Evaluation Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research and planning

In the research and planning stage we used a lot of technology to be able to find theories and look up other music videos, digi-packs and adverts to analyse. We needed inspiration of what to do with the song we found and used these sights to help us plan our 3 products out.

Youtube is a sight where video are uploaded on, this was our main way of finding music videos to analyse as this platform is where they are all mostly uploaded onto. The site was useful as we used it for inspiration of music videos and conventions of genres for artist, at the start in out researching of other artist which gave us idea. It was also good as it allowed us to see another music video officially released by Oleena. Some of the bad things was that (annoyingly) youtube was blocked on our school computers meaning we had to do a lot of research on our own. 

Soundcloud was actually where Anna managed to find the song and artist for our music video and products, it's a music listening sight usually for less famous and known artist to put their music on. The pros were that its really easy to use and allows you to be able to find a whole range of music and artists and is how Anna came across Sea Oleena, it also allowed us to listen to other songs that she had only put on that platform and not youtube. It didn't have any cons.

Google Docs and Email was a really easy way of contacting our artist when in the beginning we had done the research of her music, we just emailed her asking of permission to use her music for a video we were doing. To which she replied by email and said that we could use her song. The google docs also let me be able to write up information on media theories and then screenshot them, adding them to my blog. The pro's were that we could contact our artist and write up planning and research info - being able to email information to Anna such as powerpoint slide when we had audience research.It didn't have any cons.

Blogger was the sight we used to put our course work on, being able to document everything we did so it would back up the products we made. The pro's to blogger was that it generally is an easy sight to use and it uploads multi media onto such as youtube, videos and gifs, which is useful to help us document as best as we could what videos, shots and images influenced us. Its also a good way to express what you wanted to say quickly without forgetting, you can put the posts in drafts if you aren't finished to be able to work further into them without posting. It didn't have any cons.

Google.co.uk was generally used in every stage but was pre-dominant in the research stage as it allowed us to get a lot of information. The pro's to google was that it allowed us to get on blogger the site to document our work as well as soundcloud, youtube and google docs. We managed to find a lot about our artist and get more of a vibe of who she was as an artist through social media and her own website. It was also useful to get media like photos off of google to then use on our blog. It didn't have any cons.


https://seaoleena.bandcamp.com/

Construction

The iMac was a very consistent part of our media technologies, it was used in every part of planning, making and evaluating our products. We used the iMac to upload all of our information onto loading our footage onto from the camera, then using the features on the iMac to group our footage so we had it all. iPhoto was also used to upload all our photos onto so we could see what we wanted to use or not. The pro's was that on the iMac it was all really easy to use, everything was all in one place and ready to start up very lesson which was really handy.
It didn't have any cons.

iMovie was overall the editing software we used for our final music video, as well as our audience feedback that we filmed about the music video. We actually weren't going to use this software but due to the easy use we just used this one instead, the pros that every lesson it loaded well and had everything already saved and left in place to where it was before. This meant it was really easy to carry on and finish where we left off, saving time!
A few of the cons were that it's limited in the features that it has, even though its easier to use it isn't always as good as some features that we wanted to use such as adjusting the colour wasn't a good as we wanted it to be. Also with layering videos you cannot layer more than one onto of the main layer at a time, which was really annoying as it would've been good to be able to do that.

On this chart we only used Adobe Photoshop and premiere pro. The photoshop was used to construct the magazine advert and the digi-pack. They're both very easy and also complicated to use, once you understand it the software can be really easy to use but starting off we found it quite difficult! The premiere pro is the video editing tool and one we used in creating the projection in front of Ella, we wanted a couple features and imovie wouldn't let us do it so we used pro instead. The biggest pro was that Adobe as a whole always gives a really finished look and looks very professional.
The cons were that we did find it a bit difficult to get used to and did have to watch a few tutorials to get to grips with a few features.

This was the camera we sued to do our filming on, its a canon 600D! This technology was used in the construction of the music video and the other two print products (we didn't use the pictures for the print products in the end). The pro's was that this camera was very easy to use and filmed really well, it had a large capacity of memory so we could get all four filming done on it. The camera filmed in HD so improved the quality of our footage and even managed to capture a really beautiful light glare when we were at Ashton court.
The cons was that due to it not actually being a filming based camera it didn't do thing like auto focus which would have just been a lot easier and better to have as some shot were harder to focus or don't look focused enough. 

The Go Pro was the other camera used in filming our music video, this camera was a real plus as it had the effects of being able to film underwater and film in hard conditions- we also didn't have to worry about getting it dirty or anything as you could wipe it off! It also had the pro of being able to film in really high quality even 4k! The main feature which we used though was the time lapse and slow motion, the time lapse of the sky was really handy as we could just put it somewhere still and it could take a photo every 5 seconds and create a video for us!
The Go Pro honestly didn't have any flaws apart form the trial time lapse but that was due to I put it on the wrong setting!

