Here is the final video:
Here is the final digipak design (click to enlarge):
https://harrietegoodall.wixsite.com/mysite-5
https://ellismonk5.wixsite.com/evaluationquestion1
Here is a video answering task 2:
1. Conceptual phase
I presented my 3 ideas to the class with the projection of my blog on the screen (because that's where I'd written them - the pictures below are an example of what I presented) so they could see the pictures and how my ideas would fit together. I took feedback from the group by filming it so I could watch it back later, so my notes were unbiased.
Here was the feedback that was given:
The class gave useful feedback on how these ideas could be developed. A few people agreed on the suggestion to add another location to idea 2 to make it more interesting, or another strand to idea 1 so that . This was really helpful in the next stage of development because we could think of how to tie in the elements together and add bits we hadn't thought of. The feedback on idea 3 helped narrow down our options because someone said that it could come across as 'naff' and would require a 'bigger budget to pull off', which we didn't have.
After everyone in the class had presented, we were put into our groups and had to narrow down 9 ideas into 2. The feedback was really useful in the decision because we knew which ideas people liked/didn't like, and also which ones could actually work with the little budget we had.
We ended up choosing 2 of my ideas (1 and 2) because the feedback was good and they had a positive reaction, meaning we thought we could achieve a good product at the end.
2. Getting a greenlight - pitch to Luke
We pitched our 2 treatments to Luke using a laptop with the presentations on. This was really helpful because we could get an opinion from someone who knew a lot about making music videos (and has made many in the past) so he could tell us if the ideas would work or not.
Here's the feedback we got:
He pointed out the flaws in our ideas and gave us ideas on how we needed to improve them. It was really good to have an unbiased opinion on if it was possible to do or not. For the bowling alley idea, he thought that it would be too difficult to do a narrative because we might not be able to get access to behind the counter, especially if it was a busy day which could lead to continuity issues. To get around this, we thought about doing a stylised version in the studio, but realised that it would require at least 20 different scenes to actually make it last because you burn through shots quickly.
Luke thought that the second idea would work better because it could be achieved in the studio, however, the narrative was an issue as it'd be hard to film and could come across as 'naff' again. Even with the narrative not fully formed, we went with this concept for the song 'Siren Calls' because this feedback helped us to pick apart the ideas and see which would work better.
3. Feedback from Phil and Luke
Phil gave us some very useful feedback about the star image of the band and how they'll come across in the video. He felt that the star image we actually wanted the band to have didn't fit with the video's narrative, and that depending on the narrative element, they could appear to be either fun or serious, which we needed to decide on because it meant we'd need to develop that element more and cast people who could act.
After re-pitching our idea to Luke and Phil, they helped up to develop our idea for the narrative and weigh up the pros and cons of each idea, and whether they're achievable or not. At this point, we were leaning towards a more comical video.
4. Prototype stage
This is the prototype video we made for the idea so far:
We shot it in the studio on Phil's Black Magic camera so it would be as close to the real thing as possible.
We showed the class our video on the projector and recorded the feedback on video so we could listen back to it after so we didn't miss anything, and so that our notes weren't biased
The prototype was a really useful way of finding out how the product would look, and we tried to make it look as close to a final product as possible. We could see if our cast actually worked well as a band and if they were confident on camera (so we could fix this / re-cast if necessary).
Even though the narrative elements didn't have the real cast, people thought that it didn't fit with the song's genre. This was vital in the development of our video because we made a big change in the narrative after this by scrapping the police element. They also thought that there weren't enough cutaways, so we wanted to make it more interesting by adding more to the final video. People said that there wasn't enough shot variation, but in the real thing we'll have more time to get different shots, this was just an idea of how it'd look.
The fact that they liked the look of the band was useful because it meant that we didn't have to waste time re-casting.
5. Rough cut stage - focus group
Phil had told us before the focus group that he thought the skull looked a bit too heavy for the genre of our band, but we wanted to see what a focus group said to see if they agreed with Phil.
We showed all of our rough products to the focus group who were of a similar age to our target audience, starting with the digipack so we could ask them what they thought the genre of the band was. We used a facilitator to conduct our research for us and ask the questions I'd written. This was to avoid bias because we weren't there to 'defend' our products. We also used open questions but avoided using leading questions because we wanted the true opinions of the group, and we recorded their answers on a phone to look back at them later. We got them to navigate the website themselves so that they could get to grips with it and easily identify issues themselves, and we printed out the digipack in it's correct size so the group could get a feel as to what it'd actually look like.
