Final Interim Evaluation

Overall I am very happy with the outcome of our ancillary products and music video. We changed and edit, and followed audience feedback to create our end result, which not only challenges, but acknowledges the genre, and is influenced by other music videos also in its genre. Our ancillary products work well, linking to our music video and making the artist's identity easily recognizable.  The effects and colours used in fonts and shot types displays our music video is influenced by others in the drum and bass genre, yet creates a unique style which is carried out among our products. Although at the start of the project we had a clear idea of what we were aiming for, the changes made along the way have helped us to keep improving our end project, with ideas incorporated from the whole group, and feedback from the audience taken on board, and distributed into our final pieces.
I am happy with the end aesthetics of all three products. Our music video represents our genre well, whilst creating our own identity, and linking to our ancillary products, making it identifiable to audiences who have seen our music video, are interested in drum and bass or who like the style.

Audience Feedback from our Music Video and Ancillary Products - Isobel Kelly

 

 

Interview on our music video, Digipack and Magazine Ad - Anna Hester

Using our Audience's Feedback

We have received a lot of our audience's feedback in multiple forms throughout the process of creating our video. In the research stage, we gained a lot of feedback from our Survey Monkey. 

The most popular opinion for 'what to expect in a typical Drum and Bass music video' was dancing and performing. For this reason, we have added multiple shots of Izzy dancing, particularly towards the second half of the video when the beat picks up. 

For the question 'would you expect the editing to match the pace of the music', the answer was a unanimous yes. We bared this in mind when it came to editing our footage, and ensured we edited to the beat where it felt appropriate. It's particularly effective after the first verse when the speed picks up and the video changes from black and white to colour on the beat(s).

It was more popular than not for our audience to 'expect a variety of locations', which we'd originally planned to do anyway, so we were therefore more confident in doing so knowing it was expected among our audience. Throughout the video we have altered between the two locations we filmed in, being the studio and Paris. 

We have also included the shot of the beach during the bridge of the song, which we additionally edited to the beat to flash on and off of the screen appropriately. I also feel like it was appropriate to use this shot as it is when the pace of the music begins to slow before picking up again, so is therefore quite peaceful and contradictory to the busyness of Paris.

When our video was part way through construction, we got audience feedback from what we had created so far. 

They said they liked the projections and suggested we could use more shots of them to make it more creative, which we then added. 

Further feedback we received was to get more varying shot types, so we therefore got birds-eye shots of Izzy singing and dancing to add to the existing shots we already had. 

We then reflected the image to make it more creative, and again, edited it to change on the beat from the above picture to the one below. 

These shots then juxtapose effectively with the previous shots we edited of Izzy where she is sitting down, reflected to be 'facing herself' and then again to be 'back to back' with herself. The background colours also contradict each other nicely, with the grey background when she is standing to a white background when she is sitting.  

Overall, it has been very beneficial for us to receive feedback throughout constructing our video as we were then able to make the relevant alterations needed along the way.  

Audienece Review (music video) - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

                           

We played our music video to 5 people in our target audience range.
We asked constructive questions, where we wanted any ideas they had that might fit our music video and whether or not the video fitted the genre of drum and bass. The responses we got were good, and we have already started to add in some of their ideas, such as more projections.

Magazine Analysis - Isobel Kelly

I created this annotation of a magazine cover on 'Szoter' to analyse the effect of branding and advertising on music artists.

Album Cover Analysis

Rudimental Album Cover

Rudimental's album cover clearly demonstrates the band's typical style and genre. The urban location featured in the shots is demonstrative of their drum and bass genre, with the white and black writing standing out among the busy background. Although the album cover does not feature an image of the band, their logo is recognizable for audiences who may go out looking to find or buy the album.

The capitalised song titles on the back cover reflect the band's logo, yet contrast the logos colour.

The mise en scene of the shots are symmetrical yet aesthetically pleasing,with the colour on the front centre of the album cover being the album's most stand-out element.

Individual CD Design Idea- Catriona Morgan

Possible CD Cover Designs from catmorgan

Magazine Advert

I created these magazine adverts on 'Fotor' . I created two very contrasting adverts and asked 5 target audience members for their opinion on them. The first advert I created was very minimalist and modern, to appeal to a wide range of music audience members. The black and white is simple and effective and doesnt specifically identify with a certain gender.
On the other advert i used bright colours and added a high contrast in photo colour. The high contrast looks as though a photo is being taken, relating to the modern day generation of teenagers, and our target audience of young adults aged 16-25. I added pink to the advert to support the female artist on the front cover, and identify with female audience members who are more likely to identify with the artist.

Font analysis - Isobel Kelly

 Font is very important when selling a CD, they draw the audience eye towards the product and informs them who the product is by, and what specifically it is selling.
Here, Florence and the Machine has two contrasting fonts on her cover. The first, a thin, lower case font for the artist name, this swirly font reflects the singers style. With the capitalised title standing out to represent the songs name. The colour, gold also stands out among the black and represents fortune, winning and royalty, perhaps reflective of the song or artist.

