Evaluation

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




2. How Effective is the Combination of your main product and ancillary texts?






3. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

For our audience feedback we distributed questionnaires to people who we thought fell under our specific audience and asked them five questions; How informative would you rate The Gig Experience Documentary, How entertaining would you rate the Gig Experience, How would you rate the technical quality of its production, How eye catching would you say The Gig Experience Documentary is, and How well do you think we did at obeying conventions compared to professional documentaries. The audience feedback basically demonstrated how successful or unsuccessful our documentary was. However, we received almost 100% feedback with not negative comments. Which we took as a sign that our documentary has exceeded our expectations is looking professionally made.   

It was indicated by the high mark in our feedback that people believed that our documentary was informative in telling people about the leading ticket agents such as Ticketmaster. They also thought that the documentary was informative in the way that it informs the audience on what the performers think of when they perform to a live audience as well as the audience’s opinion on going to a live concert. They thought that our documentary and poster featured appropriate visuals such as someone going through the process of buying a ticket and a gig guide of the bands/artists playing at venues. A member of our specific audience stated that they thought "The documentary gives us information in fun ways such as voiceovers, and the appropriate visuals."


The fact that we had professionals involved with our documentary including Tyler Hilton (from One Tree Hill), Dion Roy and big names such as Alex Clare (known for the hit single Too Close) made the audience more interested in the documentary and amazed by the fact that so much effort went into the production of it. This also drastically enhanced the entertainment factor of the documentary because people actually know who we have featured in it instead of friends or local bands that not many people have heard of. The audience also thought that our radio trailer was effective in building up anticipation for the documentary as we used teaser snippets from the documentary and used the song Too Close by Alex Clare which was the song that they would be most familiar with.   

The audience we received feedback from rated the technical quality of our documentary's production highly and it was very positive in suggesting that if they had not have been previously informed they would have thought that the documentary was made by professionals and not by three college students. This suggested to use that they couldn’t fault our camera angles, mise en scene, the quality of the shots ect. This was very encouraging for us as we spend so much time – Over at least a hundred hours - in creating, editing and altering our documentary so it had a professional feel to it. From this we learned that we had accomplished what we were aiming for in the unit.  

Furthermore, we learnt that the majority of people thought our documentary and advertisement was very visually effective as it drew the attention of the audience towards it. When it came to the newspaper advertisement the audience said that the centralised subject of someone performing with a microphone enhanced the aspect of live music thus, gave a clear indication that the content of our documentary and the main topic of it was live music. They suggested that the tagline in the trailer and advertisement ‘turn it up loud’ was also effective in sending this message out to our audience that our products are about live music due to the fact that it emphasises the atmosphere of a concert because they are loud and exciting. The fact that the channel we were featuring the documentary on was MTV live also emphasises this because it is a bold and quirky channel. Some said they liked the way the text stands out because the yellow is so bold.

From the evidence shown from our results we collected we learnt that we did obey conventions well as people thought it looked professional. Technical details such as the rule-of-thirds, mise en sense, sound-beds, and graphics are all featured in both our documentary and professional ones so I think we accomplished this quite well. We also used a variety of transitions and a montage that also featured in professional documentaries to obey the conventions. . Throughout our documentary we also used a narration which the audience stated added to the professional feel of our product.    

If I was being critical about my own work I’d say that it felt rushed towards the end of the documentary as the footage was almost random in parts. While editing the documentary at the start I felt that the music was too grainy and wanted to change it. However, after changing the sound levels of the sound it became more adequate. I think overall as a group we worked well together to get this project finished and shared a common interest in music which helped us come to an agreement on which style of music we would have as the main theme.

Filming

These images were took at different points whilst filming. The first image was an eye level, low shot of someone playing guitar to be used as B-roll. The second image was taken when Devon recorded a student singing in a talent show and the final image was Natalie filming the drums at a band practice in college. We shot these as we wanted to ensure we knew how to use the cameras correctly, however did not put it into our documentary as it was not necessarily gig related.

Interview Questions

Interview Questions

When writing our interview questions, we decided to ask questions about the musicians backgrounds to give a brief introduction to who they are, and what they appreciate about live music. We asked questions based on the best and worst things about gigs, so we can explore both the negative and positive aspects of going to a gig. We also asked questions about fans and venues because it enabled us to retrieve information that only a professional artist would be able to give a detailed description of. These are the interivew questions that we employed to construct our interivews:

1)      What inspired you to become a musician?

2)      How do you feel when performing to a crowd?

3)      How do you feel before you go on stage?

4)      What’s the best thing about performing live?

5)      What’s the worst thing about performing live?

6)      How would you describe your fans?

7)      What was the first concert you saw and how old were you?

8)      How old were you when you first performed live?

9)      Where has been your favourite venue to perform?

