Ancillary Text Feedback

-Very nice use of colour - the colour pop in the title was effective against the black and white background
-Really effective use of layering within the magpie, looks really professional however, it's not clear that it's Leeds, even to someone local. We are still happy with the product though, deciding to leave the Leeds imagery subtle so as not to be too over-facing
-The font had a really good reception, stating that it fit with the urban feel of the rest of the digipak
-100% of our audience identified the digipak and advert as being within the indie-rock genre

Overall this s really positive feedback and we are very happy with our final product

Evaluation Question 4

How did we use media technologies in the construction, research and panning stages of our video?

Before we had our online discussion I created a list on which we could base our conversation, making sure we didn't miss anything and ensuring it followed a coherent structure. We all had access to this during our conversation, allowing it to direct the topics covered. Therefore it can be see below as a rough structure of our discussion surrounding question 4: 

Media Technologies List 

Research: (1-5 minutes) 

-Survey monkey which was posted on social media (Facebook) to reach a wide range of people in order to establish a target audience and effectively tailor the video to their needs - very effective! Allowed us to generate a large number of results and deeply analyse our findings 

-We also used google and ‘YouGov’ to understand the target audiences of similar bands and compare this to our own research to get an accurate view of our primary and secondary target audiences. This research allowed us to construct a music video that was relevant to it’s viewers and enabled us to plan our video around their needs e.g. including a narrative and the types of lighting and colour we used throughout the video. 

-We also used youtube to watch similar videos to gain ideas and understand our genre conventions e.g. Maroon 5’s 'harder to breathe' which influenced the camerawork in the ‘live performance’ aspect of our video. We were then able to embed these videos into our blogs to analyse the media language used within them and present this research in an effective and clear way.

Planning: (5-8:10 minutes) 

-We used a power point during our pitch of the music video to illustrate our ideas and sell our potential product. We used screenshots of music videos we had been influenced by and even gradually added colour in through the presentation to demonstrate the colour shift idea we envisioned for the video. This helped make our pitch more effective and allowed us to visually illustrate our points to communicate our ideas in what became a successful pitch. 

-We continually used blogger throughout our research, planning and construction to document every new video we had seen or were influenced by, as well as keeping track of the process and continuously evaluating our work. We embedded pictures and videos in our posts to refer back to throughout the process e.g. when we were location scouting we wrote posts about our findings and were able to refer back to these in the production stage and when drawing our storyboard to develop a clear shooting schedule with the locations found in the research stage. 

-We used a scanner to enable us to scan in the physical copies of our storybaord and email them to ourselves so we could embed these into the blog as well. This was exceptionally helpful and allows each of us to have our own copy of the storyboard which was very useful during the production stages of the process. 

Construction: (8:10-19:10 minutes)

-What cameras we used, how we used them, decisions regarding tripods and handheld?

-Lighting and issues we had with it due to the quality of the cameras - not good at shooting in low light?

-White balance in band shoot

-Exposure in band shoot

-Having all the cameras set up the same way 

-How we fixed the lighting issues through colour adjustments on final cut - band stuff and shooting night scenes in the day and then upping the dark tones to make it look like night to get a better quality image. 

-Final cut and how we used it - importing the sound from iTunes and loading the video on top, doing the band segment first and adding the narrative above it? 

-We also used youtube during the construction of our product to get our rough cuts from final cut to our blogs via the group’s youtube channel. This enabled us to continue embedding our work into our blogs and further document the process. 

-Ed’s bit about photoshop, illustrator and maybe even the websites he imported the font from

Evaluation: (19:10 - 22 minutes)

-We used several different technologies to construct our evaluation answers:

-iMovie to make the video (I think that’s what Ed used) 

-I’m guessing we’ll use final cut to edit our group discussion on this one and cameras to film it. 

-Screen recording in something?

-Survey monkey for audience feedback 

-Prezzi?

-Powerpoint?

-Poster on word or something?

-Any other ideas on how to present the other evaluation questions? 

From 22 minutes onwards we evaluate our work, covering the points on this list and more that we thought of in the moment. There isn't as much of a structure to this section as we are all inputting ideas as we think of them, however the focus is on the evaluation of the effectiveness of our use of media technologies. 

Difficulties we faced with media technologies:

-The band wanted the video to be a secret so we were unable to post about it on social media - massive backfire. However we got around this by posting about a music video but without ever mentioning the band or the song. We actually played on the idea that it was a secret in order to generate anticipation and excitement surrounding the announcement of the video. Therefore we posted pictures of the video’s production stages e.g. James in Leeds or members of the group filming, and included several hashtags on every post in order to reach the widest audience possible. This helped us drum up interest surrounding our video, particularly towards our primary target audience who are females aged 16-25 who are most likely to be reached through social media sites such as instagram. 

