Thursday, 9 December 2010
what have you learned from your audience feedback?
There are many ways in which we used audience feedback to reflect and evaluate our product. When we began the project, we thought it would be wise to create a target audience questionnaire containing questions in relation to our chosen genre, how our target audience listens to music and where they find it.
we found this feedback very use full and it gave us a insight to why our target audience are looking for. we found that there were a couple of results that we didn't expect to find down to our own understanding of the genre and so therefore we work so as to incorporate these aspect in order to please our target audience, in order to do this we also used the information to signify things not to do in regurds to what our target audience don't like to see. for example our research showed us that the large majority of out target audience would not be deterd from buying our product if there was a parental advisory sticker, due tom this information we had had freedom as whether or not to include it based on the content we put in our products. due to the info we did end up putting the sticker on. we also found out that are target audience did not like CD covers wear the whole cover is taken up by an image and so we Incorporated a boarder and background to please our target audience. we used visual examples in our questionnaire so as to get a really clear idea of what they want as sometimes questions such as "do you like this style of CD cover?" just gives plain and simple answers.
Audience research is very important when bringing out something new into the music world because audience perception can decide the fate of a new band. Splutter's genre has a quite specific target audience, therefore it is vital in research and feed back that this is done by the right audience as there majority prefferecne is key to band success. This is why audience feedback is crucial when bringing out a new artist or leg of a certain Audience feedback is vital to create a video that will be best received by the target audience for both our small media group as well as major music video corporations such as MTV. If feedback wasn't considered many of the target audience may be put off by some of the decisions made.
When we finished our package, we produced another questionnaire based around our target audience's view of our finished products, what they enjoyed and what they thought could be improved. This was successful in bringing back positive feedback and constructive criticisms telling us what we could have improved on. this is vital information because if unsuccessfully in creating a good product you can look and see where you may have gone wrong and incorporate it into you next go at it. so therefore if we were to ignore feedback when retrying we would not have learned from our mistakes and so no improvement is likely to be made.
A piece of positive feedback that was that although the person would associate the band with the punk/ska genre after seeing our products, they still described it as original, which was the unique selling point of our product and therefore our central aim was fulfilled successfully another positive feed back was about the use of the fish eye lens our responses showed us that this gave a great individuality to the band due to its uncommon use.
A piece of negative feedback came from the a person how felt that the bands website should have had more of a focus, larger clearer, they explained to us that if you see a poster you don't then and there decide to by their product, you look into it first. and so rightly so if we were to do it again we definitely would have put more of an emphasis on the bands website
how effective is the combination of your main products and ancillary texts?
within all our products there are many motifs and elements that link all of them together, for example the use of the fish eye lens for our pictures.The fish eye was used for the images found on both the front and back cover of the CD, also on tour advert, creating immediate cohesion between the two products. we also used fish eye images for the inserts of the CD except one where the fish eye would not have been fitting (the bus stop). another way in which our products are linked is through the use of the band name logo this is found on both the cover and advert to add cohesion and also to make our products recognisable. Another element linking our products together is that we used the same typography in our advert as we did on our CD cover front and back. We used a fairly plain black font because we didn't want the visuals of the CD cover and advert to completely draw attention away from the music. we also decided to use a colour scheme so as to link all our products together. our buyers would relate the dark colour scheme and associate the ad and CD cover with one another. together they show the slight darkness to the bands music.
All the examples above provide cohesion to the whole package.
The colour scheme of is used in a suttle way but it still links the visual to each other and to the sound. Not only do these themes match each product, but there are different examples of the ways in which the fish-eye and the colour scheme is used. For example, the fish-eye images have been portrayed as Polaroids in the inserts, making them seem personal for the audience, but with a professional edge to them. It has been used also on the back of the CD cover so that the front and back are completely cohesive. the reason we then made our images on the covers black and white was so that the colour scheme matches as the colour would have contrasted the theme.
cohesion is a very important factor from a marketing point of view, mainly for recognition purposes. the band is unsigned and so the use of cohesion to link products in good in regards of getting the band More publicity as they maybe easier to recognise by relating them to a certain Que, such as a logo. there is also a good chance that if the band become more well known word of mouth will boost the band popularity within the music scene. The way we have used cohesion through our products means that the band's representation is portrayed in the way they would like throughout the package. This means that the audience will pick up their representations, sound and genre just by looking at these products.
