Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 3

Part 2

 

Evaluation Question 2

 

 

Part 2

Evaluation Question 1

Infographics

Tweaked Digipak

This is my tweaked digipak, it was pointed out to me that I had missed out some information on the spine. This is why I went back on to my digipak and added the catalogue number and band and album name down the spine of the digipak.

Evaluation Q4

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

I used Animoto during this project to present my pitch about the band and music video to the rest of the class. Animoto was the best product to use to present my work to the class, this is because it creates a video made up of images. You can put your own music in the background as well, this makes it more personalised, you can also add captions to the images to explain it in a better way. This is why I decided to use Animoto to present my pitch. I could have used it to present other pieces of work as well, but I decided against it.

Final Cut Pro was used to edit my final music video, I used this as it was the best technology to use as it is a professional editing software program. Final Cut Pro is an editing software that is used the on Apple products, I used this software at home so that I could do it in my own time and take as long as I wanted, rather than trying to rush it in school time.

I have used Blogger the most out of all the other media technologies, this is because I used this to publish all of my work, every piece of work that I have done has been posted on the blog, this is so that it can be seen and then commented on by my teacher. As well as this my peers can view my work and then comment on it as well, this helps me with the rest of my work as I then got an understanding of the views of people in the target audience. Another positive of Blogger is that the teacher can post work on his blog and inspiration for our work that we can then go on and view. This helps as we can view this at any time and even at home which means that I don't always need to talk to the teacher and he doesn't need to talk to us.

A Nikon D3100 camera was used to film the music video, this was so that I could create the video. The camera was of a relatively good quality which made the video look better than if it was a poor quality camera.

Scribd was used  a couple of times during the research, planning and construction stages of the products. I used Scribd to present work that I had done in a professional document, which made it easier to read and understand.

Photoshop was I big part of the project, especially for the ancillary texts. I created both the digipak and the advert using Photoshop, this was because it was the best programme to use to create professional products. I also used Photoshop to present some of my work, I did this to create a professional looking layout for my work that I could then post on my blog.

I used a tripod when I filmed my music video, this was to produce shots that were steady and didn't shake around, creating a more professional look.

An iPod was again used during filming, I used it to play the song so that the band could hear it which helped them with lip syncing.

A speaker was also used during filming to play the music out loud, this made it easier to hear the song and make the lip syncing and playing easier.

I have used Microsoft Word for most of my work, I used it to check my spelling  so that I didn't have any mistakes in my work. I also used Microsoft Word to create mood boards as I did this at home and I don't have Photoshop so it was the easiest thing to use.

UK Tribes was a website that I used a lot during the research for the main product, I used this to find out about the audience for my band. UK Tribes is a website set up by Channel 4 for people to do research about young people, it gives information about loads of different social groups. It gives a lot of information about each group so you can find out exactly what each certain group do, look like and wear. This was very useful to me and helped me produce my audience research and audience profile posts.

Another website that I used was YouTube, this again was important for me in the research stages of the main product as I used it to look at existing videos, and look at things that I liked and videos that matched the genre that I was doing. I also used YouTube to upload some of my own videos such as the animatic in the planning stage and the music video in the construction stage. YouTube helped me to present the video to my audience.

I used an iMac computer throughout all of the stages in the project. I used a mac at school to do all of my work, I used a mac as it was the best piece of equipment for me to use, this is because it had all of the programmes that I needed to complete the project, for example Photoshop and Final Cut Pro.

I also used a Laptop when I was at home, this was so that I could complete some work when I wasn't at school so that I would still be on schedule to finish the product. It also has some programmes that are not available on the iMac at school, for example Windows Movie Maker, I used this to edit and publish my animatic, I used Windows Movie Maker as it was only images that I had to edit which meant that I didn't need a sophisticated editing programme and it was easier to do as I was at home when I created my storyboard.