-Difficulties with youtube because the band didn’t have the correct licensing for their music to be on this platform, therefore we initially had some trouble using it to transport the video from final cut to blogger and to show the video to audiences fro feedback. However, we managed to get around this by creating a private account… - I’m not entirely sure what you did Rob but you could talk about this here. 

-Difficulties with photoshop and illustrator from Ed

-Difficulties with the sound on the video - what was happening and what we’re going to do to fix it (we need to ask sir about that one) 

-Difficulties with the cameras and shooting in low light - nighttime shots in Leeds from that first shoot and the footage of the band which could’ve been improved with better lighting to allow the cameras to capture a clearer image. 

Did we make good use of these technologies? 

-We learnt how to get the best results out of the cameras as we went along, ensuring we were always filming in enough light to avoid repeating our initial mistakes (could we talk about ISO here?) 

-Good use of photoshop but could’ve made better use of illustrator? - ups and downs of this process? 

-Good use of final cut, using it to colour correct the video and put the whole thing together

-Very good use of blogger throughout, used to document process, organise work and keep as a reference to all the ideas and influences we collected throughout our research which we referred back to throughout the planning and construction stages of the process. 

-We were limited in our use of social media and youtube but did the best we could considering the extreme circumstances. 

Did any produce unexpected results? 

There were some happy accidents in the editing process, is anything shouting out at you concerning the digipak?

How much did the technology enhance our work? 

Considerably. It enabled us to do the work. 

-Final cut allowed us to colour correct lighting

-The camera’s manual focus allowed us to get some really nice footage with focus shifts etc.

-Survey monkey and social media allowed us to reach a wide range of people and generate an accurate target audience which we were then able to tailor the video towards to make it as successful as possible

-Google drive allowed us to send the video to the band on a private platform to get their feedback and therefore improve the video and meet the needs of them and the record label effectively. 

-Photoshop - nice digipak? 

Did our technical ability limit us, or did it grow?

-Ed can definitely talk about learning his way around photoshop 

-I can talk about learning about final cut and cameras - learning from mistakes so our ability to get usable footage increased throughout the process 

-Learning how to use survey monkey allowed us to reach more people in our audience research than last year when we just used family and friends. 

Judge the effectiveness of our work throughout! 

Anything else please add on!! I’m sure I’ve missed stuff and the more we have to talk about the better! 

Evaluation Question 2

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

Using Pages, we created a poster to answer this question, arranging text alongside images that help the reader visualise clearly what is being referred to in the evaluation response.

Transcript 

Our music video and supporting ancillary products (a magazine advert and digipak) were targeted towards fans of the indie rock genre of music as our band, Tranqua Lite, and their song, 'Tempered Tides', belonged under this genre. As a result we conducted research using YouGov into the types of people interested in indie rock. Our results showed there was relatively equal interest between male and female audiences and that there were spikes of interest in people aged between 15-25 and 35-45, due to the genre's prominence in the 90's and in recent years. As a result our media products we tried to make with a somewhat broad appeal in terms of not being tailored to a specific gender or generation of audience, but also something that would specifically capture the attention of fans of this genre of music.

In discussions with the band, we discovered that Tranqua Lite were keen to be marketed in a similar way to their influences, which included British indie rock bands Elbow, Kasabian, Foals and Biffy Clyro. Looking at the music videos and album artwork for these bands we searched for recurring stylistic elements, trends and techniques. There was commonly a down-to-earth and humble quality to the presentation of the band members in music videos and they were very frequently depicted playing their respective instruments in time with the song, imitating a live performance. The aesthetics of these videos tended to veer towards grungy and low-budget styles and used minimalism. Similarly, the accompanying artwork was usually deliberately amateur-looking or simplistic, often featuring provocative artwork or a graphic on a plain background. Consequently we discussed giving our video and poster/digipak art a unified look that followed this style.

Once we established that the band wanted the video to function as a tribute Leeds, the city centre became an essential location we used to shoot many sections of the video in. To emphasise the grungy feeling we wanted, we chose particularly weary-looking locations and places that evoked a bleak urban landscape. These included the bridge at Shipley station with big white walls either side that are scuffed and scratched with big black marks as well as the area around Leeds First Direct Arena which has a lot of dull coloured grey/brown buildings and concrete. As we completed the ancillary texts afterwards and wanted the two to be a coherent pairing, we therefore looked for ways to add this urban aesthetic to the cover art.

We came up with the idea of taking inspiration from indie rock albums by creating a simple graphic emblem on a plain background and combined a magpie (which is mentioned commonly in the song's lyrics) with images of Leeds so that the image looks like a magpie from a distance but upon closer inspection reveals the grungy urban landscape that our music video is set in. After developing this image, we still felt however that the two were somewhat detached and that the digipak cover wasn't truly representative of the video we had created. Eventually, after discussions within our group, we realised it was the plain white background that was causing the image to look mismatched. We discovered a white concrete texture background online and tested this as a replacement background and the difference was extremely noticeable. It not only looked less artificial and overly photoshopped and also tied it extremely more strongly to the visual style of the music video.

