Evaluation Question 4

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

Here is a link to my evaluation question 4 answer, it is in the form of a prezi.

https://prezi.com/xmoleqcqu2ls/evaluation-question-4/

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Below is a link to my answer of the third evaluation question. My answer is in the form of a soundcloud interview (recording).

https://soundcloud.com/ohitsaisha/evaluation-question-3-media

Evaluation Question 2

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

This my answer to the 2nd evaluation question, it is in the form of a podcast with some documentary features in that I have added clips and pictures. The video can be found below.

Evaluation Question 1

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

This is my answer to the first evaluation question. It is in a vlog style video, the link is below.

Evaluation Question 4 PLAN

Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I have decided to answer this question by making a Prezi.

CONSTRUCTION STAGES:

• DSLR Camera - Filming 
• Imovie - editing software
• Photowizard - Editing App
• Photo grid - Editing App
• iCloud - to transfer files
• Soundcloud - Upload Cover
• Garageband - Construct Cover
• Microphone - Record Cover

RESEARCH STAGES:

• Youtube - Research other media products and song choice
• Google - Research theories and techniques
• Facebook - To gather audience feedback
• SurveyMonkey- Audience feedback

PLANNING STAGES:

• Calendar App - organisation
• Blogger - Post and plan filming times
• Youtube - VLOGs and planning video diaries

EVALUATION STAGES:

• Question 1=VLOG: camera + imovie
• Question 2= Documentary: imovie + microphone
• Question 3=Soundcloud Interview:  soundcloud + garageband + microphone
• Question 4= Prezi: Prezi, google images

Evaluation Question 3 PLAN

QUESTION:  What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• format of answer: Soundcloud interview

I have chosen to answer this question by interviewing myself in a voice recording and uploading it to soundcloud, this is because I think this is a different and more interesting way of answering it.

I will write a script asking myself a variety of different questions to do with what I learned from my audience feedback, including quotes, and will phrase them in such a way so that I am interviewing myself. I will do this by recording all of my questions and responses on soundcloud, putting a voice effect on the recordings where I ask myself a question, so that it appears that two different people are communicating.

SCRIPT

I= Interviewer
A= Aisha (Me)

I= Good morning! Welcome to EvalRadio, today I am joined with Aisha Aldris who is going to talk us through her audience feedback. Hello Aisha!

A= Hi!

I= From what I understand, your final media product was a music video to your cover of Ed Sheerans song photograph, correct?

A= yes! I named the artist as Mollie Walker though, the actress, for reasons I have explained in previous blog posts.

I= Ok, well lets talk about the cover first then! did you get any feedback from the cover? what did your audience think of it?

A=Well I often upload covers of my favourite songs in my free time and people seem to like them so when I was thinking about ways I could make my media product more original, covering the song myself seemed like a good and unique idea! I covered the song and uploaded it to soundcloud to get some feedback on the cover alone and my friends and family seemed to love it, which reassured me and gave me confidence that my version of the song would be more creative and original to use, and that I didn't sound too bad!

I= Was there any audience feedback you had which may have added to your decision to cover the song?

A= I thought about how using Ed Sheerans version would mean a male was singing, yet my main character was female and I thought the narrative and song would fit better together if both the singer and the main character were of the same gender. When I spoke to members of my target audience about this, their response was that a female voice would be better suited to the narrative if the main character was a girl, and as it was something I agreed with, I decided to go ahead and use my version of the song.

I= What did you learn from this?

A= I learned that my audience preferred a music video to strongly relate and be relevant to the music, singer and lyrics. They wanted to feel as though, Mollie, the main character in the music video, was singing these lyrics and was the artist - which is why I wrote her name and initials down on my ancillary tasks.

I= lets talk about your ancillary tasks. What kind of feedback did you get?

A= for my ancillary task feedback I conducted a survey on surveymonkey/com asking my audience whether they liked the digipak and magazine advert, and what comments they had on it. 100% of them said they liked it and the comments they left were positive!

I= Yes! "I'm reading the comments now, one person says "all the elements work really well together" and another is saying "it looks like a lot of creative thought has been put into it" so overall good! What did you learn from this?