It was overall very useful because the feedback let us refine our ideas and create synergy between them all so they all have the same themes.
These are the questions we asked the focus group:
1. What are your initial thoughts after seeing the digipack and website?
2. What genre do you think the band is?
3. What bands do you think are similar to the one in the video?
4. Do you think that the casting was right for the genre?
5. Do you think that the star image is similar across all of the products?
5. What do you think the narrative of the video is?
6. Would this video make you want to go out and buy the album?
7. Is there anything you think we can do to improve the products?
They said they thought that the colours were consistent (so I kept the theme the same) but they thought that the genre was more 'death metal' or heavy than what it actually is. This was mainly because of the skull which didn't quite fit with the other products, and a few of them suggested to make it more geometric or maybe put a TV on it. I took their advice and re-did the image on the front and inside-right. Instead of the skull I drew a TV with a geometric pattern inside it, which fits better with the band's star image.
This:
Became this:
It was brought to light that the album name could be interpreted as rude, so I changed that too to avoid any misinterpretation.
The website's overall look was liked by the focus group, but their feedback gave us the chance to make the transitions more smooth and make it look more sleek and less 'messy'. We also updated the logo so it fit with the album, and made the photo black and white and increased contrast to fit both the video and the digipak.
It went from this:
To this:
The video was already pretty much finished and wouldn't change that much, so we used the focus group to mainly make sure that the other two products fit with the look and feel of the video.
Summary:
All of this feedback was extremely useful in the development and production of our campaign. We tried to use as much of the feedback as possible in the shaping of our products, and found that it was helpful in making my promo more effective because it gave us a chance to make the products have better synergy concerning star image overall and look.
I presented my 3 ideas to the class with the projection of my blog on the screen (because that's where I'd written them - the pictures below are an example of what I presented) so they could see the pictures and how my ideas would fit together. I took feedback from the group by filming it so I could watch it back later, so my notes were unbiased.
Here was the feedback that was given:
The class gave useful feedback on how these ideas could be developed. A few people agreed on the suggestion to add another location to idea 2 to make it more interesting, or another strand to idea 1 so that . This was really helpful in the next stage of development because we could think of how to tie in the elements together and add bits we hadn't thought of. The feedback on idea 3 helped narrow down our options because someone said that it could come across as 'naff' and would require a 'bigger budget to pull off', which we didn't have.
 |
| Me presenting |
After everyone in the class had presented, we were put into our groups and had to narrow down 9 ideas into 2. The feedback was really useful in the decision because we knew which ideas people liked/didn't like, and also which ones could actually work with the little budget we had.
We ended up choosing 2 of my ideas (1 and 2) because the feedback was good and they had a positive reaction, meaning we thought we could achieve a good product at the end.
2. Getting a greenlight - pitch to Luke
We pitched our 2 treatments to Luke using a laptop with the presentations on. This was really helpful because we could get an opinion from someone who knew a lot about making music videos (and has made many in the past) so he could tell us if the ideas would work or not.
Here's the feedback we got:
He pointed out the flaws in our ideas and gave us ideas on how we needed to improve them. It was really good to have an unbiased opinion on if it was possible to do or not. For the bowling alley idea, he thought that it would be too difficult to do a narrative because we might not be able to get access to behind the counter, especially if it was a busy day which could lead to continuity issues. To get around this, we thought about doing a stylised version in the studio, but realised that it would require at least 20 different scenes to actually make it last because you burn through shots quickly.
Luke thought that the second idea would work better because it could be achieved in the studio, however, the narrative was an issue as it'd be hard to film and could come across as 'naff' again. Even with the narrative not fully formed, we went with this concept for the song 'Siren Calls' because this feedback helped us to pick apart the ideas and see which would work better.
3. Feedback from Phil and Luke
Phil gave us some very useful feedback about the star image of the band and how they'll come across in the video. He felt that the star image we actually wanted the band to have didn't fit with the video's narrative, and that depending on the narrative element, they could appear to be either fun or serious, which we needed to decide on because it meant we'd need to develop that element more and cast people who could act.
