Task 4. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Creativity, according to a Department for Education and Enterprise report on skills in the film industry called “A Brighter Future” is made up of four elements: imagination, purpose, originality and value. Imagination is when you think of something inventive, purpose is that your thought fits the purpose, the situation you are facing and looking to meet. Value is that your idea meets the need and is not just an idea that is not relevant. While originality means that it is very different and something that has not been seen or heard of before by you.

Here is the Audio Commentary which we recorded for our task four evaluation.





Digital technology and creativity: youtube links



The Machine is (changing) Us:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mwesch#p/u/0/09gR6VPVrpw



An anthropological introduction to YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU



Michael Wesch is a Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University

The development of Web 2.0 technology has undoubtedly had a major impact on traditional forms of Pop promotion. W2.0 has made audiences active participants in the production process - although arguably at different levels of skill, knowledge and quality.  As producers of their own material they are not bound by the financial considerations of music institutions although of course many bands self promoting on myspace are looking for a record deal! Creatively the doors are open to merge iconography from different genres free from having to meet audience expectations.  The amount of user generated content on youtube cleary shows that this is a popular incentive along with gaining varying levels of peer acknowledgement and (fame?). Web 2.0 is a glut of visual stimuli - some ideas have proved to be helpful to me and the group others not. Here are some key terms for the use of Web 2.0:

• NETOCRACY: the idea that the web is controlled by no-one
• ARCHITECTURE OF PARTICIPATION: the idea that web-pages are built to encourage the audience to get involved in creating their own 'spaces'.
• USER GENERATED CONTENT: the idea that the audience controls the content and how it is displayed e.g. Wikipedia
• INFORMATION RICH: the idea that pages and sites are all full of images, sounds, connections and uses. For example, quality is not as good as established institutional material, YouTube has low production values, poor pixilation and poor sound quality. Whereas Flickr has high quality photographic images.
• INFORMATION CLOUD: this is a criticism of Web 2.0, it ts the idea that no one is controlling or filtering information, so the user becomes lost or confused or misinformed.
• MASH-UP: the idea that the audience can personalise it or be creative, e.g. CassetteBoy vs. Alan Sugar
• FOLKSONOMY: Web 2.0 is based around useable, searchable and navigatable windows or 'tags'.

Task 3. What Have you learned from your audience feedback?

In order to get creative feedback for our product we used various digital technologies to gather and process information which might help us to create a profiling of the audience of our media product.
One of these which we have used is the comment box from youtube where the general consumer audience can comment on the video, leaving opinions and comments which can provide useful information on the general reception from the consumer.

Here we can see what people have thought about the video. All of the comments which have been left by people have had a positive response to the video. There has been a comment left by someone from Spain which displays an inter continental audience and shows that promotion of the star image has been an overall success and that there is a good following.
This youtube commenting system is a very useful tool allowing a highly accessible feedback system.

The second system we used to gather audience feedback was by using a survey creating website named http://www.surveymonkey.com. This site allows you to create your own surveys for public consumption and the gathering of information. 

Here is a screen grab of the website and the editing section of the survey.
We printed of a number of surveys and asked people to watch our video and to fill out the survey with their opinions so that we could create a profile of our audience and about aspects of the video which people enjoyed and didn't enjoy.

The questions we asked were mostly multiple choice. We gave the audience options with which to answer so as to gather the right information.
These are the questions which we asked:
1. What age are you?
2. What gender are you?
3. What nationality are you?
4. Which styles of music are you listening to at the moment?
5. Does this video look like any other videos you have seen within a time period?
6. Does this video remind you of any other video you have seen recently, please specify what if answer is yes.
7. What genre of music would you say this is?
8. Do you wear similar clothes to the band?
9. What do you find most personally appealing in this video?
10. What do you think the song is about?
11. What us the best video you have seen recently?
12. What is the worst video you have seen lately?
13. Do you find any of the band members attractive?
14. Does the video make you want to see them live?
15. Do you think the band would give a good live performance?
16. Do you think the video is original?
17. What did you find most entertaining about the video?
18. Having watched this video would you seek out their other videos?

