Here is my final draft of my music video 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved'

By listening to some of my early audience feedback and getting advice for what to put in the bottom left box in my Digipack, the conclusion I came to for the suggested ideas was to put a close up of my artists face which will be instantly recognisable to the audience that it is him. By having his eyes looking into the camera it will create a bond with the audience. By having a picture of the artist it creates continuity with the Digipck advertising poster, the image is noticeably similar to the poster which makes it link. The setting for the photo is urban and similar to not only the poster but the music video, this is important in creating a media package that the audience will understand.

I have made the poster to advertise my artists album, I have further edited the original picture by blurring the background while keeping the artist image 'sharp', this was to create 'depth of field' and draw the audiences eye onto the artist and not the background. I used the original heading for 'hunter' which links in the album to the advertising poster to keep continuity. I also used a similar font in the writing for the album cover and the advertisement  which makes it recognizable to the audience, I also included a picture of the album cover so the audience would know which album it was if they where to go out and buy it. I added various effects to the features on the poster like changing the opacity so they blended with the image more and didn't detract the focus from the artist. 

I have decided to look at my original genre conventions and see if my music video fits in with these conventions or not. I chose to make a pop/rock music video of a song by 'The Script' which are an indie/ pop rock band. I had to keep the video linked to the song by making it the same genre style.

Narrative style: There a couple of narrative styles that are used in music videos, one being montage style which is common with rap, hip hop and r&b, the style is postmodern and revolves around 'style over substance'. An example of this style would be Jay Z and Kanye West's song 'Ortis' where in the video the pair had a 'Maybach' (a luxury car made by Mercades Benz) and they cut all the doors of the car and drove it round an air strip with 3 women in the back which backs up 'style over substance and Laura Mulveys theory of the male gaze.  

For my music video however I chose to reflect the genre of my music more and use a simple narrative structure which tells a story about the music. For this I had my actor play out the words of the song in a visual format to reinforce the story. It reflects a simple A,B,C structure which is common for my genre, and as you can see in the screenshots the contrast between the style without substance montage video of R&B and the story telling narrative of my music video.

Mise-en-scene:

Mise-en-scene plays a large role in establishing the genre of the video for example my video at the top of the video doesn't look like a happy pop music video and instead more of an indie video. Whereas the video at the bottom 'Happy' by Pharrell Williams clearly shows to the audience it is a fun video made for a pop song, it even goes as far as reflecting the title of the video. It isn't just a coincidence the videos show the genre, it is through carefully selected mise-en-scene. In my video I chose to shoot on a 'glum looking' day where the sky was overcast and there was rain on the ground, this reflected the video style of the main character being upset. However looking at 'happy' you can see the surrounding mise-en-scene to be colourful for example the multi-coloured banners hanging from the ceiling. The acting also contributes to the style of the video, in the screenshot of my video you can see my actor hunched over in an upset state and as a contrast you can see the screenshot of the woman jumping for joy showing that she is happy. I think through the use of mise-en-scene in my video I portrayed the style I wanted to and showed the emotions of my character through the acting, just as you see in professional music videos like that of 'happy' by Pharrell Williams.

Cinematography:

In my music video I tried to use as much different camera angles and cinematography as I could to keep with form conventions for a music video. Here is a few screenshots of the camera angles I have used for example (from top left): establishing shot, long shot, extreme close up, medium shot, and close up. I followed conventions quite tightly in terms of cinematography and included all the standard range of shots you would expect in a music video.

Here I have made a PowerPoint presentation on how I used current media technologies to make my final products. The presentation goes through the most important software and hardware I used and describes what they are and how I specifically used them.

Evaluation: How effective is the combination of my main product and ancillary texts?

To answer this question I wanted not only to give my opinion but to ask the opinion of my target audience members, so to do this I did a video questionnaire which I put on my blog. For the video i asked my audience questions that I think will have given be the best idea of whether my final products worked or not.

For the first question: Do you think there is consistency between my music video, digipak and poster?