After re-pitching our idea to Luke and Phil, they helped up to develop our idea for the narrative and weigh up the pros and cons of each idea, and whether they're achievable or not. At this point, we were leaning towards a more comical video.
4. Prototype stage
This is the prototype video we made for the idea so far:
We shot it in the studio on Phil's Black Magic camera so it would be as close to the real thing as possible.
We showed the class our video on the projector and recorded the feedback on video so we could listen back to it after so we didn't miss anything, and so that our notes weren't biased
The prototype was a really useful way of finding out how the product would look, and we tried to make it look as close to a final product as possible. We could see if our cast actually worked well as a band and if they were confident on camera (so we could fix this / re-cast if necessary).
Even though the narrative elements didn't have the real cast, people thought that it didn't fit with the song's genre. This was vital in the development of our video because we made a big change in the narrative after this by scrapping the police element. They also thought that there weren't enough cutaways, so we wanted to make it more interesting by adding more to the final video. People said that there wasn't enough shot variation, but in the real thing we'll have more time to get different shots, this was just an idea of how it'd look.
The fact that they liked the look of the band was useful because it meant that we didn't have to waste time re-casting.
5. Rough cut stage - focus group
Phil had told us before the focus group that he thought the skull looked a bit too heavy for the genre of our band, but we wanted to see what a focus group said to see if they agreed with Phil.
We showed all of our rough products to the focus group who were of a similar age to our target audience, starting with the digipack so we could ask them what they thought the genre of the band was. We used a facilitator to conduct our research for us and ask the questions I'd written. This was to avoid bias because we weren't there to 'defend' our products. We also used open questions but avoided using leading questions because we wanted the true opinions of the group, and we recorded their answers on a phone to look back at them later. We got them to navigate the website themselves so that they could get to grips with it and easily identify issues themselves, and we printed out the digipack in it's correct size so the group could get a feel as to what it'd actually look like.
It was overall very useful because the feedback let us refine our ideas and create synergy between them all so they all have the same themes.
These are the questions we asked the focus group:
1. What are your initial thoughts after seeing the digipack and website?
2. What genre do you think the band is?
3. What bands do you think are similar to the one in the video?
4. Do you think that the casting was right for the genre?
5. Do you think that the star image is similar across all of the products?
5. What do you think the narrative of the video is?
6. Would this video make you want to go out and buy the album?
7. Is there anything you think we can do to improve the products?
They said they thought that the colours were consistent (so I kept the theme the same) but they thought that the genre was more 'death metal' or heavy than what it actually is. This was mainly because of the skull which didn't quite fit with the other products, and a few of them suggested to make it more geometric or maybe put a TV on it. I took their advice and re-did the image on the front and inside-right. Instead of the skull I drew a TV with a geometric pattern inside it, which fits better with the band's star image.
This:
Became this:
It was brought to light that the album name could be interpreted as rude, so I changed that too to avoid any misinterpretation.
The website's overall look was liked by the focus group, but their feedback gave us the chance to make the transitions more smooth and make it look more sleek and less 'messy'. We also updated the logo so it fit with the album, and made the photo black and white and increased contrast to fit both the video and the digipak.
It went from this:
To this:
The video was already pretty much finished and wouldn't change that much, so we used the focus group to mainly make sure that the other two products fit with the look and feel of the video.
Summary:
All of this feedback was extremely useful in the development and production of our campaign. We tried to use as much of the feedback as possible in the shaping of our products, and found that it was helpful in making my promo more effective because it gave us a chance to make the products have better synergy concerning star image overall and look.
To make the digipack I used a website called 'Canva' to put all of the images and text together.
After the focus group, I used their comments about the digipack to improve it and make sure it fit better with the genre and the other products. I decided to se a TV on the front cover instead of the skull because it fits better with the genre of our band, and less like 'death metal' or 'heavy rock'. The geometric style of the front cover fits better with the conventions of similar products, and with what the focus group suggested. The TV also fits with the other two products, making the campaign more cohesive.
I also took the skull off of the CD panel and put in the same geometric design on the front cover to keep the same theme running throughout the panels. I kept the photo panel and the back the same because they still fit with the other panels and the genre.
