Front and Back Digipak
Front and Back Digipak
Inside Digipak
Inside Digipak
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Thursday 26 January 2017
Monday 9 January 2017
Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media products both challenge and conform to the conventions of real media products. It was important to us that we created products which conformed enough to allow our target audience an initial interest, yet were challenging enough to allow for uniqueness and engagement.
MUSIC VIDEO
One of the main theorists I looked at to see whether our music video either conformed to or challenged existing media products is Andrew Goodwin. I explain his theory in the Prezi below and then go on to apply it to our own music video.
When making our video and deciding if we wanted to conform or challenge the conventions, we had to look specifically at music videos of the same genre as ours and see which characteristics they adopted.
An example of an existing music video that follows the studio convention is La Roux's song 'Bulletproof' as seen below.
By looking at these particular conventions, it is clear that our video challenges the whole narrative and studio aspect as we made use of both of them. We wanted to incorporate a major studio element as we were dedicated time to do this in school and it allowed us to play around with colours through different lighting filters. It was important to us that our video was vibrant and colourful as we want our duo to come across as light spirited and happy, so we used the studio to do this. We also wanted a narrative aspect that told a clear story line throughout the video that made it easy for people to relate to. The story line follows a girl breaking free from the restraints her boyfriend holds on her, however, he apologises and at the end they make up. It can be seen that colour plays a big part in existing electropop videos and so this is a convention that we followed. Furthermore, we also followed the conventions of beauty shots in order to show the artist on an up close and personal level and to add variety to our video, along with the use of different camera angles. The image above shows how we conformed to the convention of beauty shots and a colourful studio set.
In this GIF, the camera pans around MiraJax's heads whilst Mira sings the lyrics 'like a map of my brain' to indicate a literal interpretation of the lyrics as the camera movement implies looking around their brains.
In this GIF, Mira and Jack stand outside the station and we edited the clip to make it sped up. This shows a literal illustrative interpretation of the lyrics 'too many voices drown the ones that need to be heard the most' because the people in the background act as the voices that are surrounding them.
In this GIF, the visuals show an amplified interpretation of the lyrics because as a group we understood the lyrics to tell a story of a girl breaking free from restrictions, remaining sweet and true to herself. The balloons on set were our way of indicating a celebration of freedom, the flower petals show the destruction of expected femininity and the heart lollipops show that she has a sweet heart and wants to love herself.
Another convention we followed from Goodwin's theory, is the record label demand for a reoccurring visual motif. We used the beat on the chorus to edit beauty cutaway shots which show Mira's face/body parts in close up shots which draws attention to her style. This also follows the convention of an illustrative relationship between the visuals and music as we edited on the beat. However, we didn't include any voyeurism or intertextuality because it didn't fit in with the storyline we created. Below is a clip form our video that shows our visual motif that has been edited on the beat.
Another theorist we looked at is Carol Vernallis. She bases her theory around four concepts that determine how a video is constructed; narrative, editing, camera movement and framing and diegesis. I explain her theory in the Prezi below and then go on to apply it to our own music video.
Judging by the forms and conventions highlighted in this theory, our music video is appears to be equal in it's levels of conformity and challenge. I have purposely picked out one point from either the conform or challenge column for each concept. The points I have picked out are then demonstrated with an example as they are the most important/obvious points.
We didn't want our music video to conform fully to the forms and conventions that both Goodwin and Vernallis highlighted because we felt this would subtract from the uniqueness of our video and would therefore be less interesting to watch. It was a key factor for us that our video had lots of narrative to engage a UK, urban audience, but also lots of studio to reveal our artists' style and aura.
WEBSITE
The conventions of an electropop artist website can be seen in the diagram below.
With our website, we conformed to conventions on the basis that they are key for promoting an artist well and there are important requirements to think about such as all the necessary pages, however, we were able to then further developed some conventions by adding even more interactivity on our website in order to make it more entertaining and engaging.
On the left is an image that shows one of the conventions we conformed to for artist websites of the same genre. We wanted to include a home page that promoted the album because this is ultimately a huge source of income and a lot of the website revolves around songs on this album. Many artist websites have this on their home page, with links to buy the album and listen to the song on iTunes (we also included live links to allow our audience to do this) because it gives their fans purchasing opportunities, enabling them to feel engaged and connected with the artist on some level.
On the right is an image that shows how we developed conventions as we included the chance for our audience to enter a competition, as well as a meet a greet where fans can meet MiraJax and get the new album signed. We wanted to include these opportunities because we felt it added a new dynamic to our artist and fan relationship, showing our duo to be very connected with their fans. Other websites of the same genre only make use of merchandise and subscribing pages, along with social media links. This may be because they are tailored to an older target audience. It seemed that a lot of pop artist websites had more interactivity such a quizzes on Little Mix's website and this could be because their target audience is younger (a similar target audience to ours).
DIGIPAK/ALBUM COVER
Below is a table that highlights the most important conventions of a debut album cover. As is clear, we followed all the conventions mentioned. We did this because ours is a debut album and so in order for it to sell and get MiraJax's name out there, it had to appeal to our audience. If our duo were bigger and more well known then we would be able to experiment with our album cover more as we would have already built up a big fan base who know our music well and so they would buy our album regardless.
