Evaluation Question 4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

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

During the process of this course I have used many different media technologies wherever suitable to help me plan and create my media products. Firstly I used technology to aid me in my research of existing artists, I did this using the internet and used video streaming websites like Youtube.com to watch existing bands music video to gleam inspiration and look at conventions. I used the internet and books to research about theorists like Goodwin who devised Goodwin’s 6 points, website such as Google and Wikipedia were useful for finding factual information like this. I also used Google Image searches to find pictures of existing digipaks and magazine adverts to look at and analyse and well as looking at ones that I own.

First Discovering the band was done online through websites like unsigned.com and myspace.co.uk, without websites like these finding and unsigned band to use would have been very difficult and I would have been reliant of finding a band that I actually knew people in who wrote their own songs. But thanks to these technologies I could use a band from anywhere across the world.

In terms of filming I used a Sony Handycam hdr-cx115e, handheld, HD hard drive camcorder. This camera is high-definition and although the footage was edited in standard definition the quality of footage was still surprisingly good to say this is a high street available camera. The video had quite a nice home-video low-fi look to it which suited the indie ethos of the video well. I used this camera in conjunction with multiple tripods to steady the shots and allow smooth tilt and pans. In the industry much higher quality camera would be used and could be used with dollies or steadycam. Cameras like the Handycam mean that small bands are finding it increasingly easier to film their own low budget music videos.

I edited all the footage on the school’s apple iMacs using the built in iMovie software, the iMovie software is fairly simple to use if not quite clumsy at times. Althought he footage was filmed in HD, I believe the clips were converted to standard definition when they were imported into the software, hence the grainy quality I mentioned previously. Although iMacs are the industry standard in media, most of the time the software used is Final Cut Pro, not iMovie. Technologies that I used in iMovie include the preset clip filters that you can apply such as the black and white filter that I applied to the first half of my video and then removed for the second part. I also used the software to speed up and slow down clips, use preset transitions like fade to black and cross-fade, as well as crop some pieces of footage to get rid of something unwanted on the edge of the frame.

My cover images were shot using a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ10 point and shoot camera. This camera is 12megapixel and has 12x optical zoom. This camera produces good quality photos and for the sizes I need the photo were easily of a high enough quality.

I edited the photos and graphics using Photoshop Elements which is very good software, if not a little complicated to used until you get used to it. For the covers I produced and the advert I think the outcome looks rather professional. I used features of this application such as the built in texturing tool where I simply had to choose the parameters of the texture and it would render it for me.

Another big piece of technology again a website on the internet is Google Blogger that I have used to record, and plan my progress throughout this course and at the same time used it to present my coursework entry.

Had this been a professionally released video it would definitely be uploaded onto YouTube and Vevo on the record labels official protected channel to reach a much wider audience as well as being played on music television channels like MTV. The internet and social media websites like Twitter and Facebook would be a very good way of advertising and spreading the word about my album release and I think sites like these play a hug part in the music/media industry in the modern world.

Evaluation Question 3:What have you learnt from you audience feedback?

What have you learnt from you audience feedback?

Evaluation question 3

View more presentations from mja2media.

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

My main media product was the music video in which I used a narrative of the singer’s monotonous lifestyle which ended when the rest of the band appeared for the performance section after which things seem to improve for the front man. The ancillary tasks were the digipak for the album and the magazine advert/ poster for the release of the debut album by The 99s.

Throughout the three media products I made efforts to create continuity and a running theme. To do this I used the running theme of photographs of the band members lined up against a wall with funny hats on and in each picture they swap hats or change positions. In the main element these pictures were used as a pixilation/ human stop motion during the instrumental as a ‘laddish’ band messing around scene as seen in some of the videos I analysed by The Kooks which was a very effective part of the video.

