Final Music Video: 'Don't Stop' by Fragment

                                                                                                                         

Final CD Digipak: 'One/Four' by Fragment

Final Website Page for Fragment

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

By using digital media technologies I have used technological convergence to ensure that I have produced three products as a part of a successful campaign.  My use of technological skills has enabled me to become a prosumer, a creator of media products to a near professional standard.  The use of Final cut pro as a piece of editing software has taught me how to select and organise a music video to a very high standard using semi-professional media equipment.  I have also been able to share ideas and research global and industry standard products.  Digital technology has made available to me opportunities to upload, share and distribute my products using Youtube as a free online broadcast platform.  It is also interactive – audiences have been able to feedback, like and comment on my products using features such as Instagram, and other online tools.  These new skills learned on this course have enabled to gain experience not only as a user of digital technology, but also to also become a producer – important to an understanding of the media in an online age.

Henry Jenkins was very interested in examining this ‘participatory culture’ and most specifically how the Internet has brought it to the forefront through offering opportunities for regular audience members to produce and upload their own products – something that I have achieved by research and planning my work so that I can be inspired and offer my own version of interesting products.

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

Callum and Honor began to write a script today which will be used in Evaluation Task 4. The script is rough and hasn't been completed. We will spread around the different sections in order to give everyone in the group things to say. Here it is...

Draft of Script:

Throughout the shoot we used various technologies to film our Music Video. We used an iPad to act as a clapper board, this enabled us to know when to cut video in order to keep visuals in time with the song during the editing stage. We held the iPad in front of the camera lens for 4 seconds until a beep came on the track that signified the song commencing. After we hard this we took the iPad out of the frame and prepared for the take. 

For the filming of the video we used a Black Magic URSA mini which is a semi-professional cinematography camera which enabled us to create a more professional and visually intriguing product. We switched between a variety of different lenses throughout the shoot in order to get different framing sizes and the sizes we used were 18mm lenses to 85mm lenses. The 18mm lens was used to shoot the wide shots of the artist and the dancers, the 50mm shot was used for mid-shots to show costume and other symbolic conventions in the video and the 85mm lens was used for extreme close ups which showed a sharp image of the artist in the foreground and an out of focus background. This ensured that the audience were able to focus entirely on the star image and the unique selling points (USP). 

We adjusted the shutter speed on the camera in order to portray an agitated and strobe like effect as it backed up the club theme in order to abide by the genre of music we were presenting. In order to achieve this we incorporated lighting that was programmed prior to the shoot. The lights made up part of the mise en scene of the electronic genre we wanted to portray, thus incorporating technical conventions to make the video a more accurate representation of the artist. 

As we were filming each member of the group would take turns to operate the camera and the others would watch the TV in the studio that was linked directly to the camera feed. This allowed the observers to make judgments on the framing and ensured that the footage was always appropriate and aesthetically pleasing. This in turn made the whole process a lot more efficient, in the sense that if a shot was not working we could immediately see this and change it. Occasionally we were able to turn the TV to face Jonty as it helped him visualise what we wanted him to do in the shot, ensuring that he could deliver a realistic Dj performance which, according to Keith Negus is a fundamental element that should be incorporated in music videos. 

Once the production shoot was finished, we began editing the clips together in an offline edit. The editing process began with naming the clips and arranging them into an easily accessible order. We did this on Adobe Premiere Pro which is an ‘off the shelf’ software which enables people to create semi-professional products. We began by attempting to create a rough performance cut of the video to play around with clips and see what worked in certain orders. We agreed that the video had to be edited through the use of a rhythmic editing style which simply means cutting to the beat of the song. 

We then found that because of the pace of the song due to hidden accents and off-beats we found that the use of the ‘blade’ tool would be beneficial to use. We utilised the arrow keys on the keyboard to enable a second by second preview of shots which was crucial as our track was so quick and accented so we needed to make accurate cuts in order to present the energetic aspect of the electronic genre. We were encouraged to focus more on the final edit which meant paying attention to detail rather than making a rough cut that would eventually be scrapped restarted. This advice enabled the process to be a lot less time consuming and enabled us all to focus on the small details in every shot. After we had finished the product we began to do an online edit which consisted of adjusting and correcting until we felt it was fit for purpose. Once the product was green lit we were able to export it and upload it to YouTube which was used to document and expose our music video, as well as a platform for inspiration in the research and planning stage.  

