This is the survey I did before I had chosen my song. I wanted to see what kind of music people in my target audience listened to and where they listened to it. I also wanted to see what they expected a music video to be like to give me an idea of how I needed my video to look. Here are some of the responses I got for each question:
I chose to send out my survey within college as it meant I would get responses from people who fall within my target audience age range and were more likely to give me answers that I would be able to use because of their similar interests/music tastes.
I wanted to see where they listen to music to see what kind of genre would be best to do. I didn't want to make a music video that fell within a genre that wouldn't be very appropriate to play within the places/situations given. This is what narrowed down my genre choice to pop, rock and indie.
Asking this allowed me to see what stations they listen to, therefore telling me what kind of artists they listen to. All radio stations play different types of music. So by asking this question it allowed me to see what genre I needed to make my video.
This allowed me to choose how I wanted my video to look as I could see what the target audience wanted/expected to see in a music video. This allowed me to choose whether I wanted my video to be abstract or have a narrative. It also allowed me to see what areas they found most important and what they wanted/expected to see the most.
I wanted to see if my music did need a narrative to be considered interesting to the target audience. For this question I got quite a mixed response but the main response I got was that it depended on the song I chose. Because of the song I settled on, I knew I needed a narrative because of its upbeat nature. I don't think it would have worked very well if I had done an abstract video as this is generally done for slower/indie songs.
I wanted to see what age range the artists are because it would help me narrow down my choice of artist. Quite a few people said they preferred older artists, which is what I went with in the end as I feel that older music is more recognised within the target audience because it is music they will be familiar with. If I had chosen a newer song, I would have struggled to appeal to as wide an audience.
The majority of people said no to this question, which made me quite happy as I didn't like the idea of showing the artist in my music video as I feel this has been done so many times. I personally aren't bothered if the artist appears in the music video or not, but I find that music videos that don't feature them are more creative. From the responses I got, it seems like most people agree with me.
I wanted to see what the target audience expected to see in the video in terms of themes. This was to help me think of an idea for my video and what kind of message I wanted to portray. I tried to keep it quite a light-hearted video as this seemed to be the most popular opinion.
I wanted to see if my target audience were more interested in seeing a funny video or a serious one. I personally wanted to make a funny one as I knew I would find it more enjoyable to make. But a lot of people where quite undecided about how they wanted it to be.
I asked this question so I could make my mind up once and for all what I wanted to do in terms of genre. I wanted to find the most popular one, which turned out to be rock.
I found this survey really helpful as I got 41 responses meaning I had a lot of different opinions to look at and consider. Going through the responses allowed me to choose a genre and what I needed to include to make them enjoy it. Once I had chosen my song, I did another survey.
I did this survey before I started filming so I could see what people expected from a music video in the genre that I am doing. This was to get more genre specific ideas of what was expected from my music video.
From these responses, I was able to pick out what they expected and include it into my video. With my music video including Playmobil, I had to break their expectations slightly. But I still conformed to what is expected by having the dark clothes and the props they would expect to see. I also included some lip-syncing as this was something they expected to see as it is conventional in most videos. I even broke the conventions of that as it wasn't the artist lip-syncing. There aren't many videos where the artist doesn't feature at all. I also made my video completely different to the original as some of the people who responded didn't recognise Bryan Adams. A lot of people don't recognise Bryan Adams until they hear his song but they have never seen his videos. This allowed me to be more creative with my video as most people weren't aware of he was.
Once, I had made my music video, I posted a link on Facebook to see what response I would get.
I couldn't get many responses from Facebook as the link doesn't work on mobiles for some reason. I did get this comment from Facebook. This is from someone who doesn't fall into my target audience age group. However, she still liked my music video. This shows that although my music video is not aimed at her age group, it still appeals to her. I have also shown it to my cousins who are 5 and 7 and they both liked the music video as well. This shows that people who are older and younger than my target audience like my music video.
I also got a text from someone about my music video.
This person also doesn't fall within my target audience age group. These two responses, and those from my teachers, have shown me that even though my music video is aimed for people aged 16-24, it does still appeal to people who fall outside of this age bracket. I was hoping this would be the case as I wanted to make a video that everyone could enjoy but that was mainly aimed at people of a similar age to myself.
