Unit 33 Assignment 1 Evaluation

Evaluation

At the start of my stop motion planning I set out to make a fashion video, showing different styles of fashion during summer and winter and my target audience was teenage girls and I would call the video "Valley of the Dolls". For this I wanted to achieve something unusual and creative, the type of stop motion I was going for was 'surreal'. I wanted letters to appear onto the white sheet to show the name of the video and vinyls with letters on worked more than just letters on their own because they couldn't blow away in the wind with how heavy they were and gave it more of an interesting and arty feel to the video. The goal I was trying to achieve was to make an artistic and unusual fashion video to appeal to girls and show different outfits in the two different main seasons of the year. I think i've personally achieved my goal, from my very first idea I wanted the sky to be moving and then revolve around a girl in the grass in the summer with flowers slowly moving towards her, everything I originally  put into my storyboard and planned I made reality in my video. 

Heres a list of moments I thought we're the best in my stop motion... 

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I thought this part was a good start to the animation because it was my very first idea that I planned of the moving clouds in the sky to open the video with and I followed through with my idea. I wrote ''ValleyOfTheDolls.com'' which I got this idea from an advert I saw on TV for a fashion website online called PrettyLittleThing.com, I thought this would help the audience understand that it is a fashion website before they saw the model and clothes and knew what the name of the shop was before they got to the very end where I spell out VALLEY OF THE DOLLS on the white sheet using vinyls and letters cut out from newspapers as I thought that this would cause less of a confusion for the audience. 


I was very happy with how the ending turned out, I tried to film this part with just the letters but then realised that they blew away in the wind and needed something heavy that would stay in place. The vinyls added a great look for the animation as they add colour and life and the fact they're all large and the same shape as one another. It also adds a certain type of style which I wanted to create in the video, as the type of fashion I was going for was quite vintage/boho-chic and make it seem like a small fashion boutique online. I like how the chimes audio I put on this scene makes it look magical and I did a voice over saying "Valleyofthedolls.com" in a slow voice to get the message across incase the audience can't read what the letters say on the vinyls. 

I also think in my animation I used the sound very well and as I go to smell the rose the birds start singing and chirping to make it have a summer vibe, which you can already tell by the flowers and clothing I am wearing but I think it's a good way to add a certain effect to your animation and sound has a huge impact on the audience. Also I got Marina & the Diamond's voice saying Valley of the Dolls, which keeps getting the name of the website into the audiences head the way it's always repeated and in your face. Making people remember and check the fashion website out, I think the way it's creative would also appeal to people. 

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I also think the props of the flowers add the summer feel so the audience can tell that the set design is showing the summer season and match the clothes and lighting is meant to be bright and vibrant to add to the narrative. The sound design also relates to the season by the chimes and birds chirping. In this part I also think it's good how the image tricks the mind into thinking I was wearing an outfit underneath my first outfit and the way I always put the other clothes to the side of myself still in the eye of the audience. 

I think that the worst part of my stop motion is the winter part, I had to film these shots during a rainy day so the lighting wasn't great so I had to put a filter called "Dream" over the pictures, this did add a more winter effect but it could of been better if I choose a better day to the winter part although it wasn't meant to be as bright as the summer. The pictures are faster than the summer ones as well so you can't really tell which clothes i'm wearing in detail. 

My target audience was for teenage girls, I think I successfully targeted them because of the "girly" fashion and bright colours I used also the flowers and the fact a teenage girl is promoting the fashion. I am targeting my audience by wearing clothes that would be appealing to a stereotypical teenage girl (depending on her fashion sense) from shops such as Topshop, River Island and Zara, these are some of the most popular clothing shops for teenagers and I'm meant to be promoting my own brand of online clothing Valleyofthedolls.com so by using clothing ideas from other popular shops means it will target my audience. 

I used audio of birds chirping, wind blowing, chimes, rain and thunder. I also used Marina and The Diamonds soundtrack Valley of the Dolls and her other track SU-BARBIE-A, because it uses the same instrumental as Valley of the Dolls but uses interesting voices from Barbie adverts and films which reference fashion and how much of an impact it has on girls. I think that the most successful sounds I used we're the soundtracks and defiantly the audio's because I think that it makes the seasons become more noticeable to the audience. 

                 PUBLIC SCREENING QUESTIONS

Conclusions from feedback data

The most common answers about the target audience was that straight away people could tell it was for teenage girls because of the types of clothes I was wearing, myself being a teenage girl and also the colours, flowers and the natural setting and the fact it's for a fashion website people could tell that it only targets teenage girls and not boys because it shows no males in clothes and only girls and fashion they would usually buy. The public could tell that the storyline was for fashion and was for an advert that you could access online for clothes for different seasons. It was made obvious due to the voice over and text at the start whilst the clouds are moving. 

Also the public liked the fact that the animation was real life and objects instead of using clay models, the character design was well chosen and works well because it fits the videos audience teenage girls and using a real life teenage girl reaches out to the target more and is creative showing different types of fashion on a person and wouldn't worked as well if I used a clay model, someone stated that it would of saved time which was true but was done well and suits the video. 

The colours were bright and effective and you could tell it was summer because of the flowers colours and the bright blue sky and clouds, the green grass and the white sheet made the model stand out more plus the colourful summer clothes stood out even more because of the white background. The colours in the winter part we're really dark and it was hard to tell and concentrate on the clothes used in the winter part because there wasn't as bright lighting to show the clothes in detail. Also the colours of the records with the letters stood out but they couldn't really see the letters I cut out from newspapers and stuck on the vinyls because the records we're so bright but they understood the idea. 

The set was effective because it was simple and was placed in a garden showing grass and a white sheet and was based there, it was a new idea compared to other fashion adverts which are usually shown in expensive studios with a green screen or big city's like London and New York City. But this created a more realistic setting because real like teenage girls aren't super models and it made the video seem quite innocent and 'cute'. 

The common answers about the reasons it could of been better we're that the winter part could have been slowed down towards the end along with the record and letters because it started off slower and become to fast for the audience to catch the clothes in detail because I changed them too fast in the winter part. Also the lighting in the winter season could have been improved rather than having a dark filter because it looses the detail of the clothing aswell as it becoming too fast. The letters on the records at the end could of stood out more, the letters should have been brighter than the background making them stand out so the audience could read that it says Valley of The Dolls, but the text at the start and the voice over makes up for it. 

And I agree with everything the general public have gave me to take into consideration, I agree that the winter part was quite rushed and slightly too dark to look at the clothes in detail which is something I wish I would have taken into consideration whilst making the animation but it was a short amount of time we we're given to make the video and the winter part was shot on a winters day so I thought putting a filter over it would also make it seem more like a winters day than just dark bad lighting. 

Compare your stop motion to something similar

This fashion stop motion video is for an actual website called www.jeanmachine.com. The model stays the same throughout the video and looks like a realistic older woman, which I think is the same in my stop motion fashion advert as I'm not trying to be a supermodel and neither is this woman which adds realism and reality to the video. The shots are perfectly in-sync to make it seem like she is wearing numerous outfits underneath each other which I tried to create but it mine wasn't as professional as this. We both used the colour white to make the fashion stand out and have background music. The lighting throughout is bright compared to mine having filters and she seems to be showing winter fashion in the video whereas mine shows summer and winter.