Media A2 Evaluation

Media A2 project analysis ( Evaluation)

After completing the project I have understood the combination of that the main product has with the ancillary texts. The use of the ancillary texts have enabled me to understand the requirements in order to target my audience. I have understood, through the use of empirical research that being able to engage the target audience into my main product and ancillary text is the fundamental origin to the success of an artist. I made sure that my ancillary texts had a recurring theme that linked to my video, this is important for an audience as it reinforces the meanings of the video. I believe that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is a strong connection as I use a lot of symbolism, such as the woman’s face on the poster.

What I did try to do however, is challenge the conventions of the ideology of mainstream digi-packs. I believe it is important to create an enigma for an audience as my empirical research ( questionnaires) suggests that creating an enigma is the catalyst for the sales of a digipack and the video. When I asked my target audience , 16-25 year olds , on what they look for in a digipack , the majority ( 8 out of 10) replied “ individual”. This is reinforced through the comment by Samantha Ross,18, who said “ I like to buy something that challenges the conventions of the modern digipack, it is intriguing and offers something different from the typical product that you see on the shelf at a store”. After extracting the meanings from her comment and making sure that my target audience were viewing a product that challenged the conventions of other “typical” products ,I did believe it was important to keep some of the aspects of what makes a rock product. When I gave out my initial digipack many of my responses questioned the representation of the rock genre that was needed in the digipack. I believe that even though challenging conventions is something important in establishing an artist into the challenge of the modern music industry , it is important to make sure that you have embedded forms of the music’s genre evident in the product. This is important for the target audience to identify with. It is important for them to see what genre the video and the other ancillary tasks “fit into” otherwise they wouldn’t know which would, in consequence, result in the disinterest of the target audience.

The distribution of initial designs to my target audience has been a very beneficial process. After giving out initial designs of posters and digipacks I have understood more about the target audience, and what they engage with when looking for a product. Adam Herrick (17) commented on my sand timer design of my digi-pack commenting “ I like the symbolism of the sand timer, after looking at your video they both link strongly, I would however think about how you will produce this though as it seems a bit too difficult”. After looking at the design again and taking into account how I will create that design, it was clear that it would be too unrealistic. However, his comment was very beneficial in how the symbolism of this digi-pack and the connection it had with the music video was something that was intriguing to my target audience.

This then brings me onto the feedback analysis. I have learnt from feedback that it is crucial to constantly ask a range of people on opinions on an idea. Every design I made I asked someone from my target audience on there opinions of the design. Without the help of constant feedback on every design I wouldn’t be able to target my audience correctly. If I were to repeat the process then I may have targeted more online forums and the rock genre audience more as this would help fit my product into a niche into the market and really understand the target audience. It is important to make more use out of new media products , especially the use of the internet. It is important as it places a very important role into the marketing of the product due to the vast size of the internet. Even though soft rock music isn’t a genre that I live and breathe it has really made me understand more about this audience and there position in the music industry. This genre has made me realise, through the use of asking for feedback from the genres listeners, that the genre is comprised of a complex system of layers that formulate to create a very diverse genre with a broad categorisation.

In order to understand my target audience , I decide that it was beneficial to give my main product and ancillary texts to my target audience, 16-25 year olds and ask for there honest opinion on this initial pack of products. The first question on a sample of 10 I asked was “ Do all the products link?” What I wanted to understand from asking this question was the effectiveness of the combination of my main product and ancillary texts. I believe this is important in the marketing aspect of any music product so that it enables the audience to relate one product to another and to identify one part of the project to another. The pie chart to the left illustrates the target audiences response to the question with eight out of 10 of the audience replying to yes, whilst only two of them said no. I was very pleased with the result of the answer as it was a very high percentage however I did want to find out reasons as to why the two participants replied “no”. Both responses were “ the colours and the standardised layout looked like an R&B album” this therefore I needed to change.

In order to overcome this problem, I decided it was important to develop the conventions of the rock genre instead of try to challenge them. This would solve the problem as the audience would more easily be able to identify the genre of the project easier. I did later return to the two participants who agreed that the change was more appropriate , James Goodman (18) commented “ The colours are more rock appropriate” this reinforces the significance of audience feedback in the creation of a product. Another way in which my media product develops the conventions of other real media products was through the creation of the poster. After researching about controversial videos and the effect it had on the audience, it was obvious that creating a controversial product had a high possibility of creating a hype, the demand for more.

