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

How have I improved from AS Level?
To begin, I feel that in my A2 coursework, I have really improved my research and planning. In comparison to last year (AS), this area of my studies is far more thorough with my blog posts containing lots of detail. As a result of our extensive research, I feel that our final products have definitely bettered from this as we have put more informed thought into it- such as deciphering whether to conform or break conventions in the music industry. During AS level, our research and planning was rather lightly brushed over when it should have been our key focus. Saying this, we all agree that we have definitely learned from our mistakes in areas that we were scoring lower in last year and I believe that our final products are much more of a professional standard this time around.
This year I included research into artist inspiration, music genre and target audience- I did not do this in very much detail at all last year. I made sure that when I learnt new information, that I would blog about it each time and also use my blog as a diary such as recording filming days and planning them in further detail on a production schedule.

My editing skills have also improved. I learnt many more techniques on iMovie that I wasn't aware of at AS such as cropping a video to focus more on a certain area of a clip and colour correction. I believe that this year we were far more experimental and had a more creative outlook which shines through our finished products. We used our basic skills that we had gained from AS and developed these further to create a more advanced video.
As well as this, I learnt skills such as how to use Photoshop when creating our digipak and other ancillary products. We didn't use editing software such as 'Photoshop' at AS Level so I found it very beneficial to learn these new editing skills. New skills were required to be learnt to carry out this task of making a music video successfully this year. We had to choose the right group member to be cast as the lead artist and be able to execute lip syncing perfectly. We felt like the best lip syncer and actress makes a huge difference to how effective and professional the final product looks and we definitely chose right. This is just one example of a decision we had to make at A2 that we didn't have to make at AS as there would obviously be no lip syncing required in a film opening last year.

As well as this, last year we were limited to poorer technology. As you can see in the image (right), we only had access to smaller cameras however studying at A2, we were able to film with larger high definition camera equipment. This made a very evident difference in our final products- the newer cameras made our music video look of a much higher quality and thus, more professional. Not only this, but we also had access to studio lights and projecting equipment at A2 level. This meant that we were able to be more experimental whilst it also making our filming footage look much sharper/brighter and therefore creating an effective final piece. Last year we did not have access to this equipment and you can definitely see a clear difference between the two quality wise.

We all worked extremely well as a group at A2 meaning that our organisation and work during class was very smooth. As we all worked so well together it made it easy for us to plan filming days outside of school and for this reason we visited many locations. I feel that how well we get along as a group shines through in our final video- we were also able to recognise each others weaknesses and make up for them accordingly.

The coursework at A2 differed greatly in comparison to AS. I felt that this year not only was it more enjoyable but we had more scope to be creative. Last year we had stricter or less broad guidelines to follow so to speak. We were given a specific genre for our film opening which therefore restricted what we were able to toy with (e.g mise en scene such as costume and props). At A2 we chose our alternative genre ourselves and this allowed us to be more creative. We explored a range of locations (around 8 different locations) and let our imagination run wild as a music video allowed us to do this- this differed to AS where we only shot our film opening in two locations, one of them being at school. My confidence has definitely grown this year, making me less afraid to take risks and be creative.

My knowledge of technology and media has massively improved this year since AS and I am very happy with our final products.

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

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

After previously having uploaded our music video rough cut to Facebook, we were then able to make improvements. Having posted this version on social media, it therefore got exposed to a wider audience outside of our target of ages 16-23. We were able to see which improvements should be made, equally valuing our target audience's opinions and those outside of this bracket- it was interesting to see whether they had similar taste to the target audience which we soon discovered to be true. Our target audience also included males as well as females because we felt that our chosen artist's music (Lana Del Rey) appealed to both genders. We had evidence of her appeal in males as we knew male friends who were big fans of her, she is also an attractive artist and therefore has a large amount of appeal in a male audience. Females may identify with her as her lyrics are about love/heartbreak from a woman's perspective and the fact that she is a solo female artist- therefore it is natural that females will want to watch and listen to her.

People older than 23 liked an commented, saying they thought it was 'highly enjoyable' and likewise with our target audience, this shows that it appeals to those outside of this age range too. As aforementioned, viewer's main criticism was that the ending should be changed as it is not of the same standard as the beginning of the video- we all agreed on this and it was nice to have feedback from a fresh pair of eyes. Following this feedback we were able to use some footage from an additional filming day we had organised in the studio and the footage turned out to be far more appropriate.
This is evidence that we took our audience's feedback on board:

Ending before audience feedback

Ending after audience feedback

We felt that making these changes was a successful decision because the indoor studio added a different dynamic to the video. This may be because it was an indoor studio and we had not yet filmed inside and because the lights added an intriguing, striking pop of colour. The fact that it is an indoor location means that our video is now more conventional like other music videos in the industry as we have used a combination of in and outdoor locations- I think it is good to adhere to some typical conventions as it makes our video more traditional in some places which is comforting to an audience, however in other areas it is slightly more unconventional meaning that there is still equilibrium.