MUSIC VIDEO
One of the main theorists I looked at to see whether our music video either conformed to or challenged existing media products is Andrew Goodwin. I explain his theory in the Prezi below and then go on to apply it to our own music video.
When making our video and deciding if we wanted to conform or challenge the conventions, we had to look specifically at music videos of the same genre as ours and see which characteristics they adopted.
An example of an existing music video that follows the narrative convention is Charlie XCX's song 'Break The Rules' as seen below.
An example of an existing music video that follows the studio convention is La Roux's song 'Bulletproof' as seen below.
By looking at these particular conventions, it is clear that our video challenges the whole narrative and studio aspect as we made use of both of them. We wanted to incorporate a major studio element as we were dedicated time to do this in school and it allowed us to play around with colours through different lighting filters. It was important to us that our video was vibrant and colourful as we want our duo to come across as light spirited and happy, so we used the studio to do this. We also wanted a narrative aspect that told a clear story line throughout the video that made it easy for people to relate to. The story line follows a girl breaking free from the restraints her boyfriend holds on her, however, he apologises and at the end they make up. It can be seen that colour plays a big part in existing electropop videos and so this is a convention that we followed. Furthermore, we also followed the conventions of beauty shots in order to show the artist on an up close and personal level and to add variety to our video, along with the use of different camera angles. The image above shows how we conformed to the convention of beauty shots and a colourful studio set.
Calvin Harris' music video for his song 'How Deep Is Your Love' featuring Disciples, shows similar characteristics to ours and is part of the same genre. It combines both narrative and studio, using neon lighting for the studio to illuminate the girls face on beauty shots. We used this video as a reference point when making our own.
We followed the convention of having both an illustrative and amplified relationship between the lyrics and visuals in the hopes of making our video easily comprehensible as well as giving it some deeper layers of meaning open for individual interpretation. Below shows parts of our video where the relationship between lyrics and visuals is illustrative.
In this GIF, the camera pans around MiraJax's heads whilst Mira sings the lyrics 'like a map of my brain' to indicate a literal interpretation of the lyrics as the camera movement implies looking around their brains.
In this GIF, Mira and Jack stand outside the station and we edited the clip to make it sped up. This shows a literal illustrative interpretation of the lyrics 'too many voices drown the ones that need to be heard the most' because the people in the background act as the voices that are surrounding them.
In this GIF, the visuals show an amplified interpretation of the lyrics because as a group we understood the lyrics to tell a story of a girl breaking free from restrictions, remaining sweet and true to herself. The balloons on set were our way of indicating a celebration of freedom, the flower petals show the destruction of expected femininity and the heart lollipops show that she has a sweet heart and wants to love herself.
Another convention we followed from Goodwin's theory, is the record label demand for a reoccurring visual motif. We used the beat on the chorus to edit beauty cutaway shots which show Mira's face/body parts in close up shots which draws attention to her style. This also follows the convention of an illustrative relationship between the visuals and music as we edited on the beat. However, we didn't include any voyeurism or intertextuality because it didn't fit in with the storyline we created. Below is a clip form our video that shows our visual motif that has been edited on the beat.
Another theorist we looked at is Carol Vernallis. She bases her theory around four concepts that determine how a video is constructed; narrative, editing, camera movement and framing and diegesis. I explain her theory in the Prezi below and then go on to apply it to our own music video.
Judging by the forms and conventions highlighted in this theory, our music video is appears to be equal in it's levels of conformity and challenge. I have purposely picked out one point from either the conform or challenge column for each concept. The points I have picked out are then demonstrated with an example as they are the most important/obvious points.
Challenges: resolved ending
Conforms: breaks continuity rules
Challenges: camera doesn't move in time with lyrics (cuts half way through lyrical phrases)
Conforms: narrative actions incomplete
One music video reference point we found that mostly conforms to Vernallis' theory and is of the same genre as ours is called 'Oh No!' by Marina and the Diamonds. The most obvious conforming factors are:
- disjointed structure
- breaks rules of continuity
- extreme shots (close-ups)
- distinctive camera movement (shots from above)
Example of disjointed structure:
Example of breaking the rules of continuity:
Example of extreme close-up shots:
Example of distinctive camera shots from above:
We didn't want our music video to conform fully to the forms and conventions that both Goodwin and Vernallis highlighted because we felt this would subtract from the uniqueness of our video and would therefore be less interesting to watch. It was a key factor for us that our video had lots of narrative to engage a UK, urban audience, but also lots of studio to reveal our artists' style and aura.
WEBSITE
The conventions of an electropop artist website can be seen in the diagram below.
With our website, we conformed to conventions on the basis that they are key for promoting an artist well and there are important requirements to think about such as all the necessary pages, however, we were able to then further developed some conventions by adding even more interactivity on our website in order to make it more entertaining and engaging.
