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

For our current project we were asked to create a music video as well as two ancillary tasks, one was a digipak and the other was a magazine ad, these promotional materials would be used to advertise the song as well as the band.


We chose a local unsigned band who we worked closely with to create a music video as  well as a digi-pak and a magazine advert. Bands and artists use videos, digipaks and magazine ads to promote new songs and/or album realise's it helps to make the band and get them into the public eye in various ways. By using these three techniques to advertise an artist it often creates an iconic image for people to be able to recognise throughout the process of selling a new song or album not only this put allows them to reinforce or develop their current image.


Digipaks are just one of the types of advertisement which artists use to promote their new songs as well as themselves. Digipaks are usually
book-styled packages with card outer binding and plastic trays inside which hare used to hold the CD or DVD. They were the first alternative to jewel cases to be used by major record companies. There are many positives for using Digi-paks rather than your basic jewel cases such as they are shatterproof, jewel cases easily break, they are environmentally friendly as most of the card used is recycled.

Below is Katy Perry's digipak, tour advertisement as well as an advertisement for the realise of her album, I annotated each of them showing how the relate to each other.
 

As you can see from my annotation all forms of advertisement clearly link, so if you were to see one of them you would be able to relate it back to the others, this is creating a band image for the artists this is done by the use of colours, font and general style. These are all prime examples of an ideal form of promoting an artist, firstly each of them all include the name and image of the artist which within pop genre is highly important because within this genre it is important the artists identity is shown.

A music video is another method of advertising a song and artist, it means that fans can not only listen to a song but watch a video alongside this giving them more of a storyline with the lyrics. By making a video it would meant that the song and the artists would be hugely published due to it being on you tube as well as various TV shows such as MTV or Viva, also if the song enters the top 40 it will be shown on various top 40 programmes. There is also viral marketing which is a really good marketing technique as it will be passed around to various people.

Within music videos it is expected that there would be a mix of narrative and performance shots throughout the promo. Within a pop video such as Katy Perry various camera shots are usually used such as close ups and mid shots, this is to be able to focus more on the artist as pop artists are often more famous for their imagery rather than their music.

To the left are various shots from the Katy Perry video, these are all very conventional shots and are very typical pop promo. As you can see the main attraction of each shot is Katy Perry clearly showing the artist, whether she is singing dancing or acting within a narrative. Going back to the other forms of advertisement this clearly links with these, including the colours, style and obviously imagery of Katy which is used throughout.
Music videos narrative can be one of three things amplification which is where they exaggerate most of the lyrics of the song, illustration is when you pick out key words within the lyrics and illustrate them throughout and finally is disjucture this is when it has no relation to the lyrics at all which is often popular for pop promos. Katy Perry's video is an example of a slightly disjuctured video, but there is slight illustration in areas, as it is an almost magical, sureal world linking with lyrics such as "I know a place
where the grass is really greener. Warm, wet, and wild, there must be somethin' in the water" which is shown through the mise-en-scene.

This video is an example of illustration as well as some amplification of the lyrics. There is a real sense of loneliness and sadness throughout the promo which the band wanted to get across. Such s when the milk bottle leaves the house as no one was paying attention to him and the lyrics are "does anyone really care how you feel" by using a milk bottle it still gives the video a unique edge which will stick in people's minds.


The prezi below shows music video conventions.

I have created a wordle summing up conventions of an alternative music video.



Depending on the genre the conventions are different, as you can see the conventions within my wordle are different to what was shown within Katy Pery's  pop video. Nirvana- smells like team spirit is a good example of an alternative video, as it clearly shows various of the band performing which is very common within alternative videos. There is a slight bit of narrative, but the video is mainly focusing on the band and the performance, showing off their skills and instruments. We wanted this style within ours however we did want to use some narrative within it as we wanted to be able to create a disjunctured piece.

