My blog is now complete and ready for assessment!

Evaluation: Question 4

Evaluation, Question 4 on Prezi

In my opinion technology was incredibly useful throughout this project and without the up to date and complicated software I feel that our video and print products wouldn't be nearly as professional looking as they are. The theory of Technological Determinism took a big part in what was and wasn't possible when producing our music video. Throughout the filming and editing processes we had to use what was available, for example we had to use a college camera to start with the filming and then due to availability we had to switch to other cameras every now and again which I feel affected the quality of some of the clips that we used, for example the clips of the clown performance. I feel as a group we managed with all of the technology and we used online tutorials and instructions to help us get the effects and styles we wanted, therefore I feel like we weren't held back by complicated software and we determined what we made with it and not the other way around. 

I think as a group we used creativity and new technologies to our advantage and I think the interactivity of both worked really well for us. We analysed and studied things that influenced us, but in the end came up with our own ideas and technology didn't determine the ideas that we came up with. By coming up with ideas and using technology separately I don't think that we were hindered by all of the new and complicated software that was open to us. 

Interactivity was a big part of this project the use of web 2.0 features such as social networking sites and media sharing sites. In order to be organised our group made a Facebook page that was only open to us, we could then talk, organise and develop ideas outside of lessons in order to maximise time management. We also created a separate YouTube account for us to upload audience feedback, rough cuts and final drafts of videos, so that they were available to all of us at any time. We also used these sites to interact with our target audience and receive feedback on our print products and videos. 

Evaluation: Question 3

Throughout this project as a group we found that audience feedback was very useful, and when we got stuck for ideas of were unsure about what direction to go in next we all found that focus groups and feedback was usually the best thing to do. As a group we did four focus groups on our video and I did my own audience feedback when trying to choose fonts for the print products. The first focus group we did was a class activity, we presented our ideas in a presentation and then we received written feedback from our class mates, we then organised a large focus group that contained people of our target audience to back up the written feedback we had gotten. These initial focus groups were to certify and solidify our ideas and to find out how understandable, achievable and impressive people thought our video would turn out. After gathering very positive feedback on our ideas we then started to plan, film and edit our video. Whilst going through all of the processes we felt we didn't need audience feedback for a while as we didn't really have anything to show them for a long time as everything still needed to come together. 
After editing for a long time our group started to slow down and we started becoming stuck for ideas as we weren't entirely happy with our first cut of the video, so this was when we decided we needed more focus groups. 
Here is an example of a focus group talking about our rough cut. 



Overall as a group we got very good audience feedback, and we took into consideration what feedback we were getting. For example after doing two focus groups on our rough cut we were told that some performance elements might help with the overall effect. We considered this as a group and decided that performance was what we needed to move the video up to the next level, so then we went about organising everything we would need to film the performance sections and then went out filming for a second time. 


After finishing a final cut for the music video I did some research of my own, to see what the target audience felt about the video, I did this using a instant messaging programme called Skype, and here is the conversation:

I used a member of our target audience when completing this conversation, I did this so that my feedback was accurate and useful. Overall my interviewee like the music video and understood the basic story line of the video they liked how we had taken a rather cliche point and put our own spin on it, to make it as original as is possible in the media world. I believe they have been affected in the expected ways, as they have questions about the video but don't find it extremely confusing or complicated. The interviewee also understood who the video would be aimed at and agreed that it was made for the correct genre of music. 
This feedback is regarding the final cut of our music video so the changes that I think should be made are purely hypothetical, for example I agree with the audience member that the story line could be made clearer, but I like the way that the audience has questions about what is going on, personally I think this produces interest in the band and other videos. 
In order to make sure the audience feedback that we received was as useful as possible we also made sure it was qualitative, this means it was accurate and the answers were thorough, as opposed to yes and no answers.


For all kinds of media products a brand identity is essential, it differentiates from similar products on the market and also creates a coherent collection of products that are visually linked together. There are several thinks that link media products together and they also work as a base when producing them, these things are called conventions. A house style is a necessity, for this you have to keep your target audience in mind and come up with a style that suits and appeals to them. The brand identity is really the most important part of producing media texts and products, as if people are browsing in music shops or looking through a magazine it is the visuals that need to stand out from similar products on the market and the visuals are what makes a person buy products. 