On the left is an image that shows one of the conventions we conformed to for artist websites of the same genre. We wanted to include a home page that promoted the album because this is ultimately a huge source of income and a lot of the website revolves around songs on this album. Many artist websites have this on their home page, with links to buy the album and listen to the song on iTunes (we also included live links to allow our audience to do this) because it gives their fans purchasing opportunities, enabling them to feel engaged and connected with the artist on some level.
On the right is an image that shows how we developed conventions as we included the chance for our audience to enter a competition, as well as a meet a greet where fans can meet MiraJax and get the new album signed. We wanted to include these opportunities because we felt it added a new dynamic to our artist and fan relationship, showing our duo to be very connected with their fans. Other websites of the same genre only make use of merchandise and subscribing pages, along with social media links. This may be because they are tailored to an older target audience. It seemed that a lot of pop artist websites had more interactivity such a quizzes on Little Mix's website and this could be because their target audience is younger (a similar target audience to ours).
DIGIPAK/ALBUM COVER
Below is a table that highlights the most important conventions of a debut album cover. As is clear, we followed all the conventions mentioned. We did this because ours is a debut album and so in order for it to sell and get MiraJax's name out there, it had to appeal to our audience. If our duo were bigger and more well known then we would be able to experiment with our album cover more as we would have already built up a big fan base who know our music well and so they would buy our album regardless.
We looked at AlunaGeorge's album cover to identify and confirm these conventions as they are an electropop duo similar to ours.
I then made the same diagram for our album cover to show how we followed the conventions that I mentioned above.
Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The combination of our main product (music video) and ancillary texts (website and album cover) is very effective as they all work together to provide a synergistic, promotional campaign for our duo.
Roles of Media Products
Music Video:
The photo on the left is a still from our video that promotes the new single 'Best Be Believing' and also shows how Mira and Jack interact with each other on set, which is reflective of how they interact in real life.
Website:
Album:
On the left shows the front and back panels of our album cover, giving the audience insight into the style of our duo and in turn promotes their image as a debut artist.
For a debut artist, it is important to follow these roles of media products so that our whole branding of the duo works synergistically and there is lots of repetition across all the products and platforms, as to create a strong image and style for our duo that people will eventually recognise. I went on to look at the synergy across our media products more closely, to see how effective the combination of our main media product and ancillary texts is in this aspect. We have included lots of synergistic features in order to make our duo recognisable by our fans and to tie all the products together to create a strong duo brand and image. A diagram of our synergy can be seen below.
Below, I have made a case study for how Jorja Smith (also a debut artist) has created a strong branding for herself using music videos and album. She doesn't have a website yet.
I also looked at the duo 'Disclosure' to see how they were marketed and what the relationship was like between their media products.
I used some of Dyer's ideas about personality and ideologies when researching Disclosure, who is a theorist we looked at in order to gain some insight and inspiration for how we could create the best star identity for MiraJax. Richard Dyer's 'star' theory is outlined in the Prezi below and will then go on to apply his ideas to our duo.
Stars as Constructions
Roles of Media Products
Music Video:
- Serves as the promotion for the new single
- Clearly emphasises duo's genre and the way in which duo interact with each other
The photo on the left is a still from our video that promotes the new single 'Best Be Believing' and also shows how Mira and Jack interact with each other on set, which is reflective of how they interact in real life.
Website:
- Acts as the 'hub' for all other media products and platforms
- Links to music video and social media accounts as well as promoting the new album
On the left are some photos that show how the website acts as a hub for some of the other media products and platforms. As can be seen, the landing page immediately entices the viewer to click the iTunes button to buy the new album online. Also on the website is the promotion of the latest music video 'Best Be Believing' which is MiraJax's latest single.
Album:
- Can be seen as a visual promotion for the debut artist
- Draws attention to the duo's style and image
On the left shows the front and back panels of our album cover, giving the audience insight into the style of our duo and in turn promotes their image as a debut artist.
For a debut artist, it is important to follow these roles of media products so that our whole branding of the duo works synergistically and there is lots of repetition across all the products and platforms, as to create a strong image and style for our duo that people will eventually recognise. I went on to look at the synergy across our media products more closely, to see how effective the combination of our main media product and ancillary texts is in this aspect. We have included lots of synergistic features in order to make our duo recognisable by our fans and to tie all the products together to create a strong duo brand and image. A diagram of our synergy can be seen below.
Below, I have made a case study for how Jorja Smith (also a debut artist) has created a strong branding for herself using music videos and album. She doesn't have a website yet.
I also looked at the duo 'Disclosure' to see how they were marketed and what the relationship was like between their media products.
I used some of Dyer's ideas about personality and ideologies when researching Disclosure, who is a theorist we looked at in order to gain some insight and inspiration for how we could create the best star identity for MiraJax. Richard Dyer's 'star' theory is outlined in the Prezi below and will then go on to apply his ideas to our duo.