In fact, the background image was strikingly similar to the aforementioned bridge at Shipley, deepening the connection between the two. Our satisfaction with this result encouraged us to follow this aesthetic style further, adding an eroded, scratchy sans-serif font that looked decidedly grungy. Finally, whilst we initially envisioned a black and white digipak cover to fit in with the examples we had researched which included the album covers 'AM' by Arctic Monkeys and 'The Ride' by Catfish and the Bottlemen but upon consideration of how to establish a visual connection to the video we decided it would be more apt to include a hint of colour to reference the colour shift that is a significant feature of our music video. Therefore, we made the images of the magpie and Leeds full colour and shifted them slightly orange to compliment the colours, then included this colour in the text. The end result was a music video and ancillary texts that were distinctly unified and coherent in tone, aesthetic and style.

One of the main objectives our group aimed towards when creating the media products for Tempered Tides was fulfilling the band's brief of creating something that would raise awareness for homelessness in the local area. After the media products were complete, we sent out an audience survey that we created on SurveyMonkey in order to see how successful we were in achieving both this aim and the aim of creating an enjoyable indie rock music video, magazine advertisement and digipak. Fantastically, when given a list of 6 possible interpretations of the video, 5 of which were red herrings, 87.5% of respondents said they thought "the video's message was to raise awareness for homelessness". In addition to this, many positive comments were made about the video's use of colour shift from black and white as well as the colours and theming of our digipak and magazine advert. Also very gratifying to see was the seemingly equal interest in the products from both 16-25 year olds who responded as well as our secondary target audience, people aged 35-45, meaning our media texts were successful in appealing to both demographics equally.

On the other hand, there was lesser success with one of our secondary intentions: the idea of showcasing Leeds as a location significant to both Tranqua Lite and the issue of homelessness being portrayed in the music video. According to survey participants, the ancillary texts weren't clearly related to the city of Leeds and the iconography of Leeds Town Hall within the magpie's head was both difficult to see and not clearly recognizable as from Leeds, even from people who knew the city very well. Similarly, there were few people who picked up upon the significance of representing Leeds in the video, with lots of blatant establishing shots and uses of key iconic locations, when discussing the video with people in our target audience who had watched the video. On the other hand, we believe this may be down to the fact that as media students based near Leeds, our use of the location wasn't seen as a creative decision and rather as a practicality. To emphasize this more, we could have added some more obvious Leeds signifiers to the magazine advert and digipak, such as including a sign of Leeds in the magpie emblem however we think this may have looked too overbearing and crowded the image so the final products we are still extremely happy with. Also, whilst not being recognized as Leeds in particular, the city imagery in our ancillary products did leave an impact upon many other people who evaluated them in a survey, and the theme of urban settings in a more general sense was identified by a vast majority. In this way, our media texts were somewhat successful in one of our intentions for the video, in that it successfully represented homelessness in cities, but wasn't always clearly a tribute to the city of Leeds in particular.

The digipak and magazine advert were complimented by people aged between 16-25, our key target audiences, and [insert statistic] said they would be interested in listening to the song based on the artwork. Aspects that were listed by our audience in surveys as appealing included the urban aesthetic of the background layer and font, meaning our group's use of this particular styling was successful at connecting to the young adult audience demographic as we intended. What was also quoted as appealing included the "striking" emblem of the magpie and the coloring with the hints of burnt orange in a black and white scheme. This particular piece of information was also satisfying to hear seeing as lots of attention had gone into the use of colour within the digipak/magazine advert and the music video, including the colour shift and the contrast between shots in greyscale and in full colour. When questioned about the colour shift in the video, a large degree of respondents said it added to the uplifting feeling of optimism and a positive change of fortune for the character within the story. As both the main and ancillary media texts we had created were credited for their use of colour respectively, the combination can be seen to be very effective at satisfying the expectations of our target audience.

In conclusion, the combination of our media product and ancillary texts was extremely successful in achieving our aim of fulfilling the expectations of an established audience of indie rock fans in both 16-25 and 35-45 age demographics, appealing to these age groups in specific details such as the unified urban aesthetic and uses of colour, and we were also successful in promoting Tranqua Lite's identity as a new emerging band and the video's message about tackling issues of homelessness.

