Candidates from left: Lorna Edwards (3248), Keeley Burridge (3223), Cary Banks (3215), Victoria Paul-Pestovskaya (3331)
Question 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback? (Written by Lorna Edwards - 3248)
Feedback
Comment No 1.
Positives: Setting and location was appropriate, good shot of camera coming round the tree, good lip syncing.
Negatives: Shaky camera work
Comment No 2.
Positives: Good use of red string, nice setting, good costumes
Negatives: Wobbly camera focus, not a clear narrative, reverse goes too fast towards the end, too slow during bridge
Comment No 3.
Positives: Good setting, aesthetically pleasing costumes, good lighting- reflects appropriate mood, appropriate casting
Negatives: Bad camera quality, too shaky at times, unclear use of red string, unclear narrative, too fast furing rewind, inappropriate use of jump cuts and pacing too quick at times.
Comment No 4.
Positives: Structured well, movement in camera work appropriate for song, clear message, satisfying ending
Negatives: Bad lip syncing, too repetitive, locations too different, quite boring- no build-up.
Comment No 5.
Positives: Good setting, good narrative, good lyrics, realistic, good build up towards the end, warm and natural, flowed with the lyrics
Negatives: Scene does not suit music, different range of settings, camera is too unsteady, bad lip syncing, message wasn't clear
Comment No. 6
Positives: Clear narrative, great use of magazines- complimented the lyrics
Negatives: Unclear metaphor behind string, camera was bad quality, message unclear
We felt that one of the most talked about points from our audience feed back was the middle section that we like to call the bridge of the song and the pacing of the visuals. Many people thought that this section should have a faster pace to match the tempo of the song. We chose to put a long slow motion clip of our protagonist walking through the forest. At that point in the music, everything sort of slowed down in terms of the instruments and all the singing and notes were held on for longer. We wanted to reflect this in the visuals and so chose that certain clip to portray that section. However people still disagreed saying that it was too slow and the clip was too long compared to the rest of the song.
Feedback
Comment No 1.
Positives: Setting and location was appropriate, good shot of camera coming round the tree, good lip syncing.
Negatives: Shaky camera work
Comment No 2.
Positives: Good use of red string, nice setting, good costumes
Negatives: Wobbly camera focus, not a clear narrative, reverse goes too fast towards the end, too slow during bridge
Comment No 3.
Positives: Good setting, aesthetically pleasing costumes, good lighting- reflects appropriate mood, appropriate casting
Negatives: Bad camera quality, too shaky at times, unclear use of red string, unclear narrative, too fast furing rewind, inappropriate use of jump cuts and pacing too quick at times.
Comment No 4.
Positives: Structured well, movement in camera work appropriate for song, clear message, satisfying ending
Negatives: Bad lip syncing, too repetitive, locations too different, quite boring- no build-up.
Comment No 5.
Positives: Good setting, good narrative, good lyrics, realistic, good build up towards the end, warm and natural, flowed with the lyrics
Negatives: Scene does not suit music, different range of settings, camera is too unsteady, bad lip syncing, message wasn't clear
Comment No. 6
Positives: Clear narrative, great use of magazines- complimented the lyrics
Negatives: Unclear metaphor behind string, camera was bad quality, message unclear
We felt that one of the most talked about points from our audience feed back was the middle section that we like to call the bridge of the song and the pacing of the visuals. Many people thought that this section should have a faster pace to match the tempo of the song. We chose to put a long slow motion clip of our protagonist walking through the forest. At that point in the music, everything sort of slowed down in terms of the instruments and all the singing and notes were held on for longer. We wanted to reflect this in the visuals and so chose that certain clip to portray that section. However people still disagreed saying that it was too slow and the clip was too long compared to the rest of the song.
We thought that the combination of the two was nice and they complemented each other. Occasionally in the music video conventions the contrast in pacing of visuals and sounds deliberately because it is aesthetically pleasing. This is something we also felt, even though we had the opportunity to change it we wanted to keep it the same because it felt right to us and it just worked. Unfortunately the audience did not see from our point of view and we now fell that if we could have edited again, that is the main section that we would have chosen to improve in terms of audience feedback.
The next section that we felt was talked about quite a lot was the reverse sequence. Many people didn't think that the reverse sequence fit the genre, or didn't look right in that certain place, or didn't match the sound of the song. I think the issue was that as the song slowed down after the massive climax at the end, the reversing should have stopped. We wanted to carry it on so that it would stop on the phrase "to me" to act as a rounding off point, and to convey that the protagonist is reversing her journey back to the beginning to start again and to show the true meaning of beauty was inside herself all along. We wanted this change of journey and direction to be seen though the visuals, and that is why we chose to have the reversing sequence. We felt that this challenged our conventions slightly but helped us get our message across to the audience.
