Final Product: Music Video

Music Video

I am Thuy-Trang Lam: 7085

I worked with:

Dillan Abraham: 7002

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHfi-jZhHLo

Final Product: Magazine Advert

Magazine Advert

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

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

Final Product: Digipak

Digipak

Evaluation: Question 3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Question 3

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Demographics - Its important to identify who your target audience is before creating a music video as well as the elements associated with the music video including the artist, characters, themes, settings, mise en scene and etc. These are all related to the target audience. As a result, we have identified our target audience through various of questionnaires to allow us to find out what our audience is in to, getting all the important information we need. Once we discovered the vital things we needed to know about our audiences regarding our music video and all the important questions we needed, we identified these key areas and requirements we identified:

• Genre: The genre my song is hip-pop, rap as we chose to use the song 'Too Young' by Post Malone.
• Gender: My music video is targeted at both males and females especially working class males as they are able to relate to the music video's visuals as well as the lyrics of the song.
• Age: My music video is targeted at individuals at ages of 18+
• Ethnicity: My video is targeted to all ethnicity groups which is also reflected through the artist I have chosen, as they are all from different ethnic backgrounds, this will also allow my music video appeal to a larger audience.
  
• Occupation: This music video involves a normal, working class artist in various urban locations . This can be seen as relatable to mainstream audiences who are usually within a working class area themselves.
• Hobbies and interests: There are no specific hobbies or interests that our audience are expected to see in this music video however, it does draw upon some themes such as our target audience may be interested in including performance based hobbies e.g. singing, dancing, sports, music, arts, travelling etc.

Questionnaires and Graphs - During the stages of our initial planning stages, my partner and I carried out our a questionnaire in order to receive feedback from our audience in our upcoming music video. Doing so allowed us to identify who our target audience was and what they liked and expected to see in our music video with our particular chosen music genre. From this questionnaire I created, it helped me identify what genre of music my target audience liked the most and as a result, I completed the final questionnaire and received it back as feedback creating graphs to show my results clearly. Creating these questionnaires and graphs was very beneficial because I was able to make clear decisions with my partner about our music video including the narrative, characters, mise en scene, cinematography, locations etc. All of this further allowed me to create the type of music video that my targeted audience wanted most as well as meeting their expectations. 

These are some of the questions I asked:

The key questions we asked and feedback we received that were vital in impacting our fture decision included:

From this graph, it allowed us to identify our target audience as most of that people that contributed to our questionnaire bewteen the ages of 18-30.

From this, it shows that people enjoyed our music video.

This enabled us tp make decisions about our how we wanted our artists costume like, which ended yp consisting of typical young working class males clothing of tracksuits and hoodies, parka jacketys, joggers, puffer jackets and a hat.

How did this help you make your decisions?

The questions that we asked and got feedback from helped us identify what the audience wanted and expected in our upcoming music video. This also allowed us to make key decisions based on these factors. For example, with questions on expectations and how the artist should dress in hip pop music videos, we received feedback  from most people saying 'casual' and 'urban' and therefore we decided to acknowledge this when planning our shoot, instructing our artist to wear these types of clothing. As a result, this will make it much more appealing to our target audience and it will further make it more enjoyable for them. Without making a questionnaire, my partner and I would not have had feedback to draw upon and we would have been in a bad position with little knowledge of how to appeal to our target audience. Therefore this use of research has been greatly beneficial as it has allowed us to base our decisions on solid evidence as we had referred back to our graphs and results constantly when making these important decisions regarding our music video.

What is the importance of receiving critical feedback once the production has been made?

Once our production was finalised, it was important to get our target audience to view the product to able to get feedback. Getting this feedback from our target audience was important as to helped us make any small changes to make the product more successful and appealing to audiences. After we identified that it was vital to receive critical feedback on our completed production, we held a focus group, inviting students from film studies and media studies from AS and A2 classes to provide us with critical feedback. From this feedback we got, we was able to make small changes to our production based on the feedback we received, making it more effective, maximising its success. Making these small changes ensured that i was able to increase the level of success to my music video as well as making it suitable, exceeding the audiences expectations of a hip pop music video.