Our Finished Digipak

This is our final digipak cover and we are exceptionally happy with how it came out. It was a very long process of changes and improvements and a huge learning curve in terms of using Photoshop but we have come out with a product which we feel has definitely met our original intentions. The most important thing about the cover is the magpie emblem - a clear link to the magpie imagery within the song. This is overlaid with the Leeds landscape, with us even managing to get the town hall in the magpie's head, in order to meet the band's needs of the video (and it's subsequent products) being a tribute to Leeds. We also managed to incorporate colour within the magpie, making it stand out against the black and white background whilst also linking to the colour shift within the video which is one it's main defining factors. We also linked to this through our decision to put the 'Tranqua Lite' text in colour, making the name of the band pop and creating further cohesion between the digipak and the video itself.

The grungy concrete background clearly links to our genre and helps signify it's position within the music industry. We were influenced by several similar bands who tend to choose a 'rough and ready' presentation for their products, therefore keeping our digipak in line with those of it's genre. It is also very similar to the background on Shipley bridge that James leans on at the end of the first storyline, forging another clear link between the digipak and the video, helping to create an effective combination for the band.

We also put a lot of thought into the font, with us sourcing a specialist website to find the exact look we wanted rather than settling for stock fonts provided on Photoshop. The result is an eroded, slightly out-of-line font which fits in with the 'rough and ready' presentations of the genre, as well as tying in nicely with the concrete background, creating cohesion within the product itself as well as with the rest of it's group.

For the back cover, we came up with the idea to invert the colours of the front concrete effect for the background, therefore creating a cohesive package through the tone and style of the covers, whilst also creating a defining factor for each and fulfilling the genre convention of a dark colour scheme. We also created continuity by using the same font as the front cover, but this time in white to stand out against the black background. We filled the back cover with a fictional track list which we decided to position in the centre in order to make best use of the space and keep up the minimalist look we created in our front cover. We finished by putting a barcode and record label on the bottom and creating our logo on Adobe Illustrator, using a magpie to continue the theme of the covers and link to the name of our record label - Magpie Media.

For our inlet, we decided we wanted to continue the theme of Leeds imagery and the pops of colour used in the front cover. Therefore, to create continuity, we used the same image of Leeds as in the magpie on the front cover as the main basis of the inlet and layered this over strobe lighting effects to create colour. Furthermore, we wanted to continue through the 'grungy' tone established in the front and back covers, so we also layered in the same concrete background effect that is used in both of these templates. This creates cohesion between all 3 aspects of the digipak, making it one united product to effectively fit in with the genre conventions as well as the needs of the band and imagery in the song.

Ultimately, we are very happy with what we have managed to create, feeling it links in with it's genre of music, the needs of the band and creates a cohesive package when combined with the other products.

Our Magazine Advert

Our finished magazine advert is clearly influenced by our research as it features the same emblem and background as the digipak cover, tying the two very clearly together and maintaining the 'grungy tone' throughout all our products - video, digipak and poster - creating a cohesive package. The repetition of the magpie imagery helps to create the emblem, a common theme in the indie-rock genre where a single image becomes the icon of the album. This is clear in works such as Kasabian's 'Empire'  where renaissance-style artwork defines the entire album, and Catfish and the Bottlemen's album 'Rise' which features a clear image of a crocodile which appears on numerous products relating to the album. 

We retained the same background image and magpie artwork, changed the dimensions from a square to A4 and added some more subtle features appropriate for the magazine advert format, including:

• Increasing the size of the font "TRANQUA LITE" and "TEMPERED TIDES" in order to stand out more as an advertisement and clearly display the band name and album title amongst the other information.
• The same magpie emblem from the digipak cover, slightly increased in size to grab attention from potential audiences.
• Text reading "THE DEBUT ALBUM" to ensure people know what is being advertised. We kept this text in the same font as the title and reflected the colour scheme of the text at the top of the image with the text at the bottom.
• The release date in a large, bold font - making people aware of when it will be available to buy in order to generate interest and 'hype'. 
• Actual reviews of the song we encountered online by local Leeds music blogs, helping both clarify the type of music being marketed and generate interest. We kept this in  muted, narrow, sans-serif font to not clutter the image and keep the magpie as the focal point of the centre of the image however still keeping it easy for audiences to read.
• A website link.
• Social media icons encouraging people to follow the band and album on Twitter and Instagram, the latter of which has a Magpie Media account.
• The record label logo.
• Small icons detailing formats the song is available from: Spotify and Apple Music.

Overall, we are very happy with the final product. We feel it ties in very neatly with the digipak and music video, creating a cohesive package with enough genre signifiers to sit very clearly within that of indie-rock. We also feel it incorporates the needs of the band, with the city landscape inside the magpie being a further tribute to the city of Leeds and the magpie emblem being a direct reflection of the song lyrics, linking the ancillary products to the content of the video as well as through their tone. Therefore we are very proud of our final products and feel we have successful met our original intentions. 

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3 Prezi

To answer this question, we created another survey monkey, this time attaching the video and asking our respondents for feedback on specific sections. Once we received the responses we used them to write a report, analysing whether our original intentions had been achieved. We decided to present this in the form of a Prezi so we could include pictures and screenshots of specific audience responses.

