In what ways does
your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real
media products?
We were given the task to develop and make a music promo, CD/DVD
Digipak and magazine advert for an unsigned artist of our choice. We had to
show the development and creation of our three tasks on our blogs .The purpose
of the three promotional elements is to advertise the artist to their chosen
target market so that their audience would know of the artist, which therefore
would mean that they would be more successful.
The definition of a music video is “short film integrating a
song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music
videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote
the sale of music recordings.” Music videos
came into their prime in the 1980s when MTV started playing music videos 24/7. Record labels, for example, Columbia Records,
may produce a music promo so that they can promote their artist. This would
mean, if done properly, that the record label could potentially make a lot of
money from that particular artist. A music video can be used to show the
personalities of the artists for example ‘One Direction’ show them having fun
in their first music video, ‘What Makes You Beautiful’.
Analysis
At the beginning of the video there is an establishing shot of
the beach, which tells the viewers that the video will be set there. By using a
beach it could be said that it is a natural video, and how the band are in it
is how they would normally be, having fun.
Close up shots of each member of the group is then used. I
believe this is done because it shows each of them equally. Also because their
fans would have a ‘favourite’ of the group and therefore would feel happy when
they saw their favourite on screen.
Music Videos also allow artists to get their point across to
their viewers, sometimes subliminally. Lady Gaga is an example of this. Her
‘Bad Romance’ video describes ‘the dark and ritualistic inner-workings of the
entertainment industry.
There are different conventions that are used in music promos.
The technical conventions are;
- Zooming in and out
- Montage
- Fast Paced editing
- Mainly straight cuts
- Panning
There are different types of narrative that a music promo can
include. Disjuncture is when the actions and screen play in the video have
nothing to do with the lyrics that the song contains. For example, No Surprises
by Radiohead.
Amplification
is when the lyrics in the song relate directly to the video. For example ‘Hero
Of War’
Illustration is when a music video concentrates on a specific part of the lyrics and portrays it in the video. For example ‘Lighthouse’ by Mallory Knox.
Our genre for our video is Indie; therefore it would have
different conventions than a pop video for example. Indie music originated from
the UK and the US in the 1980s and has sub genres that include Indie-Pop and
Indie-Rock.
I did a comparison of the Indie genre and the Pop genre.
Pop Genre Prezi
http://prezi.com/4qofw2vipe6m/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Indie Genre Prezi
http://prezi.com/jj00yr1k3dee/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share
Our original idea was to show the band in modern times watching
themselves on the TV in the 1960s. They would be performing on a ‘Top Of The
Pops’ style show. From this idea we looked for videos that showed that type of
performance. We came across;
·
Learn
To Fly – Foo Fighters
We liked this video because
it used the split screen effect, which we used in our final promo.
·
Dance
Dance – Fall Out Boy (Insert Video)
This again used the type of split screen effect,
which we liked. It also showed the band having fun at a party, which we wanted
to get across.
We shot our promo in a bedroom and then we
used a blank wall for our performance shots. We chose these locations because
they were simple and a convention of an indie setting is simple. We also chose
this because the bedroom was a popular option when we did our questionnaire to our target
market. However, if we were to do it again I would have shot the whole performance outside, weather depending, because I like the look of natural lighting.
We used many props in our promo. We used a guitar, ukulele and a
bongo drum for the performance parts of our video. We used these because they
made it seem more realistic as though our actors in the video are actually
playing the music. We wanted to include performance because again it is in the
typical conventions of an Indie video. We used the bongo drum and ukulele because they were different to what is usually seen when thinking about drums and guitars, therefore it may make our video more memorable.
To reinforce our genre of Indie we kept our
costumes simple, so our actors wore casual jeans and a T-shirt. The only
costume where we developed the conventions was the headdress and hula skirt.
This obviously isn’t simple but we wanted to show a fun side of our main actor,
Matt, and this showed it well. It is important to develop the conventions so
that new trends are started. For example Your Demise, a hardcore punk band, have
a music video to their song ‘ These Lights’. This breaks the convention because
there is no narrative included and there is also no performance, apart from the
singing. This develops the conventions so that it can be differentiated from
other bands like them. 
We used many different editing techniques in
our video, as the idea was quite simple, so we wanted to show our technique
through editing.
We used fade to blacks to show the ending of the song, and to also insinuate that it could have been a dream.
Here is a director’s commentary on our video.
How effective is the combination of your main product an ancillary text?