Focus group pictures and feedback comments on soundcloud

Soundcloud Feeback:









Link to video on YouTube and some of the comments left on it:
Em-Ka - Too Young: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHfi-jZhHLo

Why did you put your work on YouTube?

I put my work on YouTube as it is one of the largest social media platform used worldwide by all ages. By uploading my music video on YouTube, it allows me to capture a mass audience from around the world to watch the music video, gaining recognition. From uploading this, I was also able to review viewings and comments from a mass audience including my target audience, including positives and negatives. This also allowed us to get more feedback and enabled us to make minor changes to the music video for a successful one that appeals to the audience the most.

Comments left on YouTube regarding my video:

Positive: 

• Shot and edited very well
• Very different music  not like the other right now
• The editing is really well done, didn't over use effects because that can make it seem unprofessional

Negative:

• The shots were too similar in the different places
• Some lip syncing wasn't on time

What did you learn from this audience feedback in terms of whether you created a conventional and successful music video?

The audience feedback on YouTube has taught me that my music video was effective and produced well overall. There were only very minor changes that were needed such as the lip syncing which was made aware to me by the criticism in the comments. There were some shots were replaced and the lip syncing was sorted out so every shot had the lip syncing on time. I believe the majority of my audience enjoyed the music video which made it successful. 

Screenshots of my music video on Facebook and Instagram:

Why did you put your work on Instagram and Facebook?

I pt my production on Facebook and Instagram as it was an easy way to able to share my music video with family and friends as well as the rest of the general public who may not use YouTube as much as they use these other social platforms. It also helped me spread awareness of my artist as Facebook and Instagram are very popular social media websites. Both of these sites also allowed my audience to like, share and comment on it and therefore, further allowed me to receive constructive criticism from all types of audiences including my target audience. With sites like this, the age range of my target audience of 18-30 mostly use Instagram so it was very beneficial.

Some general comments from Facebook and Instagram:

Positive:

• The themes are illustrated in this video, very unique I love it
• Great cinematography, I like the slow motion editing it is used appropriately

Negatively:

• It got a bit too repetitive at times
• The lighting was a bit off in some of the shots

What did you learn from this audience feedback in terms of whether you created a conventional and successful music video?

I learned that the majority of my audience, including my target audience enjoyed the music video as I received a lot of positive feedback. I also learned that my music video is very conventional as I got many positive comments back. The feedback were from my target audience as well as the rest of the general public were majority positive, this means that the music video exceeded the audiences expectations.  Despite the risky choice of not following all conventions of a hip pop music video, portraying wealth, I instead aimed for addressing social issues. Although I did get some negative feedback, it helped me to make some small changes before finalising my product to make it even better than it was before. Overall, these criticisms helped me build a better product to appeal to my target audience. 

Conclusion:

Overall, I promoted my music video and linked it on various social media platforms including, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. This was very beneficial to get some feedback from a mass audience in order to make my music video more successful. Although there was some comments on repetitiveness of the use of some shots and lip syncing not being on point, I was able to quickly amend this before finalising my product. As the producer, I was able to help the director to identify the issues as early as possible. 

Evaluation: Question 1) What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 1) What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?  

Question 1) What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? from Trang Lam

Research and Planning - ADVERT: Drafts of Adverts

Drafts of adverts

Once we identified the details that we associated with our music video and advert such as the artists name, album title, key singles, release date and other generic conventions associated with the advert, we created drafts of our advert. This allowed us to make numerous changes after receiving feedback from our target audience, this helped us make the final advert effective and suitable to meet the target audience's standards, encouraging them to promote the album through either word of mouth or social media, which would make more people aware of the album. We identified the importance of an advert as it will be exposed to a mass audience and is used to encourage them to buy a product. Therefore, we understand that the presentation our advert and use of conventions are vital to ensure the album and artist's success. 

