Evaluation Task 3 - 'What have you learned from your audience feedback?'

Music Video - Rough Cut Feedback


My first target was to finish the whole video so that I could get feedback for the whole video and not just the first half. Apart from that i got many responses from the class, the people who helped me make the video and other people that i had shown that some cuts in the video were too long. The first chorus which began at 1:09 had a shot which was far too long. It had the same shot going for half of the verse and there were other shots earlier and later in the video which were also too long. Considering the pace of the music the video needed quicker cuts between the shots. Our response to this was that we went out and filmed more shots so that i had more i could cut in the video.

Another problem was that there were not many close up shots of the artist. Most of the video consisted of medium shots and some long shots with only a couple of close ups. I needed to add more. Once again this problem was solved by filming more shots and also a close up shot of the lead singer singing the whole song. This way i would have something to fall back on if i wanted to add a cut in the video as well as a close up of the lead artist.

There was also some problem with lighting in a few shots where the light was too dim in some parts of the video whilst too bright in others. I had explained that the darker tone in lights was mainly during the middle of the song and was intentionally darkened to fit the lyrics a bit more. Other shots were brightened by use of effects or replaced with other, brighter shots.

Strengths of Final Music video?


People said that the overall idea of the video was good as it had continuity and a narrative that made sense. They said that there were a few shots that were really good and creative eg; 0:20, 1:05, 1:59.
They enjoyed the running gag about the hat where it switched hands a number of times as it added a comical effect to the narrative and went well with the video as it showed the silliness of two drunk people.
Some people really like the shot of where the bottle was thrown and shown landing (1:46) and how the saxophone shot was shot through the bottle (2:52).

The audience stated that I had done better job in editing the shots and with the quick cuts which fit well with the beat of the music. They also enjoyed the little parts of the video where there was no lyrics due to the short sections of video that i added in them.

Weaknesses


Lighting on some of the shots was the biggest problem as there were a number of shots which was very harsh on the face of the lead singer and the change of lighting between one shot and another can sometimes be seen immediately and does not look pleasant. This is a big problem that i couldn't try and find a way around except for reshooting most of the shots again and unfortunately i did not have the time to do that.

It could also be argued that there was not a lot of camera movement, the camera was kept stationary for most shots and the shots where the camera was moving was rather jagged.

Digipak Rough Feedback

Initial feedback for the rough copy of my front cover was good, the colour scheme fit well and so did the font ant picture used. Although it was said that the white background of the front cover was too plain. I was told to try and add more colour to the background. There was also some black noise from the original picture on the top right of the front cover and only the top right. People said that it would look better if i got rid of it completely or spread it out evenly on the background.

There was one problem with the picture. One of the band members seemed to be fading away from his legs whilst the other two were not. I was told to either add that fading effect on all three members in the photo or add none at all. I chose to add no fade effect.
Lastly the image size was pointed out to me as not one which would fit a digipak. I was told to fix the size of the image to one that looks like a front cover. People said the the original picture looked really good and that it fit well with the video and front cover and so it inspired me to use it for my magazine advert also.

People said the the first design of my back cover fit well with the front in terms of the colour scheme and that it was good that the same font was used as it worked well. Although the image used was too plain and boring.  The original image was that of a hat. The audience said that it was too plain and that i should add something to the image itself or change it.

I made a second design to the back cover and changed the picture. The colour scheme was similar to the front cover apart from adding shades of grey and red.
People said that the colour scheme went well and that the picture used was better than the previous picture of only the hat. They liked the idea that the band members made the letter 'A' to show the band name 'Asylum.' Although the text size of the track list was too big and the dark red colour didn't suit the cover. I was told to make the text size smaller and to move it more to the middle of the picture so that it would not cover the face of the person in the picture. So i made the text smaller and put it completely in front of the white section of the picture and changed the colour of the text to black.

The audience also did not like the idea of the barcode and legal writing on the top corners of the cover. They also said that the text size of the legal writing and websites were too big and that they would look better smaller and in a different location.
I then made the text smaller in accordance to the feedback and moved the image used more towards the top of the cover so that there would be enough space at the bottom to put the legal writing, the record label logo, websites of the band and record label and the barcode.