Our main influence for both us as a group but also the band themselves is OKGO as we liked their unique videos and use of stop-motion which they often used in their videos. We paticulary liked End Love and we took a huge amount of inspiration from this video when creating ours. After meeting our band various times we also thought that their personalitlies are perhaps similar to OKGOs and by using similar methods such as stop-motion and the use of mise-en-scene which would help to portray the band's image and the fact they don't take things to seriously and are up for a laugh. We also want to dress the band similair with a casual look as this is common for alternative promos.

 

 

As you can see we have clearly taken influence from OKGO End Love, this video clearly shows that we have used ideas from their video to create an almost dance routine for our band to perform. We also used a similar mise-en-scene with the outside image with various wooded areas.As you can see we have also used the casual clothing image as we wanted them to look as much like a alternative band as possible.

Another video we took inspiration from was Good Time by Owl City and Carly Raw Jepson. We paticuarly liked the party scene around the camp fire towards the end showing a group of friends having fun and we wanted to capture this image within our promo as well especially as it would illustrate lyrics such as "tonight is the night". The picture below is a screenshot from our music video and as you can clearly see it is inspired from the end of Good Time, we feel this illusrates the lyrics really well as well as giving an image of the band bein fun. This also flows really well with the upbeat and fastert pace which fits really well with these images.

But we also wanted to make sure we used various shots of the band because the conventions of a alternative video include shots of instruments and the singer, to be able to focus on their talents and to represent them more as band which is done through using shots of gutiars, drums etc. As you can see we used various shots of the band performing, mainly from a live gig which we were fortunate to go to but on during the day in the woods we often asked them to use their instruments also. We used typical camera conventions such as close ups of the lead singer, or of a guitar which we added in within the narrative piece this would also make it feel more like a real video. Another common convention is having two different location shots to be able to split the narrative and performance up, by having the woods with the autumn leaves and then the gig where it was dark but with spotlights gave a really nice contrast throughout the piece.



This is our closing shot, we decided to finish with a blurred firework then a fade out from this, due to the pace of the music being slowed down this wasa really nice way to complete the piece as we also slowed down the firework still representing the fun within the video, but by having it fade out it gave the piece a smoother ending.

Not only did we use fireworks within our piece but we also used sparklers, to make these more interesting we sped the clip up as well as changed the colour, so each time they were different but this also meant they linked with the fireworks as well as the leaves from the woodland scene. This worked really well and was almost a montage technique of editing, using our art skills to make the piece more artistic and interesting.

 

I have created a wordle which shows the conventions of a digipak.

When creating our digipak we would have to make sure we remember these conventions but also remember the conventions of an alternative music video so this could be enhanced through the digipak as well as the magazine advert.

 

This is an example of a digipak and as you can see there is a theme throughout the digipak and it is also linked to her song California Girls which has a similar theme. The theme is a candy theme, which is used on the covers and the actual CD's themselves. There is an effect of candyfloss being shown as clouds which is also used in the California girls music promo. The CDs are also within the theme one being a donut and the other candy. The font used is also within the theme with colour scheme's to fit such as the reds on the back of the digipak. Inside there is also images of Katy to fit the theme there are cakes with her in the image. Also when you open the digipak there is a scent of sweets and candy which really adds to the candy theme she is trying to give. As Katy Perry is on the cover this will drag people's attention more due to her being a popular artist everyone will recognise her.

 

Below is our digipak which we have created to alongside our music video and magazine advert, which i have annotated to show how it is conventional and similar to real digipaks.

 

I have also created a wordle on conventions which are offten within a magazine ad, once again like the digipak we also need to remember the alternative conventions to make it clear what the genre is.

 

This is Katy Perry's advert for Teenage Dream as you can clearly see it is similar to the digipak such as the colour schemes and use of font meaning people are able to relate the two due to the imagery being the same. The text fonts and colours are also the same keeping a house style throughout. The advert doesn't have a lot of text but shows what singles are included which are well known No.1's which will draw people's attention as everyone knows them. At the bottom it includes her website so her fans are able to go on it and perhaps find more information about her and the album.

