How did you use media
technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
To overcome the
issues with copy write commonly found in the media and music industry we used
the website www.unsigned.com. to find our chosen band and track. This also meant
that it would easy to contact our chosen artist and in theory more likely to
receive feedback. The Internet is an effective method to publicize unsigned
bands as it is possibly the most large scale method of receiving an audience.
We used
Facebook predominantly in order to receive a broad range of feedback. This
method was quick and simple, letting us easily receive a fast response to our
production. It also means we can post a range of different texts such as all of
of our tasks (magazine advert, digipak, video) and receive feedback on them
all.
Youtube: Using
Youtube helped as a research method helped us to gain a sense of the
conventions of music videos in general and promos specific to our genre. It
also helped us to take this information and to develop it into our original
ideas.
This technology
also helped with the exhibiting of our finished promo, from which we can see a
range of different peoples responses and opinions, and whether or not our final
product was successful essentially by the amount of views it has received. This
was reasonably effective as we could see that the video received around 600
views however not everyone who saw it gave some feedback therefore it was not
very effective in terms of feedback although it did offer some.
iMovie: This technology was used as the editing method for the production of our promo, we used this to put the selected clips together, add transitions and edit as well as adding effects when necessary.
iMovie enabled us to sequence a dual narrative containing both our performance and narrative elements. We used straight cuts for the majority of the piece as it created the sense of pace we were trying to achieve from the piece as we felt that was one element that was lacking in the preliminary task. This also meant it gave the piece a sense of energy conventional to indie/rock promos.
Fish eye lens:
We used the fish eye lens to
film all of our narrative. We did this because we felt it did three things:
1.Enforced the difference between the narrative and performance.
2.Added to the effect of the location being surreal and warped
3.Added a sense of scale to the shots which are lacking in the
performance as the location is not evident.
Photoshop: This
technology was used in the making of our digipak and magazine article. It was a
especially useful technology to use as it enabled us to take iconic images and
turn them into something different as seen in our album art. It then enabled us to edit these images
and change them from being normal to abnormal again furthering the conventions
of the indie/rock genre. I think it also helped to create an authentic and
professional look to our work.
From this project
I have believe I have developed skills for planning shooting and editing. I
also think as a group we have become more concise and well organised with our
projects. Additionally I think we have taken ideas and elements from previous
projects that have been successful and have furthered them and developed them
into our latest production.
Throughout the
course I have also learnt the importance of lighting and how effective it can
be or in some cases unsuccessful. I think this is one of the elements we have
most improved on in this project in particular and I think this is reflected in
the performance aspects of our promo.
This shot illustrates how the lighting made it possible to eliminate any sight of a location and enhance the detail of the shot at the same time. For example the guitar is very clear. This was good because it mean that the most significant parts of our shots (such as guitars) could be enhanced.
Additionally I
think we grasped the skill of lip syncing quickly and effectively and our video
is almost perfectly in sync however we did encounter the issue of multiple
vocal layers making it impossible to sync the video with both vocals.
Blogger: we used
blogger as a means of noting down ideas and conventions to be developed in the
future. It helps to show a steady progression of the project as a whole. The
multimedia aspect also made it easier to display our work in more interesting
ways and helps to illustrate a range of skills. It also helped to maintain a
certain degree of organization to the project which was important with regards
to actually producing the project.
When carrying out our
research, we conducted filmed interviews before and after the production of our
promo, as it is a quick and easy way to display a range of audience feedback
and simply evaluated. We received a variety of results, which helped us to
develop our ideas for our music promo the main one being the amplification of
the ‘space elevator’ as people frequently mentioned that that was the aspect of
the lyrics they found most prominent and thought that something could be done
with it. Based on our feedback we also decided that there would have to be a
strong performance aspect as it was what people expected to see from the track
when we showed it to them. I think that this method of collecting audience
feedback worked well as we got a range of people of different ages with
different interests and taste in music. This meant that we could get an idea of
what would appeal to the majority of people with different tastes however we
were limited with the number of people we could interview in a short space of
time.
We also put our finished promo
on facebook and YouTube. This had a more limited amount of success as the
feedback we received was not very well written and did not contain a lot of
critical analysis and it is an informal social networking website. However we
did have some success in the way that we received an email from the band who
had seen our video and wanted to arrange to brainstorm a few ideas for an
official video for their up and coming release of a new track.
How effective is the
combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?
Magazine Advert
Digipak
These three
products work well together as a promotional package as they all represent the
band in a striking and uniform style, in order to reflect the band itself thus
appealing to the target market. Despite the imagery of the artwork differing
from the video we think that it works well because many bands of the same genre
do the same by often using commissioned artwork for their album covers in order
to appeal to their audience. However the digipak and advert both have the same
uniformed style and would be easily relatable to the band in order to promote
the band and have a clear cohesion creating a positive link between both products
and the audience.