Stars as Constructions
- We wanted to create a duo that people could look up to and relate to, despite the fact that they are a construction made to fit in with the emerging UK electropop industry
- It is a priority that we presented both Mira and Jack as very real and down to earth people as this the kind of thing they promote in their music
Industry and Audience
- Ultimately we do want our audience to be spending money on buying tour tickets, merchandise, etc so we had to create the perfect star persona and we did this buy going down the authentic artists route
- There is a gap in the market for upcoming UK electropop artists, as there are already many formulaic artists, and so we recognised the need for variation
- We packaged MiraJax as a fun and vibrant duo who love their fans and love making music - as can be seen on the right, the shop page on their website is a way of making money from their audience buying the merchandise, but behind the products is a video of Mira and Jack laughing together, promoting their star persona as authentic, laid back and fun which is what entices the audience to buy their products in the first place
Ideology and Culture
- MiraJax are a duo that want to promote happiness and individuality, something that other people can also achieve
- They talk about the issue of restraints which is an issue that most young adults (MiraJax's target audience) struggle with - under the category of restraints comes parental pressure; friendships; and any other freedom issues)
- MiraJax address these topics through their music ('Best Be Believing' is a good example) and also through their social media platforms, particularly Twitter, which allows the audience to comment on their posts, like and retweet, meaning there is good communication between the duo and fans - an example of this can be seen on the right
Character and Personality
- MiraJax's individual characteristics shine through in the way in which they present themselves both though social media and by interacting with their fans - real characteristics which have been further constructed and emphasised such as; loving, outgoing and funny
- Their character traits have been moulded by the 21st generation like their fans - societal values and current events help them grow as people and their fans can look up to them and the ideologies they support
- Below, MiraJax's behind the scenes video can be seen which allows for their personality to be seen as well as a clip of them interacting with fans and signing autographs
Evaluation Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback was crucial when making our media products (music video, website and album) because we needed to know whether MiraJax will appeal to our fans and whether or not they will be inclined to listen to more of MiraJax's music. In order for our duo to be successful, all of our media products have to reach and appeal to our target audience in a way that leads to MiraJax earning profit (e.g. selling albums, tour tickets, merchandise, etc).
I will go on to explain our target audience, secondary audience and tertiary audience in the diagram below.
In order for our target audience to gain anything from our products in the first place, we needed to look into a theory of how to appeal to audiences. One that we found particularly useful is the 'Uses and Gratifications' theory which is explained and then applied below.
Whilst constructing each media product, we decided we would get audience feedback throughout so that we could make the changes suggested by our target audience in order for our final products to be as appealing as possible. Audience feedback and the changes we made for our music video, website and album are listed below.
Music Video
We asked a member of our target audience to watch our rough cut video before we went on to film and edit the real video so that we were aware of all the improvements we needed to make. The member we chose is a 17 year old female who enjoys listening to electropop. Our rough cut video can be seen below.
Initial Feedback
We then asked her to give us feedback on it, stating some of the things she liked but mainly focusing on the improvements that we could make. Her feedback can be seen in the video below.
We took on board the improvements that she mentioned and worked on making our argument scene clearer. In our rough cut, the argument lacks continuity and seems a bit rushed. We worked on this by trying out different camera angles in the real shoot and sticking to the editing rules. We also focused on coming up with a scenario that could be improvised, so that it didn't seemed staged or unnatural. The rough cut and then the changes we made in the real video can be seen below.
We also worked on adding more movement to our studio shots because as our target audience member mentioned, the shots were to static and looked dull and boring, however she was able to gain entertainment as mentioned in the uses and gratification theory, by watching the colourful studio set ups. We used a dolly in the real shot to add variety to the shots and make them more visually interesting. The rough cut and then the changes we made in the real video can be seen below.
We then created a survey using 'Survey Monkey' to collect some final data and see if our music video was successful overall. Ultimately we wanted to know if people liked the video and whether or not it promoted our duo well. Alongside this, we wanted to find out if the target audience we had in mind is the audience that our video actually appealed to.
The link to our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NMSM5GT
We asked the following questions:
Evidence to show our audience liked the video can be seen by the ratings it got out of 10 as shown on the left. The average score for our music video is 8.75 out of 10, going by the eight people that took part in the survey. This is a solid score that as a group we are very pleased with. When I asked someone who took the survey why they rated it so highly, they explained that they felt they could relate to the artist, something which is also highlighted in the uses ans gratification theory.
I will go on to explain our target audience, secondary audience and tertiary audience in the diagram below.
In order for our target audience to gain anything from our products in the first place, we needed to look into a theory of how to appeal to audiences. One that we found particularly useful is the 'Uses and Gratifications' theory which is explained and then applied below.
Whilst constructing each media product, we decided we would get audience feedback throughout so that we could make the changes suggested by our target audience in order for our final products to be as appealing as possible. Audience feedback and the changes we made for our music video, website and album are listed below.
Music Video
We asked a member of our target audience to watch our rough cut video before we went on to film and edit the real video so that we were aware of all the improvements we needed to make. The member we chose is a 17 year old female who enjoys listening to electropop. Our rough cut video can be seen below.
Initial Feedback
We then asked her to give us feedback on it, stating some of the things she liked but mainly focusing on the improvements that we could make. Her feedback can be seen in the video below.
