Thursday, 14 February 2013

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For out A2 media coursework, we were tasked with creating a music video promo for an unsigned band, along with some of the marketing and packaging for the videos release, which includes a digipak design and a magazine advert.

Promo: A music video promo’s main aim is to advertise the music track to the target audience. The video will be displayed in a range of digital media, from music channels to iTunes and if the video is created in an eye catching way which specifically appeals to the target audience (in this case the indie market) it will help to sell the music track digitally or through CD form. The promo must be interesting and eye catching enough to be able to be played repeatedly. This helps to keep the song alive as it will be directly connected with a music video that is constantly being replayed.
Magazine Adverts: The magazine advert is usually an a4 spread, is made to specifically sell the album or CD in question. It must be designed to appeal to the targeted market, and the advert should be placed in a magazine that the target audience would read.
Digipak: The digipak is a CD case which contains the CD, bonus content such as lyrics or a poster, and an aesthetically pleasing set of visuals which will appeal to the target audience. The digipak is a must have for a collector or a big fan of the band.

Because of the way that media products are created to appeal to a specific target audience, the different media products must be created to either incorporate, or develop and subvert different conventions. The music track we have picked fits into the indie genre, and after consulting similar bands to the one we have chosen we decided to have a quirky, indie influenced theme running throughout all of our different elements. Indie bands tend to push conventions to assert their individualism on their audience, and that is an element of what makes them so appealing. We have decided to embrace this and use it to our advantage, creating something truly unique and eye catching. An example of this would be the use of the 70s theme in the Beastie Boys song Sabotage, or in the Automatic's song Monster, where a serious performance and a quirky narrative are featured. A music video is required to consist of many different elements and conventions which are typical to the genre of the song. A typical convention included into music videos is the use of performance and narrative. This is when there are shots of the band and of a story developing, which helps to keep the audience intrigued and interested significantly more than just a band performing. A video containing performance alone has no engaging element for the viewer to interpret as their own. Using a narrative convention creates a link between the video and in turn the music with the audience allowing the music to be more memorable and increases the chance of them purchasing it. Camera work usually involves close ups of instruments, mid shots of singers and artists and long shots of the band in the performance aspect, as these help the viewer feel closer and involved with the band whilst watching. We also used unconventional camera shots to intrigue the viewer and convey artistic license and make the promo feel more unique and eye catching. The conventional shots we have used have also featured the performers prominently.  The frontman is nearly always the focus in the band shots and the other musicians are in the background or to the side of the shot unless it is a shot of them on their own.



These are examples of unconventional camera angles we have used in our music promo. The low angles focus change shot is an unusual element to include, however we thought it added to the artistic, indie feel, similar to professional; car showcasing videos. The fisheye lens being used inside a fridge and the Spacemen looking into it adds a quirky dimension to the video. The viewer is suddenly being exposed to the surreal image of 3 homemade astronauts as the fridge door opens, and the fisheye lens helps to warp the image, creating a very peculiar shot for the viewers to be exposed to. The shot of the guitarist’s foot bouncing to the beat is unconventional as feet are very rarely focused upon in promo videos. The fact it is in time to the music helps to reinforce the link between the band and the song, as they themselves appear to become part of the music. The final shot is a low angled shot which highlights the bassist and the guitarist playing together and rocking out. This helps to keep the pace and momentum of the visuals up and helps to emphasise the song’s energy.


The locations and props usually link with the song in some way, and these help to reinforce the themes and ideas behind the song and help illustrate them to the audience, unless the video decides to throw all of that away.  Our song may have some obscure lyrics but we have decided to illustrate certain aspects and themes of the song such as space, and exploration, and have amplified the idea into a unique anecdote.

