Evaluation

Sophia Bennett

IntroductionIn this evaluation I will be discussing the work we have created within the group. Such as the music video, Digi-pack (Cd cover and magazine poster)I will evaluate this process through answering the following questions:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? To do this we researched the codes and conventions of the indie genre and looked at similar artists to our band. We looked at the audience of this genre and what appealed to them.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? I will be looking at how effective my overall digi-pack was and in what ways it helped advertise our product. I will also be looking at the synergy of my 3 products.

What have you learned from your audience feedback? In this section I will focus on the feedback we received from our target audience. I will try to determine whether or not our video and digi-pack was successful in communicating our aims. I will look through the research we obtained when asking our focus group.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?In this section I will be looking at all the equipment we used to help us create our products. I will be looking at the physical equipment such as the camera and will also be looking at other aspects such as the software we used.

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

real media products?

Prior to the creation of our music video my group and I conducted research into the indie genre looking at the codes and conventions we wished to follow. We researched the different aspects of the indie genre to understand what was key and influential in the indie market such as clothing and general image.

We manipulated our product to fit to these conventions and therefore to make our product appealing to the target audience. The conventions we looked at include: -Balancing out the narrative and performance shots.- Close ups of the of the lead singer and band members.- Shots of the instruments used to create the song.- Aspects of abstractness

We also made an outline of each of our products and detailed what we wished them to achieve and in what ways they can be used. For example what publications our advert would be put in.

Goodwin’s Analysis on Music Videos

Andrew Goodwin has a theory that “music video demonstrates genre characteristics,” for example a dance routine for an R & B group or a stage performance for a rock group. We related to his theory by demonstrating genre characteristics of the indie genre, emphasizing the instruments the band use and focusing on their overall image.

He states that “there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals.” We also applied this theory to our music video, by creating a narrative that related strongly to the song lyrics.

He also says that, “there is a relationship between music and visuals.” We related to this by using a fairly slow paced start, where Train Track Tracey is seen running around (matching the pace of the drums) but then reaching a climax where everything becomes more hectic and faster, similar to the music.

Goodwin’s Analysis on Music Videos

“The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close

ups of the artists and the artist may develop motifs which recur acrosstheir work.” We also followed this theory of Goodwin’s and captured

many close ups of the band members.

Music videoOne aspect of our music video conventions was the location of the video. During our research we found that many indie music videos were located in abstract locations particularly in natural environments. We decided to go against using a studio setting as this would link to other Pop and R&B style conventions where they would perform a dance routine.

We decided to mainly follow the conventions of the indie genre because we wanted to emulate our band’s image as well as attract our main audience by following the stereotypical codes so our audience would be able to relate to our product. This would help ensure a wider audience and therefore a better chance of success within the music market.

We also conformed to the indie genre by showing the band performing live instead of having only narrative. The ‘live performance’ element of our video showed that the band play their own instruments which is something used in many modern indie music videos such as The Strokes’ video for ‘Last nite’.

CD coverWhen creating my CD cover I felt the stereotypical covers were not in keeping with the overall product I wished to create. Instead I looked at wider genres which were under the ‘Alternative’ umbrella such as Bonobo’s Black sands.By using art work like this which is related to wider genres, helped us create a larger attraction to the product.

Clothes

For our music video we requested the band wear clothes which fitted to the indie genre, to bands such as Bombay Bicycle Club (as seen above)We felt a band like this would be good to emulate as they are a young band who make music similar to that of our artist.Loose fitting clothing which is very casual worked best to help represent the stereotypical indie band.

Bombay bicycle club Oats

• The song we used ‘Train track Tracey’ was quite a mellow song detailing the lead singer’s fascination with a girl he saw on a train on his way back home. We decided to take this story and create a narrative for our video to be placed alongside the footage of the band performing. As the song is quite slow paced through out and climaxes towards the end we decided to use this pacing in our video. Starting off having a slow sequence of the two characters first becoming aware of each other and gradually becoming more curious

• We felt a mysterious woodland setting would compliment the narrative and would add to the dream like state of the video.

• To create synergy in the digi-pack we maintained the forest setting as this would help people to associate the advertisements to the actual music video. It also helped us create a natural earthy theme to our product, which would also help attract a wider range of audience.

• Our product would relate to more independent record companies such as, Rough Trade due to using a more alternative take on our music video.

Synergy between my products• On my album cover and advert I have used the same fonts for

the information, for example the song names on the back cover and the information on the advert.

• The font I uses was fairly artist and graffiti like in black with a white stroke around the edges, relating to the indie genre. Similar to the band The Local Natives.

• There is a large amount of synergy between our music video and my CD cover and poster, due to the pictures

I used (photos of the band in the forest where they performed live).

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Here are some of the comments we received on YouTube after posting our video.