Improvements we made
We took on board the improvements that she mentioned and worked on making our argument scene clearer. In our rough cut, the argument lacks continuity and seems a bit rushed. We worked on this by trying out different camera angles in the real shoot and sticking to the editing rules. We also focused on coming up with a scenario that could be improvised, so that it didn't seemed staged or unnatural. The rough cut and then the changes we made in the real video can be seen below.
We also worked on adding more movement to our studio shots because as our target audience member mentioned, the shots were to static and looked dull and boring, however she was able to gain entertainment as mentioned in the uses and gratification theory, by watching the colourful studio set ups. We used a dolly in the real shot to add variety to the shots and make them more visually interesting. The rough cut and then the changes we made in the real video can be seen below.
We then created a survey using 'Survey Monkey' to collect some final data and see if our music video was successful overall. Ultimately we wanted to know if people liked the video and whether or not it promoted our duo well. Alongside this, we wanted to find out if the target audience we had in mind is the audience that our video actually appealed to.
The link to our survey: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/NMSM5GT
We asked the following questions:
- What is your age? (Multiple choice)
- What is your gender? (Multiple choice)
- What music genre(s) do you listen to? (Multiple choice)
- Having watched the music video, which genre do you think this song falls under?
- Having watched the music video, would you like to know more about MiraJax?
- Having watched the music video, is there anything you would change?
- What message do you think the music video is trying to portray?
- What would you rate the music video out of 10? (Multiple choice)
- How well do you think the music video works with the song track? (Multiple choice)
- Did the music video make you want to buy the album? (Multiple choice)
From these questions, we found out that yes, our music was successful as the data shows that our audience liked the video and our duo were promoted well.
Final Feedback
Final Feedback
Evidence to show our audience liked the video can be seen by the ratings it got out of 10 as shown on the left. The average score for our music video is 8.75 out of 10, going by the eight people that took part in the survey. This is a solid score that as a group we are very pleased with. When I asked someone who took the survey why they rated it so highly, they explained that they felt they could relate to the artist, something which is also highlighted in the uses ans gratification theory.
Evidence to show that our duo were promoted well can be seen by the amount of people that wanted to get to know more about them and would buy the album based on the video. As demonstrated by the picture on the right, 6 out of 8 people wanted to get to know more about MiraJax, suggesting that they were promoted in a good light and are able to build a fan base.
Something that did surprise me, were the results to the question three, which asked people what music genres they mostly listen to. Judging by all the positive feedback for our music video, I was expecting most of their answers to be 'electropop'. However, as can be seen in the photo on the left, electropop was the least common music genre. This shows that our duo actually appeal to a slightly wider target audience than we thought as fans of different music genres still thoroughly enjoyed our song. This works in our favour as having a wider target audience means that MiraJax will have a bigger fan base and have a better chance at earning profit.
Analysis of final feedback
Overall, we are very pleased with the final audience feedback as it proves that we made a successful music video which appealed to many people aged 16-24. Audience feedback played a huge role in the process of making the video as it enabled us to listen to what our audience thought and then make adaptions according to their opinions. When thinking about the uses and gratification theory, it is clear that our music video incorporated these elements. Our audience were able to gain entertainment from the studio shots (as seen in Flo's interview), and they were able to relate to the artist or feel some kind of connection to them (seen in the survey results as many people wanted to know more about MiraJax).
Website
We aimed to create a website that is easy to navigate, has many purchasing and interactive opportunities and allows for the audience to gain insight in MiraJax's style and brand as whole. Throughout the process of making our music video we took audience feedback to see what people liked and what we could improve upon.
Initial Feedback
One of the main things that things that people liked was the behind the scenes video which allowed for them to see Mira and Jack acting like their normal selves and how they are together when not filming. Another thing that people liked was the visual idea - lots of different colours and photos which made the pages more interesting. An example of the background across two different pages can be seen to the right. On the top page, the background is neon lights and on the page beneath, the background is our logo in monogram print.
Improvements we made
One main thing that kept coming up in our audience feedback is that they wanted quick links to our social media accounts and so we had a bar for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook that remained on the right side of our website across all the pages - can be seen on the left. The idea that they wanted social media links could be due to the surveillance and personal identity aspects of the uses and gratification theory - our audience may want to see what MiraJax think of certain issues, as well as gaining further understanding of them as individuals because the audience view them as role models.
Our Instagram page that the button links to from our website can be seen below.
Analysis of final feedback
We created a flatplan for our digipak which can be seen on the right, to outline our main idea for the front and back panels. We then showed this to Josh, a male 18 year old, who advised that the album covers seemed too repetitive and would rather see something different on the back panel. He did however like the idea of the split screen faces on the front.
Analysis of final feedback
We were thrilled with the final feeback we received from Georgina as it shows that our album cover was very successful with our target audience. She liked the visuals a lot meaning the most important aspect to us was a success. This aspect was also to do with the diversion element of the uses and gratification theory. It was vital that all three of our products entertained our audience as this is ultimately what will engage them and make them want to stay connected to our duo - we wanted each product to entice them further and remain a fan.
