A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation: Question 3 Response

A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation: Question 3 Response

*Please watch in 720p or 1080p*

TRANSCRIPT ONLY

"Gathering research for my coursework was integral, as I could utilise the feedback to further develop and explore the production of each individual products, both main and ancillary.

My first steps at gathering research meant utilising social media to procure feedback for the first cut of my music video. I took to Facebook and uploaded a link that would send my audiences to YouTube, where they could view the first cut of the music video, as well as a link to SurveyMonkey for my questionnaire regarding my ancillary products. Ensuring that my audiences could view the products at the same time, I also included links that would direct them to my ancillary products on my Media blog.

Utilising Facebook was an incredibly effective way of gathering feedback as it is a platform that is utilised nearly everyday by my friends and peers, thus, I was confident that I would gather appropriate responses. In terms of satisfying my target audience demographic, I targeted a selection of people from a selective interaction option on Facebook. Creating a private list of people who could view the post, I targeted these specific people as they were the demographic that I believe would more than likely interact with my product, and based on the feedback I received, I was correct in my assumption. The private list that I created had an amalgamation of my friends from all over the world. I did this with a strong intention in mind, as I wanted to see if being located in a different country and influenced by different cultures would alter the way in which audience members received and interpreted my product. I found that, from research, there was a general consensus on the emotionality of the video and how well the narrative translated to them, but there were no obvious differences in cultural reception.

Initial feedback from Facebook was incredibly positive, albeit there were some of my friends and peers that provided me with some constructive criticism.

Feedback indicated that my consideration of mis-en-scene, colouring, lighting, narrative and technical elements (such as slow-motion) were superb. I also managed to successfully convey the overall mood and tone of the music video to my audiences, as they felt “sad” but “uplifted” and “happy” at the same time. In terms of my development, some of my peers suggested that I edit down some of the camera shots nearer the beginning of the video, more specifically, the close-up camera shots of the female protagonists eyes (00:52 – 00:55). After going back into Final Cut Pro X and amending the issue, I noticed that the alteration of the timing for the camera shots didn’t really fulfill my intention of creating an emotive piece of film. But, I didn’t completely disregard their suggestions, I did alter the timing slightly, but not to the extent that the footage was edited in a rapid fashion - as this didn’t convey the emotional tone of the video.

As well as altering the length of some of the footage, a couple members of my audience suggested that I match the beat of the music to the editing during the car scene. Going into Final Cut Pro X, I adhered to their suggestion and found that it worked extremely well, emphasising the element of succinctness and cohesion within the visuals. I chopped the visual footage so that it married with the bars that were evident within the music levels, so that every time a “beat dropped”, there would be a visual cut within the footage (2:15 – 2:20).

After completing my alterations to the video, I then reposted the music video link on my Facebook account and asked my friends and peers if the footage looked better. I was happy to see that all of them agreed with the alterations that I made and really enhanced the cohesion of the video. Although, there was a friend that challenged my decision not to dramatically edit down the first opening scenes, I quickly justified my reasoning, which he seemed to accept. Overall, it seems that the alterations that I made based the opinions of my audience demographic, worked extremely well and I achieved exactly what I wanted to creatively, whilst also fulfilling my intention.

As aforementioned, I took to SurveyMonkey to design a questionnaire suitable for my audience demographic. When designing the questionnaire, I knew that I wanted qualitative and quantitative data, as I wanted to gather statistics, as well as written opinions.

Because I must evaluate the entire product package, I decided to include a variety of open and closed questions – some of which required the audience member to provide a number on a scale of how successful my products were as a whole and some of which required them to provide a reason for their answer. I was really happy to see that all of the written responses were positive, with key effect being in the simplicity of my products – as they didn’t feel “overwhelmed with outlandish colours or distracting fonts”.

As I mentioned before, I wanted to investigate if living in a different country influenced the way in which my audience received my products – however, based on feedback gathered form the survey and individual responses, there seemed to be no correlation on the way in which they interpret or feel about certain elements on my ancillary products or music video.