Illustration:
Illustrates lyrics in the song
Amplifiction:
Takes the lyrics and adds to them and elaborates from one point.
Dysjuncture
Completely unrelated to the lyrics. Example; radiohead, no suprises.
The track we have chosen is a conventional indie track, so we drew inspiration from other videos of the indie genre. (insert examples). We very specifically wanted to have separate narrative and performance, similar to something seen in the Automatics’ Monster video, where there is the hunt for the monster, and the performance in the van. We decided however, to push the conventions and Indie genre expectations by creating a very tongue and cheek narrative regarding astronauts exploring a supermarket. This helps to contrast with the serious performance we have constructed, which uses a very classic car as a backdrop, to help highlight the individual theme, and the costumes also seem very typical of an indie band. By creating conventional and nonconventional elements, we have brought them together to make a quirky indie music promo to help the video stand out from the crowd.
Our music promo challenges typical narrative conventions. We took the idea of the song title, Space Elevator, and place it in a real world setting, creating a quirky, tongue and cheek spaceman exploration video. The costumes are very different, eye catching and unconventional, creating a hook to draw people in.

 Our performance is quite conventional. There are close ups of the lead singer lip syncing to the song, which helps to add a level of realism to the video. The singer is in focus so the rest of the location is out of focus. This is so the singer is the complete focus and the audience can be drawn into the performance.
Another typical element is full band shots. This helps to establish the main characters and showcases the indie themed clothing and props. The backdrop of the morris minor helps to give a sense of unique depth, having a constant feature present as something to relate these shots too.



Typical close up shots of the performance is typical of an indie music video. The close ups of the guitar from a high angle, places you in the position of the guitar being played, allowing the viewer to be very close to the action, creating a potential personal link between them and the music.


Close up shots of the performance is typical of an indie music video. The close ups of the guitar from a high angle, places you in the position of the guitar being played, allowing the viewer to be very close to the action, creating a potential personal link between them and the music.



The use of the car helps to illustrate the individual feel that is present throughout the promo.


Our music promo has taken lots of inspiration from The Automatic’s video Monster. Here you can see a side by side comparison of some of the similar elements we have chosen to include.




These two shots similarly present a vehicle of some sort. The two vehicles are iconic and funky, a Morris Minor and a monster hunting van with go faster stripes. These two add a quirky visual link throughout the respective videos.
 
Similar guitar shots have been used as they help to create a feel of being up close and personal with the artist. This creates a link between the audience and the video, making it more appealing to them and increases the likelihood of sales.
Lots of our band shots are similar to the ones in the Monster video. The shots of performers sometimes have one as the main focus of the shot, and another slightly out of the shot, or in the background. This gives the impression you are actually amongst the band and is effective at strengthening the link between audience and artist.
Our quirky exploration narrative is similar to Monster’s monster hunting section. The characters point things out to each other, excited and in wonder and this has been translated to our video, with monsters replaced by everyday “alien” items.
Some of the performance shots are of the band acting immaturely or exaggerating performance to give a sense of energy to the performance aspects of the video. We decided to use Niall messing around with his guitar to light heartedly break up performance, similar to the break down from monster.
 We have chosen to include close ups of instruments to continue to include the audience on a very personal level. A shot at the same height of the performer helps to create the feeling that the viewer is there, alongside the drummer of the band.

An uncomfortably close shot helps to add a quirky, abstract element to the song. As it’s a very quickly edited shot, it takes the viewer by surprise and helps to draw them into the song.
During the narrative, the characters are prominently featured together in both videos. This helps to create the impression that the two groups are a party of people, setting out to achieve the same goal, and in our case that goal is to explore the ordinary.
 During some of the vocal sections, the frontman is prominently featured. The shot focuses on him with band members in the background, and this helps to create a sense of them singing to the viewer, something that helps to engage them further.
 Unusual people set against the ordinary world.
These screens above compare our narrative to the Beastie Boys music video Intergalactic. Whilst not hip hop, our song is very fast paced and light hearted which are elements shared by the Beastie Boys’ video. The costumes are strikingly similar and this is the kind of effect we were aiming for. The locations are similar in theme too, with them being ordinary locations on the left a subway station and on the right a supermarket. The use of headwear delivers the appearance or a mask, producing a barrier between us and the people on screen. This is the other worldly idea we were looking to recreate.

