Q3 - What have you learnt from your audeince feedback?

1 - define your audience
demographic
age/gender/sexuality/social class/likes+dislikes

2- importance of audience feedback + why its used
- different methods of audience feedback
surveys - gain opinions from target audience - show rough cuts and work in progresses, might give additional ideas into how improvements can be made
-media industry take on board their target audience opinions as if their product doesn't appeal to them they will not gain enough interest to make the project/product successful or make profit
methods - specialist websites - survey monkey, paid opinion sites, incentive to complete survey for 'rewards'
youtube encourages viewers to comment on videos with the 'share your thoughts' in the comments, suggesting that your comment matters.
sound cloud - give comments on sections of the song - more music orientated - sharing options directly under song - ease of location identifying



3- audience feedback you've collected from different stages
-include feedback
-what did you learn
-what improvements did you make (stylistic + technical)

4-how have your final products been received - what improvements could you make
- over all i feel that our product was received well by our target audience, however additional appreciation was given from those who do not fall into the stereotypical indie rock listener as they could appreciate the work and dedication gone into producing something of this manner
- hotel room -  couldnt secure a room to fit our time schedule or actors/band were not available on certain days - ensure that all actors know what is required of them, if they cant make shooting or filming days, change actor- to emulate the indie rock genre in a more stylistic manner - colour changes in the performance footage to - refilm and record lights used and location / angle etc of lights to maintain consistency in lighting

Q2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Within our group we created three products - music video, digipak and website.  The chosen genre for these follow the indie/rock theme. I feel that we captured this image well within all of our products and we were effective when producing the final outcome. I think that we were able to maintain continuity throughout all of our products with consistent themes creating a strong identity and band.

We chose the specified genre as we all as a group considered ourselves to listen to a variety of this music genre, as therefore we would be familiar with the products from this theme. Looking at a specific genre of rock meant that all of the band and artist we research all had a similar target audience meaning that they would all possess similar forms and conventions


Music video
The video we created followed the typical forms and conventions of an indie/rock music video. We aimed to create a performance based video with relaxed narrative cutaways. The vibe that we wanted to reflect here, was the typical laid back indie band and I think this was reflected well in the bands clothing and mannerisms in the video. Despite the cutaways being rather of an everyday day things, such as using an elevator, in the post production stage, this is where we injected the more 'creative' aspect of indie/rock video (which we found consistent in our initial research) with filters and editing skills. Our music video followed the chosen genre forms and conventions music

Digipak
The digipak created is essentially the physical sleeve of the CD and is an important aspect in any music production as it is what potential audiences see whilst in a shop. Due to this the digipak has to be visually pleasing to the eye, to the current fans but also draw in more people. I feel the digipak we created reflects the chosen genre of indie/rock. Instantly from the cover visually it has semantic links with the genre with the amp as this is a synonymous with the genre. Further more the back cover and the corresponding internal panel are the same shot taken from the front perspective and the reverse (image below). I feel that creative shots like this are often used within digipaks of this genre as they try to have abnormal shots to show creativity.

Website
Band or artist websites are created as an online presence which is more important than ever in this ever growing online age. Not only is it another platform for advertising, it is also an informative hub for fans with pages about their upcoming performances and bio pages to get to know the band which make more audiences connect with the band and not see them just as a voice or image. To further support this idea we have also created social media links within the page (located at the top to draw the eye instantly). The general theme we were aiming for was simplistic and easy navigation. For these reasons, we created a distinctive menu, placed at the top which listed all the pages available to view. I feel that the website presents the indie/rock genre as the colour pallet is dark and limited to a few colours.


I feel that throughout all of our products we have consistency with the simplistic minimalistic idea. The video uses everyday activities, the digipak uses simplistic casual shots and the website possesses a monochromatic colour scheme. However with our post production skills and editing, this enabled us to transform the everyday into the unusual and intriguing.