A= I learned it is very important to have a running theme throughout the ancillary tasks and music video, they should all relate and connect as after all they are all promoting eachother and are products of the same brand! However in saying this I also learned they shouldn't be exactly the same, there should be some variety so that it doesn't get boring in order to keep each task new and creative.

I= What about your final piece?

A= I did an initial roughcut and got some feedback from that...

I= Oh, what was that like?

A= It was overall good however I was told it needed more originality, as I hadn't yet added the scenes of the older version of Mollie - which was the main plot. That's the reason why I decided to cover it.

I= Did you learn anything from that?

A= Yes definitely, I learned people like originality and that original and creative content will do much better than a 'safe' option that's actually quite boring alone.

I= what about any other feedback from the roughcut?

A= I conducted a survey linked to the roughcut to see what people thought of it, and the idea for my narrative too. Most people said they really liked the idea, however one said they believed I should change the plot to the girl just leaving home rather than leaving for university. Due to the fact the majority of my target audience liked my original idea, I decided not to change it. Also, I think if the girl was leaving home, it would raise a lot of questions amongst the audience as to why? seeing as she had such a good home life. I wanted to give the character a good and more importantly, positive reason for moving out, because the video is that of an uplifting and positive nature.

I= What about your final cut feedback?

A= My final cut feedback was so reassuring! Since the roughcut, I had added my cover, added the scenes of the older version of Mollie (my main character) and added extra scenes that gave the video a more sentimental touch, for example the scene where mollies mum gives her a ring! The comments were overwhelmingly positive, especially in comparison to my roughcut!

I= Yes I can see! What comments in particular did you learn something from?

A= I have their feedback sheets here in front of me now, many people commented saying it was emotional and uplifting for example one person says "Good use of locations and filming different heart warming situations" and another said it was "very emotive -good". From these comments I learned people enjoy moving, happy and uplifting narratives, a narrative doesn't always have to have a dramatic or traumatic scenario in it to be good or interesting, you can use your skills to make the narrative interesting in other ways and can also take interesting shots to add to this.

I= what else did you learn from this about your video?

A= I learned that people did find my video emotional and heart warming, which is exactly what I wanted my video to be before I had even chose this narrative!

I= did you learn anything about using transitions between different clips in the video from your audience feedback?

A= yes! I personally felt that the transitions helped gel the music video together making it run smoothly, and my target audience appeared to feel the same! one girl said I had good editing techniques and had a nice use of transitions, whilst others said the shots and video flowed nicely saying the "fade effect between shots works really well". From this I learned people prefer to watch something that is smooth and flows well as this makes it look more professional, rather than using cut away shots throughout it. As well as this I learned how important it is for the song to have the same kind of tempo and vibe in order to make them gel and work together effectively! I think, both from my opinion and the feedback I received, the transitions were particularly effective as they elongated some of the emotional shots whilst slowly fading in to another, this worked well as it made the video more relaxing to watch and emotional, there was no sudden change, almost every clip was gently faded in, or blurred in to another.

I= Was there any feedback from your final cut to do with your choice to use your own cover? did you learn anything from it?

A= Yes! thankfully everyone seemed to like the cover, and more importantly like the fact I didn't use Ed Sheeran's cover and made my own music video more original. This showed me how important originality is because most of the positive comments stemmed from the fact I had covered the song and that my audience believed my version was more fitting with the song, than Eds! I learned it is important to make any piece of work your own, almost having your own trademark stamp on it, making it different and making it stand out - as this is the kind of work that will take you furthest. I also learned it is quite easy to be safe and not challenge yourself, however when you take on a challenge in an attempt to make a piece of work creative and different, there can be really great outcomes!

I= Definitely! Was there any other comments that stood out to you which you learned from?

A= yes! I think an audience like to relate to a music video, if they relate to it, it helps them understand the narrative more! I had a few comments about this, for example one of the comments were that it is "very current and the narrative is easy to follow" whilst others said "the message stood out a lot and I portrayed the relationships well

I= oh yes because your target audience are around the age of leaving home just like your main character!

A= yes!

I= what about any less than positive comments in your audience feedback? or even just constructive criticism?

