Tuesday, 26 April 2011

Target auidence questionnaire

To research into our target auidence Helen the designer created a questionnaire for participants to fill out so we had an idea of how our products should be this is a copy of the questions given.

Target audience questionnaire

How old are you? (tick the following which applied to you)

10 or under
11-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-40
41+


What genre do you listen to the most?

Rock
Pop
Indie
Jazz
Other (name below)

What attracts you to a new band?

Fashion
Appearance
Gender
Particular and members
Their logo
Other (name below)


Do the clothes that the artists/band wear influence your fashion?

Yes
Sometimes
No

Do you prefer bands which write their own songs appeal over cover band?
Yes
No
No preference 

How important is the bands interaction with one another ?

Very
Moderately
Not at all
Other (name below)

How important is the bands interactions with their audience?


Very
Moderately
Not at all
Other (name below)


Do you prefer a leader in a band?


Yes
No
(explain the reasons behind your answer below)


Results from the questionnaire.

We found in the questionnaire that the target auideience focus on a bands appearence from this desaigner Helen undertook the costume research and looked into what styles bands go by and what would be suitable considering our bands age range and image they want to portray to the auidence and the needs of the target auidence.

Quite commonly it was answered that a band's fashion sometimes affects the target auidence,though we feel the influence of bands in the media is underestimated as many are often seen as fashion icons people such as Hayley Williams from Paramore, her style can be seen in a lot of young teenagers. From this we though that the costume and fashion sense of the band would more likely affect those of the younger end of our target auidience.

It was found that most participants said yes they do prefer cover songs however the song we are doing for the film is an original song, the band often do cover songs within the their set list of songs so we found this relevant in knowing how to portray them to the auidence, we found the bands slogan they often use will help this aspect of promotion 'songs you wouldn't expect to hear but love nonetheless'.

Most answered that the interaction of the band is quite important especially within a pub setting as a friednly characmatic band would be needed to interact with the auidience as well as the other members this will be taken into account especially when desgning the ancillary texts.

For the final question the general result was that a lead singer is often desired within a band whilst completing the questionnaire we also spoke to the particpants they stated it gives the band a recognisble face which we all as a group agreed with especially with examples like Muse and Paramore having well known faces for the target auidence to recognise instantaniously.  


Monday, 7 March 2011

DVD Cover and poster editing

From the research we had done of other promotional media's we decided to use black and white effects on one of the pictures we took from the shoot of the band in a V formation.

 The magazine advert also had the stills we had taken on the shooting day, we used group shots and then individual shots of the band members giving them individuality and showing their personality.

As a group we edited the DVD cover and magazine advertisement when we had frees together however the main editing was done by Team member Helen as she was designer then the details and pictures were discussed as a group then edited accordingly.

Tuesday, 1 March 2011

Research into promotional media

After identifying our target audience earlier in the project and identified our genre along with conventions we decided to research into the genre to see what album covers the have and what conventions we should include.

When looking at these i found certain conventions that we can use when designing our own DVD cover and magazine advertisement, bands often use black and white to give it more of an effective look and conforms to the target audiences needs. The band's are also in formation to give them a structure and is a very common conventions in the music industry but more in the rock genre.

These styles also promote their maturity with the sepia or black and white effects used however as our band is targeted at a wide auideicne from young to older we decided to give them a young costume appealing to the target auidence alohng with the diversity of ages winthin the group itself.

The facial expressions is aslo something we wanted to replicate as it shows the mature attitude the band has we also gave them another shot of a more happier conoting image of them sitting as pales on the stage more like a Take that style but showing the bonds within the band as friends not just partners in the band which i think is something they hold dear as they have been in the group a long time together. This is also helps with appealing to the friendly pub auidence wanting to have a good time which was one of the functions they aim for when promoting themselves.

Monday, 28 February 2011

Feedback from the band

 This is the email recieved from the band representative Tim that is the feedback from the whole band.


Hi Sarah.

First of all, well done on the vid! We've had a look, and here are some comments that hopefully will help get you even better grades:

Good:
- nice to interlink a story to the video, rather than just having a vid of the band playing the song
- the motif of the current narrative being in colour and the past being B&W is a good idea
- Wolfie said: "The narrative could have used more exposition. I didn't follow any linear concept of what was/is/did happen between the cast members." but, as usual, we're not sure what he's on about :)
- good timing of each shot/cutaway (not sure of the techy terms! What I mean is the shots aren't changing too quickly)
- there are some very good shots of the band playing (e.g. the last few choruses look good)
- the time dedicated to each band member was good, it felt well balanced

Possible improvements:- synching seems to be a problem. Youtube will always cause synching problems, so we're not referring to that general synch issue. It's more to do with some cutaways having one or more of us singing in the audio, but not in the shot, or even singing something else.
- linked with this, the instrument shots don't always match up with what's being played. As an example, the first guitar solo has a close up of me playing, but I don't play that solo, Keith does, and what I'm doing therefore doesn't match with the music. The second solo (which i do play) has the video lagging by a few seconds behind the audio. If you can't synch the solos perhaps you could have the boy looking through a photo albums of colour stills from the "happy" earlier times.
- Specifically:
  - 1st verse breakdown (~38s), I stop playing on the video and step forward
  - 1st chorus (~50s), the audio has me singing the harmony, but the vid has me adjusting the guitar strap, not singing, or even playing. Looks a bit daft.
  - 2nd chorus (~2.05), same shot as above for the 1st chorus, now showing me fiddling with the guitar strap from a different angle :) Both of these shots come from the first take - you may want to switch something else in?
  - 1st solo (~2.33), vid doesn't match audio
  - 2nd solo (~3.19), vid plays about 3 seconds behind audio (you probably need to cut straight to the vid-solo, and chop the frames with my face out - no bad thing :)
  - final shot of band seems a bit weak - mebbe just end on Wolfie's yeah-yeah, or on the Vees logo?

Hope this helps, overall we're very impressed with what you've done, and hope our comments help you do even better on your course.

Cheers,

Tim

PS Are there any more still shots that were taken on the camera? I'm currently working on a new website for the band and would welcome any pics that I can use.

Behind the Scenes