Amongst my evaluation, there are letters in brackets (i.e (a)) which correspond to images below which I have used to illustrate ideas:
1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Our advanced production brief was to create a music video for a British un-signed artist/band. I discovered “Moon Song” by The Wild Wolves on MySpace, an online social networking site. Having established The Wild Wolves genre as folk/indie I was then able to research existing folk/indie music videos. This gave me an insight into what generic conventions are typically found in these genres. Specific artists and bands in this genre include: Paolo Nutini, Mumford & Sons (a) , The Kooks and Blitzen Trapper. Firstly, Paolo Nutini recently released a single from his album called “Pencil Full of Lead” which has a combination of animation and real life (k). This was a very similar idea to what my music video adopted. On YouTube I discovered "Off The Beaten Track" by an animator called Leo Bridle, which also combines stop-animation into real-life.
The young man cycles into a woody are
a then continues through the jungle-like woods in animation. This music video uses the cut out animation technique and work by Lotte Reiniger (e) uses this to create silhouette imagery similar to ours. This leads me onto another inspiration by the Clothes Washing Company, Surf’s “Twilight Sensations” advert [http://www.surf.com/twilight-vid.php]. The basic narrative is of a woman walking through a fantastical woodland setting and other places, whilst being a shadow. We wanted to link the animation to the name of the band and translate this into the wolf mask worn periodically by the lead singer. The wolf mask is our narrative device (in our surreal, linear narrative) and is suggestive of dreaming. This is made obvious in the final shot in the music video: shown through cross dissolves the actor wears the mask whilst sleeping, and then is woken up without it.
Our imagery in the music video visualized the lyrics of the song, which “Dancing in the Distraction Factory” by Andrew Goodwin describes as one of the essential conventions for music video productions. We created a wolf character for the animation, which then metamorphoses into the real life lead singer walking through woods whilst performing. “The Wild Wolves” also made us want to create the Wolf character in the image, as the fan base could connect the video and band’s name easily. Films that link animation to fairytales include Tim Burton’s “Coraline” (f) and “Peter and the Wolf” (j) directed by Suzie Templeton who adopt this idea- with a young boy and girl wanting to escape their world. Our video offers the audience escapism which is experienced by the lead singer. “Coraline” was our main influence in how we created a shot of a tunnel, where there is a mid shot of the tunnel, the wolf’s head and branches.
The real life sequence has our actor, Tamas, performing in a rural location, which can be often found in folk/ indie music videos. The Kooks “She Moves in Her Own Way” music video has the band relaxing on a beach. Mumford & Sons “Winter Winds” (a) involves the band members running out of a wood, walking in slow motion and performing in a field. “Winter Winds” is visually linked with the name of the song: “As the winter winds litter London with lonely hearts. In many shots, the band are walking towards the camera against wind, visually linking the song with the visuals. Goodwin’s theory on the conventions of music videos explains the need for lots of close-ups of the artist/band to promote the artist successfully so that a fan base can become familiar with the identity of the band.
Costume for the band was based on mainstream popular culture and having completed audience research, we found that our audience demographic is 17 to 25, both males and females, enjoy festivals and comical films and buy clothes from Topshop/TopMan and H&M (both mainstream shops) and boutique shops. We needed to create a connection between the band and audience, thus it was important that the target audience identifies with the bands’ style (shown through our actors costume). Costume is a strong device to use when marketing a band. Quirkiness and vividness of costume is a commonly used feature used by music artists, more so for pop artists such as Lady Gaga (m), to make it their statement signature image and to gain public attention. In relation to our band, we are following the fashion trends rather than creating a new style. Mumford & Sons (c), Paolo Nutini and The Kooks all have a trilby hat in at least one of their videos, making it a common/popular signature device to establish the genre. The Wild Wolves band members can also be seen wearing hats in their band photos on their MySpace page.