Similar composition.
 The close ups from our promo have some strikingly similarities to the Beastie Boys one also. This sort of, in your face quirkiness inspired the trolley scene, where the three band member/astronauts are featured in a very close up shot. The focus is on the person doing the action in both, on the left it is the person singing at that moment, on the right is the person pushing the trolley. The use of fisheye on these shots has helped to create a close and personal yet abstract and otherworldly feeling, which is similar to the Beastie Boys video.


  This analysis shows the similar themes.
This shot is not so much a direct comparison but it is more he similarities in theme being analysed. In this shot the explorers/singers are in a crowded busy are that we take for granted. However, the characters are the main focus of the shots, the abstract among the ordinary. This is a recurring theme throughout the narrative and it is something that we felt fitted our song well. However, there are some significant differences between Intergalactic and Space Elevator. The exploration element is completely separate to the performance. The reason for this is that we felt that the narrative needed to be separate from the performance because of the Narrative/Performance split typical of indie promo videos. This allowed us to create a completely separate and unique performance alongside the quirky narrative allowing us to pull together lots of different elements which we wanted to use.

We have chosen our locations to both go with and go against conventional videos. The supermarket interior is very ordinary. This is exactly the location we were looking for, the normal, everyday backdrop. We chose this as it is a very uninteresting place to explore, which combined with the quirky, light hearted spaceman element can become a very entertaining narrative element. The use of the car as a backdrop gives a classic and unusual location that helps to make the performance stand out and make it feel unique. 
 
The Digipak and the magazine advert have been made to be conventional to the indie genre.  The coloured, natural artwork that looks like abstract paintings has been used to create this familiar feel yet the different images being coloured adds an abstract and quirky appearance to the advertising. This use of image is somewhat conventional of indie genres however one of the panels has an image of a space man on it, helping to create the visual link between the promotional video and promotional material.

These wordles help to illustrate some ideas that we decided to pursue. These are ideas that have been present since the pitch and in our final product some things have clearly been developed and explored. The suits and space helmets have been merged to create “Space Suits”. The exploration feel contrasting against a serious performance is still present, and the fact that the contrast is so great pushes the conventional boundaries.

Inspirational music videos:


Our director's commentary:


Evaluation Question 2


The products we have created for our coursework have been designed to appeal to a specific target market, that of a relatively young and hip demographic, but not exclusive to these people. This has been achieved by the artwork and the video all being quirky, which takes inspiration from other indie bands, such as the Automatic’s monster video, and the Foals album artwork.


Our band fits the indie genre and their music is quite upbeat and quirky. We have taken inspiration from the Foals as shown above when creating our promotional content, the digipak and the magazine advert. We have created these elements to be traditional media, things that can be produced physically and exist in real life, in the magazines or when you purchase the pack. We have created these elements to be applicable to real life however; in this day and age new media is becoming more and more prominent.  The adverts have the ability to be shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites because of the way they have been created digitally. This sort of versatility is a must have in the modern world and by having these elements created digitally means they can be distributed digitally for a lower cost, and also can be shown to a wider audience, including people who may not look in music magazines. The actual magazine advert being placed in indie music magazines mean they can be directly shown to the target audience.
I have chosen these publications to show the magazine advert as they cover a wide range of music, so lots of different people can be exposed to the advert. Also because the magazines have a significant indie following, people who are interested in the genre will be able to see the advert as well, maximising potential buyers.
 

 

I have chosen these publications to show the magazine advert as they cover a wide range of music, so lots of different people can be exposed to the advert. Also because the magazines have a significant indie following, people who are interested in the genre will be able to see the advert as well, maximising potential buyers.