I believe that our three tasks work well as a promotional
package because there is continuity throughout the three of them. They all
feature our main actor in them and also give off a fun, feel good vibe, which
is what we wanted to get across to our viewers. I also believe they would work
together because the Digipak and advert clearly say who the band are therefore
people would research them to look and listen to their videos or songs.
These media products would be shown to our audience
traditionally and untraditionally. Our music promo would be shown on YouTube and
music TV channel like MTV for example. This will promote the band well because
people may just be watching the channel and they see the video, like the song
and therefore start listening to the band. However, it would also be shown on
Facebook, Twitter and iTunes. This is also a good way of promoting because the
social networking sites are ever growing and due to everyone having different
friends it would allow a vast majority of people on there to see the video.
Although, this may also be a bad thing because if a negative comment was made
about the band or the video then all of those people would see it. The Digipak
would be placed in music stores like HMV. This would give the band promotion because it
could be placed at the front of the store as subliminal advertising so that
their customers would take in whom this band are. It would also be available to
purchase on iTunes because it is accessible to a wide audience who may not be
able to get to a shop otherwise. Our three products would also be available
online as a package. We would be able to sell them as a package due to the
continuity throughout all three. However, being available on iTunes it may
limit the amount of people that buy it, as some people don’t have iTunes.
Finally, our magazine advert would be available, in music magazines such as
Kerrang! or Rocksound. This would be successful as people flick through
magazines and as our advert is eye catching with a funny picture people would
stop and look at it. However, this again limits the people that would see it
due to not everyone buying music magazines. Although, to get over this we could also show an advert at the side of the Facebook wall, so that our target market would see the poster.
What have you learned from your audience
feedback?
Before making our promo we asked our target market a list of questions so that our promo and ancillary tasks were as succesful as they could be. These are the questions that we asked;
Our results from this influenced our
different decisions is our video. We made changes to our ideas to suit our
target audience so that they would enjoy our promo. One factor that we changed is how much performance that we would show in our promo. After asking our audience question four; "Number these from 1-6 in the importance in a music video" we realised that our audience believes that performance is important. Therefore we added in more performance.
Whilst editing our video we arranged interviews to see how people were finding our video so far.
Whilst editing our video we arranged interviews to see how people were finding our video so far.
From this we took upon the ideas
that they had for how it could be improved. For example making our shots
shorter so that the editing was faster paced.
Once our video and ancillary tasks were
finished we made an open answer questionnaire, which we handed out to people of
different age ranges and
genders.
Overall from this we got positive feedback.
However, having open answers could mean that the people may not answer our
question fully. Although, I think we were lucky and they all answered it fully.
We also used Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to advertise our video. We got
feedback On Twitter.
However, if I were to do it again, I would
have used multiple-choice questions so that we got the exact answer that we
wanted to achieve. For example ‘What type of magazine could you see our
magazine advert in?’ ‘Rock, Pop or Indie?’
How
did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and
evaluation stages?
Unsigned.com is a website for artists and bands who are unsigned
to promote their music. It is based in Florida and owned by an online
entertainment media company, First Beat Media Inc. However, the artists and
staff are from all over the world, therefore giving a dynamic mix of music on
offer.
We used unsigned.com so that we could overcome any copyright
issues that we may have come across if we used a song and artist who have
already been signed. Darwin and I both knew that we wanted to do a song from the
Rock genre, therefore we went straight onto the ‘Rock’ tab and came across ‘The
99s’. There were three songs to select from and our favourite was ‘(Oh What A
Night) To Be Alive’. We decided to use this track because we liked how the song
had a feel good vibe to it and we believe the song can fit many different
technical conventions that we can put into our video. Also, due to the song
being a mix of the three genres, Indie, Rock and Pop, it will suit
different audiences such as the 18-24 year olds, the younger generation
(Pre-teen) and 25+.
Dear The 99's,
After looking on unsigned.com, my partner, Darwin and I, came across your band and your song (What A Night) To Be Alive.
After looking on unsigned.com, my partner, Darwin and I, came across your band and your song (What A Night) To Be Alive.
We are upper
sixth form students at Bourne Academy, in Bourne Lincolnshire. For our A2 media
assignment we have to produce a music video for an unsigned band and we like
the sound of your song and would like to use it for the video. If you could
send me the lyrics for the song so that we can use narrative in the video that
would be great!
Thank you and
we will keep you up to date on how the video is going!