Goodwin’s music video theory consists of six points which he finds crucial for a music video to contain. One is to demonstrate genre characteristics, which relates to how we had to first establish the genre of our chosen British unsigned band. My band falls into the folk/indie genres, so by researching existing real texts I was able to use and develop the generic conventions. For example, our mise-en-scene was influenced by Paolo Nutini and Mumford & Sons music videos as there are many created in outside, rural locations. Secondly, we are advised to have links between visuals and lyrics and music and visuals. This is shown through our use of imagery in the animation, for instance, in the track’s second verse the lyrics are,”the silver glow” which is visualized by a shot of the moon in the sky. The ending shot has the character leaving his room and shutting the door on the final beat of the song. Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know” music video opens with the band coming through a door on the opening beat of the song. This abrupt start or end to a music video helps the audience engage with the text as it is sharp and pulls in the audience in. Another convention is to how record label demand close ups of the artist. This is to promote the band successfully and to do this the audience must be able to connect the band with their music. Even more, the audience will identify with familiar texts and people which could relate to McCail’s film theory about genre. “Genre is a practical device” which offers audience familiarity that they know they will enjoy. Additionally, Gunther Kress’s definition of genre is “a kind of text that derives its form from the structure of a (frequently repeated) social occasion, with its characteristic participants and their purposes”. This implies that audiences feel a sense of belonging to a specific group; that they have a sense of collective identity. In terms of music video productions, a record label can have pop artists performing and dancing as it is typical and generic for that particular genre. The sixth point is to have intertextual references, whether they are films, TV programmes or other music videos. Creating a similar music video in the genre will help an audience distinguish what genre the music is, possibly helping them listen to it and again familiarising themselves with their favourite genres. In my music video, I used and developed these conventions to ensure that the music video was a successful promotion.
From “The Kooks” “Ooh La” (g) music video we were inspired to use tilted angles to produce more exciting shots. We used low angled shots to connote significance when Tamas (actor) was performing, giving him importance and attention. More shots from The Kooks video we used were where the vocalist walks away with his guitar on his shoulder and playfully swings the guitar around. In all genres, shots of guitar players playing in music videos are used to emphasize how they are serious artists. This is also apparent in our production where Tamas is shown through close ups and mid shots playing the guitar. In Newton Faulkner’s “Over and Out” a low levelled shot is used of Faulkner walking across with his guitar case. This shot creates mystery in some aspects as the audience may not be sure of whom the artist is until shown. Therefore this suggests how props, such as instruments are a vital device for portraying music talent and passion.
My print productions use and develop generic conventions of the folk/indie genre. I focused more on the folk genre as digipaks in particular tend to be more creatively produced with illustrations. Researching real digipaks, I could see how illustrators use imagery to visualize the bands name, the album name or song names. For example, Paolo Nutini’s latest album is called “Sunny Side Up” (k), relating to his Scottish culture. On the front cover, there is an illustration of the artist with a plate of sunny-side up eggs. The illustration is colourful and by having the link it reinforces the digipaks name and appearance.
As I do A-level Art I was able to create my own illustrations, influenced by the animation imagery particularly. The wolf imagery in particular inspired me for all four panels of the digipak. The first panel has a landscape with the wolf in the centre, acting as a focus point with the bands signature coloured font, blue.
2) How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?
In the print productions, I wanted to re-create the animated imagery from the music video and felt the easiest and simplest way was to hand draw the graphics. The woodland and natural theme emphasizes the fantastical and dream-like aspects of our music video. On http://hiddeneloise.com/ I found an illustration which appears to be a rendition of the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood. This inspired me to create my own illustrations as I manipulate the exact image I wanted. The wolf is cuddled by a young girl which challenges the usual portrayal of wolves, so instead of deceiving, dangerous and scary, it is shown as a friendly and good-natured character. The ancillary texts including the digipak and the magazine advertisement are slightly different in designs. The magazine advert is digitally created, using a photograph and manipulating it using PhotoShop Elements.