Both of my audience members stated that they saw continuity through all of the products, which is one of my main aims in the making of my final product combination, one of the audience members stated that he saw links with the mise-en-scene in all of the products in relation to the location. I used an urban themed location throughout all of my products and tried to keep it all mostly an old urban setting with brick buildings and picturesque settings. I wanted the old buildings because I thought it reflected the tempo of the song better, and because I don't think modern shops would have been as easy to watch in the video and wouldn't have fitted in as well. I had difficulty's with location due to having to re-film some of the footage in different locations, I filmed first in Beverley, East Yorkshire and then had to film my artist playing guitar in the park so to use the same artist I had to travel to Leeds however after going there and filming I didn't feel that the footage was good enough so regrettably I had to not use it however I put it on my blog and explained what was wrong. After that failed attempt I persuaded my artist to travel back to the area I was so I could film again this time in Cottingham, East Yorkshire as it was easier for my artist to get to, I needed a location that would match the original footage with an old buildings but urban backdrop, I managed to choose a suitable location where I had the old building backdrop. 


For the second question: What features link all the products together?

The audience members noted that what linked the products together was the could scheme, which was similar in the poster and the album cover, especially so with the dark tint that was on most of the features of the products. for example the dark red that I tied through both the digipak and poster, it was used to highlight the name 'hunter' but also in the posted i placed a band which I edited so it didn't take all the attention of the picture of the artist. The slight hints of red captured the attention of the audience I feel and was a little touch that just linked the products together. Another thing the audience members mentioned was the use of the same artist throughout which actually was something I was hoping for after the first set of audience feedback where i decided to add another close-up picture of the artist to make sure he was reinforced and recognisable. As it was one of the most requested things in my first set of audience feedback I realised it would be very wise to do, evidently by doing the second set of audience feedback it has shown the opposite result, where the audience see allot of the artist. This means that they can instantly recognise the similarities with all the products, the audience would also be able to build a relationship with the artist and it not just be an anonymous singer.Also because of the artist being in the advertising poster the same as the artist in the video, people will be able recognise the face and if the people for example had seen the music video then they would then recognise the face in the poster and realise there is the artists album out, rather than relying just on the name of the artist to spark recognition.

For the third question: What doesn't fit within the continuity?

One of the audience members stated that the large glass building did not look like it fitted within the continuity of the piece. I can see where the comment came from, as it was something I took a risk on, As I have mentioned earlier I wanted to keep most of the buildings quite old and historical, however because of the urban theme of the video I decided to take a risk and try and join in the new with the old, however as one mentioned it didn't quite fit with the video. This combination could have thrown of the target audience I was aiming for however I think with the amount of pictures I had of the artist I think it was recognisable enough for the audience. Another point that was brought up by an audience member was that the location was different in the different products, also a valid point as he was referring to the fact he would maybe expect the location to be the same in the song due to the title 'The Man Who Can't Be Moved'. I think although this may sound like the right thing to do I think that not only it would be a boring setting and it would look all the same, but only the music video is that song, and as one of my products was the full album then it needed a mix of locations to fit with all the songs and not just the one in the music video.

For my fourth question: Is there anything you would change in my music video, digipak or poster to link it together better?

The feedback for this question was mostly the same as the previous question. one of the audience members brought up a valid point of having the artist pictured in-front of the same location that was in the video and putting it on the poster or the album cover, I think this could have worked and maybe I should have thought to put it in. I think I would also have been a valuable add on to my digipak, possibly in the place I had spare for a while. However most of the first set of audience feedback suggested that I should have a picture of the artists face there instead, I think I would have worked both ways but I went with the majority which I feel was the right choice as it still links with the music video as it is the same artist. I also wanted to keep all of the products interesting, so I didn't want it all to be the same and although it may have sounded like I good idea to do I don't think it would be as effective and it wouldn't have reflected the rest of the album as well. I think While it may not have looked as good to put a picture of the location from the music video, it would have helped with continuity. However I feel that there was still enough continuity for it to be easily recognisable.

For my fifth question: Does the combination work in promoting the music video?

For this question I received positive feedback, both audience members stated that they believed that the combination of the Music video, digipak and poster worked together. The male audience member noted that it all seemed to work as a package and promoted the video accordingly. The female audience member stated that it made you as an audience want to buy the album which is obviously the thing I wanted to most achieve because it is the purpose of all my products as a combination. 

For my Sixth question: Does it all look professionally made? I not what makes it not look right? 