From feedback, it was clear to see that the people that were interacting with my products the most were female, taking the lead with a 54.4 percentile, whereas the male demographic came in at around 45.5%. I found this interesting as my products were not aimed at any sex or gender more than the other, but perhaps this response echoes how feminine my designs might be, as a female audience seemed to interact with my products more.

It was interesting to see that I received a couple of responses from members of my audience demographic that were in the age range of 35 and upwards. I believe that this was due to the fact that my product advertised REO Speedwagon as a featuring artist. On the other hand, I am aware that not a lot of people from an older demographic responded and I put this down to the fact that many of them might not use Facebook as a social media platform and I am not friends with many people above my own age. 

A multiple-choice question allowed my audience members to choose which element on the DigiPak design was the most effective. Although nine members answered that all elements of the design were effective, three people believed that the colouring was the most successful element, with 2 people each believing that the layout, fonts/text and texture were the most successful elements. Overall, I am extremely happy with the responses that I received for this question, as I believe that the responses echo my success in my DigiPak design as a whole.

As well as the DigiPak question, I provided the audience with another multiple-choice question; this time concerning the success of individual elements on my Magazine Advert. As evidenced, there seems to be more of a mixed response about the elements of the advert, as only 5 people believe that all of the elements were successful on the final design. Following close behind was the interactivity of the advert as well as the music reviews. I am still extremely proud of my design and I believe that I made a conscious effort to make the advert relevant to a 21^st Century audience – which, according to my feedback, paid off.

It was great to see that 100% of my audience thought that my products were visually engaging - thus reiterating how I have successfully fulfilled my intention of creating captivating and engaging products. Again, it is clear from feedback that 100% of my audience thought that my products successfully represented the band. This is perhaps due to the influence of their original tour posters and magazine adverts, as I consistently evidence that I am maintaining a strong relationship between each individual product and the original designs.

As with all films and media texts, there are subliminal or more obvious messages that are woven into different products in order for audiences to decipher and interpret. The overarching, dominant message that I wanted audiences to interpret from my music video was that relationships are bound to be turbulent, but as life progresses, people can move forward through hardships and rejoice together in perfect harmony. With my ancillary texts, the dominant reading that I wanted to advertise was the band that I am representing, and help to accumulate a wider audience whilst introducing members of my audience to new music. I believe that I have achieved this rather successfully, as evidenced by my feedback. In line with Stuart Hall, the audience are at their own will to decide which reading to give a media text – either dominant, oppositional or negotiated. However, I believe that my audience members have received the dominant message that I was trying to portray throughout all of my products.

The way in which my products relate to the Uses and Gratifications Theory is through different audience interpretations of the messages that I have portrayed in my products. On one hand, the audience fulfills the objective of escapism and entertainment, as they watch my music video, they are no longer conscious of the outside world and instead delve into the realm of two characters that are in love.  Audiences may also experience a connection with social and personal identity, as once they remove themselves from the external world, they may identify with the narrative of the music video, or the actual characters themselves.

In regards to my ancillary products, audiences may take pleasure in entertainment when divulging information from both the DigiPak and Magazine advert; as colours, fonts and overall design may intrigue them and coerce them to form a reading, whether dominant, oppositional or negotiated, or form an opinion from the texts."

A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation: Question 2 Response

A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation: Question 2 Response (Slides)

Clicking this link will send you to 'Slides.com', in which you can view my "Question 2 Response" for the A2 Media Studies Evaluation.


http://slides.com/charlotteupham/a2-media-studies-evaluation-question-2

TRANSCRIPT ONLY

"The combination of my media products, both the music video and the accompanying ancillary products, a DigiPak and a magazine advert, demonstrate concise and continued synergy throughout. I owe my success throughout my media products to my careful consideration of elements such as mis-en-scene, design, layouts and colour schemes – as well as always considering my main intention.

