A2 Media Studies Advanced Portfolio

Friday, 11 April 2014

3). What have you learned from your audience feedback?

I decided to show my video and ancillary texts to the variety of people in different age groups, but still focusing on my target audience. After I present my product to them I ask them to fulfil the questionnaire which would provide me with variety of answers and opinions about my product and what could be improved in them opinions. I wanted to attract a different kind of audience between the ages of 16-25 years-old.

My product targeted both a male and female audience, however, as the statistics from the questionnaires proved the females are more likely to be attracted by this kind of music genre and the artist who take part in it. On the begging of my research and planning I decided that by presenting the male artist I would be referring my product more to the female audience, so before starting to create my ancillary texts and my music video I showed the picture of Kevin to several females, asking them what they are thinking about his appearance. As a result I realise that they liked the way he looks, so I decided that I would make my product more appealing to them rather than males. By doing so I am going against the Laura Mulvey theory of a Male Gaze. She argued that females presented in the music videos are presented as a sexual object for pleasure of a man, whereas I am going against this theory, by presenting a man as a sexual object for a pleasure of female audience.

Also, I had filmed a range of people who watched my video, as I thought that would be the most honest way of getting their opinions as their expressions would be more truthful. After their watch the video, they as well answered my questionnaire giving me a range of feedbacks from which I created an analysis and get the ideas what still should be evaluated and changed in both of my products. After analysing the questionnaire I decided to create a presentation in which I would analyse every single question and I would use the actual answers from filled questionnaire.

From these feedbacks I learnt that the majority of an audience was able to distinguish the genre of my music video by the features I have used within my video. Also, they were able to state that my video had a story from the beginning till the end. They as well decided that both my music video and ancillary texts work well with each other by keeping continuity of noir theme and edgy tone. There were diverse decisions whether or not they’re would buy my album, but the majority answered yes to that question, what proved to me that my product could succeed in real life.

When I asked the people about any possible improvement which could be made in order to make my music video better, the majority of people agreed that the recap which I am using at the end of my video should be fast-forward. But despite this fact all of them answered yes when I asked them “did you enjoy watching my music video”.

After analysing the audience feedback I made the following changes to my music video to improve it. I fast-forward the recap and add additional shots which were mixed in order to avoid the montage effect, I had slowed down the water shots and made few cuts to the other shots to make the video matches the beat. Also, I used the white flashes instead of blackouts to match the fats tempo and beats which are highlight of this song. Finally, I replace the shots which were to dark and crashed the overall effect and change the ending by keeping the black and white style. After finishing any additional changes I updated and posted my video on my YouTube account.

I personality think that my music video could be better if I would use better quality camera and do not shot in the dark as I had done in few scenes. And also instead of splashing the water on Kevin I could shot him draining in the water which I think would have a better impact on audience opinions.

Moreover, from my online pull questionnaire I found out that the majority of people who answered on my questions were females between the ages of 16-17. The same amount of votes achieves the pop/rock/metal/alternative and indie genre, which indicated my good choice of song genre as I targeted the planned audience. Also, as the biggest amount of votes achieved the mise-en-scene convention, I think that by using variety of locations and costumes I fulfil their needs. I have used the abstract story which reveals to be also narrative, I am pleased as majority of people choice narrative type of music video which they prefer to watch and as reveals in my promotional campaign questionnaire the audience were able to distinct the story in my music video. The YouTube get highest vote rate in terms of how people watch the music video, so after uploading my music video in my channel I am hoping it would prove its effectiveness. The black and white theme and both themes answers, achieved the same voting rate, what satisfied me as I am using the noir theme as a main in both of my products in order to keep the continuity between the products.

Concluding, after analysing both promotional campaign and online poll and end up with deduction that I am targeting the females in between the age of 16-20 year-olds and that I am up to date with the modern trends of alternative rock music as song radioactive is very popular and liked by my chosen audience.

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

I have used many different media technologies while I was creating my research and planning and also, for my music video and ancillary texts. I can start with the Blogger.com website to hold my entire portfolio and keep the records of my development process in form of research and planning.

Moreover, I have used the Adobe Premier Pro CS6 as mine main media technology in order to create my music video and outtakes video, installed onto an edit suite. Firstly, what I needed to do was to upload the footage which I decided I will use in my video and named them to make it easier by re-creating the storyline. This programme allowed me to cut the bits which I did not wanted to use and re-size the shots and use the special effects. As mainly I am using the special effects of slow and fast motion, understanding of how to use it was crucial for me in order to achieve the planned effect. Also, this programme allowing reversing the shot and creating the ghosting effect by putting the layers on top of each other and reducing the volume of capacity. I have no previous experiences with this programme and therefore I needed to spend more time on understanding and learning which tool is responsible for what. I chose this programme over alternative mediums which were available.

I used the Windows Movie Maker while creating my animatic but the programme were to too complex which enable only the cutting and placing the clips with changing the colour, reducing the volume of the sound and allowing to add transitions in between the cuts. So it wouldn’t be suitable in use for my final product of my music video as I wanted to make it as much professional as it was possible.

I also used the YouTube to post the videos of my first draft, audience feedback and final video. This system is allowing the users to like, dislike and comments with rating options the videos which are uploaded and distributed. I chose this media as is very popular and the service shares the post over the media technology like; Gmail, Facebook and many other, on which I also distributed my product.

I chose to use the Sony Carl Zeiss (Vario-Tessar Optical Zoom 40x) camera with which I shoot all of my footage for my music video. This camera allowed me to keep all of my content on a memory card and also transfer others by using the cable.

By using the Prezi numerous times I saved the space and also make the information which I wanted to present more interested for a reader. I was able to express my ideas in a visual and attracted form. This includes the elements of my evaluation such as techniques used in Photoshop or the genre conventions. This service allowed me to post the images, videos, texts and any other shapes into one place and put them together in an easy form to read.

The Adobe Photoshop CS5 was a media technology known for me as I learnt a lot of it from main previous year of studying media. I used this programme in order to create my ancillary texts. With this programme, I was able to edit my photographs effectively using colour adjustment tools, crop and re-size images, create numerous amounts of text using layering and overall create my ancillary texts in a way I planned. This programme enabled me to make my ancillary texts look professional and realistic overall and in comparison to other mediums.