There are areas of our package where there is more cohesion than others. For example the CD cover and advert are very cohesive and look very similar because we used the same image, font for both products. where there is lees cohesion is between our music video and our CD and advert this is due to the fact that the bad have many songs and so the cover and advert should not be specific to one, we thought this because the band have a full list of songs. so instead we used a Little less cohesion between them in that we only linked to to together by the use of one image. the image is of the band waiting for a bus at a bus stop, this links completely to the music video as waiting for the bus is the main theme.
Maybe an improvement on the cohesion between the video and the other products would be that we made the CD so that it was just a single and not an album, but this would mean less representation of the band's full music back catalogue and their sound and genre altogether.
All the examples above provide cohesion to the whole package.
The colour scheme of is used in a suttle way but it still links the visual to each other and to the sound. Not only do these themes match each product, but there are different examples of the ways in which the fish-eye and the colour scheme is used. For example, the fish-eye images have been portrayed as Polaroids in the inserts, making them seem personal for the audience, but with a professional edge to them. It has been used also on the back of the CD cover so that the front and back are completely cohesive. the reason we then made our images on the covers black and white was so that the colour scheme matches as the colour would have contrasted the theme.
cohesion is a very important factor from a marketing point of view, mainly for recognition purposes. the band is unsigned and so the use of cohesion to link products in good in regards of getting the band More publicity as they maybe easier to recognise by relating them to a certain Que, such as a logo. there is also a good chance that if the band become more well known word of mouth will boost the band popularity within the music scene. The way we have used cohesion through our products means that the band's representation is portrayed in the way they would like throughout the package. This means that the audience will pick up their representations, sound and genre just by looking at these products.
There are areas of our package where there is more cohesion than others. For example the CD cover and advert are very cohesive and look very similar because we used the same image, font for both products. where there is lees cohesion is between our music video and our CD and advert this is due to the fact that the bad have many songs and so the cover and advert should not be specific to one, we thought this because the band have a full list of songs. so instead we used a Little less cohesion between them in that we only linked to to together by the use of one image. the image is of the band waiting for a bus at a bus stop, this links completely to the music video as waiting for the bus is the main theme.
Maybe an improvement on the cohesion between the video and the other products would be that we made the CD so that it was just a single and not an album, but this would mean less representation of the band's full music back catalogue and their sound and genre altogether.
in what ways deos your media product use, develop or challange conventions of real media products?
the collection of products we made includes a music video, CD cover front/back with inserts and a magazine advert, is fairly conventional in relation to the Punk/Ska genre. this is very well but we still wanted to make our product original and give it a Unique Selling Point of which the band can use in the possible future career. the band do not like to brand themselves as solely a punk bad as they like to take inspiration from many different genre's, this gave us more freedom in the conventions we wished to follow as we can look into different genre's conventions also.For example allot of other punk and rock bands use narrative and concept features in their music videos, such as Mustard Plug's 'Mr Smiley'; and allot of rap and punk artists use colour to reflect the sound of their music, much like we have done with our products. the lyrics and sound have also got a range of conventions. For example in the music video the lyrics are shown through our visual and because we represented some the stereotypes with occurrence that people commonly find on public transport in a very over exaggerated way, this over exaggeration shows how we have followed the particular convention of humour, , which is commonly found in our other media products. This is a convention which is followed in many music videos from bands in the same or similar genre, for example the 'Sabotage' video by The Beastie Boys.
we decided to make our magazine ad and our CD cover be very cohesive with each other, for example we used the same logo for our band name, this is a convention within many bands, it is done to create a way where the band can be more recognisable to potential buyers. NOFX do this with all there CD covers they use the same font. but there are some differences for example there is a quote from a magazine this is a convention as many bands wish to show if large magazines complement their products as it gives the band more credibility. By adding effects to images of the band, more attention is drawn to them, and we incorporated this into our magazine ad as well as our CD covers. The image on the ad contains props common to the genre such as instruments. Instruments convey a certain representation of the band and makes them have more appeal to the target audience, much like other bands in the genre. This technique was also used for our CD covers and inserts, bringing cohesion.