When I spoke to my two media teachers about my music video, they suggested some changes I can make to improve my video further. I need to do some more filming to have a wider range of footage in my video as at the moment I have used the guitar footage multiple times as I didn't get enough footage from filming. From talking to my teacher, I have decided the best place to do some more filming is to go down to the beach. There I will be able to get some really good footage that fits with the theme of my music video. I want to get some footage of him running on the beach, building sandcastles, and other activities that will fit with my music video. I also need to do some more editing on the footage that I am keeping in my music video as at the moment, I haven't really done much editing for it. The main editing technique I have been told I should use is jump cuts as this will make the guitar footage fit better with the music as I will be able to edit it in time with the music.
I filmed an audience reaction video to show someone who does fall within my intended age group. She was watching my music video for the first time so I was able to get her true reactions to the video.
Based on her reaction, I can see that she really liked my music video. She laughed at some parts which is what I wanted as I tried to make it funny in places as I feel it makes a music video more enjoyable to watch. After she watched my video, she said she did really enjoy it, the only criticism she had was that I needed a wider range of footage as I had over-used the guitar bit. But this is fine as I knew that it was something I needed to change. Othe than that, she really liked my video and said that she would watch it again. Other people who have watched my music video had a very similar reaction to this in that they found certain parts of it funny. I am really happy that people within my target audience do find it funny as that was what I wanted to do as I felt that it fitted better with my music choice. If I had done a really serious music video, it wouldn't have been as effective as it wouldn't fit with the upbeat, summery feel of the song.
How did I use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
I used some hardware when making my music video. These are:
A Monopod (similar to this)
Pros:
Really sturdy
Small enough to get the stop frame images
Cons:
Kept falling over meaning all my images looked different
Difficult to move around
Struggled getting my camera onto it
This was good to use for my first couple of drafts as it was small enough for me to be able to capture all the images I needed for the stop frame. It worked best for my first draft as I didn't need to move it around at all. The main issue I had with it was that it was difficult to move so I could get different angled shots. It also kept falling over as the suction pad wasn't strong enough to support my Nikon Coolpix. This made taking my images very difficult as I had to hold it down with one hand, move the characters around and take a picture. This resulted in all my images looking very different as it had changed positions after each shot. Because of the limited movement, I struggled to take any angled shots as I couldn't adjust the height of the monopod meaning any angles I did do looked very wonky as I had to prop the monopod on something that was lower of higher than the table. When I realised I would need a proper tripod to do my filming, I borrowed one from college to do my third draft. If I had to do the whole video process again, I wouldn't consider using this again as it wasn't very good when I needed all my images to look the same.
A Tripod (similar to this)
Pros:
Easy movement
Camera was easy to remove
Can adjust the height
Easy to angle
Didn't fall over
Portable
Cons:
The only issue I had, which wasn't really an issue, was carrying it around with me as I had a lot of other things with me.
I used this tripod for making my third draft. I wish I had used this for all my other drafts as I might have some footage from them that might have been good to use in my third draft. This tripod was much better for me to use to take the images I needed as it is easily adjustable and is stable. I had no issue with getting it to the height that I needed in order to take my stop frame images and getting the footage of my actor. In using this tripod, all my images look the same which makes the finished draft look and flow much better. Having this tripod meant I was able to experiment a lot more with different shots as I had a better range to play with. I was able to do some over the shoulder shots of the boy as well as getting up close to get my stop frame images. It was so much easier to use and makes my finished draft look much better than my previous drafts. The camera was also much easier to put on and remove, which I had to do as my Nikon broke mid-filming. The tripod was much better for me to use as I was able to take it outside to do some filming. Although, I won't be using this footage as it doesn't fit with my music video, it still looked good as the tripod was still throughout. It also didn't shake when my actor was jumping around in front of it.
Editing Suite at college (similar to this)
Pros:
Easy to use
Didn't crash when I had a lot of tabs open
Had all of the software on it that I needed
Two screens made it easier to edit
Cons:
Sometimes difficult to get one
Work only saves to the one I worked on
I have used the editing suite throughout the editing process. It made editing my music video a lot easier as I don't have the required software at home. Using an editing suite meant I could use Premiere Pro to edit my footage/images and use Photoshop to make my digipak and magazine advert. I used the editing suite in all of my frees as this allowed me time out of lessons to do some editing. This did mean, however, that it was sometimes difficult to get the editing suite I needed to continue editing my video as it was saved to that one only. Having the two screens did make editing my video a lot easier as I had Premiere on one screen and all my pieces of footage on the other so that I knew I was inserting the correct piece of footage. The editing suite also allowed me to insert my media card into it so I could copy across my pictures and footage without a card reader. This meant I could get on with editing instead of having to try and book out a card reader.
