Audience Feedback On My Final Music Video

As I am making my music video to appeal to my desired target audience, I thought what better way to see what they thought of my coursework than to ask them 3 questions on what they thought about my video, once they had watched the final product. Here are their feedback below:

I also decided to film Tom and Sam's (my talent) opinion on what they liked and enjoyed performing in my music video. I was intrigued to discover if my audience (that I had already asked) enjoyed watching the same bits of my music, that my talent's did too when performing the scenes out. Here are their responses:

On reflection to my audience feedback:
Although no-one particularly said they could personally relate to this story, I do know of many relationships that have broken down and due to that one decision things have change dramatically, which was what I was aiming to create in my music video. Referring back to the uses and gratifications theory by Blumler and Katz, I would say that my music video purpose was for the audience's entertainment, as well as creating a diversion from their everyday lives and maybe even people occasionally finding themselves reflected in the text (personal identity).

Overall, I had to take into the consideration of everyone's reception of my music video. According to the reception theory (based on Stuart Hall's work) the text (produced by myself) can be decoded by my  audience in different ways. Therefore, I had to use recognisible codes and conventions to ensure my audience understood the music video and what message I was conveying. On reflection to my audience feedback (above), I believe that all of them decoded it in the way I wanted them to, which was a sad break up music video with a traumatic, yet shocking twist. I don't think that my text was aberrantly decoded as no one didn't understand the concept of my music video, so in conclusion, I would say I created a text which a preferred reading.

My Final Music Video

In comparison to the previous full music video (Fourth Draft) I believe the transition from the protagonist pressing the remote to control the projections on the wall, is a lot more obvious for the viewer, as they can tell where the memories are coming from. I think this is a big improvement compared to my last draft, because if my target audience did not know the storyline, they may not of understood the projection scene, but now that I have re-filmed it, I believe it is easier to follow. Here is my final draft of my music video!:)

Photos For The Digipak

Today in my free study periods I thought it would be the best oportunity to start taking my digipak photos. I asked one of my friends who also had the same study periods as me so I was able to director her in what I needed doing whilst I took the pictures. I also needed my talent Tom to come over so I was able to take the second half of the photos with him in (e.g. the reflection in the puddle and walking in the rain with the umbrella etc). Here is a slide show of all the original photos that I took:

After looking at Mayday Parade's existing albums and single covers, I thought it would be best to edit the original photographs in a cartoon styled fashion on www.picmonkey.com. Here are my chosen images that turned out the best in this style and the possible pictures that I will most probably use for my digipak.

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I thought it would be a good idea to show how I created the cartoon/animated feel to the picture from the original photos.

Here is one of the original picture of the rose I took in my garden. I decided to have a look at all of the effects you get on the picmonkey website and see if they had any cartoon/animated style. I came across the "posterize" effect on the left had side.

Once I had messed around with the levels of colours, amount of detail and how much to fade the pictures by, I ended up with this (above) as the final product.

Initial Ideas For My Digipak

When thinking about to my chosen song "the memory", I decided to brainstorm everything that I associated with happy memories fading away or things falling apart. In the end, I came up with:

• A rose wilting or breaking apart
• Petals/leeaves/dandelions seeds blowing in the wind
• Polaroid styled pictures on the ground
• Clouds in his eyes (to show he is looking up to her thinking about their memories - like in the music video)
• Reflection of him in a puddle
• Bubbles flying in the air and me editing the pictures of the happy couple in it

Although I am correctly undecided on which pictures to put where, I will draw several ideas down and mix the images around until I finally come up a combination I believe looks the best for the album. At the moment I have designed all of my ideas for my front cover, the inside and back cover all on seperate A4 sheets of paper. Here are my designs below:

Front Cover Ideas:

 

Inside Cover Ideas:

Back Cover Ideas:

Next Steps:

Now that I have drawn out potential ideas for my actual digipak, I will now plan a day where my friends or even talent are free to take these images and make them come to life.

Digipak Research

What is a digipak?

"A digipak is a fairly recent type of packaging for CD's, which is typically made out of a heavy cardboard material. It will normally open like a book or be in three parts with one opening to the left, another to the right and the CD in the middle in the more traditional 'jewel CD case' stuck onto the card background. They are most frequently used for special edition releases and allow for more information, including lyrics or information on the band and more graphic display."

I particularly like Rihanna's digipak as she keep continuity throughout all of the sides, which I believe makes it more visually appealing. Therefore, I will try and create a digipak that sticks to a sort of theme or continuity throughout.

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Although these aren't necessarily digipak's, here are a variety of albums and singles that Mayday Parade have produced so far.

Conclusion:
After doing some research into their existing products there seem to be a common theme within all their work. None of their albums actually have the band members on the cover, which is rather unconventional for "typical" albums. However, due to the fact I am creating a promotional digipak for their album, I should stick to their convention of not having the artist on the cover. Another similarity between these front covers is that, they are not real life images, they have an animated/drawn feeling to it. I will try and stick this convention, although I have no idea how to create this effect at the moment! So I will to have to have a look at the editing website called picmonkey or any others if they can help me with this sort of style.

