Current Audience Feedback

Currently, the overall audience feedback that I have received is in support for the black and white footage and also both having narrative and singing, so this has worked out well and I am now going to start my FINAL CUT, which I will continue with over Christmas.

 

This is another piece of feedback that I have received:

 

The task of gathering audience feedback together has been extremely beneficial for me in terms of helping me decide on what to do for final piece.

Audience Response to Email

The email that I have shown in my previous blog post didn't achieve everything that I wanted it to as the third link of the narrative and singing together didn't work. I have uploaded the video to vimeo again and sent out another email to the same audience - hopefully this one will work!

I have however received some feedback already on the first two links that worked:

So, above is the feedback that I have already received from some of my target audience about the first two links in the email that worked; the black and white and colour comparisons and the narrative rough cut. Overall, each person so far has gone for the black and white version rather that the colour, which I thought would be the overall consensus. Although the narrative and singing rough cut didn't work, my first screenshot which has feedback in, talks about how much they like the narrative and the continuous storyline. They also said how they linked certain parts of the scenes and also the graininess effect on the footage, which is very good. I am also pleased that I gave me some constructive criticism as it gives me something to work with. 

This was the email that I sent out again with the new link on. I added the link in once it had uploaded:

Black/White and Colour Comparsion

I have used a clip from my footage of Stephanie and I have created a black and white and a colour version for my audience to compare between the two and decide which one they prefer, allowing me to engage with audience feedback, which will influence my final decision.

This is what I have produced:
Comparison

I will now send this to my audience along with the narrative version of my video and then the narrative and singing parts verison to allow them to decide which one they prefer, also influencing my decision. I have posted these in previous blog posts and they are on my vimeo account.

Since AS, I can see a massive improvement in terms of my research and planning skills as I have produced a range of different rough cuts for my music video and I didn't do this for my AS James Bond Piece, I only created 1 rough cut which I then improved for my final piece. This shows a clear improvement as my vimeo account is much more full and the video number has rised considerably. This shows that I have been able to adapt my skills to show more examples of my work and show comparisons of my work.

Here is the email that I sent out to 17 people in my target audience:

Narrative with Singing Parts Added

I have now completed my full rough cut of my music video and added in the singing parts between the narrative which is going on. I haven't completely stuck with the storyboard, as it is hard to stick with a rough guide throughout; however I have stuck to it as much as I could. 

I have cut some bits out that I had in my storyboard as it felt like the narrative was 'dragging' on for too long in places, such as after the bus stop scene where I show the singer, I was then going to show Stephanie just about to get on the bus and I think that would have just been too much and unengaged the audience. I think this way, by having a less continuous narrative, although it is clear what the storyline is, it engages the audience as they're keen to see what is happening next. 

I have tried to edit to the beat and lyrics as much as possible and I did include 3 clips that lasted two seconds long to act like a flash back; however that really didn't work as well as I thought. It was far too fast and jumpy, so I just made the clip where Stephanie is running down the street slightly longer to fill in a 6 second gap before the chorus kicks in, which works much better - the simpler the better!

I also added in a separate bit of filming where I have filmed Stephanie's phone ringing as part of a cutaway and I have included this where the lyrics say "I want to help you if you'll let me in", which is extremely ironic as at the end of the video, Stephanie's mum shuts her out. This again acts as an enigma code for the audience as they want to know what happens next, but aren't sure whether Stephanie knocks on the door or runs away again for good.  

I am now going to gather together some audience feedback to see whether they prefer just the narrative music video, or the narrative and the singing parts together as the music video. This will help me decide which rough cut to work on further and use as my final piece.

Full Rough Cut

Narrative Footage

I have finally found out that I can change each clip into black and white all at the same time; before I was changing each individual clip by itself, so that's saved me so much time!

During the scene where I have Stephanie in the street, showing her mum looking out of the window also, I had to change the settings as it was a lot darker than the footage that I shot in the day, so I needed to match them up to make sure that I had no issues with continuity. 

As you can see, I have changed the settings on a number of different shots to ensure that there is no continuity issues.