I have also annotated our magazine advert to show how this relates to the digipak and also how it is conventional.



How effective is the combination of the main product and ancillary task?

Above is our final music video, digipak and magazine advert, when placing all three tasks together it is clear that all of the forms of advertisement really work together and promote the band well. We wanted to make sure that when you saw either one that you could relate them back to each other so we wanted to create a clear and strong image, not only this but we made sure we used the same font giving the bands name a logo which could be used again for tour date posters or other album covers meaning people could relate not only them but the text. Not only this but we wanted to get across the fun side of the band as well as any key relevant information in a way which would promote the band well, we wanted to express the uniqueness of the band through the video and ancillary tasks, by having a digipak which would stand out on a shelf and a magazine article which would be recognised within a magazine.

As you can see the magazine article and digipak clearly link as we used the same images and text, we decided to use paint splats which we created ourself we then edited the colours so they were a lot brighter and vibrant. This expressed the word ‘dance’ because it relates to the lighting at a gig or disco, it also linked with the video with the colours of the fireworks and sparklers we used. We also used an image of the band in both ancillary tasks, not only because it is a main convention of a digipak and magazine but also meaning any fans will know exactly who they are perhaps from seeing their video. The images we used we took especially and directed them to stand in certain ways, the image which is used on the magazine advert really expresses the fun and unqiueness of the band it also shows that they are a little different and seen as 'crazy', we also asked them to use their instruments showing them off as a band who can play instruements and there is more to them than singing. Within the digipak we had one side which we used an individual shot of each memeber, expressing their individual personalities and they aren't just a band. The final image we used is a natural shot of them playing the instruments, this is because on the day of shooting in the woods they would often burst into song simply whilst we walked to a new location so we wanted to be able to capture this within their music video as well as their digipak, so this was actually a natural shot of them we took. The images we took ourself really link with the alternative genre because of the style of the band so the clothes they are wearing is very altnertative, the image of them playing their instruments naturally is also seen to be alternative style because of the simplicity of it. However the use of colour within our digipak is similair to one of OKGO's album covers, which as you can see uses a lot of colours and is very simple just like the front of our digipak also the simplicity and has the text so you know exactly who it else and nothing else.

 

When creating this we made sure that we got across the name of the band, the name of the single, the release date and any reviews, this is all important information which when people read can know exactly when, where , who and what. We used an image which we also used on the digipak meaning there was a strong link but the text was also the same. The use of colours was simply paint spalts we had created ourselves then changed the colour on photoshop, by having this we felt it linked well with the fireworks within our music video it also gave that sense of the 'dance' genre as they often use bright colours and finally it linked with the 'chameleon' within the song title.

 


With the digipak we wanted to use the colours and images of the band so it would relate with the other two froms of advertisement. We wanted the front cover to stand out but still be simple so this meant having the paint but then simply only having the name of the band on the front this really works and we are really impressed with the outcome. On the back of the digipak where the list of tracks are we put their facebook page at the bottom meaning it gives that little extra advertisement and people can like their page and follow the updates. Inside we had two images we took on the day of shooting, one image is of them playing the instruments but in a more natural way, because after spending the day with them they often just broke into song and we wanted to represent this in some way. The other image is a single shot of each member this gives more focus on each individual within the band.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before we started creating our music video we did various forms of audience feedback so we could get an idea of what our target audience thought of the song and the type of image they had in mind for this video. By doing this it meant we could brainstorm ideas which our audience had to be able to make a promo which would be enjoyed and would meet our audience’s wants and needs.
 

We interviewed a few people first and here is a video, with their feedback in

 .

 

Two people we asked actually really liked OKGO and Owl City Good Time which were two of our influences for our music video, so we took on board their favourites videos to be able to interrupt this into ours. They also visualised certain aspects which we used such as the friends being together and the live performance shots, so as you can see we have clearly taken on board our audience feedback which is really important.