Evaluation: Question 2

Branding powerpoint

Music Video Analysis

Digipak Analysis

Advertising Poster Analysis

Evaluation: Question 1

When we first started our music video project it took us a long time to find a band that we all liked and then even longer to decided on a song, and we went through about four different songs until we found one that was suitable and one that we had really good ideas for. In the end we settled on a song called 'Just Don't care' by 'All About Flux'. We had so much trouble choosing a song because we didn't want it to be boring or slow and a lot of there songs already had music videos so it was hard not to be influenced by the ideas that they had come up with. We chose 'Just Don't Care' because it was a mixture of everything, it has slow parts, fast parts and a steady beat that we could edit too. 

At the start of my blog I did some individual research on different music videos and advertisements. To start with these analysis posts were of music videos that I generally liked and had no real link to our own products. Early on a did an influential post on Lady Gaga's video 'Telephone', this video was very entropic yet very redundant at the same time. This analysis opened my eyes to how weird and unusual things can be added into a video without the viewer really questioning why it's in there. As a group we really liked the idea of having at least one entropic element, so we then went onto research other videos that could have a possible link to our own music choice and target audience. 
I did a lot of research on the band 'Paramore' as their music and image genre was similar to that of our own band. We also looked at other bands and artists such as Jessie J and Panic! At The Disco. These artists got us into the entropic style of things again and we settled on a clown or circus theme, the 'I Write Sins, Not Tragedies' video really helped us with this idea, they took a basic and redundant idea of a wedding in a church and made it really unusual and interesting by adding in elements from the circus such as performers and ring masters. 
Referring back to Sir Ken Robinson's theory about how people grow out of creativity for the fear of being wrong. As a group we found it really hard to agree on ideas and we thought that this could be due to none of our ideas being really good, but after research and watching influential videos we came up with a great idea that everyone had input with. I think as we were god friends to start with and all of us are creative people and study creative subjects at college I don't think the idea of being wrong stopped us from putting forward or rejecting ideas. 


After all of this research we put together a pitch, that we presented to the class to find out what people thought of our ideas and song choice, and that is where are audience research and feedback came into the idea generating process. Everyone reacted really well to the presentation and people thought it was a realistic but interesting idea and they said it would look really professional if it was done well. 
We held several focus groups throughout our music video project, we found it helpful to find out what our target audience thought of works in progress and we definitely took into account what people said, right up until the end of our editing time. As we got further and further on in our project our focus groups got smaller as we wanted really detailed analysis from creative people without having to control a large amount of people that may feel uncomfortable expressing their opinions in front of people. Towards the end of our editing period one of our focus groups bought up the idea that performance would really help the video and that it would change it from a short film to a conventional music video, as a last minute discussion we then filmed a lot of performance elements and fitted them into the video which as a group we thought looked much better and our target audience also preferred the changed rough cut to the original one.




I think that the media products that I designed are as similar as possible to conventional media products given the time, technology and money restraints.  For our group we struggled with getting good quality filming and lighting. As we were filming in a real auditorium it was difficult for us to get good lighting without using the professional studio lights that require training to use. Throughout the filming for our video we also ended up using several cameras, due to group members not being happy with the quality and also previous filming equipment being used at the same time as us. Personally I think that the print work is very similar to conventional branding, as we had use of all the professional programs that would have been used when creating real digipaks and print advertisements and we also did a lot of research early in the project on influencing digipaks. 


Being original in the media world is very hard, and ideas can never be completely original due to all of the media influences that we all have around us. Overall I think our video is quite original it has sections that are realistic and matters that happen in real life, and I feel like we execute these well and show the emotions that people would go through in real life. But we also have entropic elements that change our video from a depressing story to an interesting, youthful and modern video. The use of the clown is our entropic element, he is used throughout to represent a 'normal' person, but then he is not, he is a clown. The video shows him having the same emotions and feelings that a normal person would have when in a complicated relationship. As we only have this one really entropic element I think we could have pushed the unexpectedness a little bit further, although I am happy with the balance between entropy and redundancy in our video. I think that the amount of each element that we have used is enough to make the audience question parts of the video yet not get confused, I think the story line for the video is still clear and easy to understand yet the entropic elements turn it into a generally more interesting video. The information that we got from audience feedback and our target audience focus groups was that they liked the idea but weren't sure how it would be executed in a clear and understandable way. We took this into account when editing and filming our music video. For example some people said the different gender of the singers could be confusing if the female was singing the male parts, so we made sure not to do this. 


Walter Jon Williams is a theorist who believes that labeling a band/video with a genre is only a starting point and he also says that it will only find you an audience base and someone to aim at or advertise for. Personally I agree with Williams' theory as i think you can do everything in the way of advertising to a particular target audience but you still cant make them like the end product.
For our print work and video we held many focus groups, we tried to use people who fitted our viewer profile in order to get some really useful feedback, we also felt that it make the focus groups worth while instead of a hindrance. 

