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

When making music promos with another artist’s music it is important that you don’t get reported for copyright use, otherwise the video could be taken down or we could be sued. To overcome this problem of copyright, our group had to find a group that didn’t have a record label to their name or one that allowed us. To do this we went on www.unsigned.com to find unsigned artists. We then came across The Amazons, so we contacted them by email and requested if we could use their song ‘Junk Food Forever’. They gave us permission to use their track with the condition that we sent them the final video. This was a very useful website as it had thousands of artists and you can search by genre.

We used The Amazons’ social network sites and website to gather information on them for our research and to get their contact information. Furthermore, we used Facebook to share our promo when we had finished, to gather audience feedback.

Created with Padlet

To construct our music promo, we used different technologies. For the filming we used a Nikon Coolpix P530 DSLR camera as it can shoot in 1080p and the footage is very crisp. In this production, I have learnt new filming skills and developed my pre-existing skills. For example, I managed to use a tripod as a steady cam to make for very stable tracking shots and effective clips. Furthermore, my framing and composition has improved much more from last year, as I check the framing before hand and make sure that there are no unwanted props in the shot.

There were however, some technical issues when shooting our promo. For example, we filmed a whole scene at night which, even with street lamps, was too dark and the footage became grainy. We could have changed some of the brightness levels but the footage still wouldn’t have been good enough. Therefore, the only way for us to overcome this was by reshooting the whole scene during the day.

As you can see, the footage was grainy and you couldn't see the costumes too well. Whereas the new footage is a lot better quality.

When filming the performance scenes, the room was a bit dark so we used industrial lamps for better lighting. Throughout, the filming we directed the light on the actors so that there were no shadows on their faces.

All this use of technological convergence and products has definitely helped us, as producers, to create a very professional music video.

For the editing of out promo, we used Final Cut Pro X instead of iMovie. We made this choice because it has a much wider range of things to do which can make your promo seem more professional. For example, we wouldn’t have been able to do the split screen in iMovie. I made this quick tutorial on how I edited our promo.

Another skill that I have improved on is my Photoshop skills, which we used to make our magazine advert and digipak. Here is a tutorial on how we edited our materials.

Tutorial on Research

Tutorial on Planning

The very first step of our planning was to get permission for the use of the song we selected. To do this, we emailed the representatives of The Amazons and they were happy for us to create a promo for their song, providing we sent them the video before it was listed on YouTube and gave them the necessary credit in the description. The next step was to assign production roles and create a pre-production schedule, so each group knew clearly which tasks they were responsible for. These tasks were presented using Prezi and Padlet respectively. We then deconstructed the lyrics in order to see what themes were contained within the song, which in turn enabled us to come up with some initial ideas that were presented in the format of a PowerPoint presentation to a group of people, who then gave us feedback. After our idea was settled upon, work on the shot list and storyboard could begin. When they were complete, they were uploaded simply as images. We also pitched our final idea using Prezi to gain further feedback, and give us a clearer picture of what we needed to film. An analysis of the mise-en-scene we wished to include in our promo was also completed using Moovly and, along with this, so was the location scouting. To get the images of our locations, we used Google Maps. We then did a risk assessment of these locations to ensure they were safe to film in. This was completed in Word. Before we went out to film, a filming schedule was produced in order to maximise our efficiency and ensure no time was wasted. As with all the other sections, all of the planning was uploaded and presented on Blogger.

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

Created with Padlet

Feedback on initial ideas for our promo

We carried out a Poll Everywhere to get feedback on our initial promo ideas. We gave the audience three different ideas to choose from.

As you can see, the preferred idea was number two. The concept is that there are band members doing normal everyday activities but in junk food costumes and there is also some performance.

This poll helped us to choose this idea over the other two, which we were struggling to do at the start. 

All three ideas are shown here:

The first idea was to have the band performing in a field and for them to have a food fight in alternative scenes, which would link it to the theme of junk food.







The second idea was our chosen idea and it was to have the band doing normal, everyday activities, but in junk food costumes. We also planned to add performance.

The third idea was to have a narrative focused promo, which amplified the theme of the song, i.e. loneliness and breakups.

Audiences preferred ancillaries

For our ancillaries we ask our audience to pick which one they preferred. They were given three choices for both the poster and digipak. We gathered the information for this on Poll Everywhere.

From doing this we found that the audience preferred the first the first ideas for both the poster and digipak. Both of the chosen options linked together through synergy as they were the same. They both featured the band in their costumes, but the digipak also has them in their performance clothes. Using this information, we then developed both of these ideas to get a final product.
 
Feedback on our choice of mise-en-scene

Link to the Glogster

Feedback on first ancillary draft

To gather feedback on our first ancillaries, we used verbal feedback. The information we got was that they both linked together and with the promo. They liked the images on the poster and digipak and thought that it stands out well. They also thought that the text was effective. However, they did say that we needed to add more things to it, as it was quite plain, and that the poster needed to look more like a magazine advert and not a poster.

Feedback on final production and ancillaries

To get feedback on our final production and ancillaries we created a focus group. The questions that we asked the candidates were:

-Do you like our video?

-What are the strongest aspects of the promo?

-What is the best features of the ancillaries?

-Is there are clear link between the ancillaries and promo?

-Are there any improvements?

-Would you recommend it to a friend?

The responses were very positive. All but one person said that they liked our video. From the information gathered, we found that the disjuncture and the editing were the strongest aspects of the video. We also gathered that the pictures of the band wearing the food costumes was the best feature on the ancillaries, and that there is a clear link between the ancillaries and promo. When asked if there are any improvements that could be made, most of them said that there didn’t need to be any, which is very positive. They all said that they would recommend it to a friend.

Here are their written responses:

We also got some comment responses on Facebook when we shared it, which were very positive and they thought that the new changes had improved it even more.