Analysis of final feedback
Overall, we are very pleased with the final audience feedback as it proves that we made a successful music video which appealed to many people aged 16-24. Audience feedback played a huge role in the process of making the video as it enabled us to listen to what our audience thought and then make adaptions according to their opinions. When thinking about the uses and gratification theory, it is clear that our music video incorporated these elements. Our audience were able to gain entertainment from the studio shots (as seen in Flo's interview), and they were able to relate to the artist or feel some kind of connection to them (seen in the survey results as many people wanted to know more about MiraJax).
Website
We aimed to create a website that is easy to navigate, has many purchasing and interactive opportunities and allows for the audience to gain insight in MiraJax's style and brand as whole. Throughout the process of making our music video we took audience feedback to see what people liked and what we could improve upon.
Initial Feedback
One of the main things that things that people liked was the behind the scenes video which allowed for them to see Mira and Jack acting like their normal selves and how they are together when not filming. Another thing that people liked was the visual idea - lots of different colours and photos which made the pages more interesting. An example of the background across two different pages can be seen to the right. On the top page, the background is neon lights and on the page beneath, the background is our logo in monogram print.Improvements we made
One main thing that kept coming up in our audience feedback is that they wanted quick links to our social media accounts and so we had a bar for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook that remained on the right side of our website across all the pages - can be seen on the left. The idea that they wanted social media links could be due to the surveillance and personal identity aspects of the uses and gratification theory - our audience may want to see what MiraJax think of certain issues, as well as gaining further understanding of them as individuals because the audience view them as role models.Our Instagram page that the button links to from our website can be seen below.
Final Feedback
Once we'd finished creating our website, we got some final audience feedback from Max, a male aged 17, who scrolled through our website and commented on what he liked and what further improvements he would make. This video can be seen below.
Analysis of final feedback
From this, it is clear that our website was an overall success as Max liked all the pages and only had some minor improvements. Our website mainly takes into account the diversion factor from the uses and gratification theory as we wanted to include as many elements as possible to make the website fun and interactive. A few of the things that Max pointed which help make our website entertaining are; the photos, the purchasing opportunities and the behind the scenes video. The main improvement he mentions is to be able to scroll through the photos, In hindsight, I would have liked to do this in order to make it easier for our viewers to access the photos, but ultimately I am happy with the final product.
Album
With our album, we wanted to show the artist on a personal level, using close up photos of their face, as well as mid/long shots to give a sense of their image and style. We also wanted to create synergy across all our media products so we used the motif of a split screen that can be found in our video, and stuck to the motif of lights that can be found on our website.
We conducted some audience feedback to see if our idea was liked by our audience and whether they had any constructive criticism. The main thing we were concerned about is whether the album cover was aesthetically pleasing and would make members of audience want to buy it.
Initial Feedback
We created a flatplan for our digipak which can be seen on the right, to outline our main idea for the front and back panels. We then showed this to Josh, a male 18 year old, who advised that the album covers seemed too repetitive and would rather see something different on the back panel. He did however like the idea of the split screen faces on the front.
Improvements we made
Taking this advice on board we changed the back panel to a mid shot of Mira and Jack and used a promo shot we took of lights as the background photo for both the front and back. We also made the faces on front equal so that two thirds of each of their faces were showing. Once we created our final digipak we conducted an interview with Georgina, an 18 year old female, who told us what she thought of our final product. This can be listened to below.
Final Feedback
Analysis of final feedback
Evaluation Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used many new technologies for the research and planning, construction (production and post-production) and evaluation stages. Without the use of these new technologies, our music video, website and album would be non-existent as we relied so heavily on new software and hardware. Below is a diagram outlining the technologies we used for each stage and I will then go into more detail for each stage individually.
Research and Planning
Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the research and planning stage.
Summary
As we had already used blogger to post about our research and planning during AS Media, I already knew what was expected and how to use the tools that blogger provides. However, during AS we didn't need to create a steal-o-matic so this was new to me. It meant my research was a lot more thorough and I was able to gain lots of reference points due to the amount of existing music videos we had to watch. Using Adobe Premiere Pro to collate all these clips together wasn't too difficult as we had used this software during AS, but it took a while to refresh my memory. For the steal-o-matic, we only used basic editing tools such as cropping the video length so it was quite simple, however, one thing I did learn was how to alter the framing of the video so that the clips all looked roughly the same size, making it more visually pleasing to watch.
Construction (Production)
Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the construction (production) stage.
Summary
I had never used the studio lights before, so our media technician had to teach us all how to use them. The most difficult part of this was remembering how to select certain lights and then change the colour filters for them. However, once we got the set up we wanted we were able to record the lights on a computer software, meaning we wouldn't have to waste time in our next session getting the rigth set up again as it would be saved on the computer. In our preliminary task for A2 Media, we filmed in the studio and used the monitors to get up Taylor Swifts lyrics so I already had an idea of how these worked and was able to use them when shooting our real video. As I was performing the whole time, I rarely did the camera work, however, we had a sessions with out media technician who should us how it worked and after this it was quite easy to get used to.
