Group Evaluation

My group and I evaluated our performance and how well our media products have been created. From our evaluation questions we also discussed what didn't go too well and what audience feedback has suggested we improve as well as some positive comments we have received.

Evaluation

My evaluation is finally complete, to produce it I used different media tecnologies to answer the four questions surrounding our experience throughout the coursework of the development of our music video and how it conform to the genre of indie music, and what media tecehlogies were used to contruct, research, plan and evaluate our work, in addition to the combination of our ancillary text to our main product and what we learned form audience feedback.

Question 1: In what does you media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Question 2-How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts


Question 3: What have you learnt from your audience Feedback?
Question 3- What Have You Learned From Your

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

The final video featuring myself discussing all the media technologies I and my group used throughout our the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages. I also talk about how useful they were to me and my group and what were my first intial experiences with these technologies.

Marissa Yesin

Cheshunt School

Candidate Number: 8175

Preliminary Evaluation

Our group decided to answer the evaluation questions as pairs and some of us. So we split up and discussed the questions and what we did to conform to the genre, the feedback we received and how we listened to this. In addition we explored how we used planning and research to help us, as well as the technologies we used throughout our coursework.

This helped us to indivually go to  make our answer to the evalution questions

The first video which I edited featuring Radhika, anwering the first question of the evaltuation on how we challenged or conformed to the Indie genre.

My answer to question 2 in the video below I talk about the how effective is our final digipak in combination with main product our music video.

Radhika and Hannah discussed what we learnt from the audience feedback and how we changed our video, from some of the improvements suggested.

In the last video features Mark and Hannah disscussing some of the media tecehnologies that we used in the construction, research, planing and evaluation of final product. The software used to edit our for instance w using Final Cut Pro which mark wasnt to fammilar with but recognised some of the various effects that were used in music video.

Drafting Analysis

This is the draft that Radhika, Hannah and I discussed in our media lesson. I assisted Hannah with what I remember about the order of the filming and editing that we done by explaining to it to Radhika, devised this drafting analysis. This explain in length the work we put into our 'Oliver Fox' video piece, we spent a lot of time filming and selecting the best shots. Then Hannah and Radihika would  edit them in their appropriate places. The drafting analysis also shows the improvements we made and why we did these.

Drafting Analysis

Final music video

Audience feedback from showcasing

Our speech rough guideline for the evening.

This is another post for my group, just so everyone understands what they’re doing on the showcase night. Also if you lose your speech for some reason, you can find it on here.

1. Greeting- Hannah

2. Introduction- Hannah

3. The one minuet extract that Radhika & I did will be talked about here- Radhika

4. The one minuet extract needs to be explained, what we did and why. Sir recommended that this whole speech should be kept short and sweet, so this section should only be around 4 sentences.- Radhika

5. The ideas behind the music video- Me

6. This section will ask if the audience would please give feedback afterwards.- Mark

7. Thus followed by, something along the lines of, ‘we hope you enjoy it.’- Mark

This is rough but, it should go along the lines of….

1+2- I would like to introduce our group. I’m Hannah; this is Marissa, Radhika & Mark. We have been working on an indie piece of music, & have developed a video for the song ‘Blue Skies’ by Noah + the Whale.

3+4- Radhika’s section was not planned since she was away.

5- The name of our artist is Oliver Fox, which we all collaborated. One day in our media lesson, we all agreed we liked the name Oliver, and then brainstormed some ideas for a surname. The same process was applied to devising the name of the track, replacing the original song of the music video, called ‘Nights of Broken Sleep’

6+7- We hope you enjoy our video and we would be very appreciative for any feedback. Thank you for your time.

Audience Feedback

We received a lot of positive feedback upon our music video from our written audience feedback, this took place during our showcase evening. I found a lot of the feedback truly useful to how others perceive our music video in these key areas associated with cinematography, editing, lighting, costume, etc. Many thought the song choice was a great one and that it fit the mood of the narrative we came up for the music video, our music video was also reviewed outside the showcase by year 7 and 8’s, whom found it difficult to understand the narrative. I completely understand this would be a tad beyond their year, suggesting our target market is slightly older, between 15-30 year olds.

