How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advertisement)?
Music Videos that influenced me:
With the video we made, we challanged the conventions of a normal indie pop band as we showed no obvious requirments for a band or instraments with is normally seen in most indie pop bands. The music videos that inspired us to do this was:
Owl City: Umbrella Beach -
And, The Artic Monkeys: When the sun goes down -
The Artic Monkeys video is the video that mainly inspired us as it challanges the normal conventions of a music video of the indie pop genre due to the story being about a prostitute which is simular it our music videos story as ours is about a girl who had everything but lost it and became a prostitute and turns to god for help to find her way back to a path.
Images and advertisements that have influenced me -
Black Eyed Peas: The End -
Basshunter: LOL <(^^,)> -
These album covers influenced me as neither of them show the artists face as a whole which is very effective in catching the audiences attention as they will wont to know who the artist is. I also like this idea as it ties in with the music video which challanges the normal conventions as we don't see the artist/band in the music video.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
What people liked about our music video:
What people think needs improved and what we done wrong:
I think that most people enjoyed the video as we have has many good comments about it. There was only four problems a few people fond with the video, which i agree need to be improved on. Something most people liked, was that the video challenged the normal forms and conventions and also the religious side of the story which ties in with the lyrics. I think that the video was a success and am happy with how it turned out.
When we had got some feed back from the viewers and read the comments we came together as a group came up with some improvements and good things about the music video.
After the cinema viewing I asked a girl in my class " Did you spot any conventions in our music video" she said " As i like coldplay and have listened to this song a numerous amount of times i could relate to it easily. I think that your music video has not got a lot of the conventions of a normal alternative rock music video like there was no band in the video and a very slow tempo to the song, But the effects and the places you filmed relate to the actual music video"
From this comment we immediately knew what she was talking about, we took it in to consideration and we know we should of done something different or added more.
In class session we all had to review about each others video, one boy wrote.
"Good landscape shots of the city which relate to the song name and lyrics and also the characters clothes match the story which is good"
We responded - This was good feedback and felt that we had at least accomplished something, we were grateful that he liked the opening.
Also in class session
A girl said " Opening shot and end shot is interesting, also the shots of the singer actually singing is very long and could have been different shots of him, the story is very illustrative and I got the storyline. The link between the end shot and the first shot was clever."
We responded - again we knew what she meant and understood what she was saying.
Conclusion.
Overall we could of made the shots of the singer shorter and different views if we had enough time to go out and film we would have done so we did not know we were going to use that exact shot until the end we also changed our minds on what song to do several times.
We have learned that we should value time more and that we should have done more shots of the singer singing. If we could do it again after viewing the comments we would have had more shots of the singer an easier plot to follow and more shots of the singer in various places.
This is the video on vimeo we havent got any comments and only 3 plays the reason why is probably because it was seen in the cinema and we had already got comments on it after the viewing.
Most of our feedback was positive but there was a few odd negative feedback. From this we have learnt how to improve on it.
After the cinema viewing we interviewed some people and they said that they enjoyed it but there was few thing that wasn't clear. Also when we did the class review the same comment from the cinema viewings came up.
One comment that kept coming up was that the story wasn't clear.
Also we should of had some more shot on the artist, because we only really had one shot of the artist in the studio.
We could of worked a bit more on our editing because there are some shots were the lighting changes all of a sudden.
Most of our viewers liked the locations and liked it when it went from day to night.
I think overall the music video was good but could of been better, if we improve on it by using the comments and feedback I think that the video will be a great success.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When researching through music videos and looking for good song choices we came across several artists and songs we could do which were,
La Roux -In for the kill,
A artist called Y Dot Rane Kid a group members friend,
And finally coldplay was chosen after viewing different versions of the video,
Finally we chose Cold play - viva la vida. The reason we used this song is because everyone in our group agreed and had rough ideas for the music video.
We were inspired by this group because the lyrics had a meaning and we could link the story and the video together.
The editing through out the official video is amazing the colours, the use of the different shades of red and the use of black. It is creative in its own way.
Shots from coldplays official video.
Challenging the conventions of Coldplay’s genre would be really hard as it has well known features. For example Guitars, Piano etc... But we decided to make the story about a young girl who has lost everything she has and is turning to religion for help. It is similar to ColdPlays alternative video.
Religious aspects.
Our Video!
Coldplays alternative video.
Conventions of our Advertisements And Digipak .
The conventions of our advertisement and digipaks are very much similar to any other album out on the market. we have used the name of the artist, name of the band, track listing for the album, production information, including copyright and company details, and a few pictures of the lead singer.
Image of our advertisement with all the conventions circled.
Images and advertisements that have influenced us.
Chamillionaire - Sound Of Revenge
This Album has a consistant house style which they use through out the cover. It has all the info that is required on a cover (Dates, Barcode, Copyright Information, Title, Artist name, Websites, Record Company info) The artist has even made the CD within the house style.
This Digipak inspired me in many different way, first of all the consistent house style appeals to me and also the way the artist face is positioned make the cover look better.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When researching through music videos and looking for good song choices we came across several artists and songs we could do which were,
La Roux -In for the kill,
A artist called Y Dot Rane Kid a group members friend,
And finally coldplay was chosen after viewing different versions of the video,
Finally we chose Cold play - viva la vida. the reason this was our final song was because every one in our group was familiar with Coldplay and their type of genre which is a
pop / alternative rock.
We were inspired by Coldplay’s song viva la vida, because it had such a rich meaning to it. When viewing several versions of the video we thought it was a good idea as we could relate to the lyrics in the video.