Most of our feedback from the year nine class consisted of the narrative not being easy to follow. We understand that it is not easy to follow, but our demographic was actually supposed to be the age of sixteen and over,and the fact that the ear nines didn't get it, shows us that we had a more selective demographic than we originally thought. Because they didn't understand our easy to follow narrative made us feel that they actually didn't take the lyrics into account when watching the music video. This means that thy were just looking at the visuals and sounds, which proves that this generation is more visual based, and that they would rather view a video than read an article. We feel that if they had listened to the lyrics they would have had more of a connection with the video. Adding to this point, Amanda Rogers writes all her own songs so the lyrics are so important and is something that we strongly had to take into account when producing our music video.
Staying on this point of narrative, when I posted the video onto the social networking site Facebook, we had more positive comments and all the people that commented were in our age demographic. This made us feel that this video had a more personal response on them than it did to the year nine's. Because this audience is older, they have had a chance to go though this journey that almost every teenage girl would have gone through; the feeling of not fitting in, wanting to be like the airbrushed models in magazines and the pressure of beauty as a whole. We felt that being a younger age such as fourteen, they wouldn't of had the chance, and because they are a younger generation they probably look at media in a different way and think that an air brushed perfect model is normal and being yourself isn't.
A few point were made about the lighting of the music video and the unsteady use of the camera. Some of these points such as lighting we could not help due to the location and the conditions in which we chose to shoot in. The lighting when shooting was very temperamental and we could never get the same exact lighting in every single shot. And due to the time of year we were shooting, we did not get a lot of time in the day to get what we wanted before it got too dark. We felt that shooting on two different days meant that the lighting on the two days were completely different, and if we could redo it all, we would start earlier and try to get everything done in one whole day to reduce the risk of different lighting. However, the use of natural lighting can not be predicted. Furthermore, the fact that the end shots are done at the end of the day when the sun is setting gives off the effect that the video is coming to an end just like the end of the day. We also did a lot of colour grading in a programme called colour to even out the lighting in our shots better. Instead of just putting a filter on our video like we did for the film opening, we went through and edited every single clip to make sure it was the best that we could have got it.
Most of the year audience feedback commented saying that the camera wasn't very steady. This was due to the fact that we were low on time, so we didn't get to shoot every single shot 5000 times to get it perfect. Most of the shaky shots were tracking shots, and we wanted to give a realistic feel that the audience is actually tracking her in real life. We wanted our protagonist to seem attainable unlike the air-brushed models in media, we felt that the use of shaky-cam helped with the realism of the music video, and to create a real role model that people can aspire to be like.
Overall we leant a lot from the different types of feedback that we got (positive and negative.) We learnt that the key things such as pacing, lyrics, sound, instruments etc... that are going on at the time in the music, will be what the visuals will have to follow.
Question 4 - How have you used
new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
(Written by Victoria Paul-Pestovskaya - 3331)
New media technologies have played a major role throughout the production and distribution of our music video as we have employed them throughout each stage of this project. The research, being the initial step in the creation of our video was conducted almost entirely using social networking. The variety of music video genres available on the internet allowed us to get a broader understanding of conventions of music video, which we chose and applied suitably. The niche genre of our chosen song naturally meant the music videos we would mostly be researching would be smaller-budget, less institutionalised music videos. Had it not been for the accessibility of the internet, it wouldn't have been possible to conduct our research thoroughly. As we mentioned in the video, Amanda Rogers herself is a niche artist who mainly uses social networking websites to market her music, therefore meaning that nearly all the information acquired about our chosen artist was conducted through new media technologies. Likewise, the distribution of our music video would not have been possible without the platform of social networks. This not only enabled our audience and artist to watch our video but also respond to it instantaneously through the comments on YouTube.
Finally, new media technologies played an absolutely crucial role in the production and post production of our music video. Having used a camcorder for our preliminary task last year, we were able to appreciate the possibilities that came with using a DSLR for our next project; the most obvious and important difference being the quality of the image. As mentioned in the evaluation above our low light conditions meant the camera would pick up on less detail in the frame. However, the DSLR made this possible, with the varied ISO settings. The high quality of the image also meant a more professional looking music video, which allows viewers to become more immersed in the music video. In addition to this, the high quality allowed us to produce a music video of the same professional level as our chosen artist, resulting in a more believable representation. The adjustable frame rate was also crucial in the production of this project as it gave us the opportunity to use slow motion. We established early on in our research, that slow motion is arguably the most important convention in music videos that is not specific to necessarily one genre. We used the adjustable frame rate to ensure that when we applied the slow motion to our rushes, the viewing experience wouldn't be worsened by the jolting of images. Instead, the FPS meant a smoother and more professional viewing experience. Close up shots were another convention we established through our research, allowing a closer relationship between the musical artist and the viewers. The variety of lenses that came with the cameras allowed us to include a variety of shots in our music video, especially close up shots which would not be possible on an non-adjustable camcorder.