Not only this, but our audience also brought up the fact that the red ivy clip of the camera tracking the artist as she lip synced was not as successful as it could be- this is as her hair had fallen in her face and you could no longer see what she was singing. To resolve this, we removed the clip and replaced it with one of Nova lip syncing on her bed. It was a good idea to use this clip because a similar one is seen else where which adds to the continuity- repeating certain clips in music videos is also conventional and we wanted to stick to some of these ideas for the same reasons.

After making these amendments and, as a group, we were all pleased with the finished product, it was uploaded to YouTube. YouTube is a video sharing platform which can be accessed by absolutely anyone online- it was important to us that this was the case because it meant that a wide range of different people outside of our target audience would be able to watch it.
It needed to be accessible so that as many people from within or outside our target audience could view it and give us feedback. We value everyone's comments & opinion regardless of whether they are 16-23, it is interesting to see whether our video appeals to people outside of the age bracket. Uploading it to YouTube was also  very useful in order for males to be able to view the music video too. This is because we are more likely to have a female's opinion due to the fact that there are females in our media class, therefore we needed to see the point of view from a male seeing as they are also in our target audience.

We had already received four thumbs up after only posting it that day. This tells us that it has been successful enough for four people to like it and nobody out of the 21 viewers to dislike it. This was a great start for us.

The next thing I did in order to have more specific feedback was make a survey on Survey Monkey. I wrote this survey in order to address (mainly) our target audience however it was open to all as we are also interested in people's feedback outside of our target audience.

This is our survey

I was quite specific with the type of questions that I used. We wanted to know exactly how our audience felt about specific factors in our music video and ancillary products, whether it be feedback on our artist's tour poster or the viewer's favourite location used in the music video. I wanted to use both a variety of open and closed questions in order to receive detail as well as statistics.
Below are the questions:

The questionnaire saw a handful of people respond. The graph shows that 20% of responses were male and the other 80% female. Although there is clearly a bias, it was still important to us that a male had given us feedback as we at least had something to compare the other responses to. As well as this, survey monkey allowed me to review participants specific answers, therefore I am able to view the male's exact responses and compare them to the opposite gender.

One of the most important questions to ask was 'What is your age?'. The reason for this was so that we could see whether respondents were within our outside of our target audience. Results showed that all respondents were within the age bracket of 16-23 years old  which was extremely useful to us as that is who our music video/ancillary products are aimed at, therefore meaning that we have very appropriate answers. Although it would still be useful for us to have feedback from outside this bracket, we made sure that we had directly asked for people's opinions who fell under the 'other' category.

I was also keen to ask whether they think that our video was successful on the whole. The graph shows that 100% of people thought that our music video was successful which not only shows that we successfully produced something correctly aimed at our target audience, but also that our creativity has shone through. As this was a closed question, I thought it would be a good idea to create and open ended question which allowed them to develop their response in detail.

We found the answers on this question to be very rewarding- all of the feedback is very positive!

One answer that stood out the most to me was the fact that the viewer has noticed that there is a 'home video' vibe and that it is effective. When carrying out our artist research, we noticed how Lana Del Rey often has this old fashioned, retro type of style footage running in areas across many of her music videos. We really liked this rather unique idea and thought that it could inspire some of our own as it has a really nostalgic feel about it, a perfectly fitting emotion for our story line of loss and reminiscence. 

This positive feedback reinforced our initial idea of incorporating some of Del Rey's vintage inspired shots in our own video which have clearly turned out to be very successful.

Home video footage in Lana Del Rey's 'Video Games'.

Our take on Lana Del Rey's home video footage by filming it from the 'point of view' of  the artist's boyfriend. This shot has lots of direct address which makes it very personal between the artist and audience.

The respondent also stated that their favourite clip was of the artist lip syncing in front of the screen projection. We all agreed that the projection was a very unique idea and not one we have seen in many existing music videos which is a reason why we felt that we should try it out. Our amount of experimentation, in not just this clip but throughout our entire video, is very much evident. Our use of trial and error lead us to these outcomes (such as projection) and evidently went down very well as our target audience have specifically said that it is their favourite element of the video.

This is the screen projection that a respondent said was effective.

In Question 5, I asked for any improvements that they would make in the video. I made sure I designed the question to be open so that they could put as much intricate detail into it as they liked, a closed multiple choice question may not have covered their answer.

