Final Reflections

How does your A2 blog compare with your AS in terms of detail and use of ICT?

I have posted more than double the amount of entries I did on my AS media blog. I have included a lot more detail in regards to analysis and research. I have also used a wider range of ICT to present my research, analyses and planning in order to hopefully achieve a high grade. For example, I have presented my work using Prezi, PowToon, Emaze, Photobucket and Slideshare during my A2 studies. 

How effectively does the blog show all aspects of the research, planning and production of your Advanced Portfolio?

My A2 blog shows all aspects of research, planning and production in great detail through the use of video analyses, recce shots and shooting schedules/risk assessments. I also kept up to date with an extensive production diary which documents our entire journey towards the final music video. 

Where are the gaps in your blogging work?

There are little gaps in my work such as the lack of a complete shooting schedule and some of my posts aren't as in-depth as they could be. 

How many individual and group blogging entries did you produce?

 I have individually posted 111 blog posts that me and my classmates produced. 

What would you change, given another opportunity?

If I were given another opportunity, I would tidy up the shooting schedule. I would also write a bit more in-depth in some areas of my research. 

1. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Ellie devised a range of different methods for audience feedback, mostly aimed at our primary target audience, but also our secondary and tertiary audiences and people that aren't in any of the aforementioned social classes. Below are audience profiles for the three types of audience.

Below is a prezi designed to be the desk of a member of our primary audience. The playlist on their screen shows the sort of music that they would listen to: Charli XCX, Tonight Alive, CHVRCHES and Paramore. The post-it not shows that they are in a band and play guitar, as does the guitar plectrum. The sketchbook and pencils scattered around (plus the doodle) show that the audience member is arty. These people are the kind of group that we are specifically aiming for. 

Firstly, at the beginning of December, we got feedback from all other classes on the first draft of our music video. As it wasn't finished and needed a lot of tweaking, there were lots of things that people thought we could improve on. The most feedback we got was questioning the box that Zahra (our drummer) was playing. This was due to the school rules caused restrictions during filming. We explained afterwards that this was the only way we could think of to make up for the lack of real drums! A lot of feedback was also given on the colour of the video. The whole first draft was in black and white. A few people liked the black and white whereas some people wanted some colour. 

We took all of the feedback into consideration when editing it to make our final piece. We altered the colour so that all of the verses were in black and white and choruses in colour. We also inserted more individual shots of Zahra playing real drums to try and detract from the box in other shots. This seemed to work - less feedback was given about the colour and people rarely commented on the box. 

These are screenshots of the online survey (all audiences) Ellie created for people to take part in. It asks questions such as "What is your age?" as well as opinions on the music video. This is to see what our audience as a whole enjoyed or disliked about the video and whether they thought Alleyways as a band were relatable and current. This survey was not targeted at a specific audience such as our primary, secondary or tertiary audience but instead to anyone that watched the video to get general opinions. 

Ellie's mum very kindly posted the links to our music video and feedback survey on her facebook with a request that all of her friends answer the questions and Ellie's sister asked some of her friends to do the same. This is where the majority of our feedback came from which is good because it gave us a wider understanding and, more importantly, audience - different gnders and ages of people with different interests rather than just asking other classes in our year and friends to answer the survey which could have been biased.

We got over 25 responses and the feedback we got was mostly positive with the positives and negatives/constructive criticisms shown in padlets below. 

A lot of the positive feedback stated that we were fun and unique which is the image we were going for - different from everyone else and like we really wanted to make music. 

Everyone who completed the survey answered "Yes" to the question: "Do Alleyways appear to be a relevant/current/relatable band?" Most gave answers as to why. We learnt that people think we are realistic and current as our image is fun, unique and quirky. We have good chemistry as a band and gel well. We have an 'indie' aesthetic that is quite popular nowadays, as well as other points, seen below.

We have conducted a screening session for people to watch our music video and give feedback via a questionnaire which rates things from 1-5 such as costumes, performances, narrative etc. The general response was very positive with a lot of 4 and 5 star ratings. 

Above are some pictures of comes of the responses we got. From this we can deduce that our costumes were overall well received with lots of 4 stars and one response of 3 stars. Our locations got a similar response and got 5/5 all round for how well the video fit with the song. We had a very average/below average response to how easy the video was to follow, meaning that we could possibly have made it a bit clearer and easier to understand. overall, the video was very well received and we got lots of 5s and a 4.5.

