This is the final post on my individual music blog. I've worked realy hard on this project, and I hope you've enjoyed looking at my work. I certainly feel like I have learnt a lot!
Olivia Cole
Candidate no. 3165
Friday, 16 December 2011
Closing Post
Posted by Latymer Media 2010 at 02:54 0 comments
Labels: Closing Post
Moderator Post
Dear Moderator,
This is the individual blog for Olivia Cole, candidate 3165. Links to the group blog, as well as the other group members - James Reader and Frank Tan can be found in the links bar. I hope you enjoyed looking at my project!
Posted by Latymer Media 2010 at 02:52 0 comments
Labels: Moderator Post
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Technology in Research Stages
During this phase of our task, the Internet proved incredibly valuable in finding out about our target audience and conventions of the rock genre. Using search engines like Google, we were able to research other music acts that were similar to our proposed band, such as Paramore. Their websites contained a lot of information that we could use for ourselves.
Paramore's webiste |
Tumblr Dashboard |
When we were looking for inspiration for music tracks and video ideas, the site youtube proved invaluable in supplying video content. The comment section of certain congs also contained some interesting feedback from the marketplace.
Youtube |
Technology in Planning Stages
Our Blogger Page |
Email messaging also proved helpful in contacting media staff who arn't contactable using social networking sites, especially when we were buying our coffin off ebay.
Email Account |
Our band and logo designs were drawn onto a Promenthean ActivTablet and then uploaded to the internet, which meant I could use the images to find a matching costume fairly quickly.
Initial Design: Pandora |
Initial Designs: Sparks, Vyper and Xen |
Technology in Production Stages
On the shoots, we used a Sony HVR V1E Film Camera to capture our footage. This was helpful as the images come out in high quality and it has a high battery life. The footage was filmed onto tapes which we could store in the media block when we were not using them.
An action shot from the shoot |
Frank's time to shine |
The editing programme we used was Adobe Premiere CS5, which is really good for this sort of project, as it is relatively simple to use, but does include a lot of extra features, including colour grading, screen cropping and video transitions (we begin ours with a fade in from black). We could also use different timelines for each 'set-up' which helped us organise and time our shots to the music before we edited them together.
The programme we used: Adobe Premiere CS5 |
For our official band photoshoot, which produced images for the album and website, we used a Sony DSC H40 digital camera, in addition to three point lighting. The ability to look over photos we had just taken was helpful in improving our shots, and the good lighting minimised the time I had to spend editing the images in Adome Photoshop CS5.1. Photoshop was also the programme we used to design the album.
Before |
After |
For our website, we used http://www.wix.com/, as it provides a vast range of features for site building, such as active links, galleries, and the ability to embed videos, photos and twitter feeds (follow us at @thedropoutsuk !). The site allowed us to make a detailed band website, as seen at www.wix.com/latymermusicvideo118/thedropouts
Technology in Evaluation Stages
Posts were put up on the school's Intranet System to advertise the music video audience screenings, which occured in the Seward Studio, which this time was set up as a cinema.
Our Intranet System, which contains a news feed |
Using an overhead projector, we screened the video onto white canvass. After this, we uploaded our video to youtube, and from there shared it across facebook, twitter and tumblr to collect feedback.
Posted by Latymer Media 2010 at 04:03 0 comments
Labels: Evaluation, Q4 Evaluation
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Recap on our target audience
Girls aged between 13-20
Very tech savvy
Beginning to rebel from authorities figures, i.e. school, parents
Beginning to start relationships
Looking for new genres of music in order to gain some individuality
Secondary Audience
Boys aged 13-20
50 + both genders, who liked bands such as The Runaways
See below for highlights from our focus group research.
We also took a wider sample of responses using a paper questionnaire, which meant that people could give feedback more anonymously. This was helpful as it meant that we could be given more critical feedback this way. Click this images to see some responses.
The feedback questionnaire applicants were of both gender and aged between 15 and 18. The responses were fairly similar, which suggests that we managed to target the average teenager accurately, as they understood our intentions with the video.
Out of ten, we managed an average rating of 7.7, which means that although there were elements we could have improved, it still successfully impacted on our primary audience.
The genre was correctly identified by everyone as rock, although there were some variations on the type of rock music - answers ranged to punk-rock to alternative-rock.
When asked what they liked about the video, common responses included 'the content of the video matched the song', 'the pace', and 'the different set-ups', especially the boyfriend shots, as several of them mentioned our slo-mo falling shot at the drop in the music. They agreed that it was similar to a real video, I suspect because we complied to a lot of the conventions of rock music videos. Most said that they would consider buying the album as long as the other tracks were of the same standard, which we found interesting as most of them were male, meaning that the video appears to be accessible to both genders. All of them said they would expect to see this video on the MTV music channels.