In regards of our music video the conventions around it we found to be very fitting and so we did not challenge them. For example, using a narrative and performance based concept for a punk video is not uncommon as shown in the H2O video of which i analysed earlier. Narrative concepts tend to add cohesion between the the lyrics and visual due to the way the visual can show the lyrics, which is why it was a good idea to use it for our video. another convention we chose to follow is that of adding humour in various parts of our products, in our circumstance within the genre special effects aren't conventionally used so instead we took a more slapstick route in that we used everyday objects in humorous ways. for example the shot of the lead singer holding a big umbrella to stop the 'rain' coming down from the purposeful watering can is an example of this. Bands from the punk/ska genre tend to write songs that apposes political issues they disagree about, therefore representations and stereotypes are used in songs often. Splutter does this by showing it in the music video, for example the image of the 'bad boy' on the bus playing "crap music to add to the noise" The use of stereotypes also links back to the use of humour through exaggeration. we decided to purposely film some of our music video clips in bad weather and particularly light rain, we believed this to be important as it links in with some of the storyline of the music video in showing bad situations and to add misery this is in compliance with the convention using specific lighting to match the feel of video, for example as seen in Mr smiley the lighting changes with the mood
We chose to follow many generic conventions in the making of our CD covers and inserts. For example the mood and feel of the sound and chosen lyrics are represented in the images and use of colour. This is similar to the album cover of the bronx wear dark colours and images are used to portray the dark and brash sound of their music. we decided to use a colour scheme for all the products this is to add cohesion to all our products linking them all together.We used black and white, grey and off-white backgrounds with a black font. This quite dark colour scheme is used to portray the slightly darker side of splutters music, the meaning full and brash side. This use of imagery and colour links to the pathetic fallacy used in our music video, creating cohesion. another generic convention we have followed is how we have used images to give the viewer more of an insight into the band and their personality. this convention is captured perfectly in the NOFX poster i analysed where the band are captured goofing around being their selves. we did this through our inserts as we used individual pictures of the different band members
There is one area of our package that deliberately challenges the conventions of the punk/ska genre. This is that we chose to use a photograph as the main image of the CD cover. normally punk ska band tend to chose animations or other images for their album covers, and therefore by using a photograph, the band are going against the convention that normally complies withe their genre. we decided to do this in order to give the band originality and a unique selling point.
we decided to make our magazine ad and our CD cover be very cohesive with each other, for example we used the same logo for our band name, this is a convention within many bands, it is done to create a way where the band can be more recognisable to potential buyers. NOFX do this with all there CD covers they use the same font. but there are some differences for example there is a quote from a magazine this is a convention as many bands wish to show if large magazines complement their products as it gives the band more credibility. By adding effects to images of the band, more attention is drawn to them, and we incorporated this into our magazine ad as well as our CD covers. The image on the ad contains props common to the genre such as instruments. Instruments convey a certain representation of the band and makes them have more appeal to the target audience, much like other bands in the genre. This technique was also used for our CD covers and inserts, bringing cohesion.
In regards of our music video the conventions around it we found to be very fitting and so we did not challenge them. For example, using a narrative and performance based concept for a punk video is not uncommon as shown in the H2O video of which i analysed earlier. Narrative concepts tend to add cohesion between the the lyrics and visual due to the way the visual can show the lyrics, which is why it was a good idea to use it for our video. another convention we chose to follow is that of adding humour in various parts of our products, in our circumstance within the genre special effects aren't conventionally used so instead we took a more slapstick route in that we used everyday objects in humorous ways. for example the shot of the lead singer holding a big umbrella to stop the 'rain' coming down from the purposeful watering can is an example of this. Bands from the punk/ska genre tend to write songs that apposes political issues they disagree about, therefore representations and stereotypes are used in songs often. Splutter does this by showing it in the music video, for example the image of the 'bad boy' on the bus playing "crap music to add to the noise" The use of stereotypes also links back to the use of humour through exaggeration. we decided to purposely film some of our music video clips in bad weather and particularly light rain, we believed this to be important as it links in with some of the storyline of the music video in showing bad situations and to add misery this is in compliance with the convention using specific lighting to match the feel of video, for example as seen in Mr smiley the lighting changes with the mood
We chose to follow many generic conventions in the making of our CD covers and inserts. For example the mood and feel of the sound and chosen lyrics are represented in the images and use of colour. This is similar to the album cover of the bronx wear dark colours and images are used to portray the dark and brash sound of their music. we decided to use a colour scheme for all the products this is to add cohesion to all our products linking them all together.We used black and white, grey and off-white backgrounds with a black font. This quite dark colour scheme is used to portray the slightly darker side of splutters music, the meaning full and brash side. This use of imagery and colour links to the pathetic fallacy used in our music video, creating cohesion. another generic convention we have followed is how we have used images to give the viewer more of an insight into the band and their personality. this convention is captured perfectly in the NOFX poster i analysed where the band are captured goofing around being their selves. we did this through our inserts as we used individual pictures of the different band members
There is one area of our package that deliberately challenges the conventions of the punk/ska genre. This is that we chose to use a photograph as the main image of the CD cover. normally punk ska band tend to chose animations or other images for their album covers, and therefore by using a photograph, the band are going against the convention that normally complies withe their genre. we decided to do this in order to give the band originality and a unique selling point.