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

To conclude, by using a vast majority of complex digital technologies, I have used technological convergence to ensure that I have produced three products as a part of a successful campaign. Other than the technologies that we all used to produce the music video I personally spent a lot of time using the software photoshop. I was able to manipulate photographs from the photo shoot of the artist that my friend kindly took using her 5D camera. The ways in which I edited each image from the shoot I added a black and white filter on top of the images to make them look more effective and meaningful. I then used the contrast feature to create shadowed regions which made the images look more visual contrasting and involve the idea of form into my imagery. I also used photoshop to outline the digipak template and select images that I could drag on and use as the front cover and back cover of the digipak. Moreover, when I added the names of the artist and title of the album I had to use the text tool and different layers so that I could manipulate where on the page they would be. The barcode on the back had to be taken from the internet and I replicated a copyright paragraph from another album cover and just adapted it so that it was in line with our artist and his record label.
I made at least 10 different digipak's front cover designs and then asked people what could be improved, changed or added. Most people were pretty certain on the final design, however, there were many others which I thought were effective too. Once I had chosen the front cover I was able to manipulate the rest of the digipak to fit the style and the look of the artist. I used images from the internet and made them my own by editing the 'contrast levels' and 'channel colours' to make the image unique and my own.  It also added an element of professionalism to the whole campaign as it was slick and neat. To allow the campaign to interlink and match I used these same images as it was almost like a trademark in which people could recognise the artist by. 

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

We discussed as a group all of the individual online technologies that we used in our A2 year. The most important technology that we used in our A2 was the Canon 5D camera which allowed us to film the elements of the models moving in synchronisation to the song 'Don't Stop' and really capture the edgy and bright hypothesis that we set out to create. We edited our music video in stages of offline and online editing on the software, adobe premier pro, which allowed us to match clips to the fast tempo beat of our chosen song. In the A2 year, I have expanded my horizons and started using new and more complex technologies to improve the quality of our chosen campaign. More of these technologies are listed on the 'digital technologies' diagram below.

As this task continues I will hopefully hone and develop my skills of using more complex technologies and will continue to present work and chosen elements of my campaign in more visually interesting and complex ways. Honing my skills has helped me create the other two ancillary tasks for this campaign and help combine themes to show that all three elements link in corresponding and effective ways to the artist of our music video.

Evaluation Task 3- Youtube Statistics

Information from YouTube...

Global Reach

• YouTube has over a billion users–almost a third of all people on the Internet–and every day, people watch hundreds of millions of hours of YouTube videos and generate billions of views.
• YouTube overall, and even YouTube on mobile alone, reaches more 18-34 and 18-49 year-olds than any cable network in the U.S.
• More than half of YouTube views come from mobile devices.
• YouTube has launched local versions in more than 88 countries.
• You can navigate YouTube in a total of 76 different languages (covering 95% of the Internet population).

Investing in Creators

• The number of channels earning six figures each year on YouTube has increased by 50% y/y.
• The YouTube Spaces team is focused on helping creators make great content through strategic programmes and workshops that are largely administered at the YouTube Space production facilities in Los Angeles, New York, London, Tokyo, Sao Paulo and Berlin.
• As of March 2015, creators filming in YouTube Spaces have produced over 10,000 videos which have generated over 1 billion views and 70+ million hours of watch time.

Copyright

• As of July 2016, YouTube has paid out $2 billion to rightsholders who have chosen to monetise claims since Content ID first launched in 2007.
• As of July 2015, there are 8,000+ partners using Content ID–including many major network broadcasters, film studios and record labels–who have claimed over 400 million videos, helping them to control their content on YouTube and make money on videos containing copyrighted material.
• We have more than 50 million active reference files in our Content ID database, making it the most comprehensive in the world. It’s even won a PrimeTime Emmy!

(FYI the giffs change...)