To make the TV I took inspiration from the ones in our music video and from some other ones online, and on Keynote I created my own design to go on the front cover.
After the focus group, I used their comments about the digipack to improve it and make sure it fit better with the genre and the other products. I decided to se a TV on the front cover instead of the skull because it fits better with the genre of our band, and less like 'death metal' or 'heavy rock'. The geometric style of the front cover fits better with the conventions of similar products, and with what the focus group suggested. The TV also fits with the other two products, making the campaign more cohesive.
I also took the skull off of the CD panel and put in the same geometric design on the front cover to keep the same theme running throughout the panels. I kept the photo panel and the back the same because they still fit with the other panels and the genre.
To make the TV I took inspiration from the ones in our music video and from some other ones online, and on Keynote I created my own design to go on the front cover.
Here's a screen recording of some of the changes that were made to the website just after the focus group:
We talked as a group and decided on what needs to be changed slightly as a result of the feedback.
Before doing the actual focus group, Phil and I went to show some of my designs to Matt (a rock fan). Matt liked the skull design and though that it did fit with the band's image, however, he didn't like the colourful red/blue logo (as did Phil), so I changed it to black and white before the actual focus group.
When talking to Phil (a non-rock fan) he thought that the skull may come across as too 'heavy metal', so we wanted to see what the actual focus group say before changing it.
There's a spectrum in the rock genre from indie/soft rock to heavy/hard rock, and each side has different iconographies. The indie/softer rock is more associated with romance and fun, whereas the other side of the spectrum is associated with death and violence. Our band is in the middle of the spectrum because they're not very light or very dark according to the video. If our digipack does come across as too dark, I may have to adjust it, because we need a cohesive campaign with a clear star image.
To prepare for the focus group I printed off 5 copies of the digipack in the right 140mm by 125mm size, and folded and stuck them to look like an actual album. I also wrote the questions that the group will be asked:
THE FOCUS GROUP
Digipack:
The focus group seemed to like the look of the digipack and thought that it was 'consistent' in style and colours, and that 'each page is relevant to the previous'. I think that I will keep the same colours and themes running through the digipack as someone said 'it looks like it could fit in a shop', so the style is quite professional.
Having looked at the digipack and website, the focus group thought that the video would be harder rock, so the other two products should be changed match the tone of the video. To do this, I will change the skull on the digipack, and the website will be changed slightly too.
Apart form this, they liked the casting and thought that the star image was consistent across the products. They thought that similar bands were Royal Blood and Nothing but Thieves, which is what we were aiming for .
When talking to Phil (a non-rock fan) he thought that the skull may come across as too 'heavy metal', so we wanted to see what the actual focus group say before changing it.
There's a spectrum in the rock genre from indie/soft rock to heavy/hard rock, and each side has different iconographies. The indie/softer rock is more associated with romance and fun, whereas the other side of the spectrum is associated with death and violence. Our band is in the middle of the spectrum because they're not very light or very dark according to the video. If our digipack does come across as too dark, I may have to adjust it, because we need a cohesive campaign with a clear star image.
To prepare for the focus group I printed off 5 copies of the digipack in the right 140mm by 125mm size, and folded and stuck them to look like an actual album. I also wrote the questions that the group will be asked:
- What are your initial thoughts after seeing the digipack and website?
- What genre do you think the band is?
- What bands do you think are similar to the one in the video?
- Do you think the casting was right for the genre?
- So you think the star image is similar across all of the products?
- What do you think the narrative of the video is?
- Would this video make you want to go out and buy the single or the album?
- Is there anything you think we can do to improve these products?
1.
Harriet prepared the website of what she'd done so far by sending the link to the focus group, and Phil sent the video to show the group.THE FOCUS GROUP
Digipack:
The focus group seemed to like the look of the digipack and thought that it was 'consistent' in style and colours, and that 'each page is relevant to the previous'. I think that I will keep the same colours and themes running through the digipack as someone said 'it looks like it could fit in a shop', so the style is quite professional.
They thought that the band's genre was definitely not pop. The majority thought it was 'alternative rock' but some thought it was leaning more towards 'heavy metal' because of the skull. Someone said that the 'skull kinds gives the impression that it's gonna be a bit more, like, death metal', and that it was 'a bit too much'. This had been brought to out attention before the focus group, so I will re-design the cover (probably keeping the same colour scheme) into something lighter, possibly the TV so it fits better with the video and website. Someone even suggested adding 'something like geometric shapes' to make it more 'busy' like the other two products.