A= Yes I had some constructive comments! One person said the video could be improved by using more interesting camera angles and another said there was a scene where the video was slightly shaky. In response to the comment about the camera angles, I didn't want to over complicate the video, or make it difficult to watch considering it fits amongst the documentary/family genres. I had a range of different camera angles, for example when the woman was going through her memory box, and a range of different types of shots with close ups, landscape, portrait shots and more! I think any more variety would have overcomplicated the video.

I= what did you learn from that?

A= I learned that my video is quite artistic, and as it fits into that category, perhaps some people would assume there would be more artistic shots and interesting angles. However, only one person out of 10 picked up on this so I don't consider it to be a massive issue. Different people have different takes on media products and thats normal!

I= so lets summarise! We've been through every part of your media product in detail, so tell me Aisha, overall, what did you learn from your audience feedback in terms of your music video, what is important in a music video, how you could have improved and what you think an audience would like to see?

A= I learned people thought my video was obviously a music video, that they felt the audio fitted well with the video and that they believed I had used a good range of locations and shots in order to make my film emotive and uplifting. I also learned that my audience enjoyed how I edited my music video with different transitions and that they liked the originality in my narrative.

From the more constructive comments I learned my younger audience are quite appreciative of art, and that I could have improved my video further by including more interesting angles and perhaps could have made my cover clearer by using a professional mic - however this is something I did not have access to.

I learned having a theme across different media products promoting the same brand is extremely important and is something my audience like to see, as well as being something that would make them buy the products. I learned it is important that the ancillary tasks, digipaks and magazine adverts strongly represent and are relevant to the music video and the song to avoid deceit and give the audience and public a good idea of what they would be in for if they were to buy the digipak and album, and watch the music video.

I also learned originality is key, people want to see something new! This is particularly true amongst the younger generations, who were my target audience!

I= So it looks like you have learned a lot from your audience feedback!

A= Definitely!

I= Alright, well thats all we have time for today! Thank you Aisha for joining us today!

A= Thank you!

I=And to all our viewers, tune in same time tomorrow for more discussions on EvalRadio! Goodbye!

Evaluation Question 2 PLAN

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

I will answer this question in a documentary format, with relevant images and a voiceover. Below are basic bullet points of what I plan to talk about at each stage of my answer.

• To start, the importance of having a consistent theme, recognisable and distinctive
• works better for the promo of a single or album if all parts helping to promote each other are similar and work with eachother
• ancillary tasks key way of advertising a song
• all aspects contribute to popularity and success
• synergy among 3 products
• Ancillary tasks accurately represent film

then move on to talk about my main product and ancillary tasks.

THE BEGINING

• My main music vid is about nostalgia, memories and moving on in life, however the main plot is that an older woman is looking back on her younger years - I wanted to incorporate these things into my ancillary tasks so that they represented the video well.
• I did a photoshoot based around mainly polaroids, out doors with mollie. I had nothing particular in mind except for the fact I wanted polaroids to be theme amongst my ancillary tasks. I took a wide variety of photos in one of the same outfits mollie was wearing in one of the scenes in the music video to keep the continuity up and keep it constantly relevant
• When I arrived home I looked through photos for the tasks and shortlisted them, as you have seen in one of my posts

FILTER

• As I began constructing and editing the photos for the digipak I decided I really liked a filter called 'oldish' on an editing app. I thought it was a filter that really worked well due to its stained/antique effect, especially as parts of my video included an old woman looking back on her younger years.
• I thought putting the filter over the younger version of herself would really tie the plot in with the ancillary tasks. I kept this filter as a theme through every single photo

POLAROIDS

• In the vid u can see the older lady occasionally pulling out polaroids. Her going through her 2015 memory box is an essential part of the music video, therefore I decided to use a polaroid background that I had edited as a background and constant theme for the majority of photos in my ancillary task
• to keep each photo where I used this background interesting, there was a new foreground.
• I strongly kept to the theme of the polaroid throughout my ancillary tasks, incorporating polaroids within polaroids for the back cover and magazine advert
• I think this makes for an effective combination of all 3 tasks as it makes them distinctive and recognisable as promoting the same product
• fitting with message of a video and the flashbacks in the video, each polaroid is like a timepiece, representing a memory

ARTISTS EXPRESSION

• looks deep in thought
• mostly close ups of her
• a young person feels like they have a lot to think about

SHOTS OF ARTIST

• quite aesthetic, photoshoot like shots
• 2 are quite candid
• all portray meaning
• tie in with feelings of girl as she leaves