Evaluation Question 4 - 'How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?'

I have used different media technologies to help with my production and enhance the quality of the ancillary tasks i did. In the practical stages of the production i used a camcorder, the Sony DCR-SR58, and a digital camera, the Samsung ES15, to capture images and pictures for my video.

I used software  like Adobe Premiere Pro to edit my production on a Mac computer and a HP laptop. I used Premiere Pro CS4 on the Mac and a trial version of Premiere Pro CS5 on the HP laptop.


I used Premiere Pro to edit my video and used it for effects such as some color correction and brightness and contrast.

Adobe Photoshop was also used to create the 4-panel digipak and the rough drafts of it. It was also used to make the magazine advert look as professional as possible. I worked with the pictures taken by the Samsung digital camera on Photoshop to create both the digipak and magazine advert.

  Web 2.0 made a huge difference for y production especially the research stages of it. I used the popular website Youtube to research a number of different music videos and deconstruct them, via use of the Goodwin theory, to help me shape my own music video.
I also used the website Prezi when doing my research on music videos and directors. Prezi was used to display the research i had done. Websites such as youtube can also be used to increase an audience from local to worldwide in an instant which can be extremely useful for feedback. Facebook is another example of a website which this is good for as you can just post up your video and the audience can post feedback on their own time and leisure.

Microsoft Word was used to annotate the lyrics and show the people who were helping me what we were filming that day and what the lyrics were of the verses we were recording. The digital camera was used to take pictures of the props and locations that we were planning to use. This would help in organizing our shoot and help us with the production.

Overall i have used a wide array of media technology which has increased the quality of my production. It has helped in a number of ways during all the stages of production making it easier to organize myself and the people who helped me.

Digipak - Back cover design 03

Third design for my back cover.
Changed some things according to previous back cover feedback - made text smaller, changed position of picture and moved the barcode, legal stuff, websites and record label logo

Digipak - Back cover 02 Feedback

Cons

• The text of the legal stuff and websites is too big
• The text of the track list is too big
• The track list is not in a good position as it hits the person in the photograph. 
• The colour of the track list text doesn't go too well with the rest of the cover. Change the red.
• The position of the record label logo and barcode doesn't look too good on the top corners. Try to put them on the bottom corner. 

Pros

• The colour scheme goes well with the front cover
• he picture isn't plane and fits with the picture on the front cover

Digipak - Front, back and inside covers

Final design of the front cover (right), spine and back cover (left) of the digipak/CD case. I added some noise in the background of the front cover since a feedback point was that the background was too plain. I just blended a little less white and grey with the original picture and brushed some white in the space where the band name and album name occupies so they could be legible. 

The black and white is a simple colour scheme which works very well together. The original idea was to get a picture where only the silhouettes of the band members could be seen with the background covered in light. Using that picture i blended some of the black and white of the original picture and added a white background. This makes the finished project look a little more professional whilst giving an ominous feeling since the faces of the band cannot be seen.

Final designs of the inside covers of the 4-panel digipak/CD case. The right panel is where the actual CD will lay and the left panel will include a booklet where the cover will have a montage of some of the pictures of the band members accompanied by the name of the band and album. 

I wanted to add a little colour to the inside so that the entire CD case does not look to similar or dull but also because i wanted the CD case to support the name of the album and band. I wanted the CD case to seem a little 'weird' by having the outside covers in black, white and grey and add a colourful surprise for the inside covers to make it seem a little 'wonderful' with the additions of colours. 

Magazone Advert - 2nd design

2nd design for magazine advert

added a glow to the band and album name instead of the wind effect in the previous advert. Moved the position of the picture closer to the middle as it separates the text a little and makes it look a little more professional.

Digipak - Front cover design 02

Second design of the front cover of the digipak - done after receiving feedback from the previous front cover.

I added some more noise in the background of the cover and tried to distribute evenly across the background. The noise was taken from the original photograph. I also changed the size to a square since CD covers are square.