10)   How many gigs do you go attend, personally?

11)   Do you prefer live music to recorded music, why?

Newspaper ad Conventions

Here is a newspaper advert that was made to promote the MTV programme, the Death Valley Show. This advert shows the conventions that professional companies employ when they are promoting and advertising their programme. We will therefore try to employ all of these conventions to make our newspapers advert as professional as possible. For example, we will employ a tagline in a bold font which gives an insight to what the content of our documentary may contain.

Radio Trailer Conventions

The Conventions of a Radio Trailer.

A typical radio trailer is approximately 30 seconds long and has a continuous sound bed. this sound bed usually indicated what channel the programme will be on, what the title of the programme is and what the programme is about. There is usually a narrator who gives this information and there is usually a series of 'snippets' from the programme. The sound bed of a radio trailer is very important in informing the audience. 
This narration is in the form of a voice over. The voice over for this trailer is male and his tone increases when he talks about the title of the documentary.  
This Radio Trailer, 30 years of Punk Rock the narrator starts by announcing what channel the documentary is about. We will incorporate this into our own and tell the audience that we will have our documentary featured on MTV Live. The narrator in our docuemtary will also emphasise the tagline 'Turn it up LOUD' by altering the tone of their voice so its much louder.


    

Audience Feedback

This is the questionnaire that we gave to our audience when receiving feedback on our documentary.

How informative would you rate The Gig Experience Documentary?
(1 = Very informative, 5 = Not very informative)

1-----2-----3-----4-----5

How entertaining would you rate The Gig Experience Documentary?
(1 = Very entertaining, 5 = Not very entertaining)

1-----2-----3-----4-----5

How would you rate the technical quality of production? Eg. Sound, editing, continuity
(1 = Excellent, 5 = Poor)

1-----2-----3-----4-----5

How eye catching would you say The Gig Experience Documentary is?
(1 = Very eye catching, 5 =Not very eye catching)

1-----2-----3-----4-----5

How well do you think we did at obeying conventions, compared to professional documentaries?
(1 = Excellent, 5 = Poor)

1-----2-----3-----4-----5

From our questionnaire results we were able to see how well our documentary suited our target audience and how well they think the documentary was constructed.

This graph demonstrates how successful/unsuccessful our documentary is, in being eye catching to our target audience. Results show that all found the documentary eye catching, with half more than the others. This is indicated by the 3 "1s" and 3 "2s" which are the highest marks they could have possibly given.

This graph shows how informative the audience found our documentary. This indicates majority believed our documentary was incredibly informative, due to more than half picking the highest mark. This was also elaborated on, and was quoted saying "It gives us information in fun ways such as voiceovers, and the appropriate visuals."

This graph shows how entertaining the audience found our documentary. This indicates majority believed our documentary was incredibly entertaining, due to the majority choosing the highest mark. Overall for entertainment feedback, our documentary received 5 "1s"  and 1 "2".

This graph demonstrates how successful our documentary is at obeying conventions, compared to professional documentaries. Results show that all those who watched the documentary thought we did very well at obeying the conventions set by professional documentaries. This indicates that we have done well in avoiding making the documentary look amateur.

This graph demonstrates how successful our technical quality of production is of our documentary. Results show that all those who watched the documentary thought we did very well at making sure the technical aspects of documentaries such as sound and editing were professional. This indicates that we have done well in avoiding making the documentary look like an amateur production.

Video Feedback

Newspaper Advertisement Production

We researched what the typical MTV advert looked like and discovered that they are mainly brightly coloured and very busy so we wanted to incorporate this in our own advertisement. We did this by altering the colour of the text to a bright yellow that we thought stood out.

We also edited the MTV logo by adding the same yellow onto sections of it. We also deleted the black that surrounded the logo.

For the background image we exported a selected image from our documentary and exported it to a Bitmap file. We chose this image of an unfocused master shot at the Alex Clare concert because it was unusual and busy.

We then chose a foreground image from our documentary and exported it to a bitmap file.
We chose an image of Alex Clare because he was the most well know artist we managed to get hold of.

We then overlapped the two images and used the overlay 'Lighten' which had an interesting effect on the image.

For the font we used the same font 'Dirty Ego' as the one featured in our documentary. This gave the products a sense of continuity.

We decreased the size of the logo so it didn't look out of place and didn't draw the attention away from the rest of the advertisement.

We altered the size of 'Loud' to emphasise the word and to represent how live concerts are very loud and alive.

Drafting Newspaper Advertisement

This is the drawing of our original idea for the newspaper advertisement. 

This is the first design of advertisement that we created, which gave us the idea to overlay two images to get  the brighter background to shine through the foreground. The overall effect looks like this. We then decided that because our documentary is aimed at an MTV audience, the advertisement should be brighter and more colourful.