The scanner was the technology we used to scan our disposable photo in for our magazine advert and the digi-pack. The scanners pros were that it was really quick and efficient in getting the photos from one place to another, it scanned all the pictures quickly and kept their disposable look about them!
Again it didn't really have any flaws to using it.

The disposable camera was the only non digital piece of technology we used, we decided that we wanted to take photos whilst filming of what we filmed to eventually try and use them for our digi-pack and advert. The pros were that luckily practically all of the photos came out really great and they captured the look we aimed for, to look oldish and have a film camera look about them! The photos were really cohesive with the music video as well as they were used for both the advert and cd cover.
The cons were that sometimes photos don't take very good and come out well, and a few of them the lighting was no good so we couldn't use them in the end!

Evaluation

Youtube was most relevant in the research and construction of our media products, we used this platform to put our music video on when we finished it, this would also allow a range of people to view it and allow us to get feedback on how we did. The pro's were that it can reach a wide range of people and be able to be seen! We used this technology to market our music video and create stigma!It didn't have any cons.

Blogger was used in the evaluation of all 3 of our products, it allowed us to be able to document our finished products and see how we developed ideas from other artists to create our own iconic image for our artist and song. It was a pro for self reflection, we can see what we did and how we did it, giving us pointer for the future for how we could market our artist further and develop the image more with conventions and ideas. 

The iMac was used to record feedback for our mostly our music video, with the webcam we filmed responses to our questions to help us evaluate the positives and negatives of our music video product. The pros were that it was really easy to film the feedback, but the con's was that on reflection the sound quality wasn't very good:( and was hard to hear.

Evaluation Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

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

In our coursework we produced a music video, digi-pack and magazine advert which all linked in ways to represent the main product of the music video based on Sea Oleena and her song 'untitled'. We wanted to create something that represented her as an artist and her vibe with ambient music and dream indie pop.

I believe that all of our elementsucts together are very cohesive, they have a clear link and the audience can really tell that they have come from the same artist and place. They're cohesive due to the fact that in the digi-pack and the advert we used the photos we took on the disposable camera- we did take photos on the dslr camera but decided that we like the film photos more and wanted to only use these. As they both have the look that they're disposable camera photos (and they are) it shows how there has been a progression from the actual music video on a digital camera to location film photos being used.

Cohesion is important to for multiple reasons, firstly it helps the audience in being able to create links for the artist to their products, in our case in helps the audience link the music to the video and then the other 2 products created. From a marketting point it helps in identifying the artist and creating an image which they want to carry on a further develop through albums and videosnin the future. It helps in a longer term affect for an artist as it can be a focal point or base line for things like tours and concerts- so they can incorporate things from their cd covers and adverts as well as motifs and elements in music videos. This helps the audience feel like they are in the world which they watch on music videos.

For example in our 3 products if our artist was to have a concert or go on tour we would incorporate elements such as playing a home video recorded on film made on the screens, the theme being very flowery, having lots of pink and purple colours. And even for the crowd and the main stage having lots of flowers and fake candles, possibly even mirrors on stage. With the artist carrying on the vintage outifts, wearing glitter and having natural elements present.

Through the location, props and outfits we created characteristics that link and connect all 3 of our products together. We used visual motifs through the props of flowers, the camera, candles, nature and the outdoors, vintage clothing and accessories in all 3 of our products. This shows how they're all connected like a chain, hopefully then the artist can be recognised by seeing any of them. we tried to use props which we felt represented a Dreamy atmosphere and would make the audience feel liek they were in a dream.

We also used the continuous use of the 4 elements of the Earth of fire, water, wind and Earth- we used this in the form of candles in the forest, the pond type location in Ashton court & the bath tub scenes, the time lapse of the sky and our hands in the sky as we filmed the silhouette, and finally the flowers and scenery we filmed as sdll as the deer. This for us was a really important part of our 3 products as a whole, we really felt like Sea Oleena's song 'untitled' was very natural and related to nature a lot, also the instrumemts and the song was played really quite slow. The song was so beautiful and it almost felt like listening to poetry, so i think we both really wanted a serene poetic portrayal in the video, we wanted it to be calm and reflect the lyrics. 

Especially with the digi pack and advert we wanted that to represent what we portrayed in the video, a calm, artistic and serene atmosphere- a dream, we really wanted the audience to feel like they were in a dream due to the genre. 

Evaluation Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When planning and constructing we used lots of evaluation from our peers through audience research to help influence what we should do in our three products  and how we can get them to appeal the most!

Audience research is very important to companies creating an image for a band, especially when the band or artist is starting up. The results show significance to us as they give a direction to where the audience think we should go even when we have our own ideas. What we collected was put into graphs and charts of results we collected, from this research it gave a conclusion of what may be best to do in planning our 3 products.

To the wider music industry this is very significant in trying to sell the artist and their products to the public as one of the key points is having a sell able usp! One of the main elements to creating these products and showing them to the public is to try and make money and a profit from them, to do this the artist does need to keep in mind what the audience want to see to be able to appeal to them and sell their image/product!