Of course we had plenty of feedback to review, record and to summarise the results of each audience reponse, so we divided the audience feedback between the four of us and gave each other a copy of our results for each question on did a brief chart up on excel and made our own individual summarise up on our blogs of what we found in our audience feedback. I found this method easy to getting a total view of all of  our audience reponse to the video. On our questionnaire we had had our audience provide distinction between gender and favourite type of music. In the feedback I reviewed there were 4 females, 6 males and 3 others that weren’t stated. As for favourite music only one person states Indie as they’re favourite genre of music, while 3 mostly liked pop and rock music, also only one person stating R&B as their favourite genre of music. From the 13 responses people left a mark out of 10 and this averaged an 8, hannah also shared the same result with Radhika recieving an outstanding 9 out of 10 for our music video.

Negatives:-

Many of our audience commented on the change of our main character’s appearance, which was how it changed from curly to being cut short in the capture scene in the middle of the music video. We were not to blame for our actors decision to his hair, but I do understand that this is something to maintain in a music video is our artist entire appearance and that this came off somewhat ‘unrealistic’, Hannah correctly says its clearly the same person.

We received positive feedback on the on the choice of costume, which was thought to have ‘fitted well’ although not everyone think what the actors attire was entirely suitable or to they liking. Our music video is an indie video and I have research that backs this kind of dress code as a prominent convention of indie music. Even though we filmed on different days we sustained the same or similar clothing throughout the music video.

One individual was not in favour of the gun remaining blue as they felt it was unrealistic and could have been painted to fulfil the likeness of a real gun that I agree the gun could have been spray painted black. When me and Hannah bought this toy gun the shop keeper said they no longer sell them in black due to gun crime the government do not promote crime so that is why they are sold in different colours to prevent the misconception. When we were filming in a public park on one occasion a woman thought it was real, but we explained to her it was a toy gun and saw the colour and realised it was fake and that weren’t causing any trouble or harm to either ourselves and those around us.  If we were to do it again I would consider the unrealistic nature of the gun would be reformed by spraying it black.

we received some comments on the location which some people thought could use with a ‘better setting’ that is should ‘not be in a public park’, suggesting more isolation of the scenes in the park, because towards the end of the music video when our male character suddenly kills the girl they is a dog walker in the background that many found distracting and a low point the presentation of the music video. After the showcase once we recorded our results we immediately acted on this shot and replaced it with a shot without a dog walker, which our group were happier to take this from our draft.

 

Positives:-

There were many areas if the music video we received positive feedback on, some our audience liked the narrative because it had unexpected twists which kept them entertained throughout, even someone calling it the best video of the evening. Some of audience liked the variety of shots used in the views of nature to emulate the mood of the character or situation. Many the editing was good as the transition was considered to be ‘clear’ and ‘sharp that I know Hannah and Radhika worked really hard on to make it right. I learned from the editing process how challenging it can be to edit a ¾ minute music video that it fits the music and make wise transitions and that the narrative was easy to follow on the whole with the setting being "very appropriate" reflecting the state of mind of the character (black and white for anger and high contrast effects on blue skies to correspond with warm feelings within the lyrics). Even though most people grasped the narrative one other individual didn’t like how it video starts with the end which they thought the suspense most people felt watching it was lost. However this is something that our group distinguished from the start how to open the music video with the end and this is seen in some televisions dramas and music videos as different trend from the conventional let’s start from the beginning shall we, but I understand how this won’t be receptive to everyone who watches the opening. We took on negative criticism to further enhance the quality of our music video after the showcase but we were also happy that overall the audience feedback suggests we have successfully created an Indie music video that it was “exciting” and had creative use of shots, angles and transitions all of which our group is so proud of a glad to have received such raving reviews as much as we benefitted from some constructive criticism to go back and to further enhance the quality of the end product.

Filming and Editing so far...

