Evaluation Question 2

I created a Prezi using Jake's Prezi account to answer the 2nd evaluation question, How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts. The prezi explores how the website and the digipak have both been designed to complement the themes that we had created in our music video which is our main product.

Evaluation Question 4

Following Audience Feedback

After having received audience feedback for both my website and digipak designs. I have decided to change some design features in order to make the designs more realistic and original.

Digipak:
I changed the design of my digipak by adding a spine to the side of it. The spine has the words, 'Oh wonder' and 'drive' on it. In order to differentiate the words, I have edited the word 'drive' to be in dark grey and 'oh wonder' to be in black. I have decided to add black borders around the edges of the digipak in order to project the photographs in each box. On the panel where the CD will be placed, I have added a type of water mark that is revealed when the CD is removed. It is circular to enhance and complement the shape of the CD. The watermark itself is a rough shape of the world, with the words 'eco friendly' in a friendly font with a love heart. This design complements the nature of the band and also adds to the environmental theme that I want when portraying the band. The last additions I made were on the back cover. I decided to add a thanks message from the band. This is because this CD is their debut album and so would logically apply that they'd like to thank the people closest to them. I also added the icon of their record label next to the barcode.
Here is a photograph of the old version of the digipak against two photographs of the new version.

Wesbite:
I decided to change my website in numerous ways. The homepage has not changed because I believe that this page is particularly effective. I believe that the other pages were too dark. In order to make them lighter I decided to change the background to a photograph that complements the background image on the front page. I've also added some of these photographs onto the gallery page to become featured photographs of an 'Oh Wonder' photoshoot. On the original website design I included white borders around the information on each page. In the new one, I have decided to delete these borders because I felt as though the information was too restrained. The titles on each page have now been highlighted in black to make them stand out. I have also changed the titles at the top of the page. They were originally all in capital letters but I felt as though that was too harsh on the eye, therefore, they are now in lower case letters and highlighted black in a white font. I have attached some photographs of the original website against the new website.

Original Website:

New Website: follow this link >  New Oh Wonder Website

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

To answer this evaluation question I decided to conduct a survey using google forms in order to be able to share the questionnaire, gain feedback and publish the results using a visually pleasing and understandable method. 
My survey that I created had a link to our music video from YouTube and then a following 15 questions that were to be answered. The questions I decided to ask were mostly based on the video and the audiences thoughts on it. I decided to ask for the age and gender of each recipient because I believe that I would find a correlation in responses, age and gender. For example, I would expect more teenage girls to view the video as more of a love story, and for the boys to respond to the video with a less emotive understanding. After having only gained 11 responses, 45% of which being from 18-20 year olds, I decided to create a video of an interview I conducted with my mum who had not yet completed the survey online. This way, I can see her personal reaction to it and ask her the same questions that are on my survey. The video will be seen at the bottom of this blog post. 

I believe that the survey was successful. It gave me a good outlook on what was successful about our video and also some constructive criticism. Here is a link to the survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FTH0bhJN36notvEqMlHRkre6KhhGuZVPIbqfbABFgVs/edit?usp=drive_web

I made it possible for respondents to see the responses of other viewers too. After having gathered the responses, I have published the feedback below:

This feedback has given me a good insight into the best audience members for our video. I have learned that the music we had chosen suits most people because it is easy going and nice to listen to. I decided to ask the respondents their favourite type of music to compare how they felt about our video in comparison to the music videos typically produced by certain music genres.

I learned that the locations we decided to shoot at was visually pleasing to the eye and therefore made the video more interesting to watch. After showing our music video draft to the other media group a few weeks ago, there was some confusion about the ring and where it came from at the end of the video. We decided to add in a shot where the boy gives the girl the ring. 

However, I can see that this was not easily understandable with some other audience members. After showing the video to my mum, (the video below) she told me that she thought the ring could've been the boys grandmothers and at the end of the video, the female character decides to give the ring back to the grandmother because she felt like their relationship didn't deserve the heirloom. Although there was confusion about the end shot and who the ring belonged to, I think our video successfully portrays the ups and downs that the couple have in their relationship which is a triumph for us because at the beginning of this process, we imagined the portrayal of their rocky relationship to be the hardest part.

Evaluation Question 1

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

In order to answer this evaluation question I decided to create a short video using iMovie to produce examples of how we managed to use, develop and challenge forms of real music videos. I focused on the video to 'Lose It' by Oh Wonder as an example of a 'real media product' as a comparison to our music video to show how we developed our video by shooting in several locations, whereas 'Lose It' is shot in the same location for the whole duration of the song. This is only a loose comparison because many other artists do also shoot in more than one locations for their music videos, however because this video was to an Oh Wonder song, I felt it appropriate to make the comparison.