Construction (Post-Production)
Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the construction (post-production) stage.
Summary
I had never used Wix before we started this coursework project and so i was excited to learn how to use it as it may benefit me in the future. It was a very easy way to create our duo's website as it consisted of all the tools we needed and was quite self explanatory. However, it was frustration to use at times as the site often crashed and was slow. Yet despite this, it was ideal for holding all MiraJax's info in one place so that it could act as a hub to all other platforms. Making social media accounts was an easy task because as a teenager myself I have my own social media and use it regularly, so know how everything works. Photoshop proved to be the most difficult part in the stage as it took the most time and we all needed to refresh our memories on how to use it. But due it to being a key part of our construction, we had to use it a lot and now I feel positive that I would be able to use it again without assistance.
Evaluation
Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the evaluation stage.
Summary
Most of the online tools I used in my evaluation I had already used before for other subjects and tasks. However, GoConqr was a new one for me and I found it very useful for presenting information quickly and effectively. It is also something that I can go on to use for other areas of my education when presenting something to a class for example.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel very lucky that we have access to all these old and new technologies and can use them all to our advantage. It is clear from the technologies I have highlighted that Web 2.0 plays a massive a role - it is what many other technologies derive from, e.g. social media and websites. One theorist, Tim O'Reilly says that Web 2.0 is what allows for mass collaboration and interactivity which is clearly seen through the huge communities on social media, for example Twitter. We benefited from Web 2.0 greatly as we created both social media accounts and a website for our duo, allowing us to reach our audience easily and leading to our duo being a success.
Research and Planning
Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the research and planning stage.
Summary
As we had already used blogger to post about our research and planning during AS Media, I already knew what was expected and how to use the tools that blogger provides. However, during AS we didn't need to create a steal-o-matic so this was new to me. It meant my research was a lot more thorough and I was able to gain lots of reference points due to the amount of existing music videos we had to watch. Using Adobe Premiere Pro to collate all these clips together wasn't too difficult as we had used this software during AS, but it took a while to refresh my memory. For the steal-o-matic, we only used basic editing tools such as cropping the video length so it was quite simple, however, one thing I did learn was how to alter the framing of the video so that the clips all looked roughly the same size, making it more visually pleasing to watch.
Construction (Production)
Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the construction (production) stage.
Summary
I had never used the studio lights before, so our media technician had to teach us all how to use them. The most difficult part of this was remembering how to select certain lights and then change the colour filters for them. However, once we got the set up we wanted we were able to record the lights on a computer software, meaning we wouldn't have to waste time in our next session getting the rigth set up again as it would be saved on the computer. In our preliminary task for A2 Media, we filmed in the studio and used the monitors to get up Taylor Swifts lyrics so I already had an idea of how these worked and was able to use them when shooting our real video. As I was performing the whole time, I rarely did the camera work, however, we had a sessions with out media technician who should us how it worked and after this it was quite easy to get used to.
Construction (Post-Production)
Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the construction (post-production) stage.
Summary
I had never used Wix before we started this coursework project and so i was excited to learn how to use it as it may benefit me in the future. It was a very easy way to create our duo's website as it consisted of all the tools we needed and was quite self explanatory. However, it was frustration to use at times as the site often crashed and was slow. Yet despite this, it was ideal for holding all MiraJax's info in one place so that it could act as a hub to all other platforms. Making social media accounts was an easy task because as a teenager myself I have my own social media and use it regularly, so know how everything works. Photoshop proved to be the most difficult part in the stage as it took the most time and we all needed to refresh our memories on how to use it. But due it to being a key part of our construction, we had to use it a lot and now I feel positive that I would be able to use it again without assistance.
Evaluation
Below is a prezi explaining how and why we used some of the technologies we did in the evaluation stage.
Summary
Most of the online tools I used in my evaluation I had already used before for other subjects and tasks. However, GoConqr was a new one for me and I found it very useful for presenting information quickly and effectively. It is also something that I can go on to use for other areas of my education when presenting something to a class for example.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel very lucky that we have access to all these old and new technologies and can use them all to our advantage. It is clear from the technologies I have highlighted that Web 2.0 plays a massive a role - it is what many other technologies derive from, e.g. social media and websites. One theorist, Tim O'Reilly says that Web 2.0 is what allows for mass collaboration and interactivity which is clearly seen through the huge communities on social media, for example Twitter. We benefited from Web 2.0 greatly as we created both social media accounts and a website for our duo, allowing us to reach our audience easily and leading to our duo being a success.
Tuesday 13 December 2016
Construction Post 6: Website Post-Production
We created our website on a website called 'Wix' which proved to be quite challenging because it was really slow and often crashed. However, it allowed us to create all the pages we wanted and put in lots of interactivity opportunities.
The pages we have are:
- Home
- Tour
- Videos + Photos
- Shop
- News
We found a template that had all of these pages and so we used this as our starting point for our website, but changing the layout and images as we went along.
HOME PAGE
On the first landing page, the debut album is being promoted and there is an iTunes image that links the viewer to the iTunes store page allowing for interactivity.