All of our products work effective in unison to present the apparent indie/rock genre. The theme throughout all products




Social Media

                                                             within today's society


http://anouska123.edu.glogster.com/how-is-social-media-used-within-the-muisc-industry/
                                         *(embedding code no longer works)*







Synergy

Q1 - In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q1 - In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Music video
- uses both performance and narrative shots - cutaways
- intense lighting during performance to create shadows and glares
- canted angle shots
- audio relates to visuals - use of stairs a lot (creepin' up the back stairs)
- urban locations to suggest a more dark feel
- more mature in comparison to pop bands, still carefree
- consistent use of close ups / extreme of instruments and band members
- editing relates to tempo of music

Digipak
- band dont feature on the cover - not conventional use of direct address
- feature on back and inside (see band from both angles - front shot and back shot)
- 'random images' - not ness. relating fans to band
- dark colour scheme tying all products together - continuity
- logo of band and album name

Website
- simple monochromatic colour scheme - dark/black/white
- social media accounts very apparent to user
- nav bar - assists user to navigate around website efficiently
- Interactive aspects such as videos and music player
- bio pages - enable fans to 'get to know' band members
- merch page - allows fans to purchase band merch



we used - video
- close ups
- canted angles
- cut aways
- direct mode of address
- low key lighting
- appropriate use of costume and props
- effects in post-production to make the video more exciting and appeal to the target audience
-quick editing pace


website -
- nav bar
- photo gallery
- social media links
- tour dates page
- articles page to relate to targ audience
- monochromatic colour scheme
- band logo to link with digipak


digipak
- quirky images to implement the indie/rock genre
- costume reflects genre
- black and white / desaturated / follow the dark monochromatic colour scheme
- crumpled paper effect on cd side + band logo
- track list
- lyrics
- focus primarily on lead singer
-barcode
-record label - sony

digipak and website use same forms and conventions in relations to colour scheme and ox blood colour in forms of banners and track list.

We challenged;

- the video suggests a slightly more cheery and up beat tempo in comp. so other indie/rock videos
- we didn't use black and white
- didn't follow a strict narrative
- we used the actors personalities and portrayed them as quirky rather than the typical rock and roll, edgy image. This especially applied to our lead singer
- urban location wasn't ness. used for our main cutaways (wasn't distinctively urban)
- costume used was distinctively indie/rock - but wasn't as put together as a mainstream, professional album cover
-

Website Progress Update

Teacher feedback + improvements

Video - rough cut + comparison

Rough Cut from Ellie Williams on Vimeo.

Digipack - rough cut + feedback

Here is our rough cut for our digipak. We decided to have the band members as a key part of the digipak however after looking back at professional digipak we realised that indie band do not always have such a direct mode of address so therefore when we develop our digipack further we may add less pictures of the band. We decided that the back cover will be of the band, however to add a bit of a twist to it we made the lead singer face the back. However we wanted to have the pictures on the outside link into the pictures on the inside, so we used the same picture but reversed who was facing the camera.

Both the kooks and coldplay have used more casual photos for their digipak which we have also used. However their photos are edited and have effects added to them which we should take into consideration when we improve our digipak, as at the moment we have just place the raw photos straight into it. Furthermore they have all used some sort of graphic effect which we make them look a little more impressive and eye catching. Therefore we should also try to incorporate some sort of graphic effect, possibly on the very front cover of the amp. We could maybe have the logo made out of wired placed on the front of the amp and have electricity sparks coming off it. Another idea we had was to make "The Wired" logo as realistic and lifelike to the fender logo usually found on an amp. We would have to create this on photo shop. We could also just use a simple effect like the fish eye effect when taking our pictures to try and make them stand out more. 

After looking back at our rough cut we also decided that we would change the picture of Tom holding the lyrics as it didn't fit well with the genre and the rest of the digipak. Instead we could replace it with a picture of the band playing their instrument in a casual environment such as the ones on the kooks and coldplay digipaks. We might also replace it with just a picture of their instruments alone, instead of them with the band. 