Once we got enough surveys filled out we read through the results and put together some feedback profiling.
The first five questions are mostly about gathering a demographic profile on our audience. 
A large majority of the people that filled out the surveys were between the ages of 16-25. This is a good example of the youthful nature of our audience. Over half of the people which filled out our surveys were males, this helps us to direct our marketing techniques.
Not many people said that they had seen a video which they found similar to Bells at Midnight within the last six months. This was a pleasing statistic because it meant that the video has an originality to it. Almost all of the people said that the music was rock, however the band were to be promoted as pop/rock. However this is not a big problem.
A large majority around 70% said that they wore similar style clothing to the band in the video, this was good to know because it meant that the audience might find it easier to relate to the band in a way.
20% of people said that they found the lead singers direct address and the fashion and clothes most personally appealing about the video. 10 % said that they found the colors most appealing about the video. 70% of people said that they found the lighting, performance and the fast pace of editing most appealing about the video. This information helped to understand what I might change or take into consideration when making another video.
There were a few comments about the videos repetitiveness, this was a very useful statistic because it helps me to understand what people might want to see in a video.
There were quite a few people whom I asked to complete a survey who found it hard to answer a large portion of the questions, because they did not like the music. This is a problem we will encounter due to varying tastes in music.
None of the people who answered the survey managed to grasp the meaning of the song, this does not appeal so much towards the video production because we did not have an obvious narrative in our video about the meaning of the song.
The majority of the females who took the survey found the bass player most attractive, this is an interesting statistic, displaying one some of the conventions behind stardom.
70% of people said that from watching the video, it made them want to go and see the band live. This is a very pleasing statistic, because the main aim of the video was to promote the bands live performances. The remaining 30% said "It's not my thing".
Again 70% of people thought that the band would give a good live performance. Again a very pleasing statistic.
60% of people said that having seen the video they would go and seek out their other videos on the internet. This is a good display of the ability to create a following.

The feedback from the target audience has given me useful knowledge of what I might do differently if I were to make another video. 

STUART HALL; ENCODING / DECODING AUDIENCE RECEPTION

With  70% of the target audience expressing that they would go to see the band live and 60% of the target audience eager to consume more of the band through this and possible furture videos I would like to think that we have managed to create a preferred reading.

KTZ AND BLUMNER: AUDIENCE USES AND GRATIFICATIONS

Clearly the target audience also used the overall star image and the issues of this song in various ways:
As a way to investigate emotional issues and work through personal relationships and finding themselves reflected in the text. The band appealled more to females than males and this is clearly a reflection of the bands own emotional investigation through the writing of the lead singer and the representation of these themes through the mode of address of the overall promotional image.


Research Into Audience:

Task 2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? Star Image.

Irrespective of the medium, stars have some key features in common:
A star is an image, not a real person, that is constructed  out of a range of materials (e.g advertising, magazines etc as well as films and music.)

Stars are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. 
When creating these products it was very important that I kept the style consistent and in keeping with the bands star image.

These are the qualities which we are going to promote in the flashguns.

Youthfulness

Sexual magnetism
Originality
Creativity/talent
Aggression/anger
Success against the odds 

Stars depend upon a range of subsidiary media – magazines, TV, radio, the internet – in order to construct an image for themselves which can be marketed to their target audiences.
The star image is made up of a range of meanings which are attractive to the target audiences

All of the images have an essence of mystery.
For the marketing of our band and star image I created an album cover and a tour poster using Photoshop.

Here are the inside images for the CD cover.

The album cover and the back of the album cover have both got similar styles of editing and are both taken at night, this adds to the idea of mystery because of the general fear and uncertainty that the dark induces. This also ties in with the name of the album. The suggested midnight sky which we see in the picture could be seen to have some significance to the song itself. 
The image conveyed within these pictures is similar to that conveyed in the video. The lighting is all of a dark essence. There is a large amount of 'dead space' in the video and the back of the album cover.

When creating the tour poster I paid special attention to the the way that the band would have wanted to be portrayed. I made special emphasis on the word LIVE. This is because this is what the poster was especially made for and the place that the band will make the most money.
The way that the band have been positioned in the photo gives a sense of space and individuality to the band members. The image which we see is quite different in styling from the video itself, this is to add a sense of variety to the bands image rather than to make them look too static.

I am quite adept at using Photoshop as I use it a lot in my own time. The photo which I have used contains a large amount of empty space which is very suggestive that something mysterious must be going on within the image, hopefully this will instill interest and promote consumer consumption of the product. I have tried to create an album cover which will portray the bands intended star image, which is of a fairly youthful image however at the same time is trying be slightly mysterious.