Audience feedback is used to market products as it gives the creative design people in charge of the commercials, information of what the public would like to see. It's taken into account and assessed to see if what the audience expect for the ancillary products are going to work with the image for the artist.
When we collected our audience research we did take into account what the audience said about what they would like to see in our music video containing the shots, the audience said that they DO like to see a more of a story based video with sketchy and random shots to make it interesting.

The consequences of ignoring your audience research are that you may not appeal to your target audience as well as you hoped and wouldn't generate a brand about your artist. It may also mean that the public may not be interested in the music video and may not be interested to watch it. However, there is the consequence of ignoring audience feedback that you will create more of a unique and known look about your artist. When we collected audience research and we asked passing comments to our peers in the room some of them did disagree with what we originally thought about ideas for our product. Our teacher gave us feedback on the digi-pack that we should use the photo of Ella with her hair in hearts, however me and Anna both really liked the other portrait (the one thats the cover) and overall decided that this fitted what we wanted to portray better.  We did ignore the feedback given but really believed this would better brand our artists and be cohesive with the rest of our products.

Of the positive feedback, I did expect more people of our research to appreciate the light glares and marks on the disposables we had taken as some did turn out with different lighting and glares on them.  It was surprising as we thought this would add uniqueness and a dreamy effect to our products and attract the audience to become interested- which they were, just not as much as I thought they would be!
Furthermore the fact that in our audience research after we made the digi-pack and the advert that our target audience of 10 people said their favourite part was the editing was really positive! I personally thought that the second favourite thing they'd find would be the images we used- but they weren't it was the colours (possibly of how we used colours ion our images as well).  I didn't think that this was negative feedback but just thought that the audience appreciated the images more than the colours.

Of the negative feedback, we didn't get any major feedback which would really change our plans of what we wanted to do, a lot of it I mentioned above. It was disappointing that more people didn't like the light glares and marks on the disposables. I do agree in a way as it can often ruin the whole image if there is a bright red streak through the middle, but I think it juts added to the unique, dreamy, reality we wanted to create. Our song is a mix of indie pop and and dream pop with other genres and we both thought that things like light glares and disposable photos really empathised what genre the artist is and the image of the artist.

We may have had some weak elements like using the disposable camera photos and we could've used professional photos that we'd taken which were better quality, we were aware of this but felt as though it suited a vintage feel more than a really futuristic post modernism photo digi-pack.

Final: Music video

Here is a link to our final music video of "Sea Oleena's" song 'Untitled'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htxKPpCXHvY

"Conceptual and beautiful"

We developed our ideas from brain storming at the start to collecting audiences opinions and filming our video  and now all filmed, developed and edited here it is!

This is our final cut and we hope you enjoy watching it!!

Audience Research: After making our Digi-pack and advert

After completing our digi-pack we collected some research from a sample of 10 people on who they'd rate our digi-pack out of 10! 

1 being the best and 10 being the worst. 

The results below showed us that 50% of our participants gave us a '1' being the best. 40% gave us a 2/10 for our album pack. And finally 10% (1 person) gave us a 3/10

Next we asked the same audience to analyse our magazine advert, but only 9 people this time, we wanted to know what their favourite aspects of the advert were!

We gave them a choice of three to choose from.

5 people said that the editing was their favourite part, with the same we composed everything and changed the images being something they really liked.

3 people said that the colours were their favourite, being the colours of the titles and the way that we changed the image colouring to look unique.

And finally 2 people said the liked the images, being the disposable camera element to the advert. 

From the results it looks as though our magazine advert and digi-pack were a big success and our target audience really enjoyed looking at the both.

Final: Magazine Advert

This was our final product for our magazine cover, we wanted it to be really interesting, different and something that would capture readers to want to hear more about the artist. We aimed for an advert where we could show what would be in the music video without giving too much away...

e.g The bath bomb, the scenery, and a small snap of Ella holding flowers at the bottom.

1. The bath scene

2. The scenery and outdoors

3. The outfits and flowers props we used

The advert gives curiosity, wondering and a magical feel to it. We switched up the colours of some of the photos and tried to almost tease the audience with actual photos we took on the days we filmed on the day! I think in a way its more authentic to do this, it goes against the conventions of close ups of the artist, instead having close ups of what is to come in the music video and what the artist is about. 

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We really played around in photoshop as we weren't sure what entirely what we were doing! Overlaying photos and changing the opacity was a fun idea as well as inverting our photos to swap the colours completely! 

As a last minute thought we added the scanned in picture of the strip from where the disposables were developed and also inverted that to contrast with the normal coloured photos.

It was important to capture the dreamy, mystical and magical aura of our video and also our song as it would play a key part in who our artist (Sea Oleena) is and the vibe of which we thought would go well with her song!

Final: Digipack

This was our digi pack for our CD case that we created, we used all the photos from the disposable camera we had developed and used and layered them with text and barcodes etc. to creat an ep CD with a tray  and 4 inserts.