Another reflection we had was our colour scheme. At the moment its quite random with no real sense of continuity. Therefore we could change it so that it is all in black and white, therefore all fitting together. Furthermore this may help the digipak and website link in together as the website's colour scheme is quite dark and simple. 

Website - rough cut + feedback

http://elliewilliams245.wix.com/thewired

Coldplay:

In comparison to Coldplay's website, our website is similar in terms of the box layout of the homepage, the social media links are at the right hand top of the page, music and news appear on the page. A difference would be the size of the masthead/band logo, which on the Coldplay website is fairly small in comparison. Coldplay also advertise merch on their page, which we may have to do on ours (Though not allowing it to be taken to a real online store).

The Kooks:

The Kooks website homepage is a scroll down and each of the pages are divided by images and then a blue background with the name of the page. This is an interesting technique as it keeps the audience entertained with images of the band, allowing them to gain a sense of who the band are.

Their music page is fairly similar, although it links to places to buy the albums and their covers instead of linking to youtube videos like ours.

The news page has a very similar layout to that of our own, apart from that it's a little more interactive in that you have to click to go to the next news item rather than the scrolling down that you'd have to do on our own website.

The Killers:

In comparison to The Killers' website, ours is fairly similar in terms of the image on the top of the homepage, the colour scheme, and also the general layout of the pages such as the news page. Differences again are that the masthead/logo of the Killers is small in comparison with our own website.

In light of these comparisons, our website could be improved by resizing the masthead/logo and placing it further up the page. Another improvement is to advertise merch on the page as well as adding more profiles for the band- by giving them more coverage.

Primary audience survey:

In light of this feedback and the comparisons to professional products, we can improve the website by:

• Changing the colour scheme slightly to suit that of the digipak as it uses more red than blue colours.
• Giving the band individual profiles as that was a suggestion and people didn't seem to get an understanding of who the band were.
• The logo will also need changing to make it more noticeable as it blends in with the background, so it may be better by changing it to white for it to draw the audience's attention.
• Some images may also have to be reconsidered- some are blurred and haven't been edited using Photoshop.
• Some more news articles may also be a good idea to have also, as well as a higher use of social networking as one respondent suggested.

Test Shots

Website - Creating a Title

Our first job for creating our website was to create a title that would be the most eye-catching part of the website. We decided quite early on that with our band being called The Wired we wanted the title to look as though it had been made out of wire. Furthermore we wanted a glow around the title to look like an electrical current. We thought we could then have the wire coming from both sides of the page to meet in the middle, creating the letters.

To create our titles we first went onto Dafont.com and search for wire looking fonts. These are to two we found:

After discussing our options with the two fonts we decided on the second one 'herrliches_script' as it gave us more opportunity to edit it and add effects.

We then started playing around with different options:

We then decided this one was our favourite as it was darker and more indie rock like however the flare of blue still added slight colour. We also felt it looked the most wire like as the red ones reminded me of an illuminous sign.

After deciding we like this title we wanted to have a go and creating the swirling wire either side of the title:

Digipack - Layout Reconfiguration

After starting plans for the digipack, we reached our first 'mistake'. We had not considered the formation of our digipack and how the images would be displayed. After looking at http://www.discwizards.com/cd-dvd-artwork-templates.htm, I soon realised that we had initially drawn up our digipack flat plan in an incorrect format, so the sides did not lay as we intended which is indicated by the template below.

I have been able to reconfigure our flat plan of our digipack so our ideas with the band looking as though they can be seen from two sides, facing inwards on one side and outwards on the opposite side. Below is our revisited digipack flat plan after realising that our initial plan wouldn't work in relation to the location of the panels.

  

Animatic

Animatic from Ellie Williams on Vimeo.

Photos on set + reflection on shoots

(Glog wouldn't embed onto page)

http://anouska123.edu.glogster.com/photo-on-set-reflection-on-shoot/

Story Board

Call Sheets

Model Release Forms