There is also a piece of footage during the scene where Stephanie is packing to leave home and she hasn't packed the scarf in the bag yet and I can't use that as she has already packed the scarf in a previous piece of footage that I've used before; however that was a different take, so I can't use that due to continuity also. 

Also, during the middle of the song, I have slowed down part of the footage, which you will notice and I think this works well as it allows the audience to emphasise with the lonely, helpless teenager and at the same time, the lyrics are emphasised too, ensuring that the meaning of the song is being portrayed properly to the audience.

My plan now is to add in the singing parts in between the narrative to show a full rough cut and then I will see what the audience prefer - either just narrative or both - then I need to gather audience feedback on the black and white or the colour clips to see which they prefer.

I have produced this to show how my narrative is now continuous, unlike my rough cut during the summer and also show it fits in well with Todorov's theory of how it shows the three stages and then starts to link in with Barthes' theory as it leaves the audience with an enigma at the end:

Rough Cut of Narrative Scenes

Woods Scene Rough Edit

As I mentioned in a previous post, the lighting was extremely dark whilst filming the woods scene, so as a result, I would have to make some changes during post-production, which I have done. Below, I have changed the video settings to make the brightness higher and I have also changed the exposure and the contrast to make the image brighter:

This didn't work out very well at all, as you can see from the screenshot above and I was not happy with the quality that it has produced as a result of changing a few settings.

This was the original before I changed the settings and there isn't much different at all:

After trying this, I thought it would use this piece as my audience feedback, so that I could show them this one and then another rough cut of the Durham scene to see which they prefered, so I changed this scene to black and white and I think this works extremely well. It adds to the tone of the song and the meaning of it and I have also edited the rough version so that it is jumpy to give the tone of a eerie effect as Stephanie sits in the woods.

Whilst we carried on filming, it got darker and darker so once we got inside the woods, it was nearly pitch black, so I have changed the settings even further on the clips where we got into the woods:

The above screenshot is what the image was like after I adjusted the settings and the below screenshot shows what it was like originally; as you can see, there is a huge difference.

As I used a different setting for the lighter parts when Stephaine was just walking into the woods, I tried it out on the darker parts and it was far too dark, proving that the settings needed to be adjusted further, which I have shown evidence of above and this is how dark it was:

When I just used black and white, before changing the exposure etc, that didn't work either as that was also too dark, so needed extra adjustments to look just right.

Here is my finished rough cut; take a look and see what you think:

Woods - Rough Edit

The editing is jumpy on purpose here to give off the effect of a lonely, cold and isolated young girl who is caught up in their own thoughts, unsure on how to act upon them and this is also reflected through the use of the black and white effect which allows the audience to realise her pain and they begin to empathise with her towards the end of the video.

Retrospective Post

So, I have now started the filming and editing process as you can see from my previous blog entries and my skills have developed a lot in the last couple of months.

 

In terms of having to re-shoot my music video, I found it challenging; however the process was a lot easier than my AS process, as I had never been told to re-shoot before, which was huge challenge, however the organisational skills that I picked up during my AS project have helped me massively during A2. As I had to use a lot of organisational skills during my AS project as I needed to organise the location, the dates and also when my actors were free, I was able to apply the same ideas into my A2 music video, however I knew how to plan out the dates, times and locations from my previous experiences. As I had the same problem during my AS piece in terms of the acresses changing, I had to have a back up plan ready during AS incase the problem occured where the actress couldn't make it and this did happen, which worked out ok as I had already planned the senario; however during my A2 piece, I found it very difficult in terms of trying to think of another actress to use when my original actress dropped out, but when everything came together it seemed to flow well. This experience will benefit me in the past however, as I will know to solve the problem if it happens again.

 

Since my AS piece, I learnt that I would have to use a high quality camera as a result of the low quality sound; however now that I have used a higher quality camera, another problem has occured - light. I was shooting in extremely low light and there seems to be a 'grainy' effect on each film as the camera must have found it hard to pick up the detail in poor lighting. After many problems with the sound in my previous project, it is going to be much easier to sort out out the lighting problems as I will hopefully be changing the picture to black and white, depending on my audience feedback. We did combat some of the light problems as I wasn't able to film Stephanie walking home as I couldn't pick up her figure at all; however we used my Mum's car headlights to shine onto the street as she was returning home and this enabled the camera to pick up her figure which was great and very last minute thinking; however worked well and didn't look too artificial, but more like a street light. Although there was a few problems with getting my shadow in the shot, I managed to work around that by changing my position of where I was stood.

