EVALUATION QUESTION 2 & 3

How effective is the combination of your Music Video and ancillary texts?

The importance of branding and how have you created a brand or theme across each platform?

How effective is the combination of your music video and ancillary texts?

I believe that as a group we incorporated everything effectively and generated a brand and common theme across all our media products. We established evident synergy between each product which would lead to success in marketing. Importance of branding –Branding consists of creating a buzz, giving your product a stigmatisation that forces audiences to notice it. It sets a product aside from another, through individualization it succeeds in making it catered to your target market. A key part that creates effective branding is the recognition of your target market and editing your media packages and texts adequately to not only, link together but link to consumer needs.Having been taught the key part that branding plays in the music industry, my group took this on board and generated evident synergy between our media promos through various methods being taken into consideration such as:

FONTSElements that were evidently synergised when creating our media products:The Fonts utilised on the CD, Digi Pak and Magazine AdvertWe didn’t use any text within our music video as we feel through relevant research that the concept is outdated unless it is a special collaboration with a fellow director e.g. Colin Tilley. We used the same within the digi pak, the actual CD and the Advert some in different sizes. The information we included such as media platforms the album and single would be available on were all in their own logo format so were not edited, this was to show exemplar authenticity to the CD promo pack. We provided ‘following’ information on different social medias, this a newer method of promo utilised by mostly up and coming acts which is the category we associate our group to come under.

FONTS

THE COLOUR SCHEMEThe colour Scheme – We wore the same colour palette on our digipak and ad to the video, through research we realised that not each and every aspects needs to mirror each other. We found that by conforming to a certain theme would be enough. Even though we did not strictly stick to a theme in colours through editing e.g. black and white, we found that the conventions of a hip-hop/pop video tend to have less constrictions in creativity than others within the industry. By having themes that contrasted in colour blocking and popping in darker locations etc we were demanding audience attention just like a piece of art. MO when making their video for Dance on My Own did not stick to a certain theme in colours throughout and was able to evoke the same feeling we’d aimed to with our video- Young, fun and free.

THE VISUAL IMAGESThe Visual Images – We were presented as a three in each relevant media, this was done in order to establish ourselves as a unit and create an identifiable brand in each media.Synergy between colour scheme and Visuals is key when trying to provide an evident correlation. Colour schemes are more effective in styling rather than through light exposure and effects, we found this to be true and focussed mostly on including many different editing types to allow our editing and special effects skills to show.

LOCATIONThe location – Lacked regional identity and were able to use similar brick wall lay outs that would link in directly with the video on our media product and make it recognisable due to the same colour scheme being used as well, almost reinventing a scene of our video. We used locations that would be of interest to our audiences, many locations seen in videos get people thinking ‘Where is that? Cool place, I wonder how they found that?!’ By using feelings we have during videos to link back to our choice of locations has enabled us to see the product as not only the producer but the consumer. We applied our knowledge acquired in learning about synergy to create this feeling of mystery to each location utilised in each media promo material.

EVALUATION QUESTION 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

The Music video Feedback

QUESTIONNAIRE & FEEDBACK

We handed out 15 of these questionnaires to the audience we had worked with on feedback for the earlier research into the genre. 15/15 found the colour scheme used to be conforming to the conventions of Hip Hop/ Pop music videos, some examples of what was said:Katie Laud 18: “The colour scheme is very different throughout the video so it was a good idea to change it up in the production of the media products, looks really cool.”George Rawding 18: “The actual colour scheme itself is refreshing and has direct link to the codes and conventions of your genre, you’ve kept it interesting.”All feedback was positive in terms of font, 13/15 felt that the font wasn’t too distracting and that it was quite modern. The other 2 had felt that maybe it was not eye catching enough. We took our feedback very seriously and decided to thicken the font and up the size by a couple of sizes.

FEEDBACK We found that many people preferred a visual image for the digipak that was not the same as the magazine advert, all for the same reason – diversity and variety. As a result we changed the image. We then referred back to the audience on the change and they found it to be far more attractive to the consumer. In changing our visuals, we referred back to our own research into media products and found that a key in generating the right amount of synergy and diversity that would correlate to the conventions of the genre would be by choosing an image taken from a different shot type. We chose a mid shot for the magazine ad and a mid-shot for the digi pak.We also were made aware of the different ways that the groups presented themselves on the cover prior to this but still tried to create a diverse persona for each of us, the feedback in the Music Video Feedback given by Tina, was also replicated in her answer when answering the questionnaire.

SOCIAL MEDIA■ We knew that by widening our feedback format

we’d retrieve a wider range of point of views that may be enlightening us.

■ Most responses on Twitter were positive, we received 19 Retweets and 66 Likes.

■ 5 people replied, one said: “Oh my gosh guys how did you do this!! I love the hand bit with Aischa and Amelia, you’re bound to get an A! :*’

■ Facebook has a different audience to what we would be targeting to but family members being supportive, still inputted their opinion. We received 6 shares and 70 likes!

■ I think in order to be able to keep up with the wide range of advances within technological convergence we needed to reach out via social media to receive a different set of views.

SOCIAL MEDIA QUESTIONS

We then posted a series of questions on Facebook and Twitter and received various responses.

The questions included:1.Do you think the content is audience appropriate?2.Did it resemble a professionally made music video?3.Did we use all the correct codes and conventions in

order to portray the Hip Hop/Pop Genre?

RESULTS

COMMON WEAKNESSES BROUGHT UP

■ “The lip syncing was off on slight parts of the video, it isn’t too noticeable if you were just to come across the video but it’s deffo something you guys should try and sort out” – Aimee, 18

■ We took the feedback about lip syncing on board and tried multiple clips to replace the areas that needed extra attention to detail. It turned out it was just a lagging in the software. This was unfortunate but we feel that with applying out Sony Vegas skills to the problem we have dealt with the issue as best as we could.

■ “There was garbage on the floor when you guys were in the underpass, I think that this kind of conflicts with the genre of hip hop and turns it more Grime. Its pretty dark there too, better lighting would have added better quality to the shots” – Alex, 19

■ We were really pleased that people had picked up on the choice of the underpass and its reflection on the genre as we were looking to challenge the conventions in some way by incorporating the current trend of over lapping genres from the Grime to Hip Hop. It’s a very UK based trend but we love the element of bringing different artists together. Within Dance on my Own, they collaborated with Krept and Konan this overlaps into the subgenre of Rap/Grime and Hip Hop. We loved this and felt that that was one of the main reasons we chose the song and the setting.

OVERALL CHANGES MADE DUE TO FEEDBACK

■ Even though we had to make changes to our products, I feel that by accepting the audience feedback and taking it on board it was just one step closer to making the best products we could that would be attractive to our target audience. The feedback we received was overall positive and we were grateful for how people embraced our media products.

■ We included a different image on our Magazine Advert/Poster to replicate industry norms of diversifying between the different media products as well as being a common theme in feedback that it would be more professional.

■ We change the font size and thickness on our Digi pak and found that overall it made it easier to read and stood out without distracting just like our ‘feedbackers’ had stated

■ We also tried our best in editing to perfect the lip-syncing, we re-filmed parts, re-edited and replaced parts with previous footage as well as cropping parts to make certain scenes more effective.