Final Magazine Cover

Final DVD Cover

Audience Feedback

Having chosen to resubmit my coursework it was highlighted that there was little attempt at gaining audience feedback. I have created this post to demonstrate what we did as we did not emphasise it the first time.



YouTube:
We uploaded our storyboard to my youtube account to see if we could get any feedback before the shoot but the video did not gain a lot of views or any comments.



I also posted the first and second edit of the music video to see if any improvements could be highlighted but the only comment recieved was very negative and not helpful.

Although we didn't upload the final version of the music video the 2nd edit was close enough to the final one. One shot of the radio is in black and white in the final version. I think it is interesting to see how the video has developed from not having a narrative to having one throughout.


Tumblr:

I posted on my tumblr the before and after versions of both the DVD cover and the magazine advert. I recieved a few comments which were positive and I was glad to actually recieve some feedback.

Large group viewing:

We showed the rough edit of the music video to our media class to gain some feedback and they said that the video does say Motown. The negatives highlighted were that the video does not cut to the beat, not enough shot variation and the lip syncing needs improving. 

We also had a group feedback about our DVD cover, the picture below shows the notes that I took as the feedback was being given.

Some of the main comments were:

 - the tripod in the background makes it look like a homemade video, not professional.

- red dresses suggests sexiness, giving people a reason to hire them

- using a shot of their back was effective because it draws the audience away from their appearance. Motown is generally associated with black singers and so the shot of their back takes away the impact of their skin colour.

- Some said that the logo on the front made it look like a sing along DVD

- The DVD cover was unconventional but it ultimately suggested Motown.

The resubmitted DVD cover and magazine ad was not shown in a large group capacity but they were shown to various different people throughout the stages of recreating them to ensure they said 'Motown', although the feedback recieved was not as in depth as the above, it was still useful and the large group feedback aided the recreation as I avoided and changed a few of the negative aspects highlighted.

Resubmitting Coursework - DVD Cover

In order to improve my overall grade I have decided to resubmit my coursework

DVD Cover


Before:

After:

The audience feedback that I received concerning the first version of the DVD cover highlighted several issues  with the cover that did not resemble Motown. For example the front cover may feature the three lead singers of the band (very conventional to Motown) yet the rest of the picture presents an unprofessional aspect to the overall look; such as the tripod, school dinner tables and picture frames on the walls. Audience feedback also suggested that although the singers themselves do represent Motown, the background of the front cover portrays an 'amateur and homemade' feel. With this in mind I changed the front cover and used pictures that were taken on the day of filming.
The following images were found to base my new front cover on:

 

The obvious elements taken from the 'Temptations' poster are the swirling white graphics which I incorporated into a sheet music stave and ensured the swirls were more feminine and musically orientated, I downloaded some Photoshop CS5 brushes to help with this and also used clip art images of musical notes etc. Some lines were created by using the paint brush tool and changing the thickness of the brush whilst using the tool. 

The elements I have used from the picture on the right is the band of images, whereas they are all marked with a border, I decided to use the gradient tool within Photoshop to add a blurred effect so the pictures of my band blend with the black background. This creates a more professional behind the scenes look to the band, contrasting to the first submitted DVD cover.

Attempt 1:

To start with I used pink/ red tinges in order to make the cover look more feminine however feedback suggested that the cover was more pink than red and therefore did not signify Motown, with this in mind you can see how I changed the colour scheme prominently to red which I believe works a lot better.

I initially kept the microphone picture blue, but then this again did not look aesthetically pleasing as it constrasted from the red, therefore hindering the Motown influence. The final colour scheme adds a dated, classic look to the cover yet the swirls are more modern and feminine which attributes the band to appeal to a modern audience which is what the band had wanted.

As you can see from the 'attempt 1' picture that there are significantly more swirls and also some artistic dots added, having discussed my DVD cover with someone that is more familiar with the Motown era, he highlighted how advanced use of graphics such as that would not have been easily to accomplish so I significantly simplified the swirls and we agreed that it links very well with the 'Temptations' poster swirls.