The number of views is constantly creeping up meaning people are accessing our video easy and sharing the content. This also means people are enjoying the product as they have viewed it nearly 2000 times in total. The average duration of watch time in 1.04 which means the are watching the majority of the video. This means they are enjoying the video however maybe getting slightly bored after a while due to the shots being similar however they do get more intense and aesthetically pleasing towards the end. We did this so that people would be hooked the whole way through. Hopefully this isn't the case as the music video is said to be 'visually engaging' throughout from our target audience members.

The ratio between male and females watching it is fairly equal however the femal audience do seem to watch it more. This is probably because they can relate to the dancers and look up to them. Also, the artist is a male and females often like watching male artists doing their thing. Male audiences like to watch the video as they can relate to Fragment and also look up to him however in a different way to what girls do. Moreover, the majority of the views are from people between the ages of 18-24 which is perfect for what we were intending. This is just we wanted as they are the people who would enjoy Fragments concerts, by the CDs and really support his impressive work. Many people found the video from mainly a YouTube channel (Hurtwood Media) and other sources such as social media etc. People have also searched it which is positive as it shows an active initiated following of the artist - they have seen the artists content and decided on their own terms to view the product which, in my eyes, is success and the ultimate aim. The suggested sights are also good as people get to view the product on the basis of what else they enjoy bringing them to the product. This increases the chances that they enjoy the product as Youtube do it in terms of what else they watch on the site, for example Fragments video would come up on suggested if someone had just been watching another similar DJ artist like DJ EZ.

Evaluation Task 3 - Focus Group

As you can see our focus group liked the campaign and gave us important, helpful feedback on different aspects. A focus group is a group of people assembled to participate in a discussion about a product before it is launched, or to provide feedback on a political campaign, television series, etc. This means we are able to engage with our intended target audience and see whether or not the campaign will be a success. In the long run, focus groups are essential as it is vital we know how the encoding of the product is decoded by intended audience members. 

ENCODING is the production of the message. It is a system of coded meanings, and in order to create that, the sender needs to understand how the world is comprehensible to the members of the audience.

DECODING is how an audience member is able to understand, and interpret the message.

Regarding the reception theory our target audience have granted the preferred reading of the product. This is because they have understood his specialities such as being a charity artists and producing music because of his 'passion', and 'not just for the money'. Moreover, things like the genre, they have understood, as they stated they would place in more in the EDM (electronic dance music) range which is what we were going for anyway. Therefore, us as the producers have created the whole campaign and music video with the target audience in mind as we understood how vital they are. Then when the audience received the overall product they understood the hinted messages and interpreted them correctly. However, occasionally I noticed in the video that the messages sent out weren't quite received in the intended light for example how Guy believed Fragment to be a synthetic artist due to the campaign being a lot about the look of him. Although, Saskia did pick him up on this and stated how he would probably be organic due to the way he loves performing the music and does this to inspire others. Perhaps this suggests something about the way in which different genders within our target audience decode the text; the girls seem to decode in a preferred manner rather then an oppositional. However, as evident from the focus group, all the feedback was mostly preferred decoding and if not negotiable decoding which means even if they didn't quite decode the text perfectly they still decoded the text in a way which works and is effective. At the end of the day, all the decoding was positive and ultimately drew the focus group in. That is always a good sign.

The 'Use & gratification' theory deals with the effect of people on the media. It describes a mass communication as it is an audience-centred approach and deals with how audience members use media to satisfy their needs. In association to our music video, the theory explains how our audience members would use our campaign as a way to make them happy and occupied due to its fast pace and exciting content. This means the audience are able to exercise control over their media. Through Fragments our music video the audience can integrate and build social attractions through their likes and enjoyment. It is also all about the excitement appeal and feeling on edge throughout. In brief, the theory suggests that media use is motivated by needs and goals that are defined by the audience members and participation in the development and production process may encourage exposure of the product which is the ultimate goal.

Evaluation Task 3- What have I learned from my audience feedback?

Any music video should be visually interesting and should appeal to the correct target audience, already planned for, within the music genre. One of the most important aspects of marketing and producing is figuring out who the target audience is; at the end of the day the whole point of music videos is to sell and attract an audience so that they will then invest money and enjoyment in your project. Therefore, our audience feed back has been extremely important to our group as, along the way, we needed to know how to develop our skills, ideas and plans in order to appeal to the audience we would like to appeal to (18-24 year olds).