Filming
Tuesday 3rd April we went out for our final shoot, Hannah, Radhika, Mark and myself  for the first time since starting the coursework to film together. We realised we still hadn't filmed the scene of the girls kidnapping, when looking back at our storyboard this was the final link in our narrative that would have been unclear without it. We all met at Starbucks where we were to film the final shots of our actor Jonathon stalking Hannah and her friend and whisked her so that he can fulfil his fantasy of them two together.

We discussed as a group the where the scene would start and the choice of camera angle so we were all on the same page and understood the motions of each take. while filming we made sure that other peoples faces weren't captured on film and remained out of other shoppers way, to avoid any conflict or trouble from us filming in very public place. Theses are some of the snaps from the footage we took during filming the scenes before the capture which mark took using the bloogie and the second part of the day we filmed the scene of the girl being snatched on Hannah's camera so that the battery of the bloogie weren't fully wasted unable to fulfil the plans for those scenes.

Here mark films Jonathan following us out of the shop as we approach Starbucks to sit down and talk. After this shot our actor finds a sit 2 tables beside ours.

Then we are chatting as girls do but on camera of course...with Hannah in the centre still making known who are our main characters in the video.

This shot I directed of Jonathan looking over at the girl but having moments of him pretending not to be looking on purpose.

Hannah's character catches the attention of the male characters continuous gaze at their table so she whispers to us to start leaving.

Then Mark films the three of us leaving but from the view up over Jonathan's shoulder with his head bowed down looking unsuspicious. 

What I was really pleased with was the choices of angles Mark shot us three on the table, by directing the camera from right in front of the table in the position of where Jonathan's characters is sat, providing a natural depiction of her eye line to him. I also liked the cameras position over the shoulder this was really interesting, and I think it made for a very eerie shot through the varying distance and perspectives of us and Jonathan. Often while we were filming would review the footage just to see whether the camera wasn't straight or shook or turned at the wrong time to understand how many times more to shoot to get it to be perfect.

Moving on to the kidnapping scene we filmed this using Hannah's camera and this time Radhika filmed. Once again before we began filming we regrouped and discussed the steps into the next scenes. So we filmed around the parking lot near Starbucks in a long alley way close by to perform the kidnapping there.

I thought we should try film her running across the zebra crossing featuring only her feet to implement another form of camera angle.

We shot this scene a few times of him placing the tissue over her nose, we advised that he didn't clutch it tight. We filmed them up against a brick wall as if it were harsh ambush, with the camera close-up from their shoulders to their faces to capture the agony in Hannah's face and the violence of the actors emotions and actions. 

 Then we filmed him putting the girl into the back of his car with no signs of cars on either side of him which we made the move to an isolated area.

We even had the space to film a clean getawy in the car, which Hannah drove since our actor nor group had a license to do so. From Hannah being the actress had to then transform into the stunt double for Jonathon her obessed admirer!?

Our music video had no budget or costs to it, but in a professional music video the stunt double you employ will need  to have similar characteristics to the artist, and then they adopt similar clothing or make-up of that particcular person they're replacing. On the left is a photo of Jennifer Lopez on the set of her new music video alongside her stunt double who is a man with a wig of the same hair do and clothing as J.lo.

Hoo-ray! We are done, well for filming that is. I am so excited to fill the final minutes of our music video. Towards the end of the day the weather was beginning to get colder and colder, but by that time we were successful in completing all shooting. Once we finished Hannah pointed her camera in an high angle shot of the trees surrounding the car park. She took it in a slow circular motion that I really liked the view of the branches I thought this was very effective this could be useful to add to our music video. 

Editing

On 18th April, I joined Hannah in the Mac room to transfer all our footage we did two weeks ago to make the final touches to our music video featuring the kidnapping scene. We even used the view of the trees Hannah took and made a colour correction into black and white. We then informed the rest of our group of our sucessful editting session and submitted it to our media teacher for tommorows showcase.

Below is our final draft of music video since the feedback we recieved that corection were made.