Ancillary Product Feedback

-Very nice use of colour - the colour pop in the title was effective against the black and white background
-Really effective use of layering within the magpie, looks really professional however, it's not clear that it's Leeds, even to someone local. We are still happy with the product though, deciding to leave the Leeds imagery subtle so as not to be too over-facing
-The font had a really good reception, stating that it fit with the urban feel of the rest of the digipak
-100% of our audience identified the digipak and advert as being within the indie-rock genre

Overall this s really positive feedback and we are very happy with our final product.

Evaluation Question 4 Podcast

Before we had our online discussion I created a list on which we could base our conversation, making sure we didn't miss anything and ensuring it followed a coherent structure. We all had access to this during our conversation, allowing it to direct the topics covered. Therefore it can be see below as a rough structure of our discussion surrounding question 4: 

Evaluation Question 2 Poster

Using Pages, we created a poster to answer this question, arranging text alongside images that help the reader visualise clearly what is being referred to in the evaluation response.

Digipak Back and Inlet

For the back cover, we came up with the idea to invert the colours of the front concrete effect, therefore creating a cohesive package through the tone and style of the covers, whilst also creating a defining factor for each and fulfilling the genre convention of a dark colour scheme. We also created continuity by using the same font as the front cover, but this time in white to stand out against the black background. We finished by putting a barcode and record label on the bottom and creating our logo on Adobe Photoshop, using a magpie to continue the theme of the covers and link to the name of our record label - Magpie Media. 

For our inlet, we decided we wanted to continue the theme of Leeds imagery and the pops of colour used in the front cover. Therefore, to create continuity, we used the same image of Leeds as in the magpie on the front cover as the main basis of the inlet and layered this over strobe lighting effects to create colour. Furthermore, we wanted to continue through the 'grungy' tone established in the front and back covers, so we also layered in the same concrete background effect that is used in both of these templates. This creates cohesion between all 3 aspects of the digipak, making it one united product to effectively fit in with the genre conventions as well as the needs of the band and imagery in the song.

 

Final Magazine Ad Design

This is our final magazine ad design as part of our ancillary product line up. The image and background is the same as the digipak and we did this to provide a link between the two products. The colours and image link to the video as well because the colours are sombre similarly to the mood of the majority of our video. The quotes we have added to the ad are real quotes that we found in a  review of the gig we went to see back in February. The rest of the magazine follows conventions as we added social media links, release date and the website link.

Our finished magazine advert takes inspiration from examples from our research in that it is almost identical to the digipak cover, tying the two very clearly together. We retained the same background image and magpie artwork, changed the dimensions from a square to A4 and added some more subtle features appropriate for the magazine advert format. These include:

• Increasing the size of the font "TRANQUA LITE" and "TEMPERED TIDES" in order to stand out more as an advertisement and clearly display the band name and album title amongst the other information.
• The same magpie emblem from the digipak cover, slightly increased in size to grab attention from potential audiences.
• Text reading "THE DEBUT ALBUM" to ensure people know what is being advertised. We kept this text in the same font as the title and reflected the colour scheme of the text at the top of the image with the text at the bottom.
• The release date in a large, bold font.
• Actual reviews of the song we encountered online by local Leeds music blogs, helping both clarify the type of music being marketed and generate interest. We kept this in  muted, narrow, sans-serif font to not clutter the image and keep the magpie as the focal point of the centre of the image however it's still easy for audiences to read.
• A website link.
• Social media icons encouraging people to follow the band and album on Twitter and Instagram, the latter of which has a Magpie Media account.
• The record label logo.
• Small icons detailing formats the song is available from: Spotify and Apple Music.

Evaluation Question 2 Transcript

Our music video and supporting ancillary products (a magazine advert and digipak) were targeted towards fans of the indie rock genre of music as our band, Tranqua Lite, and their song, 'Tempered Tides', belonged under this genre. As a result we conducted research using YouGov into the types of people interested in indie rock. Our results showed there was relatively equal interest between male and female audiences and that there were spikes of interest in people aged between 15-25 and 35-45, due to the genre's prominence in the 90's and in recent years. As a result our media products we tried to make with a somewhat broad appeal in terms of not being tailored to a specific gender or generation of audience, but also something that would specifically capture the attention of fans of this genre of music.

