Evaluation and Feedback of the Video

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Facebook Feedback

I posted the link to our video from Vimeo on my Facebook wall so that my friends could comment on their opinions on my video. I wrote a few ideas that they could comment on like the camera angling, cinematography, editing and who it compares to Lady Gaga's videos. I received some really useful and positive feedback from doing this. Positive comments - People commented on how the shots really fitted to the lyrics (close up shots of teeth), how it looks like something Gaga would produce, making you think that this would appeal to Lady Gaga's target audience, andalso that the editing is very well done. Criticisms we did receive was about it got slightly repetitive towards the end of the video, which I did agree with, but it doesn't make a huge difference to the overall effect look of the video and I think it does help the continuity more.

By posting the video on my Facebook I could make it accessible to everyone on my friends list. But the majority of my friends are around my age group give or take a few years. This means the video was only seen by a small selection of Lady Gaga's target audience. This is why I asked my mum if she too could post the video on my Facebook wall so it could be seen by anothergeneration of people, meaning it is seen by a larger selection of Lady Gaga's target audience.

The link below is a powerpoint with pictures of each questionnaire I gave out. Some I filled in myself by phoning the person and then writing exactly what they said. This is so that I could have them all completed faster. On the last couple of slides I have summarised the feedback I have received from my questionnaires.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwxYNy6Gbf9BNjk0NTIyN2EtY2UxNC00ZWU0LThlODgtNjZhMmIyMzIwNjIy&authkey=CLix3ZQB&hl=en

I tried using varied methods of gaining feedback for my video. I think the easiest way of receiving the feedback was through Facebook. I managed to reach thousands of people and receive lots of good feedback from a wide range of people, including age groups in Lady Gaga's target audience. Im glad I postedthe video on my Facebook wall and my mums. It meant I could see the range of reception across age groups, and saw that it was a consistent good reception throughout. However, I am aware that people may have been scared or too nice to be nasty on Facebook and on my questionnaires that I had to fill out by phone call, but I did receive creative criticism as well. Facebook is a brilliant technique for receiving feedback as it is a social network site which is incredibly popular at the moment. If I had been doing this a couple of years ago Iwould have posted it on Myspace as that was the craze at the time. The internet is so usefulas you can connect to almost everyone and there is so many sites where you can post and review videos and photos so that almost anyone with internet access can access it. Questionnaires are less accessible and are harder to get filled in as you have to see people, get it all back and the questions are more selective so that it is easier to review the answers and present them in graphs or tables.

The feedback was very consistent. Most people commented on the editing, especially the close up shots of the singing. I put the Bad TV effect on these shots to emphasise the mouth, linking to the lyrics. People commented that these shots really workedwith the lyrics and kept the image of teeth in their brains. Another piece of positive feedback I received was about how this video looked like something Lady Gaga wouldproduce. It had a similar theme and punchiness likeGaga's other videos, with its fast pace and its quick transitioning between shots. I wasverypleased with this feedback as I was hoping for this reception, especially when peoplefrom thetarget audience commented with this. It shows that my video was an accurate reflection of the artists audience. The criticism I received was to do with the repetitiveness of the video towards the end. I agree with this comment as when I was editing I felt that I hadn't filmed enough footage for the video as I also felt that it got slightly repetitive (especially around 2 and a half minutes in).

If I was to make changes to the video I would:

1) Shoot double the amount of footage that I did shoot. I felt that although we did have a nice variety of shots, when we came to the end of our editing we had to start repeating parts. The main problem we had was that we didn't realise that we messed up some lyrics at points or sang the wrong part (not the main lyrics or the backing vocals), or laughed. Next time I will review the footage more before I start editing so I can re-film things on set whilst everyone is still in make up and costume.

2) Be more adventurous with the costume and make up. Because we were pushed for time during filming, we tried our best to achieve Gaga-esque costumes, but we needed things that would be quick to swap and change. In our preliminary thoughts for the video, we discussed using fabrics to cover the peoples eyes and emphasise the eyes. We did use black mesh in some parts, but I think the editing achieved this more so it didn't effect it too much by not using it. This use of covering the eyes is quite popular in Gaga's videos as well, so I would develop on it if I was to change the video.

(This is a still from Gaga's video Bad Romance. It shows lots of example of unusual and couture looking eyewear. i would replicate this if i was to make a change to my video).

3) I'd would like to have put a proper dance routine in the video. Although we had dancing it was all singular, and no group dancing like in a Lady Gaga video. We had choreographed a routine from watching Gaga's live performances on the internet but due to the times we could have the photography or film studio, it meant we couldn't get enough dancers. It was easier for me to film and my partner to dance. If I re-filmed I would love to film a proper dance routine with at least 4 or 5 dancers. I think this would just make the video perfect.

(This is also a still from Bad Romance but shows a typical dance routine that Gaga performs in her music videos. This dance routine being my favourite of her dance routines. Gaga stands out as she is dressed differently to her dancers. If we did a dance routine we wouldn't have a main dancer or a central character as we didn't want someone playing the role of Gaga, to be different.)

In what ways does your video use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I created a power point to illustrate the differences and similarities between my video and Lady Gaga's videos and also how these videos compare to other music videos by artists of the similar genre.

This is the powerpoint presentation. (for some reason Google keeps making some of the writing disappear off the page, even though I have gone back and made it smaller or moved it.)

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwxYNy6Gbf9BNTA0MjE4N2EtZmQxZi00NTUxLWI0MzktYWUyNmJiODgwNTYy&hl=en&authkey=CISu6js

I then presented this powerpoint to a mix group of people from the age of 12 - 60. Below is the link to the presentation.

