Final Video

Final Ancillary Tasks

Evaluation

Media Evaluation

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

‘Someone like you’ is a mixed genre song made up of pop, soul and blues. Soul and blues music gives songs more meaning and depth as soul music originally comes from gospel music, which has a lot of depth to it. The lyrics themselves have a very deep meaning to them so this goes even more hand in hand with the genre. Adele performed this live at the Britt awards in 2011 and it was said to have been one of the most powerful performances done there before. Her video is very simple as it is just her walking along the side of a river and edited in black and white.  

The song is sad, and all about Adele’s feelings for someone she loved. I wanted to follow the same conventions of this music video and use the conventions of the genre of soul and blues.

Andrew Goodwin’s music video theory says that ‘genres tend to have their own music style and iconography explicit in their music video’ which means that for each genre that is present in the video, there would be some relevant and obvious style and flares that would have been put in the video purposely to enhance the genre. I believe that I have used these forms and followed the theory in this way because I have made it to blend in with this genre. Such as making it calm to blend with the blues side of the video.  He also says that there should be a relationship between the lyrics and visuals, which I believe I have done to a large extent. My target audience are people aged 16+ and these are the types of people I have included in my focus group as I felt that their input and views would be the most helpful. Men and women have said that they are interested in the genre of music that my video falls under which is pop alongside rhythm and blues. The song is slow and relaxed as it tells a story about a woman and her relationship, I wanted to portray this in the video and stick with real media conventions, which is why I made my video slower paced and tell the story of the song. In a lot of blues music there are pianos which again I chose to include because it used real media conventions.

By looking at other music videos with the same genre, including Adele’s original of Someone Like You, I found that the camera angles were all pretty much from the same angle which gave the video a sense of stability and kept it all on one level to see the emotions.
I however felt that if I were to break this convention I would still keep the appeal from my target audience but I would also give the video more depth because it could give a variety of emotions and see that throughout the video, the artist was feeling different things. 

Another relevant theorist is Sven E Carlson, who says that if a music video clip contains mostly filmed performance such as the vocalist in more than one setting, is known as a performance based video.

Goodwin also says that there should be close ups of different parts in the video. I believe that I have challenged this because I do not have any major close ups, other than the piano section, but this is still not as focused and close up as some.

As you can see Adele’s video is in black and white and when I first watched it I thought it added to the dark, cold and sad feeling that is portrayed through the lyrics and the rhythm of the song. I have followed this convention by making my own video in black and white, I found that by doing so it almost removes any other emotions or feelings. I feel that colour is something that is in your life that makes it more exciting, which is why the parts that are in colour in my video are flash backs  of her life, when things were more colourful and happy. The weather in Adele’s video is calm and plain, which again I chose to follow because it also added to the gloomy feeling of the video, apart from the flashbacks which were videod in sunlight and blue skies, because again, these parts are happier and the connotations of a sun are happiness and joy.

As you can see by the way I have portrayed the artist, I have stuck to the conventions of a typical Laura Mulvey theorist video. Although she is wearing clothes that cover her up a lot, her facial features are made a large part of the video, which is very sexually appealing to many people. Laura Mulvey says that the female body is very appealing to many people as they are seen in a sexual way. This is partly the reason why men and women are drawn to particular videos, and as my audience has proven to be partly male, I wanted to include this in my video to appeal to them too.

This is an example of how the male gaze theory has been put into practice, and the artist is seen as a sexual feature of the video, attracting the attention of many due to the lack of clothes and the dancing. Although my video does not have a lack of clothes or sexual dancing, it does infact contain my female artist throughout the enture video, I have done this so that my audience can be drawn to her.

Most modern music videos have a story, or at least a number of different threads which have a different theme to them. Again I have followed this convention of a typical music video by having a number of different ideas. All together I have 4/5 different locations all of which contain a different theme for the video. There are a number of parts where my artist is just singing, but in a few locations, but then there is also the story containing two other actors. I think that this is a useful technique to use in a music video because it helps the viewer to follow and understand the lyrics easier if it being acted out to them.  It is also important for the video to flow, if it doesn’t then the viewer would get confused and they would not understand the point in the video.