Final Advertising Poster

Advertising Poster Experimentation

Final Digipak!

Screen Prints of Digipak Progress

Font Experimentation and Font Feedback

These are a few of the fonts that i liked best and thought would work for an album cover. As I couldn't decide which one was best and which one would appeal more to my target audience I asked some people that would be most likely to watch the video and buy the album. Overall people liked number 4 and 6, and as I couldn't decided which one to use i have decided to use number 4 for the band name, and number 6 for the album name and track listings.

Front Cover Photo Options and Layout Design

This post is to show some possible photographs that could be used for the front cover, I have chosen this kind of photograph because I like the black, red and white colours in the photographs as it makes the circus feel of the video come through. I also wanted both of the singers to be on the front cover as the album is overall to promote them as a band. Above is the template that I will be using and for now I am concentrating on just the front cover, so I will have to experiment with font styles/layout, editing techniques and generic conventions of an album cover.  

After looking at all of the images I have chosen to experiment with the second one down on the right as I like the laid back look and cool appearance. 

Time Management and Changes Update

For the past couple of weeks we have been editing and finishing our video, we have also completed rough cuts that will be posted shortly and we also have audience feedback/focus group videos that explain the decisions that we have made throughout the editing of our video. 


When editing we found that there was a lot of video that we weren't happy with due to the quality, due to complications and bookings of our filming venue going back to re-film wasn't an option. We also found that our video was slightly boring and didn't flow very well. To fix this we decided to export what we had an show an audience to see what they thought would make the video more appealing to them. This will be posted shortly, along with the rough cut. 

It is currently the 22nd of March and we have finished our music video for the moment, we just have to have yet another focus group with our target audience to see if they like it and see if it would appeal to them, we will then upload our final video a long with our target audience feedback and then we will start on the print work within our own time.

Final Cut of Music Video

We have finally finished our music video, here is the final cut!

Actors and Costume Update

For the performance section of our video we needed new actors that hadn't appeared in video yet, as a group we decided that it should be Emma and Jack, as they were part of the group it meant the organisation would be easier as they would be with us during lesson time, we also needed a guy for the video as there are male singing parts throughout the video. After deciding on actors we then went about choosing what kind of costumes they should wear as we didn't want them to be in clown makeup but we did want them have a circus like appearance in order for them to fit in with the clown sections of the video. We also decided that by filming in the same auditorium that the clown parts were set in we were carrying on with good continuity and that it wouldn't confuse the viewers too much.


Below I have a photograph of some basic costume ideas, that we hope will make the artists fit into the music video without the extremities of having makeup as well. We have chosen a black and white theme so that they stand out against all of the red in the theater auditorium and it also gives it a circus/mime effect. 

Rough Cut and Audience Feedback

We now finally have a rough cut of our video!
For the moment the rough cut isn't for the entire length of the song as we wanted to be able to add in any bits if we needed to, based on our audience feedback and focus group. And here is the rough cut:

This is the video that we showed to our focus group, we also filmed the session so that we could look back on what the questions were and the exact comments that people made. The questions that we asked in our session were:


Does the music video appeal to you and why?
What is your favorite part of the music video and why?
Is there anything you would change or improve on?


And here are the videos:

From our feedback video it is clear that they thought the performance element needed to be added as they thought it was important and would change the video from a short film into a music video. They also thought the difference between reality and flash backs needed to be more obvious and they suggested a colour change for the lower quality clips would make the overall appearance better and would also help distinguish and make the whole concept for the video clearer. 


Due to our group as a whole not being happy with the rough cut due to quality and the purely narrative concept, we sat down and discussed where to go from here. We decided that we now definitely needed a performance element so we went about organising filming times, costumes and new actors. We also learnt how to change hue and saturation on particular clips and how to overlay a sepia filter.

Time Management update

After finishing our filming on Monday the next couple of weeks will be filled with editing. Due to us not incorporating half term into our calendar things are still going to plan just a week later. Also as we wanted to film in a public place that was constantly in use we had a lot of set backs regarding the assembly rooms and we had to work around there time table as best we could, but in the end we did get all of the filming finished. We are hoping that the editing will take about 2 weeks and that we will have a rough cut by sometime next week, in order to get an idea of what our target audience think about our video and things they think could be improved. 

