Evaluation

Evaluation of my audience feedback

From my audience feedback I have learned many new aspects of my R&B music video, which I had never realised before. Firstly how the audience perceive the media, as they have very high expectations.  Many positives and negative comments were posted and additionally some advice was given.
For example.

Positives:
‘The genre was generally presented well’
 ‘It was easy to understand’
‘The use of costume was good because it helped us to understand the genre’

Negatives:
‘The white character used is not conventional to the genre.’
‘A better car could have been used to suit the genre of R&B’
‘An over shoulder shot could of been used throughout the music video for more effect’
‘Could be better camera quality’

These are just some of the criticisms that were given. They were very useful into getting other peoples opinions and how they view the music video, which obviously is important as the aim is to provide for the target audience.  Some comments from our audience feedback were incomplete and so, we couldn't use there criticisms/advice to complete the audience feedback analysis. If we were to re-do this, I would aim to make our audience to be of a wider scale; then their would be more audience members. As previously our screening only had a small audience and so comments and opinions were limited. Our audience members additionally would be made up of our 'target' audience for the genre so that comments and criticisms given would be technical and relevant.

Overall, advice was given to us in order to make our video more better for an audience, for example they commented on how the digi-paks and poster was to plain and simple (although this is conventional to the genre): its an interesting subject as to whether the genre should change its image as from our comments it does not seem to be working for our target audiences. Our aim as an 'institution' is to sell the genre to audiences and these criticisms could suggest the genre needs to re-create itself with some traditional codes and conventions of the genre.

Generally, from our audiences however, positive feedback was given this suggests that the music video we have produced is of a high standard. 

Evaluation on how effective the combination of my main product and ancillary texts

Personally I feel that altogether our music video, digipak and poster is an extremely effective combination it all promotes the same thing; it additionally all the looks the same and the artist is constantly in the eye of the audience. Our audience confirms this also, overall impressions of our Treo is that the whole combination of promoting the artist is 'Bold and Exciting', also they commented on how the images and the quality of work is 'very good' (hence connoting an R&B image.) Moreover, the audience also commented on how the plot within the music video was easy to follow and is a conventional narrative to the genre. The song is conventional and is catchy!

Dyer proposes that "A star is an image not a real person that is constructed out of a range of materials". As a record buying public, we lead ourselves to believe that this star in particular has his own identity and thus this is attractive to audience members as they can then relate.

However, stars are manufactured by the music industry to serve a purpose to make money out of audiences Dyer says "Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their means". The repetition of the same picture of our artists (shown above) and the same colours (grey scale, black, red, white) create a brand identity which has been manufactured constructed my myself and my group. The identity is constantly re-enforced when promoting our artist for example, the same colour scheme, the same font etc. The whole design is vital into attracting audience members in order for them to identify the artist and his 'brand' additionally it is important to establish and promote the artist through the music video and additionally through the designs of the digi-pack and advertisement poster.

The combination of the advertisement, Digi-pack and music video all promote one thing, the artist. They all work and complement one another creating a strong brand identity. Dyer states "It can be argued that stars are representations of persons which re-enforce legitimate or occasionally alter the prevalent preconceptions of what it is to be a human being".
We present our artist to be a 'real' human where he possesses gender and race characteristics. The stars transformation process turns them into a construct however audiences tend to read them as not entirely fictional but as being a part of a generation.

From our audience feedback we can see that our intended audience are easily attracted to what we have developed, they comment on its aspects such as its mise en scene and how it relates to the genre. The conventional plain and simple image also seems to attract them this is shown when someone described the product as 'Bold and Exciting'   these are promising comments and suggest that we have made an effective marketing campaign through our poster, and digipak.

Evaluation on the ways my media product use, develop/challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Throughout our research and planning of our blogs, we decided as a group to keep to the traditional codes and conventions of the genre of R&B. However there was some aspects that we could not help which naturally was not conventional to the genre.

Conventional to the genre.

Stock characters: Our Artist was of a black ethnicity, this is one of the main conventions in which we found within the genre of R&B. Commonly we found in every single video we had researched the artist was of a black ethnicity. So as a group we chose someone of this ethnicity.