The music video will be shown on music channels and on the internet. The promo video has been made to sell the song, and the video will be present on iTunes, Youtube and other music websites. This shows that new media can chare information everywhere. The use of these mediums allows a huge audience to see the promo video. The promo will be also present on music channels such as MTV which will allow the video to be shown to a mainstream audience. The magazine advert will be shown as both an online advert and as a magazine advert in magazines like Q and NME. The fact it has been made as a digital file means it can be placed on webpages and social networking sites and by targeting both conventional and new media, lots of different people can be advertised the same thing because of the similar products they use creating synergetic links between the different companies and the band.
The digipak will be distributed through retail shops and through online sites such as Amazon and Play.com as well as iTunes. Giving people the choice to either download the music digitally or buy the digipak will help to appeal to people who prefer their music on disc or have it on their computers. By maximising this, the overall profit from the music track will increase.
Imagery:
We have decided to use certain imagery throughout the texts to help create a band identity. Some recurring themes throughout all of our texts are help to create links between the advertising and the promo. The space helmet has been used as it helps to realise the idea of space exploration. The car is iconic and has been used throughout as that is something physial and ralistic which can tie the elements together. The colours use in the ancillary tasks are very similar to that used by the Foals in some of their artwork, and that helps to create the idea of The Smiling Lies being an indie band. All of the images created for the texts are also different for each element. This helps to create a familiar theme running throughout the different texts yet each one is unique, helping to enhance the originality. This is how we chose to brand the set of texts and it creates a sense of identity which can be easilyidentified  as belonging to the band.



Digipak: Pros and Cons
+ Utilises imagery from the promo.
+ Creates a link between the texts and helps to enforce a band image
+ Stylistic and iconic
+ Follows conventions
+ Adds something new on top of the existing themes, unique.
- Some of the imagery is completely unrelated, however, this could be viewed as a good thing.


Magazine Advert: Pros and Cons
+ Simplistic
+ Morris Minor is iconic
+ Helps to enforce band image
+ Similar in style to the digipak
+ Uses an original image

Evaluation Question 3


Question 3
Our promo’s target audience was outlined as being fans of the indie music genre, who prefer upbeat and fast paced music. We initially pitched our ideas to the audience and gathered feedback.

Our initial pitch.




The pitch ideas were generally well received and the use of the supermarket and space helmet locations and props were the audience’s favourite. We decided to pursue this line of thought and the finished promo and ancillary tasks are heavily influenced by those initial pitch responses and ideas. The merging of a serious performance and the quirky narrative, with an energetic atmosphere running throughout has been transferred from paper to video, and the feedback at the very beginning of the project has reflected this.

During the creation of the promo video, our initial performance footage was shot very differently. The original footage was filmed in a band room and the audience’s reaction to this footage was not positive. We were not happy with the footage ourselves, and we refilmed this section of the video to better fit the genre. This new footage was well received and vastly increased the overall quality of the video.

During the process of creating our texts, we conducted interviews with people from our target audience. These interviews contained questions which were tailored to give us specific feedback on the music promo and we asked what people would typically expect from our promo, along with what they expected from the track we have chosen.

Audience research videos
1 2 and 3


From what we collected results wise, the audience was swayed by our supermarket spacesuit narrative, which was our strongest pitch idea. Because they listed the conventional areas (narrative split, quirky themes, indie costumes and a typical performance) when they answered what they expected from the genre, we knew that that is what people expected, so we chose not to go completely against that so a part of it is what the audience expects, giving them a familiar element, to then launch themselves into our quirky narrative. Our style of interviewing (one on one interviews) helped us to get results from the questions we asked in a different, more interesting format to just a standard questionnaire, and because we were interviewing the audience members individually they could express their full opinion instead of having to fill out tick boxes or multiple choice questions, typical of a questionnaire. However, out choice of research method does have some limitations. Because the answers from the interviewees were longer and more sophisticated, it is hard to show the results in graphs, as they are more expressed opinions then statistics. However this qualitative data is a great way of getting specific opinions and ideas back from audience members.