Another application that I used on my laptop at home was Microsoft PowerPoint, this was used during the construction stage as I created the pattern that I have used on my digipak and advert, I used PowerPoint as I thought that it was quite simple to create the shapes on there, I also used PowerPoint as I was at home and I didn't have access to Photoshop, so I used it as an alternative. I also used PowerPoint to present my work in a professional manner, like what I did with Photoshop, I created the audience profile using PowerPoint.

A memory stick was a vital part of all stages of the product, this allowed me to save my work at school and then transfer it to my laptop at home and vice versa, this meant that I could work on a piece of work at home and at school without losing any of it or without having to start again, this was a massive advantage for me. It also meant that I has a back up of all of the work that I had produced, this was another positive a the work at school or home could have got lost or become corrupted and I wouldn't have had to start again as I had it on my memory stick.

I used Sound Cloud during the project to create a playlist of potential songs for the music video, this was in the research section of the project. The playlist indicates to the viewer which songs I was thinking of doing and as they can be played on my blog you can hear what they sound like, which is better than just reading about the name and band.

I also used Twitter during this project. I created a twitter page for my band to gain recognition and act as if they were a real band. This would appeal to the target audience as well as a lot of them would use twitter, this increases the band's recognition and promotes the band's brand.

Evaluation Q3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Throughout the construction of my products I have been given feedback, both good and bad points. This has helped me to produce my main product and the ancillary texts to a good standard, I have used feedback from my peers and from people who would be the audience for my band as the feedback from them is the most valuable as they are the people that I am trying to appeal to.

The first piece of feedback that I received was for my music video pitch, I presented this to the class as they are in the age range of my audience which means that the feedback that I receive will be valuable to me and it means that what they say is relevant and should be listened to. The pitch included information about the band, such as members, name, and the song that I used in the video. It also included information about their style and genre, I presented it right at the start of the project so that I could get a good understanding if what I was thinking of creating was worthwhile and the potential audience actually liked it, if they didn't it wouldn't make it too hard to change as I hadn't done any other work. The feedback that I received was positive, my peers thought that it was quite good and thought that the things I has said about the band fitted well with the genre and would be something that they would listen to if they were a real band. This was good for me as I knew that I didn't need to change anything and I was able to stick to the ideas that I had originally thought of.

I then received feedback for my draft digipak and advert, throughout the construction of the draft versions I was asking my peers and friends (as they were the potential audience of the band) what they thought of the designs. This was helpful to me as it meant I could find out exactly what people thought of the designs, I asked them to tell me what the good and bad points of the ancillary texts were so that I could improve them to make them more appealing to the potential audience of the band. Once I handed my work in I received feedback from my teacher for the designs, I then went around implemented some of what he said into my designs. The reason that I didn't put all of the feedback into the designs is because I again asked my peers and friends what they thought of it and they told me what bits to put into the ancillary texts, the reason that I didn't  listen to all of what my teacher said is because he isn't in the audience range group which means that although he is the teacher the genre of music might not be appealing to him so he might not know exactly what he is talking about, which is why I didn't listen to all of the feedback.

Once I had posted my digipak and advert on to my blog I received feedback from my peers on the blog. I received comments about both of them from several different people, this feedback helps me to see how my products are perceived by the age group of my intended audience. The main feedback that I recieved for my digipak and the advert was that the layout of both was good and that there was a sense of continuity between the two as I used the same background and the same main image. Another thing that was said to me was that they like the minimalistic look of both the digipak and the advert, and that it worked well with the research. These comments help me to see how my intended audience think about the ancillary texts that i have created, this then lets me know whether the products are appealing to the audience or not.

Evaluation Q2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

I have made some links between my main products and the ancillary texts, which help create an image for my band, but as the video is only a single whereas the digipak and the advert were for the album, this meant that it was harder to create a link between them, I also didn't want to have the band on the digipak or advert as I wanted a more simplistic look. This is why I wanted to create a video and ancillary texts that links to the genre of the band more than linking together.