Stock settings: The settings we used are conventional to the genre, we used many settings this was commonly found in all the R&B videos we had researched.  We used 4 settings all together, all brought continuity to the music video.

setting 1

Setting 2

Setting 3

Setting 4

Setting 5

Setting 6

Music: From our audience feedback many comments, was that the song choice was easy to define into the genre of R&B. This commonly could be due to the fact that the main theme within the song was about love; this is again was a common aspect within our research.
Image: Commonly we found throughout our research that clothing was an important aspect in which defined the genre of R&B and additionally connotes traditional conventions within the genre. Such as the 'cool image' and 'wealth', personally I feel that we did this exactly within our poster, digipak and music video. Not only this but our audience feedback also agrees with these opinions. In fact an audience member said that the 'costume used represented the genre well and made it easy to grasp immediately'.
Connotation: The secondary level of communication within this music video is the lyrics. The lyrics describe a story, about how the character is feeling, also it gives opportunity to see what the disruption is all about however, the focus is on the black male character where he reveals his feelings this gives a bias viewpoint (This is also conventional to the genre, as it pushes women lower down the chain in comparison to males). 
Mode of Address: The audience is directly spoken to through the artist and this is presented through close ups and mid shots throughout the music video and additionally at some point the character even points towards the audience as though he is pointing at yourself. We found this in almost every R&B music video that we had researched. The mood and tone is created through the visual image that is presented. The story line will have an impact on the audience as it is a male character revealing his point of view of a double sided situation. This presents the female character to be the 'villain' however when we look deeper into the video and the lyrics the artist is extremely ironic.

The main Artist constantly looks at the camera
Showing direct eye contact to the audience
this then brings them into the song and the emotions.

Narrative: Within this music video Propp's theory could apply as the music hints that the villain is the female due to being 'cheatin' however the theory could not apply due to the video  not having the typical character functions of a hero, princess or villain.  Todorov's theory however could possibly be applied to this music video as we sense a disruption within the song (Especially when we see the two characters arguing . We wonder why he is revealing his feelings, this could be seen as an attempt to fix the disruption we really see the characters facial expression as he is reminiscing, however there are elements to the song in which Todorov's theory does not apply and there is not a new equilibrium reinstated at the end.  

Not conventional to the genre:
Stock characters: Although our main artist is conventional to the genre the female character that we used was not conventional to the genre; however this was not deliberate. It was due to circumstances that this person was used within our music video. As before hand our original girl who we were going to use let us down, and the girl that did the part stepped in a played up to the role. However the use of the white character could be seen as a counter argument to suggest that R&B is becoming more mainstream and the use of a white girl in the video is an attempt to represent this more popular movement of the genre.So all in all, a combination of circumstance for filming as well as a reflection of the genres popularity.
The car that we used within the music video, was not necessarily conventional as it was not 'bling' enough, however the idea around the car is conventional to the genre as in near enough every music video I had researched a fancy car was presented.

As you can see the female character we used was of
a white ethnicity, therefore it is not conventional to the genre of
R&B, however due to circumstances we used this character anyway.
In other ways she was conventional to the genre for example her style and
her irrational behaviour.  

Within our research we found a number of codes in which we have developed within our music video. Our artist, just like Chris Brown in his 'With you' music video and Usher in his 'Climax video'. We see the artists centre of the frame on his own, so a reflection of the artists is portrayed. Additionally the artists give out direct eye contact letting audiences into their identity and music video.  So we deliberately included these aspects within our music video, developing the conventions further.

As you can see there are similarities, the artists are in the centre of the frame and additionally shown to be giving direct eye contact.

The research, additionally has developed our product completely! From closely looking at the R&B artists we were able to define what to include with our music videos.

A Female character.

Our Music video

Chris Brown 'With You'

A car.

Our Music video

Usher 'Climax'

Clothing

Chris Brown 'With you'

Our Music Video

Here are just some examples in which from our research we have developed into our music video.