I used these pictures as small thumbnail photos in a tile format across the front and back of the CD cover. I did this as I didn’t want to single out and choose one picture to use as the whole background because the whole point of the photos was that they were changing hats and positions etc so to show this I tiled them. I think this is quite clever as at a first glance you would think the pictures were all the same but after closer inspection you can see that they are different

I also used these tile thumbnails on the album release magazine advert but I included some new picture on the advert as there was more room for them on here and more space to fill. The pictures were not on the album cover but they are still recognisable by the band image created throughout using the retro colours, the funny hats and the quirky stances.

Another large part of the band image is the 70s colour styling I created in the ancillary tasks. This wasn’t used in the main task (video) as such but the colours on the digipak and advert were chosen to compliment the cream/ beige coloured wallpaper that was used as the backdrop for the photoshoot. I used this colour scheme for all of the ancillary tasks so as to create a product that my target audience of 14-25 year olds could quickly recognise in record shops such as Fopp and HMV as they will be most likely looking for the album from images they have seen on the advert/poster when they go into the shop to buy the album. The album for The 99s I decided to call ‘The 99s’ as many artists release self- titled albums as their debut album. This means that for a first album the band and album title are the same so the text can be nice and large to grab the attention of potential customers.

For the back cover of the digipak and some of the magazine advert I lowered the transparency of the thumbnail pictures so that the text could be read more easily when overlaid on top of the, however, the pictures are still visible and it strikes a nice balance and adds softness to the back cover so it is easy to look at and read the track listing. Like I found of existing artists like The Kooks I used the same font for everything on the digipak and magazine advert as this strengthens the brand of the artist and when the audience/ owners of the album see the font they will immediately relate it to The 99s.

Overall I received positive feedback on my main task and ancillary tasks and people said how well they all tie in together as one larger media product and therefore create a good brand for the artist.

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

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

The task that I had to undertake was to create a:

·         Music Video for a song

·         Digipak for the album

·         Magazine advert for the album release

To create my music video successfully I referred to Goodwin’s Six Points

The first point states that music videos demonstrate genre characteristics.               

This means a successful video will use conventions of the genre it fits into. From my research of existing music videos I found some reoccurring conventions of the indie genre are:

·         Grainy filters to give a gritty home video feel

·         Black and white or de-saturation filters

·         Instruments being played and band performance elements

·         Low budget

·         Everyday events

·         Indie dress sense and hair cuts

·         Narrative running with lyrics

·         And sometimes a mixture of narrative and performance by the band

I think I succeeded in using these conventions in my music video as:

·         I used a mix of narrative and band performance: the first half used everyday activities like the singer waking up and brushing his teeth etc. the second half being like most indie videos and containing a performance element by the band with some narrative cut into it.

·         I applied a black and white filter to the start of the video to emphasise the dull nature of the singers lifestyle.

·         I think I styled the band members appropriately for the type of music that they produce and I used plenty of different shot type and angles of the performance including close ups of the singer’s mouth to put emphasis on the lyrics and of the cymbal hits to highlight the drum line

·         I filmed it using a commercially available camcorder so the quality is not comparable to industrial standard footage that is often used in pop or hip-hop videos, this gives a grainy quality when seen on a full sized screen so matches the gritty, low budget home- video sense which links to the homemade, indie ethos.

·         The video was low budget as the only expense was for the alarm clock which I bought, as I didn’t have a clock like this to use already. I could have used any type of clock but I thought that it would be more memorable if I used this iconic style clock and the image of this clock could perhaps later form part of a brand image for the artist.

Goodwin’s second point states that there is a relationship between lyrics and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting):

For my video I thought it was best to interpret the lyrics very literally as I thought this would make better footage and would add a slight light-hearted side to some of the video for example the intertextual reference that I will touch on a bit later on.