A Nikon Coolpix Camera
Pros:
Good picture/footage quality
Lots of different shots types/filters
Good zoom
Cons:
It broke mid-filming
It is battery powered
I used this camera for my first and second draft. I also used it for some of my third draft but it broke. This camera was really good for my filming as it adjusted to the light change (I used natural lighting in my first draft). It was also really good for giving me the option of making my images in black and white as well as in colour. I didn't use the black and white filter though as it didn't portray the feeling of the video very well. It was also really good for taking the images I used for my magazine advert and digipak. It did make the monopod topple over a lot, but that was more of a problem with the monopod itself rather than the camera. It did break while I was filming for my third draft, this meant that I had to re-shoot on my Samsung camera as the camera qualities are different. The auto-focus also meant that all my images looked different as my camera would change focus each time I moved a character. It also changed focus again when it would turn off if I took too long filming which meant I would have to do the whole segment again, meaning my filming process took longer than expected. The fact that it uses batteries is also a drawback as I couldn't get much filming done as the battery life wasn't very long. I did have rechargeable batteries for it but even these didn't have a long life and would take a long time to re-charge which also slowed down the filming process. When my camera broke I had to get out my other camera.
A Samsung PL81 camera
Pros:
Good picture quality
No auto-focus
Good zooming range
Easy to use
Portable (more so than the Nikon)
Cons:
Has a black mark on the screen (courtesy of my cousin)
This camera was much better to use for my video as the camera didn't auto-zoom like the Nikon did. This meant that unless I changed the zoom, all the shots looked the same. This camera was also better for doing the filming I did on the beach during the Easter Holidays as I could keep it in my pocket. This camera needs charging meaning it lasts longer so I can get more filming done in one go. It was also easier to use when I needed it on the tripod as it is smaller. Despite being a poorer quality camera than my other one, it still looks really good and was more practical for what I was doing. I should have used this camera from the beginning as it has been much more reliable than the Nikon. The black mark on the screen did make it difficult to watch some footage as I couldn't see the whole shot. This also proved an issue while I was actually filming as I couldn't see the entire shot until I uploaded it to a computer (which meant the black mark had disappeared).
Software
Photoshop
I have used Photoshop a lot during the making of my products. I didn't use it for my music video but I did use it for my digipak and magazine advert. The main reason I used it was to manipulate the images I had taken so that they were suitable for the product I was making. The main tool I used was the opacity tool as most of my images were too bright for my products. By toning them down, they worked better within the two products.
I used this tool the most on my digipak as a lot of the colours in the images clashed. So I needed to change the opacity so that the colours were toned down more so that the colours wouldn't clash. With the still images from my music video on my digipak, I layered the images so that one was coloured and one was in black and white. I did this because the images clashed too much when they were both in colour, even when the opacity was changed. So I chose to do the bottom image in black and white.
This also added continuity between the two products as my magazine advert was also gray scaled. I wanted to do this as I felt that it fitted better with the idea of looking back in time and it felt quite nostalgic. I also wanted there to be a clear contrast with the music video which is completely in colour. There is still a clear link between the products but also a clear difference.
I found Photoshop to be the best software to use as I am familiar with it from last year and it is quite simple to use in order to create the products I wanted. I also used it to edit my magazine advert onto a bus stop, into a magazine and into a wall poser. I also used it to put my digipak online at HMV, instore at HMV, on Spotify and on Itunes. It made it very easy for me to do this as I was able to put my products in real life situations and see how they looked against existing products. In doing this, it allowed me to make any changes I needed to in order to make it look more realistic.
The only downside I found about using Photoshop is that I don't have access to it at home meaning I was only able to edit it at college. This wasn't too much of an issue though as I started making my advert and digipak early so that it would allow me more time to make it with me being unable to do it from home. This also meant I was able to create a better end product because they don't look rushed as I took a lot of time over them both. This also allowed me to make a lot of changes to them as I was able to get more feedback during the production process. This enabled me to make better final products as I was able to make slight changes to make them appeal more to my target audience.