Transcript 

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before even considering the production side of our project we had to establish a target audience to which we would tailor our music video. We decided to work with a band in the indie-rock so used this as the starting block for our research, this way we would gather a basic foundation of the particular audience type that were going to be viewing our video. To do this, we investigated similar bands within the genre to discover which members of the population tended to listen to this type of music. For this audience research we used YouGov to explore bands such as Biffy Clyro, Kasabian and Foals. YouGov gave us a result which illustrates the average listener for the certain band so we collated the results from numerous indie-rock groups to come out with an average primary and secondary target audience. We found a clear link between each band’s general audience following - all the bands we looked at had a primary target audience of teenagers of both genders (with there being only 1.4% average difference between the male and female audiences) and a secondary target audience of 40-50 year old males.

We also created a survey on the website ‘Survey Monkey’ which we posted on Facebook to reach a wide audience base. This was a very successful piece of audience research and got nearly 50 responses from people of a variety of age groups and genders which allowed us to clearly identify patterns and trends within the data. This was exceptionally helpful and allowed us to learn loads about our intended audience and how to appeal to them. We already had an idea from our YouGov research that our primary target audience would be around 16-25 year olds however, our survey allowed us to narrow this down further, seeing that the indie-rock genre was more popular amongst our female respondents than males. As we were working with a band we had to take on board their ideas and desires for the video, one of these being that they requested a narrative to help convey the message of the song (raising awareness for homelessness in Leeds). Our audience research survey showed women to be much more interested in narrative music videos than men, with 20% more women selecting this as an element of music videos they enjoy. Therefore, this survey allowed us to clearly identify our primary target audience as women aged 16-25. 

Our secondary target audience was males of the same age group as the gender split was so close we know this genre of music and video conventions will also appeal to a male audience base. Although our YouGov research did show another potential target audience of men aged 40-50, we knew this was a young band with a teenage following, rather than bands such as Pulp and Blur which attract a more mature audience. So, to appeal to this target audience, our narrative featured a young boy struggling with homelessness,with this young protagonist further helping us appeal to our target audience. 

Therefore, audience research was exceptionally helpful in establishing a clear primary and secondary target audience, allowing us to clearly see the audiences typical of this genre as well as specifically those who enjoyed the conventions of indie-rock videos. It also directly impacted the construction of the video itself, with our questionnaire asking audiences about their lighting preferences and preferred style of video (e.g. vintage, documentary style, stop motion animation). These results influenced our video’s construction as we made sure to include those options picked by our primary and secondary target audiences - black and white lighting and narrative videos. 

We had some young respondents stating that they preferred black and white colour schemes but also quite a lot of support of the ‘sunset lighting’ option which depicted quite a deep, colourful scene. The band also stated that they liked colours and would prefer to have some kind of colour within the video; therefore we decided to compromise by creating a colour shift - beginning the video in back and white and gradually adding colour. We really liked this idea because it allowed us to present the homelessness in black and white (a colour scheme we believed really reflected the protagonist’s bleak situation) but the addition of colour in the later stages reflected the improving circumstances of the character. This change of tone also allowed us to create a more clear narrative helped us to achieve a dominant reading of our text by audiences. The feedback we received from this was exceptionally positive - the vast majority of our respondents noticed the colour change and said it “reflected the uplifting feel of the storyline”, with one person even commenting that it was too minimal, stating we could’ve made “the colour change even more dramatic, its a really good idea so should be exaggerated more”. This is really positive audience feedback and showed us that we could even be more bold in our artistic decisions 

Without an understanding of our target audience we wouldn’t have been able to construct a suitable and effective meaning and purpose for our video. Having the right target audience allowed us to use audience theory correctly, therefore maximising the impact on our chosen audience. The Uses and Gratification Model states that audiences are active in the consumption of the media texts and use them to gratify their own needs. Audiences may use the text for purposes of escapism, education or to help them resolve issues of identity, and this model can be applied to our video as audiences can use it to further understand or remind themselves and others about the struggles of the homeless and as a motivator to promote change. This is in contrast to The Hypodermic Model which states that we are passive in our consumption of media texts, leaving us unable to prevent the influence of the product. This could be applied in a positive manner to our video as audiences may simply absorb the positive messages we encoded about helping the homelessness, resulting in a positive social change. However, this model often considers the effects of the text to be negative, with famous cases including the banning of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ in 1971 which led to a number of copycat violent attacks and rapes, leading to a moral panic. In this case, our video could be said to promote violent or dismissive behaviour towards the homeless and general society, therefore having a negative effect on our audience and possibly not achieving our intention. However, our audience feedback suggests this was not the case, with almost 90% of our responses stating they understood the narrative of the music video to be “Raising awareness for homelessness”. As we created the video for a specific audience, including numerous genre conventions and a clear narrative,we hoped to achieve a dominant reading in reference to Reception Theory. This was proposed by Stuart Hall in the 1970s and states that texts are encoded with meaning by their producers and then decoded by audiences. We believe we have put enough points within our narrative and chose a relevant enough issue to achieve a dominant reading - when the audience decodes the message as the producers intended it and agree. However, the theory also states that audience members sometimes reject parts of the encoded meaning or oppose it entirely. We had a small percentage of our audience who seemed to take a negotiated reading of the text, understanding it but believing it promoted a capitalist message almost more than raising awareness for homelessness. This was obviously not our intention but could be a misreading of our text in accordance to this theory. This helped us learn a lot about our product and how it could be misinterpreted, therefore making us more sensitive in our sharing of it, being sure to pass on the correct message intended. However, overall 50% of respondents believed our narrative and message was very effective with the other 50% thinking it was only slightly effective; no respondents selected the “not very engaging” or “boring option” which is a very positive response to the video regarding audience theory.