Researching existing bands digipaks was an essential part of seeing how signed/un-signed bands promote their music. Many folk and indie artists/ba
nds have creative digipaks so I wanted to follow this trend. Doing so meant I could create the band’s own unique brand style. Grizzly Bear are part of this genre and have released their album “Veckatimest” with illustrated graphics.The first panel has a landscape image with a wolf in the centre, relating heavily to the animation imagery, creating continuity between the two ancillary texts and the music video. “The Wild Wolves” is then in bold, blue writing on the top, hand drawn that is both used on the front cover and on the magazine. This was to make the audience understand and associate the writing with the band. This is done by The Kooks, with their simple, bold white font and Paolo Nutini with white, bold and similar style font to “Courier” for their adverts for either digipak or tour advertisement.
The second panel is an illustration of the members of the band but as wolves. It was an easy and humorous alternative way to having a photograph. The wolves’ faces are different in appearance and I tried to use similar characteristics to the band members MySpace display picture. For instance, the female member called Lola, is ginger in her picture so I used soft orange tints and pink in the wolves fur to have a closer portrait. In addition, I thought the panel looked bare so I chose to draw a border with instruments according to the band’s information. There is a trumpet/trombone, a guitar, a drum, a microphone, a keyboard and a tambourine. These instruments are commonly associated with the folk/indie/ska genre so it seemed relevant to illustrate this.
The third panel is an image of the wolf looking up at the moon or some may think it is the hole from the music video. This is the panel where the CD would be placed so I thought the band history would have been an interesting surprise for the audience to find. The history briefly explains how and when the band formed, mentioning how they continue to perform “gigs and tours around the UK”.
The back cover was a close up image of the front cover, with the wolf’s head at the bottom looking up at a banner carried by birds, with the albums tracks on. This has an intertextual reference to “Simple Health” advert and is used in our music video to title “Moon Song”. The back cover also features, a barcode, the record label (I created the name, ‘Joy Records’) icon and information about ownership and copyright. Further information includes: websites for the audience to visit if they wish to find out more about the band.
Our band ‘The Wild Wolves’ main signature is the image of the wolf, although this is not portrayed by my design for the magazine advert. However, I utilized this image for the music video and digipak as they are the more definite, physical forms of promotion. The font style I had drawn for the digipak was also used for the advert to create a connection between the two marketing strategies. On the advert, I placed a thumbnail of the digipak showing the audience what it looks like. I also used the HMV icon and wrote “available on iTunes” so they can easily find where the product is available. During our target audience research, we found our “ideal audience” (Kress) consumes music from a leading-music store, HMV and iTunes online music store. This informs us on how music stores are still popular methods of consumption as well as the new online stores.
My partner and I decided to use a simple and subtle colour scheme ( my partners work shown to the left) for the brand style of the digipak and magazine advert. I used mainly a black and white theme with colour in parts to increase the aesthetics. The front has only colour in the album title; the second panel has the wolf portraits and instruments in colour; the second inside panel and the back cover are completely black and white. The appearance of the digipak may have had added appeal if there were brighter colours (pointed out in audience feedback) but I chose to have continuity with the music video production. I chose a shade of blue to emphasize the band’s name, either on the digipak and the advertisement. This choice was decided after discussing the original selection of different colours seeming too amateur. During digipak research, I found how artists and bands have a signature font and colour scheme throughout their career. In particular, Paolo Nutini (k) has a yellow, green and (orange) red colour scheme and a font style shown on his albums. Therefore suggesting how artists use this to ensure audiences recognize the brand style.An aspect of the magazine advertisement I have not discussed is where the advertisement will appear and why. Consequently, ‘NME’ is a music magazine which seems to advertise rock, folk and indie genres. Therefore it seems an appropriate magazine for advertising “The Wild Wolves” digipak. Mumford & Sons have appeared in the magazine promoting their new album, “Sigh No More”. The advertisement would be A5 size as it is a landscape format and many adverts are this size. Another magazine where I have chosen to advertise the digipak is a local magazine, ‘Outline’. Outline has a range of bands advertising their album and touring dates.
3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?