Each of
these texts will be exhibited using traditional media methods, e.g. music
channels, music magazines and in record stores. The main magazine I would like
the advert to appear in would be Q as it is well established and widely read
and contains many existing rock bands therefore the advert would appeal to the
target audience. It would have also been ideal for the video to appear on the
channel ‘Q TV’ however as this is no longer in existence I think NMEwould be the best channel as it
features many up and coming indie artists. As these methods still reach a
larger number of our target market. It would also be good to try and reach out
to independent record stores to reach out to a fan base of people looking for
new and original music. This would create a good representation for the band
and therefore good publicity However there is the issue of online downloads
becoming increasingly popular thus eliminating the need for pople to visit
these stores therefore it would be a good idea to make these products available
online. e.g. Facebook, youtube, Itunes and the web. I think facebook would be
usefull for promoting the video as it would be quick and easy for all audiences
to access the video and receive feedback through the option to comment. This is
due to the growing number of people that are now using these methods of
finding, listening and buying music.
Our most recent project was the development
and production of a music promo with the addition of two ancillary tasks, which
were also promotional materials: a magazine advertisement and digipak. We chose
an unsigned band and chose one of their songs to base our project around. We
selected one of the band’s songs and produced a music promo for it with the
addition of a magazine article promoting the release of the single along with a
digipak.
The purpose
of the music promo, digipak and magazine advertisement is to promote the artist
according to the target market. In the real world the aim of these promotional
materials is to give the artist a degree of exposure beyond concerts. To be
successful they must to convey to the target market the style and attitude of
the artists in a clear and concise manner. A
music promo helps to illustrate some of the personality and genre of the artist
thus appealing to the target market of their genre. A promo also allows record
companies to promote new artists using an alternative method through the
internet and music channels rather
than just getting their tracks airtime on radio stations.
I think the images above
illustrate how album art can be used as a form of advertisement. They contain
striking images and which helps to draw the audience’s attention. Also the art
can be seen as a representation of the artists themselves and therefore will
help to appeal to the target market before the audience has even heard the
music itself. We chose to further this idea by producing more abstract art for
our digipak as it fitted with the genre and is an eye catching style of art.
Nirvana 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' is a conventional rock music video as it is largely performance based and stylised to its genre through its use of mise en scene.
The purpose
of a music promo is to give a large audience the opportunity to experience an
artist in a more personal manner for the majority of people who haven’t seen
the artist live whether they have taken a conventional or unorthodox approach
by either remaining within the conventions of the applied genre or breaking
these expectations, which usually reflects on the artists themselves.
A wide
variety of shots are typically used in a music promo, close ups of instruments
are shown to give the impression of performance as well as displaying a degree
of skill of artist. It also helps to demonstrate the artists individual style
of performance. Music promos also tend to use a range of close ups, long shots,
establishing shots and mid shots to show either the performer or the narrative,
there is no one style of shot that is often seen as any can be used to make an
effective promo and often the style of shots used reflect the style or genre of
the music.
This Wordle
shows some of the conventions typically associated with the indie genre:
Typically indie promos display a
lot of energy through the style of editing and mise-en-scene. The editing is
most effective when cut to the beat of the song. It also helps if any narrative
element of the video fits with the structure of the song to create a
well-rounded video which would also help to maintain the audience’s intrest. A
whole variety of shots and cuts are used depending on the genre however the
majority are simply straight cuts as these are the easiest to sync with the
beat of the track. In general the only sound heard would be the given track,
however in some music promos, some of the digetic sound from the narrative can
be heard to create an atmosphere and ad to the narrative. This usually takes
place at the beginning of the video. Close are often the most predominant shots
as they maintain the focus on the performer. This is important as a music promo
gives the viewer a means of being close to the performer, which they may not
get from going to see them live and also creates a sense of intimacy and privilege.
The mise-en-scene in most music promos varies dependant on the type of genre
and location of the video. For an indie promo the setting for performance is typically a 'practice room' which adds a sense of realism and again gives the audience a sense of privilege and going 'behind the scenes' this is epitomised in the screen shots below.
Close Up
The close up emphasises a specific element of the song for example the kick drum would be in sync with the track during this particular shot to draw the audiences attention to it.
Mid Shot
The mid shot helps to illustrate performance as well as including the artist. This shot is used regularly for performance.
Long
Shot
In this particular shot the long shot is used to show the whole band in one shot which helps the audience to get an idea of the location and the band performing as one.
The
narrative of promos varies a lot depending on the genre of the track and the
subject of the lyrics, most tend to be descriptive narratives to help
illustrate the ideas of the lyrics. However some promos focus entirely on the performance
aspect of the promo where as most switch between narrative and performance. There
are three different types of narrative: illustration, in which the narrative is
take solely from the lyrics in the track, amplification, in which one key idea
or theme is taken from the lyrics and then used to create the narrative and
disjuncture, which takes a more abstract approach and bares no immediate
relevance to the lyrics.
