Audience Feedback

Today, I gathered a significant amount of audience feedback from my target audience on all the final pieces of work my group has done which included the music video, magazine advert and digipak. Overall the comments were generally positive however there were things that could be improved upon in order to enhance the quality of each product.

In the following video I interviewed 2 students who are a part of my target audience and asked them what they thought of each product. I used the popular Snapchat to advertise my products to them and I also filmed these interviews using Snapchat.

In one of the private interviews I had with my target audience, someone commented 'great performance, really understood the emotion'. This was because throughout the video they were able to get to grips with the message through the facial expressions and body language used by the performers, and understood the tone of the song. However, I did receive comments on how certain shots were too 'shaky' and that I needed steadier shots in order to enhance the quality of the video. This is what I found difficult as the location in which we shot was in London on a weekday and we didn't have much time so we needed to make sure that we got the shots captured quickly. As a result of this, the shots were filmed handheld and not on a tripod or dolly, thus appearing 'shakier'. Nevertheless they enjoyed the narrative of the music video as they were able to see the flashbacks of the couple the video was based on compared to how they are now, and it took them on a mysterious journey of their good times.

The indie rock style that we wanted to portray was praised in the digipak, as the leaves and the black and white effect on the images really emphasised our bands image, The text was seen as very 'artistic' as the font looked as though it had been handwritten with a ball-point pen which made it very 'authentic and down to earth'. The use of the leaves really outlined the the title of the album, 'Wondering Souls', as the leaves have that feel of 'mother nature'. Moreover, the advert was found to be really effective as it proved to them that our music video was worth watching because of the reviews of big critics such as The Daily Mail. In addition they liked the image on the advert as all the band members wore sunglasses outside in an open field which indicated to them that we have nothing to hide, as we're out in the open, but have more to our personalities, as the eyes were covered.

Here are some values that represent the amount of people that liked each product out of 110.

Creating the Digipak

Today we started creating the digipak for our band's album. We were first given a lesson on digipak's and learned what their purpose was along with what's included in one, I did a blog post on this earlier. Also we took a look at some artists' digipak to help us generate the creativity to produce our own. I noticed that Rihanna's digipak focused much on her face and body. The whole of Rihanna's digipak has a strong red input such as her lipstick and roses, which connotation love and lust to create a sexy but sweet image at the same time. In order to create this digipak we had to take photos of those who were in the band which were myself, Jordan and Dafe. However, during the time of the photoshoot Dafe (the drummer), was absent and had to use someone else who was of similar build in the photos. Our group agreed that we wanted to have really clear and crisp photos for the digipak and our teacher had a Canon Digital SLR camera she was willing to let us use. Following this, we took the images the next day outside in a mellow atmosphere that truly connected with nature and the image of our band. Also I brought into school my acoustic guitar for the shoot so Jordan could take some photos with it as he's the guitarist of the band. Here are some of the raw images from the shoot.

  

As you can see the raw images have come out as expected, nice and clear and straight after this we went straight back up to the classroom and began editing to make the digipak. The editing process for the digipak was a long one as we had to be taught how to use the software Adobe Photoshop, thus at the start the editing was quite slow, As we started to consistently use the software we found that our skills improved as editors and were able to edit to a good level. Firstly, whenever an image was uploaded to photoshop we noticed that the dimensions of the image were not that of a digipak so inorder to get started we needed to change the dimensions of the photo. Also during editing we had to ensure that when decreased or increase the size of the photos we had to hold the 'Shift' key so the proportion of the image doesn't change. If the proportion of the image changed then it would look distorted and irregular. We were taught that in order to add any edits to the image we would first have to create a new layer and label it with the intended edit. This was to make sure that if we wanted to remove that particular edit later, we would be able to do so with no fuss. This meant that in order to add a 'Black and White' effect I had to create a new layer and label it that. Below are some of the images I took during the editing process of the images.

