Evaluation question 4

Evaluation question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Throughout our entire process of creating our products, including the research, planning and evaluation, we have used new media technologies in order to improve and aide our tasks. Within the research area of our task, we used many different forms, one such example is an online questionnaire, which helped in discovering our target audiences needs and desires. This was very important information when creating our piece, as it helped us decided what was appropriate to include and excude.

Another technology we utilized is the film renting service ‘LoveFilm’ which have an online service allowing you to view films online, we used this in order to research examples of short films and other products falling under a similar genre and employing similar themes. This helped us in finding influence for our piece. For the planning stage of our production, we needed to make sure we had an accurate plan of what to film and when, this involved producing a storyboard and shooting script. These two items may not be ‘new technologies’, however we proceeded to digitize them through scanning the items and then created multiple copies for us al to work from and annotate.

The construction stage of the process is potentially the most technologically rich stage, as it involves filming and editing the production. To film the piece we utilized the HD camera which we have in school which records onto DV tape, we much prefer this style of recording to SD cards, as we feel it gives a greater freedom during the filming process as it does not pre-cut and separate your clips in a digital format. The editing software we used is ‘Final Cut’, a well-known and professional piece of software. This allowed us to successfully produce the work we wanted to with very little issues and confinement.

Once we had produced the work, we decided to evaluate what we had done and discover how the audience felt toward it. In order to do this we uploaded the finished product to Youtube, in a sense creating new media (or media 2.0) , and then created a link to our friends on the popular social networking service ‘Facebook’. Though this we were able to gather comments and feedback through both Youtube and Facebook and judge how the audience felt toward the piece and use these responses to improve our future efforts. The responses we gathered were not particularly helpful, as most were positive, therefore we did not feel the need to apply them to our work. We also produced a questionnaire at this stage also and gathered results from this.

In regards to the ancillary tasks, most of the construction was done through Adobe Photoshop CS4. This is an impressive piece of software with a huge variety of capabilities and it really helped us to produce the desired effects we wanted. The images we used were not totally totally ‘original’, with the Pink Floyd logo and the prism image being incorporated within the poster and digipak, however the majority of the image was original and taken ourselves.

Evaluation question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Once we finished our piece, we underwent some audience research to discover how they felt towards the piece, how they feel the ancillary tasks and main piece work together and what they think could be improved. We tried to ask a range of ages and a range of ages through personal interviews which we recorded with a transcription, these are the results:

Joe (18) : I really enjoyed the music video, it had some really cool shots and had a great sense of emotion. I really felt that kaleidoscope effects helped to give it a heightened intensity, adding to the emotion. The sequence with his girlfriend coupled with the anger gave a clear impression toward the intended emotional ideas of grief and depression. Over all I feel like that narrative suited the emotion of the song perfectly, even with its lack of lyrics. 

Jacob (18): After watching the music video, it was not what I was expecting. Not having heard much of Pink Floyd's music, I was not expecting to find such emotional power. My expectancies were to find meaningless references to drug culture, something which is synonymous with the psychedelic genre, however, the underlying tones of grief and depression really shone through, as it played on my preconceptions. 

Steve (16) : I really felt that the combination of your video and your CD artwork worked extremely well. They make great reference to each other, and both the poster and the CD are aesthetically pleasing, so I would definitely pick this off a shelf. Despite not having a huge knowledge of Pink Floyd, I instantly recognised the prism logo, and believed this worked extremely well coupled with the dilapidated house. This gave me a great interest of what was likely to appear within the video.

Judging from these two responses we can see that the matching of the emotion in the song with the visual pace and intensity worked effectively. We can also see that the audience did not have trouble understanding the narrative of the piece either, showing that it came across effectively. Steve’s response is interesting as he judged the ancillary tasks primarily. Taking his age into account and his lack of familiarity with Pink Floyd, it shows how the prism has such an intense level of iconicity that it is largely recognizable across most age groups. His comments also show how the ancillary tasks would motivate a consumer to purchase our product, something which is very important when considering the institutional desires.

Linda (52) : Having grown up in the 70s, I'm well associated with Pink Floyd's music. I felt that the way the video understands the emotion of the song is extremely successful  and does not simply utilize the stereotypes of 70s drug and hippy culture. This really shows an in-depth understanding  of what this decade was really about and what Pink Floyd really meant with the song, rather than what modern culture simply expects.

Ginny (45) : I enjoyed the music video. However, I believe that it could've utilized the video effects - such as the hallucinatory  visuals more. It may have been successful to even include the character within these visuals. However, despite this, I suppose it is understanding considering that there is no drug taking within the piece. 

James (48) : I thought the video was really entertaining, one scene which really stuck out to me was the anger sequence, where the fast pace and the impressive  performance really shone through. I especially liked the cuts of his girlfriend within the sequence, which added emotional depth and helped to explain a motive prior to the final explanation. 