Audience feedback was collected for both the music video production and the print productions (digipak and magazine advertisement). To collect audience feedback on the music video I used a questionnaire to create our “ideal audience”. The audience demographic includes ages of 17-18, ten A-level Media Studies students, six females and four males. The sample were Media Studies students so they could answer with specific media terminology and make useful suggestions based on their honest opinions of the music video and ancillary texts. The questionnaires were distributed in person and the music video was played in our presence. This may have affected the participants’ responses as they felt as though they had to be polite rather than truthful. When looking at the questions which asked for possible improvements however they seemed to show more honesty and suggest helpful criticism.
The first question was based on how much the audience enjoyed the music video, with a rating score from 1 to 5 (1 being the lowest, 5 being the highest). Fifty-percent of the participants (four females and one male) rated their enjoyment at 5, the highest. The other fifty-percent of participants rated it at four, which overall is successful. A later question was “What is the best part of the production?” which many participants commented on the animation. In particular, a formulaic comment was: “the mask+ the animation = humour”. Our target audience research showed participants enjoyed comedy films the most so we wanted to create humour in the music video. This was to pull and to satisfy the audience by having familiar parts of comedy, music and other identifiable conventions.
The second question was whether the music video held the audiences’ attention on a scale of 1 to 5. Forty-percent rated it at five, fifty-percent rated it at four and one participant found it partly engaging. This could be something we improved to promote the band more successfully. One comment on how to improve the music video was to have more “varied locations, although those used reflect the narrative well”. I found this a very true comment as I knew that there were not many.
For the camera work and editing, we received two “5” ratings, whilst five gave us a “4” rating and three gave us a “3”. The camera work consists of shots, angles and steadiness, which some parts of the production may have lacked. Particularly there were parts where the camera was not steady, as it was hand held. If we were to improve the production, the camera work would be a part to work on. The quick editing in parts was used to capture the audience’s attention as well as being a generic convention of folk/ indie music videos. For instance, The Kooks and Paolo Nutini’s videos have commonly quick editing to match the rhythm and beat of their songs.
The next rating was on the standard of the mise-en-scene, which was mostly rated at “4”. This suggests how we could improve the mise-en-scene, including the actor’s performance. Our actor is not a professional actor nor could he play the prop (guitar) and this was apparent for the audience as many comments on how to improve the appeal were based on this. The comments include, “a more enthusiastic actor”, “actor who can mime” and to show “chord changes”. The actor could do only so much and did well to learn the lyrics of the song. In the music video, it was suggested by a school visitor and a producer from music video production company, TriggerSet, that the grading of the video could have improved the appeal. When filming, the lighting was low and the weather not particularly pleasant which in places shows the sky as grey and gloomy. However, in Mumford and Sons “Winter Winds” music video, the grading of their production is very similar. If we had had nicer weather it would have certainly gave the image more appeal, like in Paolo Nutini’s “Candy” video shot in a very sunny and hot location.
The video length was considered by all participants to be the “correct length” which is a very important aspect of music videos. If a music video is too long, the audience’s attention will weaken and become uninterested. This question links well with how well the audience’s attention was held, as 90% of participants rated it 4and over.
I then asked if the music video reflected the music well, which generated 90% of “Yes” answers whilst only one answered “Undecided”. This suggests how our research into existing media products influenced our generic conventions was successful. McCail’s theory would support my idea of how the audience would be confused if a genre was over-challenged. On the other hand, films do challenge genre, an example is “500 Days of Summer” (2009) which challenges the rom-com genre, with the woman having typical male views on relationships.
The following question asked the audience whether the band is successfully promoted. This question generated the most pleasing results as the complete audience gave the “Yes” answer. This was a very important question as the production brief was to promote a band successfully.
The last rating question was to rank on the music video, with 4 females and 4 males giving the production a “4” whilst the other female participants rated it at “5”. To get 4 and over was another pleasing result as I had successfully promoted a band through music video production.
We left space for participants to add further comments and these included, [a strength was the] “sped-up ending”, the animation and one participant specifically liked the “hat falling off the wolf”, “the double narrative” and lovely artwork. Furthermore, I wanted to welcome any criticism as it could help improve the production if re-done. The comments were focused on the performance of the actor in the real- life part. If the production were to be re-done, a professional actor who plays the guitar, perhaps a real music artist could be replaced to fulfill a more realistic and successful performance for the audience.