I received no negative feedback in this question, both of the audience members stated that it did look professionally made and there was nothing that made it look amateur of dragged the rest of it down. The female member noted the use of Photoshop and how it made the ancillary texts look realistic and professional. This was also something I wanted to achieve as allot of the time in the drafting process the ancillary texts weren't looking professionally made, this is something I find especially hard because there is no special way to make it look right but it is just the small details for example the red band which I used to make the writing stand out on the poster, if the writing was written straight on the poster it blended in and didn't stand out enough which made it look very amateur, To combat that I added the red band around the base which made it stand out allot, I liked the red to be the same colour as the red in the signature 'hunter' logo which gave it continuity, However the red band looked easily done and blocked out the picture, to make this better I decided to add opacity to it so it made the writing stand out but didn't block out the picture. I still felt like the band dint look quite right so I added a shadow to it on Photoshop which gave it a more professional look and some texture, I felt this helped it promoting the album as it highlighted the features of it in a professional way. 

Overall in my opinion I feel like my products all work together as a package of promotion effectively. I feel like there is consistency between all of the products, the strongest consistency is between the two ancillary texts due to the 'Hunter' logo that is shown in both of the products, i think this gives a sense of a 'logo' for the artist. I also think the colour scheme ties these products together with the use of the red like in the logo for 'hunter' and in the advertising band which was used in the poster. However one feature that ties not only the ancillary texts together but also the music video is the use of the mise-en-scene in terms of the old urban buildings that are used in all of the products. I think one thing that maybe could have been improved on it the back cover of the digipak with the use of the modern glass building, I feel that it looks good on the CD cover in principle but may not fit in with the video. What I would change would be to have filmed the building as well and put it in the video in an establishing shot of a city scape which I think would have given the photo more continuity with the music video. I personally feel by looking at the products myself and also examining the final set of audience feedback that my products work as a package well, By listening to the first sets of audience feedback that my products have improved. More consistency has been added and they are more interesting and look more professional.

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What have I learned for conducting my audience feedback?

For my audience feedback I used various different surveying techniques to analyse my success including questionnaires and Prezi's. When it comes down to what I have learned from audience feedback there has been a few different things especially in my first set of audience feedback however there was significantly less in my final audience feedback where mostly the audience couldn't think of many things that could be improved. Most of the people asked in my second set of audience feedback thought it worked well together but many didn't know why. Many of them weren't media pupils so didn't have much knowledge or experience in the details or the creating process, so this meant I had to analyse the results and in some cases ask further questions about individual features of my products and show the audience members before and after progress photos of the making of my product to determine at what point they thought the products started looking professional. For example showing people he first draft of my music video they weren't convinced it looked professional in most cases, but when I showed them it after a few key stages like adding in some performance elements, people started it think it was looking more professional. The final majority of people thought my music video started to look more professional when it came to adding the transition effects like the blurs that linked the shots together. 

By studying the audience feedback closely in the way I described above I noticed that it wasn't the big features that made the products look professional overall but it was the small features that really made it work. Obviously the products wouldn't have been good at all if it weren't for the big things e.g. the main photo in the advertising poster, the products wouldn't have made sense without it. However it's the things that just make it stand out and keep balance that turn it from looking amateur to looking professional. Specific examples in my poster would be the shadows in the writing around the names of the songs and the bevel, shadows and opacity that I used on the banner highlighting the digipak cover. 

Other features that people felt worked well was the use of colours through all the products, for example the red that was used in the 'hunter' name in the ancillary texts, people felt worked well together. I used this red in both of the ancillary texts and members of the target definitely noticed it and thought it brought continuity to the products in fact the colour schemes where the most commented on thing when I asked about continuity. Other things that where mentioned when it came to continuity where the use of the same artist throughout. After my first set of filming i decided by listening to audience feedback that i should put in some performance elements in my music video which is a common feature within music videos. I travelled to Leeds and filmed my artist singing with a guitar in Hyde Park which took most of a day mostly travelling, however due to a mix up with cameras the footage didn't come out well enough to put in my music video. After this I considered using a different artist to do the performance element to the music video, as it didn't necessarily need to be the same person singing. However I thought it would have confused the audience if I did this, so i decided to film again and the footage turned out well so I used that in my video. After seeing the feedback for the products I think I made the right choice as allot of people commented on how they thought the use of one artist gave great continuity.