In discussions with the band, we discovered that Tranqua Lite were keen to be marketed in a similar way to their influences, which included British indie rock bands Elbow, Kasabian, Foals and Biffy Clyro. Looking at the music videos and album artwork for these bands we searched for recurring stylistic elements, trends and techniques. There was commonly a down-to-earth and humble quality to the presentation of the band members in music videos and they were very frequently depicted playing their respective instruments in time with the song, imitating a live performance. The aesthetics of these videos tended to veer towards grungy and low-budget styles and used minimalism. Similarly, the accompanying artwork was usually deliberately amateur-looking or simplistic, often featuring provocative artwork or a graphic on a plain background. Consequently we discussed giving our video and poster/digipak art a unified look that followed this style.

Once we established that the band wanted the video to function as a tribute Leeds, the city centre became an essential location we used to shoot many sections of the video in. To emphasise the grungy feeling we wanted, we chose particularly weary-looking locations and places that evoked a bleak urban landscape. These included the bridge at Shipley station with big white walls either side that are scuffed and scratched with big black marks as well as the area around Leeds First Direct Arena which has a lot of dull coloured grey/brown buildings and concrete. As we completed the ancillary texts afterwards and wanted the two to be a coherent pairing, we therefore looked for ways to add this urban aesthetic to the cover art.

We came up with the idea of taking inspiration from indie rock albums by creating a simple graphic emblem on a plain background and combined a magpie (which is mentioned commonly in the song's lyrics) with images of Leeds so that the image looks like a magpie from a distance but upon closer inspection reveals the grungy urban landscape that our music video is set in. After developing this image, we still felt however that the two were somewhat detached and that the digipak cover wasn't truly representative of the video we had created. Eventually, after discussions within our group, we realised it was the plain white background that was causing the image to look mismatched. We discovered a white concrete texture background online and tested this as a replacement background and the difference was extremely noticeable. It not only looked less artificial and overly photoshopped and also tied it extremely more strongly to the visual style of the music video.

In fact, the background image was strikingly similar to the aforementioned bridge at Shipley, deepening the connection between the two. Our satisfaction with this result encouraged us to follow this aesthetic style further, adding an eroded, scratchy sans-serif font that looked decidedly grungy. Finally, whilst we initially envisioned a black and white digipak cover to fit in with the examples we had researched which included the album covers 'AM' by Arctic Monkeys and 'The Ride' by Catfish and the Bottlemen but upon consideration of how to establish a visual connection to the video we decided it would be more apt to include a hint of colour to reference the colour shift that is a significant feature of our music video. Therefore, we made the images of the magpie and Leeds full colour and shifted them slightly orange to compliment the colours, then included this colour in the text. The end result was a music video and ancillary texts that were distinctly unified and coherent in tone, aesthetic and style.

One of the main objectives our group aimed towards when creating the media products for Tempered Tides was fulfilling the band's brief of creating something that would raise awareness for homelessness in the local area. After the media products were complete, we sent out an audience survey that we created on SurveyMonkey in order to see how successful we were in achieving both this aim and the aim of creating an enjoyable indie rock music video, magazine advertisement and digipak. Fantastically, when given a list of 6 possible interpretations of the video, 5 of which were red herrings, 87.5% of respondents said they thought "the video's message was to raise awareness for homelessness". In addition to this, many positive comments were made about the video's use of colour shift from black and white as well as the colours and theming of our digipak and magazine advert. Also very gratifying to see was the seemingly equal interest in the products from both 16-25 year olds who responded as well as our secondary target audience, people aged 35-45, meaning our media texts were successful in appealing to both demographics equally.