The combination of the digipak and advert are quite effective in my opinion, they work well together with links between the both creating an image for the band and a sense of continuity between the two products. I wanted to make the two products quite simplistic as this is would match the video as well. When creating the two ancillary texts I looked at existing ones from bands of the same genre, this along with the simplistic look that I wanted to use helped me to come up with some designs for the work. I wanted the digipak and advert to link together as much as possible, this meant that I could do the research of the two together and just pick out sections that I liked and then try to integrate them into my designs and onto the other product. the firs thing that I created was the background for the digipak I like the look of it as although it is quite simple it does differ from the regular black background. that is why I liked it. Along with this I created a kind of half moon half pattern image, this is to link with the name of the album 'Luna Plantation', I then put these two onto my advert as well, this is so the link between the two could be made and create a kind of image for the band or album at least.

Both the digipak and the advert are quite simplistic with not much text on either of them, I did this as I wanted a simplistic look, as well as this I wanted to link the two products together and if one had a lot of text on and the other had very little the link between the two wouldn't be as strong and wouldn't look right, this is why I made sure that they both had a little amount of text on them. As well as the amount of text I also used the same font on both of the products. This was again to keep continuity between the ancillary texts, it also makes it look more professional. The last thing that I did with the text on both products to create a link was to make sure that all of the text on both the digipak and advert was the same colour, I made sure that the text was either in a cream kind of colour or a blue. I did this to keep continuity and to make a good strong link between the two creating a brand for the album and the band, using the same font style and colour also creates a link with the audience as they recognise the font, this increases the bands popularity.

For the video I had a heavy focus on the lead singer rather than other two members of the band, this created an image of the band for the audience to relate to. The focus of the other two were of their contribution to the song, rather than the image, this is why there are more close-ups of the main vocalist than the other two, they have close-ups of their instruments more than there face.

Evaluation Q1

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

For my products I have used conventions from real media products rather than to develop or challenge them as my products were quite simple, and I feel that it is harder to develop or challenge forms and conventions due to the fact that to do this I would need  I researched the indie-pop genre and found out as much information as possible about the genre. I also looked individually at both indie and pop genres, this was to see the difference between the two and to make sure that I didn't have too much of one genre. For the three media products I have researched into existing products and then picked out things that I like, I then went about creating them for myself.

When looking at the digipaks and adverts I wanted to create something quite simple and not too full of information, but I wanted to do this using my editing skills rather than of images. I looked at existing covers for example The XX use very simple covers, and consist of edited images rather than pictures taken of the band, which is a popular convention used within indie-pop CD covers and adverts, which make it quite appealing. A lot of indie/indie-pop digipaks are quite simple, they stick to neutral background colours that don't make it stand out too much and they consist of a centre image that is usually linked to the name of the album. As I wanted to follow these conventions I created a digipak that was similar with a neutral background and a centre image that linked to the title of the album. For my advert I again looked at existing products an bits that I would be able to use for my advert. I found that a lot of adverts used the image of the CD on the advert, so I started by putting this image onto the same background that I had used for the digipak, I then added the band and album name to the advert and also the release date. After looking further into some more adverts across all genres I picked out pieces that I liked, for example the information about the album, I got this from Kings Of Leon's album advert 'Only By The Night'. I used this idea and put my own information onto the advert, the same concept is used on several other adverts such as Florence & The Machine 'Lungs' and Jessie J 'Who You Are'.

My music video also follows the conventions of real media products, I have looked at existing products to get a good idea of what conventions are used in indie-pop music videos. I researched into many different music videos of all genres, mainly indie-pop videos so that I could get a good understanding of what conventions are used within the product. It is extremely hard to develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products, so I did research into existing products so that I could get a good understanding of the conventions used in the videos.

One of the key conventions of an indie-pop music video is the use of a narrative alongside the performance of the artist, normally linking to the lyrics of the song, but doesn't always have to.