If I could go back and re-do all of my products, I would definitely go back and use Photoshop again as I find it to be the best software to use in order to create the images and manipulate them in the most effective way. I also find it good as I can experiment more with the images, which I did do with my magazine advert. I changed the image into a circle rather than a full image, which a lot of people really liked. I kept this in my final product as it proved to be quite a popular technique.
Premiere Pro
Before making my music video, I had never used Premiere Pro. I was shown how to use it by a teacher at college and got the hang of it quite quickly. Editing the footage together was really easy to do.
As I had a lot of images and videos, I had to import small sections of them at a time to avoid confusion during the editing process. I found this really easy to do and it was really quick considering the amount of footage and images I had. Putting the pieces of footage/images I needed in was really easy to do as well as I was able to pause the music where I wanted to insert the footage/image. Once I had all the images and footage where I wanted them, I had to look at a YouTube tutorial on how to fade out my sound. I needed to cut the song short as it had talking at the end where the characters had a conversation in the car. This wasn't a problem as I found a good place to end the song. But when I played the song, it didn't sound right as it just end abruptly. This is why I needed to use a YouTube tutorial to show me how to sort this out to make the transition smoother between the last piece of footage with the song, and the footage that was on after the song had finished.
I only used Premiere Pro for my music video, but I did find it to be the best piece of software for the job. The only issue I had with it was that, like Photoshop, I couldn't use it outside of college. This meant all my editing had to be done during my time at college. This wasn't an issue as I have plenty of frees at college, but it was annoying when I had an idea at home but couldn't change it on the video until the next day. Another issue I have found with it is that when I removed the audio from a piece of footage, there is a buzzing noise where it should be silent. I find this quite annoying as it shouldn't be there and when you have headphones on, it can be very loud and irritating. I have still not found out how I can change this yet.
Prezi
I have used Prezi quite a bit during my planning and research. The main reason I used it was for when I was writing about the different theorists and their theories. I did most of them on Prezi as I could make them all look different. Here is an example of one I made:
Here are some of the many templates that Prezi has for making presentations. This is the main reason I used Prezi as I could make all the presentations I did look different. This meant that even though I was using the same software, it didn't get boring as they all looked very different. I also like that if there isn't a template that is any good for the work, you can make a blank Prezi so you can add your own image as the background. I also like that I can use this from home meaning I could get them done at home as well as at college. This allowed me to get them done quickly and move onto the next task on my checklist. I also like that I can insert YouTube clips onto it. This meant that they wouldn't be boring to look at as I wouldn't need to put as much writing on them as I had the video to explain/show what I was saying/doing. They are also really easy to insert onto my blog. I haven't really found anything wrong with Prezi, it is much nicer to look at than regular Microsoft Powerpoint.
Emaze
I used Emaze for some of my later presentations to put on my blog as I had never seen them used before. I find this a nice alternative to Prezi. Here is an example of one I made:
I really liked using this and wish I had found it earlier on in my research and planning. I didn't make many presentations on this software but I really like the ones I did make. I like more of the backgrounds on this software compared to Prezi. Prezi is easier to use than Emaze but Emaze has much nicer backgrounds. The only thing I didn't particularly like about it is that the slides change to the next one too quickly, so I was constantly having to go back. I think these look much nicer on my blog than the Prezis do as the backgrounds are really nice patterns. I found this a very effective piece of software to use to present my work as they are nice to look at and are more interesting to look at than regular Powerpoint.
Storyboard That
I used this piece of software to make my storyboard for my music video. It was really effective for making my storyboard as I could make the characters to make them look like the ones in my actual video. Here is an example of some of the storyboard frames:
Altogether I made about 50 of these to create a storyboard for each scene of my music video. The way my music video is now, it is not very close to this storyboard anymore as I changed my idea slightly meaning some sections of this stroyboard do not reflect my music video anymore. However, this software was very good for me creating a storyboard that reflected my original idea. The only issue I had with this was that I could only make 6 frames at a time. This means that I don't have a full storyboard because I had to delete them to make the next six. I had to screenshot them to put them onto my blog. This wasn't a massive issue but I was hoping to be able to have my whole storyboard together on the website so I could look at it on their rather than going onto my blog. It also meant that if I looked back and my storyboard and wanted to change one frame out of the six, I would have to re-create them all as I didn't have them on the storyboard. This software was good though as I was able to access it from home.