Above is a video of some audience feedback that Ellie filmed with some members of our audience asking general questions above positives and negatives of the video. Again, the video seemed very well-received. We were told that everyone enjoyed the video and one person wouldn't even change anything if they got the chance to direct the video themselves!

Overall, feedback has been very positive for our music video. Things we could have improved on include changing the colour of some shots and replacing the box that Zahra (our drummer) played on with actual drums which was impossible due to circumstance.



2. How did you use new media technologies in the Construction and Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

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

After completing our final music video our focus was then driven towards making a Digipak to the best of our ability as well as one which accurately fits in with the style and motifs of our music video. We also aimed to create suitable advertisement for our newly formed band accompanied with an active social media presence. We accomplished this in several different ways such as the use of iconography, magazine articles and interviews among others.

The main goal of our marketing campaign throughout the run-up to the release of our music video was to utilize the closeness and intimacy shared the band shared as not only a group of musicians but as affectionate friends. I believed that we displayed this effectively throughout our digipak, website and music video as no individuals were left out or kept out of frame. A clear motif in our music video is the togetherness of the band - something everyone can relate to as we all share a deep connection with either friends or families. Our campaign replicates this extremely well. 

New artists usually apply iconography to their media campaigns in order to help hem stand out and be noticed by their target market. In this case our target audience was young adults between 16-21 who were interested in pop rock and alternative rock. By analysing and exploring other bands digipaks of this genre we came up with we came up with ideas that we could place in our own digipak and music video that will appeal to our designated audience. We chose to use silhouettes throughout digipak, marketing campaign and music video as it has been used extremely successfully previously to attract a selected audience as shown in The White Stripes' 'Under Great White Northern Lights' digipak. 

We also used silhouettes due to the fact that nobody in the band would be overshadowed in our band as no one can steal the limelight as we are all blank spaces. We are all equal. Straight away, the audience would understand how close together and intimate the band is which relates back to the main goal of our marketing campaign. We want to be a personal band. Evidence of this can be seen in our digipak, shots in our final music video and photos featured on our bands' official website. 

Screenshots from 'Fast In My Car'

Screenshots from alleywaysband.wix.com/wearealleyways

Synergy:

Font and Logo:

As shown in the Screencast above, we have successfully used our logo which is he self-titled 'Alleyways' across all of our ancillary texts. This font also successfully links our website and digipak as well as our final music video. We did this to create a sense of familiarity which is shown throughout our marketing campaign. The motif of a large white font allows our audience to instantly recognize our logo as well as the fact we use our own band name as an emblem which means that more individuals can recognize us and get acquainted with our name. 

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

After conducting research into electro-alternative artists and their brand identities, we compiled a list of conventions that we aimed to retain during the construction of our music video and ancillary texts. We recognised the conventions by analysing real media products from artists such as The 1975, PVRIS, CHVRCHES and Charli XCX. These influences helped us construct our own music video, website and digipak. We also disputed some conventions such as the sexualisation of women (Charli XCX) in contemporary music videos and a blend of colour scheme (black and white and full colour).

I have used YouTube and Photobucket to present the music video and ancillary texts.

Music Video

Genre conventions:
The 1975 and PVRIS both market themselves with a black and white band image - they are both rarely ever seen in full colour. CHVRCHES are seen in silhouette during their 'Lies' music video and Charli XCX oozes a fashionable nature in her videos. We were inspired by all of these elements and tried to incorporate them into our own image and video. However, we twisted our band image by marketing ourselves in black and white but then subverting to full colour during the chorus sequences of our first music video to reflect the energetic and bright nature of the music. We like the idea of Alleyways presenting themselves with a dark visual aesthetic that juxtaposes the upbeat genre of music. This idea is similar to the concept for The 1975's 'Girls' video. The band were criticised with conforming to a major label for their prior video as it was in full colour which contrasts their slick black and white image. In response, The 1975 released their 'Girls' video in bright colour. We did the same except instead of making a statement, we reverted into full colour to surprise the fans. 