Coldplay 'The Scientist'
This video is an example of amplification as it takes the lyric, 'back to the start' and uses this idea throughout. The video is edited so it is done entirely in reverse and the lead singer ends up back in time just before a car crash.
Depending on the type genre of music and the ideals the artist is trying to convey will affect the style of promo produced. Therefore a number of different elements of mise-en-scene, shot types and editing techniques may be used specific to genre, to create the overriding effect that the artist wants.
Oasis 'Cigarettes And Alcohol'
Firstly this video is shot in black and white to give it the appearance of being 'vintage'. It also contains frequent appearances of both cigarettes and alcohol being consumed. Additionally it contains a multiple close up shots of performance to illustrate the energetic atmosphere of one of their gigs. All of these elements combined show the effect that the genre has in creating an overall style for a promo as this video clearly shows the 'rock & roll' lifestyle.
Tame Impala – Lucidity
'Lucidity' by
Tame Impala is a video that defies and subverts all established conventions of
a music video as the only performance aspect of the video is at the very
beginning from an aerial perspective. The shot depicts the band playing in a
desert around 500 kilometres from Melbourne, Australia.
The band took a
leap of faith in using a series of experimentsinvolving attaching
a camera to a weather balloon to capture all that developed beneath it and
sending it into space.
The bands genre
is somewhat psychedelic the use of space imagery and orbiting the earth is
fairly fitting for the genre as the psychedelic genre has used such imagery since its early development either visually or through its lyrics.
This was inspirational in creating our own music video
as it breaks boundaries of conventional music videos and has a creative
dimension to it. this is because it simply uses one shot for the entirety of the video and performance is only present very briefly.
'Monster' The Automatic
This video for The Automatic
‘Monster’ was inspirational to our music video as it takes a lighthearted
approach to the subject that it amplifies from the lyrics and it has the effect
of being a low budget humour production. It could also fit into the genre of
indie and therefore would appeal to our target market.
We decided try and emulate this
and take a reasonably conventional approach to our promo by amplifying the idea
of a ‘space elevator’ and tried to create a half and half split of performance
and narrative. As seen in the majority of indie/rock promos, we showed the full
band playing appropriate instruments for the track (guitar, bass, drums,
vocals) This helped to create a sense of energy, live performance and authenticity to the
video.
We tried to maintain fast paced
editing throughout the video in order to reflect the nature of the track, which
also helped us to include a variety of different shots. This will help to
ensure the audience doesn’t loose interest in the video.
We used a variety of different
shots ranging from extreme closes ups, to long shots and high to low angle, for
our performance to create the effect of a tightly executed performance.
We used two different locations
for our promo, one being an everyday setting (supermarket) to help create the
sense of the normal being subverted into the abnormal. The second being an
outside location however the lighting masks the location itself which helps to
maintain focus on the performance. We also included the Morris Minor in order
to add an original element to the performance.
We used the Morris Minor as the back drop for our performance as we wanted to break the convention of just using a practice room as we tried this previously with little success. I think the fact the surrounding area was dark and the performance was well lit made these shots effective.
The other location we used was the local supermarket. We used this for our narrative because we wanted to amplify the idea of a space elevator and what it could achieve. This then led us to attempt to turn the normal into the abnormal by posing as spacemen exploring somewhere entirely normal but viewing it as something Alien.
We also made sure to pick
appropriate outfits and instruments for the indie genre as indie/rock bands
don’t typically aim for a stylised look, as it tends to be a gimmick or
distraction from the music.
We have chosen the Co-op in Deeping. We have been given permission by their management (as you can see in the following email) to film in the shop when it is quite from customers. Thanks to their support and willingness to help we are able to use the majority of the store to get a wide range of shots.
Whilst in deeping we will also be filming in the local chip shop, The Boundary. This location will be used to create a similar effect to the co op; to turn the normal into the abnormal. We phoned them up and got permission to film from 6 O'Clock onwards as long as we are punctual. The artificial lighting in the chipy will allow us to film in the dark; additionally the neon lights will create an atmospheric effect.
We will also be filming at Hills and Holes in Barnack. We feel that it would be a suitable place to film because the landscape has peaques and troffs and creates a similar effect to moon craters and again; something normal that is turned abnormal.
We were also thinking of using Sam's car for bandshots. The morris minor would create quiter a retro vibe and create an iconic image. We are aming to use tightly framed shots. This takes influence from The Automotic's video where they are crammed in the back of their van.
Our final location will be 'the band room'. This is the practice room attatched to my garage. It is a good location because all of our instrumental props are in there and once empty we will have a room with big white walls which can give a clean effect if lit and framed correctly.