An answer that stood out to me was someone stating that they felt that the artist was seen on her bed a lot. Instead they suggested alternative ideas such as further flashbacks about what she is thinking about. We had never actually thought about this idea which highlights why audience feedback is so refreshing and I think that what is suggest is a good idea. Despite this, we had previously gotten a comment from our teacher once before stating that he thought the bed scene may be a little too long and we immediately challenged this. As a group we all really liked this scene, it may be slightly unconventional in the fact that it goes on for a longer period however we feel like it flows and we wanted to challenge some stereotypical conventions in the current industry. We felt like this scene stood out amongst others and that is not always a bad thing. Also our teacher was out of our target audience so his opinion may not have 100% applied to the type of video we were aiming for although the constructive criticism was still valued.

Another piece of constructive criticism that we received was that they felt that they should see further different shots of the camera tracking the artist as they are walking directly towards the camera. This is as they felt it was very successful and that it should be featured more than once to show continuity. We agree with this statement as we personally really like this shot too and think that adding more would definitely enhance the video. Despite this, I do not think it lacks any continuity currently as we have repeated the same tracking clip more than once in another area- although filming a different tracking shot would definitely compliment the existing one.

We also asked which location was their favourite. These question answers were actually very beneficial to us because each one states a different place- this shows that a whole variety of different areas of our video are liked/appreciated.

 Someone had stated that their favourite was the windy beach in Margate. During our filming day, we had noticed that the weather there was not exactly on our side- making it challenging to film in such conditions. It is good to hear that something that was at first a disadvantage to us had become someone's favourite part of the video.  The fact that they also said it is relatable is good because this is something we were all hoping for, we used a lot of point of view shots to make the audience feel as if they were directly involved and this has evidently worked.

Some more feedback that we received showed that the gallery was their favourite location and not like anything they had seen before. This is good because our aim was to be unique in comparison to existing music videos- videos that use the same ideas as others tend to blend in to one another and that is certainly not what we want.

The male on the questionnaire had said that his favourite location was in the studio. This is very beneficial as it shows that the audience are now praising the end of the video after we had made changes to the ending based on our previous criticism. It shows that we have taken previous advice well on board and received a good outcome. Also the fact that he is a male and likes the scene is evidence that it appeals to both genders within our target audience.

We asked whether the audience feel the music video is appropriate for our target audience. 100% said yes which reinforces the fact that we have catered well to the age group of 16-23 that we aimed for during the planning process of the video.

Also the fact that 100% of the people answering yes are in our target audience themselves creates more validity as out of anyone they would be the ones to know whether it is appropriate.

Our Final Digipak (Above)

Moving onto feedback about the ancillary products, we asked for feedback based on the digipak.

Someone had said that they liked the colours which is something that we as a group also really liked as it brightened up the black and white picture however was still quite subtle. Some constructive criticism that we received said that we should maybe fade the border of the black and white picture so that it blends in a bit more with the entire album. Although I can see where they are coming from, we decided to keep the photograph like this to emphasise the fact that Nova is creating a bold statement and she needed to in order to stand out in this competitive music industry. This is the reason why the picture remains like this.

Someone else had stated the fact that the cover looked 'professional' which is exactly what we were aiming for. They also understood our aims by saying that the geometric shapes supported the album title 'Fragments' which shows that our idea is successful.

When asking about our tour poster we got extremely positive feedback which is great to hear as we were all very pleased with it once it was completed. 

Each and every single comment mentioned that it looked professional which is what we always strive for during the making process. It is great to see that other viewers from our target audience thought this about the product too. One of the comments in particular left us some constructive criticism, saying that we could have incorporated some colour into the text to make it stand out further. Although I can see how this would be a good idea, I like the fact that we only chose around two colours to go on the poster (blue and white) as it creates a professional appearance. I think that adding in even more colour could possibly lose the maturity which is why we have kept it as it is although I can definitely see how adding colour could brighten it up a little.

We asked whether the audience think that the insert for the album is effective. Everyone agreed and gave us positive feedback. Someone also left some constructive criticism for us:

They had said that they would 'maybe change the style of font'. I can see where they are coming from as this font is different to any of the other font we have used before. However, we felt that as it was just a quick personal message from the artist herself that the font could be justified by it being a casual more everyday font type- this also makes it more relatable between the audience and artist.

As well as using survey monkey as a means of feedback, we also directly asked people on Facebook. 