Recording And Editing Radio Trailer

Our first action we used whilst editing our radio advert. We recorded our voiceovers on a Sony HXR MC2000E with a clip on mic.We uploaded all of the audio footage for our radio trailer onto the D Drive of the computer and imported them all into Adobe Premiere Pro. 

We then used the delink tool to delete the video footage from the sound bites and cut the sections we didn't want to use of the footage using the razor tool.

The clip was only 30 seconds long, therefore we wanted to fit all of our snippets, and facts into it. Because of this, we had to ensure that our radio ad had to cut to the point, and only include the parts which were a neccessity.

Lastly we then had to balance the levels on the sound. We did this by opening the row in which we would edit the sound on, so the yellow sound levels would be visible. We then clicked and dragged the level to the appropriate volume we wanted. If there were parts of the same clip which we wanted to edit in areas, we then pressed Ctrl to create a time marker, then drag the level accordingly.

Scripting Radio Trailer

This is the script that we created for our documentary;

- MTV Live brings you an exciting new music documentary featuring the chart topping new comer, Alex Clare and One Tree Hill star Tyler Hilton.

- Snippets of Tyler Hilton, Alex Clare, Danny Gruff, and Jessica Lu from our documentary.

- Tune in to MTV live on Sunday at 9pm, for The Gig Experience.

- Turn it up, Loud.

Voiceover Recording

To record our documentary voice overs, we used a Sony HXR-MC2000E with a clip mic.

We then recorded the snippets of the voice over and, once added into Adobe Premiere Pro CS5, we unlinked the video and deleted them accordingly.

We used the voice overs whilst still playing our sound bed, to ensure continuity and make the transaction of sound, smooth.

It will be played on numerous music radio stations both local and national. These will include Radio City 96.7, Galaxy, Wire FM, BBC Radio 1 and Magic to ensure we appeal to as many people as possible.

Scripting Voiceover

"There are at least 7 billion people on Earth and despite our differences we are all linked through our passion for music." (35.14s - 41.06 seconds)

"As of 2011, mainstream music such as pop and rap was classed as the most popular genre throughout the world." (Did not use)

"Ticketmaster is one of the leading ticket sales companies worldwide. It has partnered with over 50 venues and since then has become the most popular website for purchasing tickets." (2m 18.04s - 2m 27.20 seconds ) 

"Some music artists start out by busking to put their name, and music, out to the public. The most famous buskers include Bon Jovi, Elvis and Paul McCartney." (47.17s - 56.14 seconds )

Editing

We print screened our computer at numerous times, whilst creating the documentary.  The first one being some of the videos we imported. We did this by selecting file>import. We then chose the videos which we wanted to use, and edited it to our liking.

When filming our interviews, we ensured to obtain the 'rule of thirds'. We did this by aligning the camera, and object up, to the relevant camera spot. By doing this, it created the impression that we, and our project, is professional.

 

As well as the visuals, we also had to focus on the sound levels within our documentary. Throughout it all, we had a sound bed which was changed when voice overs or interviews took place. This added continuity to the documentary, yet still allowed the viewer to hear the other sounds being utilized.

 

After we had imported some of our videos, we had to use the 'Razor' tool to cut down the length of the footage. We did this by selecting the tool, then clicking where was appropriate. From then, we'd delete the relevant footage, and keep the parts which we wanted.

 

On top of our interviews, and at the beginning of the documentary, we used titles to explain to the audience who or what it was. We did this by selecting title>new title>default still. We then typed the title which we wanted, changed the font/size/colour then imported it into our documentary.

 We used transitions throughout, to make the switch between clips, smooth. We did this by using different types to still make it exciting  - however used 'dip to black'  most, to ensure professionalism and continuity

Edit Decision List and Logging

Planning

Storyboard

Interview Framing

For the interview with Dion Roy, we will film him in front of the stage he will later be performing on, later on at his concert. We will draw attention to the aspect of live music by having a guitar in the background and also will have the stage lights on to add to the atmosphere of a live concert. We will apply the rule of thirds with him on the left side, leaving space on the right to show the guitar and other staging equipment.

The concept for Tyler Hilton's interview is to interview him in his dressing room. This gives an insight to behind the scenes of live concerts. It is important in our documentary because we will discuss everything surrounding live music, from ticket sales to busking and recorded music. We will apply the rule of thirds with him on the right side.

As Alex Clare is an upcoming star, we though that we will film his interview where you wouldn't expect to see him. Therefore, we decided we will film him in a room backstage to show the contrast between Alex Clare the star and Alex Clare the standard musician. We will apply the rule of thirds with him on the right side.

For Danny Gruff's interview, we will film him outside of a venue where people attend concerts. We will apply the rule of thirds with him on the right side and have the board of gig listings on the left. This will highlight the main theme of our documentary - live music.