In the post-production stages of our project, we employed new media technologies throughout the editing of our video. The variety of professional editing techniques and equipment available on Final Cut Pro meant that, again, our project could be put on a par with existing media products. We were also able to add a logo and letter-boxing to complete the look of professionalism and make it as close as possible to existing media products. We also used the colour alteration software "Color" to address the problem of vastly varied lighting. One of the most important lessons learned through this experience was how drastically lighting can affect the final media product. Even having adjusted lighting and colour to the best potential in post-production, our audience feedback proved that it was still a noticeable issue. The low light conditions lessened the detail picked up by the camera in a shot, meaning that even when we adjusted the lighting in Color, the software couldn't fill in the missing detail in the frame. As a result I think a couple of our shots were a little grainy and blurred, however as Keeley mentions in our video it is a lesson only understood through experience. Were we to redo this music video again, we would perhaps employ the use of filler lights during the filming to ensure the scene would be as brightly lit as possible.
During the designing stages of our ancillary products, we used professional software programs such as Photoshop to achieve a more professional looking product. Specifically, this provided us with the opportunity to create our own font and import it into our final poster design. Whilst many would argue that software such as Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Color has been available for a long time and therefore cannot be classified as "new," it's important to note that audience accessibility to these products is a recent occurrence. The rise in audience use of final cut pro and Photoshop and even use of DSLR's has developed the "prosumer" movement, of which our production group is a part of. As we were conscious of this, we made informed and specific choices of how we would use this professional software and took advantage of the possibilities now available to us.
To conclude, the new media technologies we used ultimately allowed us to attain a professional level of production as well as meet many of the conventions of the genre.
New media technologies have played a major role throughout the production and distribution of our music video as we have employed them throughout each stage of this project. The research, being the initial step in the creation of our video was conducted almost entirely using social networking. The variety of music video genres available on the internet allowed us to get a broader understanding of conventions of music video, which we chose and applied suitably. The niche genre of our chosen song naturally meant the music videos we would mostly be researching would be smaller-budget, less institutionalised music videos. Had it not been for the accessibility of the internet, it wouldn't have been possible to conduct our research thoroughly. As we mentioned in the video, Amanda Rogers herself is a niche artist who mainly uses social networking websites to market her music, therefore meaning that nearly all the information acquired about our chosen artist was conducted through new media technologies. Likewise, the distribution of our music video would not have been possible without the platform of social networks. This not only enabled our audience and artist to watch our video but also respond to it instantaneously through the comments on YouTube.
Finally, new media technologies played an absolutely crucial role in the production and post production of our music video. Having used a camcorder for our preliminary task last year, we were able to appreciate the possibilities that came with using a DSLR for our next project; the most obvious and important difference being the quality of the image. As mentioned in the evaluation above our low light conditions meant the camera would pick up on less detail in the frame. However, the DSLR made this possible, with the varied ISO settings. The high quality of the image also meant a more professional looking music video, which allows viewers to become more immersed in the music video. In addition to this, the high quality allowed us to produce a music video of the same professional level as our chosen artist, resulting in a more believable representation. The adjustable frame rate was also crucial in the production of this project as it gave us the opportunity to use slow motion. We established early on in our research, that slow motion is arguably the most important convention in music videos that is not specific to necessarily one genre. We used the adjustable frame rate to ensure that when we applied the slow motion to our rushes, the viewing experience wouldn't be worsened by the jolting of images. Instead, the FPS meant a smoother and more professional viewing experience. Close up shots were another convention we established through our research, allowing a closer relationship between the musical artist and the viewers. The variety of lenses that came with the cameras allowed us to include a variety of shots in our music video, especially close up shots which would not be possible on an non-adjustable camcorder.
In the post-production stages of our project, we employed new media technologies throughout the editing of our video. The variety of professional editing techniques and equipment available on Final Cut Pro meant that, again, our project could be put on a par with existing media products. We were also able to add a logo and letter-boxing to complete the look of professionalism and make it as close as possible to existing media products. We also used the colour alteration software "Color" to address the problem of vastly varied lighting. One of the most important lessons learned through this experience was how drastically lighting can affect the final media product. Even having adjusted lighting and colour to the best potential in post-production, our audience feedback proved that it was still a noticeable issue. The low light conditions lessened the detail picked up by the camera in a shot, meaning that even when we adjusted the lighting in Color, the software couldn't fill in the missing detail in the frame. As a result I think a couple of our shots were a little grainy and blurred, however as Keeley mentions in our video it is a lesson only understood through experience. Were we to redo this music video again, we would perhaps employ the use of filler lights during the filming to ensure the scene would be as brightly lit as possible.
During the designing stages of our ancillary products, we used professional software programs such as Photoshop to achieve a more professional looking product. Specifically, this provided us with the opportunity to create our own font and import it into our final poster design. Whilst many would argue that software such as Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Color has been available for a long time and therefore cannot be classified as "new," it's important to note that audience accessibility to these products is a recent occurrence. The rise in audience use of final cut pro and Photoshop and even use of DSLR's has developed the "prosumer" movement, of which our production group is a part of. As we were conscious of this, we made informed and specific choices of how we would use this professional software and took advantage of the possibilities now available to us.
To conclude, the new media technologies we used ultimately allowed us to attain a professional level of production as well as meet many of the conventions of the genre.
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