• In the section of the song that says "everyday I seem to turn around, I'm on my back again" – If someone is described as being on their back, it usually refers to them being in some kind of helpless situation, or stuck in a rut but this would be difficult to portray in a shot so I took a literal stance and used the imagery in the lyrics to represent him on his back in bed. I therefore got the front man of the band to roll over in bed to switch off the alarm clock, and then roll onto his back again. Hence reflecting the lyrics.
• For the lyric "looking outside and the sky is black" - looking out of the window onto landscape, dull sky, rows of houses- council houses.
• I used some interesting camera shots one of which for "this room I'm living in" - transitional camera spin in a circle, camera positioned centrally to the room, spun so whole room is seen but room/walls blur together
• "if these four walls keep closing in"- transitional shots, zooms from medium shot of singer to extreme close-up so the shot is now plain/obscured. Repeat from the other sides of the singer to imitate the room getting smaller
• "we're wasting time and space"- time lapse film of alarm clock, seeing the hands move through many minutes and hours in a few seconds of video
• "As Groundhog Day comes round"- interpreted as a reference to the film of the name "Groundhog Day" in which the protagonist gets stuck waking up in the same day over and over again. Here I repeated the footage from the beginning up to the current point with the speed increased. This gave the impression that his is a monotonous, repetitive daily routine that we are fast forwarding through.

Third point- There is a relationship between music and visuals (either illustrative, amplifying, contradicting).

The music will intrinsically link with the video as the shots will be edited to change on the beat of the song therefore tying the song and the footage together into one piece nicely and it is just that bit more effective when the beat of the video matches to the shot changing.

Fourth Point-The demands of the record label will include the need for lots of close ups of the artist and the artist may develop motifs which recur across their work (a visual style).

• I have used lots of shots of the artists in the video, especially of Chris the front man in the video. He is the most dominant person in the band therefore is seen the most so the audience will create a closer, more personal relationship with him than the other band members and he will become the representative image of the band. To do this is used lots of close-ups, when the singer is lip syncing. The performance would satisfy the record label as the audience would get to see what the members of the band look like very quickly and will gain an impression of what the personality of the band is like from the video

Fifth point- There is frequently reference to notion of looking (screens within screens, telescopes, etc) and particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body.

• I considered including a shot of the singer picking up a photo frame containing a picture of a girl in the first half of the video, therefore the audience will assume this is the person is dreaming of better days with- "cause I dream of better days with you now". However this will not appear voyeuristic, but create a sense of longing by the male singer/protagonist.
• I decided not to include a shot like this as I didn’t think it was necessary and brought in a whole new aspect to the narrative and I wanted to keep it simple I also didn’t include voyeurism because this is not a feature of indie pop videos that I have watched

Sixth point-There is often intertextual reference (to films, TV programmes, other music videos etc).

• The song lyrics include the line "As groundhog day goes round" - I interpret this lyric to be referencing the film Groundhog Day, in which the protagonist gets stuck in a loop, waking up and living the same day over and over again. I believe the lyric is referring to that meaning of the phrase, as the term Groundhog Day has to many people, come to be a synonym for repeating something many times, instead of the literal meaning of the day of celebration on 2nd February.
• For this part I skipped back to the beginning of the video and repeated the footage up to the current point speeding up the footage. This gave a sense that his life is monotonous and repetitive

Digipak and advert:

From looking at existing digipaks I found that the most common format is the plastic Jewel CD case.

I used this format to make my front and back cover. Existing digipaks I noticed had little things on them that make them more trustable and authentic like barcodes, copyright notices, record label logos and producers, compact disc digital audio label etc.

I made sure I used these on my covers to increase reality of the media product.

On the Advert I included retailers logos on the bottom as well as the twitter name of the band so that fans of the band can follow them on twitter and add them on facebook etc. as well as visit their website.

