Audience Feedback For Print Task

To try and assess who our target audience would be, we had to ensure we got some level of sufficient audience feedback. For our print tasks, we left them out along with a big sheet of A2 paper, and asked for our target audience to give feedback. However, we asked for the feedback from students who do not do Media Studies as a subject, as we felt that an audience who weren't classed as 'media-savvy' would give more honest feeback, and focus on the overall structure of the project, as opposed to picking various aspects of the print task and focusing on those alone. This worked to an extent, as our audience picked up on various aspects they enjoyed, such as 'They loved the background', and highlighted the things they enjoyed about the print project. However, some of their feedback was not as in depth as we would have hoped for, such as 'I don't like the photo' but gave no elaboration on why they didn't like the photo.

Target Audience Questionnaire (Final Draft)

We have developed and improved the questionnaire we will give to our target audience to gain insight into their thoughts and ideas, and also we want to know what they think of our video/song, and give us feeback of what we can do to improve our video. The new revised questions which will hopefully give us a deeper insight to what our target audience are looking for in a music video are as followed:
Question 1: Did you enjoy the song? YES/NO Please say WHY?
Question 2: Did you enjoy the video? YES/NO Please say WHY?
Question 3: Did you understand the storyline of the video? YES/NO If NO, how do you think it could be made more understandable to the audience?
Question 4:  What would you classify as the genre of the video? How can you tell this?
Question 5: What do you feel could be improved in the video?
Question 6: Overall, how would you rate the Video? (With 1 being 'Very Good' and 5 being 'Very Poor')

Target Audience Questionnaire (First Draft)

To gain an insight into what our audience would like from us as the producers of the music video, we aim to have a focus group screening of our video, which would more likely consist of memebers of an AS-Level media class. To our knowledge, no-one in the class will know who we are, which will prevent bias when they give us feedback.
   The focus group will then be asked a questionnaire, consisting of six questions, which will help us gain insight into our target audience's thoughts on the video, and also, we can change our video according to how the feeback influences us. The questions on the questionnairre are as followed:
1. Did you enjoy the song? If NO, why not?
2. Did you enjoy the video? If NO, why not?
3. Did you understand the storyline of the video? If NO, how do you think the storyline could be made more understandable to the audience?
4. What genre would you class the music video as?
5. What was your own interpretation of what was happening in the video?
6. What do you feel could be improved in the video?

Print Task Flat Plans

For our print task, we produced four individual flatplans for our work. I worked on producing two, and David also worked on producing two, so that we had a variety of different ideas intergrated across the four different design styles.The two which David designed are rather simplistic, not really featuring the band predominantly, but have been scattered with quotes of the band, highlighting how good they are in an attempt to sell the album. The second two, designed by me, feature the band much more predominantly, highlighting how they are the main focus of the whole project. One features the band in a similar position to that of the album cover, with them positioned underneath the band name/album name. This is possibly the most likely one we will be using, so that our CD Cover and magazine article have similar designs, which helps keep up with the continuity of the whole project.

Changes To Storyline/First Audience Feedback

One of the difficulties we faced last year was the fact we had to keep changing our initial idea due to complications i.e cast changes, location changes and extraneous variables such as the weather. This year was no different, and as a result, we had to change our storyline to suit the resources we had capable to us. This change revolved largely around the first section of the video, where we originally intended to have the character of 'The Girl' hanging around with her friends and having a generally good time. However, as we could only cast one female character, and also the lyrics of the song at this point are rather unhappy and sombre, we adapted the storyline to make it appear like 'The Girl' is having an arguement with an off-screen character (we assume, one of the band to give the plot some validity). This means the storyline in the second verse has been adapted to her having gotten over this arguement with the band member, and is now on route to see this band member and apologise for their arguement last night.

   As a result of these changes, we needed to ensure that the plot still made sense to an audience who had not worked on the production of the video, therefore, we took a random sample of five people from our media class to watch the first two minutes of our video, (as the second verse begins at 01:47, therefore we felt this would be enough time for the audience to try and assess the narrative) to watch it uninterrupted and then relay to us what they thought had happened. We were very pleased to find that all five of the sample participants who watched the video were able to easily tell us the basic narrative of the storyline, a result which pleased us, as it meant we had done a satisfactory job of trying to edit the video into an understandable storyline after we had to make somecritical changes.