Constructing the Advert

In order to construct the Magazine Advert we had different images to chose from in order to form the main image of our music video. In our mind, we thought that the image that we would use would be in a portrait image.
Here are some of the image we were deciding on:

We decided that we would use this image, because it has all of the band members in the image, and it would also be a great image to manipulate. So this includes changing the image size, by cropping it or making it smaller or larger. It would also be a good image to change the effect, so we could change it to Sepia or Black and White. In our case we decided to change the image to a mixture of Black and White and Sepia. 

We felt that this type of image would suit best when it comes to it relating to the title of the single, "Wondering Souls".

Next it came to inputing the title of the band, the title of the album, and all the other relevant information. So when it came to deciding this, in mind we had to think of the type of font that we were going to use and the font size of the text. And we came to the decision that we was going to use the Font Edwardian Script ITC, this was for the Title of the band which was 'Forgotten Kings'. 

And for the title for the album single we decided to use a different font, because we felt that if we used the same font twice then it would make the advert look a bit repetitive. So we decided to use the font Century Gothic, which was used for our album single 'Wondering Souls' 

Then we decided to add other things, just to catch the audiences attention, such as the fact that we got 5 stars from companies such as Kerrang, Daily Mail and NME, and this was the same font as the album single. 

And lastly we put out the relevant information as to how and where the single can be downloaded, and we also included our website on the advert so that the can check out our web page. 

And this was the constructing of the Magazine Advert. 

Second Day of Editing!

First Day of Editing! - Rough Cut

I started on the editing for our rough cut today after 2 days of filming the different scenes. I was able to edit the whole video in about 5 hours without using any effects. I used the speed tool increase/decrease the speed of certain clips to match the mood of the scene in the music video. I also used the layering technique that I learned whilst doing the lip sync exercise in which I would layer each clip that involved singing on top of one another. From doing this I would select the best clips for that specific point in the music video. Throughout the music video there is one medium shot that will act as the foundation of the music video and will be shown when any close-ups or Party/London shots aren't. I placed this medium shot in the 'Video 1' slot on the timeline so it is the main clip throughout the video.

Here are some images of my editing process.

This image shows the video after I selected the each of the segments I wanted from each individual clips.

Rough Cut - Kink In Your Soul (Cover) with Audience Feedback

Hello fellow bloggers, I've just finished editing our rough cut and this is what my team and I were able to come up with, hope you like it! The finished version will be up soon.

For our audience feedback we targeted the demographic of 16-25 and asked some of the people in our class and other A Level classes what they thought of our rough cut, and the feedback we received was generally positive. We asked a sample of students the following questions:

What was your favourite scene in the music video?

Was the music video stimulating enough to prevent boredom and if not, why?

How did the editing enhance your viewing experience, if not, why?

What improvements do you recommend we implement for the final piece?

If you were to see this video on the timeline on Twitter, would you retweet, like or neither?


To gather this information from my target audience I used several social networking sites in order to get the information as this was the best place to find them.


Here are some WhatsApp conversations I had with my target audience, some of which choose not be named.

                

 



Person 2:

   

Second Day of Filming

Here is a montage of our second day of filming. On the second day we had a party scene as as well as travelling up to Westminster for the London scene. We got some weird looks whilst filming but I guess that's what happens when you film a drunken girl walking through a train station.

First Day of Filming & Meet The Band!

Today we started filming the band shots for our video in our school's drama room. Our group consisted of Abi, Ebun, Dafe, Jordan and I with some help from Celina. We had to make sure today was free and not booked out like yesterday so everything could run smooth. We used the drama lights as oppose to natural light to give our band shots a more professional look. Here's some pictures from today.

Meet the Band!

Taju

Jordan

Dafe

Here I was powdered in order stop the light from reflecting off of my forehead so much and allow myself to be seen more clearly by the camera.

Also all of us in  the band wore the same outfit to make us look like a real band and not some Media Studies students. It my own idea to go with the sunglasses, white shirt, black tie and black trousers look, as I felt that it suited the genre of the music.