Initially I asked a number of people also known as my focus group which I created on a Facebook page, what they thought music videos and what they did and did not like to see. When I got my feedback I discovered that a lot of people liked solo artists, and videos that were easy to follow. Some people said that they liked to see a performance based piece within a video while there is a story going on as well, which Is one part where I have challenged the forms  and conventions of a real media product.

As you can see I thought very carefully at the clothing my artist wore as I wanted to keep the clothing suitable to the weather and mood. I looked at a number of different videos to see if they matched the clothing to the weather and mood, as well as the genre. I ensured that she wore a coat, scarf, boots and tights in cold settings and when she was feeling more insecure in the song, then when she was with her boyfriend and they were happy in the sun, she was not wearing a coat and therefore things were lighter. Here I have used real media conventions because I realised that my target audience would pick up on this if she was wearing inappropriate clothing.

Mise en scene was a large part of the video, and I wanted to keep it all relevant and as much the same as possible. This is why a lot of it is filmed in naturist areas, this naturist theme is present throughout the entire video, as well as the ancillary products. This helped to link them all together and feel the flow of the products. Throughout my research I found that linking these products in with each other is very important as it appeals to the audience, and helps connect them with the products.

As part of my research into this connection, I watched a few videos that I felt really connected with the audience, I tried to use this same effect in my own video, the main way I did this was to find eye contact within videos. By using the handheld camera I was able to adjust the angle and have it straight on for a lot of the time, this meant that when my artist looked forward she was looking straight into the camera; I got this idea from videos such as:

My video is a narrative video; this means that the lyrics go well with what you see on the screen, the story of the video tells the story of what is being said by the lyrics. You can see this by the way the video is laid out, it is a sort of time line through the artists life, or at least the artists recent love life. Due to the high technological advantages of Adobe, I was able to mould my video into looking the exact way I wanted it to. I was able to edit different pieces such as the flashback of the two, so that it was in colour and had a glow, with a glowing transition which looked almost like a dream. I did this a few times in the video, when I wanted to make it look like she was remembering him. There is a part in the video where there is a ghosting effect. I did this by filming two different clips, one of her on the bench, and one of him on the bench, by laying the two over each other I was able to change the opacity and make it look ghostly. My focus group said that they really liked this part of the video  

Over all I think that I use a range of different camera angles, including, over the shoulder, close ups and mid shots, and a few long shots. I have done this to get a number of different views and perspectives. I also wanted to show my ability to video in different angles just as other music videos do. I also made sure that the artist sang into the camera a lot of the time so that the audience could feel the emotions and feel connected with the song and artist.

I have also followed as many conventions of real media products when it comes to the digipak and poster. I did a lot of research into how they should look and tried to ensure that I used as many real things as possible. The genre of the video was  carried through to all the products and this helped to link them together. You will also see from the CD cover that I have used the same font so that the audience will be able to see the link in their own heads.

You will see in a few parts of my video, a piano scene, some of my focus group said that they thought it was badly framed, however I then discussed this with them, and said that I did not want my artists face to be the main subject of the clip, instead I wanted to give the video a bit of variety which is why I aimed on focusing more on the piano. I thought that my showing instruments and the way that the song had been naturally formed, was an important part of the video, and I also felt that it gave the video a bit more excitement, rather than just watching her singing.


You will also see that my two ancillary products also follows real media conventions. I have made both of these products as similar to real products as possible because I wanted them to seem as real as possible. I did a lot of research into these products to find out what it is exactly they should contain. As you will see from my poster, I have included the essential items such as a main picture, main heading and release date, or in my case 'Available now'. I have also included the logo of the company that produces Adele's songs, so that you can see the link between my products and real products. As well as this it contains the iTunes logo, to show that it is available to be purchased from there and finally a QR reader as they are very popular on advertisement products today. Within the digipak I also tried to stick to real media products as much as possible by including all the necessary information. To do this I included, pictures from relevant locations, name, album name, song list, bar codes, producer logo, websites and email adresses. All of these things are included in nearly all digipak covers. And finally to ensure that it was as real as possible I made my digipak fit in the CD case, I thought that this made it look far more professional as well as smarter. 