Another form of audience feeback was that we handed our questionnaires to various ages within our target audience and these are just two of the pie charts which show what was proved to be most popular. Once again this shows that we listened to our audience when brainstorming our ideas.

The final way we got audience feedback was that as a group we did a pitch to the rest of our class, below is our pitch where we presented our ideas to the class and it meant the teacher and other students could give us feedback on what they like and what they think would work as well as what they didn’t like.

 

After we had filmed the footage and we were editing, we decided to make a short preview of the video meaning DanceGrenade could post it on their facebook page to be able to promote the video and to create a ‘buzz’.

These are the comments from the band as well as a screenshot from the post on their face book page and below is the preview!

 

 

 

 

 This worked really well and got people excited and as they are local we had people asking us when the final piece was going to be ready as people were generally really looking forward to it.

After we had finished our music video we needed to get audience feedback again to be able to know what people thought of it and whether it was what they were expecting. We decided to interview the same people as we did before creating the video. This meant we got  people from the age of 17-30 which meant we covered various ages within our target market.

We asked them:

-          After watching our video what was your first impression?

-          What do you think works best? Which part did you enjoy the most?

-          What improvements do you think could be made?

-          Do you think there is an equal amount of narrative and live performance?

-          Our genre is alternative do you think this video fits this?

 

After listening to their feedback everyone seemed to really enjoy the music video and thought it really worked with the song and genre and particularly liked the woodland scenes. When we asked them what improvements they thought should be made what seemed to be said most was that they didn’t like the live performance side to it as they enjoyed the other parts more and thought that the woodland scenes were a lot stronger and fitted better.

This is taken from the DanceGrenade facebook page which was a really good way to get a reaction just like with the preview people really enjoyed it and there were various comments also. As you can see they were really happy with the outcome and there was various likes and comments from fans saying how they enjoyed it. We also spoke to DanceGrenade and asked them to answer a few questions for us on what they thought.

 

 

                                     

So this is the feedback from DanceGrenade which was given to us by the lead singer on behalf of the band. As you can clearly see they were really pleased and were thankful for us helping them out and really enjoyed the whole piece even if they weren’t sure with some of our visions at first. When they spoke about improvements they said about their costumes at the live performance but this was simply down to the time of year of the gig due to it being Halloween they had planned to have it themed this way which was unfortunate for us but something which we dealt with and made work. We were really thankful to the band for letting us work with them and they were just as thankful back to us as they will be a big advertisement for them.

 

We were also lucky enough to get some feedback from Steven Leaks who is a friend of Lucy’s but  works for Ideal Homes as a camera man this is what he said:

“The video is a strong product. It has followed a clear theme that is set by the ideas and tone generated by the song. If I had to sum it up all in one word, that word would be FUN. Obviously though, there are both good points and points that could be worked on for next time.

Some of the things I really enjoyed about the video was the mix of techniques and effects that were used. From slow motion to fast motion. From static withdrawing shots too handheld shots helping bring the audience in and feel apart of the video. I especially thought the following of someone into the concert was clever. It’s a music video, experimentation works.

That being said, one of the points I wasn’t quite as keen on was the dancing. In some places it worked well, in others, not so much. For example, I liked the part where they were sped up spinning in a circle. Not entirely sure how it fitted in but it worked. On the other hand, where they were standing in a line doing choreographed moves, it didn’t work so well. They weren’t in time with one another and looked really awkward, which distracted me (the viewer) from the overall feel of the video. I much preferred the few shots where the band were chasing each other with branches and having a laugh, it fitted in much better with the theme.

There were some great shots of the band in concert, as well as shots of the crowd. Again this being shot handheld helps bring the audience in and feel like they’re part of the concert. But sadly, I felt there wasn’t enough of these shots.