We managed to get very positive feedback from our music video on YouTube and we have got more that 300 views plus, 10 likes and 0 dislikes. This showed that the audience we were reaching out to understood and appreciated our music video. Our main aim was to see if our audience were satisfied with our product.

Focus group and Details

We also organized a focus group which included 5 girls and 5 boys ages 16-21 this was so that we would obtain an un bias response and get a more reliable source.Our video was most popular with females in the 13-17 and the 18-24 year old group, but on the other hand it was most popular with males ages 45-54.We asked our focus group a few questions about what they felt about the music video and if they felt there could be any improvements. I am going to discuss what they wrote over the next few slides.Why we asked a focus group what they thoughtWe wanted to understand what our target audience wanted so that we could chose the best possible advertisement (CD cover and Magazine advert) to broadcast our music video. By asking our target audience it meant we got a better understanding of what people are looking for, in terms of indie music videos and advertisement.

80% of the people in the focus group like the video, whereas 20% of the people liked it at certain points. This was because they did not understand the narrative and felt that some of the shots were either too long or too short. No one said they did not like the video which was very positive. The things they did like about our video were the casting, edits and the overall concept.

Did you enjoy the music video?

Do you think the video fits the indie genre?

100% of the focus group felt that our music video fit the indie genre. They explained that the reason the felt it fit the indie stereotype was because of the clothes that the band wear in and how they rarely moved, relating to the moody, indie vibe.

Did you understand the music video?A few people didn’t understand the narrative but the majority understood it.Would you watch the video again?Everyone said that they would watch the video again because they found it interesting.Does the video make you want to buy the song?All members of the focus group said that they would buy the song and many of them commented on how good the song was. This was obviously a very positive thing to hear since that was the aim of our video, to advertise the song.

What music channel would you expect to see this video on?We asked our focus group which channel they would expect this music video to be on and the majority of them (60%) said NME, then came Q and finally MTV Rock and Lava TV. The main reason so many chose NME is because they said that NME often shows a lot of up and coming bands.We also asked the focus group if they could give us any ideas for improvement. Two people said that some of the shots were too long and they could have been made shorter to keep the viewers attention and other members said that it would have looked better if no mic had been used for the lead singer and if the band weren't so stationary.

Which CD cover did the focus group prefer?As a group we needed 1 digi-pack for our music video. We each made our own and then asked the focus group to pick their favourite. This would determine the digi-pack we used, due to it being chosen by our target audience. Most of the group chose cover one because they felt it fit the indie genre best and caught their attention when they saw it.

Which poster do the focus group prefer?

We asked the focus group which poster they felt was the best as well as the CD cover.The focus group chose that poster 2 was the best because they felt it looked professional and they thought that it looked like the type of advert/poster you might find in a magazine.

How did you use new media technologies in the construction and

research, planning and evaluation stages?To create our digi-packs and music video our group and ourselves as individuals used a number of new different media technologies ranging from different hardware and software, for example the video camera, Digital SLR, Apple Mac and a mic.

Some of the software I used:

To upload my work including my video to the internet I used blogger.com. This website was very helpful by allowing me to easily post information and my work.

Google was very helpful when I would search for information about codes and conventions and genre details.

YouTube was another website I used which our group used to post our video, to get feedback and promote the band.

More new media technologies used.

Mobile phonesMobile phones were very useful when we needed to contact the band more directly than email. It meant we were able to contact members of the group and the band more efficiently if we wanted to arrange something.

Digital SLRThe Digital SLR came in very handy and we all took photos of the band to use for our blogs. The SLR was very useful because it enabled us to create backgrounds to our CD covers and adverts.Video CameraThe Video Camera is what we used to film our music video. It took us a while to get used to since none of the group had used a video camera like this. We managed to work out the key features needed to zoom and keep in focus.

IPod and SpeakersWhen we went to film in the forest with the band, we brought an iPod with Train Track Tracey on it and some speakers. This meant that we were able to play it for the band so that we would later be able to do the lip syncing easily.DV TapeWe used a DV tape in the Video camera and used it to store our footage for the days we filmed the band. Hard DriveWe needed a hard drive to save our music video on. It was very useful since it had a lot of space so we were sure our music video had more than enough room.

Final Cut ProWe used final cut pro to edit our music video and log it. This was a very useful program and we were able to change the video into the correct format for uploading onto YouTube and our blogs.

Photoshop I used Photoshop to edit the pictures for my CD cover and poster. This was a useful tool for making the photos appear more interesting and relate to the indie rock genre.

InDesignWe used InDesign to make our CD covers and posters. It enabled us to create templates and make the right sized CD covers.

FacebookWe used Facebook to get through to our friends and ask them for their personal opinions. We also used it to contact the band from time to time.

PowerPointWe had to create an evaluation electronically so that it was able to be posted on a blog. PowerPoint is what I used to create my evaluation. It allowed me to add in interesting background which relates to my work.