I sent a link to our final video to one of my friends on Facebook (who fits in with our target audience)  to directly see what she thought about it. She sent me a message back stating what areas she liked about both the digipak and music video. One of the comments she made was that the artist was styled really well. We agree with this as Nova was dressed in a way to fit the genre of the music (as the viewer had also noticed). The clothes that the artist wore matched her 'brand' and made her look really stylish which not only made her look great but her fashion also appeal to our target audience as she is of a similar age- making her more likable.

We had also, in person, asked people outside of our target audience what they thought about our music video. Comments we received included ''the artist looks great and the lip syncing has perfect timing''. This proves that our video appeals to people older than our target audience of 16-23 which is a good thing.

Overall, we feel that it was a really good idea to post our video online to see what our target audience and beyond thought about it. It really helped us to see whether both our video and ancillary products were successful and to see whether they appealed to our target audience.

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

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

When looking back at our final products,  I believe that the combination of our music video and ancillary texts are very fluent and successful. Whilst creating both the video and our digipak we had a clear vision of what we wanted them to look like and what techniques we wanted to use to represent Nova's image. Nova is an alternative artist and this is something we focused heavily on and worked around whilst creating our project.
Within our video we focused on a few things in particular to help present Nova's alternative style and artistic eye. One of the first things we took into consideration when creating our music video was the mise en scene. I am going to discuss our use of mise en scene and the ways in which I feel we have shown them both in our music video and digipak, applying them to the style that we were aiming for:

Within mise en scene, we particularly felt as if our settings were one of the most effective aspects of our video. In order for our video to be easily memorable to the audience, we ensured that we visited a wide variety of locations that we felt were visually interesting- this would then intrigue the viewer to want to watch it. One of my favourite locations in our final product would have to be the 'Turner Contemporary Gallery, Margate'. This is because it is a very quirky, different environment which fits in perfect with our more alternative genre. As well as this, it appears to be very unique location- especially as the exhibit we attended was only temporary. This means that our location would not be seen in any other music video and would therefore be very easily identifiable to our target audience.

Another successful location that stood out to be effective was our visit to Whitstable. This is because it was more of a 'natural' location and therefore added some variety to our music video. It also fit in well with our theme of nature which was clearly prominent throughout the entire video. Although our ancillary texts did not feature any outdoorsy type of images, I believe it is understandable to the audience because we wanted to represent our artist as more slick and professional therefore it made complete sense for our digipak and tour poster images to be taken in the studio. Using a location such as Whitstable as well as multiple locations also presents the fact that our artists likes to travel a lot- therefore by the audience watching the music video, they have already built up an image or brand of Nova which they will then be able to apply to our ancillary texts.

Multiple locations gave us the opportunity to toy around with different aspects of both our video and ancillary products so that we had the option and opportunity to choose what we included from our video in the auxiliary texts. I feel that our locations helped to express Nova as an indie/alternative artist whilst also expressing our group enthusiasm for our work as we were willing to go out of our way and film in these locations for the best quality video we could possibly create.

Next, we put deep consideration into how we wanted our artist to be represented in terms of hair, clothing and make-up. We made sure that we presented her in a range of different outfits, changing with each location. This was not only to entice the audience into watching more (as it may have become boring or repetitive if the same outfit was used throughout) but so that the artist could show off different areas of her style. Her outfits were especially in conjunction with the alternative genre of music to not only ensure continuity, but also to show a different side to her. An example of this would be the outfit (pictured left) that she wore during the Whitstable filming day. Her 'look' still appears edgy but also has a rather innocent and feminine touch to it- this means that her broad image can appeal to a mass of different people who may not necessarily be a fan of this type of music and would therefore  reel in a larger audience/new potential fan base. Nova's hair and makeup was always kept very simplistic- we wanted her voice to speak for itself in terms of her image, with hair and make-up complimenting this. Her 'natural' glam often matched the type of location that she was in (such as the beach)- this adds more consistency to the video. As we are inspired by Lana Del Rey, we noticed that even though she is a massive star in herself, she still dressed relatively subtle yet still glamorous- this is a look that we think is extremely effective and were definitely inspired by her dress sense during the creation of our own video. This is because we made Nova's style relatively bold and very unique- this therefore became very identifiable and made a very strong link between her dress sense in both the ancillary texts and music video. 

As well as this, lighting and colour schemes is an element we focused heavily on to make our video as effective as possible. We all agreed that continuity was extremely important in our final product- not just due to our personal preference but because we wanted to conform to the typical forms and conventions of music videos as they are all known to run so smoothly which gives them their professional appearance. To achieve continuity, we decided to choose a colour scheme which would be evident throughout the entirety of our video.
We chose to have blue and pink as our colour scheme- many of these colours we naturally found during our filming days such as a blue sky when filming in Whitstable and bold red colours in the Margate contemporary gallery. When these colours were not naturally available to us, we were able to digitally impose or enhance them during the editing process- allowing us to manipulate reality to suit our best needs. I feel that our colour scheme of pink and blue is effective in our video visually as well as in terms of representing our alternative genre. Blue is very traditionally associated with sadness and sorrow whilst pink holds strong connotations with love which is what both our song and genre is represented by.