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

In order to relate my video to the digipak and poster I had to ensure that the theme and colour ran alongside each other well. For example the colour had to be the same and the same emotions were felt from all three products. To do this I made sure that the colours were the same, which was fairly easy. Most of the video was edited to be in black and white so that therefore gave me the colours. I have used black and white not only as a way to edit my video, but also in the opening clip, and writing in the digipak and poster. I used the same font in all 3 products which made them link and therefore the audience would see the link between them. The font I used is called Script MT Bold and I thought that the way the font flows looked the part and went well with the genre and feel of the video and ancillary texts.

I used 4 different pictures in the making of the digipak and hoped to use one of them in the poster too as it would link them together nicely, however when I used the appropriate picture in the poster, I found that the picture was too stretched and ruined it. Therefore I had to take some other pictures in similar locations so that they would feel more appropriate for an A3 portrait poster. One problem I found with this was that people said it was not as simple to relate the two together as the same pictures would have helped the audience to see that they are linked.

My video is quite subtle and it is not crazy with silly things happening, therefore I wanted the same feel for my digipak and poster, I wanted the artist to be the main subject of the piece because after all the video is all about her as she is the singer and the actor. The font I used is bold anyway, and the dark writing against the light background makes it stand out enough, I did not want to make the writing too large so that it becomes the main focus. This is the same for the poster which has just a small piece of writing as opposed to the large picture. I feel that this is also the same with the video, throughout most of the video the artist is centre to the camera which makes viewers see her immediately and everything else seem less important. This therefore links all the products together well.
I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 to edit my pictures to link more appropriately with the video, using 4 pictures in the digipak and one for the poster I had to make them feel the same, however look different so that they did not all blend into one. My focus group said that they felt some of the images were too bright for the feeling of the video, however this was done purposely to get the viewers' attention, because as you can see from the picture below, the large ray of sunlight is very eye catching. These pictures have been edited subtly so that they seem dull yet still interesting. 

 The reason I wanted to make the artist the main feature of the ancillary texts is because Laura Mulvey’s theory on the male gaze says that both men and women are attracted to products of women, sometimes used to show skin and tempting attitudes but also in this case the main features of the face and the overall beauty will attract the audience to the products.

After doing some research I discovered what were the main pieces of information that should be on a CD cover, this was, the artist name, album name and a list of songs on the CD. As well as a logo of some sort to represent the company name. The rest of the CD should give any extra information such as pictures, posters, email addresses, websites and bar codes. As you can see from my own CD cover, I made sure that I included all of these things. The use of Google helped me to get hold of the ‘XL Recordings’ logo as well as a bar code and any other things I needed. By creating these products on Microsoft Publisher I was able to go back and edit it as much as I wanted, it enabled me to change fonts and colours as well as insert as many pictures as I wanted, and edit them however I wanted. 


You will also se from my work, that I have used my ancillary task to make an actual digipak case, I wanted to do this to show how effective the digipak can be, and also show that my products work. I also felt that it makes the CD look more professional and when I should my focus group at the end, they all said that they felt it was a great idea and really added to the whole project.

You will also notice that I have used a certain green for the 21 and writing and letters in both ancillary products, not only has this helped to link in all products, I also then found from researching that it is the same green that Adele used for her own CD. I was amazed that I was drawn to the same colour as she was, and I think that it is down to the nature feel and the emotions let out throughout the music. 

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

My audience feedback has helped throughout the entire construction of my video. I have learnt a number of things, about what different people like. Firstly I sent out questionnaires to a number of different people to discover who my target audience were which was done by discovering what sort of people liked my genre of music. These people then became my focus group and this is where I got my audience feedback from.

Before creating my products I asked them what sort of things they liked to see in a music video and what they didn’t like to see, I then used this information to form my music video and later the ancillary texts.

I wanted to know what they thought about every stage of my construction of all 3 products, therefore I asked them on their opinion about everything I did.
I found every comment that they gave me very helpful and they really helped me to understand what my audience wanted.

From the beginning of construction I wanted to have the video in black and white all the way through like Adele’s original, however it wasn’t until I showed a focus group the video that I found out that they wanted to see how it would look with the flash backs in a different colour, s I was eager to find out how it would look and see if it appealed to more people. And by keeping these parts in colour and enhancing the glow on the clips I found that it gave the video another dimension and made it show the flashbacks better.  I asked my focus group what they thought about each of the pictures in the digipak and the majority of the group said that they liked them and said that the went well with the feeling of the video, some said that they were too bright for the feeling, but I chose to stick with these pictures as I felt that they went well and showed the right emotions I was going for, they also separated the pictures up from each other, where as if they had been all the same they would not stand out as much.