On the second landing page, there is an image of Mira and Jack at 'God's Own Junkyard' showing the lights behind them to keep to to motif of lights.
On the third landing page, there is an image of Mira and Jack with our Instagram feed next to them, allowing for the viewer to keep up to date with MiraJax's social media.
The pages we have are:
- Home
- Tour
- Videos + Photos
- Shop
- News
We found a template that had all of these pages and so we used this as our starting point for our website, but changing the layout and images as we went along.
 |
| Wix templates |
HOME PAGE
For our home page, after doing some research of other artist websites, we decided we wanted to have three sliding pages which promoted our duo in different ways.
 |
| Landing Page 1 |
On the first landing page, the debut album is being promoted and there is an iTunes image that links the viewer to the iTunes store page allowing for interactivity.
 |
| Landing Page 2 |
On the second landing page, there is an image of Mira and Jack at 'God's Own Junkyard' showing the lights behind them to keep to to motif of lights.
 |
| Landing Page 3 |
On the third landing page, there is an image of Mira and Jack with our Instagram feed next to them, allowing for the viewer to keep up to date with MiraJax's social media.
Throughout all of these pages, the logo remains the same and serves as a synergistic device as it can be found on our digipak too. We made this logo on Photoshop by using the line tool and the paint bucket tool. The idea behind the logo stems from the universal boy and girl signs as the duo is made up of both genders, but instead we used their initials and intertwined them. Originally the 'M' was pink and the 'J' was blue, to further emphasise the genders, however, this clashed with the colours on our website, so we changed it to neutral colours of grey and white.
TOUR PAGE
VIDEOS + PHOTOS PAGE
Quick view for item.
Cart for item.
For the background of our shop page, we wanted to use a moving image and so we took shots from our rushes that we didn't use and merged them with cross dissolves. This make the page more engaging and exciting.
NEWS PAGE
This page was difficult to add because it wasn't a part of the template that we used and so we had to put in a link that opened up another page.
A couple of the things on our news page are the promotion for our new video and a competition for our fans. The competition allows for the audience to get involved with the artist and feel like they can be a part of something. This interactive opportunity adds excitement to our website and means that our fans feel like they are appreciated.
 |
| Original logo |
 |
| Line tool |
 |
| Paint bucket tool |
Along the side of each page we have social media icons which link directly to MiraJax's social media pages, allowing the viewers to see whats going on and keep up to date with new releases and exclusive information.
TOUR PAGE
This page shows the tour dates that MiraJax are playing in the UK and which venues they will be playing in. We wanted to create a live link to the TicketMaster website to allow the viewer purchasing opportunities. To do this, we had to add a link to the TicketMaster that I uploaded to the page.
It was quite simple to do this. We went on the TicketMaster page and copied the URL and then on the Wix website there is link settings option in which we pasted the URL. We want our audience to have as many opportunities to engage with out artist as possible.
Also on the tour page there is the chance to listen to the new track 'Best Be Believing' before seeing the video itself. Originally this started playing as soon as someone entered the site but after receiving audience feedback, we understood that this was annoying to some people and they wanted to have the control of whether to play the music or not. So now, they have to click the play button in order to hear it.
On this page, the audience can find our 'Best be Believing' video and behind the scenes footage, as well as all our promo shots both in studio and on location. We wanted to incorporate a behind the scenes video to allow the audience to feel like they have insight into the Mira and Jack's lives and to get them excited for the video and tour dates.
Our behind the scenes video
For the photos section, we wanted to allow the images to be enlarged so that the viewer could see them in more detail. To do this on Wix, we had to go to photo settings and choose the option for the photo to pop up.
SHOP PAGE
 |
| Photo settings |
SHOP PAGE
For our merchandise, we decided to offer canvas bags and jumpers as these are popular amongst our target audience. We edited promo shots onto them of Mira and Jack together and individually. This page was another good chance to offer purchasing opportunities to our audience as they can buy the merchandise from our website.
 |
| Shop page |
Originally, we had just made a live link to the PayPal page when the viewer clicked the merchandise, but after receiving teacher feedback, we were advised to actually create a purchasing process and a cart for the items. So now, if the viewer clicks on the image, it takes them to a quick view page of the item which then can then add to their cart and pay for via PayPal.
Quick view for item.
Cart for item.
For the background of our shop page, we wanted to use a moving image and so we took shots from our rushes that we didn't use and merged them with cross dissolves. This make the page more engaging and exciting.
Background for website
NEWS PAGE
This page was difficult to add because it wasn't a part of the template that we used and so we had to put in a link that opened up another page.
We animated the text for this link so that it is visible to the viewer and draws attention to it, enticing them to click the link and see upcoming events and news for MiraJax.
A couple of the things on our news page are the promotion for our new video and a competition for our fans. The competition allows for the audience to get involved with the artist and feel like they can be a part of something. This interactive opportunity adds excitement to our website and means that our fans feel like they are appreciated.
Ultimately, our website allows for lots of different involvement for our our audience and shows MiraJax to be relatable and reachable by our audience.
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