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Evaluation Q&A

Evaluation Q&A from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

Evaluation Presentation (Video)

For the evaluation to this project I recently presented my media products, my ideas and my reasons to my class. In doing I believe I have provided further in depth responses to the 4 evaluation questions.

Those questions are:

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

 

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

 

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

 

Here is the video:

E:Evaluation Presentation from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

As you can see this is a pretty long video, and therefore the Q&A that followed my presentation will feature in my next blog post.

More on Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.



Blogger, Prezi & Survey Monkey. from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

Evaluation Question 4

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

Evaluation Question 3

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to answer this evaluation question successfully I conducted an audience feedback survey using website SurveyMonkey. I emailed the link around in order to get a sizeable response, the result was a bit underwhelming but I am still grateful to those who answered the survey seriously, I feel as if I've learned a lot from fresh perspectives.

This demonstrates a strong response from my target audience, but representation from an older demographic, allowing specific reaction to my products, but also a wider perspective. 

 Again a fair demographic with slightly more males, it was interesting to consider how the two genders might differ in reaction to the representation within the piece. 

 I am happy that most of the audience identified the alternative genre as what was being portrayed, but the strong showing for Indie doesn't concern me greatly as it the most similar genre with overlap in artists and conventions. 

 Again my intentions of aiming at the teenage/young adult demographic through choice of song and the age of the video and digipak's protagonists has provided the response I was expecting, but it is encouraging to see that some believe it would aim at adults, as it demonstrates a versatility to my appeal. 

Again encouraging signs to see most believe that my products work at least very well together as it demonstrates my use of colour scheme and typography across the three products like shown in my research (i.e Arctic Monkeys) to have been successful. Interestingly I have since spoken to the person whom disagreed with the crowd and explained how I believed my products linked (discussing the convention of typography and colour scheme) he then agreed that if he were to the survey again he would be more favourable in his response. 

 The top and bottom response for this section particularly interest me because they show the consistency in mood which I was striving to achieve in the construction and editing process. The verisimilitude comment is also very pleasing as this shows my research and work upon the product have produced results in line with existing products. This is because my product has been considered believable by target audience which demonstrates success in exploring forms and conventions.

A variety of criticism was interesting to consider... The yellow filter perhaps was not to everyone taste and considering that the filter is something I personally experimented with, posting different concepts on this blog for opinions but choosing something different. In light of this, a revert to not have had a more open consultation process with my audience over the choice of filter in video and then of course ancillary products. If I were to do this again I would certainly use SurveyMonkey more to record this needed audience feedback.

Again quite diverse opinions of what needs to be improved which I suppose I can consider to be encouraging as there appears to be no outstanding failure of my products, demonstrating an at least satisfactory professionalism and quality to my products. Advice on the typography and miming is perhaps a feature which frustrates me as I believed both were not issues, and not to disregard the advice (as I will certainly look at them again) but the comments are separate to other opinions suggesting perhaps a matter of personal taste/opinion.

The final response is obviously very pleasing as it represents the majority to believe that there is an effective combination between my main product and my ancillary texts; this is something I needed to achieve and clarification of this from mainly my target audience is very pleasing. 

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 I aimed to combine my video, album, and advert through the use of props and filter. My props of wine glasses and a wedding ring were consistent throughout my media products, symbolizing the hedonistic attitude more typical of the young; in contrast to marriage, which demands commitment. I aimed to sustain this contrast through my props to intrigue the audience, but also to allow them to easily identify the messages and conventions of my concept. I know this was an effective combination because my audience identified with the obvious iconography, commenting their opinion on props within my survey- making it obvious that they received the message, and could how it related over the whole of my media products. I used a yellowy/black and white filter across my media products in order to create a specific, aged feel to events, and in combination with the plain clothing which my character were wearing, I aimed to use this to portray a timeless feel as there were purposely little items to make audience realize that this was a modern video. This was effective because in my audience feedback section, there were comments considering the choice of filter and character clothing, one describing the denim ‘working class look’, therefore my audience perhaps didn’t take the effects of filter in their stride as it wasn’t conforming to modern traits, showing a clear intentional challenge to the traditional conventions of filter from me in to achieve a timeless, cult feel to my video.