Someone thought that the album name 'Ineffable' could be interpreted in a different, slightly ruder way, so I'll change that too to avoid it.
Someone thought that the album name 'Ineffable' could be interpreted in a different, slightly ruder way, so I'll change that too to avoid it.
Website:
The focus group liked website's overall look but 'didn't like the transitions between each of the home/video pages' so maybe the layout can be altered and the transitions made more smooth because of the 'issue with the way the pages are linked', however this should not be too difficult to change.
It is only a draft, and someone thought it was 'a bit messy' so we will tidy it up and make it look smoother and sleeker, however they 'like the scroll down' and generally like it apart from those few notes.
It is only a draft, and someone thought it was 'a bit messy' so we will tidy it up and make it look smoother and sleeker, however they 'like the scroll down' and generally like it apart from those few notes.
Video:
Apart form this, they liked the casting and thought that the star image was consistent across the products. They thought that similar bands were Royal Blood and Nothing but Thieves, which is what we were aiming for .
Having looked at album conventions for rock bands, I've had to change the front cover design a few times to make it fit better. here are some I've done so far (bearing in mind that not all of them are fully finished and that the band name changed):
This one didn't really look like an album cover so was scrapped.
This one was slightly better but I still didn't think it worked as an album cover.
This was the back of the album. The TV fits with the theme of the music video, but it looks a little too cartoon-ish for the band's star image.
This one is better as it showcases the band like a lot of rock album covers do, but the picture should have an effect on it to really fit the conventions.
This one didn't really look like an album cover so was scrapped.
This one was slightly better but I still didn't think it worked as an album cover.
This was the back of the album. The TV fits with the theme of the music video, but it looks a little too cartoon-ish for the band's star image.
This one is unfinished and I think it looks more like an album cover, however the image looks a bit cartoon-ish again so has been put to the side.
This one is better as it showcases the band like a lot of rock album covers do, but the picture should have an effect on it to really fit the conventions.
I really like this one because I think it fits the band's star image but could come across as a bit too heavy rock.
I found an image of a melting skull and used it as inspiration to draw it as a line drawing and changed the drips and the shape to how I wanted it to be. I removed all of the white background
I also found a photo of leather online and adjusted the brightness and contrast to make it the background.
After trying out some different album cover designs, we're thinking of using a photo as the front cover so I've looked at some similar artists who use photos in their album.
The photo is on a different panel on this one, but it it in black and white like the rest of the digipack, with high contrast an I think it fits really well.
This one is bright red and black but the band look cool. There's an effect on the photo to make it look rough and old.
This on is all black and white, and again the photo has an effect on it to make it look old and worn.
Similar to the other ones, this is a black and white photo with an old and worn effect.
The same goes for this one.
And this one.
There's clearly a running theme throughout these album covers in the fact that they're black and white photos with an effect to make them look old and worn.
We looked at videos of two focus groups and determined wether they went well or went badly.
- the respondents were reflective of the target audience
- the sample is big enough but not too big that they overpower
- the product maker manages the feedback well, and was including people that may not have come forward quickly or loudly
- he also listened to what they said rather than talking back at them
- the closed questions mean that there's not much detail in the answers, only yes or no
- the leading questions mean that the answers are biased and have a value of judgement
The point of a focus group is to have a fresh pair of eyes on the product and get an unbiased opinion to see if anything needs changing. It's also to get an idea of how the intended audience responds to the products.
It's worth testing our products at the rough cut stage because it gives us a chance to respond and alter anything if needed. We're also far enough in to be able to show them a full product, even though it's not fully finished.
To prepare for the focus group, we need to:
- print out at least 5 copies of our digipack (in colour) and fold/glue them
- send the focus group the link to the homepage (or get one of them to navigate it whilst the others watch)
- get the video on a USB
- write the questions
We want to find out:
- if it looks good
- if the narrative makes sense
- what genre they think it is
- do the products cohesively communicate the artist's image?
We don't want to:
- ask leading or closed questions
- talk over them
- argue
We'll record the session with either video or audio