Another convention is the use of mise-en-scene to show the setting of the video (usually abstract, natural settings) with the artist showing through the use of setting that it is a fictional idea and is the narrative part of the video.

These videos also use camerawork to show a heavy focus on the artist and their performance, rather than the narrative that doesn't include them, which is a feature used in a lot of other genres, such as alternative rock.

Another convention that is used a lot in indie-pop music videos is the use of a mixture of close-ups and long shots. These are used to keep the video interesting and at a fast pace. The use of different camera angles is also used in indie pop videos, again to keep the video more exciting.

Overall I feel that I have used the main forms and conventions for my music video and my ancillary tasks that are included in real indie-pop products. I think that sticking to these has made my products safe but still look good. Developing or challenging these conventions can be very hard to do especially when it is not a professional video, and attempting to do so can make it the products look quite poor, so I feel that using the forms and conventions has worked out well for me and I have created products that fit well with the genre of music.

Final music video

Final Poster

This is my final poster. I have made a few changes from my draft one, I have changed the pattern to the moon that is featured on the cover of my digipak, as this was suggested to me by my teacher. I have added in some information about the album such as the singles that it includes, I did this as I thought that the foot of my page was a bit empty so I wanted to add something that would fill in the space. I have done this as my draft looked a bit too plain. I have also changed the font of the advert to the same font that is on the digipak to keep continuity between the two.

Final Digipak

This is my final digipak, I have made changes to all of the panels except from the inside right. On the inside left I got rid of the pattern and replaced it with information about the album. On the cover I tweaked the moon and deleted the band and album name from the top left of the page, and on the back I made the legal information smaller to make it look more professional.

Album Advert Amendments

This is my draft album magazine advert. this is a simple advert with just the band and album name, the release date and a pattern that was used on the draft digipak. The only feedback that was suggested to me was to replace the pattern with the moon from the digipak cover, but I thought that I should add something to do with the album at the foot of the page to fill in the blank spaces.

This is my final album magazine advert. I made the changes that were suggested to me by my teacher. I replaced the pattern with the image of the moon that I had on the cover of my digipak. This made the advert look better and it linked it to the digipak more. I made the text smaller on the advert as well as I thought that it was too big on the draft and looked unprofessional. I looked at existing adverts to get an idea of what sized text I should use. I also looked at existing adverts to see what text I should include at the foot of the advert about the album, I looked at many different examples from a range of genres and then selected the bits that i liked and created it on my advert.

Digipak Amendments 3

This is my draft digipak back cover, it is a lot like my final design. The feedback for this panel was to make the legal information smaller, and to spell separate right. Other than this I had no feedback for this panel, think because it is a quite simple panel with not much too it.

This is the back cover for my final digipak, I have listened to the feedback that I received from my teacher and corrected the spelling error and then made the legal information smaller, I looked at existing  back covers and found an appropriate size for the legal information, I then used these to re-size the font. I also changed the Sony Music logo to a one that had the name underneath the logo, this made it smaller  and fit on top of the barcode better. I think that this made the panel look neater and more professional. I also made the song names smaller as i thought that they were a bit too big on the draft.

Digipak Amendments 2

This is the front cover of my draft digipak, you can see that I have the moon in the middle of the panel, this is so that it covers most of the cover. I also have the name of the band and the album name in the top left of the page. This is because this is where the attention of the audience is drawn to first.

This is my amended digipak cover, I have deleted the band name and album name from the cover of the digipak. This makes it a more minimalistic simple cover. I have also changed the moon on the cover. I have done this as the moon on the draft was taken from the internet, so I took a picture of the moon and then used it on the final digipak

Digipak Amendments

This is the inside left from my draft digipak, as you can see it is very basic and doesn't have much importance to the album. This was only really put into the digipak to fill the space.