Here you will see that I have printed out some work and asked one person from my focus group to write some comments about what they thought of these products. This was a very useful way to get information and see what my audience thought of the pieces I was creating.

I found towards the end of the video that I had two different piano scenes in there, and my focus group picked upon this, and it was thanks to them that I was able to change this before it was too late. If it weren’t for my focus group I would not have picked up on this, and so I found that by uploading different parts of the video, and asking for feedback, was extremely important as it gave me the necessary information to improve the video.

I found that getting voluntary information from the focus group was quite hard, so I had to create my own questions that would prompt an answer and response from them. To do this I asked them what they thought of particular products, colours and effects. This then made them think about these ideas separately from the rest of the video, it would make them stick out when they watched the video, and this would enable me to see what they thought about parts that I was a bit unsure about. For this reason my focus group were very helpful.

One thing that I found about my focus group, which I also mentioned on my blog, was that it was quite hard to please everyone. Whereas some people would say that they wanted the black and white to run through all the products, others were saying that there was not enough colours. I felt that I had to try and please everyone so as you will see from my Facebook focus group, I continuously uploaded different versions of the poster and ancillary products. This enabled be to get a continuous amount of feedback and even say ‘what about this one’ and give them reasons for why they should like it. In some ways, this works well with the two step flow, because my focus group would see what I was saying, and automatically feel like they want to agree with me, and see what I was saying.

Once i had completed my video, I then uploaded it to youtube, and then on to my Facebook Focus group, this was very useful for me, because it then gave me an over all and final idea of what they thought of it. It turned out that what I had achieved in the video, was what they were after, it had a story and visuals to go with it as well as a number of strands to keep the video interesting.  My focus group were the most important part of planning throughout the entire project I felt, as without their help and advise the video would not be to their requirements and they would not have enjoyed it.

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

The use of Facebook and other social networking sites is a large part of the media today, and how people these days communicate with one another. Having known this I used Facebook for a large part of my research and planning by creating a focus group on Facebook where I share my own research, ideas and media products to a group of people to gain a response and understand what an audience would want. Their constructive criticism and praise has helped me to create a number of different media products including my music video and preliminary task of a smaller music video.

By creating a focus group on a social networking site which I knew the majority of my focus group would go on nearly every night, I was certain that my questions and advise questions would be answered and I would be able to improve my own work with the help of their ideas and opinions. 

Another type of new media technology I used in the research stages of my video was YOUTUBE. This is a website used to watch videos that people all over the world has made and uploaded, including personal videos, as well as music videos. YOUTUBE was extremely helpful during planning because it enabled me to watch a number of videos to help me learn different techniques including stop-motion, and inter-textuality .YOUTUBE was also useful because I was able to watch other music videos, to get ideas and see what techniques work well together. 

Blogger is programme on the internet that I have used throughout my media course, It has helped me to keep track and write down everything I have done. I am able to write down all of my research and refer back to it when I need to. I am able to upload the stages I go through and this can then help me to progress further with my video. Blogger and Facebook have helped me to progress with my music video by reminding me of previous research, enabling me to easily access my story board and ideas, and give people all over the world the chance to access my blog and leave me feedback which was sometimes positive telling me what they liked and disliked about what they had seen, and ways I could improve it.

Over the course I have learnt how to use two different types of cameras within the products I have created. Firstly I learnt how to use the Canon digital camera, which enabled me to take still shots of anything I needed. I learnt the rule of three and how to make the subject the main focus of the picture. As well as this I learnt how to view my pictures within the camera and what edit them if I needed to. I also learnt how to use the Sony Video camera for a few parts of my video. My main camera I used however was the Sony Cyber-shot G. Although this camera is primarily a digital camera, I found that the video mode for it was amazing, and I was able to do a lot more with it than I was with the canon digital camera. This camera was very complex so I therefore spent a lot of time figuring out the best modes and settings for it. Without these settings I would not have been able to create my video to the standard that I was hoping for. It had 16.2 mega pixels with a HD setting. This meant that the quality of my video was spectacular and picked up the smallest details.