By looking at audience feedback one thing i think i could have done to improve the continuity of all my pieces as a whole would be to put in a common theme to all of my products. Of what i have learned from audience feedback the continuity was already good but some of the audience felt some things especially in the digipak where slightly unexplained. For example someone suggested that i used a different building for the back cover of my digipak and although it looked good it wasn't linked in with the video. Something that i think I would do to change it while taking that advice on board would instead of changing the building to accommodate the music video, i would add some footage in the music video of the same building which would explain it better. However I don't think it is desperately necessary for the the ancillary texts to have everything linked to the music video as they are representing the artistic and the full album and not only the song in the video. 

Something that I found when looking at my audience feedback was that people liked the different transitional editing techniques I used in my video for example the fade to black I used when the video was sad and the fade to white I used when there was a positive part which helped portray emotions. One thing I have spotted through audience feedback is that people liked the parts of the music video where they felt emotional empathetic to the characters. People said they liked this in the slow motion flashbacks where they felt the black and white colour effects made it more emotional. I think i could have capitalised on peoples positiveness towards the emotional parts by maybe making the performance element of the video link with the storyline. For example I could have the artists emotional expression change through the video as to storyline developed. Like at the start of the video when the man is feeling upset, the artist singing could have been reflecting this, and then at the end where the narrative becomes positive he could have also reflected this change.

Overall by looking at my audience feedback there is some small changes i could have made to add continuity through all of the products. but overall people thought that my products looked professional enough and i feel they worked well together in promoting the album and music video. 

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Here is an example feedback sheet that I received from a member of my target audience, I sent people the 'Prezi' and asked them to watch the video and look at the poster and the digipak, and then I either asked them to print out a copy (or I gave them an already printed copy) and asked them to write their feedback. I did these to evaluate all of my products and not just get feedback on one of the products individually. I felt that this was the best thing for final evaluation, I feel the format really helped all the products to be compared equally.

The results: All of the people that I asked to fill in one of these forms (8 people) said that all of the products worked together well and all complemented each others existence, in this example sheet the audience member said they especially liked how the album cover was used in the poster so it was able to see the album it was advertising. It has also proved valuable to use the same artist throughout the whole process, I considered using a different person to be singing in the music video for the performance element because it would be much more practical to do, however by making sure I had the same person to be in the whole thing I found it gave allot better continuity and I think it would have thrown the audience off and confused allot of people.

Another thing which people tended to like was the use of font in the artists name and how it appeared in both the ancillary products, this is a feature of most artists who will have a specific font unique to them. Through audience feedback I have learned that this was a valuable thing I had included. when I asked people if they thought my product looked professional most of them would say yes however wouldn't know why, in some of the cases it was mentioned that it was the small details that made it look convincing.

Here is the feedback 'Prezi' I sent to members of my target audience to gather data about my final products. I made a 'Prezi' to make it easy to look at all of the products in one place for the audience, and I put the questions next to the products so the audience can think about the questions while they looked at the products.

Here I have made a 'Prezi' for my evaluation of: how effective is the combination of my main product and ancillary texts.

I did this for ease of reading for the previous post and to make the evaluation more interesting.

Here is my audience feedback video, I asked members of my target audience to answer questions about my final products, I filmed them while they were on my blog so they could see all of the products in detail. I set up my camera on the computer so I got a good video of the feedback.

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? (audience questions)

1. Do you think there is consistency between my music video, Digipak, and Poster?


2. What features link all the products together?


3. What doesn't fit in with continuity?


4. Is there anything you would change in my music video, Digipak, or poster to link it together better?


5. Does the combination work in promoting the music video?


6. Does it all look professionally made, if not what makes it not look right?

Digipak advertisement evaluation questionnaire

    1.   Do you think that my advert looks like a real advert for an album?

 22.  Do you think the image works in the advert, if not what would you change?

   3. Do you think anything on the advert doesn’t work/fit in?

    4. What do you like most about the advert?

   5.  What would you change about the advert?

66. Does the advert fit in with my Digipak?

77.  Can you tell the genre of the album from the poster?

        This is what I plan to ask members of my target audience to determine what they think to my        Digipak advert.

I asked members of my target audience to fill in my questionnaire on my digipak to asses the reaction, and see if it was successful. Here are 5 of the 25 the feedback sheets that were filled in.