TEXT

• typewriter style writing across all images
• olden style
• boardered in black with either white or purple coloured text
• Mollies initals only used as the artist logo/trademark/stagename

COLOURS

• same 'oldish' filter used, almost like a teabag effect
• not sharp images, quite soft and dreamy like that of a flashback
• faded colours
• antique effect
• same colours across all tasks, making them an even stronger combination

artistic 

FEEDBACK

• key thing mentioned was they work well together with the MV
• theres an obvious theme, which combines all 3 tasks really well together - effective

OVERALL

• Similar themes throughout all ancillary photos
• link well to the video through metaphorical, hidden and more obvious meaning
• good combination, all different but all work well together
• visually pleasing together, look like siblings
• effective

Evaluation Question 1 PLAN

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

I have decided to answer this question in the form of a video diary. This question is basically asking me how my product uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of media products in the same music video genre as mine, and how it develops challenges or conforms to the conventions of Ed Sheeran's real music video for the song 'photograph' - the song I used.

Below is a basic plan of everything that challenges, develops and uses the conventions of the real media products in a table I made, in note form.

MY MUSIC VIDEO ALSO...

• falls among average length of a music video
• falls in the documentary/lifestyle genre but also a hint of family and teen as far as the ages of people who may watch it could be
• Is relatable and relevant to my target audiences issues
• has no live music/lip syncing

Below is a script I have made for the video:

In this video I will be answering the first evaluation question, which you can see on the screen now.


Most songs about reminiscing have a music video that has a concept of reminiscing running through them, for example the actual music video for the song 'photograph' consists purely of home videos, making it personal to Ed Sheeran. My music video uses this convention as a large part of it is about reminiscing as we see the older version of the teen in the video, looking back her life. However in saying this, my music videos narrative is slightly more creative than these regular documentary style music videos as I have incorporated a flashback and flash forward theme in showing the older lady looking back at her younger years - with videos of her younger years - for example when she gets a car for her birthday. I think this develops conventions of real media products of the same genre as mine, because it gives the video more layers, making the narrative more interesting.

My music video also uses the convention of incorporating home videos, as theres one scene where I included this where the two friends are shopping, overlaying a 'recording' image ontop of the clip... but in terms of the format and different types of clips used, my music video massively challenges that of real products in that it doesn't include any live music or lip syncing - as most music videos containing flashbacks - such as maroon 5's payphone and Jason derulo's what-if, do.

However, my music video does conform to conventions of real media products similar to it in that it is uplifting and heartwarming, which are traits music videos to songs like photograph - and documentary style music videos like mine, often have and share. I think my video slightly develops regular conventions though as it isn't just uplifting, it portrays a positive and almost inspirational message to the audience, showing them life is short and must be enjoyed as all you have left in life is your memories.

In terms of acting, I think my video conforms to that of real media products, as the acting does not look staged. The shots are very natural showing raw relationships, they don't look forced which was something I was worried about as an amateur. Also, the plot of the video wasn't revealed immediately, I gave the audience an enticing period from the beginning of the video until I slowly gave them clues as to who the older lady was, which conforms to the style of regular music videos as the plot is never given away immediately.

A major way in which my media product develops conventions of real media products, is that I used and showed many different types of relationships - not just a romantic one as I felt this was very expected and safe, especially as most songs are about a romantic love. My video also develops these conventions in that it therefore gives us a glimpse into a lot of different aspects of the girls life, telling a story and letting the audience get to know her through her relationships- which is more common in short films than music videos.

I think my video also develops conventions of real media products in terms of who may find it relatable. My target audience of older teens and young adults do as the storyline is very relevant to what they are going through, however I think people in the older generations may relate too because I incorporated an older version of Mollie. It attracts two very different audiences.

Using my cover of the song instead of the actual song is also something I think develops conventions of other music videos made to this song as I thought using a female voice would be more effective so that it appeared the main character was singing. However it conforms to regular music videos in that the gender of the voice (in my case female) and the gender of the main character (also female in my case) are the same.

On the subject of ways my product develops conventions of real ones, I used a variety of different transition shots so that switching clips was smoother, making the video more relaxing to watch, as well as using cut aways. My product also develops and slightly challenges that of real ones in that it contains a wide variety of different shots and camera angles, particularly macro close up shots, which are my favourite in the music video.