Adobe Premier Elements has been the largest and most complicated programme for me to use. It has taken me a long time to work out how to work it. Without Adobe the construction of my music video would not have been possible. By using Adobe premiere elements I was able to edit, change and move my video as much and as often as I wanted. I used Adobe for everything to do with the construction of my video because it had all the effects and tools that I needed. I used a variety of effects and transitions to construct my video, as well as cutting it, putting it all together and the general editing of the video. 

  As you can see I have used a black and white effect for the main part of my video, and colour for the flash backs which helped a lot because it went well with the mood of the song, I was able to do this because of the new media technologies developed, and the progression of adobe has enabled me to do so. There were many effects available within adobe premiere elements 10 and this is all down to the use of progression within new media technologies.

As well as Adobe premiere elements, I also had access to Adobe Photoshop Elements 10, and this was more for the editing of stills used in the Digi-Pak and poster. This was useful in editing pictures because I was able to airbrush them while I edited them, this helped the pictures to look far more professional and followed the conventions of a real music video Digi-Pak and poster. Adobe photoshop was used in both construction and planning because I was able to try out different effects and options while I chose the right style to fit the genre and mood of the song.

 Adobe enabled me to do a lot of things with my video, last year when I was creating my music magazine, I used the older version of Adobe photoshop Elements, this year however the school funded the newest version of the software, ‘Adobe Premier Elements 10’ This newest software had new features to it that helped me to vary my video. Whereas in a usual music video the usual transition would be an immediate cut, I was able to used fades and blends, as well as dip to white/black. This made my video flow, and because the song was slow paced and calm, the soft transitions helped to enhance this, I did originally try a cut in some places but my focus group told me that they thought it was too harsh, and I agreed. This is why the majority of my transitions are fades or blends. This newest version of premier elements also meant that there is 3 rows where you could put different clips, I found this very useful because it meant I was able to put other clips above the original ones, as well as putting them above so that I could change the opacity and give it that ghosting affect o previously talked about. I did however face a few problems that could have potentially ruined my entire video. I found that on the slower school computers the programme would regularly freeze and I was close to losing everything. I did some research and found out that the processing time and graphics on the school computers were much slower than my own laptop. Therefore to get the most out of my own technology I brought Adobe premiere elements 10 and installed it on my laptop. My laptop is new and has a CORE i7, this means that it has a very fast processing time and the programme would run a lot faster on there. It also meant that I was able to edit my video wherever I went. So for the construction of my video Adobe and my own laptop were very useful.

For the construction of my ancillary products, I also used my laptop, as windows 7 no use a technique called split screen. This means that I can have two different programmes running at the same time, and they both take up exactly half of the screen. This was very useful when I was creating the ancillary products because I found that I was having to copy and paste different things, as well as have Internet Explorer on occasion if I was looking at things online. This made the overall construction of all the products a lot easier.   

www.youtube.com was a large help in the research and planning stages of my products, because I was able to look at other music videos, as well as personal videos that other media students and professionals had created. For example I originally wanted to use stop motion in my video, but was unsure how to do it, so I searched it on www.youtube.com and found that I was able to watch hundreds of videos that would give me a step by step guide to how it works.

By using other products such as tripods I was able to give my footage a steady view. I did not want all of my video to seem wobbly and unstable. The clips were focused on the artist and I did not want that to be taken away by the distraction of an unstable camera. I did however hold the camera myself when I filmed a part of the ex-boyfriend. The clip is my artist singing and then a more opaque clip of him stood looking around, this part is a little bit unsteady but I explained to the focus group that this was done intentionally to get a different feel of him against the artist. 

Over all the most helpful technology was the internet, if it werent for all the different websites I used including blogger, I would not have been able to keep a record of all my work and progress. Luckily I did not how to use the internet, however using programmes such as slideshare was new to me, so that was one new technology that helped me to show and see information. As you will see from my blog I did create my own slideshares to make it simpler to upload to my blog, because with the technology used within it I was able to 'Embed' it into my blog. Which I found easy to learn, this helped me greatly with my research and planning stages.

Research

As you will see in the preparation of my ancillary products that i have done a lot of research into how each product should look, and what it should contain. I used a website called www.musicbizacadamy.com  which told me lots of information about what should be on such products. I have followed these steps to ensure that I have all the necessary information.