 

I feel like my editing has improved dramatically since having a lot experience from my AS project. Also during filming, I feel like I have been editing whilst filming as I am picturing how it will all fit together during post-production. I have been able to shoot a lot better quality angles and range my shots in terms of getting LS's, CU's etc. My filming seems to be a lot more 'professional' since I have gained a lot of experience through my rough cut during the summer (which helped A LOT!), my preliminary shooting tasks such as the different shots task and the continuity project etc and most of all my AS final piece which took a lot of effort in terms of editing as I had so many different scenes and characters to switch between.

 

Although I carried out audience research during my AS project, I have carried out a lot more during A2 in terms of creating surveys, asking a range of different people to watch my rough edits and give me feedback, asking their opinions on my CD cover etc, which has been extremely beneficial for me as it has given me some guidance in terms of the direction that I will take next. In terms of artist research, I have been able to carry out a lot more extensive research during this AS project as there has been more scope to look at different artists. I did carry out a lot of research and analysis during my AS piece and this did take me a very long time; however I have done exactly the same for my music videos in A2, just a lot more detailed. I ensured that I had broken down each key aspect of my artists music video and CD cover to make sure that my final project linked in directly with my research and I think this is going well do far, in terms of the way my CD mock-up's have worked out and also my music video.

 

The research that I have conduced for this project has been extremely indepth and beneficial in terms of helping me produce my final product. I have enjoyed deconstructing each piece of work from different artists and comparing them along the way to give me specific links between my research and my final product.

 

As a result, I have managed to produce a lot in the last 3 months as I was slightly stumped when I was asked to reshoot my narrative parts of my video to have more of a continuous flow to it. When I was asked to this, I came up with some ideas; however I was totally unsure on how and what I would do. When I chose my actress, the plan started coming together and I created storyboards, storyboards with lyrics and an animatic storyboard to make sure that I fully understood the route and plan that I was taking. When my actress changed this wasn't too bad as I was able to arrange new dates with Stephanie and plan  out what I would shoot and what dates and this has gone very smoothly and I am pleased with the footage that I have taken. If I am comparing my progress now to 3 months ago, I would say that there has been a dramatic change for the better, as I have been able to put my research into practise to produce my final idea, resulting in shooting my finished product. I couldn't imagine 3 months ago thinking that i'd be at the stage where I can start editing now, so that is extremely positive and my planning and research has paid off so far.

 

I have changed my narrative parts to fit in a lot more with Todorov's theory, as it is now a lot more continuous and shows a clearer 3 stage step, i.e disequllibrium (argument and running away), equillibruim (before the argument) and then the new equillibrium fits into Barthes' theory of the enigma code as the audience are left to decide what happens next after the curtains are shoot on Stephanie - does the new equillibrium happen by Stephanie knocking on the door and making up with her parents, or does the disequillibrium continue by her running back away? YOU DECIDE!

 

In terms of the genre, the narrative allows the genre to become clearer to the audience in terms of the way the song is structured and the meaning behind the song, which is that a teenager is going through a rough patch; however they need to learn to 'reach out and not to be scared' to ensure that they receive help from those who are around them. I have made the choice to use the specific locations that I have because I think that the woods symbolise loniless and a sense of someone trying to escape but they don't know how to (much like Stephanie wondering whether to return home or not), also I chose to use the busy city to symbolise that Stephanie was alone although there was a large crowd of people around her, yet none of those people could make her situation any better. I'm not sure that the audience would expect the ending, as I think they would be hoping for a new equillibrium like Todorov suggested, however the ending links more with Barthes' theory, as they're left with an unexpected enigma, which I don't think they wanted. I think what they would've wanted is for Stephanie and her parents to make up and life happily ever after; like audience's want to happen to make them feel better within themselves.

 

Overall, I think that I have made a lot of progress since my research to where I am now and I am very pleased with the way things are going. The next step now is to start my editing properly and see how that goes - I will keep you posted.