The shots of the fireworks and bonfire were fantastic. They really helped bring the video to life towards the climatic end. Although I was slightly perplexed as to why they were shot on the side. I understand that it was a nice shot of the firework going from the ground to the air, but as it wasn’t righted in post-production it felt rather odd.

In all, I thought this was a great final product. It captured the essential idea of fun well, and had the benefit of being entertaining. It could do with a few tweaks here and there, but hey,  what films can’t. Well done guys.”

 

We really appreciated this and it was great to have someone who is in the profession to comment on our video.

 

Not only did we get feedback on our music video but we also posted our digipak to get some comments on what people thought, as you can see everyone liked it and both Loui, Gavin and Adam are from the band and as you can see by the comments they really liked it which is amazing to hear as it is on their band.

 

 

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used this for various forms of research as well as audience feedback. When we were first researching on what to do for our music video we often used this popular social network to ask  people their opinions on the song and current music videos. Due to our band having facebook we often gave them things to post such as our music video preview which we created before completing the real promo meaning that the band could make people aware of what we were doing and to get people hyped up about it. We then gave them the promo to post up and we also posted it on our facebooks so we were able to get feedback on the promo.

Facebook wasn’t the only social network we used, we often used twitter too, meaning we could target more people when asking questions, we also linked the bands facebook page so more people would like their page and would then be able to view the video once it was up. This was an affective method as it meant we got more people to log onto facebook and check it out.

You tube and vimeo are two sites which contain various videos including music videos. This helped us during our research period because we were able to look at current videos to get inspiration such as when DanceGrenade told us they were inspired by OKGO we checked out all their videos and got a lot of ideas from their videos to use within ours. It also meant we could watch alternative videos and get a better understanding to the conventions used within a video.  We used youtube to display our video meaning we could send links to be people to view it. By using youtube to put our video on it meant we could access it really easy to be able to put youtube links onto facebook for people to view it also makes it easy for the band and other viewers to access if they ever wanna show someone.

We used imovie on the apple macs to be able to put all our footage together and create the music video, this includes various affects and transitions.

When sped up this part of the video and this worked really well and we tried various ways of creating this piece we thought about using stop-motion but we realised that OKGO simply filmed it and edited it after. So we filmed DanceGrenade doing it and when he came to editing it we sped it up making it look really effective.  We also changed colouring in various parts of the video such as the sparklers, fireworks, bonfire scenes by doing this the colours really stood out and worked well.

These are screenshots from imovie of the techniques we used to be able to speed up and change colours on imovie, which were the main two effects we used within our piece.

To film our music video we used HD camera's which when we came to putting the footage onto imovie it was really clear and looked really affective and professional.

Photoshop is a technology which we used when creating our digipak and magazine article, using this meant we could add effects to any images as well as the paint splats we created. By using photoshop it gave our ancillary tasks a higher quality when finalised. Not only have I improved in using imovie but also photoshop when editing the digipak and magazine article I developed my skills and knowledge of how to use the software, changing colours, sizes, cropping and various other techniques which we used to create our ancillary tasks.  Below is a screenshot of one of the techniques i used on photoshop, I was changing the colour of the paint to be able to make it link with the music video as i would use this image for the digipak and magazine advert.

 

 

During the research stage we often used search engines such as google to find out any information such as conventions or the alternative genre, we could research current artists digipaks and videos helping us to create ours.

We used blogger to keep record of all our research and planning, to post up our inspirations and ideas which we had. We created various videos with testing and experiments which we also posted on Blogger. By using Blogger it meant all of our work was kept together and we were able to use different forms of media such as powerpoints, videos etc which we wouldn't of been able to use if we produced our work in paper form.

Finally is itunes, we use this to access our chosen song this meant we could put it onto itunes and we could also play it to people before hand whilst doing any research so they were able to listen to it before answering any questions.