Once I attained this understanding, I decided to create a controversial poster as I felt that this would be a good marketing strategy to aid the audiences intrigue for the video. I made the poster by drawing out my image with headlines scattered around the face. Once I did this I then scanned the image and edited it on Photoshop. I made use out of the scanner in this part of the project but I also made use of empirical research of news paper headlines. I decided in order to express the posters depiction of society, I decided to get newspaper headlines. I looked through “Daily-Mail” “The Sun” and “The Guardian” for a variety of headlines. It wasn’t very time consuming and it the response from my target audience seemed very positive, Danielle Martin 18 commented “ The planning for this is clear, the recent headlines grab my attention and make me want to read them and see more”. After scanning the image into Photoshop, I then edited the image using the bucket tool and then did general moving of texts. I found that the use of Photoshop from last years project was very beneficial as it was all applicable to this years project. Because I learnt last year how to use Photoshop it saved me a lot of time as well. I used quite a feminine colour for the background of my poster, simply to illustrate the contrast of the innocence of the colour with the reality that was on the poster e.g. “ mass murder”. I believe that the use of the colour is symbolic to the meanings of the poster, a depiction of how society , through it’s various institutions, blankets the issues in contemporary society, this therefore is why I felt the headlines would be a powerful image for the poster as it challenges the conventions of other contemporary posters.

I used a variety of media technologies in the construction of the project. At the very beginning of the project we used cameras to take pictures of a variety of necessary shots. I enjoyed learning about the use of these shots which really did help in the shooting of the video. I was able to apply last years work on camera shots as well which helped create a more professional finish to the video due to this variety. Obviously, the editing of the video needed to use an editing programme on a computer. We learnt how to use final cut pro in more detail this year however I did apply a lot of the techniques taught last year as well. I do feel that learning this in advance ( especially from last years project) enabled me challenge my capabilities using the programme. If I were to do the project again then I would certainly take more advantage of the variety of websites offering tutorials on how to get professional effects. In order to gain an understanding, I planned in advance to gain empirical research into how to use final cut pro at an even greater level, tutorials I found on Google, even such as www.apple.com enabled me to use the system more efficiently and saved me time. The only problems we did have was how long the editing process actually was, it was only thanks to having planned the project, including the editing beforehand that we were able to complete the project on time therefore planning is crucial to the completion of the project.

The planning of the video I found was crucial in order to gather our actors and film in the locations we wanted. The use of a project diary as well as the project planner, both using the computer enabled us to work efficiently. Many times our actors couldn’t film due to personal circumstances but with the help of our plan, we were able to consider filming other shots instead, to save time. One of the only problems we had was the delivery of the sand timer which is the key symbol used in the video. The sand timer did take longer than anticipated to arrive after I ordered it online. The way we got around this problem was that Samantha ( project partner) borrowed someone else’s, although our planning was very good this is something we overlooked and for next time would change. The symbolism of the sand timer as representing “ Times significance in the transgression of a relationship” is conventionally challenging. After researching a variety of videos before we began , we didn’t notice the intrinsic use of a symbol through a whole music video and we wanted to change this. We collectively drew upon ideas and decided that the sand timer would represent what our music video was portraying very well. We used the green screen throughout the shots of the sand timer as it had clarity to the grains of sand and gave it more of a professional tone. The learning of different camera shots was certainly applicable here as we used an establishing shot with many extreme close ups of the sand timer, as a means to illustrate the importance of the sand timer as a symbol.

We decided to edit the majority of the film black and white from the very beginning of the project. We believed that doing so would develop the conventions of contemporary music videos as it would serve to present how music videos should usually be individual and that don’t have to follow the set trajectories of the codes and convention that the mass of the industry follow. We both felt that having it in black and white would engage our target audience greater. We felt that it would do this as conventionally rock videos use a lot of darker colours in there videos, so we decided to develop this by using black and white. What we found from asking our target audience is that the identification of the genre is important, James Root (18) said “ If I watch a music video online and I’m not sure of the genre the music fits into, then I usually click to something else straight away” The use of the black and white therefore is used to re-illustrate the identification of the videos genre to our audience.