CD cover

Here you will see that I have created my own version of the original version of Adele's CD cover, against one that I have created myself. I really liked the cd cover, and felt that if i were to make my own, it would increase the reality of the whole project. They are very similar and I think that it looks different enough to not be identical, yet similar enough to appeal to my audience.

Adele 21

Here are the original cd covers used in Adeles album 21. As you can see, I have actually used the same original green that she has used, surprisingly, this was a coincidence. I can see how that it looks very good on hers, and I can see why I liked it on my own so much.

I love the way that the shadows on Adeles face are bold like the pictures on my own digipak, and I believe that I have done the right thing by making her face the statement of the covers. I feel that if i were to make it simplistic with nothing but trees and dull pictures, it would not appeal to my audience. I believe, and have seen from my own research that CD covers should make a statement and draw each viewer in, and by having a beautiful face of the artist staring back at you, it makes the viewer feel connected with the artist. The other good thing about using a female artist is the idea of Laura Mulvey's male gaze theory, where Mulvey says that she believes both men and women are drawn into something by the thought of a sexualized woman, and I believe that the stare given by my artist really says a statement and will make the viewer feel like she is really looking at them. As you will also see from my own CD cover is I have included digital technologies, such as a bar code, the XL Recordings logo, and a website and email adress, just as the real CD cover does.

Brainwave!!

Because so many people from my focus group liked the other picture in black and white, i thought it would be a great idea to use the two very similar pictures for both products, the advert and the digipak. I have put the idea forward to my focus group to see what they think.
Here is the new advert so far.

 And here is the new digipak so far, linked in with this advert.

So far, the focus group still seem to like the other advert more, but hopefully now that they have seen this digipak, they will see the reasoning. 

Feedback for picture

 I have had some response from my focus group telling me what they think of the picture above in black and white, and over all they seem to like it more, they say that it makes the picture seem more dramatic and it fits in better with the black and white theme.  The picture below is roughly the same just from a bit further away, and personally i think that I like this picture more because it has a nicer feel to it as apposed to the one above which I feel is a little bit too close and the black and white makes it feel pixelated. However, I will ask the focus group what they think.

Edited advert.

Feedback about the advert.

As you can see here, one member of my focus group has said that they like the simple design, which is what I was aiming for, but he thinks that it would be good if there was something that stood out a little bit more and grabbed their attention, for example some colour. 

Therefore I have thought about this advise and will try to add a little bit of colour to the advert, one idea I have is to use the same blue that I have running throughout my blog for just one small part of the advert.

One thing I have learnt as a producer of music advertisements, music videos and other products, is that it must be very difficult for these companies to make a product that suits their whole audience, because I have realised in this short task, that where as some of the audience think that a bit of colour in the pictures, doesnt look right as the video is black and white, however they believe there is not enough colour in the advert. 

If i were to do this for a living I would find it quite frustrating, however in this case, I quite enjoy editing my products so that people like them more and the feedback is excellent.

Advert draft 1

This is my first draft of the advertisement, as you can see I have only included, the artists name, the album name, and the release date. I will ask my focus group what they think about this and return to the drawing board.

Release date advertisements

I have looked into some advertisements that other companies have created to show the release of albums/singles. I wanted to get a clearer idea of how to create my poster. I didnt want to make it feel too busy, but then I also didnt want to not put enough information in it.  Here are some of my favourite ones I found.

As you can see, three of the four posters use a pictrue of the artist to advertise the album, which I think is the best thing to do and something that I will definately do with my poster, as I want the public to see who is being advertised, not just their name. 

All of the posters show the artists name and the name of the song/album/single, which are the 2 things I will have to make sure I include in my own poster. They dont all say when they have been released, which I think makes the posters look better and simpler, but I may have to do it to my own so that the audience can see when its being released. Some small symbols such as the itunes logo are rather effective because they advertise where to get the songs from online, as many people do these days. That is something that I may consider putting on my poster. 

Looking back

I thought it would be useful to go back and look at the questions I initially asked my audience to find out what they liked in a music video, and see if  I have managed to use any of the things that they said. After all the audience is the most important part as they are the people who will be viewing the video and buying  CD's, if they don't like what a music company creates then there would be no point in creating it.