Photographs from Filming 10th February

These are some images that we took when we were filming the performance part of our video.Filming photographs

Friday 10th February

Our plans to film on Monday the 6th had to be cancelled due to one of our actors not being able to get into college due to the snowy whether, although this is a set back we still starting preparing for the next opportunity to film which was Friday the 10th, this is our plan for the filming:

Filming: Monday 6th of February

Filming Rearrangements

Due to our main actor Luke (the clown) being unavailable on Thursday 2nd of February and possibly unavailable on the Friday after, we scouted around college too find someone of a similar standard and someone who would fit the brief, after being unsuccessful we received a phone call from Luke saying he would be able to film on Thursday and Friday after.
So with our free time, we decided to get organised and arrange what shots we had to get, what makeup we should do and all the little things that would hold us back when it came to filming. After doing all of these things we shot the opening and ending scenes on Friday 3rd of February and now things are under way. 

Risk Assessment and Location Shots

We have discussed as a group locations that we think will be suitable for our video. Ideally they will be somewhere we can all get to easily and that will look authentic. The main location of our video is the theatre our clown is performing in, we have chosen the Ludlow Assembly Rooms as it is a professional theatre that suits the style of our video.It has a large stage and dressing rooms and our group has links with the people who run the theatre, which is important as we will need permission to film and possibly some technical help. We had a meeting with the stage manager at the assembly rooms and he gave us permission to film, as well as emailing us information about when we should schedule our shoot.


Our other locations are around Ludlow town centre, outside a cafe, a jewellery shop and by the river. We have decided on the places in town we wish to use and we will ask permission from shopkeepers on the day, as we are only shooting outside their shops and we can easily find replacements if necessary.
When looking for locations we took note of any health and safety problems and then wrote our a risk assessment table.

	Potential Danger	Potential Outcomes	Actions to Avoid Outcomes	Comments
Assembly Rooms	Tripping on cables, equipment backstage	Minor Injury	Clearing the spaces we will be working in
	Falling on backstage stairs	Serious Injury	No running backstage
	Hurt using Diablo or Spinning Plates	Serious Injury	Act sensibly when using Diablo etc. Give actor plenty of space.	Make sure Luke is comfortable using the equipment, don’t attempt anything too difficult.
	Dropping the Camera	No Injury, Serious Damage to Equipment	Check camera is secure on tripod, use camera strap
	Falling from Balcony	Very Serious Injury	Act sensibly, don’t lean far over the edge
General	Hit by a car	Very Serious Injury	Act sensibly when crossing roads etc., when filming make sure you are well on the pavement	Very Unlikely
	Pedestrians tripping over tripod	Medium Injury	Have someone watching passers by, don’t place the tripod in very busy or small pavements
	Tripping in High Heels	Minor Injury	Don’t run or walk in unsuitable conditions
	Falling in the River	Serious Injury	Don’t run or walk close to the edge

Final Costumes and Props

Narrative Theories

There are many theories about how narrative can be used in any media, and in this post I will analyse some of these theories that relate to our music video.

The first theorist is Levi Strauss, he believes that in media there are 'binary oppositions' these include:

• Good & Bad
• Rich & Poor
• Eastern & Western World
• Love & Hate

Two of these opposites have a role in our music video. Rich and poor are featured throughout, for example the clown has little money and has to perform to earn, whereas the rich man is very sophisticated and smooth, and steals the girl away from the clown, instantly making the audience side with the clown. the fact that the audience know who to feel sorry for also backs up Strauss' theory. As a result of having rich and poor featuring in our video, the opposites of good and bad subsequently take part. The audience get to know who is the 'good guy' and who is the 'bad guy'.

Another theorist that links in with our music video is Barthes. He believes that there are 5 conventions of how media gets the audiences attention. 7

These are:

• The enigma code-audience is intrigued to solve the problem
• The action code-audience is excited to solve the problem
• The semantic code-audience is directed towards an additional meaning
• The symbolic code-audience assumes characteristics based on costumes
• The cultural code-audience finds a meaning in the words/text/lyrics

Our music video has three of these codes included in it. The first code is the enigma code, when watching our music video the audience will want to know what the ending will be, whether the girl tells the clown the truth, and they would be excited to see what happens if and when she does, this also includes the action code. The last code that fits our music video is the sumbolic code, the costumes will play a big part in the video, as the clown will be portrayed as poor just from what he is wearing and the props that he has, the rich man will be dressed in a black suit showing that he is the 'bad guy', and the audience will see this and expect them to act in a certain role.

Focus Group

To get more feedback about our concept we held a focus group with people we think represent our target audience. Our target audience are all digital natives and so the easiest way to communicate with them and organise an event is by using social media. To organise our group we created an event on Facebook and invited people we thought were suitable, this included a time and place to meet us.