Moreoever, we included all the shots stated in our shot list plus some extras as we felt we needed more for the music video to be more exciting. During filming, the dolly wasn't working too well with the tripod so we had to do plenty of free hand shots as steadily as we could, although they weren't the best, hopefully we can make up for it during editing. Also durin one of the takes I got way too excited and the microphone ended up falling apart ruining what would have been a great take. Luckily however we got through most of the song doing this. Anyway here's us in action!

Furthermore, the instruments we used included an electric guitar, bass guitar and drum-kit. Although we had to ditch the electric guitar because we had no guitar strap for it so it kept on slipping from my grip during the take which wasn't helpful. When we got rid of it and just had me as the vocalist of the band the shots improved drastically as this gave me the freedom I needed to put on a good performance. In addition, we almost got into heaps of trouble for using the drum-kit without having a real drummer in our band because Dafe was making so much noise and not drumming on beat.

Generally I'm pleased with the band shots as we were able to get in a range of shots and really utilise our work space for some really good shots. However, we didn't manage as many close-ups of Dafe on the drums as we wanted and we also had a lot of shaky shots which decreased the professionalism by some bit. Also the lighting was good however we could have used white lights to make the film look better.

Filming Postponed again :(

Unfortunately, there was an issue in the booking of the drama studio. We have postponed the filming of the band scene till tomorrow.

Introducing a new member of the team!

Meet our great friend and new addition to our team Leon Macauley.




Leon Macauley, 17, is your usual Essex lad who likes socialising and going out on the weekend to party till the sun comes up. He is part of the Robert Clack School's Rugby Academy and is a 200 metre runner for local athletics club Newham and Essex Beagles. For more ways to get in touch with the latest member of our group you can find him on the following social media.

Twitter - @_Trill100

Snapchat - trill_leon

Choosing the Track

Whilst choosing our track we had to make sure we chose an unsigned artist and ask for their permission to use their song, as we cannot use a mainstream artist such as Rihanna, Chrs Brown etc due to the risk of copyright infringement. At first our song choice was a whole different genre to the one we decided to do. It was 'What a Night To Be Alive' by the 99s http://www.unsigned.com/the99s. However we felt that this song didn't meet the fast beat pace we were looking for and didn't appeal to our target audience of 16-24. After reaching the conclusion that the song by the 99s wasn't for us and then continued the search into a different genre of music with was Indie Rock. Eventually, we came across 'Kink In Your Soul' by Red Emperor, and this was a great song as it ticked every box. It had a fast beat for majority of the song, it was young, it was hip, it could be easily interpreted into an excellent video with narrative and performance shots. Additionally, it had no foul language or offensive lyrics that would steer anyone away from our music video.

Here it is. Kink In Your Soul by Red Emperor.




She was always on her own,
She just always seemed too shy,
And she would hide her heart away, living in the ecstacy, hoping it would make her stronger,
And they would take her dreams away, save them for another day,

And it was not my choice, to let you go,
And I should have have taken more care, should have made sure,
And if I could turn back time, I would have let you know,
Oh how could I have known you had a kink in your soul?,

You've got a kink in your soul, oh oh oh oh…,
Oh how could I have known you had a kink in your soul?,
Oh oh oh oh oh…..,

Oh how could I have known?,
Oh how could I have known?,
Oh how could I have known you had a kink in your soul?,

She used to run from the one she loved,
It seems old habits never die,
And every time she'd run away, she would hide the sun away, she preferred it colder,
She should have been bolder, should have never sold her soul.

Audience Feedback

Hello bloggers!

Today was the day we recorded some audience feedback on our song choice and asked them some questions related to the song.

Here are some pictures from today's research.

When I first heard this song, I wasn't in love with it but as I took the time to really listen to it I started to picture a really good storyline so our group went along with the song. We decided to choose include some performance style shots along with some narrative to make the video more meaningful and direct to the lead singer. We also decided that our band will have myself as the lead singer. Our target audience for our video will be ages 16-24 from both genders, and this was the demographic we interviewed to see what they think.


Here are the questions we asked our target audience:

1) What three words come to mind after hearing the song?

2) Which other artist(s) does this music remind you of?