I have created synergy between all of my products by including repeated motifs, contrasting frames and still images that exhibit low-key and high-key lighting to evoke different emotional responses (also noted on my DigiPak and Magazine Advert designs) and editing that demonstrated a consistent “mood” evident in all three of my products. My music video is not sparse when it comes to being full of repeated signs. This is specifically demonstrated through the use of the repeated motif of hands; an element that I intended to use to establish clear symbolism throughout the film, with audiences being able to decipher both the obvious denotations as well as the connotations. In line with Reception Theory, the repeated motif is symbolic of the bond that the two actors share and the unwavering desire that they feel and as a producer, thus making it the dominant message that is woven through the text and that I want audiences to accept. However, it is entirely up to the audience whether or not they choose to accept the dominant message, to make a negotiated interpretation or a completely oppositional one.

On my DigiPak design, I included a horizontal image of the hands and previously edited the image using Photoshop and a function called ‘Curves’ to maintain the monochromatic design as seen throughout all of my products. In terms of my magazine advert, another image of the actors’ hands is included in the final design, albeit a different image – this time with a portrait orientation. Again, to further reinforce the synergy between my products, I edited the image using the same process as I did with the first – Photoshop and the ‘Curves’ function. To emphasise the symbolic nature of the hands, I used a selective colouring tool available in Photoshop that allowed me to look at the wedding rings in more detail. Throughout the editing process, I altered the rings so that they had a subtle glow, that when contrasted on a monochromatic background, stood out extremely well and reiterated my intention of reflecting on a relationship.

The repetition of the motif ensures that there is complete synergy between all of my products whilst ensuring that my audience understands that all three products are meant to be interacted with as a collective group. As well as this, my audience is going to be able to associate the repeated images with my products, making it easily identifiable.

By sustaining frames and still images that exhibit contrasting low-key and high-key lighting across all of my products ensured a continuity in synergy and highlighted my intention of my products evoking emotional responses from my intended audience demographic. Throughout my music video, environments of high-key and low-key lighting are used to reflect the emotions of the characters, and by continuing this idea within the designs of my ancillary products, maintains a close relationship between my three products. The images on my final DigiPak design exhibit a still from my video and my own personal photography of the hands of the actors. A low-angled camera shot captures the actors in an embrace; featured on the back cover of the DigiPak with the hands of the male protagonist fairly obvious. To continue the symbolic design, the front cover is an image from my personal photography.

The designs of my ancillary products are relatively simplistic but effective - in keeping with the artists’ original style. Looking at the artwork produced by the artist, my ancillary products are similar, if not exact, to the style that they have used. The layout and overall design of my products will attract audiences simply because there is an element of intrigue and subtle ambiguity to the design, piquing audience interest and leading them to interact with the product. For example, the consistency of fonts should not go unnoticed. My ancillary products demonstrate the highest level of synergy through my consistency in my choice of font. Drawing inspiration from the original band posters, I took the font ‘ITC Mendoza Roman Book SC’ and utilised it throughout the track list on the DigiPak, the music reviews on the magazine advert and the name of the band (on both products). I made this creative choice because I knew that their already established fanbase would recognise the font and therefore associate my product package with their image.

Demonstrated throughout all of my products is the consistency in colour and texture. Colour within my products is integral in conveying my message to audiences, as well as reflecting the mood of my creations. Firstly, in my music video, I utilise bright colours, accompanied with high-key lighting, to accentuate the happiness that both of the actors feel. More specifically, throughout establishing cuts and transition footage, I create a visual semantic field of peace and joy by editing the greens and yellows of the plants so that the emotional message becomes more obvious. In contrast, there are moments within the music video where I utilise darker colouring. I have retained the idea that Colour Psychology is integral when coercing audience members to feeling certain emotions, thus, I edited certain frames so that they are extremely contrasted with the colourful footage in order to provoke certain emotional responses from audiences. Using Final Cut Pro X, I utilised the filter ‘Luma Keyer’ to exaggerate moments of sadness within the footage, as this filter enhanced the grittiness of the footage whilst sustaining heightened emotional impact.