Music Advertisement Idea No. #3

 Another idea for our music advertisement is not taken from another advertisement, but from a movie poster. The movie is the 2011 release of "Killing Bono", and it pictures the four main actors displaying rather aggressive facial expressions. Although I would not have the band with these aggressive expressions, I would possibly consider the idea of having the band with completely plain expressions, or perhaps each of them casting a different facial expression, e.g. Happy, Sad, Funny and Confused.

Half Term Feedback

Over half term, we gained feedback from our lecturer, on ways in which we were on target at this point in the project, but also, ways in which we can improve our performance. Currently, we are predicted to be around the A/B borderline, however, if we apply the changes we have been told to add, we hope that we will result in a solid A grade.

Inspiration For Music Advertisement #2

The second of my music advertisements is taken from 'Mojo' magazine, and premotes the 'Foo Fighters' album 'Wasted Light', it features the album artwork extended over the whole page, but at the bottom, contains information about the album's release date.
   Also, the album art could be used on our CD cover, as it features the faces of the band members, but in a rather unusual, distorted pattern, which we might yet use on our album cover.

Inspiration For Music Advertisement #1

To produce a music advertisement, I have been researching various album promos in various different music magazines, and this one is from 'Q' magazine, and features the advertisement for the album of 'Mona', which features the band's album cover at the top two thirds of the page, with some basic information at the bottom, including the day it's released, and a quote to promote the album.

CD Cover Print Task (Inspirational Texts #2)

For the CD cover, we are aswell going to have to produce a back for the cover, and again, we have looked to the Red Hot Chili Peppers for our inspiration, as the back of their 'By The Way' album cover, as the back of it features the four band members in a line, which is a possibility for what we want to include on our CD.

Planning For Print Task - CD Cover (Inspirational Texts #1)

As part of our project, we are going to need to design a promotional package for the music video, which will consist of a magazine advertisement for the band, and also a CD cover for the band's upcoming CD. This post is largely about the inspirational ideas for the second of these tasks, as my CD cover for the band will focus on the four band members, but I want to present them in a unique way which expresses the band's attitudes. This first text is for the Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'Blood Sugar Magik' album, which shows the four band members all looking into the center of the album, and I believe this will express the emotion of the band, if we show each of them expressing a different emotion, but I think the overall design of this album may be a little too complex, so I like the idea of doing a toned down version of this cover.

Time Management

To show evidence that I have been effectively managing my time to an appropriate level and ensuring I am going to finish my project on time, I have been following a timeplan I designed to ensure I finish the project in accordance with the appropriate deadlines.
The timeline is as follows:

• Monday 12th September = Project Start Date
• Monday 12th September-Thursday October 6th = Planning and Reasearch For The Project
• Friday 7th October-Friday 21st October = Filming and Editing of Video Project
• Friday 21st October = Deadline For First Draft Of Film Project
• Monday 24th October-Friday 28th October = Half Term (Use Time to Plan Print Project)
• Monday 31st October-Friday 4th November = Planning of print task
• Monday 7th November-Friday 11th November = Making changes to video task
• Monday 14th Novmeber-Thursday 1st December = Development and Completion of Print Project
• Thursday 1st December-Thursday 8th December = Evaluation of the overall task
• Thursday 8th December = FINAL DEADLINE!!

Story Board 2

The second storyline we planned was constructed and designed by myself, and it follows the actual dramatic narrative of the video, which features the story of a young girl who is unaware that she is actually a ghost. It also features aspects of different camera angles I am going to be using, from a variety of extreme long shots, right up to intense extreme close ups.

The anotations of each screen shot are as followed

Shot 1 - Long shot of "the girl" with her friends, all are laughing, happy etc. Also, she will be wearing a different colour to the rest of the girls to symbolize that she is the main character.