This is the improved inside left of the digipak, I deleted the pattern from the page, leaving space for me to write some information about the album on the page, this was suggested to me by my teacher as well. I have inserted some of the more important information such as the writers and producers, I have also created a special thanks paragraph where the band say thank you to people who have helped them throughout the process of the album. This makes the panel look more professional. I have made the titles in bold so that they stand out from the names.

music video draft

Draft Poster

This is my draft magazine advert, you can see that it looks similar to the digipak, using the same background as the digipak and the same pattern and text colours. I have been given feedback for the magazine advert. From this I can see what I need to improve on, one thing that i need to change is the pattern in the middle of the advert. The pattern does relate to the main image on the digipak as it is the pattern used for the moon. Although it doesn't relate to the digipak as much as the actual image of the moon would, that is why it has been suggested to me to change the pattern to the image of the moon. That was the only recommendation that I had to make it better. Although from looking at my magazine advert I have a few ideas of how to make it better and gain more marks, I feel that the 'luna plantation' text is too big and covers too much of the page, so I think that I am going to make it smaller so that it fits better on the page. I also want to add more text at the bottom of the page in order to fill the empty space, I will add some legal information or some information about the songs on the album, this will fill the blank spaces on the advert.

Draft Digipak

This is my draft digipak, as you can see I have used a four panel digipak rather than a six as it is simpler and it means that I only had to cover four panels, I have received feedback for my digipak so I know what I need to improve on to get a higher grade.
The first improvement for my digipak is to get rid of the pattern on the inside left and replace it with some information about the album, for example the engineers, producers, studio, song writers etc. This would make more relevance to the album rather than the pattern that doesn't as much. The information will also make the digipak look more professional.
Another suggestion to make the digipak better was to remove the text from the front cover and just have the image of the moon and pattern, this would make it a more simplistic cover and keep heavy focus on the image.
The third improvement that was suggested to me was to make the legal information on the back cover smaller, this was to make it look more professional and to keep the focus on the track-list rather than the legal information as that doesn't need to be big.

Digipak analysis

Digipak Ideas

Analysis of Album Poster

Animatic

Logo Ideas

 

 

 

 

Logo Inspiration

Different shots

This shot is taken from the music video 'Pumped Up Kicks' by Foster The People, the shot shows the band members walking along a street. Although this is a very simple shot and there is nothing to it at all, I think that it is still a good shot, a shot like this would also be quite simple to create as there isn't much to it. As I would like to create a quite disjuncture video I think that a shot like this would be good as it has little to do with the music.

This is another shot taken from 'Pumped Up kicks' by Foster The People, this is again a shot that doesn't really have any relevance to the lyrics or the music, like most of the shots in this video. Again it is a simple shot that i would be able to re-create, this shot shows the audience the band members with a close-up of one of them, I like the shot as like the other one it is simple yet effective, and it doesn't really relate to the song.

This is again a shot taken from 'Pumped Up Kicks', it is like the first one but from behind rather than in front of the artists, I like these shots as they are both extremely simple but look quite good when filmed with a good camera.

This is a shot of the drum kit, this is again another simple shot, like the other shots. It consists of the drummer playing the drums, which is very simple to do. The camera is positioned to make an over the shoulder look of the drummer.

This is a shot taken from 'We Are Young' by FUN., the shot is of the lead singer of the band. The shot is a close-up of the lead singer performing. I like this shot as it shows the emotions of the singer. Again it is a simple close-up shot with nothing much to it. 

This shot is taken from the same video, it is a long shot of the performance. This shot looks quite good, it is made to look good by the lighting. It would be harder to create  shot like this, due to the good lighting and all of the musical equipment. I think that I would be able to create a shot like this although I wouldn't have as much equipment as this shot. In my video i want to create a performance element, so a shot like this would be a good one to use to display to the audience the performance that the band are putting on.

This is a shot taken from a music video by Two Door Cinema Club, this is another simple shot of one of the band members playing the guitar, again the shot is made good by the good camera. In my video I would like to include close-ups of each of the members playing their instruments.