how did you use media technologies in the planing research and construction stage?
We have used a wide variety of technologies in the use of making our video and reporting about it, in doing so we have learnt to use them correctly. One item we have used is a tripod, a three legged stand for our camera, it keep the camera stable and level, it also makes us able to do pans and tilts.
We have also obviously used a camcorder to record the opening, it was very easy to use as it is small light and easy to work, this is very different to early filming equipment as it used to be hard to work and large, due the advancement of technology it means that small budget music video makers can used the cheap easy equipment so that they can afford to make the video. Also the battery never ran out on us, that is to say it lasted for a sufficiently long time, so that potential problem did not happen to us. Also, the LCD screen is really useful as you don't have to lean right up into the lens to see what you're filming as the case is with older cameras; it is more comfortable this way and you can hold the camera steadier whilst viewing if you're filming without a tripod.
Another piece of equipment we used was a scanner to import our story board onto the computer. We also made good use of youtube to watch videos that influenced us, ,
we also used blogger to post our work on a easy to use network which meant it was easy to access from any computer with the internet, it is also a more interesting place to do work on rather simply on a paper which would be very boring.
i movie was the software we used to make our music video, we leart how to use it efficiantly an it was very easy to use. The website that we found realy usefull was google, we used google to help us with pritty much everything due to its unlimited supply of information.
during our research and planning stage we have used many different types of media technologies to give use the best and most suited information needed to match the needs and wants of our target audience
in order to start looking into serious ideas for our media product allot of textual analysis on cd covers, videos and magazine ad's. in order to do that i used the Internet allot to find all needed information for example i used youtube to analysis videos to try and get a feel for the conventions that belong to our music genre. The closest video that i analysed to the genre of our band is Buddy Holly by Weezer. Conventions such as seeing the band play and using ideas that people are familiar with i.e. television programmes, are common practise in this genre and we intend to take influences from these kinds of videos.
I also used other websites to find screenshots and images of what i analysed and took three examples for each area of analysis (cd cover, videos and mag ads). These websites including Google images and allcdcovers.com. This helped me to explore new genres and find other products related to the things i already found making it easier to widen my analysis.
We have also obviously used a camcorder to record the opening, it was very easy to use as it is small light and easy to work, this is very different to early filming equipment as it used to be hard to work and large, due the advancement of technology it means that small budget music video makers can used the cheap easy equipment so that they can afford to make the video. Also the battery never ran out on us, that is to say it lasted for a sufficiently long time, so that potential problem did not happen to us. Also, the LCD screen is really useful as you don't have to lean right up into the lens to see what you're filming as the case is with older cameras; it is more comfortable this way and you can hold the camera steadier whilst viewing if you're filming without a tripod.