This age group would be expected to be well associated with Pink Floyd’s music and therefore would have a richer contextual knowledge. From their responses, we can tell that our understanding of Pink Floyd’s stylistic choices are reflected well within our piece. One element we could have improved upon would have been further hallucinatory effects, something which they would expect if we were attempting to mimic the stereotypical 70’s music video. On the other hand, we were not trying to mimic the style completely and it is a fairly modern interpretation in terms of the video.

Karen (22) : One thing that really stuck out to me about the video was the great use of location. I really felt that this emphasised the isolation and depression that the character portrayed. The dilapidated house really matched the song's emotion, and this coupled with the roughly dressed character, and the surroundings of filth were excellent combinations and helped to contribute to the overall narrative.

Mary (25) : I thought the cd cover and poster looked really good! Definitely could have passed as genuine commercial work, and knowing Pink Floyd’s work quite well, reflected their style. I can see how they link to an extent, however, they could have used a bit more visual reference, as the image of the house does not appear much within the video.

This age group is relatively similar to the eighteen year olds, in the sense that they will not have much of a contextual understanding of Pink Floyd and what the band stood for, therefore their opinions will vary from those that have this. From their feedback it is clear that we should have potentially made more of an obvious link between the images on the digipak and poster and the video, as the dilapidated house only appears briefly and is not an images which is particularly prominent, however, this did not come between the intended purpose they surved.

Over all, if we were to undertake a similar project or change this one, we would ensure that context knowledge surrounding our chosen topic is well understood and that we take into account separate meanings that we may not fully understand due to lack of said contextual knowledge. We also would make sure that we understand the target audience’s desires, in terms of visual presentation, in particular the digipak and ensuring that it is visually pleasing.

Evaluation question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks

The ancillary tasks and main product both adhere to Pink Floyd’s genre and style. Pink Floyd intended for the song ‘Great Gig in the Sky’ to be a statement toward death and the emotions surrounding this, with the vocalist’s ‘wailing’ voice fitting as a statement of pain and distress. The song was called ‘The Mortality Sequence’ in production, which we discovered in our research, again reinforcing the idea of which themes they intended to include. The song fits into the psychedelic genre at times, as does the entire ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ album, with fluctuation between intensity and mellow styles happening often. The psychedelic genre was dominating the music scene at the time of its production in 1973.

            We felt that we should extend the creative voice of Pink Floyd with our music video and use their themes, which they brought in through the music; this would strengthen the visual elements. We also utilized a similar technique with our ancillary tasks, stylizing them on Pink Floyd’s already established and recognizable appearance. We did this through using the iconic image of Storm Thorgerson’s Prism from the Dark Side of the Moon album cover and working it into our original image. We also reinforced the psychedelic genre within the ancillary tasks through altering the colour of the sky in some images to adhere to the forms and conventions which the genre entail, those being of illusions and visual effects mimicking the effects of narcotics.

The main product itself worked in unison with the ancillary tasks in this sense, as it uses altered visuals in an attempt to mimic the conventions of the psychedelic genre, using kaleidoscopic effects and green screen altered visuals. The audience reception of Pink Floyd is already extremely well established, with massive global success with their music even to this day. Having used some of their recognizable styles and effects, the audience would be able to make visual links between the main product and Pink Floyd’s feature length video ‘The Wall’ through the violent sequence and composition of the set; having a man sitting in a chair in the centre of a room filled with rubbish, similar to Bob Geldof’s character in ‘The Wall’. Through making these links the audience should potentially be able to relate to the piece, similarly to the ancillary tasks, with the use of the Prism and the front cover of the album art, where the appearance of it suggests isolation, one of the primary themes of ‘The Wall’.

 

            The institution behind Pink Floyd is EMI. The company is globally significant and therefore will want to ensure that their productions adhere to their target audiences effectively. The video utilizes the themes of Pink Floyd, therefore creating a link between the product and Pink Floyd’s audience. Their audience are so huge, with Dark Side of the Moon being one of the best selling albums of all time, this would ensure that the video will sell, pleasing EMI.

Evaluation question 1

psychedelic idea

We have had the idea of using a Green Screen in order to employ the necessary visual 'trippy' effects that we desire. We are going to work this into our piece during the 'anger sequence' and it will hopefully and a greater sense of what the genre is really about. The green screen is said to be in working order but we will find out soon.

Psychedelic genre research - visuals

This video by the popular 60's band 'Jefferson Airplane' shows a really interesting use of visuals, closely associated with drug and hippy culture. Although our piece is not an entirely similar context, the techniques used and the visual appearance are very similar to what we want to achieve. This style of music was popularised during the wave of hippy culture, very close to the release of Dark Side of the Moon and therefore the link between the psychedelic appearance and the music must be strongly made.

Ancillary Task: Front Cover