Overall the feedback we got was very positive, the group thought we had a very creative and original idea. They agreed that it was something they would watch and wanted to see our video when we created it. They think the video will suit the style and genre of the song and although they did comment about the female singer and whether this matched the male lead actor. The song does also have a male singer, though we will have to make sure that is it clear the male character is the focus in the video. Again there were concerns about how authentic the video would look, in particular the setting, though they thought the Assembly Rooms were a perfect set.

Time Management Update

Today we held our focus group in the library at the college. We invited members of our target audience and asked them questions related to the concept and visual presentation of our music video. We also filmed this to be edited and posted on the blog soon.  We have arranged the actors for the video and are now trying to organise when the best time to film will be. 


We have updated our Outlook calendar to show when and who we will be filming with. The calendar also helps us to plan our time well. The next step for our group will be to finish our posts on Monday and start our filming on Thursday afternoon.

Focus Group

We decided to host a focus group with our target audience, this allows us to gain feedback from the group we hope to aim our video at. The overall outcome was positive, they all liked our concept and agreed that it would be something they would enjoy watching. They did offer some suggestions and positive criticisms that we will take into account when making our music video.

Filming Notes for Thursday 2nd of February

Actors needed: Rosie and Luke
Props/Costumes needed: 

• Rosie and Luke's costumes, 
• props for the clown and facepaint

Shots of Luke and Rosie (clown and girlfriend):

• Backstage shot of talking and hugging
• Putting on the makeup in the mirror 
• Point of view shot from the clown and from the audience
• Action shots of clown (Spinning plates, diablo, bunting)
• Clown dropping everything
• Scrabbling around to pick everything up
• Sad audience with some people leaving
• Happy face when the clown throws the bunting up
• As bunting comes down the clowns face is sad
• Crying shots gradually getting worse
• Backstage shot of the mirror and ring shot
• Separate shot of Rosie and Luke walking by the river

Story board as a Video

In our groups we had been talking about ideas that we had, and they were all getting very jumbled and we were finding it hard to remember them. In order to stop all of the confusion and get organised we have created a storyboard that allows us to have an order to our many ideas, it will also help us to be more efficient when we come to shooting, and will stop as wasting our time and ideas we wont be using. 

Facebook Page

After talking about our initial ideas and ways that we can split tasks up, we decided that it would be a good idea to create a Facebook group so that we can use this to communicate with each other quickly and easily outside of college. The group will be useful when it comes to planning and organising the filming aspects of our project and to keep up to date with how we are all getting on with our assigned tasks. As members we will be able to upload photographs, comment on ideas and share what we have found. When the casting has been finalised, this will also be another platform in which to communicate with our actors. The group will also be useful at times when we are not all able to meet up, meaning that we can communicate with the other members of our group when they are at home. This will mean that we can really make use of the time we have for planning and make sure that we all understand what each member of the group is doing.

Actors and Casting

 This week we have been talking to and organising the actors for the main roles in our music video. As a group we discussed who we would like to fulfill each role, who we desired to play it and who was realistic to cast. 

After the discussion we asked our chosen actors if they would like to be part of our project, luckily they agreed. We then began to make a 'Time Plan' for each actor showing the times in the week that they would be available to film. We also made a list with confirmation of each persons role and contact details for each cast member.

It has been confirmed that Luke Evans will be playing the role of 'Clown'. Luke is pictured on either side wearing a bright green T-shirt and cardigan. We think that Luke is right for this part as he is a drama student with experience playing main roles in both college productions. We chose Luke as a desired actor because he will be able to fully appreciate what we are looking for with our music video.

 We have also received confirmation that Joe Lacey will be playing the part of 'Rich Man'. Joe is pictured to the right photographed in black & white. We think that Joe is suitable for this role as he has had acting experience at high school and has been involved in the college production both with acting and dancing roles. He is also available to take part with the filming on the days that we desire.


It has also been confirmed that Rosie Turner will be playing the woman's role. We think that she would be suitable for this part as she is available to take part in the filming during our media lessons and will be able to fully understand what is needed whilst filming.






The table to the left shows a 'Time Plan' for each actor. the lesson periods marked in red are the times that the person is unavailable and the ones marked in green are when they are available.We have created this chart so that we can easily refer back to it when we are planning to film. 

We are also aware that we will need to cast some extras to act as audience members for a very small part of the filming. This is something we plan to do closer to the filming date as organisation of groups of people can be difficult and often unreliable. Extras will be asked to appear in our music video prior to the week before filming.

As well as a time plan we have also created a grid to show casting information. We have taken down telephone numbers and contact details for each of our actors so that we can call them in event of them not showing up to filming.