Lucy Gilbert
and Darwin Gray
Unfortunately
we didn’t receive a reply, therefore we couldn’t carry on with any contact with
the band.
To find our
inspirational videos we stuck with our genre to find the videos on YouTube.com.
We also used well-known bands to find our videos so that we didn’t start at a
dead end and so that related videos would come up on the right hand side.
To create our
production we used a range of different techniques ranging from iMovie to
iTunes. When filming we used a Canon 550D and a Canon 7D.We used these because
we knew that they would allow us to have a high quality film. We used an
18-55mm lens to film. I wouldn’t do anything different with the cameras and
lenses that we used as they did exactly what we wanted and gave us what we expected
our outcome to be.
7D
18-55mm
To edit our video we used iMovie on a MacBook Pro. We had good background knowledge of the program therefore we didn’t have any major difficulties when editing our video. We wanted to use an editing technique called Split Screen. However, we didn’t know how to do it. Therefore we went onto YouTube to research how to do it. We found a video which explained to us clearly how to do it.
From this we got these main points;
1) Film two different
clips. However, the lighting has to be exactly the same and in the same place
for it to be effective.
2) On iMovie, start a new
project
3) Put the two videos into
the same projects
4) Make the videos close to
the same lengths
5) Click on iMovie
preferences - show advanced tools
6) Right click, add green
screen
7) Click of cropped in top
left corner and drag how you want to crop it
8) Click Done
We used lights whilst filming. However, when we uploaded our
clips onto iMovie the lighting wasn’t equal and therefore gave us a line in the
middle of our clips once they were made into the split screen effect. If we
were to do it again I would film the two clips needed straight after each other
so that the lighting didn’t move. I would also film it in natural light as the
lighting would probably be the same. However, a problem with that would be that
it would depend on the weather.
I have also developed my video shooting skills by working out
the timings for the split screen effect. We did this by timing how long each
clip was for and making the alternate clip the same amount of time. However, if
I was to do this again I would have watched the clip back and filmed it with a
different camera so that it was completely in time.
To create our digipak we used Photoshop. We downloaded the
outline of a digipak and used it as template to put our pictures on.
For the front of our digipak, we wanted to have a picture of our
main character, Matt, half cartoon and half normal. To do this we;
2) We then cropped half of it, so that we could turn half of it into cartoon
3) We then went on
Filters>Artistic>Poster
Edges
5) The
final stage was to drag the cartoon image onto the original image.
We also made a mirror image;
To
do this we had an original image of the band on the right hand side. We took
inspiration from the image on the right.
However, we wanted to make it slightly different from this image
and we thought, due to the split screen effect that is seen in our video, that
we could show them as though they are looking at each other.
To do this we;
1) Uploaded the picture to Photoshop
3) Opened the image again
5) Dragged the cropped image onto our original image.
If we were to make our digipak again I would have taken more pictures of the instruments or the setting so that we could have included those images in as well.
To
make our poster we used a program called Pages, which is available on Macbooks.
It gives an outline of a poster, which you can change with your different
pictures and writing. However, if we were to do it again I would use Photoshop,
so that backgrounds could be added. 
We
used an online site called Blogger to distribute our research and final video,
Digipak and poster. Blogger is a free, online blogging service which was bought
by Google in 2003. All the blogs have a subdomain name with ‘.blogspot.com’. To use this we have to
sign in with a Google account and set up our blog. After we sign in a page
comes up which shows each of our different blogs, how many page views they have
received and how many posts they have. It also shows blogs that I follow and
their recent posts.
We also added Non-diegetic sound into our
music video, the knocking sound at the beginning. We did this so that it was
more obvious to the viewers why our actor, Matt, looked at the door. We did
this by downloading a knocking sound effect off of YouTube using a website
called ‘www.youtube-mp3.org’. We then
opened the sound effect in iTunes. To get it into our video we used the button
on the bottom right hand corner on iMovie and then dragged it to the place that
we wanted it to go.
iTunes
iMovie Music Tab
We
exhibited our video online through materials such as YouTube, Facebook and
Twitter. The benefits of this is that there is no limit on how many people can
see it and through word of mouth and people sharing the video for example it
can allow us to achieve a high level of viewers. From the social networking
sites the majority of viewers are most likely to be 18-29 year olds, according
to a survey made in late 2012. Darwin and I both put our video on Facebook for
everyone to see and someone on Facebook also shared it. From that we got 161
views on YouTube with three thumbs up.
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