The audience feedback was a very useful way to gain acknowledgment of what our “ideal audience” would be and their reactions to the production. Improvements and criticisms were a very important way to gain insight into the audience’s opinion and how I could make the production more successful. Alternatively, the successfulness of the production was reflected by the participant’s responses and shows how an unsigned band can be promoted with a low-budget production.
The print productions responses were collected in a smaller questionnaire with only five, anonymous participants responding. The questions concentrate on asking participants to rate aspects of the products, comment on the strengths and improvements to be made to the digipak and magazine advert. The productions generated mixed responses on how successful the digipak and the magazine advert would promote the band. The audience demographic for this audience feedback was one female and four males, aged16-18 and AS level Media Studies students.
The first question was “does the digipak successfully reflect the genre of music?” which 80%, one female and three males rated at “3” (5 being the highest). This suggests how I may have misjudged the generic characteristics of digipaks. The next question was asking the same phrased question but for the magazine advertisement. This generated forty-percent of votes rating at “5”, another forty-percent rating at “3” and twenty-percent at “4”.
The following question: “how do you rate the standard of graphics in the package?” which produced forty-percent rankings of “2” whereas sixty-percent rated the graphics at “4”. There is a contrast between the opinions of participants which is important to notice. The package had to look professional and have all the essential record label information. My personal thought of my graphics is that they could be developed and refined.
“How successfully is the Britishness of the package established?” emphasizes how the project brief was to promote a British un-signed band. In terms of my digipak I illustrated the guitar with a small but vibrant British sticker.
The responses for whether the magazine advert would encourage them to buy the digipak had two males voting for “undecided”, one male responded with “no” whereas one female and one male said “yes”. It would have been wise to ask the target audience aspects of magazine adverts they find to be important and appealing, before creating my advertisement.
The most selected ranking when rating the overall print package was “4”. Therefore, I am pleased with this result but realize the package could have been more professionally illustrated and promote the band through more generic conventions. Only two participants made comments on how they think the appeal of the package could be improved. One comment (suggested by a female) was to use “brighter colours” which I agree with but, the black and white colour scheme created continuity with the animation in the music video. The second comment/criticism was by a male “the album cover looks very amateur”. The difference in suggestions could differentiate how females are less criticizing than males or in another perspective how males are more honest and opinionated, suggested by this.
When asked what print productions had the strongest feature, three interviewees stated the front cover. “I like the hand drawn look” and the overall “hand drawn album design” were more precise comments on what they found to be the strongest element. More features said to be the strongest were, “the advert” which I tried to make more generic with a picture of the main singer and guitar and “the writing”. The final comment is a little vague so I am not sure whether they mean that the font of “The Wild Wolves” was particularly strong (by used for both the digipak and advertisement, or if the participant meant how the information for the advertisement was snappy and easy to read.
As the print production audience sample was contained only five participants, I asked one question to two more randomly selected people on Facebook. More suggestions for improvements were, “[to have] real photographs of the band (main singer)” or “maybe make a booklet with song lyrics with photographs of band”. I agree with this comment as I would have preferred to have a photograph of the band, however as there was only one actor in the music video it may break the continuity between the texts, confusing the audience. On the other hand, for the A5-sized magazine advert I used an edited photograph of Tamas to denote the type of music it is (with the photo of the guitar). In the right top corner of the advert, I added a picture of the digipak so it will be easy for the audience to find the album if they want to buy it. HMV and iTunes are advertised as being the places where it is available whilst having the release date in bold writing and information about websites and tour dates.
Overall, the achievement and successfulness of the ancillary texts had an average of 4, which is satisfying in terms of producing a first music video and print productions. The audience feedback was extremely useful to recognize how a real audience would react to my productions, whether the productions would appeal to them or not, and how to improve them. In particular, the hand drawn graphics were inspired by artists who have recognition and a large fan base such as Paolo Nutini. So perhaps, it would have been wise to use his first album as a prime example to follow rather than the illustrated second album. I am proud of the music video the most as it is a way for audiences to escape, similarly to how the character is dreaming about being a wolf.