Representation was key to the combinations found in my 3 media products; it was relatively ambiguous in the album cover and not that apparent in the advert in order to create an ambiguity and almost a mystery which I hoped would lead many to watch my video for explanation. This placed great emphasis on the representation in the video; I tried to avoid Propp’s stock character theory, by avoiding a clear hero/villain status in order to place create emphasis on my audience to decide how they feel about each character. From oral feedback I found that the male character for instance was considered villainous by females (like in the video), as his cheating is intolerable; whereas males find more sympathy with him as he is young and foolish like much of my target audience may consider themselves to be.

Answering Evaluation Q's 2 & 3

I have created a survey to collect data to find out how well my media products work together as a whole. This will help me with evaluation questions 2 and 3. I hope to find where I have done well and where I could have improved. This information will be very useful to me. I created the survey using www.SurveyMonkey.com. I will email out the link to the survey along side the link to my music video and I will attach the images of my advert and Digipak.

Work on my digipak & advert can be found in recent blog posts. Final changes to the products are being made now, and the confirmed final versions will be on the blog by Monday...

 

Create your own user feedback survey

Vlog Answer to Evaluation Question 1

Eval 1 from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

Evaluation Introduction

Now that I have completed my music video, advert and digipak, the final step in the process is to evaluate my entire project by answering these questions in great depth and detail. I will use a multitude of different medias to create detailed responses: such as online questionnaires, videos and press. This will offer me the final opportunity to showcase the skills that I have gained through the duration of this two year course. 

Below are the questions which I must respond to for this evaluation and I will be completing thorough responses to these questions in the coming days...

• In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

• How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

• What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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

Digipak Final

 Final alterations needed to be made to my digipak before I could confirm it to be complete. I have added in the text of album name, band name, and record label to the white side slips of the digipak after I realised my mistake in originally forgetting it.

My teacher did then point out that my digipak didn't in fact feature the name of the album on any of the covers; I pointed out that hugely successful album's like Arctic Monkeys debut 'What People Say I Am Thats What I'm Not' or their newest album 'AM' didn't feature the album name in the digipak. The solution that came of this discussion was to have a sticker on one the versions of my digipak, which would be meant for CD stores like HMV (which might insist on having the album on the cover for advertising reasons), so that is what I have done and the result is below.



As you can see I have used a block from advert to make this sticker on the cover of my album, which when produced would simply pull off if one wished, but it would remind them of what the album is called, which of course is effective advertising. The use of my advert in my digipak demonstrates the consistency and synergy between the two products, as it has given me something practical to fall back to when necessary to use.

Album Poster Done

Digipak Nearly Done

My Digpak is nearly complete. As promised it is completely made up of screenshots of music video which have been meticulously edited using Fotor, and Abode Photoshop; to enhance, blur, and to add text and writing to images.

 

Final Cut

Pretty sure this is my final cut, as little sound and timing glitches have been corrected. Enjoy!
Final Cut from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

Newest Cut

music video 2 from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

description to follow...

Anyone who see's in the meantime, please comment your opinions/criticisms 

Digipack/Advert Progress

The selection of photos for the digipack have been chosen; the collage below demonstrates the quality and arrangement of the photos for my digipack...

The middle photo of the surrounding shot of the location will be split, and will be the first visible photos when opening the CD, with the right of it being behind the Disc. The bottom right photo will be the front cover, the top left will be the back cover, with the top right and bottom left photo being found within the folded booklet.

Above is the 4 images that will make up my digipak, but obviously the dimensions will be significantly different.

Above is the image I've selected for my album advert, as it embodies the simplicity and style which I've hoped to portray in my music video; this is achieved through the yellow fade on the black and white filter, which works even better as a still.

Please comment opinions to help my progression in this process become more representation of the wider audience I'm always trying to aim for.