This meant that there is no easy way to record the answers we have collected and display them, so the opinions expressed had to be analysed individually. In order to do this in great detail, lots of time would be consumed, so in order to improve this area, perhaps a mixture of video interviews and questionnaires could be used, to allow for results that could be applied to the texts and promo in a
way that could be measured, by referring back to charts etc.
Summary:
From our research we have learned that people expect certain things from an Indie style music video. These include the inclusion of indie style costumes, a narrative and something offbeat. The addition of the Space helmets was an idea that was well received and because of this we decided to implement it throughout our texts. The original footage was not so well received by peers and members of the audience. This directly affected our production in several ways. We reshot the whole performance and increased the pace of the editing to match the song. Our feedback videos show that the audience has responded positively to the reshooting of the video, see below.

Feedback videos





Feedback on Finished Promo:
As shown by the feedback videos response to our music promo was very positive. Lots of people thought that the indie theme and the comical and light hearted narrative in combination with the fast paced editing of the performance was a successful combination. They also thought that the quirky space helmets were humorous and that the video fitted the song, which is ultimately what we aimed to create: a promotional video for the music. Below are examples of how we shared the song using new media. The promo for Space Elevator has been uploaded to Youtube and shared on our individual Facebook accounts along with the band’s Facebook page. The feedback on their side was very positive too, with the camera angles being praised. There was some negative feedback regarding our video however. Some people complained that the car was not clean enough in the promo, and that it was distracting from the band performing. Others said that the video was a little bit too performance heavy and they wanted to see more of the space man narrative. This was only minor complaints and over all, the feedback was very positive, with some people not giving any improvements. These methods of gaining feedback were effective as the audience could give an honest and in depth opinion on our final promo. Sharing the video on new media, such as Facebook allows lots of different people to view the video and give their opinions. We shared the promo with the band and they were very impressed with the final product, and because of new media, we could get this feedback.


We also gathered feedback for our ancillary tasks. We have specifically created our other two texts to be both unique and fitting to with the promo, as well as being heavily influenced by other iconic, indie work. We used a questionnaire to ask questions to the audience regarding our ancillaries.
The answers to the questionnaire were positive. The use of the Morris Minor and the space helmets throughout the elements was well received, as they felt it connected to the promo and made a band image. They also believed that it was typical of the indie genre, and the simplistic outlines add a very Foals like feel to the digipak, something we were initially aiming for. The ranges of images on the digipak were well received and the composition of the magazine advert gained positive feedback. These elements did not gather any real negative feedback, which shows that we have created our ancillaries specifically with the target audience in mind.


Evaluation Question 4

Because of the growing issues regarding copyright in this day and age, when chosing our music track we chose from the internet. WWW.unsigned.com features lots of artists that are not tied to any record label, allowing for their music to be free from copyright. The use of the internet and other new media helps artists to create their work and share it online, without having to deal with the constraints of working with a record company. Because of this we browsed the site, looking for an indie band, a genre that interested the group as a whole. We found The Smiling Lies and attempted to contact them, however they did not reply to us. In this case we looked at other quirky music videos and took inspiration from them, these include The Beastie Boys, some Oasis videos with a strong narrative, and the Automatic’s monster video. We research a bit of background information on our artists by using their Myspace and the Unsigned page in order to help us construct our pitch. When creating our Music Promo, we used a Canon DLSR camera and a HD Sony camera. The use of HD helped to create a professional feel for the footage and about half of the footage filmed was filmed on a tripod. A lot of the other footage, such as close ups and moving shots were filmed freehand so that the video retained it’s fast paced feel and gave the impression that the viewer was in the scene with the band. In order to create a realistic lipsyncing feel, we played the audio through a laptop instead of individual headphones, so that everyone knew what was in time and when to perform. A downside of this was because of the sheer volume of the drums, it was hard to hear the music over them, so in future projects which require this, perhaps find a way to subtly mute the drums, or use a louder set of speakers.
Another key part of our filming equipment that we used is a Fish Eye lens. The use of this lens in narrative brings the otherworldly feel to life. Taking inspiration from Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys we chose to use the lens to create an abstract and otherworldy feel.
Fish eye lens example.


