Unit 33 Assignment 3

*Improvements in red.

Peer assessment: 
Narrative suits the song
Characters have different expressions
Good colour used - bright
Well made set, you can tell what it is
Lyrics are in time with the song
Check the levels
Make the doll walk
Hits up the target audience of young girls because of the narrative and song choice

We set out to make a music video stop motion using barbie dolls targeting young girls. Our end goal was to make something that gave a message to the audience about young girls and the pressure to be perfect by using the beauty pageant theme which fit with the Pretty Hurts song that we chose.
I think that we achieved our goal because in the peer feedback everyone in the group said they understood the narrative and the direction that we were going in.
In my opinion some of the best bits of the stop motion were the set and characters.

The set I made was a pageant stage with an audience watching, from the feedback I got the group said it was well made and looked authentic making. The characters I used for the audience also got mentioned, people said they all have happy facial expressions which matches when there's a tracking shot of them and the noise of crowd cheering. 

The storyline is also one the best parts in my opinion because it's something that's still an issue now which is why we addressed it in out stop motion. The whole concept of girls being affected by the media, ours features a young girl in a pageant and she reads a magazine saying "thinner is better" and starts crying because she feels like she isn't and you have to look like models in magazines to be thought of as pretty, which is a real issue in real life. 

The weakest part in my opinion and which was mentioned in the feedback was the crowning because I moved the hand to fast and the crown goes from the woman's hand to the girls head to quickly which let the scene down. The movement didn't flow and was too jumpy.

Also in the walking scene at the start the doll goes out of focus in certain pictures and then it goes back into focus which I didn't realise until editing and it was too late to re film, it would have looked a lot better if the focus was on the doll as the pictures would have flowed better and it would have made the movement look a lot smoother. 

Our target audience was girls around 13 to late teens. This age bracket are those who generally use a lot of social media and are exposed to this topic and it's talked about by them. I think we have successfully targeted them as we used a lot of colour more so pink as this is a colour that's generally associated with girls, we tried to not use dark colours and it was also set in a girls room. The main character is a girl and it's partially set in a doll house which girls predominantly play with and it goes with the idea of using dolls.  

In total I used 4 different sounds, the soundtrack which plays the whole way through, the sound of camera flashes, crowd clapping and crowd cheering. 

I put all the sound in to match the action so it made more sense to the audience, when she was getting crowned the clapping came in, and when she was walking down the catwalk the sound of camera flashing came in, and there was cheering when she got to the end. All the sounds had a purpose and it made sense to the narrative and what was happening on screem I think the cheering and clapping were the most successful parts because it comes in at the right time and makes it more believable as a beauty pageant.  

FEEDBACK ANALYSIS

We publicly screened our worked on the Saturday open day asking prospective students and parents some questions after watching our stop motion. I found it very useful because those who didn't know what our idea were able to tell us what the point of it was/the message and it was good to know that we successfully told the story.

What were the common answers about the storyline?

The common answers about the storyline were that it was very easy to get and grasp. They also said that the message was clearly understood by the use of the song, characters and the actions that the doll used. Some said it was really impressive and fun to watch and it put a good message out about the topic. 

What were the common answers about the character design?
Everyone said that the design and use of characters was clever, they were effective and were used well. Everyone mentioned that they liked the use of the younger and older doll as it resembled a mother and daughter bond and they used life like realistic actions, for example when they were sat talking and the mum was brushing the daughters hair. 

What were the common answers about the colours/drawings?
People mentioned that they liked the girly-ness of the video as it helped to show that it's targeting a female audience as well as helping to achieve the attention of this audience. The overall message of the use of colour was that the pink of the doll house and the bedroom at the start helps to attract a female audience

What were the common answers about the set?
Everybody loved the use of the doll house, they said it was modern, well thought out and it matched the use of characters. It also was mentioned that it made the stop motion more realistic as it gave the impression of a family home and it made it more relatable for young and older girls watching. 

What were the common answers about what could be better?
The answer for this varied, a few said there could be less of the lyric part that cut up the dolls and more scenes between the mum and daughter. One said some parts were jumpy and another said there could have been more attention to detail as at times it went out of focus and the movement was wobbly at points.

What were the common answers about the use of sound? 
Everyone seemed to really like the use of sound, saying the song was perfect for the audience and the topic - it helped with the message that we were trying to give out. Also that the sound effects were clever, coming in at the right time and they anchored what was happening on screen, as well as because they were real life noises that were easily recognisable they went well with the action and made it life like despite the characters being dolls - it portrayed a real life situation. 

What were the common answers about the target audience?

Everyone said we hit the nail on the head because of the issue of body image, use of colour, the girly characters and set all contributed to attract a teenage girl audience. They said the song choice was perfect for our target audience as well. All we asked said that the topic was perfect for the target audience because not a lot has been said about the topic publicly and it's kind of up to young girls to find their feet with it but this raises awareness. 

Do you agree with the common answers; explain which parts you agree or disagree with and why.
I agree with all of the common answers and are happy with them as everyone seemed to get what we were going for, i'm glad that everyone enjoyed it and it didn't get boring for them at any point. We got mostly positive feedback and everyone understood the social message we were putting across, they got why we did certain things and thought it all contributed to the end result. I addressed the problem of the pictures going in and out of focus and that it altered the overall quality so I don't disagree with those comments. The only thing I would disagree with was when 2 people said to use less of the lyrics because we only did 2 verses and I thought it would split up the scenes and it was a way to use two kinds of stop motion in the same video. 

Compare your stop motion to something similar, how does yours compare?

A similar stop motion to ours is the drive by lyric video. Ours compares because we used the same idea of having the lyrics appear word by word on a piece of paper in sync with the song. Just like the idea behind this, it's a very creative way to make a stop motion and it takes time but if it looks good and you pull it of by making it look seamless, it's worth it.