To begin with we needed to pitch our group ideas, we had thought about and discussed, to Luke (creative director). He gave us helpful feedback in terms of what ideas we can and cannot do. When Callum told him about his interesting Poker idea he said it was a great idea however can only be done with a super high budget (not for a school media project). We did kind of predict that this would be the outcome but we thought it was worth the try. We then pitched him the rough version of our final product in terms of using colour, paint and a solo singer. Obviously this idea was green lit and manipulated hugely along the process- we ended up with dancers and a DJ. We did however use many aspects from the original pitch that we liked.  The pitch with Luke ultimately taught us to think about possibilities within our given facilities and to think about the aftermath of whatever we had planned. We also learned to push the motive of the video and think about why we would want to add everything we did. This helped us think about the target audience we wanted to focus on and how each performance element would help shape the attraction.



When we had discussed the group idea further we thought about asking our peers to give us feedback as these are the audience members we would be targeting our artists work at (they are 18 years old). Obviously this pitch is for our original song choice however we were able to apply it to further development of the music video which was helpful. They mentioned how they loved the idea and therefore we had to figure out how to keep elements of the first song within the 'Don't Stop' song choice even though the music was very different. We were worried that the electronic genre was too much of a niche audience type as we realise it is an acquired taste however ....



...we were able to gather more feed back from more of our peers and they said they loved the music and the way we used to editing to really highlight the aspects of the song (e.g. quick cutting style). It was so helpful gathering our friends feedback as we knew we had targeted the music video to the right audience, giving us confidence in the rest of the age groups enjoyment.

In conclusion, at each stage of the process we were able to gather important and beneficial pieces of audience feedback from our peers and creative directors. Looking back on them, I notice how we took hold of the information given and really tried to implement the ideas into our music video development: Luke suggested looking into different song types, include more themes and conventions to the idea and eliminate unrealistic ideas that cannot be done to a high standard. After these tips from Luke, some of our friends said how they really like the colour idea and how we should push on that and finally other friends considered their opinions on the product and gave us supportive and pleasant feedback in order to make things even better (including what they did enjoy). All in all, the feedback really helped us realise who our target audience were and how to appeal to them on an even larger scale.

Evaluation Task 2 - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The promotion of music is rarely all about the music. The music industry uses visual images as a key part of its marketing strategy.  This is historically true for the marketing of the pop music video. 

Keith Negus argues that the ‘pop music video is used as a promotional tool’. 

The star image is used to brand the product. Branding is then used by the music industry to create a range of products for audiences across a range of genres and musical styles (Classical to Rap to Heavy Metal). 

CD digipak covers are crucial artwork which markets the image of the artist, before the music is purchased. Music artist websites are a common part of any marketing strategy, particularly in the online age. CD digipaks are carefully constructed according to convention to communicate certain messages about the artist. Images may consist of album cover, artwork, photographs of the band artist, graphics and texts. 

All music websites are about promotion and information provided to the audience.  

They fall into three main categories:

• Promotion of single or album release
• Promotion of a tour or live appearance
• Merchandising - posters of an artists or band, sales of T-shirts etc.

Websites contain information which publicises and promotes the artist image and a range of information to an audience – or its fan base.  Often this is organised into what Boyd has termed co-option. 

The visual ‘star image’ according to Dyer, communicates important messages to the audience.  Audiences often associate the look of an artist to a style of music and it’s genre. Some audiences idolise bands and singers, and see them as sex symbols, fashion icons and celebrities.  Media marketing of the pop star image have become iconic and famous.  Iconic images have helped retain the popularity of existing and legendary artists.

