaining feedback worked well because we received different criticisms & praise from each way we did it.


"What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

The picture above is a screen shot of our video which we put on YouTube. We put the link up on Facebook and a few friends posted it on their 'walls' too, meaning that quite a big group of people were able to view it and give us feedback. The thing we were most surprised about is the amount of views it received in such a short time! We put it online on the Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday evening we had over 100 views which shows how good web 2.0 is at distributing work to large and diverse audiences.

We were quite pleased with the feedback we received, as a lot of people found the video easy and humorous to watch, which is what we had intended our video to be like. A lot of people commented on the storyline of the video, thinking it was about a homosexual relationship. Although we had tried to make our video about friendship which goes against conventions we had found in most pop music videos, we weren't too disappointed because same sex relationships are rarely seen in the pop genre which means that whatever way you look at our video, it's likely to show a very modern representation of people that challenges current conventions. Another thing that was mentioned quite a lot was the light-hearted feel to the video. People who watched it said it would suit our target audience very well as it wasn't as serious as a lot of pop music videos around. Another good aspect of our video that people commented on was our choice of costume as it was quite casual but without looking boring or out of place. A few people said that the clothes we had used made the two characters in the video appear as good role models, which is a very important aspect as we aimed our video at quite young girls/teenagers.

We did also receive some criticisms, for example on the variety of shots used and the quality of filming in some shots. Because we started filming relatively late, it meant that we didn't have a lot of time with the camera which limited how many different shot types we could take in each location. Although the majority of people did think we'd used enough shot types, quite a few people disagreed. I think this goes to show how important time is with filming, if we were to do this task again then I think it'd be a good idea to start earlier to ensure we had plenty of time to film and include many different shot types. On average, our performance scenes rated higher than our narrative scenes. Many of the videos we looked at combined narrative scenes with performance but we wanted to use more of a split. I think that if we had used more narrative scenes then our video might've looked better and maybe would've provided more of an understanding of our storyline.

In our performance scenes where Emma is seen singing on the stage, the quality of the footage is quite fuzzy and blurry. It was very difficult to create a setting similar to performance scenes we've seen in other videos as we were restricted to where we could film. When we used bright lighting, Emma looked far too bright, but when we turned the lighting down, it was very hard to see her! However, we decided to film in this setting anyway, as it was the most appropriate setting for a performance scene which meant that in our final video the stage scenes weren't as strong as the other scenes. Our media teacher also pointed out that a lot of of shots were quite stiff, we were able to add movement by using the Ken Burns tool, but I think if we were to film again, it would be useful to use some panning shots.

Overall, I think we done quite well considering between us we only had very, very little knowledge of filming and editing! I also think that this task has made us realise how important time-management is and that using a timeline that we would stick to would probably have impacted greatly on us!

Evaluation Part One - Codes & Conventions

"In what ways does your media project use, develop or challenge the codes and conventions of real media products?"

When researching the genre for our media video, we found that the majority of real media products place a big emphasis on romance and intimate relationships. Straight away, we decided that we wanted to do something different so I think that by focussing our video on friendship, we challenged one of the main conventions of a pop music video. It was quite difficult to do so, as there's not a huge amount of difference between romantic relationships portrayed in music videos and friendships. Although we tried very hard to use settings and mis en scene to create a friendship storyline, it wasn't totally obvious in our final piece! For example, our media teacher's first opinion was that we had used a same sex relationship storyline. Although there was still the idea about a relationship in our work, it had in a way challenged a different convention in the way that we had used characters of the same sex. This is a very modern representation of relationships, and something that is seen in only a very small group of music videos. I think that our narrative scenes challenged the traditional conventions of a music video.

A lot of the shots and settings we decided to use were quite similar to ones already seen in real media products. There wasn't many other shots we thought of that haven't been used in other music videos that would be appropriate for our video, so we decided to use camera shots that we had seen in similar videos. For example, in Lily Allen's video for 'Smile', she is seen sat on a bed, and the shots move between close ups to mid shots, which keeps the audience interested. In her video, the way she is sat in her bedroom gives a sense of sadness and almost vulnerability and she looks quite bored, but we thought that the use of a bedroom setting would make our target audience seem relatable to who they are seeing in the video. We were quite selective about the settings we chose to use, as we all thought that mis en scene would play a really important part in trying to convey our storyline and would also signify to the audience about what age we are aiming our video at. For example, in the bedroom scenes, we dressed Emma in a dressing gown which had stars on it. The costume used in these scenes signifies youth which appeals to our target audience.

We decided to use a selection of different shots throughout each setting in our filming. For example, during the performance shots where Emma is on stage, we chose a close up to show expression and emotion of the words being sang. In Kelly Clarkson's videos for 'Since U Been Gone' and 'My Life Would Suck Without You', close ups are used when she is performing on stage which makes what she is singing look powerful and passionate. I also found that mid shots and full length shots are quite often used when there is a performance shot of somebody on stage. This allows the viewer to familiarise themselves with the setting and also creates a sense of excitement especially when fast paced panning shots are used.
Below is a slideshow of shots we used that are similar to real media texts.

similar shots

View more presentations from stacypringle.

When producing the items needed for our ancillary tasks, both me and Susan decided it'd be a good idea to keep the name of the artist and album the same as the original work. The album work we looked at mainly showed a fairly plain background, sometime with computer added images and usually with a close up of the artist's face. Katy Perry's album cover on the other hand has a very busy background, she is seen lying on a sun lounger with a sunny background and different accessories around her. A set would've been used to take this picture but this was too difficult for us to do so I decided to use a plain background. However, instead of using a close up like many other artists do, I challenged the conventions by using a mid shot that we took of Emma leaning on the stage with her arms. I cut this out so it looked like she was leaning on her name instead which gives off an impression that she is quite fun. Not only would this appeal to our target audience, it also goes well with the album title (One of the Boys) as she looks quite playful. A lot of album covers I looked at were quite general in the way that they didn't relate too much to any of the songs includes. CD singles on the other hand used images that were related to the song on the CD. As we took the pictures used for our ancillary task on the day that we filmed our performance scene, it meant that the outfit used on the CD cover is the same used in the video for Hot n Cold. This is the only similarity to the song, the colour scheme and the pattern used in the background doesn't relate to the song. In my ancillary task, I think I mainly used the same conventions as other CDs use, the only aspect I developed was the use of the picture which is similar to what is seen in the music video. My back cover was also quite similar to real albums, I used a picture of Emma on the right of the case and the list of songs next to her on the right. I also used a gradient to make the picture look quite hazy which is quite similar to Rihanna's 'Loud' album. Although they don't look the same at all, the conventions are quite similar.


The above pictures both show the artist positioned on one side of the case, with the song list next to them & a kind of hazy effect.

The font I used on my work is very similar to the font used on Katy Perry's album. I chose it because it's very fun and girly which would appeal to my audience. I decided against using the pink and blue colours that are used on Katy Perry's album however because against my plain background, they made my CD cover look like it was appealing to a much younger age group than I was aiming at. I still used feminine colours but darker shades to make the CD look more mature but still fun.

All the posters I looked at used the exact same background as the CD cover, just enlarged to A4 size. However, I decided to challenge this convention and create a new image for my poster. I used another of the photos taken from our photoshoot and kept to the same colour scheme to create consistency throughout the whole of my digipak. I used a font similar to the one used by Rolling Stone magazine which is very recognizable and relates well to music topics.