Although we have developed codes and conventions we have somewhat also challenged them as the genre is developing and changing just like society! The genre as a whole is becoming more mainstream and thus traditional representations are being challenged. An example of this is within Chris Browns video with you, we see white characters who are of a different subculture possibly 'skater'  we see them directly walk past the main artist but the focus is always set back towards the artist as a fast cut is presented. We can however see the distinct difference between the artist and these 'other characters' that are being presented we see this song give us an insight to other genres and subcultures rather than just one representation. 

A white couple is presented, possibly of different subcultures to the main artist.

The genre challenges its traditional stereotypes within this modern society but at the same time anticipates and considers the genres evolution towards the mainstream. The genre needs to go through this transformation in order to re-create a version of reality to represent real life in a modern society. 

Evaluation on the use of new technologies that I used in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages

Throughout the 3 stages of development (Research, Planning, Production) of our music video we used different types of technologies such as last time when we created our 2 minute opening but also additional new media technologies. So our, overall product was better developed than what was produced at foundation level.. This especially, helped us to use special effects such as slowing down the moving image, using straight cuts, and adding edits. This ensured that there was continuity throughout our music product.

Research: In order to familiar ourselves with the genre of R&B, we used the internet, (websites such as, google and Wikipedia). This type of research was fairly easy, as we had access to important information of the genre (such as its codes and conventions). The internet mostly helped us to conclude general codes and conventions in which, was vital in order for our music video to be categorised within the R&B genre. For example we analysed music videos of R&B artists. Also we analysed posters and CD advertisements.   




An example of using the internet is here! we directly
took these pictures of the internet and annoated them for
research purposes.

Additionally through the internet I created a second blog in which is vital in order for all our research, planning and evaluation is kept in order and is thoroughly detailed. Also so our music video can be presented within the project. (It’s a very organised way of keeping things all together, rather than keeping lots of word documents). 

 

Using blogger.com has really benefited us as a group second time round. Through this site we are able to keep track of our progress and actually see how much work we have done from foundation to advanced. Additionally we can also see the changes in how we present our work, especially in how much detail we provide for the advanced in contrast to the foundation portfolio. Through this site i have consolidated  how to embed you tube videos and upload images. This has had a huge impact on our overall presentation of our blogs and our music video as it gives professional  visual elements to what we are doing and enhances our research. It also makes it easier to evaluate our work.
Through the website we were able to scan and upload our work that we had hand written, this was a good easy way to keep all of our work together. It additionally was not time consuming and was easy to upload. From the experience i had at foundation portfolio i knew exactly what to upload and how to do it.

Above is scanned images that we converted into Jpeg in
order to be uploaded to the blog.

This year the research is alot more detailed than last year!
As you can see however it is still clear and easy to read. We
uploaded the pictures off the internet for our research and uploaded the images as
Jpeg.

Planning:

Through the stages of planning for our two minute opening we used a variety of technology. Technologies such as Celtx, Digital cameras, Scanning images, Converting audio files.

Celtx: is media pre-production software designed for creating and organizing media products like screenplays films and video's.
Using this type of technology helped us immensely as we specifically used it as a pre-visualization tool. We created a storyboard of our music video, this was well presented and easy to understand and in contrast to a sketched storyboard this would have consumed lots of time, and for people who cannot draw, it would not of been as neatly presented. Planning our media product was made easier through this and it impacted the whole of our planning of our movie as it involved taking photos uploading them onto celtx and then describing the screen shots such as (mid shot long shot etc) giving an idea to what we wanted to create. Unlike from foundation it was simply just describing what shots, this year at advanced we went into a lot of detail so we knew exactly what we wanted as was organised into filming specific shots. Additionally from last year our storyboard this year is a lot longer due to the amount of detail that has been put into it.
Digital camera: we used this technology to help create our storyboard through celtx. The camera took still photographs in which presented our shots such as (Mid shot, Long shot etc). Digital camera can do things that normal cameras cannot, displaying images on the screen immediately after they are recorded, storing thousands of images and being able to delete them manually. This type of technology was extremely useful as it captured shots in which we wanted to use in our media product. Additionally it gave us a base to our storyboard and what we wanted to film. Additionally, The digital camera helped to develop our digi-pack images and our poster designs. This was vital into the marketing and distribution of the artist and the album that we are technically selling. If it wasn't for these digital cameras the high quality of what we had presented though our poster and digi-packs would not of been created.