Evalution Task 1 - Conclusion

Conventions are generally the accepted ways of doing something. Conventions can be used, supported, reiterated.  They can be challenged to deliberately broke to subvert conventions. In evaluation of the question set I feel that I have drawn on the conventions of media products in my own campaign.  The use of these conventions is evident in the construction of my own products, for example the way we have a DJ performing his song on decks with pretty lady dancers around him. This is supported by my own research onto other DJ artists music videos and even some pop artists of our generation.  At the same time I have sought to develop and been able to challenge conventions, for example, I have added a edgy side to the DJ as he is dressed in his own kind of style (dreads, hip jackets and trousers). As for the dancers, they were essentially dressed by painting colours on them which is challenging the normal conventions of having girls dressed in girly things such as mini skirts and tights. I feel I have achieved this to differentiate my product in a competitive music industry market and I have attempted to challenge audience expectations, bring something new to the media forms.  Media Conventions are ultimately relied upon for communicating the right message to the intended audience, but also deviate from these expectations helps sell the star image that I wanted to promote. Audiences produce meaning from the interaction of the conventional material in a text, and their understanding of conventions, for example, the would enjoy the dancing that takes place in the video and might thrive to be one.

Evalution Task 1- In what ways does your website use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real websites?

Our website for Fragment adheres to the conventions of any DJ artist that would also appeal to a younger, more hip audience democratic. We used a many large, effective images on our website so that it is not text heavy and simple to use by all audience members. We aimed to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible so that it was interesting to view, drawing the audience in and giving them a desire to read more about the artist.  Similarly to Zardonic's website, there is a lot of black and white images with the occasional blast of colour.  The objects, fonts and details to all the websites demonstrated above go adhere to the stereotype and conventions of DJ artists as demonstrated through the images of the artists performing to a large crowd. This is similar to the way we approached the design of the website as the other successful artists seem to draw their audiences in through this technique. We wanted to incorporate at least one detail that compliments the digipak and the music video, this being the incorporation of the patterns and shots of Jonty with the 'Blood for Mercy' jacket to complement the aesthetics of the DJ's website. All of the contact pages need to be easy to access and view so that the audience know exactly where and when the artist is performing.

Evaluation Task 1 - In what ways does my digipak use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real digipak's?

These CD front covers all follow the same kind of conventions as mine as they all have an aspect of strangeness in them. Ultimately the strange and unusual bit of the cover is what appeals to the audience and makes them buy the album. I like the way these covers seem to be ‘fragmented’ in some way or another and have an image of the artist on, whether it be distorted or normal. The ‘Unplugged’ album cover is different and has only decks on the front however it has the aspect or fragment that I like and the idea of sections that, as a whole, create one image. On the other hand, the majority of these covers do challenge conventions as they are not exactly ‘pretty’ and attractive images. In my opinion the more strange and unconventional the cover is, the more likely some one is going to be more inquisitive about it. My album cover is more unconventional then conventional due to the mystery about it has to it, drawing in the target audience and bringing something new and original to the industry.These CD front covers all follow the same kind of conventions as mine as they all have an aspect of strangeness in them. Ultimately the strange and unusual bit of the cover is what appeals to the audience and makes them buy the album. I like the way these covers seem to be ‘fragmented’ in some way or another and have an image of the artist on, whether it be distorted or normal. The ‘Unplugged’ album cover is different and has only decks on the front however it has the aspect or fragment that I like and the idea of sections that, as a whole, create one image. On the other hand, the majority of these covers do challenge conventions as they are not exactly ‘pretty’ and attractive images. In my opinion the more strange and unconventional the cover is, the more likely some one is going to be more inquisitive about it. My album cover is more unconventional then conventional due to the mystery about it has to it, drawing in the target audience and bringing something new and original to the industry.

Evaluation task 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Task 1 -Introduction

A convention is a way in which something is already done. In my music video, I followed the conventions of a stereotypical electronic kind of music video with the artificial strobed and coloured lights flashing constantly. It is not so much adhering to a pop video as we had less of the lip syncing and typical girly look but rather a more mature, funky style. For our website I wanted to portray more of a cool DJ personality to the public eye and the same goes for the digipak artwork, therefore working on designs that are aesthetically pleasing and that link in with the name 'Fragment'. An example of this is that the DJ's known signature is a separated, edgy, disconnected design which can be intertextual when audience members create prosumer activity. Moreover, the performance element in our video was all about Jonty on the decks with girl dancers performing around him which is adhering to a typical DJ, club themed kind of music video. In this task, I am going to compare my music video, digipak and website to other pop artists videos, albums and websites and see whether they adhere to the same conventions or subvert them.