3) What are this/these artist's music videos like? What would you expect to see in their music videos?

4) How would you describe the mood of this song?

5) If the song was a colour, what colour would it be?

6) What pictures does the song create in your mind?

7) What narrative do you imagine with this song?


Here are some of the answers we received for each question:

1) Alex Coleman (Student), Long, Excitement, Lost.

2) Ed Sheeran (Really?), Boring.

3)  The Weeknd & The Kooks. - Just in case you aren't sure on what their music videos are like I've embedded some below. & The majority said they'd expect to see a dull, black and white mood to their videos including lots of close ups to emphasise emotion.







4) For this both groups of 16-24 had contrasting views, as some said they find the mood of this song very relaxing and would play it on a long car journey. Whereas the other group found the mood rather depressing and upsetting.

5) The described the colour of the video to be Grey, Red and Black, indicating that the song is very mixed with emotion. Red would normally be connotated with anger/love, whereas black would be associated with something evil and dark. We'd assume grey would be related to rather mudane material.

6) One group pictured break-ups whilst hearing this song.

One group pictured sunshine.

7) One group saw absolutely no narrative in relation to the song, whereas the others saw a typical party scene followed with a break-up because one cheated on the other.

After evaluating our song choice through our audience research, we still plan to go ahead with the song as we still believe it can appeal to our audience provided we make the appropriate adjustments to suit their needs.

Tomorrow's Plan

Tomorrow, our group plan to finish the storyboard for our band shots along with the shot list for our trip to London. Fingers crossed everything goes to plan.

Filming Postponed

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties filming has been postponed to Tuesday 6th October.

Asking for Permission to Use the Drama Room

Asking the band for permission... they said YES, woo!

Lyrics

Here are the lyrics to Kink in Your Soul, learn them and sing-a-long when you're watching our music video!

Just in case you can't see the lyrics, here they are:

She was always on her own,
She just always seemed too shy,
And she would hide her heart away, living in the ecstacy, hoping it would make her stronger,
And they would take her dreams away, save them for another day,

And it was not my choice, to let you go,
And I should have have taken more care, should have made sure,
And if I could turn back time, I would have let you know,
Oh how could I have known you had a kink in your soul?,

You've got a kink in your soul, oh oh oh oh…,
Oh how could I have known you had a kink in your soul?,
Oh oh oh oh oh…..,

Oh how could I have known?,
Oh how could I have known?,
Oh how could I have known you had a kink in your soul?,

She used to run from the one she loved,
It seems old habits never die,
And every time she'd run away, she would hide the sun away, she preferred it colder,
She should have been bolder, should have never sold her soul.

Initial Ideas & A Finished Moodboard, Woo!

For out initial ideas we had to do some research on which genre our music video was going to be for. Right at the start of this process our teacher showed us some past students music videos to give us an idea of what scored high marks and what type of editing skills were highly valued by the examiner. Some of the videos he showed us are below.







After my group and I had seen some of these videos we knew that editing and mise en scene were going to be huge factors into the success of our music video as they determined the whole message and mood. We noted down that mise en scene must be precise and add value to the song so location, costumes and lighting was very important. Editing speed and effects implemented to highlight the characters mood and emotions must be carefully considered.

Following this insight into how music videos were made by people who were in our situation, we began to search for music. The website we used was www.unsigned.com in which we searched for unsigned artists to make a video for to avoid any copyright issues. However, whilst browsing on this site we didn't fully agree on the music hence we were unsuccessful in finding the right song.

We are currently still searching for our desired track and are using music sharing websites such as YouTube to find our music.

Here is a closer look at our fantastic moodboard!

Moodbard in the Making

Today, we started making our moodboard for our music video in order to get a foundation of what the mise en scene would be and what look we wanted to portray,

On our moodbard we plan to include images that portray the look that we hope to get across for our band. Here are some examples of the type of pictures that we want to include on our moodboard.

The Wikipedia's definition of a moodboard... is a type of collage consisting of images, text, and samples of objects in a composition. They may be physical or digital, and can be "extremely effective" presentation tools.