We did try to film the performance in a band room originally, but the lighting and the amount of camera angles were not sufficient. There are multiple reasons for this, such as us not having high enough lighting of a good quality, as this made the shots look flat and dull, and being restricted by the size of the room. Because of this we decided to reshoot the footage using professional lighting rigs in a bigger, more open location. These helped to create the lighting effect we wanted and increased the professional look of the performance which was what we were looking to do.

Because we decided to shoot at night time, we had to light the central area using the stage lights and in order to use the car as the backdrop, the car was parked on the drive and the lighting was set up around the car to create a shot that featured just the car in the background. In order to achieve this we had to use the lighting set up efficiently to make sure the lights are set up in the right positions. 


We set the lighting up to illuminate the front of the car and the ground around it by angling the lights downwards and setting them up in front of the car. We did this so there was no background visible and this gave the impression that the car was the backdrop. This was done to create an unusual looking stage location which would appear eye catching and individual.

 The overall look of the pro-lighting and the use of the car as the backdrop created footage, superior to the original. The variety of shot was increased and we took much more footage then before, giving us plenty of spare footage to work with in order to get the shots for the fast paced editing we were going for. For the editing process we used the programmes iMovie and Final Cut Pro. We did the bulk of the editing in iMovie because it is simple to use and has an easy saving and importing process. In our initial ideas, we wanted to create a teleporting effect by fading videos together sing final cut. Because of technical issues regarding exporting the files, we abandoned this idea; however we kept the footage for test footage.
Specific ways we used Imovie:
We edited the footage by cutting, and splitting clips. We added some visual effects on some shots to keep the colours the same throughout. We sharpened some shots which were not quite in focus for fast cuts. We sped up some of the narrative footage to add to the comical and lighthearted feel of it all, and we cropped some of the shots to remove some elements that were just on screen. For the final shot we added a blur effect to add to the idea that the song ad come to an end, and the song was set to fade out as well. Imovie was used to sync the audio also, delivering one of the most conventional elements to the video. One final thing we used Imovie for was exporting the video in HD, to give it a more professional feel.
Example of Final Cut usage: Splitting clip for original footage.






Speeding up clips on iMovie


Fast Paced Editing

Splitting clips

Adding Effects

Final Cut test video



For our ancillary tasks we used the programme Photoshop to manipulate and colour the different images to create the desired indie effect. This is because Photoshop features an easy to use Layer tool, which means we can trace the original image and just leave the sketched over version, which a background is then applied to and coloured. This allows for an accurate drawing to be created on the computer creating a professional looking set of album artwork.



Other technologies we used during the production were Blogger, to host all the planning digitally so lots of multimedia can be used to make up the planning, using Photoshop and GIMP to create costume sketches via a graphics tablet, which allowed for detailed, digital sketches.

After the creation of the production, we posted the video onto Facebook and Youtube, allowing us to share our creation with the world, and also allowing other people to comment and provide feedback on the work. The video on Facebook gained lots of feedback and the Youtube video currently has over 500 views. Feedback from the Band was positive and finding this out would be near impossible without the use of new media, as the band is from America. The use of a global network such as the internet has allowed us to create these international links.

What I have learnt from this experience:
This year’s media project has had some unforeseen issues that I will know to look out for in the future. The lighting and location issues resulted in a last minute refilming crisis, changing our initial idea to something which ultimately worked better with our chosen genre. The refilming was caused by lighting issues and a lack of space in order to get suitable shots. In the future, practical testing of the location beforehand will take place, and lighting will be a top priority. The studio lighting rigs we used outside were far superior to the dark, dingy lighting of our first shoot and this was a major problem. The refilmed footage tackled these issues and looked superior in the final promo.




Friday, 1 February 2013

Final Texts

Music Promo




Ancillary Tasks

Digipak front cover, and panels.




 
Grid view
 

Magazine advert.