Scanning images:

Again throughout the planning progress of our film, i used a scanner in order to upload our edited scripts and story board which are labelled 'Final Version: Script' and 'Final Version: Storyboard' . A scanner is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting, or an object, and converts it to a digital image. The digital device, has been extremely helpful and has saved lots of time, as it has converted information into digital image. So it can be seen visually.

Production:

Again through the production of the film, their was a technologies such as Digital camera, imovie, you tube, internet

The Digital camera enabled us to capture our moving images for what we wanted within the music video. As explained above, it was an extremely helpful device in which produced the moving image for our music video. This year we had an advantage with the camera, as we knew what to expect and what high quality we will needed for the advanced portfolio.

 Through imovie, we were able to experiment with clips. Such as turning the colour of the moving image to a grey scale. Slowing down or making the moving image faster. For effect and due to the codes and conventions of the genre, we slowed parts of the moving image down, to add effect and make the artist the main focalizer. Also through imovie you can make the moving image clips quite. So that all you can hear is the artists music.
Through this software we were able to create a convincing music video conventional to the genre of R&B.

Youtube: We used this website to upload and analyse music videos. This website was extremely helpful in this way. We could type in any R&B music video we wanted to watch and it was just a click away. For example, if i want to watch Ushers 'yeah' i would type into you tube 'Usher yeah'

Photoshop: We used an extremely important software to edit and create our digipak images and our poster images. Without this software we would not of been able to create the good quality 'crisp' images.  From our research you will gather that this is a vital convention within the genre. Using Photoshop enabled us to change the contrast, make it into grey scale and overall created a crisp image this made the genre easy to grasp.

Xtranormal: Using Xtranormal within our blogs enabled us to have different types of software, and technologies presented. At first I was confused as to how this was a good type of software to use, however looking at the finished product of the xtranormal it so dimensional and different to anything that we as a group have ever used before. Thus this offers more dimensions to our blogs and our overall product when going into the planning and development of the music video.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13736581/a2-xtranormal
  

Apple Macs's: We additionally used apple mac's in order to actually produce the 'Music Video', also we used it to edit and produce our advertisement and also our Digi-pack. The apple macs even though we had used them before this time round I was more involved with the editing of the music video therefore I learned new skills using the 'newest type of technology'.

All the media used contributed to the development of the music video and for me personally, the technologies allowed me to understand the construction process of my music video. I understand that you need to undergo planning processes and in order to plan you need to know what to plan. So research of a certain genre is needed so you can conclude what codes and conventions you need to include.

Additionally if it wasn't for the technologies that all contributed to the end product. The end product would not have continuity nor verisimilitude because the planning process defines a clear narrative, meaning when it comes down to development you have something to go on and develop further.

The quality of image and edits make the music video look more professional and so the technologies used enabled our media product to look like a professional music video (or at least its the closest to the real thing). 

Audience Feedback

As a group, we collected people who became audience members and did a screening of our music videos. We gave them some sheets in which they commented on aspects of the video for example the genre, Narrative, editing, Camera shot/ movement etc. Generally we had many positive comments most people said that the plot was easy to follow additionally the narrative was effective and conventional to the genre of R&B. Members especially commented on the costume describing it as 'effective' and also follows the codes and conventions of R&B. Additionally they commented on how there was a variety of shots, which shows different dimensions to the video.
However, in contrast to this, there was also negative aspects in which audience members had picked up on, one of which is some people commented on how the lip syncing was slightly out additionally they commented on how the changes in the shot sizes ruins the video. They also commented on how sometimes there was too many people in one shot, Also through the digipacks and posters they said the design was to simple, however from our research we found that this is conventional to the genre. So this could be seen as not relevant criticism.

Digipack

Here is our final Digi-pak, in which presents our artist and the music he is presenting. Clearly you can see the majority of colour is of a grey scale and the use of the colour red is dominantly used. As group we decided that this would be our main focus to the Digi-pak of our product because from our research we found that these colours are conventional to the genre.