On the other hand, there was lesser success with one of our secondary intentions: the idea of showcasing Leeds as a location significant to both Tranqua Lite and the issue of homelessness being portrayed in the music video. According to survey participants, the ancillary texts weren't clearly related to the city of Leeds and the iconography of Leeds Town Hall within the magpie's head was both difficult to see and not clearly recognizable as from Leeds, even from people who knew the city very well. Similarly, there were few people who picked up upon the significance of representing Leeds in the video, with lots of blatant establishing shots and uses of key iconic locations, when discussing the video with people in our target audience who had watched the video. On the other hand, we believe this may be down to the fact that as media students based near Leeds, our use of the location wasn't seen as a creative decision and rather as a practicality. To emphasize this more, we could have added some more obvious Leeds signifiers to the magazine advert and digipak, such as including a sign of Leeds in the magpie emblem however we think this may have looked too overbearing and crowded the image so the final products we are still extremely happy with. Also, whilst not being recognized as Leeds in particular, the city imagery in our ancillary products did leave an impact upon many other people who evaluated them in a survey, and the theme of urban settings in a more general sense was identified by a vast majority. In this way, our media texts were somewhat successful in one of our intentions for the video, in that it successfully represented homelessness in cities, but wasn't always clearly a tribute to the city of Leeds in particular.

The digipak and magazine advert were complimented by people aged between 16-25, our key target audiences, and [insert statistic] said they would be interested in listening to the song based on the artwork. Aspects that were listed by our audience in surveys as appealing included the urban aesthetic of the background layer and font, meaning our group's use of this particular styling was successful at connecting to the young adult audience demographic as we intended. What was also quoted as appealing included the "striking" emblem of the magpie and the coloring with the hints of burnt orange in a black and white scheme. This particular piece of information was also satisfying to hear seeing as lots of attention had gone into the use of colour within the digipak/magazine advert and the music video, including the colour shift and the contrast between shots in greyscale and in full colour. When questioned about the colour shift in the video, a large degree of respondents said it added to the uplifting feeling of optimism and a positive change of fortune for the character within the story. As both the main and ancillary media texts we had created were credited for their use of colour respectively, the combination can be seen to be very effective at satisfying the expectations of our target audience.

In conclusion, the combination of our media product and ancillary texts was extremely successful in achieving our aim of fulfilling the expectations of an established audience of indie rock fans in both 16-25 and 35-45 age demographics, appealing to these age groups in specific details such as the unified urban aesthetic and uses of colour, and we were also successful in promoting Tranqua Lite's identity as a new emerging band and the video's message about tackling issues of homelessness.

Video for Question 1

In preparation for this evaluation question we had a group discussion and went back over all our research on blogger in order to establish where we had met, developed or challenged our genre conventions. We then wrote a transcript, outlining our answer and used this as a script which Ed read over a video in which we included clips of the different influences within the video. 

For the voiceover, Ed used MusicMemos, an Apple application for smartphones and tablets. We then used the app Garageband to eliminate background noise from the recording and cut out pauses or mistakes that Ed had made. After this, using iMovie we pieced together the voiceover with relevant footage from both our music video as well as clips from the music videos we used as research in the pre-production process:

• Elbow - Grounds For Divorce
• Maroon 5 - Harder to Breathe
• Ed Sheeran - The A Team
• Biffy Clyro - Biblical
• Dan Croll - Bad Boy
• Kasabian - Ill Ray (King for a Day)
• Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
• Green Day - American Idiot
• Alt-J - In Cold Blood
• Django Django - Default
• Foals - Mountain At My Gates
• The Rolling Stones - Ride 'Em On Down
• Pulp - Mis-Shapes
• Catfish and the Bottlemen - Twice

Evaluation Question 3 Prezi

For our evaluation we have to use a variety of presentation methods. For this question which focuses on our audience feedback I’ve used a prezi presentation as it is interesting to look at and allows us to answer the question in the detail we felt like it needed.