My Initial Digipak Work compared to Kasabian (2004)

Due to the ongoing changes to music video, my digipak work has been less progressive in recent weeks. However now that I have found the filter I want for the bulk of my video, I can now press ahead with choosing and structuring the album photography as I would wish. 

I feel my album photography is going to be very minimalist, thus this leads me to compare my images, their structure in the digipak, and their relationship with the alternative genre to work which is already out there in the professional market. I have already touched upon The Arctic Monkeys and Tom Odell within the genre, and I now I turn Kasabian's debut album in 2004. 

 The front cover is 12.1 x 12cm, as my measurements aren't easy to read in the photo.

 It features a name and a vague face, all in black and white.


That's it. But as I mentioned in my blog last month, the right kind of simplistic cover can become iconic and memorable, and this is what I feel this has achieved, and this is what I hope to achieve.

In comparison this demo of my front cover looks equally simplistic, but in the correct measurements, and with a bold black title I feel it will look equally dynamic.

The inside of the front cover is a 4 image fold of all the members of the band, I hope to achieve something similar with my cover. Its simplicity and style can be easily replicated.

The Four images above are what I'm considering using for a similar fold for my album, all simplistic and have the same colour scheme as the video and front cover. If this is assembled, it will look similarly professional to Kasabian.

 

Back Cover

The Kasabian back cover is yet again plain but striking and this can similarly be achieved with my shot below.
Therefore with the right editing I can aim for my album cover to be a simple classic like Kasabian.

New Cut

NEW CUT from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

New Cut of Music Video, Vlog and further information to follow...

Newest Cut to be uploaded on thursday

As i have reached by weekly storage limit on Vimeo, I will have to wait until Thursday to upload the newest cut video of my music video.
Before then you can expect a vlog post from me. I will clarify why I have changed the filters, and why I have used different shots during the evolution of my project, as well as other areas of change.

2 New Cuts

music video 3 from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.



music video 4 from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

Having refined the composition of the video with small adjustments to the transitions, shot lengths and arrangements; this week I have been experimenting with new filters for my final video. I have gone to these lengths in order to complete the evolution of the project. Personally I prefer music video 4 but please comment your preference to add to my understanding of what a wider audience might prefer.

New Filters

Hello, I have collated a variety of different filters to consider for use in my digipak or as an alteration to my music video filter. Please feel free to comment your thoughts on which is best...

Update

With deadlines approaching thick and fast it can become too easy to not update this blog and keep on track with this project, so I feel this update is essential. 

I have been meticulously studying my music video to see where I must alter and rerrange to create the most professional result. I am near to the point where I feel the video has been sufficiently improved from my first cut, and that cut will be on my blog in the next few days. 

As for my digipack, initial demos have been added to and improved, so I hope have more evolved images of this to show you in the coming days. 

Freddy

Update

	Having posted the rough cut of the my music video on my blog on Thursday I have received much better reviews in comparison to my first video from my teacher and classmates. However I have also gained important advice on how to tweak the video:  "I would suggest making the performance footage black and white, and keeping the slightly surreal tone of the "narrative" in the grading you've chosen. You might also want to consider cross-dissolves between shots, to link with the slide guitar sound." This is advice I have received from my Media Practical teacher. I agree with the dissolves in order to improve the fluidity of the performance shots, but I will have to think very carefully before changing the video to black and white as I will struggle to achieve the grading necessary to show the clear difference between the flash backs and the present narrative. In addition to this my classmates have recommended I remove the intro applause as does not work as I hoped, this is something I suspected and I am prepared to remove entirely instead of trying to improvise like on my current rough cut.

New Music Video- 1st Draft

music video from Freddy Allen on Vimeo.

The premise of the video is that a 2 timing boyfriend pays the price, he watches it unfold whilst performing the song. The applause at the start is meant to contrast from the emptiness and coldness of the room which the performer enters, judge for yourself if it works- it's certainly experimental.

More Digipack Demos