Draft 1:

Analyse your use of conventions using PEER:

• An image is included of my main artist who is wearing dark clothing and a hat, he is not facing the camera and is looking up. This is portrayed in a long shot cropped down to a portrait shot to fit the size of an advert. This is conventional as it gives off the theme of hope and makes the artist look mysterious.

• The background image is very simple with only the grass, some trees and the sky to be seen, this is so the artist is the focal point of the image.

• The layout of the information is neat and the information does not look too cluttered. This draws the audience to the advert as there is not too much to read on the advert.

• The information I have included is conventional which is the artist name, album name, key singles, the release date as well as the parental advisory label. This information is all relevent to the proper release of the advert and is therefore conventional so the audience are aware of the most important things.

• No sub images are included, this is to avoid confusion.

• The unconventional part of this advert draft is the theme of hope and the lack of star image on this advert as the artist is seen looking up and appears to be praying.

• Adorno and popular culture - The advert generally follows convention to appeal to a mass audience, however the image of the artist is unconventional as he is not appealing in the advert due to not looking into the camera which is conventional. The advert is targeted for the masses but due to it being the genre of hip hop it may not appeal to the bourgeoise.

• This advert allows my artist to promote their different ideologies and values as he is dressed as a typical young working class male and can be seen as promoting the idea of hope.

Audience feedback - Natalie, 18.

What did you like about it?

Image is very interesting and shot well

Typography is clear and is consistent with digipak as well 

Release date, artist title and album title is clear.

What did you not like about it?

Cannot see artists face

Typography colour does not go well with the image

How can it be improved?

Consider changing typography colour

Consider changing image as artist image is not clear of who he is.

Add where I can stream and buy the album

Draft 2:

Analyse use of conventions using PEER

• I have included an image of my artist and he is looking away, this shows that he is mysterious and can promote the idea that the audience should find out more about him.

• The artist image shows him wearing a hoody and tracksuit bottoms with the hood up, this is so that he is shown as a typical young working class male and therefore can relate to a mass audience and is he relatable to the target audience.

• The typography can be seen as promoting the theme of sadness and death, which are the themes of the album although there are others.

• The advert itself is in black and white or grayscale, this is to show how varied the album is as white could represent purity and innocence while black could represent darkness and have negative connotations.

• The fonts and the information on the advert is clear and and neat , there is little information on the advert itself so people can stop to read it easily.

• The language I have used is simple so that our target audience who are mainly working class people are able to understand it properly.

• There are no sub images, confusion is prevented this way.

• Adorno and popular culture - this follows popular culture as it is a conventional advert with simple imagery and text and therefore appeals to a mass audience. The image of the artist is typical for the hip hop genre and a lot of the audience can be drawn in this way. The advert is targeted for the masses but due to it being the genre of hip hop it may not appeal to the bourgeoise.

• Dyer's star image, star image is evident in this advert as the artist is clear in the advert so he can become a recognisable brand.

Audience feedback - Daniel, 20.

What do you like about it?

The black and white editing is done well as it is not too much of either

The artist image is clear

I can see where I can buy and stream the album

What do you not like about it?

The typography is a bit too dark and does not clearly contrast with the background image

The layout is cluttered

How can it be improved?

Change the colour of some of the text

The key singles should be clearer

The layout should be spread out more

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the drafting process has been vital as it has helped us develop our product further based on the feedback we received. We were able to make some changes and come to a decision on which draft we were to use. Our final advert was conventional enough to appeal to the mass audience and our target audience and certain parts of it such as the clothes the artist wears and the editing used on the advert allowed for us to target niche audiences. We picked draft 2 as we thought it was extremely important to promote our artists star image to ensure he becomes a well known brand, especially as it is his debut studio album. If we had not drafted our advert we may have made an unsuccessful advert which would not have reflected our genre and may not have reached the target audience the way we had hoped for.