We had really positive feedback to the digipak and poster, stating that it “linked to the video really well”. Creating the final products was a long process, with us showing the different stages to focus groups throughout. Feedback on our early products focussed around the font being less effective than it could've been, stating it was either too blocky and “in your face” or too slight and “not noticeable”. Therefore we went to a separate website in order to find a font that specifically fit our needs for the ancillary products, eventually finding a slightly ‘grittier’ one which fit nicely with the tone of the pack and the rest of the video. This enabled us to create a better cohesion between the digipak and video and the within the overall tone of the digipak itself. 

We also used social media to create an online presence and raise awareness of the production of our video. Unfortunately, because the band wanted to keep the video a secret, we couldn't post anything relating to the band or song online, however we were able to play on this restriction by creating a buzz through the idea of a secret which would soon be revealed. This enabled us to post ‘sneak peaks’ of shoots online, particularly to platforms such as Instagram to reach a wide audience through our use of hashtags. This allowed them to keep up to date with our production whilst complying with the needs of the band and our online response to certain posts allowed us to determine whether we were on the right track, based on the number of likes we received. This enabled us to keep our video tailored to our target audience throughout the process in order to produce a video that would be successful amongst fans. 

Another very important force within our production and planning process was the band themselves. As we were making the video for them as a client it was essential that we listened to their feedback and applied it to the video in order to create something that met their needs and expectations.This happened throughout the process - we met with them at the very start to have a brainstorming session, ensuring the plan for the video was in line with the tone and messages they intended with the song. We then referred to them throughout the construction of the video, sending them images and clips and asking for their opinion to make sure we were not straying from our original, agreed vision. For example, we had issues with the sound quality in the early videos which they picked up on, saying it was distorting, bringing this issue to light and allowing us to fix it by lowering the volume in the video, causing it to distort. Their feedback on the final product was exceptionally positive, stating the video was “excellent” and that we’d managed to “capture a few of the topics of the lyrics really well”, even saying they’d be “more than happy to use this as the 2017 version of the music video fro tempered tides”. This is amazing and we are so happy that we managed to create such a successful product through our continual response to their feedback. 

Overall what have we learned from our audience feedback? We initially learned how to design and structure our video due to the expectations of our target audience which was based on the audiences of similar bands in the indie genre. This design element to our video changed throughout the production period as once we released rough cuts we could see which of our idea were accepted by our audience members and which ideas they disagreed with or offer alternative ideas. Therefore, linking to the idea of reception theory. After collecting all the results, our video got an overall rating of just over 4 out of 5 stars from our audience. This means that the video was a success with our target audience and we were able to learn from what they wanted to improve the success of the video.

Evaluation Question 1

In preparation for this evaluation question we had a group discussion and went back over all our research on blogger in order to establish where we had met, developed or challenged our genre conventions. We then wrote a transcript, outlining our answer and used this as a script which Ed read over a video in which we included clips of the different influences within the video. 

For the voiceover, Ed used MusicMemos, an Apple application for smartphones and tablets. We then used the app Garageband to eliminate background noise from the recording and cut out pauses or mistakes that Ed had made. After this, using iMovie we pieced together the voiceover with relevant footage from both our music video as well as clips from the music videos we used as research in the pre-production process:

• Elbow - Grounds For Divorce
• Maroon 5 - Harder to Breathe
• Ed Sheeran - The A Team
• Biffy Clyro - Biblical
• Dan Croll - Bad Boy
• Kasabian - Ill Ray (King for a Day)
• Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Green Day - American Idiot
• Alt-J - In Cold Blood
• Django Django - Default
• Foals - Mountain At My Gates
• The Rolling Stones - Ride 'Em On Down
• Pulp - Mis-Shapes
• Catfish and the Bottlemen - Twice

Transcript 

Media Evaluation Questions 

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products? 