Another piece of equipment we used was a scanner to import our story board onto the computer. We also made good use of youtube to watch videos that influenced us, ,
we also used blogger to post our work on a easy to use network which meant it was easy to access from any computer with the internet, it is also a more interesting place to do work on rather simply on a paper which would be very boring.
i movie was the software we used to make our music video, we leart how to use it efficiantly an it was very easy to use. The website that we found realy usefull was google, we used google to help us with pritty much everything due to its unlimited supply of information.
during our research and planning stage we have used many different types of media technologies to give use the best and most suited information needed to match the needs and wants of our target audience
in order to start looking into serious ideas for our media product allot of textual analysis on cd covers, videos and magazine ad's. in order to do that i used the Internet allot to find all needed information for example i used youtube to analysis videos to try and get a feel for the conventions that belong to our music genre. The closest video that i analysed to the genre of our band is Buddy Holly by Weezer. Conventions such as seeing the band play and using ideas that people are familiar with i.e. television programmes, are common practise in this genre and we intend to take influences from these kinds of videos.
I also used other websites to find screenshots and images of what i analysed and took three examples for each area of analysis (cd cover, videos and mag ads). These websites including Google images and allcdcovers.com. This helped me to explore new genres and find other products related to the things i already found making it easier to widen my analysis.
during our research and planning stage we have used many different types of media technologies to give use the best and most suited information needed to match the needs and wants of our target audience
in order to start looking into serious ideas for our media product allot of textual analysis on cd covers, videos and magazine ad's. in order to do that i used the Internet allot to find all needed information for example i used youtube to analysis videos to try and get a feel for the conventions that belong to our music genre. The closest video that i analysed to the genre of our band is Buddy Holly by Weezer. Conventions such as seeing the band play and using ideas that people are familiar with i.e. television programmes, are common practise in this genre and we intend to take influences from these kinds of videos.
I also used other websites to find screenshots and images of what i analysed and took three examples for each area of analysis (cd cover, videos and mag ads). These websites including Google images and allcdcovers.com. This helped me to explore new genres and find other products related to the things i already found making it easier to widen my analysis.
For our questionnaire we used a series of images from google as well, but for our analysis of the answers, we decided to put the results onto pie or bar charts in order to analyse majorities and which ideas were favoured most. This was a very useful technique because it was easy to workout which age groups were more likely to watch a video produced by us and also which conventions found in most music videos are favoured by the audience. We also learned that our target audience group is between the ages of 16-19 and that they are probably male orientated just because of the nature of the genre and what i have learned from analysing products from the of punk and Ska. For example the sound of the music is very aggressive and there are rarely any female inclusion in the music.
the history of music videos
the begining of music videos came in the 1940's with the panorama soundie jukebox which played various film clips over music. This was later followed by Rock n Roll films in the 1950's presenting live band performances.
as the concept progressed music video T.V. was championed by the monkeys, a band from an American sitcom. From this came programs such as Top of the Pops,and other music programs alike
the 60's came after that. The music videos ten was lead by iconic bands such as The Beatles and music T.V defined forms and conventions of music videos to come, e.g. choreographed, studio recorded, various camera work all edited in time with the track.
Finally, on November 10 1975, a music video that took just four hours and £4,500 to create the first music video to fit this criteria was produced for the infamous song Bohemian Rhapsody by the Artist Queen. From here on things would never be the same again
as the concept progressed music video T.V. was championed by the monkeys, a band from an American sitcom. From this came programs such as Top of the Pops,and other music programs alike
the 60's came after that. The music videos ten was lead by iconic bands such as The Beatles and music T.V defined forms and conventions of music videos to come, e.g. choreographed, studio recorded, various camera work all edited in time with the track.
Finally, on November 10 1975, a music video that took just four hours and £4,500 to create the first music video to fit this criteria was produced for the infamous song Bohemian Rhapsody by the Artist Queen. From here on things would never be the same again
music vid
artist: splutter
album name: drunken times and gang signs
genre: a hybrid of punk and ska music, but still wish to portray meaning full messages.
generic conventions: both a performance based music and a narrative video filmed to show the way in which they perform and the way they feel about what they play/sing about. clear shots of the band members to advertise them and make them rateable to the audience.
sound: musical inspiration is taken from many genres of rap, rock and jazz. they are fun young bad with no worries and a up beat fast pace sound mixed with a bit a raw aggressive punk.