"Outdoor, indoor lighting can look false and outdoor has a nice atmosphere and is suited to almost any song
Depends on the genre of the music, however an entire video in black and white/sepia might be less interesting than one in colour
I think that a story line going on at the same time is something for the viewer to follow and enjoy; gives you something to actually watch."


"Outdoors, indoors is boring.
Bright Colours
Story line, just watching them sing is boring, much like the x factor"


"Prefer a story as watching someone just signing is boring 
Loved aha take on me from 80s this helped to change the way videos were done plus I loved the lead singer, and wanted to be the girl in the video"


"I think that at least having two storylines is very important and even if there isnt two stories as such there is two strands.
I wouls say that at the moment my favourite music video is by Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Atlas Hands. I would say it is because it is simplistic and yet has its own style and is rather edgy.
I don't really have a prefference however all of the options are effetive for certainthings, by using only one however it could be boring.
Bit of both two strands would work with this."


"Unusual videos where they have a storyline that you can follow as you get gripped and want to watch till the end. These stand out to me far more than simple ones with no storyline as you tend not to watch them for any other reason than for the song.No preference on colour or location as its dependant on the song that the video is for; as long as it suits. I think a mixture is good as I like to see the band but i also like a storyline to make it interesting."


"What do you think of music videos with more than one story line? I think they are interesting, but might be a bit unclear of confusing
Favourite ever music video? Why? Lazy song, I like the simplicity... and the chimps."


"Outdoor or indoor videos? Why? I like a bit of variation, but if had to choose, outdoor, the lighting is usually a bit brighter
Bright colours, black and white, sepia, other? Bright colours FTW- just more fun and attractive.
Being able to see the artists singing the whole time or a story line of other people? Why? I think seeing a story line is more interesting."


"I enjoy something i can follow so i prefer to watch a hero or a couple, something romantic with a twist, gripping and compelling at the same time; otherwise the story is boring. I prefer to watch female artists as the idea of male gaze is relevant to me.The colour is never usually something i look at, but if i had a preference it would be Black and White, the video has more of an impact on the viewer and can sometimes come across more emotional and therefore i get more attached to it.
I prefer to have the singer being the person involved in the story line for example Drunk by Ed Sheeran."

As you can see, my focus group have outlined that they enjoy mainly videos that are filmed outdoors, this is one thing that my video is full of, every piece of footage I filmed was done outside as I felt it went well with the feel of the song.

Nearly all of them said that they enjoyed music videos with more than one strand or with a story to follow is they find it gripping. This is definately something I have managed to do as i have two strands going the my entire video and one thing I think will make viewers want to watch the video more. 

My focus group have also sad that they liked simple videos, in some ways I think that my video may have a bit too much going on at times, but then I think that is balanced out by the calmness of the video and the way there is a lot of peaceful footage of the artist singing. However over all I think I have stuck well to what my focus group like to see in music videos, and I hope that they enjoy the video. 

To link my video with videos that the focus group said they liked, here are a couple of their favourites.  

Transitions

As a bit of last minute research I asked my focus group what they thought of the transitions in my video, because I realised that they are not the usual transitions that a music video would use. The usual transitions would be a cut or a direct transition which jumps immediately from one clip to another. However I have used alot of fade and blur transitions which are slower and a bit gentler. Personally I felt that they suited the video well.
Here is what someone from my focus group said:

"I thought the fading was really good, you could see parts of it were meant to be sort of flash backs or memories which worked well. The shot between 1:30 and 1:50 confused me a bit as I couldnt really see the overlap shot, the faded one behind it. But i'm guessing it was some sort of memory. The transitions fading out to black then in from black worked well."

 This has reassured me that the transitions throughout the video work well together and it makes the video flow well. I am glad the my focus group are able to see the point of the fading and the shots in the background are suppose to be memories.

Is the picture right?

A few people from my focus group mentioned that they felt that the picture above was very nice, but as it was in colour it did not fit right with the rest of the video as that is in black and white. I wanted to get their opinion on it if it were in black and white instead.
Personally I dont like the picture as much in black and white because I dont feel like I can see the same emotions and I think the colour gives it an edgier feel. However I should wait and see what the focus group think.

Finished video with final editing

This is the finished version so far, however i will put it up on my focus group and see if there is any final feedback from them.