4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Using an online blog called “Blogger”, allowed me to document my planning, research, construction and evaluating stages easily. I was able to discuss ideas (i) and receive quick feedback from teachers as it was online and accessible at both school and home. Using Blogger through the planning stage consisted of using digital cameras to capture our location scouting, using storyboards (scanned and posted on blog) and creating posts with descriptions and evaluations of ideas and developments for the productions. As we developed our animation, we embedded the videos onto Blogger (using a memory stick, uploading onto YouTube) to show how we were forming new ideas whilst choosing the options for the final product. For example, we chose to use banners carried by birds (inspired by “Simple Health”s TV advert (d)) rather than the song name being formed by leaves. Another aspect of using an online blog was how I could publish my own opinions and discussions which were relevant to the project. For example, my partner and I attended an Animation night at Norwich’s Millennium Library (h). It involved screenings of professional and award winning animators which gave an insight into real animated products and their appeal.
The internet, including, social networking sites proved a vital resource to carry out research, particularly finding artists in the same/similar genres. We found it was important to establish our band’s genre by comparing similar existing artists/bands. For instance, MySpace is a social networking site centered on music, with a list full of genres. MySpace has helped unsigned artists become noticed by record labels by enabling live streaming music and such artists are, the Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen. This research helped me adapt to using generic conventions typically found in folk/indie promotions. YouTube allowed me to discover artists I had not heard of before, such as Grizzly Bear and Blitzen Trapper. Looking on The Wild Wolves MySpace page had links to their “Friends” which are full of other unsigned bands. This was particularly useful as I could research other bands who are promoting themselves to their audience, especially through advertising gigs. “Google” a search engine, was very useful for finding background information on artists and bands, as well as helping me discover existing media products. For the print productions, it was much easier to look on the internet for album covers and adverts as they were always accessible. NME.com was a particular useful website as I could look for similar bands in the folk/indie genre.
The construction of the music video involved many technologies for capturing the footage and editing it. We used our own digital cameras for capturing the locations (for blog planning) and a professional SLR camera for the animation and camcorder for the real life footage. As digital cameras allow the user to review the raw footage, I could see if we needed to revise parts to make them better. This was the case whilst creating the animation when one single photograph may have had an unwanted object on it, so we had to retake that photograph. This feature of digital cameras shows how technologies have developed to help the users.
As we had completed two filming projects previously, we were able to use this knowledge of filming techniques, such as match on action and the 180 degree rule. Another piece of technical equipment for the animation was an OHP (overhead projector) as we wanted to create shadow puppetry (e). We had to use the trial and error technique as we had not done animation much previously.
For the editing process, we used Adobe Premiere Elements which we had also used for previous productions. Editing on our designated computer, allowed us to use specific effects including making the animation black and white (than the original sepia tone) and using cross dissolves and fades. Editing the footage eventually meant we had to sync the soundtrack with the live performance. The sound track was actually longer than what we were allowed and needed so Premiere helped us cut an instrumental part out. Before this project, my partner and I had actually volunteered to film our school’s ‘Battle of The Bands’ competition which we filmed and edited. This was a very useful opportunity as we could use these new-found skills for our own music video. We used simple transitions between different shots, such as dissolves to increase continuity.
The print productions also involved new technologies, from scanning my illustrations onto the computer and editing them on PhotoShop Elements. I was able to manipulate the images to the correct size, add and enhance colour to make them more appealing and engaging for the audience. Having used PhotoShop Elements and similar pieces of software before, I had knowledge of how to use tools and certain features.
For the evaluation stages, we uploaded our music video on YouTube so it was available and accessible online. This allowed YouTube members to give some feedback on what they thought. Professional music video producers use this method to distribute and promote their work. Additionally, I was able to use stills from our YouTube video to illustrate my points made in this evaluation. The development of technologies has helped me hugely with how I have been able to record, research and review my productions.