Shot 2 - Close-Up of the girl, to symbloise how happy she is at this point in the narrative, also subtley hinting that whilst she is inside with friends she is safe.

Shot 3 - Over-The-Shoulder group shot of the girls, with "the girl" recieving a text from someone, taking her phone out of her pocket and showing it to the audience.

Shot 4 - Extreme Close-Up of the phone screen, revealing that "the girl" has been text by her boyfriend, asking her to come and see his band practice, she happily replies saying she will.

Shot 5 - Extreme Long Shot will show "the girl" leaving her house, making her way to the band practice.

Shot 6 - Another Extreme Long Shot will show "the girl" on the other side of the road, this will hopefully be a subtle clue to the audience, as the road will be filled with traffic as she approaches the practice room

Shot 7 - Another Extreme Long Shot will show "the girl" has opted to take a shortcut down a rather rough looking back street, the tone of the video will begin to change with the music.

Shot 8 - An Extreme Close-Up of the car, which has been out of shot, and is now hurtling towards the girl at an alarming speed.

Shot 9 - Another Exteme Close-Up, this time of "the girl", who is wide-eyed with fear, trying to capture the classic "dear in the headlights" moment with this shot to help show she is scared.

Shot 10 - Long Shot, showing "the girl" lieing on the floor, mostly to show the audience that she has been hit by the car and the way they both will be completely still in the middle of the road ("the girl" and the car) will subtley show the twist which is coming for our audience.

Shot 11 - Another Long Shot, this time of the driver getting out of the car, we can see panic and concern etched on his face at the horror at what he has done.

Shot 12 - Medium Shot to show the girl is up and walking away, shouting apologies to the driver to show she is sorry for not watching where she was going, and begins running from the camera to show that she is in a hurry to get to where the band is, back in a safer setting, and away from the dangers of the outside world.

Shot 13 - Tracking Shot, which follows "the girl" running down the corridor of the band's practice studio, showing that is determined to get to the band at all costs

Shot 14 - Extreme Close-Up of "the girl" opening the door to the band's practice studio, this will also feature demonstrations of match-on-action, as the will show "the girl" walking through the door and smiling at the band.

Shot 15 - Group Shot of the band, who look up to see why the door has opened, it is at this point that the music stops playing.

Shot 16 - Long Shot of the door, (also a Point Of View shot from the band) to show that there is no-one there, revealing to the audience the climatic shock of the video, that "the girl" was killed by the car earlier in the video.

Story Board 1

Our first storyboard, which was constructed by David, shows the shot types we will be using for the half of the performance based on the live band, and it shows the various different aspects of the band which will be featured in between the actual narrative of the band. The shots we will feature here will feature a multitude of shots, from group shots of the band to show them together as a collective unit, mixed up with close-ups and extreme close-ups of certain features of the band, probably with one member of the band being the main focus of these shots.

Feedback To My Pitch

I have had my work peer assessed by many of my classmates, and I have recieved mostly positive criticism, with some constructive cirticism on how to improve my work. Overall, I am very pleased with this feedback, and I have gained some good insight as to how I can improve my work.

The Band!

The band who will be starring in the video will be a local band named Cohesion. Cohesion are a four piece indie/rock group from the local area who are unsigned. The band have wrote six original songs themselves, which ensures all of the music featured in the video will be totally original and authentic. This also helps with copywright issues, as we will not be in breach of copywright and the band has consented to us using one of their songs for the video. The band is made up four members: Matthew Watchman (lead vocals and guitar), Jonny Hall (guitar), Jordan Taggart (drums) and David Wright (bass), the later of these is part of the group in media and is helping with the overall final production of the video and ensuring we have a good final product.

Insiprational Texts No. #2

Another video we have drawn inspiration from is Linkin Park's "Numb". This is largely because the other aspect of our plotline, the way the two stories link in with each other at the end (the drama and the live performance) is reflected in this video, and we see that this happens in this video, as a girl is seeking the band playing live.