GoAnimate
I used GoAnimate to make my focus group video. I did my survey on SurveyMonkey and then used the responses I gained to make this for my focus group. Here is a screenshot from the GoAnimate:
The main issue I had with my GoAnimate is that I struggled to upload it to my blog. I did like using this software as it was a different way of presenting my focus group. I was going to just film people answering my questions but decided against this as I knew this is what most people would do. So I decided to do it this way instead. It was also just something else on my blog. This piece of software was good as I was able to access it from home. Another issue I had with this software is that the voices are very robotic and it is sometimes difficult to understand what is being said at times. Other than that, it is really good to use and didn't take me too long to put together. It is quite limited in what it can do but it did the job for me and the focus group.
Survey Monkey
I used Survey Monkey a few times as I have had to do quite a few surveys throughout the year. They allowed me to get more responses than if I had gone around and asked people individually. Here is the amount of responses I got from my first survey.
I also did this for my focus group as it was more likely to get responses that I could use. I did find this to be the best way of collecting responses and meant I could get answers from people I don't even know. It also meant I could get a more varied range of answers as people were filling it out individually. The only issue I had with using this software was that I didn't get as many responses as I had hoped for on a couple of my surveys because people would delete the link instead of filling it out first. I was able to post my surveys onto Facebook which was helpful as I was able to reach out to people who didn't go to college and are more likely to fall outside of my target age group (like my family members). I used this software for getting feedback on my ancillary texts which was very helpful as it meant I could use the responses I gained from it in conjunction with verbal responses. I also found this really easy to post onto my blog as I am able to use the snipping tool.
I decided to film some footage on the beach for my music video as I felt that it would fit with the theme and feel of my video. In order to do this, my actor needed to have a costume change as his school uniform wasn't ideal for the beach. In my original idea, there wasn't going to be a costume change as it wasn't necessary. But with the slight idea/footage change, I have had to include one. This costume change is just my actor in a different coat, joggers and his wellies. This was a more appropriate and realistic costume for the beach footage as it wouldn't be realistic for him to go there with his uniform on.
Here is some of the footage I took while on the beach. I have decided to put this piece of unedited footage onto my blog to show what one piece of footage will look like. I filmed this bit a couple of times but have uploaded this version. I apologise for my singing!
After I edited my music video together, I had a look through all the theorists to see which ones applied to my product. The ones that apply are:
When choosing what to include in my video, I had a look at some existing products of the same/similar genre of music. I wanted to have shots in my video that were used in other videos and would make the video conventional.
When deciding that I wanted the boy in my video to pretend to play guitar in my video, I had a look at McBusted 'Air Guitar'. This is a screen shot I took from the video to show why I have decided to use this in my music video.
In the stop frame, I want to show the band practicing in a garage because this is the stereotypical place people think of when bands are practicing. This is a screen shot from the 5 Seconds of Summer video 'Amnesia'.
The main character in my music video is my little brother. I have seen a few videos that include young children in them instead of the artist. This is a screen shot from McFly's 'Love is on the Radio'. This is to mirror the part of my video where the boy is putting the camera on the tripod. The shot I will be using is a bit closer to his face than this one is but it is quite similar.
There is a part in the video where the two characters are on the porch. I tried to use an image of a house that is similar to this one. This is a screen shot taken from 5 Second of Summer's 'She's Kinda Hot'.
There is a few parts of the video that are going to be band performance. This is used in a lot of music videos in this genre. These two screen shots are taken from Green Day 'American Idiot' and 5 Seconds of Summer 'She Looks so Perfect'.
Changes I need to make before the deadline (22nd April):
I need to have some more shots of the boy. The ones I had were used a lot. I need to put some effects on the parts where the boy is playing the guitar because they look quite plan at the moment. I need to try and make sure the clips of the boy all look different.
I did some more filming for my music video over the Easter holidays. For the footage of Alex making the stop frame, I was given the idea of making look like it was being recorded on a camera.
I watched a YouTube tutorial on how to add text as I thought this would be the best way to make it.
I wanted to make my video have elements of 'behind the scenes' in it as I thought this would be better for the narrative than just having it all as a stop frame. I found a couple of existing music videos that have bits of behind the scenes in them.
I thought showing elements of behind the scenes was quite unconventional which works well with my video as it breaks the usual conventions of a video in the pop/rock genre.