Magazine advert

Here is the finished advert for the debut album release of The 99s self titled album. I used the same images as on the front and back of the album digipak as well as four new pictures which I didn't fade out. The other pictures I faded out by lowering the transparency and arranged the text around the pictures that are fully visible and writing on the transparent ones. I added a twitter tag and the band website on the bottom so the target audience have many ways of socializing and building a more personal relationship with the band. I also added a HMV logo to the bottom as this would be one of the places the target customers could purchase the product from. I added a release date to the magazine advert so that it was clear when the product can be purchased. Other than 'The 99s', 'debut album' and 'released 25.06.12' and the website and twitter on the bottom I didn't put any other text on the advert so as to keep it plain and simple and attractive to the eye.

Summary of advertisement research

What conventions have I found/ ideas can I draw from existing album release adverts:

• Use the same picture on advert as used on the album cover in some way
• Use the same font style and colour on the advert as digipak
• Should say 'Out Now' or feature a release date
• Can feature a list of hit singles that the album features
• Have logos/symbols of retailers on the bottom such as HMV, iTunes, record label
• Have a website/ facebook and twitter links so the audience can build a more personal relationship with the artist.

Existing Adverts

Here is the advertisement for The Maccabees album Wall of Arms. The advert used the same picture as the album cover hovere is extended vertically at the bottom. The image on the advert shows the same people as on the digipak with paint appearing to drip and run down the advert page. This further shows the stylised picture is using artistic techniques like painting or clay models. There are no reviews, comments or ratings left by magazines or critics on the advert.

The band members are dressed in bright vibrant colours which is very eye catching and draws attention to that actual members in the band. The image of the members looks somewhat like they are shop mannequins as they look very inanimate. 

The extra space on the bottom isn't used very effectively as the only information given on the advert is the band name, album title and that it is out now. Emotional language like "acclaimed album" entices the audience to buy the album.

Adverts by Similar Artists

 This advert shows the poster for The Kooks debut album 'Inside In Inside Out'. The poster is simpley the photograph used on the front of the CD case. The main differences are that the album name has been removed, the picture has been horizontally elongated and there is a more grainy, grey filter on than the album cover which is quite bright white. The image has also been cropped so the people are larger and there is less background in the photo, making us feel closer to the band, it also gives the impression that we are a member of the band sitting in the circle with them. Hence creating an intimate realtionship between artist and target audience

The poster below is for The Kooks' second albuim 'Konk', this poster is again exactly the same as the album cover and extended horizontally with 'The Kooks' and 'Konk' written on the left in the same fonts and colours seen on the album cover only slightly larger. The only other feature of the poster is the dowload from iTunes text and the flag of the USA. The fact that the poster is the exact same graphic as the digipak creates upm ost continuity and ensures there can be no confusion between what and who it is advertising. The usual unique font is used for the artist name as used on all publications by The Kooks.

The advert below is for Razorlights 3rd album 'Slipway fires'. The top part of the advert is the album cover but the poster is extended vertically. The album name and artist text has been moved from its position on the CD cover to below the grpahic and the text colour has been changed from red to white. This creates a nice two tone look to the poster. The album title text is much larger than any other text so the reader can immediately identify who the artist is and which album is being advertised.

This is the poster for the album release of 'The Sound of The Smiths' which is a remastered CD. The top of the poster is a direct copy of the album cover. There is added information on the bottom of the poster. The colour scheme relates to the old school genre of music and that this is a remastered album from the past. The Blue text breaks up the sepia nicely as it is from the opposite side of the colour spectrum.
Other things on this poster as with most of the others I have seen are a record label logo, release date, list of popular singles the album features.

 

Final Digipak

Here is my final digipak designs:

 

CD Label Edits

After finalising which front cover I was going to use I then started to think about the CD label. I did a couple of different labels and asked some people in my target audience to rate them.

Label 1- this label I used the main image from the stop motion

Label 2- for the second label I used the same image as the first, this time I lowered the transparency and put The 99s text in the top left of the CD

Label 3: For the third label I simplified it and removed the background image and just used the textured background from the album cover with the band text on top.

Here is how the votes looked

CD label 1: 1

CD label 2: 4

CD label 3: 6