https://prezi.com/view/TTUrUfQnJ5sLxAaRtJcy/

Evaluation Question 1

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real products?
Our media product is made up of a series of influences determined by extensive research and planning in our pre-production process. However, we were determined not to make a carbon copy of every other indie-rock music video in existence so we decided to develop some of these forms and conventions and combine them with some of our own ideas in order to create a video easily identifiable as in indie-rock genre, whilst also standing out as unique and interesting to different audiences.
A key factor in our project was our decision to work with a real band in Leeds, therefore we strived to create a professional looking video to meet the expectations of a professional band. This also meant we had to pay extra attention to the forms and conventions included in our video as we were appealing to a real audience base who’s expectations needed to be satisfied.
The first thing we did as part of this project was to research Andrew Goodwin’s music video conventions to discover and understand the forms and conventions of music videos as a whole before delving deeper into the specific signifiers of our chosen genre. We included several of Goodwin’s conventions in order to create a successful and effective music video. This included creating a relationship between the visuals and the lyrics which we achieved through creating a narrative about homelessness whilst this theme is being explored within the lyrics. We furthered this relationship between the lyrics and visuals through our digipak, having the focal point of our album cover as a magpie which links to the lyrics’ metaphorical description of the homeless person as a magpie to create synergy and cohesion throughout our products.
We also created a clear relationship between the visuals and the music (another of Goodwin’s conventions) as the song distinctly describes ‘turning tides’, implying hope for the homeless person in the future. We reflected this through our decision to shift the colour in the video from black and white to colour, with this transition taking place at a clear turning point in the song. Therefore this reflects the changing mood and ensures the video’s tone always matches that of the song in order to create a clear, cohesive relationship between the song and the visuals which run alongside it.
As we were working with a band, and consequently a record label, we needed to meet the needs of these two factors (which Goodwin identifies as another convention of music videos). As this was our band’s first ever video, we decided they needed to be relatively heavily featured in order to ‘introduce’ them to their audience. This also tied in with our genre research which identifies rock music videos as containing a lot of ‘live’ performance, therefore allowing us to tick two boxes in one go. Therefore we decided that we should cut between the narrative and performance aspects to create a hybrid music video which covered both bases the band desired - telling the story of the lyrics (as identified by Goodwin as well as being specifically requested by the band) and introducing the band themselves through performance aspects (therefore meeting the needs of the record label, beginning to establish artist iconography, and meeting the indie-rock conventions to create an identifiable music video within this genre).
Once we understood the general conventions of music videos themselves, we decided to focus our research more specifically on the genre we knew we were working in. It was important to establish a good understanding of our genre as it is a vital part of creating a successful media product as Jonathan Culler said “generic conventions exist to establish a contract between creator and reader so as to make certain expectations operative”. Therefore we needed to understand what our audience expected so as to meet these needs and guarantee their satisfaction with the final product. We did this by conducting extensive research on similar bands such as ‘Pulp’ ‘Kasabian’ and early videos by ‘Maroon 5’ such as their ‘Harder to Breathe’ music video which became a major influence for the performance aspect of our video, even influencing some of the shot types and angles we decided to use. When it came to our narrative we looked for inspiration from videos which explored similar issues such as Ed Sheeran’s ‘A Team’ which also depicts homelessness.