The way in which I mirrored this utilisation of colour in my DigiPak was by taking still images from the actual music video and featuring them as an inside cover design. To replicate the emotive response that I wanted audiences to infer from the DigiPak design, I took a still from the video that exhibited a plant, complemented with extreme high-key lighting and I edited the image so that the highlights were accentuated – this was done in Photoshop using Curves. As well as utilising a bold coloured inside cover image, I also adapted the monochromatic images into the design. Thus, linking back to my aforementioned point about the repeated motif of the hands that tie the products together in complete synergy. The hand image was utilised on the front cover of the DigiPak design, as the ambiguous yet stunning image provides an enigma for audiences to engage with, thus coercing them to interact with my product.

The magazine advert, however, features a noticeable lack of colour. I did this as I took inspiration from the original band magazine adverts and tour posters, and found that even with the lack of colour, the advert was extremely successful. Again, to reinforce the idea of a symbiotic relationship between my products, the hands yet again make an appearance on the design. This is to ensure that the repeated images are going to be associated with Cigarettes After Sex and my products – thus creating new iconography for audiences to identify with. As with my other designs, I wanted to keep the magazine advert relatively simple but captivating with enigmatic, mysterious iconography. Noted here, the wedding rings yet again are included on the design, thus reinforcing my overall message of my products: reflecting an intimate relationship. I decided to keep the design minimalistic because I didn’t want to bombard the audience with colourful or brash images and fonts, as this doesn’t fulfill my intention. The enigma code of the hand on the design pique audience interest and urges them to interact with my products.

As well as keeping the design relatively simple, I also included features that make the product easily accessible for audiences to interact with. Features such as a QR Code that links audiences to the bands’ official website means that the advert is keeping up with 21^st Century social media developments, ensuring the advert maintains it’s relevance to todays society. Furthermore, icons make the audience aware of the alternative platforms that the song is available on.

Overall, all of my products met the high standards that I intended to achieve throughout the creative design process and I couldn’t be more impressed with the outcome. They conform to genre conventions, but they also challenge them – thus evidencing my knowledge on how to manipulate conventions but still being able to keep them appropriate to the context and intention."

A2 Media Studies Coursework Evaluation: Question 1 Response (Voice Over)

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

TRANSCRIPT

"The products that I have created, both main and ancillary, conform to the conventions observed through products relevant to the specific genre that I have been inspired by through my own research. My music video satisfies the genre conventions of “Dream-Pop” and “Indie”, as seen through my postproduction editing using Final Cut Pro and the specific choice of camera angles. Through postproduction editing, I layered a combination of cool hued filters, including Luma Keyer, to conform to the convention of “dream-pop”. I drew inspiration from The 1975’s music video for “Somebody Else” in which the editing focused heavily on Colour Psychology to evoke an emotional response from audiences. For example, in my video, happier times are reflected through environments that exhibit high-key lighting in order to coerce audiences into feeling uplifted and satisfied. However, I have contrasted this uplifting emotional response by including scenes that were edited in a way that evoked sadness and melancholy. This was completed through exaggerating the Luma Keyer filter so that it was transformed into a cooler hue that in turn, deepened the blue – a colour associated with sadness.  

 As well as utilising Colour Psychology in my music video, I also drew inspiration from another real media product: a music video by ‘Daughter’ called ‘Doing The Right Thing”. The music video includes a variety of extreme-close up camera shots of hands and photographs; symbols that I have used repeatedly throughout my product in order to ensure that the audiences are aware of the denotations and connotations of these repeated signs. There are various instances in my music video in which I have utilised extreme close up camera angles of hands and photographs, with the hands being symbolic of their union and bond, and the photographs symbolise their journey from past to present – these being the connotations.