Like I have mentioned in the comments from the previous screenshot, I want to include close-ups of the members and their instruments. This shot shows the band performing with a mid-shot of one of the band members  

This is another performance, it is a close-up of the lead singer. This is a common shot used within this genre of music. This shot is quite simple as there is no complex background as it is just against a wall, there is nobody else in the shot making it relatively easy to make. The close-up is used to show the lead singer performing.

This shot is another random shot that isn't linked to the lyrics or the music. It is just a simple shot of one of the band members sitting on a balcony drinking. This shot is again quite simple as there is no movement either, although this shot would be hard to create as the location would be hard to find, but i could create a shot like it.

Band Biography

Lyrics to the song

Textual Analysis of Music videos

Textual Analysis of Music Videos

Band Style

These are images of potential clothes that they my band could wear. The clothes are all of a similar style, the clothes are all smart-casual style. The style consists of skinny jeans both blue and black and low trainers, such as Vans and Nike shoes, normally in neutral colours but can have some brighter clothing. The band will be well presented and most of their clothes are in good condition. Their tops quite smart like their trousers and shoes, they will wear a lot of plain tops with no brand logos, or if they have logos on they will be quite small. Plain t-shirts with little graphics on and shirts will be commonly worn, these will be the main pieces of clothing, both of which look quite smart and will make the band look well presented, the band are heavily concerned about setting the trend, so they will be the people to wear these types of clothing first. These types of clothing are commonly worn by existing artists of the same genre, so my band will fit in with their style of clothing. Jackets and sweatshirts are other types of common clothing worn by the band. Like the tops that they wear they will be branded but not neccessarily show the brand on the piece of clothing. The jackets and sweatshirts will again have little graphics or images on them, keeping them quite plain, like the shoes and the trousers the the sweatshirts and jackets will be neutral colours, black, navy, grey for example.

Music Video Pitch

UK Tribes - audience research

After looking at UK tribes I have found that my target audience are Indie scenestars, these people match the music that my band will play. Indie scenestars are dedicated to music and finding the freshest talent, they don't go for the big name artist and prefer to find new and up coming bands, and they will go anywhere to discover them.

Their style matches those of my band, on UK tribes I found that the big brands are converse and vans, these are also worn by my band. Indie scenestars will also where big high street brands such as Nike, as well as the smaller and un-branded clothing. Both the boys and the girls wear similar types of clothing such as skinny jeans and vans/converse.

Indie scenestars only follow a couple of bands at any one time, and these bands are usually new and up coming, rather than the big names that everyone is aware of. It doesn't mean that they don't like their music but they will usually follow the smaller bands and artists. UK tribes have said that Indie scensters have now broadened their taste in music, it is no longer just about the indie rock bands, and they like to experiment by mixing genres. This is exactlty like my band, the genre/style of their music is indie-pop which is a kind of mixture of two genres, which matches the indie scensters style.

Thier interests are also similar to that of  my band, indie scensters are interested in building up their vinyl collection, and one day having their own club nights. These are the things that are important for the indie scenesters.

Song

For the song for my music video I had to do a lot of researching so that I could find a song that would work well for my music video. I had already decided on the genre of Indie pop, so after that I needed to find a song within that genre.

I looked at different songs from various different artists, once I had found a song that I liked I put into a list that I made on my blog. I had a list of about 8 potential songs that i could of used for my music video. I then had to think about which songs would work well and ones that i could make a good music video for without it being to hard to do. I then reduced the list from 8 to 2. The two songs were both by Foster the people, they were 'Pumped Up Kicks' and 'Don't Stop', it took my a while to decide which of these songs I wanted to use for my music video but I decided to use 'Don't Stop'.
The original list of songs were:
- Foster The People - Don't Stop
- Foster The People - Pumped Up Kicks
- Two Door Cinema Club - Sleep Alone
- Tom Odell - Another Love
- Foster The People - Call It What You Want
- Two Door Cinema Club - I Can Talk
- Fun. - Some Nights
- The 1975 - Girls

I have decided to use this song as it is a more up beat from the other song which makes it a more interesting song to create a music video for, it is also a song where the lyrics can all be understood making the lip syncing easier for the people I decide to have in my music video.