The importance of planning was crucial in the production of the main product and ancillary texts. Evidence of this was the shooting of the train at the train station. We needed a shot of the train to establish where the actor was to the audience. The understanding of the role and the use of new media in the various stages of the production was explicitly evident here. Before we shot the scene at the train station we planned out the times of the trains using www.nationalrail.com to make sure that we had a train in the shot. Without the planning and without the use of the internet, it would have been unlikely that we would have captured the train shot which would have resulted in a loss of time. Other problems we had when shooting was the unreliability of the weather. We planned everything , even including the weather for the days of shooting ( http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/) however, they the weather was unreliable. A lot of time was wastes due to the unpredictability of the weather although one of the props was coats which was fortunate.

The next thing I did was comprise various ideas for the digipack. What I wanted to do was develop the conventions of a digipack to create an enigma for the target audience. I created many designs and gave them out to my target audience to get their opinions and personal feedback on the designs. I created many ideas but gave two out to the target audience, these were my best ideas. I asked fifteen people on their verdict and found that 11 out of 15 preferred the second one. Obviously this is a very big difference so I chose the second one as those I asked were participants of my target audience , therefore if they liked it then I was targeting my intended audience.



After considering what a participant said earlier about the necessity for bright colours in order to target this audience, I decided on a contrasting bright colour design. I decided to do this as it is would make a great combination to my main product as well with the other ancillary texts. The use of bright colours targets the audience better, and after researching about this genre, it is an aspect that would appeal t it’s target audience.

I looked at various designs as well and many of the best ones had four sides on them , so I decided to go with that layout. As previously mentioned I did create the digipack on Photoshop as I did have previous experience with the help of last years project. I did struggle on the digipack as each section needed to be appealing and have a recurring theme throughout. I had to take into consideration the texts as well which is black and white. I decided on black and white text as it links to the black and white in the video, my main product. What I found the hardest part of producing the digipack was the layout as I kept wanting to alter it every so often. In order to overcome this I decided to give out an initial dig pack design to my target audience. I asked five random individuals that are all in the target audience’s age group, on their opinion. Rosie Ellison, 18 commented ; “ I like the images used but the colours could be brighter” , this was also mentioned by Tom Featherstone who commented “The colour could be enhanced”. With this understanding, I then created a final digipack. I used a camera to take shots of the subject and used what I learnt on camera shots at the beginning of the project to help. The shots all created an enigma as I deliberately used creative shots to create intrigue. The audience feedback was also very effective here as I changed the colour scheme of my design in order to engage my target audience greater. The construction of the digipack was simple as I used an online template of the measurements needed.

The front cover of the digipack is the back of a body looking into the distance. I believe that the front cover breaks the conventions of other modern covers as integrates two shots , a mid shot of the back of the body and also a wide shot of the setting. As mentioned previously, breaking conventions is one way of attaining the target audiences attention. The next side I did was the inside, behind the front cover. I cut out the face of another participant and then spread a line from the videos song “Quicksand” around the image. I did this as it creates a curiosity and I believe that from an audiences perspective, it would make them want to view the video and understand the meanings behind the image, that being the girl as a representation of the loneliness of the girl in the narrative of the video.
The next side that I did was the disk insert template. This was very simple to construct as the digipack template already had the disk insert template as one of the sections. I simply used my knowledge of the programme from last years final project to enable me to colour in this area. The final part that I constructed was the back cover. I personally believe that my back cover challenges the conventions of the common ideology inherent in the modern digpack market. It challenges the conventions through the use of abstract bold colours that contrasts to what is on the market at the moment, which I believe is important for creating interest to the target audience. Because I had a recurring theme of colour, it was similar to making the front cover.

In conclusion the project has enabled me to understand greater the significance of using audience feedback as it helps develop the product to make it more suitable for the target audience. I have been able to develop my skills and have been able to use skills from last years project as a means to help meet the deadline of the course. I have also realised the significance of the role of new media in the various stages of the production, the ability to research how to use programmes and how to create certain effects. I believe that the creation of ancillary texts has been the catalyst in the development of my skills and these learnt have certainly been applicable in the creation of my main product.