Someone like you

This is the opening picture for my music video, although it has no real importance to the video itself, it is simply important to inform you as the examiner who I am, and my important numbers, I wanted to show that I have taken every part of the project seriously and tried to use a consistent feeling throughout the entire project in all parts where possible. The black and white of this picture goes well with the rest of the video as it follows everything else I have done. I used a tree silhouette as I have used a lot of nature in the video and wanted this to also be shown. It works well because I feel that it lets you know a bit about the video, before you have actually seen it.

Digipak draft 1

Here is some feedback that I received from my focus group, I asked them to tell me what they liked, what they didnt like and things that they think I could change to make it better and more appealing. 

1) "I like the photos because they are natural and represent the sad song"

2) "The photos really capture the emotions of the song, however the sun is exposed in two of the pictures and may have a greater effect if pathetic fallacy was taken into consideration and the weather was a bit more dull. "

3) "I love the extra diagetic gaze as it makes me really feel the emotions, the black and white makes you feel sad because of its dull colours, I also like how the font on the digipak matches the font on the opening scene on the video- however one thing I dont like is the hair band around her wrist"

Having taken all of this advise into consideration I have decided a few things that I should change and will get working on them again.

Edited pictrues

Here are the edited pictures that I uploaded earlier. I think that they are all very effective and all have a statement to make. They also all follow the genre of the music and the naturist feel that the video has. Thanks to facebook I was able to ask my focus group which ones they liked the most. and here are the order they liked them in.

 

Focus group feedback for pictures

Here is a print screen of my facebook focus group, as you can see I have uploaded the edited pictures and asked the focus group to tell me which ones are their favourite.

Without facebook a lot of my research would not be possible and I would not be able to find the right information. 

Photos for digipak/poster

Here is a sample of pictures that I have taken to use in my digipak or poster. I asked a few people which ones were their favorite, and this was them. I will not edit these pictures in order to make them fit in with the more professional look that a professional digipak would have. To do this I will use Adobe photoshop Elements. I am going to try to stick to the same style that my video has. For example, using black and white, light and shadows to enhance the pictures, because these are the main elements and effects used within the video.

As you can see these pictures have all been taken in an outside environment which was also done to stay with the theme of the video, because 90% of the video is filmed outside I wanted to take the pictures for the digipak and poster outside, because after all these products would be used to advertise the video, therefore it needs to have the same feel.

Whilst doing some research I came across the www.virginmedia.com website which had an entire section all about music. One tab went to music videos and there was an option to see 'Most viewed' music videos, which I thought would be a good way to see what videos people are enjoying to watch the most. From this I could get some ideas of what to have in my own video to please my audience. Here is the top 3 videos from virginmedia.com.

Focus Group analysis

Here is part of my class focus group watching one of the final versions of my music video, I felt like the video was almost finished so I wanted their input too see if they had any constructive criticism for me on how I could make my video better. Here is what they said.
1) Over all they liked the video and thought that the lip syncing had been done well.
2) They liked the ghosting effect of having the boy (Matt) in the background in parts.
3) They liked the way it ended, with the same grassy area as the beginning.
4) They did not like that it had been filmed on two different pianos, made the continuity seem poor.
5) Their main problem with the video was the windchimes, they did not understand the purpose and relevance of them, and said they were not very clear. They suggested either making them more of a subject, by making them clearer, or removing them all together.

I have taken these comments on board and intend to fix the suggested areas.

1st draft of my video

Poor footage means....

Over the past few weeks I have spent my time filming and working out what I need to have in order to create my video. At first I was using a friend to be my Adele in the video. Here are some clips of the footage I got from videoing with Harriet.

As you can see this footage is not very appropriate. She seems to be scratching her face and playing with her hair a lot, although I wanted it to look natural, it is a bit too natural and relaxed.
I tried to do some more filming with her but it was the same again.
So after thinking about it for a long time, trying to decide what to do to make it better I decided that I should change my artist to someone else.

This is Polly, I knew that she would be a much more appropriate artist because she has more natural emotion and as it is a very emotional song, it is essential.
Here is some footage that I have got from filming with Polly.
As you can see it is far more natural and appropriate to the song. I really feel as though I can see the emotions from the song coming out in Polly's acting and she seems much mroe comfortable.