Another element of our video that was particularly effective was how the artist was positioned in the frame. We ensured that throughout, Nova was situated on either the far left or right hand side of the shot- we felt that this changed up the dynamics of the video and made it slightly more interested so that we didn't risk the target audience becoming bored.

To ensure that both our ancillary products and music video linked well together,  we ensured that we carried over some of the mise en scene used in our final product to the main album cover/tour poster.

Digipak: We decided to incorporate a range of different colours into our digipak front cover- this way it added more of a visual variety in contrast to the black and white image of the artist. We chose to include our same theme of pink and blue colours into the tessellation in order to maintain consistency. The audience are also very familiar with this range of colours as the theme of pink and blue is tied in within our music video- our target audience would then be able to quickly associate the colours with the artist. Examples of where these colours appear in our main product is: 
The sunset panning establishing shot: This shot naturally provided us with the colours within our theme without the need of any manipulation during the editing process which was especially convenient to us.

The studio lighting: we purposely manipulated the studio lights to ensure that they were tinted blue and pink- this then created a large sheen around artist's figure, the glow symbolising the fact that she is the star of the show.

sunset projection: We wanted to be more experimental during the filming process in order to show each of our creative flares. As a result of this, we projected a sunset image from acetate onto Nova's back as the camera filmed this while tilting up. These colours included our theme of blue and pink and also a more diverse range on the same spectrum which were subtle purples and yellows- this pushed our own colour theme and complimented what we already had elsewhere in the music video.

Not only this, but we felt that by using the same hair, make-up and clothing throughout both our digipak and music video was an effective decision as it meant that the artist's look appears very fluent to the audience and therefore consistent all the way through. We branded our artist as very stylish however keeping her style still subtle to an extent to show that Nova's talent is more valuable than her physical appearance. 
As well as this, our use of colourful geometric shapes (tessellation) in the background of the digipak creates a strong link with the genre of the music in the music video. Triangles are very stereotypically associated with an 'indie' style which matches our genre of alternative music. This reinforces that our chosen imagery on our ancillary products is appropriate for our artist's song choice. 

Another way that the combination of our products are effective is the fact that we used relevant and conventional digipak images. The artist's style has been kept the same which means that, most importantly, consistency remains. The artist is staring directly into the camera in the album picture which links well with our music video because Nova is seen to have direct eye contact with the camera throughout the entirety of the video- creating an intimate bond between her and her fans.

A way in which the combination of our products differs is the fact that we did not feature the artist's logo anywhere in the video however we did on the digipak. A very conventional place to feature this is in the beginning of the video on a blank slate before it starts in order to introduce the audience to the artist. We did not want to conform to this because we felt that it was important for the viewer to discover who the artist is themselves through her visual appearance- rather than having the initial impression of the artist simply based from some text. I think this was a good idea not to include the logo in our video as although it would make sense for it to be more fluent, we felt that it would be just as effective simply featuring on the other ancillary products (such as the tour poster). This way it acts more as additional information rather than something essential that needs to be featured on anything based around Nova.  

We didn't choose to use the same image from the album front cover on our tour poster as it was not relevant to the style of ancillary product. It didn't fit- not only because of the size of the picture (it was square and we wanted a wide rectangular landscape image) but also because the photograph didn't have much negative space. We wanted the background space in order to place the writing beside it whilst the image still remains continuous (no harsh lines). This way, it would look like a whole complete poster rather than clearly a picture on one side and writing on the other- making it appear like more of a booklet/album insert. 

We subconsciously linked the artist's dress which has geometric shapes on it with the tessellation in the background of the album cover. This way there was a very subtle combination between the designs of both products. Although, visually, they do look quite different- it was still important that we had these very slight design links between the two to make them more continuous. We also placed Nova's logo and record label logo onto all products as these were very important features in terms of promotion for the up and coming artist. We used the same type of font throughout all products- the font is associated with Nova and how she is represented (in a very mature and professional nature).

We used black and white on tour poster (background colour and white font)- this links with the black and white image main photograph on the album cover- again adding to its consistency. 

We wanted to create something new to keep the audience entertained which is why we took new pictures for the tour poster and not from the video. Saying this, we used images from the video in our inserts to guarantee a strong link between both products, this means that the audience do not become confused in any way and that all products make complete sense as an entire package.