Group 1 - Advanced Portfolio

QUESTION 3

The target audience for Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto is 13-24 male and female. It is always important to test a concept for a video with the target audience before going into production, as it is a very large investment, and a production company need to make sure that the product will sell. We ensured that we undertook this process during pre-production by creating a mini pitch/mood board and presented it to a sample (of 11 people) from the target audience so that the flaws and difficulties were highlighted to us, and we could alter and correct these. The methodology we used was a focus group.

http://prezi.com/d1f6eb6nva7h/mood-board/

Mini Pitch Results

Strengths:

- Design of the pitch

- Interesting visual ideas

- Excellent use of media technology (such as the green screen and various effects)
Weaknesses:

- Not enough concept, it may get quite tedious having one shot

- It could be incredibly difficult/complicated to do, especially in reverse and with the green screen

- It could look really basic if we don't come up with a 'twist'
Evaluation & Changes:

- Splitting up the one single shot with B-roll footage of the destruction of objects and toys

- Not have the footage of the child in reverse as it's too complex

- Instead, have the people playing in the background in reverse

- Have some kind of interesting 'twist' at the end involving the child, fire and toys

We added to our mini pitch in order to create a main pitch which would be presented to another sample of our target audience in the method of a focus group. We incorporated our concept into the pitch, along with ideas for costume, lighting and location to reinforce the research that we had previously conducted. We combined the focus group with the method of questionnaires which were distributed to a group of 14-18 year olds in order to ask questions about our concept, and we included these results into our pitch. The target audience gave us feedback when we pitched, and highlighted weaknesses and issues that needed to be changed before we could get the green-light and go into production.

http://prezi.com/cseu250kafgr/pitch/?kw=view-cseu250kafgr&rc=ref-795874

Pitch Feedback

Strengths:

- 30 seconds of visual

- Well planned and thought through

- Location ideas

- Concept and visual ideas

- Detailed, clear layout of the pitch using Prezi

Weaknesses & Issues:

- Actors... Where will we get them from, and who?

- Constant tracking back shot... How will we ensure a steady track every time we shoot?

- Is the whole concept too boring or uninteresting, due to the slow cutting rate?

After shooting, and whilst in post-production, our classmates, teachers and technicians gave us helpful advice and feedback, as well as constructive criticisms, suggesting changes that needed to be made. This acted as continuous feedback that we achieved throughout the weeks of editing. This wasn’t necessarily feedback from a target audience, however it acted as technical support which improved our final product and acted as support.

Finally, we carried out a screening of our music video to a sample of our target audience, in this case our peers, aged 17-18. The purpose of testing it was to ensure that it met the expectations of the target audience, was conventional of the postmodern form of a music video, and to see whether it either reinforced or challenged the conventions of the Alternative-Pop genre. We again used the method of questionnaires, receiving 24 back out of 30, and the results stated that some of our key strengths were: the opening sunrise time lapse sequence, the slow motion shots of children running in the smoke as people thought these shots created a professional look, and finally the overlaying footage of flames because it related to the song title.

We encoded the text to portray the narrative of a boy whose life has literally gone ‘Up In Flames’ and is now a social outcast, and it was clear from our music video screening that this preferred reading was largely taken by the majority of the sample due to the positive feedback and evaluation.

When we tested the digipak and advert, the methodology we used was questionnaires. Our sample size was 15 and the main results were that both ancillary products reinforced the meta narrative of the band, and the front and back panes of the digipak looked highly professional, along with the image used on the advert. However, our target audience said that the behind-CD pane with the bokeh shots appeared disjunctive and unrelated to the rest of the digipak.

Group 1 - Advanced Portfolio

Wednesday 19 December 2012

HCT: Candidate 6138

JP: Candidate 6239 Navigation

HCT: Final Advert

JP: Print Work (Digipak)

Friday 14 December 2012

Group: Evaluation - Question 3

JP: Evaluation

HCT: Question 4