Our media product is made up of a series of influences determined by extensive research and planning in our pre-production process. However, we were determined not to make a carbon copy of every other indie-rock music video in existence so we decided to develop some of these forms and conventions and combine them with some of our own ideas in order to create a video easily identifiable as in indie-rock genre, whilst also standing out as unique and interesting to different audiences. 

A key factor in our project was our decision to work with a real band in Leeds, therefore we strived to create a professional looking video to meet the expectations of a professional band. This also meant we had to pay extra attention to the forms and conventions included in our video as we were appealing to a real audience base who’s expectations needed to be satisfied. 

The first thing we did as part of this project was to research Andrew Goodwin’s music video conventions to discover and understand the forms and conventions of music videos as a whole before delving deeper into the specific signifiers of our chosen genre. We included several of Goodwin’s conventions in order to create a successful and effective music video. This included creating a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics which we achieved through creating a narrative about homelessness whilst this theme is being explored within the lyrics. We furthered this relationship between the lyrics and visuals through our digipak, having the focal point of our album cover as a magpie which links to the lyrics’ metaphorical description of the homeless person as a magpie to create synergy and cohesion throughout our products. 

We also created a clear relationship between the visuals and the music (another of Goodwin’s conventions) as the song distinctly describes ‘turning tides’, implying hope for the homeless person in the future. We reflected this through our decision to shift the colour in the video from black and white to colour, with this transition taking place at a clear turning point in the song. Therefore this reflects the changing mood and ensures the video’s tone always matches that of the song in order to create a clear, cohesive relationship between the song and the visuals which run alongside it. 

As we were working with a band, and consequently a record label, we needed to meet the needs  of these two factors (which Goodwin identifies as another convention of music videos). As this was our band’s first ever video, we decided they needed to be relatively heavily featured in order to ‘introduce’ them to their audience. This also tied in with our genre research which identifies rock music videos as containing a lot of ‘live’ performance, therefore allowing us to tick two boxes in one go. Therefore we decided that we should cut between the narrative and performance aspects to create a hybrid music video which covered both bases the band desired - telling the story of the lyrics (as identified by Goodwin as well as being specifically requested by the band) and introducing the band themselves through performance aspects (therefore meeting the needs of the record label, beginning to establish artist iconography, and meeting the indie-rock conventions to create an identifiable music video within this genre). 

Once we understood the general conventions of music videos themselves, we decided to focus our research more specifically on the genre we knew we were working in. It was important to establish a good understanding of our genre as it is a vital part of creating a successful media product as Jonathan Culler said “generic conventions exist to establish a contract between creator and reader so as to make certain expectations operative”. Therefore we needed to understand what our audience expected so as to meet these needs and guarantee their satisfaction with the final product. We did this by conducting extensive research on similar bands such as ‘Pulp’ ‘Kasabian’ and early videos by ‘Maroon 5’ such as their ‘Harder to Breathe’ music video which became a major influence for the performance aspect of our video, even influencing some of the shot types and angles we decided to use. When it came to our narrative we looked for inspiration from videos which explored similar issues such as Ed Sheeran’s ‘A Team’ which also depicts homelessness. This was where we got our initial idea to put the video in black and white to reflect the dire circumstances experienced by the homeless. We also researched a specific director, Samuel Bayer, who has done several videos in this genre, including ones by Green Day and The Rolling Stones to enable to us to understand further recurring themes and conventions. We found that there were a lot of performance based visuals, providing the feel of being at a gig or performance and these focussed on the main singer but also paid some attention to musicians due to the common instrumentals within this genre of music. Therefore, in our video, we made sure to collect footage of each band member individually to enable us to switch between them when their instrument featured in the music e.g. guitar riffs or particularly striking drumming sections. This also helped us introduce each of members respectively, therefore meeting the needs of the record label and further fulfilling Goodwin’s music video conventions.

Furthermore, the feeling of being at a ‘gig’ or ‘live performance’ adds a personal feel to indie-rock music videos, as if the band is performing directly to their fans as done at live events. We really liked the mood and tone this particular convention offered, and decided to further it through our addition of diegetic sound of the band at the beginning and end of the video. This adds a further personal touch, allowing fans to ‘get to know’ the band themselves rather than just their music, and brings them down to a more identifiable level which will help with establishing a firm fan-base, further fulfilling the needs of the record label. Therefore this is a clear demonstration of how we developed the conventions of this genre by combining them with new ideas to achieve or intensify our desired effect. 

