Research and Planning: Audience research.

In order to find out whether the print work and video are going to suit my target audience, I need to ask people their opinions on my mock up designs to see if i'm going in the right direction. I also need to make sure that the styles I have chosen suit the genre of music.

I've posted the designs onto my facebook and asked some of my friends on there to comment, answering the questions I have asked. I posted this as the caption for both the advert and digipak designs:

"Mock up CD design. I've used existing photos to make this, so i

t's just to show how I want it to look. The actual thing will obviously have more information on it and my own photos. What's good/bad about it? Any other comments?"

These are the the comments I had from the digipak design.

The majority of people thought that I am going the right way

about producing this, however there were some comments about changing the font and colour so it is clearer to read over the top of the

pictures. But seeing as the final version will have different pictures, this may not be an issue.

I will keep the logo for the record label as it seems to make the CD look more professional. I will also keep the layout, positioning the text in a similar way.

Overall the feedback was positive.

Feedback I got for the advert was also pretty positive. I could probably improve it more if

I think I have done well to capture the simple theme I was aiming for, while still being effective in grabbing my target audience.

more people had commented on it, but I couldn't really help that.

One thing people did mention was the text in the "tour" section, it wasn't all the same size. When it comes to the

final design I will obviously take the effort to make sure the font sizes are consistent, so it doesn't look rushed and looks more professional. I like the way people have said that it is simple yet effective, which is the kind of thing I am aiming for. Also I am glad that the linking theme has been noticed, in order for people to associate the digipak and the advert.

I also posted my mood board on facebook to gain reactions.

I asked: " What feelings do you get about what kind of audience this is aimed at?"

The feeling I got from the comments was that everyone agrees it has an indie feel to it. This is good, as the music genre I am using is kind of indie-acoustic.

Also, people agreed that it was aimed at a young/teenage audience who are interested in music (probably indie) and the internet.

I think I've done well to link all the images and keep a consistent theme that clearly connotes indie-loving teenagers.

Research and planning: Mock-up advert.

I have done a mock up of the advert, using a photo from the artist's MySpace. This is just to show how I expect the final one to look, but it will obviously be using a photo I have taken myself. Also I will add things like the record label and logo to the final version.

Research and planning: Similar advert designs.

These are the kinds of styles I want the print work advert to look like. The main characteristics include (mid)close ups of the artist and the CD information. They each relate to their own videos, in terms of environment and props.

Research and planning: Print work ideas.

Seeing as the video will be set in an outside grassy area surrounded by trees, I think the print work should have a similar theme. But to make it more interesting I want to add something to the image, such as an object- guitar, or something do to with music. Also, I will probably include the artist on it.

Here is a mock-up of what I think it should look like, using existing images found on the internet.

Research and planning: Our artist.

The artist we have chosen to do our video on is a local solo artist, Autumn Lily. As we know her personally and she lives locally, we will get her to perform in the music video. This would be better than getting an actor to perform, as the original artist will look more convincing. Here is her MySpace link: http://www.myspace.com/autumnlilymusic

Research and planning: Music video concepts.

There are some key concepts that I wish to be able to capture in my music video.
I want it to have a 'home-made' look to it, so it's simple and almost minimalistic. A lot of the shots will be taken using hand held camera. This makes it seems as though it is effortless, even though it does take a lot of work to get the right effect with hand held. Another feature I would like to use is to have many close ups of the artist singing along with the song, or just mid close ups of her playing guitar as well as singing to it.
There are some other shots that I want to look as though they are spontaneous and not planned, such as shots of her laughing, or even just talking etc; shots that you wouldn't be able to get the right effect on if they were planned in advance. This may be a problem when it comes to drawing up the storyboard, but I can always change it to fit what we have filmed.
Ideally, I would like the shots to line up with the rhythm of the song, and to cut on particular beats. I don't want this to happen throughout the whole song as it would look too robotic. I think this effect would work well in the opening of the song, the chorus and perhaps the outro.

Research and planning: Health, safety and logistics.

Health and Safety

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Research and planning: Locations.

So far we have discussed that we want to use the Winter Gardens in Malvern and Barbourne Park in Worcester. These two places have similar atmospheres that we are looking for.

Research and planning: Creativity.

We are focusing on using creative skills for planning our video during this week. Things we need to work on in this time will be the storyboard, print task drafts and perhaps practising with camera equipment.

I may sketch up some drawings of how I want the Digipak to look.

Research and planning: Post-Pitch.

After we did the pitch in front of the class, we received some feedback comments which is needed to be considered when we come to planning the video.

As I am working with people in a different class to me, I am having to use Facebook, emails and texts to communicate when outside of college. I can see this being a slight problem when it comes to organising the actual video shoot, but it can easily be overcome if we prepare well in advance.

The feedback sheet had 6 different points the class could comment on:

"Comments on suitability for stated target audience"

The majority of the comments we had back for this agreed with us on our target audience, saying the genre of music would suit it. Although, a few people did say that it was a bit of a wide range target audience, and that we should have made it a bit more detailed/clear.

"Comments on the originality of the idea"

Many people liked our idea of having a homemade type feel to the video, saying it would fit our genre very well, and it would have an indie vibe. They also said that it could be more original if we showed them more ideas.

"Comments and thoughts on the logistical arrangements"

There were very mixed feelings on this area. A lot of people seemed to think that we didn't cover this in our pitch, I think this is because we didn't have a slide on it on the presentation, (people like to have visual aids to look at) but we did clearly read through our plans. The ones who did listen to our plans said that we seemed quite organised, and as we know the main performing artist, we know that she is reliable to turn up to filming sessions. They also said that we have good communication within our group.

"Comments on the technical aspects of the idea - does it sound achievable with the college equipment?"

Everyone said that it is an achievable idea with the equipment we have availabe, as it is simple and can easily be done.

"Does the idea sound realistic?"

Most people agreed that it is an achievable idea, is very possible and not too challenging.

"Overall, does this idea sound exciting and achievable?"

People mainly said that is is achievable, but seem to think that it won't be exciting. We can improve people's thoughts on this by maybe producing storyboards and clear ideas.