Fourth Drafts Of My Music Video

After re-filming the scrapbook scenes in my talent's room, I believe this was a good move and works much better than my original completed version, as the location look more appropriate and like a boys room in comparison to my previous attempts. Here is my fourth draft below:



Overall, I am glad that I took on my audience's feedback on what they thought of my third draft (first completed version), as I have been able to edit the video in numerous of ways, which I believe makes it look much more realistic.

Next Steps:
After looking back at this draft of my music video, there are a few little things that I think could be adjusted to make it better and put my perfectionist side to rest! One of the little things I noticed was that when he goes to play the record button on the remote, he goes straight from that to the projections on the wall and couldn't tell they were playing from the video camera. For someone who doesn't know the storyline of my music video, may get a little confused to that fact and therefore I need to re-film this scene to ensure they are being shown on the wall from the projector. This will be my main next step for my next draft. I may also tweak the timings throughout the video, making things slower or faster depending on the points of the song, as I believe the clips should fit to the best of the music.

Feedback Of My First Completed Music Video

Here's a short clip of me asking a member of my target audience several questions to see what she thinks to my third drafts (which is my first completed version of my music video).This will enable me to understand what areas are good so far, what I need to improve on and see there is any need to add any more footage to appeal to my target audience.

As well as filming Jamie above ^ I also decided to ask a few of my peers on what they liked/disliked about the video so far and if there were any improvements they think I should make. Here are their responses: 

Laura aged 17:

• The lip syncing is on time with the song, making the video realistic as well as the audience believing he is feeling those emotions expressed through the lyrics.
  
  
• The use of the scrapbook helps the viewer give an insight of the couple's journey and what their relationship was like.

• The only improvement I could think of is when your protagonist is breaking down looking through the pictures in the scrapbook, he could throw them a bit more dramatically to emphasise how much the memory is killing him.

Erin aged 18:

• The walking in the rain scene is a clever way of showing how the event still plays on his mind, by having random flashbacks and deja vu of the times they once spent together(just by an ordinary thing of looking at his reflection in a puddle).
  
  
• I like how you used an extreme close up of Sam's hand to show that she had a choice to either go back and apologise for the argument or to run away. By zooming in or when she chooses to change her mind and run away conveys the message you want to achieve of how one decision can change someones life.

Beth aged 15:

• My favourite scene is when you have a Birdseye view of Sam spinning around as the bubbles float away. By having it in slow motion portrays a dreamy feel to the flashback, displaying it is all a memory (fitting in with the title well!)

James aged 19: 

·         The use of jump cuts added from different camera angles during the running over scene, helps the audience to not only know what is going on, but makes them empathise with the characters involved in the video.

Charley aged 16:

·         The point of view shot of him running to see what is going on outside, makes the audience feel like we are in his shoes and feel sympathetic for him when he comes across his girlfriend dying on the floor.

·         One thing you could improve on is if you edit the happy memories a little slower to create a greater impact on the viewer.

Paul aged 17:

·         By zooming in on the picture where they are both holding hands and then cross dissolving this image into the real life moving clip, gives off the effect that the picture in the scrapbook come to life.

·         I like how you reverse the happy memories back in black and white, to help imply he is breaking down and can no longer handle the memories.

Conclusion:

     Looking back at my first full draft of my music video, I am pleased with the result so far. However, as Jamie mentioned I am a bit of a perfectionist, the scrapbook scenes that I filmed in the spare room didn't look "boyish" enough. So i thought what better place to film than to go to Tom's house and redo the scenes there. So on the 10th November I will re-film the scenes and edit my music video from there and see how it turns out. As well as this, I will ensure that I take the rest of my peers opinions and make these changes they have come up with.

Third Draft of My Music Video

After taking my next steps on board, here is my first full draft of my music video so far below:

 

Second Draft Of My Music Video

After listening to my feedback I edited my first draft and continued on making my second drafts. Although this draft is only two minutes long, it does shows the current progress I am making.

 

Comparing my second drafts to my first, I believe it is greatly improved. This is mainly down to the fact I moved the lip syncing from "I'm barely breathing as I'm lying on the floor" to "take my heart as you're leaving, I don't need it anymore", as the argument scene flows much smoother than the first draft I did, which was rather jumpy.

 

Next Step:

Looking back at this draft, I still believe there are some improvements I can make for my third drafts. One of the main adjustments I am thinking to make is to complete a first full draft of my music video, ensuring that I stick to the ideas and timings as close as I can, that I made on my script. 

First Draft Of My Music Video

Now that I have started editing my film, I thought it would be a good idea to show the progress I am making. Therefore, I decided to mess around with the footage I have recorded to come up with the first minute of my actual song. Here is what my music video looks so far....

On reflection, although its only a minute long, I am happy with what I have produced so far. I have tried to ensure that I have stuck to my original story line and script, so I don't lose the message I am trying to perceive in this video. As our teachers have told us there needs to be lip syncing in our video, I have added this in (as I didn't realise the importance of this at the time when I created my script). Even though I am proud of what I have achieved currently, I still have a fair way to go!

Next Step:

When watching this clip several times, I believe where I have added lip syncing in whilst my talents are arguing, it doesn't really flow, so I will aim to add more lip syncing somewhere else. So that will be my main next step! Also, another step will be to obviously add more footage onto my project, to actually make the next draft of my music video.