representation: there are many representations we wished to portray though our music video. the main representation of the video is the representation of the bands feelings towards public transport, but just as much of that it is the concept of fun and humour. the opening scene in our video is of a band member playing their instrument at a bus stop this sets the scene and gives our first piece of representation, Dan is playing at a bus stop this represents the relate ability of the band as being down to earth and not famous or classy, its at a buss stop a place where anyone can go, he is also playing there by himself this represents how the genre of punk is quite an outcast music type as he seems like a misfit and segregated from others. it also gives the concept of waiting, an idea used allot in this music video. the next part of the music video is is our first verse, each line of the verse has a matching visual where the lyrics are acted out eg "been waiting so long" a band member waiting at a buss stop."been waiting so long" a shot of the main singer waiting at the bus stop frustrated, this again make the band seem rateable and also portrays the singer to be an outcast due to him being on his own. another line says " got no other options my dad is to pissed" shows a sleeping man man with a whisky bottle, this clip represents how the band come across the same problems as everyone else, having to catch the bus or having a disfunctional family for example a alcoholic dad, but by the video being humorous show how the band believe that music can help people through bad times. the next shot is about how it always seems to rain when you wait, the band represents their humorous side by how the camera lets you see a watering can being used to rain on the umbrella, a bit of slapstick comedy. the next bit of representation comes from the film taken from on the bus. in these clips the source of representation is the bands negative view on stereotyping. people tend to stay away from certain people due to the way they look and in the video this is shown by how people try not to sit next to certain people. the band has represented their view of stereotyping as negative by making the situation where this happens humorous as so made to seem stupid and wrong. punk bands often feel negative to this point because wrong stereotyping is often put on to people how like punk music a specifically the way they sometimes look. they see the their tattoos and controversial t-shirts and label them as thugs, or rebellious teens even though most of the times this could not be further from the truth. the video then goes on to carry on representing their feelings towards public transport and the humor of the band. for the last two choruses of the song the band are found playing a gig at a bus stop, the representation in this includes they way the band See's them selves in that they don't take themselves to seriously and that they don't act like professional famous people. it also makes the band seem more ratable a s the band are playing somewhere that people might find themselves and not on some large main stage. it also shows how they don't see themselves as main stream as they are simply playing in a public place and with no crowd. it also incorporates the concept of waiting for the bus.
camera: Long shots are used to show a person’s whole body whilst performing, and to set the scene for example the opening shot where the singer is filmed wiating at a bus stop or when the band are filmed perfroming from across the street, mid shots all throughout the video of the band Mid shots are used to as well as to their show a person’s body, which may be in order to show what they are doing or, facial expressions, reactions and emotions. Pans are used to unfold events and, on one occasion. Close up are used to facial expressions, which display emotion, exchanged looks for example close ups are used often to really get the aggression from the singer for certain lines of the song they feel strongly about for example when the singer if filmed singing to the camera. a voom is used to show the pace of the singer when runing to try and catch the bus.
mise- en-scene
sound: Diegetic This draws all sound focus to the song itself
setting: the places where most of the filming was done were, at bus stops where the concept of waiting is played on and also where the finally is filmed where the band play a gig. also filming was done on the bus so as to show how buses dont get any better when you are on them.
lighting: natural lighting is used when outside this is to make the video as real as possible to increase how people can realte to the band.
costume and make up: the band are shown to be in there own clothes in which they feel comfortable , i think this is to re enforce the meaning of song being that you should just be your self and its not about what you look like. some of the band are wearing other bands t-shirts this is a punk convention as the punk circle is quite small so allot of band like each other and like to show it.
props: the main props used in our video, are a bike, the bike is used to because one of the lines of the songs talks about a bike. a watering can is also used due to rian being in the words of the song but also to add humor. a metro is also used for the same reason. also the band sinstrument are used in different shot in the video.
edditing: the editing is don to the pace of the music as for each line a clip is used for the length that the line is. there is also edditing used to match the video to the music with lip sinking which had to be done very carefully.
relationship between the lyrics and visual: there is a strong link becuase the visual is what the lyrics decribe also the aggression of the lyrics and visual are linked as they both very strong as allot of emphasis is put on the way they play and sing the lyrics so as to put across the meaning of the words and make them clearer through images.
relationships between the music and visual: The fast pace music very much fits with the quick editing and pace of movement. The sound is very aggressive and so the aggressive nature of the visual fits.
post modernism: Disjointed narrative structures- Our main character will not end happy or popular but will be unnaccepted and different throughout the duration of the narrative. This will be used to create comedy, exagerate stereotypes and display lyrical symmetry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)