As you can see, all of the people from my random sample that I asked said they think the song reflects the Digipak, they also all guessed the right genre of one of the genre elements, common things people liked where the editing of the sky and also the font of the artist name, for question 4 of the feedback sheets the criticism seems to be mixed so I cant draw any specific thing that I need to improve however I will try and change what I can, I have taken advice from the first person in the random sample and decided to add a picture of my artist in my Digipak, I have included a close up of my artist so it is easily recognizable to the audience who it is. Overall most of the sample people have said it looks like a real media product which is good because that is the main thing I tried to achieve, for question 6 in my questionnaire as you can see from the sample most people wanted to see a clear picture of the artist which was also requested in some peoples question 4 answer, I decided to add this into my second draft of my Digipak.

Overall I feel that I have achieved the aims I wanted to achieve with my Digipak by especially making it look like a real one, however to  improve it I will add a clear picture of the artist as was requested by most people.

I added my digipak advert to an existing music magazine to determine weather it would fit in to its intended destination and so I will be able to use it in my audience feedback.

I have edited my digipak advertisement onto a bus stop advertising board to determine whether it would fit in and look realistic, I did this so i could ask questions about it in my audience feedback evaluation.

In this comparison I have edited the lips by just making them look more smooth, I used the same technique as the skin editing but didn't add the noise and changed some of the settings.

I chose the image I wanted to use for my advertising poster, I wanted to have a close up of my models face so that the audience would recognize him immediately and bond with the artist. I wanted the eyes to be looking at the camera to give it a personal effect. I edited the photo on Photoshop to even the skin and brighten up the image which would make it look more professional. I did this by using the 'laso' tool to highlight the area i wanted to edit, then I 'refined the edge' so the boundary of what i was editing was feathered so it blended in and looked realistic, i then added a surface blur to even the skin, however it looked slightly to 'porcelain' in some areas so I 'added noise' which made it look more like the original skin again and blended in well.

I have decided to take more photographs of my artist to use in my digipack on the inside cover I will put it in the empty space on my CD case, I received this idea when doing audience feedback and two of my evaluation sheets included the idea to have a close up of the artist in my digipack.

This was the original image taken, i had the model look at the camera to give a personal connection with the audience which helps create a bond with the audience and also follows conventions.

Here is the slightly edited image I put it into Photoshop and made it the size I want and made it a square by zooming the image in, I did this so I would fit into my digipack correctly. I also edited the image to soften the image and give it more of an album style look. To do this i duplicated the original layer and then put a Gaussian blur onto the image, I then used the paintbrush tool on black to bring back sharpness to facial features such as the eyes and hair which kept it looking like the original image but gave a softer look.

I have decided to add another question to my digipack to gather data for a question of what would fit in the audiences point of view in the gap in my digipack. I also printed out another version of the digipack however this time I cropped it so I could make it larger and then I enlarged it but I did it to scale so it would look like a scale down version of the real thing. I also made it into the same shape as it would be when all the pictures would be put in the CD case which brought the digipack to life and helped the audience understand and make a better decision.

Here's an example of the new questionnaire 

 Here i made and audience feedback sheet for my digipack however I thought the questions weren't quite sufficient so I have decided to add another question. Also the first set of pictures i was using for reference was to small to get a good idea of the digipack and secondly the other picture I printed was distorted and was also not a good enough reference for my audience to look at.

I have made most of my CD cover, it is a 2 CD, 6 sided case.
Order of photos:
Middle bottom- Back cover
Right bottom- Front Cover
Top left- CD part 2
Middle top- CD part 1
Top right- Middle cover

I have tried to keep continuity from my music video to my CD cover by making all the photos set in an urban scene, i have kept the colour scheme neither very dark or bright vibrant colours. The mise-en-scene is quite conventional for Indie, Pop/Rock.

I have uploaded my second filming to YouTube to make sharing it easier and hopefully improve the video quality slightly.

For my music video I thought it would be valuable to film the artist lip syncing and playing the guitar to the music so I could add a performance element and make my music video more realistic and interesting to watch. I filmed my artist in a park with a slight downward camera angle which connotes his vulnerability, I kept the mise-en-scene similar to the original filming to keep continuity and make sure there was no inconsistencies. However due to issues I could not use the same camera for filming so this video is lower quality than the original filming so I will add it into my music video and see if it works and in the case that it doesn't I will have to take it out.