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

Question 3- What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Following my productions, I used a quantitative research method of a questionnaire, so I could then gain feedback for my music video and print productions. I received feedback via social networking as well as handing out questionnaires. I used Facebook because my target audience age group are likely to be using social networking. 

The feedback I got from the questionnaire's was mixed gender groups aged 17-20 year old sixth form students, I chose this age range because this is my target audience- (Click hyperlink to see consumer profile). I did not ask a certain amount of females or males because I thought my chosen band neither swayed towards a male audience or female audience, so I wanted to get an even amount of feedback. I asked them to watch my music video via YouTube, the first time I wanted them to just watch, and the second fill in the questionnaire, so they could make notes on particular parts of the editing etc. 

When using social networking, I posted the YouTube link to the music video and got people to write what they thought of it in the 'Comment' section. Unfortunately, Facebook is not anonymous, meaning that its hard to pick specific people to ask. From this we can see that audiences aged 17-19 enjoyed it best. 

We also received feedback via YouTube, and from YouTube we could see the demographics of whom was viewing our video. This helped us greatly and supported our ideas of whom the audience would be for our music video. (BELOW IMAGE- Audience Top demographics) was taken from the statistics section on our music video, allowing to see whom had shared it, viewed it and the way in they viewed it. I found that the way in which most people had viewed it was via Smart Phone, which supports that it would appeal to a younger audience.

For the questionnaire, the first 4 questions were done on a scoring basis from 1 - 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. This gave me an understanding on how the audience viewed the camera work, editing, mise-en-scene and overall view on the music video. For the print productions, it was the same basis, but with 5 questions with a scoring of 1 - 5. Both these questionnaires were perfect length, neither too long nor to short, meaning that it was not too much to ask of people when getting feedback. 

Going through the results from the questionnaire the mean value for enjoyment of the music video was 4.2 out of 5, which is very good. The positive feedback, made me feel really proud that we have successfully made a music video which kept people captivated and wanting to watch it again. Kress' concept of familiarity can be seen in my production, by its reoccurring themes of isolation and fashion trends. 

Questionnaire for Music Video

Questionnaire for Print Productions

On receiving feedback from the questionnaires on my print productions, the first question asked is:

Does the package successfully reflect the genre of music?, from all questionnaires I got 5/5. This pleased me greatly, because it can be easy to create a digipak that you as a customer would buy yourself, and not tailor it to fit the needs of the genre or target audience. As well as receiving 5/5 on the previous question, I also received top marks from all questionnaires when asked the question, Does the package successfully promote the band/artist? This was crucial that I succeeded in this when making my digipak, because otherwise I would not be reflecting the genre of music, making it irrelevant and pointless. When asked what were the 3 strongest features of the ancillary tasks, I was told:

1. "The inside panels of cd case- beautiful picture and very british!"
2. "Writing/track listing on back of cd case is original and creative."

This shows that I have stuck to the criteria and created an interesting as well as original piece of work.

Target Audience

Age: 16-25

Gender: Male 

Ethnicity: White British

Personal: Undergraduate- Art School

Media Interests: Films: Trainspotting, This is England, Dead Man's Shoes.

Music: Bombay Bicycle Club, Everything Everything, Arcade Fire.

Other Interests: Photography, playing guitar, writing music. 

Shops: Dogfish, Topman, H&M, Main Source

In terms of research methods, audience feedback has supplied me with valid results, which have helped outline demographics in my target audience. Questionnaires and social networking have proved to be a great help into outlining the demographics of my target audience.

Question 2- How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?

Throughout my productions, there are various elements in which link all pieces of work together, from the music video, to the digipak and my magazine advert, you can see promotion of the artist is key across all productions.

When beginning to research and plan into my products, I wanted to create a pieces of work that developed the genre. It is important to create coherent productions in order to keep the audience's attention, whilst promoting the band or artist according to the genre. Like in James Blake's first debut album, we can see the album artwork reflecting the genre, of alternative synth-pop, heavily focusing around different samples. This targets his fan base and his audience can relate to that of his individual style.

I wanted to create a simplistic design, focusing solely around the lead singer, and exploring his reflective character, which links heavily to our music video, which meant that the audience could relate to the themes and visual style running throughout their works. For example, I created a consistency between  my music video and digipak by using stills from the music video in 3 panels of my digipak. 

The front cover of my digipak is a still from the music video, and then I heightened the exposure and added a warm filter to it, making it have a vintage feel. The use of having two images of our performer on the front cover really promotes the band and its relaxed acoustic genre, from the warm tones. It shows the protagonist's fragmented mind and they in which he is reflecting on the past. Throughout my music video the reoccurring motif of 'reflection' is connected to constantly changing images of his memories of the girl and they way in which it is infecting his mind. The use of a strong closeup of the artist as well as profile of the artist, strengthens the relationship between artist and potential fan base. The audience are likely to have seen the music video, so on seeing the album artwork, they can build a relationship between genre and artist. Goodwin's theory can be applied here, through the use of closeups of the artist/performer (in terms of music videos). 

For my inside panels, 2 and 3, I used a panoramic screenshot from my music video, which is an image of the protagonist, achieved by repeating the frames on top of each other. I then added a warm filter, making the image look dream like.  

My final panel (track listing), was achieved by a sepia tone and warm filter added, making it look almost look 'tea-stained', this gave it a vintage-y effect. The use of handwriting the track listing and tearing around the edges, gave it simplistic yet personal touch. Like in, The Streets album, Original Pirate Material, their album track list is all hand written, giving it an easy, laid back approach, reflecting their laid back style. The image used on my 4th panel, is used also on the magazine advert, but instead of the image having a filter on top, it is just the original, and I have turned the exposure up to make it stand out. This links my digipak to my magazine advert.

In my magazine advert, I have kept it simple, and clear to see the release date for my album. I have included a review from the NME magazine, because that is the magazine/online website in which my chosen band, The Cutaway would be promoted on. NME, focus on alternative rock and indie artists, there is not one sole specific genre that they put all their core attention on. Like Bloc Party's magazine advert, it is simple, and tells your everything you need to know, with no added extras to divert your attention away from what they want you to know. 

This Kings Of Leon poster was featured in the NME magazine, this poster, like mine, is kept simple and centers solely around the release date. I made sure that I used the protagonist's profile again in my magazine advert, so that I consistently promoted the band, whilst allowing the fans to create a recognizable image.

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

Completed Magazine Advert

Completed Music Video

Music Video- Upload Problems

Unfortunately, the file size of my music video is too big, at the moment, to put onto YouTube  I have spoken to my media teacher about this, and he is helping us fix the problem. I will upload it, as soon as the problem is sorted.

Completed Digi-Pak

 PANEL ONE

PANEL 2 & 3

PANEL 4