In order to create the video above, I decided to draw a mind map to easily gage my ideas on paper. Therefore making it easier to create the video because I just had to convert each way I had used, developed and challenged each convention onto the video. 
The blue writing shows examples of how I developed conventions.
The red writing shows examples of how I challenged conventions.
The green writing shows examples of how I used conventions.

First Website

I used wix.com to create my website design. I wanted to keep the website colourful, interesting and useful for potential audience members. We have distinguished that audience members for this music video are middle to older teenagers, and after having conducted some audience feedback surveys, I have noticed that girls seems to be more interested in this type of video than boys do, though, the music is of a more neutral gender preference.

My website includes navigation tabs for:
-Home
-The Band
-Listen + Watch
-Tour Dates
-Gallery

Homepage
The homepage consists of the band title that is incorporated around the background. I have chosen an photograph that I took on a Canon DSLR camera of a girl jumping in the air. The backdrop is a simple landscape of the sea which is a common theme within our music video and so nicely ties together. The question asked is who the legs belong to that is in the photograph. Is it the girl character in the music video? Or another person entirely different? The shoes worn by the girl add to the quirky and indie type of music that Oh Wonder produce. They are floral and so stand out amongst the background. I like the constructive features of the background how the wall at the bottom of the page is parallel to the horizon of the sea, and also how the land in the distance is also in line with the wall. The white box almost acts like a frame around the most prominent features of the photograph on the homepage. I have chosen to use a dark turquoise as the colour of 'Oh Wonder' because it compliments the other colours used in the photograph. It also compliments the colour of the jeans and ties in nicely with the rest of the composition. The tabs at the top of the homepage are also turquoise. I decided that depending on the page that the browser is currently on, that tab will turn white. For example, if someone clicked on 'Gallery' the word gallery will turn white, while the other tabs are left turquoise. There are four buttons in the top right of the homepage that are hyperlinked to the band social media sites including YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Soundcloud. I also chose the images used on these tabs to not be the general site icon, but instead to add to the 'alternative' and indie theme that the band carries, I decided to make the icons look as though they are hand drawn and 'doodled'.
Lastly, there is a button on the homepage that says 'Listen to our music'. If you were to click on this link, it will take you to the 'Watch + Listen' page on the website. I chose to add this button because the best way to get to know a band is to listen to their music.

The Band

The Band page consists of a short paragraph about the real band Oh Wonder. I have chosen to add images of the two characters in the music that we created.  They will be familiar images to audience members who have watched our 'Drive' music video. The background of this page consists of a close up 'gif' of a record player that is moving. This ties in with the musical theme of the website.

      :top of page

:bottom of page

Listen + Watch

The Listen and Watch page consists of three music videos. One is the music video that we created for our coursework. The other two are music videos that the band have created and that are featured on their YouTube channel. Therefore, when you click on the music video to watch you, you can be redirected to the band's music video where you are then able to watch their other videos. The two videos I decided to feature are 'Lose It' and 'Without You' which are the two most recent music videos that the band have created. I have edited the image of the videos to stretch across the scene so that the width is larger in comparison to the length. I have separated each video with a white blocked line that carries out the theme of the white lined frame on the homepage. The same background is featured as on 'The Band' page of a record player.

     :top of page

:bottom of page

Tour Dates:

This page is simply to provided information of tour dates and next to the dates is a box that can redirect the customer to buy some tickets. This page would be how I would want this to look, however, baring in mind this is not the official website, I have provided fake dates and locations and have not hyperlinked the boxes that allow customers to buy tickets.

I have again used white as the font which highlights the dates. I have also featured the white box that is featured on the homepage to provide an ongoing theme throughout. I have animated the lines between each dates to appear after the user has clicked on the page. I have also provided an image of the front cover of my digipak that I created in order to give the potential customer a further understanding of the band. The background of the record player gif remains the same.

Gallery

The Gallery is my favourite page because it provides a clear understanding of who the band is. The images I have decided to add to the gallery page are familiar images of locations used in the 'Drive' music video that we created and some other photographs that we decided to take during one of our lessons specifically to feature on this page. Having taken over 50 photographs, I decided to feature only 2. These photographs include the one of the feet and the daffodil in the centre of the composition and the photography of the two figures, the boy facing with his back to the camera and the girl facing to the side. There are also some landscape images shown of sunsets and one that is featured on my digipak. The background of this page is of an acoustic guitar being played, a piano, a violin and a cello. 

      :top of page

:middle of page

:bottom of page

Music Video

Our final music video:
Drive- Oh Wonder