Style of Music Video:

After all listening to 'Fast In My Car', we agreed that we wanted to create a fun, energetic music video that fit the song's tempo and title. The song is very modern and so we all said that we would emit a 'trendy' style in our choice of dress. This style also corresponds with the current interests of our target audience and fits the stylish conventions of several examples of artists' of the electro-alternative genre. In our music video, we kept to a strict 'trendy' dress code and incorporated fairy lights into some some selected performance shots to conform to the electronic genre's classic sensibilities. 

We also created a steal-o-matic of our music video influences and certain shots that inspired us in videos of the alternative genre.

Music Video Narrative:
Music videos are conventionally edited between performance and narrative sequences. However, after investigating videos of the electro-alternative genre, we found out that the artists tend to perform throughout the music video - even during the narrative sections. We decided to mix this up a bit and feature narrative shots that included performance and others that did not.

Top left: PVRIS - 'My House', Top right: The 1975 - 'Girls'
Bottom right: CHVRCHES - 'The Mother We Share, Bottom right: Charli XCX - 'Breaking Up'

The above examples all include performance during their video however CHVRCHES' performance is intercut with narrative shots instead. We combined both of these elements together in our video so that we have performance during some narrative shots and shots of us performing in the drama studio spliced with the narrative.

Above: Performance
Below: Narrative

Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory (Dancing in the Distraction Factory, 1992)

Goodwin stated that there are five key characteristics of a modern music video in his 1992 study. We supported some of these conventions and challenged others.



Digipak

We analysed the conventions of digipaks in the alternative genre and applied some of them to our own Alleyways product. We also challenged some conventions such as displaying the artist on front of their EP/album cover. We aimed to stay mysterious and cause intrigue which would hopefully gain positive attention.

We were inspired by album covers that featured a simple image on the front. We felt that it would be more appropriate to display a photograph of the band on the front cover of a debut album rather than an EP. We managed to retain our brand image through the repetition of the font and colours used. The front cover of the digipak also relates to the 'Fast In My Car' music video through the fairy lights imagery and backdrop.

Website

Branding, Interactivity and Purchasing Opportunities

After more research, we found out that the three most important elements of an artist website are purchasing opportunities, interactive capabilities and consistent branding. Therefore, I have compared Charli XCX's official website with our own to see who's is more equipped in the aforementioned three fields. 

Interactivity:

- Charli XCX's site provides the viewer with a flashy 'enter' button positioned on a lollipop that cracks when clicked and directs them to the home page. When the lollies are hovered over by the mouse, they bump about in response. The site displays social media links throughout and allows fans to view all of Charli's music videos to date. A 'Sign Up' page allows the fans to keep up to date through regular e-mails.

- Our site gives the opportunity for the viewer to stream the debut single for free on the home page via a music player. Social media links are provided throughout. Our site has a merch store on its own domain as opposed to Charli's site. A 'Bio' page is supplied too to give the site a personal touch - something that Charli's also does not have. Video content has not only music videos but teaser trailers too to keep fans up to date. There is also the opportunity to sign up to the official monthly mailing list.

Purchasing Capabilities: 

- Charli's site links viewers to purchase her discography through iTunes, Amazon and Spotify links found on her 'Music' page. Her 'Live' page lists all upcoming tour dates of hers and their respective ticket links. However, her 'Store' link, found on the home page and header, redirects the viewer to an external site which lets her image down slightly.

- Alleyways' site supplies the viewer with iTunes links to pre-order the debut EP. It also provides GigsandTours, Ticketmaster and SeeTickets links to buy tickets to all upcoming tour dates. The 'Store' page allows fans to internally purchase official merchandise and in some cases even customise the colour of the chosen item. We felt that by establishing our merchandise store through the official site gave the situation a more personal touch.

Brand Consistency:

- Charli's site follows a strict pink colour scheme which relates to her latest studio album's design and its campaign. The repetition of lollipops further establishes this. These two elements also appeal to her target audience's interests. The use of overwhelming colour is featured in Charli's music videos too.

- Our site maintains a black and white colour scheme which is synchronous to the digipak and music video. There is synergy between all Alleyways media products aesthetically thanks to the colour scheme and choice of font used.

In summary, we used, developed and challenged the conventions of alternative music videos, websites and digipaks whilst also building our own brand image that fits the genre's target audience. We used and developed the traditional ideals of alternative music videos but also challenged them through changing colour scheme. We dismissed the idea that the artist should be displayed on the front cover of their album/EP and used the conventions of an alternative website in order to make it seem as legitimate as possible.