I also changed the rating logo as I used the American one instead of the European one.

The colour red was used do to it significantly linking to the music video we created. The three singers wear bright red dresses which would become their iconic image and therefore it makes sense to create the accompanying media with the same colour schemes as the outfits. As the band becomes more known to the public it would create a house style and recognizable image which the audiences can connect with and identify with the band.

Research

Additional research involved using the 'Classic Motown' website in order to find authentic advertising media for Motown bands. I looked more into the conventions of the texts and drew that colour overlays are frequently used. 

Seeing as it is difficult to determine authentic posters from modern representations I decided to look into Motown tribute bands to see if i could gather inspiration and find more conventions.

The following are interesting posters that use the colour overlays and also a wide range of pictures of the band which is why I decided to use pictures of the instrument players as well as the singers in my re-submission.

The above pictures all have a common theme where they have the different images blurred along the lines, this I have decided to replicate within my DVD cover. The third picture has obvious Motown conventions due to the microphone and classic Tamla Motown CD in the background, it was suggested that I should be obvious in my usage of conventions and decided to use a clip art picture of a record and a vector image of microphones.

CD Cover

This was created as an extra piece of media which would be used as the CD sticker on the DVD. There was only one hour to create this in lesson time as we were told that the DVD were being burned that day, because of this, I took the role of creating it as it would be quicker for me as opposed to someone else in the group.
Max wanted me to darken the background as the school chairs and dinner tables could be seen, which looked childish and unprofessional, I then removed all of the emergency exit signs and there was also tripod visible on the left in the hall but I chose to remove it to retain symmetry in the image. As there was no symmetry seen with the lights I added four more lights and added a lens flare in the middle and attempted a slight glow/ silhouette effect around the girls. The red of the dresses was also increased and the ladies themselves were particularly lightened as the image was very dark.
The editing did not take too long and I only overrun into lunch by about 10 minutes. Most of the time consumption was in the removal of the tripod and the highlight/ lightening and darkening process.

Final Magazine Advert

Our magazine advert was a replication of a poster that Max luckily found to be from the Motown era. It is an effective replication and it follows the original poster closely.

Max had the responsibility with Molly to create the poster but it was largely created in the mutual frees Max and I had. I was editing the DVD cover by the side of Max while he was editing the cover and this turned out to be a good idea as I could offer my knowledge of photoshop so Max could find certain tools quickly, saving time.

Final DVD Cover

The final DVD cover took a while to finish as it was difficult to find a suitable image as many of them were unattractive and unflattering pictures. However I found this picture to be particularly interesting due to the unusual angle that was inspired by DreamGirls:

Due to the camera being behind The Harmonettes singers it connotes the idea of the audience being on stage with the band and a part of the process and a 'candid' moment is created.
It was difficult to source any actual Motown era material but found the following few images to be of interest, but our DVD does not specifically replicate any elements from it:

 

As there are no actual Motown creations of DVDs our DVD cover is essentially an original idea. The use of the 60's style microphone was a key advertising ploy to those who are a fan of that era of music but also indicates to the audience what is within the DVD, this is also described in the short blurb.

I edited this cover completely on my own, and had suggestions from Max but due to the deadlines needing to be reached, I ensured I edited in my frees and lunch times when I could (I couldn't do a lot of editing at home as my free trial of photoshop run out) and eventually got it done. I edited the saturation of the red dresses, increased the lens flare, added the logo and band name and sharpened the girls themselves. Max suggested getting rid of the tripod in the background and so I attempted this however is was very difficult and looked better with it in. The microphone on the back cover was a picture that was previously in colour and so I added a cooling effect over and over again until it the colour eventually replicated the blue near the lens flare and the lens flare behind the microphone a the bottom had a red tinge to represent the dresses. Exempt from certification logos were added as well as the DVD logo and a bar code which fits the conventions of having a transparent background so the image behind can be seen, I ensured I replicated this.