My music video does challenge conventions though in terms of shots as I think the transitions and types of shots made the video quite artistic in comparison to regular music videos in a documentary/teen genre. It also challenges products in the documentary/teen genre as it isn't as materialistic/lifestyle orientated with partying and activities teenagers do, it has more depth to it looking at relationships over pass times.

One of the main ways my music video challenges similar media products is that the narrative doesn't have any major tragedies, it doesn't really follow or conform to Todorovs narrative theory of equilibrium, as although there is a change - it is all positive, and the video starts with the 'disequilibrium' of acceptance letter however in the story, it doesn't come across as an imbalance in harmony as todorov suggests, more of a positive change.

The narrative also challenges that of real media products as its not entirely linear, the entire video consists of flashing forwards and back between Mollies younger and older self, however if you take the shots of mollies younger self and group them all together, you would see they were in linear order - as it starts with an acceptance letter and ends with leaving.

My video however does conform to real music video products as it falls among the average length of a music video being just over 4 minutes, it is easily distinct able as a music video

Evaluation Planning

There are four evaluation questions in total, it is important to answer each of these questions in an alternative style in order to get into the highest band. Due to this I have planned out how I am going to answer each of these questions below...



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

• format: VLOG

To answer this question I will make a powerpoint, including hyperlinks, video clips and images in order to make my answer more interesting and creative.


Evaluation Question 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

• format: documentary

I think the best way to answer this question is to film myself talking about it, overlaying other video clips and images on top, because this way I can show the examiner exactly what I mean when I'm talking about the ancillary tasks.


Evaluation Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

• format: soundcloud interview

I will write a script asking myself a variety of different questions to do with what i learned from my audience feedback, including quotes, and will phrase them in such a way so that I am interviewing myself. I will do this by recording all of my questions and responses on soundcloud, putting a voice effect on the interviewer so that they appear to be two different people, when in reality they are both me.


Evaluation Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

• format: prezi

I will make a prezi to answer this question. I will use photos, screenshots and pieces of text to explain how I used different technologies throughout each stage of the task.

5 things about my music video that I'm the most happy with

1) Casting

I genuinely think all the characters in my music video played their roles fantastically. They weren't awkward, instead, they came across very natural and genuine on camera.

2) Editing

I'm particularly happy with how I edited my music video, I really like the transitions running through it, especially the ones that slowly fade.

3) Shots

I really like the fact theres a wide variety of shots in my music video with portrait, landscape and close up shots in there. I especially like the close up shots as I feel like they add an artistic element to the video.

4) Song Choice

I think Ed Sheeran's song 'Photograph' was absolutely perfect for the narrative of my music video, it is such a calming and uplifting song with really sentimental and heart warming lyrics to it. These traits were something I wished to incorporate into my music video, so using the song was very fitting.

5) Plot/Narrative

I really like the narrative in my video and how there are many flashbacks as the older woman reminisces about her life as she takes out items from her memory box. I've not seen an idea like this in any music video and am really pleased that I managed to successfully make one, and see my creative idea come to life.

Final music video feedback

To get feedback for our final cuts, every media student watched each music video and left some comments along with a score out of 40. Below are images of the feedback sheets from when my peers watched my music video.

Overall the feedback is really good, which I am so pleased about. Everyone seems to think the song fits very well with the narrative and that it was a good idea to cover the song 'photograph' and use it, instead of using Ed Sheerans version - as it made my video more original.

My audience also seemed to like the way I edited the music video and my use of transitions, saying no shots were there for too long - which is perfect as it means my video isn't boring and more importantly, stayed interesting.

Many comments were about the fact I had a good variety of shots and the locations were relevant and very fitting places where memories could be created to portray heart warming situations. The feedback also told me people thought the video had a clear narrative and was easy to follow and enjoyable to watch - as well as being relevant to my target audience's age, which is very positive!

The only less than positive, and constructive criticism on my feedback forms were that one scene appeared shaky in the video, and that one individual would have preferred if the video contained more "interesting" camera angles, however I didn't wish to overcomplicate the video by including complex angles, as there was already a variety of shots, transitions and movements going on in it.