 Bastille's album, 'Bad Blood' uses a black, bold, capitalised font that stands out amongst a neutral, light coloured background. The capitalisation is due to the artists theme and logo, with the triangular 'A', being the band's signature sign. The font is clear to read, therefore eye catching for anyone looking for this CD.

Rudimental's CD features the artists logo, of the name of the band written in a white rectangle. Although the white writing can be hard to read over the light background, as their logo is the bands name, they are easy to recognise for audience members looking for their CD. The white writing also contrasts the centre image of the CD design, which is colourful and central to the logo and cover.

Facebook Page- Update

This is just a quick update to show how beneficial having a Facebook Page has been as we are able to upload anything from a link, to a video, to pictures etc. and it's immediately accessible to everyone that wishes to view it. 

To begin with, we were able to pin our Survey Monkey Questionnaire to the top of our page, so that as soon as anyone viewed our page, the top thing they would see would be the questionnaire. This was done in an attempt to get as many results as possible to help us in the planning process of what would be appropriate for our genre etc. I think the page was very helpful as we manged to get a lot of feedback from the survey through the promotion/influence of Facebook. 

We managed to upload the first minute of the first draft of our music video which was beneficial as it reached 22 people, which is a lot more than we could have got just by simply asking our friends.

Finally, we uploaded the video of us practicing the projections. Again, this was beneficial as it reached 51 people (which is obviously a lot more than just showing friends/family.) We even got some feedback which was good as it enabled us to know that it was liked among our target audience, and we were able to then make the plans necessary to film some more projections footage. 

Overall the creation of the Facebook page has achieved everything we set out for it to, which was initially just to promote our work and get some feedback along the way.  

Audience Feedback from our 'Projections Practice' Video- Catriona Morgan

Projections Practice and Audience Feedback

This is a video condensing all of the clips we got whilst practicing to see what having videos projected onto Izzy would look like. This was time well spent as firstly, we were able to see that the projections not only worked, but also that we liked the effect they had. We then got excited about how we could incorporate this into our music video. However, we need some potential audience member's feedback, which we got, and has been analysed below: 

Projections Peer-Audience Evaluation

How does YouTube promote music ? - Anna Hester

How does YouTube promote music ?

Music videos are an increasingly important promotional tool for artists and labels. They allow musicians to build their image, get their music heard, get new fans and earn money. And this can all be done through the power of YouTube.

The importance of having YouTube is ...

• YouTube is the primary search tool for music on the internet
• It’s easy to share and embed from YouTube. This means videos can be shared on other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook.
• YouTube loves music videos and encourages partnerships with labels and artists, which could bring financial benefits.
• Radio decisions regarding play listing are commonly based on YouTube stats, while record labels, managers and publishers use stats as an important popularity indicator when signing new acts.

A good example of YouTube exposure has been Justin Bieber. Nearly everyone who first discovered him through YouTube. With that in mind, Bieber takes every advantage of the YouTube format to let fans know how to connect with him as well as where to find his music.
Links and page banners encourage viewers and visitors to his channel to buy his singles on iTunes, visit his online store, follow him on Twitter and like him on Facebook. All the links to other media platforms allows unknown and well known artists to get greater exposure than ever before.

A big part to any artists success is down to fan access and engagement.
The success of promoted videos is fairly obvious; fans want to get to know the artists they love and have an inside look into what it’s like to be them. All access type content can be hugely beneficial for artists, as fans get to known the performer better, meaning the brand and consumer build a greater relationship, causing more views to be received on YouTube.

Overall, YouTube is the main hub behind any artists success and without it there would be less views, less promotion and eventually no music.

Audience Survey Results

We created a survey for target audience members to anonymously supply opinions and expectations they would have of a 'Drum and Bass' music video. The results support our initial ideas for our music videos, with unanimous responses on 'fashionable costume', and 'editing to the pace of the music' and with answers such as "Because the music video is fast pace - they should always be moving" we have re-thought elements of our music video to incorporate dance elements into our performance aspect.This supports David Borwell's theory that the audience defines the genre rather than the director.

How we interpreted these suggestions and put them into our music video.

Since creating a survey for audience memebers on their expectations of a music video in the drum and bass genre, we have changed elements of our music video to comply with their suggestions. 'Would you expect the pace of the video to link to the pace of the music', was responded 'Yes' by 100% of people asked. Therefore we increased the speed of shots in places such as the chorus to meet with the fast pace music that features only in the chorus. As the song starts off slow, so does the video, and after the first chorus, the speed increases, as does our video editing.

Secondly audience members said they expected to see both dancing and performing in our music video, so we interspersed shots of the artist dancing in projections alongside close up shots of the artist singing.

Audience Feedback (pitch) - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

We have taken into consideration our audiences feedback and are looking into including establishing shots into our music video to include a wide range of shot types.
We are going to add more varied shot types due to a majority response of partly agree from our target audience. This is because we want to appeal to our target audience and 4 out of 5 of the feedback sheets agreed that we need more varied shot types that fit in with our genre. We are now including more original and varied shot types in a creative way.

Pitch Plan - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

                        

Here is a brainstorm of what we want to include in our pitch.  

Audience Expectations Video - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

To get insperation for our music video we went and interviewd our audience. We played them the song and asked what they thought should be in the video. This is what they thought ...