This was where we got our initial idea to put the video in black and white to reflect the dire circumstances experienced by the homeless. We also researched a specific director, Samuel Bayer, who has done several videos in this genre, including ones by Green Day and The Rolling Stones to enable to us to understand further recurring themes and conventions. We found that there were a lot of performance based visuals, providing the feel of being at a gig or performance and these focussed on the main singer but also paid some attention to musicians due to the common instrumentals within this genre of music. Therefore, in our video, we made sure to collect footage of each band member individually to enable us to switch between them when their instrument featured in the music e.g. guitar riffs or particularly striking drumming sections. This also helped us introduce each of members respectively, therefore meeting the needs of the record label and further fulfilling Goodwin’s music video conventions.
Furthermore, the feeling of being at a ‘gig’ or ‘live performance’ adds a personal feel to indie-rock music videos, as if the band is performing directly to their fans as done at live events. We really liked the mood and tone this particular convention offered, and decided to further it through our addition of diegetic sound of the band at the beginning and end of the video. This adds a further personal touch, allowing fans to ‘get to know’ the band themselves rather than just their music, and brings them down to a more identifiable level which will help with establishing a firm fan-base, further fulfilling the needs of the record label. Therefore this is a clear demonstration of how we developed the conventions of this genre by combining them with new ideas to achieve or intensify our desired effect.
We also found that our research showed fairly ‘rough and ready’ camerawork and editing to create a grungier, more edgy mood in the video. To achieve this in our own video we applied similar camerawork including handheld shots and footage where the camera is knocked or zooming in. This makes it look rougher and helps match the video to the tone of the music as well as that of the genre. We incorporated the ‘rough and ready’ theme into our editing through the use of jump cuts which frequented our video to demonstrate the passage of time but also to give the illusion that the video was ‘unpolished’ and stitched together in order to provide a more ‘down to earth’ and edgier tone. We further added to this through our mise on scene by having our protagonist, James, walk through ‘grungier’ locations, such as the scene on Shipley bridge where the mucky sides of the bridge frame the whole shot, encapsulating James in the grungy atmosphere so associated with the genre.
We continued this theme in our digipak, choosing to make the background of our album a black and white ‘concrete’ effect which was a very close match to the black and white sides of the bridge in the aforementioned scene, creating a feeling of cohesion visually between the different elements of our project. We also used a slightly dishevelled font to further add to this mood and unite the tone of the album cover and video.
During our artist research we found a video by Biffy Clyro for their song ‘Biblical’ which boasted a repeated narrative with small changes in each one which resulted in different outcomes. We really liked this idea and took it to a concept discussion with the band where they expressed their interest in this form of video. After thorough debates and consideration of our other ideas we decided that this would be the most effective and interesting form through which to communicate the messages of our music video. Therefore this became one of our main influences but we didn't just want to copy it, so we developed this idea, adding in elements such as the colour shift and the introduction of new characters in the second narrative to keep the video interesting and engaging. Therefore we did use this form as a major influence for our video but developed it to keep it unique and fresh for our audiences, developing our own set of conventions within this form.
Despite all these elements of similarity, we wanted to be sure to add definite elements of difference to our project so as not to create a carbon copy of something already done. We wanted to enable our video to stand out amongst those of the same genre whilst also being identifiable within it. Steve Neale said “genres are instances of repetition and difference...difference is absolutely essential to the economy of genre” and it was on these grounds that we decided to add unique elements to our video.

After hearing the lyrics and message of the song, we thought it would be really suited to a narrative, even though this isn't a classic convention of indie-rock music videos. We spoke to the band and they also wanted a narrative in order to fully convey the messages they intended within the song. Therefore, we developed the form typical of the indie-rock genre by including a performance in the video whilst also supporting a narrative in order to convey the story described in the lyrics, ultimately creating a hybrid music video.
Furthermore, our narrative has a happy ending, presenting a positive message and leaving the viewer with a sense of satisfaction and relief, a feeling unconventional in indie-rock videos which tend to promote angry and more negative attitudes towards social structures. This was a creative decision we settled on to promote the support of the homeless and demonstrate how one small act of kindness can set a whole trail of change into motion. Therefore we challenged the typical conventions in order to achieve a specific intention identified by the band and represented in the lyrics of the song.
One typical convention of indie-rock videos (and Goodwin’s conventions as a whole) is the iconography of the lead singer, most clearly displayed in our research through the presentation of ‘Maroon 5’s’ Adam Levine who clearly has star status within the band. We chose to develop this convention in our music video, still putting a lot of attention on the lead singer but trying to equally distribute the time amongst the other musicians and back-in vocalists in order to meet the needs of the record label by ‘introducing’ each member of the band through their consistent dedication of time throughout the video.
We identified our genre conventions for indie-rock digipaks through extensive research into similar bands and analysis of their promotional packages to develop a deep understanding of the colour schemes, images, fonts and tones typical within this genre. We particularly analysed digipaks from Kasabian, Coldplay and Biffy Clyro to establish a set of themes and conventions which we could manipulate within our own work.
We chose to challenge conventions through our digipak which has a dominant light colour scheme on the front cover as opposed to conventional indie-rock album covers which are overwhelmingly dark. We decided to do this to reflect the more uplifting tone of our video and the hopeful message it conveys, in contrast to the darker themes often explored within this genre. However, we didn't want to completely challenge this convention as we still wanted our product to be identifiable within the genre so we inverted the background on the back cover to create cohesion within the two aspects of the digipak whilst providing a darker colour scheme which is more in line with the typical genre conventions. We also used a grungy background to tie into the ‘rough and ready’ convention seen within this genre of music and surrounding imagery through our use of a concrete background and dishevelled font. Therefore our digipak develops the forms and conventions of the indie-rock genre to clearly place itself within this area of the music industry while retaining an identity of it’s own and standing out amongst the sea of conventions displayed by similar artists.
Ultimately, our video and surrounding products varies between using and challenging genre conventions, overall falling somewhere in-between. Therefore we can say we developed typical indie-rock forms and conventions, taking on board ideas and influences we liked whilst changing and adapting other areas to create a video that will be unique and striking to our target audiences whilst still remaining identifiable within the genre. This makes it easier to target audiences and entice new fans to the band’s music as well as satisfying the expectations of those already familiar with the indie-rock genre.