We also posted a questionnaire online, and asked some people that were outside of the main target audience to proved feedback. Examples of responses can be seen if you click the image below. (apologies for the rick-roll, it's the inevitable result of posting anything on facebook)
Posted by Latymer Media 2010 at 23:13 0 comments
Labels: Evaluation, Q3 Evaluation
Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
In the website bio, Pandora Hart, the lead vocalist, is depicted as a fierce female character, so we also showed this attitude throughout the photos of her on the site. In the music video, the definining characteristic is that she is beating up a male character which strengthens this identity of a strong female figure. Conventionally in rock bands, the lead singer will be given greater focus than the rest of the musicians, so in the video she is given the most screentime, a lot of which is filmed in CU, in order to cement her appearance in the mind of the audience. Because of this, we also used her more prominently on the album cover, as she is the most identifiable band member. The front image of the album cover also refers directly to the events of the song, as it replicates a mugshot, following the music video in which she has supposedly killed her boyfriend, as implied by the presence of a coffin.
We wanted to create an enigma when it came to our bassist, Xen. The text in the website bio explains this, and a lot of the images featured of him are not too clear, building on this mysterious identity. The only shots of him in the video, and the other male members of the band, are performance shots, which ties in with the website representation of them being solely interested in the music. We also featured a video interview of Xen, where we saw his social indifference in action.
On the back cover, Pandora and Vyper are centralised, as conventionally the lead singer and guitarist are the focal points of a rock band. |
The main page of the website also contains this colour scheme |
However the most predominant colour scheme is black and purple, which iswhat Pandora wears in the video, and several of the photographs - this colour was featured on the album cover and the website, and we managed to create the exact colour by using the code #680363. The industry references on the album and website match - we created the fictional 'burning car records', complete with logo, which is presented on both texts. Naturally, our music video track is listed on the album, and is set as the music player on the website.
The Label info on the website. This can also be seen on the back cover of the album |
Posted by Latymer Media 2010 at 02:51 0 comments
Labels: Evaluation, Q2 evaluation
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.
Our group sat down together to discuss the above question. We began with the music video.
Summary Points:
- Conventional Rock Video
- Dark colour scheme & lots of performance shots
- Relationship between lyrics and visuals
- Relationship between music and visuals - cut to the beat
- CU of singer acting as visual hook
- Comparisions to It's My Life
- Little less responsible band image, but appealing to teenage audience
- Breaking editing rules - typical music video convention
- Concept / fragmented narrative don't link to performance
- Metaphorical mise-en-scene
- Alternative gender representation
Summary Points
- We stuck to conventional website layouts
- Different features - music, links etc
- Traditional pages
- Brand Image strengthened
- Opportunities to buy - adverts
- Challenging conventions in terms of bio - targeting audience not critics / journalists
- Audience Interactons on different platforms - twitter; comment box
- Keeping site as a central hub
Summary Points
- Challenging conventions - competition page - making question appeal to audience
- Social Networking used to target audience
- Record Label influence
Summary Points
- Symbolic, artistic front image
- Using album title in image
- Industry conventions: Parental Advisory sign, Label details, band contact
- Making sure whole band is featured - rock is a group genre not solo
- Logo across all products
- Colour scheme - similarities between all four pages
Posted by Latymer Media 2010 at 01:43 0 comments
Labels: Evaluation, Q1 Evaluation
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
Audience Overview
Things that girls may experience in their teenage years:
- Changes in appearance. This could be hairstyles or colour, body piercings, weight fluctuation, increase in height, or change in fashion.
- Rejection of family lifestyle. A stronger focus on friends and social life, less time spent with parents.
- Becoming more argumentative, and defending own beliefs and opinions.
- Mood swings and magnified emotions.
- Experimentation. This could be with drugs, alcohol, sexuality, or lifestyle choices.
Four out of five teens (17 million) carry a wireless device (a 40% increase since 2004)
Approximately 80% of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18.
Among young people, those with poorer grades and lower self-images are most likely to begin using tobacco.
Young people who come from a low-income family and have fewer than two adults living in their household are especially at risk for becoming smokers.
More than half of teenagers are virgins until they are at least 17 years of age.
More than half (56 percent) of youths age 12-17 reported that marijuana was easy to obtain.
More than 40% of teens who admitted drinking said they drink when they are upset; 31% said they drink alone; 25% said they drink when they are bored; and 25% said they drink to "get high."
Hours per day that TV is on in an average home: 7 hours, 12 minutes
Posted by Latymer Media 2010 at 03:00 0 comments
Labels: Research and Planning