The mock up the tour poster which I have made was meant to add a sense of realism to the product, although they are an actual band and they have got tour posters of their own I felt it would be beneficial to create my own version of it. The picture which I have used portrays the band as fairly ordinary and normal people which will help people to relate to and to follow the band.
In the modern music industry live performance plays a large part in completing the aspect of star image, however it leaves people unsatisfied that they cannot have the essence of a live show whenever they listen to their music. This will hopefully promote the following and consumption of the bands music.

 The video is mainly based on performance shots of the band. I was trying to use the bands USP (unique selling point) to create a following and to promote the sale of live shows.
In the video the band are portrayed similarly as in the poster which I created a fairly ordinary and normal group, however they have got a talent and a product which people will hopefully see in the video and want to consume.

Theorist Richard Dyer came up with a paradox within the concept of star image. Firstly the star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the audience. Secondly the star needs to be simultaneously present and absent for the audience. There are some common values of stardom, these include youthfulness, rebellion, sexual magnetism, an anti-authoritarian attitude, creativity/talent, anger/aggression, a disregard for social and political values relating to sex, drugs, and success against the odds.

Task 1. In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Use of Performance Clips

My video is a purely performance based video; this is because the band is an upcoming band, they have a small budget at their disposal and the video is trying to apply their unique selling point which is their live performance.

They are a strong live band and are mostly a performance based band, they are an organic band who creates their own music, and the video is trying to portray their passion and enjoyment which they feel during their live performances.

The uses of the performance clips in the video are trying to give the audience an essence of what their live performances are like. It shows some of the energy which the band have on stage, and will hopefully make the audience want to go to one of their concerts, their primary source of earn

Task 1. In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Colour

 Colour is used in every form of media; colour can have a much larger effect than people think.

Colours can have a big effect on someone’s mood and the way they think about something. In the image on the left from Ghostwood’s Red Version. The main and most prominent colour is red, this as described earlier could symbolise a sense of risk or approaching danger.

However a lack of colour can also be used in order to add emotive quality to a video to allow more focus on the band or performance in question so that there are not too many distracting elements, as we can see in the image on the left from an INTERPOL video they have used this technique.

As you can see from the still taken from my video, there are moments where there are hardly any colours introduced into the video. Again this was a technique used to allow more focus to be centred around the performance itself and on the band rather than overwhelming the mind with too much information.

As you can see here, there is a significant use of colours; the colour choice of blue, green and plain tungsten lights was a carefully decided one. These are colours which have representative meaning to the song in question. And I have tried to use them in order to create further understanding towards the meaning of the song.

Task 1. In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Lighting:

The use of lighting was the main concept in my pop video. I tried to create a symbolism with the lights towards the meaning of the song. Lighting is used in music videos to attract the attention of the audience, and to give the WOW factor in some cases. Lights can also be highly subliminal in their meanings, for instance a red light can create a sense of danger or doom. A band may use red light in their video to convey a message or doom, death or upset within their song. Lights are not always used in a purely symbolic way, lights are used purely to create the scene within a music video. However they can also be used to create an illusion of someone’s stature. For instance the shot above is a silhouetted figure, lit from behind by an eerie blue light. This creates a sense of mystery and will hopefully provoke an interest to ‘find out more’ about the video, song or band.

Task 1. In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Use of Pace of Editing:

 Pace of editing is used to keep attention and disorientation and confusion. This was used in my pop video in order to create a feeling of being lost and the illusion of confusion. The quick pace of editing is most obvious in the use of the cutting between all of the light patterns and bulbs. The quick on and off of the lights create a sense of hope, only to be lost when they disappear. The quick pace of editing also promotes repeated consumption due to the fact that people might not understand fully, or will want to see the exciting pace of the editing again to try to gleam a sense of understanding.

Task 1. In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Direct Address:

Direct address is when the star/performer looks directly into the camera; this creates a sense of proximity, and forges a connection to the viewer and helps to build the sense of fan based relationship with the band, making it more personal to the viewer. Creating this sense of proximity and relationship helps to deliver to the audience and to promote the band identity and closeness to the fans.

Direct address is used in almost every pop video; however there are some videos which will not use direct address. Below is another example of another band using direct address within their music video to create proximity and a connection. Mode of address encourages repeated consumption.

I dont Not Love You Previous music video

My finished Media Production

Here is the final product of my labors. The video itself.

Survey Questionnaire

Click here to take survey




I unfortunately have not been able to find the way to link the second part of the questionnaire onto the blog.

Flashguns Official Pages

The band have their own web page and myspace this is our institutional context.

www.myspace.com/flashguns

www.flashguns.com