(Post 54) Evaluation question 2

This is the vlog I created to prove the synergy between my video and my Ancillary task. 

Script:
"To show how effective the combination of my media product and ancillary products are, I decided to do something slightly different. In order to do this, I created an interview between me and an audience member. In this, I showed the audience member my music video and watched them watch it and then showed them a pile of photos which I've printed off. These photos were inclusive of other peoples ancillary products and there was a pile of about ten different kinds of photos which showed different products, including mine. The idea was to see if the audience member could, straight after watching my video, notice which one was mine and pick out which one was mine without any context or any information. This audience member had never seen anything about my media product before. They'd been in an audience research video but nothing else and that was all. All they had to go on was my video. In doing this, I believed it would show how effective my video was. 

These are the images I showed her.I have some CD covers. I have some in different styles, I have some random ones, I have some lighter ones. We have mine as well, and I have the same with posters- which is a wide range of posters. Let's see how it goes."

"Me-So if I show you my music video, and then I can ask you some questions.
 If I give you a pile of photos, do you think you'd be able to find the pictures that correspond to my music video? So there are two CD covers in there and one poster. 

Audience member- So are those CD covers?

Me-Okay, so you picked the three ones that I did, which shows a synergy between my main product and my ancillaries. How do you think that you identified these products were mine?

Audience member- Because, the similarity between the video and the pictures. So they look more similar than these ones- I didn't recognise any of these. That was a close one because it's got the two girls, but it's very differently filmed.

Me- Did you think that it was clear that those were mine?

Audience member- Yeah.

Me- Was there any specific, like the colour or the framing?

Audience member- The colours, because they're darker than the other ones. So they're all the same. And I recognise the people in them. 

Me- Finally, did you think it was easily identifiable that they were the poster and the CD cover. 

Audience member- Mine.
Feedback from that idea was generally good, the audience member was able to figure out which is mine. This suggests that there is a clear synergy between my ideas and clearly illustrates that just watching my video would enable us to be able to pick out which product is mine. She stated that she felt she saw which the actresses were and she saw the colour scheme was particularly similar. I also believe that the music and the whole feel of the idea has a big part in this. She picked mine out accurately, however, she did have a little issue as she believed that this was one of mine at first, until she found the actual one of mine:

She told me she thought this as there were two girls in it and that was a theme in my idea, so she was thrown off by that. But she stated that the lighting in this led her to believe it wasn't mine as mine were clearly darker she said. 

Overall I believe that this shows how effective my ideas are. I think that they're successful as ideas because they don't just use stills from a music video but they are similar enough for me to be able to tell that there's synergy across them, and for the audience to be able to see that posters and CD covers they do their job. They have the date on them, they have the track names, they have all sorts on them that shows what they're supposed to do. That simply just brought home that my video has synergy across them and that you can see they're linked and attached. Because of this, overall, I believe that my ancillaries and my video are successful as a whole- there is clear synergy and clear connection between them. 

I felt this idea was altogether successful. I was able to accurately illustrate that there is synergy between my three products. This was due to these reasons:

• Mise-en-scene:

The mise-en-scene clearly created synergy across the ideas and allowed for the identification of the ancillaries.

Props:

This was a clear way in which synergy was created. Exact props were used in the ancillaries that were used in the video. This created a clear sense of togetherness and synergy across the ideas. Specifically, the photos were used across the ideas in the same way. In the video the photographs were used like portals, allowing the main character to see the past in real time. In the ancillaries, they were used to similar effect- they were wormholes allowing the character to see another reality (the other characters side of the story). However, this was less obvious in the ancillaries as they obviously weren't moving on the paper. This construction of props still allowed to create synergy as the pictures were recognisable. If I was going to do this in the future, for real, I would even create more ancillaries, and perhaps have a digital poster, which has the lames moving, similarly to the music video.

Lighting:

Primarily, I was going to use natural light in the nighttime, and have some of my video illuminated by the moon only. I decided against this as I felt the natural daytime feel defied conventions and created a more realistic feel, whereas the nighttime was a typical conventions of the indie genre. This natural lighting was replicated across the ancillaries, producing an effective combination of the texts. 

Setting:

The setting also contributed to the effectiveness of the products in combination. The setting in the CD cover was mostly the same as in the video. There was some use of the exact same locations across the ideas, as some shots were used multiple times (specifically in the collage, inner section of the CD cover). This allowed for clear togetherness in the ideas, as the audience was able to tell the link between the ideas through the similarity in the setting. 

Characters:

The use of characters was really key in the development of my products. The whole story revolves around two characters and the story is hugely based on these people. It would feel really disjointed if the ancillary products weren't character based. This really added to the effectiveness of the combination of the products, as both were character based. Moreover, the costume was continued across the ideas. Both uses of costume were similar and used darker tones to set a more foreboding feel. This was accurately carried across into the ancillaries, which allowed there to be clear synergy. 

Colour scheme:

Overall, I believe that this was the clearest way that synergy was created across these ideas. The colour scheme accurately portrayed a connectivity across the ideas. I used a darker tone across, which shone through. A more natural colour scheme was used across the ideas, which was clear. The natural colour scheme created a clear expectation for the poster. If the video was non-naturalistic, the audience member would expect a non-naturalistic feel in the poster. The naturalism of the video was felt through the ancillaries as well, which created the sense of synergy. 

Whereas the red/orange tone of the fire created a sense of danger and anger. This feel of anger was prominent across the video and the poster, as the colour from the fire was present in these. This created a synergy, as the emotions from the connotation of colour was present across and created a similar feel. 

• Similar themes/genre:

Across my ideas, there was a clear sense of theme and genre. Although the poster only included one character, the ominous feel of the fire was replicated across it and the video. The clear juxtaposition between the two sides of the story was taken from the video and placed into the poster and ancillaries. The genre also had a clear impact, as the indie darker feel was continued across the ideas, which allowed for the synergy and identification. 

This all contributed to the successfulness of my tasks. I am overall happy with what I have produced and feel there is a clear synergy between my ideas.