The only way I could upload this was through google documents and you have to download it to see it as the file was too small to go on Vimeo and won't play on Google Documents.

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwxYNy6Gbf9BZTRlZDYxODUtNTgxYi00NGRlLWJjZGQtZTU3YTJiNWM4MmYz&hl=en&authkey=CPrp7swB

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

I believe my Digipack and advert work really well for their purpose. I tried hard to keep the images consistent throughout so that if someone saw the advert they would associate them with each other, but made differences so that I could experiment with Photoshop techniques and play with my skeletal theme.

I decided to make a powerpoint to analyse and answer the evaluative question above. (Some of the images are of poorer quality then they should be due to compatibility of my Mac and Google Documents.)

https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwxYNy6Gbf9BMjgxNDZjODEtMDk0Yy00Mzc2LWIwYzctZGU2MTU3MTljODAx&hl=en&authkey=CPGhvbYO

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planningandevaluation stages of all your products?

During this project I have used a number of programmes, software and equipment.

Photoshop

I used the Adobe programme, Photoshop, to make my Digipack and Advert. I used Photoshop in my Media coursework last year so I do have experience with the programme. I tried to teach myself some new techniques this year, by watching online tutorials for title effects e.t.c. Many people post tutorials online these days and there is a huge amount to look through. For themain title 'Teeth' I put a gradient overlay of quite golden and brown colours on it as it matched my colour choice of the main image. I saved this to my styles on Photoshop so I could use it for bothmy Digipack and advert. I also put some effects on the title including; drop shadow, beveland emboss and stroke. I am very pleased with how the title turned out. I think its eye catching and helps the title stand out more considering the complexity of the font of the title.

To create the image the way I did, I layered the two pictures and added a layer mask. A layer mask allows you to use the brush tool to delete one layer but not the underneath layer. If you paint on the object with black, it deletes the top layer, if you are then unhappy with how much you have taken you can paint back over it white and it brings back the image. This is a really useful tool and it gives you more control then the eraser or undoing what you've done previously.

Once I had made the image skeletal enough I played with the images hue and saturation options until it was how I like it. I wanted the image to match the title, so I kept the colours quite warm,making it a slightly orangey/yellow colour

Above shows how you make a layer mask for you image so that you can paint on it to delete and bring back the image.

These images show how you change the hue and saturation to change the colour of your image. You can also play with the lightness of the image. I made my image darker for my advert and Digipack.

There is a huge range of effects and options on Photoshop so I could really experiment before I chose what I wanted to do. Originally I had wanted my two texts completely in black and white, but because of all the options available to be I decided to try something a bit different, giving the pictures and titles glows and subtle, minimalistic colours. The use of the layer mask meant I could achieve a believable skeletal look and I feel it looks well done and not amateur at all. All these options really let me bring all my ideas together and gave me a really good finished product.

The Internet

The internet has been really useful for this coursework as it has abled me to show my finished video to many more people then I could personally. With social networking and online video sharing being made widely available and free it means almost anyone can access it if you make it available for public viewing. 10 years ago this would have been a lot harder as a very small percentage of people had internet or a computer, whereas almost everyone owns a computer and wireless internet nowadays. The internet also makes researching my chosen artist at lot easier. I could watch all of Lady Gaga's videos on her Youtube channel and take stills and ideas from this.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ladygagaofficial?blend=1&ob=5

Youtube also allowed me to review Lady Gaga's target audience with its useful option toview the video statistics. You can use the internet to review Lady Gaga's target audience through looking at how many people follow her on Twitter, Myspace and Facebook and also to look at how many hits her official website has received.

www.facebook.com and www.vimeo.com have both allowed me to post my video online and let people give me feedback for my evaluation. This has been a huge help, especially Facebook. I could create a Facebook group for my whole project and post pictures of my ancillary texts as well as post my video. It also gives you a chance to explain the task to others so that they cangive you the type of feedback you need.

Final cut Pro

This is the programme I used for the editing of my music video. I had never used the programme before I started this coursework and when we did our preliminary task I didn't experiment much and only learnt how to cut up bits of footage and place them on the timeline. When it came to editing our own video I decided to play around with the video effects. I tried many of them including, Bad Tv, Bad Film, Strobe, Mirror, Desaturation, Equalising, the Matrix Effect.

We experimented for most of the first editing lesson then narrowed it down to the few we wanted to use. We managed to find effects to fit our song, genre and artists really well and look creative at the same time. We also looked at video transition effects and used some fade ins and outs towards the beginning and end. We weren't keen on the other transitions as they were all quite blocky and reminded me of powerpoint presentation I used to make as a kid. Overall I foundFinal Cut really easy to use and easy to play around on. I have made a short video showing a couple of skills I learnt, here I show how to set up a video and explain how to capture back a video. I then show just a few effect skills I learn't as well. The video is in two parts because the programme I used to video what I am doing onscreen (Jing) only allows you to film five minutes at a time.

Part 1 (once again it wont actually preview these videos on Google Documents or Vimeo or Youtube but they are small files that you can download then they work)
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwxYNy6Gbf9BYmMwZTczNmQtMThmZS00YmE4LTk0N2UtMTA0MGI2OGJkZTIz&hl=en&authkey=CKuQr80F

Part 2
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BwxYNy6Gbf9BNDVmM2YzYmYtN2I2ZC00YjI4LWI3OGUtMjk0NTc5NDI1YWUx&hl=en&authkey=CMjOx8cG