Evaluation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before even considering the production side of our project we had to establish a target audience which we could aim our whole project at. Seeing as we were working with a song from the indie rock genre we investigated similar bands within the genre to discover which members of the population we need to aim our product at. For this audience research we used YouGov to explore the audiences of other bands. Using this method, we explored bands such as: Biffy Clyro, Kasabian and Foals. YouGov gave us a result which illustrates the average listener for the certain band. After looking at several bands we found a link between all their target audiences. All the bands that we looked at had a primary target audience of teenagers of both genders and a secondary target audience of 40-50-year-old males. Therefore, we used this link to create our target audience. Without an understanding of our target audience we wouldn’t be able to construct a suitable and effective meaning and purpose for our video. Having the right target audience allows us to use audience theory correctly therefore maximising the impact on our chosen audience. The uses and gratification model states that our target audience will enjoy our content to relax and escape from their own experiences. Seeing as we have created the video especially for our specific audience they should all accept our meaning due to the reception theory. However, the theory also states that audience members are welcome to disagree with the meaning or suggest their own meaning. We produced a survey to ask audience members what they thought the meaning was and how effect it was portrayed. 100% of our focus group said they understood the meaning and though it was effective to an extent. 50% believing it was very effective with the other 50% thinking it was only slightly effective.

Things we did in response to target audience:

·      Indie rock stereotypes

·      Colour integration

100% of the people in our focus group enjoyed and recognised the colour change and the reasoning behind it. However, one member commented that it was minimal, and the colour could have been enhanced even more. 

·      Black + white

Our black and white section of the video had a mixed response from our audience. Some people didn’t like the appearance of the black and white aesthetically however the black and white look was a convention of the genre therefore this audience feedback contrasts with our original feedback which states that our target audience enjoyed the black and white aesthetic in indie music videos. However, this was a minority view as only 30% of our focus group stated this as a problem.

·      Titles

·      Diegetic sounds

·      Pre and post song visuals

·      Negative storyline with a positive outcome

Our audience recognised and appreciated the narrative however they said that the acting could have been exaggerated to highlight the importance of moving off the streets and in with his friend. 

·      Dark colours on digipak

·      Instagram account, audience could also live the filming process with us, so we could keep them up to date with our content.

Issues with me band meant that we couldn’t publish much content as it would be against copyright licencing and could cause legal issues. 

·      Ideas from the band on what they wanted for their audience and how they impacted decisions we made for the video.

Overall what have we learned from our audience feedback? We initially learned how to design and structure our video due to the expectations of our target audience which was based on the audiences of similar bands in the indie genre. This design element to our video changed throughout the production period as once we released rough cuts we could see which of our idea were accepted by our audience members and which ideas they disagreed with or offer alternative ideas. Therefore, linking to the idea of reception theory. After collecting all the results our video got an overall rating of 4.1 out of 5 from our audience. This means that the video was a success with our target audience and we were able to learn from what they wanted to improve the success of the video.