We also found that our research showed fairly ‘rough and ready’ camerawork and editing to create a grungier, more edgy mood in the video. To achieve this in our own video we applied similar camerawork including handheld shots and footage where the camera is knocked or zooming in. This makes it look rougher and helps match the video to the tone of the music as well as that of the genre. We incorporated the ‘rough and ready’ theme into our editing through the use of jump cuts which frequented our video to demonstrate the passage of time but also to give the illusion that the video was ‘unpolished’ and stitched together in order to provide a more ‘down to earth’ and edgier tone. We further added to this through our mise on scene by having our protagonist, James, walk through ‘grungier’ locations, such as the scene on Shipley bridge where the mucky sides of the bridge frame the whole shot, encapsulating James in the grungy atmosphere so associated with the genre. 

We continued this theme in our digipak, choosing to make the background of our album a black and white ‘concrete’ effect which was a very close match to the black and white sides of the bridge in the aforementioned scene, creating a feeling of cohesion visually between the different elements of our project. We also used a slightly dishevelled font to further add to this mood and unite the tone of the album cover and video. 

During our artist research we found a video by Biffy Clyro for their song ‘Biblical’ which boasted a repeated narrative with small changes in each one which resulted in different outcomes. We really liked this idea and took it to a concept discussion with the band where they expressed their interest in this form of video. After thorough debates and consideration of our other ideas we decided that this would be the most effective and interesting form through which to communicate the messages of our music video. Therefore this became one of our main influences but we didn't just want to copy it, so we developed this idea, adding in elements such as the colour shift and the introduction of new characters in the second narrative to keep the video interesting and engaging. Therefore we did use this form as a major influence for our video but developed it to keep it unique and fresh for our audiences, developing our own set of conventions within this form. 

Despite all these elements of similarity, we wanted to be sure to add definite elements of difference to our project so as not to create a carbon copy of something already done. We wanted to enable our video to stand out amongst those of the same genre whilst also being identifiable within it. Steve Neale said “genres are instances of repetition and difference…difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre” and it was on these grounds that we decided to add unique elements to our video. 

After hearing the lyrics and message of the song, we thought it would be really suited to a narrative, even though this isn't a classic convention of indie-rock music videos. We spoke to the band and they also wanted a narrative in order to fully convey the messages they intended within the song. Therefore, we developed the form typical of the indie-rock genre by including a performance in the video whilst also supporting a narrative in order to convey the story described in the lyrics, ultimately creating a hybrid music video. 

Furthermore, our narrative has a happy ending, presenting a positive message and leaving the viewer with a sense of satisfaction and relief, a feeling unconventional in indie-rock videos which tend to promote angry and more negative attitudes towards social structures. This was a creative decision we settled on to promote the support of the homeless and demonstrate how one small act of kindness can set a whole trail of change into motion. Therefore we challenged the typical conventions in order to achieve a specific intention identified by the band and represented in the lyrics of the song. 

 One typical convention of indie-rock videos (and Goodwin’s conventions as a whole) is the iconography of the lead singer, most clearly displayed in our research through the presentation of ‘Maroon 5’s’ Adam Levine who clearly has star status within the band. We chose to develop this convention in our music video, still putting a lot of attention on the lead singer but trying to equally distribute the time amongst the other musicians and back-in vocalists in order to meet the needs of the record label by ‘introducing’ each member of the band through their consistent dedication of time throughout the video. 

We identified our genre conventions for indie-rock digipaks through extensive research into similar bands and analysis of their promotional packages to develop a deep understanding of the colour schemes, images, fonts and tones typical within this genre. We particularly analysed digipaks from Kasabian, Coldplay and Biffy Clyro to establish a set of themes and conventions which we could manipulate within our own work. 

We chose to challenge conventions through our digipak which has a dominant light colour scheme on the front cover as opposed to conventional indie-rock album covers which are overwhelmingly dark. We decided to do this to reflect the more uplifting tone of our video and the hopeful message it conveys, in contrast to the darker themes often explored within this genre. However, we didn't want to completely challenge this convention as we still wanted our product to be identifiable within the genre so we inverted the background on the back cover to create cohesion within the two aspects of the digipak whilst providing a darker colour scheme which is more in line with the typical genre conventions. We also used a grungy background to tie into the ‘rough and ready’ convention seen within this genre of music and surrounding imagery through our use of a concrete background and dishevelled font. Therefore our digipak develops the forms and conventions of the indie-rock genre to clearly place itself within this area of the music industry while retaining an identity of it’s own and standing out amongst the sea of conventions displayed by similar artists. 

Ultimately, our video and surrounding products varies between using and challenging genre conventions, overall falling somewhere in-between. Therefore we can say we developed typical indie-rock forms and conventions, taking on board ideas and influences we liked whilst changing and adapting other areas to create a video that will be unique and striking to our target audiences whilst still remaining identifiable within the genre. This makes it easier to target audiences and entice new fans to the band’s music as well as satisfying the expectations of those already familiar with the indie-rock genre.