From using all these forms of technology I have learnt a lot and also increased my skills in using certain devices. What I have developed the most in is having a creative mind so when creating things it is unique and I think of the consequences more deciding whether it will work or whether to take the chance knowing it will work amazingly. This development has helped me within my work in media but has also been reflected in other subjects such as my art work I am now more open minded about my work trying to make it more unique from other pieces.

When we came to edit the footage we realised that some of the lighting from the live performance wasn’t ideal, this was because there was only one spot light which was over the lead singer, which meant any footage of him was really clear and well lit. However the other three members weren’t as well lit so they were often in the darkness a little which was a shame but we worked around this and we felt that the lighting was a great deal especially when the shots weren’t on the screen for long due to them cutting from shot to shot at quiet a fast pace.


Another issue which occurred was when we came to uploading our piece onto a disc to send to the band, the sound from the footage had leaked through which caused a lot of panic and worry because it really effect the video when watching. Also because we were putting it on facebook viewers wouldn’t understand that this was simply a technical issue so it was important we sorted it out because it ruined the quality of the video. We tried various methods such as putting it onto another software called final cut but this didn’t work either, however it was eventually sorted and we were able to send it the band without any issues which we were all really pleased about.

 

After watching back our preliminary task I can clearly see that as a group we have progressed dramatically, we became more creative with shots as well as the mise-en-scene and use of clothing. However, our prelim also influenced us and gave us certain experiences such as choragraphing a routine which we then did for the band also, it also meant we meant more about music videos and the various shots which worked and didnt for a promo. It also meant we were able to try syncing singing and dancing with a song which was good practice for when it came ot doing our DanceGrenade piece.

DanceGrenade Korma Chameleon

This is our final music video, enjoy!

Ancillary Tasks

With the digipak we wanted to use the colours and images of the band so it would relate with the other two froms of advertisement. We wanted the front cover to stand out but still be simple so this meant having the paint but then simply only having the name of the band on the front this really works and we are really impressed with the outcome. On the back of the digipak where the list of tracks are we put their facebook page at the bottom meaning it gives that little extra advertisement and people can like their page and follow the updates. Inside we had two images we took on the day of shooting, one image is of them playing the instruments but in a more natural way, because after spending the day with them they often just broke into song and we wanted to represent this in some way. The other image is a single shot of each member this gives more focus on each individual within the band.

When creating this we made sure that we got across the name of the band, the name of the single, the release date and any reviews, this is all important information which when people read can know exactly when, where , who and what. We used an image which we also used on the digipak meaning there was a strong link but the text was also the same. The use of colours was simply paint spalts we had created ourselves then changed the colour on photoshop, by having this we felt it linked well with the fireworks within our music video it also gave that sense of the 'dance' genre as they often use bright colours and finally it linked with the 'chameleon' within the song title.

 As you can see the magazine article and digipak clearly link as we used the same images and text, we decided to use paint splats which we created ourself we then edited the colours so they were a lot brighter and vibrant. This expressed the word ‘dance’ because it relates to the lighting at a gig or disco, it also linked with the video with the colours of the fireworks and sparklers we used. We also used an image of the band in both ancillary tasks, not only because it is a main convention of a digipak and magazine but also meaning any fans will know exactly who they are perhaps from seeing their video. The images we used we took especially and directed them to stand in certain ways, the image which is used on the magazine advert really expresses the fun and unqiueness of the band it also shows that they are a little different and seen as 'crazy', we also asked them to use their instruments showing them off as a band who can play instruements and there is more to them than singing. Within the digipak we had one side which we used an individual shot of each memeber, expressing their individual personalities and they aren't just a band. The final image we used is a natural shot of them playing the instruments, this is because on the day of shooting in the woods they would often burst into song simply whilst we walked to a new location so we wanted to be able to capture this within their music video as well as their digipak, so this was actually a natural shot of them we took. The images we took ourself really link with the alternative genre because of the style of the band so the clothes they are wearing is very altnertative, the image of them playing their instruments naturally is also seen to be alternative style because of the simplicity of it.