Potential Songs

The Band

After researching existing bands and artists I have decided to have a band made up of three male members, this is because when I was looking at existing indie pop artists most of them were in a band of about three or four people.

I have also done a lot of research into the naming of the band, it took me a while to come up with a suitable name but after looking at existing bands I found that the names of indie bands are more random and different than pop bands. So taking this into account I wanted to create a name for my band that would be recognisable and quite random, but also have some meaning to it to make it an interesting band name. After thinking long and hard about the band name and creating a shortlist of around 5 names that I liked, I have chosen to use 'Golden Castles' as the band name.
The list of 5 names were:
- Golden Castles
- Magic Castles
- Black Bears
- Crystal Scars
- Magic Panthers

I have decided to use this name as it is quite random so it fits as an indie band name, it is also quite short and simple making it easy for the target audience to remember. Another reason for the name is that both golden and castles have good meanings. Golden suggests of great value and importance, which is what a band wants to be, and also castles symbolises a strong figure dominating the surrounding area, so these two together suggest a band with great importance dominating its surroundings, and I thought that it was a good meaning behind a quite random name.

The members of the band are Dwight Simpson(Bass and backing vocals), Sam Foster(Vocals, piano, keyboard, guitar), and Andrew Clayton(Keyboard, piano, bass).

Audience Profile

Band moodboard

Music video ideas

Genre
For my music video I have decided to choose the music genre of Indie pop. I have decided to use this genre as I like listening to that genre of music, and I feel that if a like the song I will be able to produce a better music video. When I started to think about the genre of my music video I wanted to produce a hip hop/pop kind of song, but when I has thought about it I found that it would be too hard to produce a good quality music video. I thought this as it is quite hard to find the someone that would fit well in the video, so I decided to pick a genre that would be easier for me to find an artist that would fit well. When deciding which genre to go with I looked at several different artists within each and then looked at potential songs that I could use and ones that I could create a music video for. I looked at Hip hop, pop, Indie, RnB, and Indie pop and I decided that Indie pop was the best genre for me to pick as I thought that I could create a good music video for that genre.

Artist
After deciding on the genre of the music video I then started to look at artists from that genre that I could use for my music video. I have looked at a lot of different artists from this genre both individual artists and bands, I was looking at both so that I could create a good understanding of all the different kinds of artists within the genre. After looking through all the artists I then decided to make a shortlist of artists from the Indie pop genre:
- Two Door Cinema Club
- Fun.
- Tom Odell
- Ellie Goulding
- The xx
- Foster The People

Trampoline video

This is the official lyric video for Tinie Tempah's Trampoline single. I have decided to put this video onto my blog as it is quite unusual, although this video is in fact a lyric video, it could be used as an actual video. This is because unlike other lyric videos there is nor just the lyrics on the screen, it is like the words have just been put onto an actual video. I like this as it is a multipurpose video it works as both a lyric video and an official video. Another aspect of this video that I like is that it is in black and white, this is again unusual for a music video and that is why I like it. Although this is a lyric video I think that it could work well as an actual video.

A2 Summer HW

Task 1
What do you think are the major elements of an album marketing campaign (The different ways in which a band/artists identity is mediated to an audience)?

- YouTube
- Social network sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.
- Radio
- Posters
- Magazines
- iTunes

Where have you encountered these elements in your daily life?

- The official UK top 40, on radio, TV, and websites
- YouTube - recommended videos
- Top 10 on iTunes

What factors make you 'like' a band and therefore download their music, buy their albums or attend their concerts? How do you decide which band is 'cool' and which is not?

- The genre of music is the most important factor in my opinion, if you like a certain genre then you will like the artists who produce that genre of music.