I also challenged an orthodox music video convention of having band members performing or lip-synching to the song, and instead, decided to utilise my creative flair by basing the video entirely on a narrative without any performance elements. My music video loosely follows a narrative structure reminiscent of Tzvetan Todorov Equilibrium Theory, in the sense that the video depicts equilibrium, disequilibrium and a resolution; however, I have not produced the video in accordance to Todorov’s structure. The video opens with footage that elicits melancholy, implying disequilibrium, but then transitions into equilibrium that is established through high-key lighting and extreme close-up camera shots of the actors rejoicing in their relationship. Disequilibrium is then set up through quick-cut shots of an argument in a car, complemented with low-key lighting and a change in the tone of the song. To conclude my music video, I then re-established an equilibrium where the actors move forward in their relationships and look to happier times. This is reinforced again through high-key lighting and an extreme-low angled camera shot that empowers the characters on screen. I made a conscious decision to subvert the traditional conventions of a performance style music video, as I wanted to focus more on conveying an emotional journey of two characters; intensified through the brooding tunes of Cigarettes After Sex. 

Another convention that I subverted in my music video was the notion of looking, or “mode of address”. Typically, in a performance style music video, you would see the artist look directly into the camera lens, however, in my conceptual product, I have not utilised this notion. The reason why I made the conscious decision to have my actors avoid looking at the camera throughout the video was because I wanted to reiterate the private nature of their relationship, highlighting the disconnect from the audience as they journey through their relationship. 

To familiarise myself with the traditional conventions of magazine adverts and DigiPaks, I underwent external research that would help me create the most appropriate ancillary products. Throughout my design process, I adhered to the typical conventions of DigiPaks, such as including the artists name in appropriate font and size, a track list, copyright and publishing information, the record label the artist is assigned to and of course, a barcode that allows the audience to interact and purchase the product. As well as these conventions, in order to maintain a close relationship between my main product and my ancillary products, I adhered to a simple colour scheme that feature on all of the products. I specifically utilised monochromatic and dull colours that in turn conformed to the genre of the music video and the artist that I am representing. 

In some cases, DigiPaks feature relevant iconography to the artist, however, I challenged this convention and instead used iconography that features within the music video. I focused on the repeated motif of the hands and included them on my DigiPak design. The hand images came from my own personal photography and I edited the images in a way that enhanced the wedding rings on the actors’ fingers. This was completed through Photoshop – utilising the selective tool and Curves. In terms of the colour scheme, I drew inspiration from the bands original tour posters and adapted their contrasting pastel colour scheme of baby blue and white to suit my DigiPak design – noted through the alternating colour seen on the track list. I also conformed to the convention of simple and bold font. Through my research I actually came across the original font used by the band in their tour posters: ITC Mendoza Roman Book SC. I decided to utilise the same font so that their already established fan base would associate my DigiPak design with their music and image relatively easily. After a lot of exploration for the Typography that I was going to use on the designs, I knew that I had to keep it relatively simple, as I didn’t want to detract from my intention of advertising the artist by using outlandish fonts. 

As with the production of DigiPak design, I also conducted independent research concerning the codes and conventions that feature on magazine adverts. I created my magazine advert and conformed to the conventions of this media text. These included external platforms that audiences can use to interact with and purchase the product (such as iTunes, Amazon and Soundcloud), appropriate titles and font sizes, relevant images (I continued to use the motif of hands), reviews from relevant and reliable sources (such as Rolling Stone), social media links, the record label, links to their official website, featured songs and a QR code. As well as this, to enhance my own understanding and knowledge of professionally made magazine adverts; I did my own analysis of different adverts from a range of different genres. 