Insiprational Texts No. #1

I have been researching various different videos to gain inspiration for the design of my video. As I have previously stated my idea of a girl who isn't aware she is actually dead, the video I am going to post has very much the same storyline.
   The video is "Someday" by Nickleback, and the video storyline shows a man who is unaware he is dead, but the audience are given subtle clues throughout the video to help them understand this, whereas our video will only have the audience realising at the very last mintue, in an attempt to provide a real shock for them.

Mood Board

To come up with a suitbale idea for my media project, I developed a mood board, where me and the members of my group sat down and discussed possible ideas on which we could base our music video around, and we thought about the choice of format, and also possible storylines and inspirational texts we could use to draw ideas from for our project.

Initial Idea Of Video Design

Song Choice - "Positive Post Negative" by Cohesion

Video Format - The design of the video will feature a dramtic story which we have chosen, intergrated with live shots of the band playing in their practice room. The live performance will be set in a fixed location, which is where the narrative will end up in a dramtic turn at the end, as our concept features the live performance and the plot linking together at the end to surprise the audience. We are looking for a very dramtic, possibly even a tragic storyline to go alongside the live performance as the meaning of the song's lyrics are all about how someone can deal with a great loss and how they look to rebuild their lives and move on from it.

Cast - Members of the band, Cohesion:

• Matthew Watchman (Lead vocals and Guitar)
• Jonny Hall (Guitar)
• David Wright (Bass)
• Jordan Taggart (Drums)

We also need 2-3 female cast memebers, and also one more extra to play another character.

Storyline/Design - "The girl" (Actor Unknown) is hanging around with her friends in her house (Unknown Actors) until she recieves a text from one member of the band, prompting her to leave her friends early and head off to see the band practice. As she nears the practice studio she has been prompted to go to, she gets herself hit by car, but luckily gets up! The driver of the car gets out to check on "The Girl", but she begins speeding away, turning to say she is fine and runs off towards the practice room. As she gets their, she runs down the corridor and flings the door open to the practice room, this is where we see a shot from the band's point of view, where they look up at the door and there is no-one there! This is the tragic moment of realisation where the audience learn "The Girl" was actually killed when the car hit her, but just incase this isn't clear to the audience, we are still toying with one of two posssible options, the first will feature the girl looking down, seeing that she is covered and blood and she learns that she is dead. The second will feature a cut back to the car, with a frantic driver looking at the body of the girl, ringing for help whilst the camera zooms in on "The Girl", emphasising the fact she is dead.

Song Choices

After we decided which band would be featuring in our video, we needed to make the choice of song we would choose. Cohesion have 6 original songs which we had to make a choice from, but we still have yet to decide on the style of the song we would be using.
   If we were to go for a more upbeat tune and a happier themed drama, we would use one of the following tunes;

• Major 9
• Two/Thirds Vegetarian
• A Lot Can Come From Nothing

However, if we were to choose a theme which was more sombre, with a more dramatic feel in our video, we would go for a song such as;

• Fade
• Untitled #1
• Positive Post Negative

Our Initial Idea

The initial idea for our group, consisting of me and David Wright, are going to produce a music video for a local band, Cohesion, of which David is the bassist. As well as producing the music video, we will create two features for a promo package for the band, and these will be: A) A magazine advertisement to promote the band, and B) A CD cover for the upcoming release of the band's CD. We hope that the use of an original band combined with what we hope will be an original video will enable us to produce a good quailty project.

Reflection On AS Media

Last year at AS Media, me and two other fellow students produced a 2 mintue video project, which I feel we did successfully, but it was not without it's difficulties. For example, we encountered the difficulty of trying to film our project in the dark, which was extremely difficult due to the quailty of the camera we had.
   Also, we had the problem of trying to maintain our original storyboarded ideas, which we found was very difficult, as it is a lot easier to plan a project, but due to extraneous issues (e.g. weather, unavailability of props etc.) we struggled to stick to our original script.
   In spite of all of this, we actually managed to create a very well-designed final project, which was as close to our initial idea as possible, and this helped us achieve a satisfactory grade and also helped us realise some errors and variables we will need to take into account at A2.