- Another factor is the artists fashions sense, if I like their fashion sense or even wear the same kind of clothes then it could make me like them more.

- Lyrics of their songs is another important factor if I can relate to their lyrics I feel that I would like them more, rather than listening to lyrics that I can't relate to.

- The personality of the artist or band can also make me like them, if they are quite friendly and are interested in similar things to me, it would make me like them more.

When and where do you watch music videos?

I normally watch music videos on YouTube or Vevo on my mobile phone when I am at home. I sometimes watch music channels on TV such as 4Music as well.

Task 2

Music video conventions

Camera shots

Music videos tend to include many long shots, close ups and mid shots. This is to create emphasis on the artist, location and emotions. Also, close ups are used not only to show emotions but to reflect the words of the song with the movement of the lips of the artist

Camera movement

The movement of the camera is used to follow and trace the artist or band. Camera movements include tilts, pans, tracking and crane shots.

Mise-en-scene

This refers to the arrangement of performers and props on stage or in a scene for a production of a music video or any other media text. Mise-en-scene puts importance on the representation of something. An example is, ’Mad’ by Ne-Yo. The mise-en-scene involves him walking down a road alone, being in an isolated room. This reflects the isolation from his lover. Also, the props include hats and dark clothes which represent the down mood of the song. Similarly, the lighting is kept very dark as it is black and white; this connotes the angry and depressed mood. This is just one example of the mise-en-scene used to give an idea of how mise-en-scene works.

Editing

Jump cuts is the predominant editing technique used in music videos. This is because this allows a sudden change from one scene to another. Similarly, transitions such as fade and dissolve are very common in music videos as they create a different effect to cuts.

Lighting

Some music videos are black and white which help emphasise a particular mood and some videos have artificial lighting which put the artist/s in an enhanced look

Sound

Sound is mainly the vocals or the song but in some cases such as Michael Jackson – Thriller, the producers can make the music video into a short film

Props

These are vital in aiding to add to the scene and create significance on particular objects or people

Costume

This goes with the scenes in the song and reflects the genre. Costume is an important factor because it has a slight influence on how the viewers will dress because they use some of the celebrities as role models

Colour

Colours tend to set the mood of the song through creating an atmosphere. For example, dark  colours are used more in rock songs such as King of Leon and bright colours are seen to be used more in hip hop and pop videos.

Goin' Crazy video

This is the official music video for Dizzee Rascal's Goin' Crazy ft. Robbie Williams, the video was filmed in Hackney, London. I have put this video on my blog as it differs from the conventional music video, it is different as it is a one shot video, this means that there is only one continuous shot used in the video. This is different to most other music videos as they have a lot of short shots, this makes this video different. The reason that I have put the video on my blog is because it differs from the others making it more appealing to me as it stands out from the crowd.

No Church In The Wild video

This is the official music video for the single 'No church in the Wild' by Kanye West and Jay-Z. This video features anarchic riots and large street fights, the reason that I have chose to put this video on to my blog is because it doesn't features any of the artists. This is unusual for a music video as they normally have the artist in the video somewhere, but this video doesn't. I like this as it is different to the conventional music video which makes it quite appealing. It is also different as when an artist doesn't feature in the video there is another main person to take their place, but in this video there isn't.

Album covers #6

This post features album covers that I like the look of but I couldn't really fit them into any of the other posts, so I decided to put them into their own one as I still wanted to include them on my blog.

Ben Howard - Every Kingdom

 

Frank Ocean - Nostalgia, Ultra

 

FUN. - Some Nights

 

Jay - Z & Kanye West - Watch The Throne

 

Kanye West - Cruel Summer

 

Kendrick Lamar - GOOD Kid, M.A.A.D City

Pink Floyd - Animals

 

Rudimental - Home

 

Seekae - Dome

 

T.I - Troubleman

 

The Black Keys - El Camino

 

Two Door Cinema Club - Beacon

 

Bruno Mars - Unorthodox Jukebox