A convention that I challenged, that is similar to the DigiPak design, was making the conscious choice of not having the artist at the front and centre of the advert, and instead opted to continue the motif of the hands as seen through all of my products. I made this choice because Cigarettes After Sex are a band that are relatively subdued and quiet and favour the use of enigmatic, thought-provoking symbolism such as the ambiguous feather and collarbones featured on their album covers. I also want to adopt their relatively simple style and not alter that – as a sudden, dramatic change in design or intention could cause the already established fan base to become confused, as there would be a disruption in continuity. 

By including a QR code on the advert makes the product relevant to todays society – as this is rapidly growing technology that makes it easier for audience to access the product. The QR code links audiences to the bands official website, where they can find out more information about the artist, such as new or imminent releases and merchandise etc. By including the convention of reviews from reliable sources increases audience interaction with the artist, as they are made aware of the success of the band and potential to break out into the wider music industry. I also included one of their more popular songs on the front of the magazine cover. The song, ‘Keep On Loving You’ is a song that was originally performed by REO Speedwagon, but Cigarettes After Sex made a cover of the song that resulted in their newfound fame. By including the song that I used for my music video on the forefront of the magazine ties the products together. A conscious decision was made to mention REO Speedwagon, as an older audience demographic is coerced into listening to the new cover – thus advertising my products to the widest possible audience demographic. 

Overall, I believe that my media products conform, challenge and develop the conventions of real media products; but are tailored to what I deemed as appropriate based on my independent audience and artist research."

Audience Feedback for Final Cut: Facebook #2

Audience Feedback for Final Cut

After a successful turnout with the previous audience feedback, I decided to go back onto social media and upload the final cut version of my music video - in hopes that the alterations that I made, satisfy audiences. 

I'm really happy with the feedback that I received again and I believe that I successfully fulfilled what the audience suggested that I do to make it a stellar product. As noted, my friend called me out on the beginning scenes and the timing of them, but as you can see below, I justified my reasoning for not wanting to cut the scenes down - as the slow panning highlighted the emotional tone of the video, and quick cut editing would have diminished this effect. 

It was nice to see that although my video was interacted with by the same people that commented on it before, a few other people who hadn't seen the video before went back and watched the previous one, then commented what they thought of the Final Cut. This only proves that social media is a powerful platform. As I said in my previous post, it is extremely helpful having friends that live in different countries as I can infer their own interpretations based off their cultural upbringing and values - perhaps examining how their perspective could differ from mine, or someone living in a different country. 

A2 Music Video Final Cut

A2 Music Video Final Cut

After a fair amount of deliberation concerning the final cut of my A2 music video, I have settled on this edit. I have altered a lot through the editing process; including changing the ending completely, utilising more frames of slow-motion, further colour balancing and stabilisation and smoothing. I feel that the footage has come out exactly how I envisioned it and I couldn't be happier with the final outcome. 

*Please watch in 1080p*

Final Cut Tester (Colour Balanced)

Final Cut Tester (Colour Balanced)

I have included this version of the music video strictly for observation in terms of the final editing, and what I did to change it. This version has been colour balanced by using the Colour Balance tool in Final Cut Pro X, however, upon exporting the file, it has been made aware to me that the colour is not what I want at all.

The colour balancing tool has drastically altered the appearance of the video, making the filters extremely blue - something that I do not want at all. I conducted this alternative method of colour balancing after I had used the Digital Colour Meter on my Mac - this showed me the values of the darks and lights within my footage. Perhaps using the Colour Balance on Final Cut and the Digital Colour Metering is the reason why the footage has turned out so blue.

However, this upload was just to show audiences the development of my final product and how I have altered the footage to suit what I have envisaged and what I intended to produce.

This is NOT the final cut - but merely a reflection on what I have done throughout the editing process.

Bloopers Video

A2 Music Video Bloopers Video

Having some free time after finally completing my editing, I decided to put together a short video that includes some of the bloopers from my music video. It was an impromptu thing to make - but it takes the audience behind the scenes of the filming process. 

It's a video that is comedic and reflects what goes on behind the production of a media text. It is also a style that is in contrast with the genre of the actual music video; but it's all for a little fun.