The editing through out the official video is amazing the colours, the use of the different shades of red and the use of black. The use of the whole band in this video really completes the video its almost like bringing the whole band together as a family in some ways.
Shots from coldplays official video.
Another good feature in this video is the use of camera this is inspirational as most of the shots are either close ups shots of Chris martin which really emphasizes on the song lyrics.
Shots from the alternative video.
Challenging the conventions of Coldplay’s genre would be really hard as it has well known features e.g. guitars and shots of the band jamming. We decided to create a story line where a young, lost and confused girl who has lost her ways in life when she realises she turns to god and she knows she needs a change we decided this because out storyline had some strong religious aspects to it and so does viva la vida. So overall we have some conventions of coldplay genre but then we challenged them by having no obvious requirements of a indie pop band like guitars and the band in the video.
Religious aspects.
Our Video!
Coldplays alternative video.
As you can see from these images we have a similar theme to our video.
Conventions of our Advertisements And Digipak .
The conventions of our advertisement and digipaks are very much similar to any other album out on the market. we have used the name of the artist, name of the band, track listing for the album, production information, including copyright and company details, also a few thank yous, and a few pictures of the lead singer.
This image shows the conventions of a Digipak we have created. (circled)
Image of our advertisement with all the conventions circled.
Images and advertisements that have influenced us.
This album cover is very very simple it is a plain white background and a toddler on the front, very simple colours white, black and red. The reason this album cover influenced us was because it is very simple but very effective, the white background gave me the idea to use the same background on the outside and the inside but twisting the image and colours. using 2 colours and the same font for the text on this digipak finalised my idea to do the same I used the same font and 2 colours on my digipak I used white and black. Also they have used 1 simple image this gives a strong effect on the album title, i have also used 1 image on the front and the inside and only one image on the advertisement.
Notorious B.I.G Album Ready to die.
Also another digipak cover that inspired me to use one image on the front and inside was
Michael Jacksons - This Is It Album
This album cover is also very simple the producers have used 2 simple images same as we have, a simple background and the same conventions as any other album e.g. the album name, artist, bar codes and track listings. The silver background brings out the outline of michael amazingly well and makes him stand out which is very noticeable. They have also used 3 main colours red black and silver, This cover also gave me the idea to use one background.
I have watched and listened carefully to the audience feedback that i received and learnt a few things from them.
All three people I interviewed commented on the song choice and have said that they really liked that.
I have found that we should have mainly improved on our editing as we had a few glitches and getting it all to look smooth.
We also should have had more angles with the studio shots and a few more shots at the locations.
Our narration was good and it all linked well with prostitution and religion, the costume also worked well in this aspect.
There is one shot of the girl walking that doesn't look quite right because of the way the light hits her face so we should have redone that shot again to look better.
Our locations shots were good, especially at the start of our video when our girl is looking down on the Canary Wharf and the rest of London.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Videos which influnced me:
Daisy Dares You: Number One Enemy -
Y.Rane Kid: Love or Lust -
La Roux: In for the kill -
Our offical choice was 'La Roux - In for the kill' but due to complications we choose 'Coldplay - Viva la vida' instead:
In our video we used a few concepts from the original video to keep with the words of the song:
We used a castle as the song has religious connotations.
We also used a symbolic prop throughout our video just like in Coldplays video were we see him with a paiting throughout the video.
With the video we made, we challanged the conventions of a normal indie pop band as we showed no obvious requirments for a band or instraments with is normally seen in most indie pop bands. The music videos that inspired us to do this was:
Owl City: Umbrella Beach -
And, The Artic Monkeys: When the sun goes down -
The Artic Monkeys video is the video that mainly inspired us as it challanges the normal conventions of a music video of the indie pop genre due to the story being about a prostitute which is simular it our music videos story as ours is about a girl who had everything but lost it and became a prostitute and turns to god for help to find her way back to a path.
I would say that our video doesn't follow Andrew Goodwins theory of Amplification, Disjuncture and Illustration, as the video doesn't fit into one particular idea as our video challanges the normal convetions as we don't show any of the band members or main singer in this video, instead we base it on a story but still use the meaning in the lyrics for the story.
Conventions of my Digipak and Advertisement -
The digipak and advertisement i have made follow the same conventions most albums do. I have used the name of the band; title of the album; track listing of the songs on the album; production information, including copyright and company details; a barcode and images on the album. On the advertisement i used the name of the band, title of the album, other information relating to songs on the album, release date, web address, reviews, images and logos of where to buy.
The ancillary print products follow the conventions as ive used images, from the music video, on my digipak as well as new images. I also used an image, from my digipak, on my advertisment so people who see the advertisement will be able to make an connection with it when they see the album cover.
Images and advertisements that have influenced me -
Black Eyed Peas: The End -
Basshunter: LOL <(^^,)> -
These album covers influenced me as neither of them show the artists face as a whole which is very effective in catching the audiences attention as they will wont to know who the artist is. I also like this idea as it ties in with the music video which challanges the normal conventions as we don't see the artist/band in the music video.
Google was mainly used for images to use on my digipak, advert and to also look at Coldplay's digipaks and student ones to get a general idea from them. I took screenshots of images I needed from google and uploaded them to my posts or used them on the digipak. I usually searched for certain things that I needed like, record label company logo's and the bar code.
Wikipedia was used to get information on Coldplay, Copyright infringement information to use on my Digipak and for other various minor things.
Youtube was used to look at student music videos, Coldplay's videos, Other videos that we were influenced by and Artists that didn't have band members in their video. I typed in certain band names into youtube and looked at several of their videos and picked the ones that applied to our music video idea of having a narrative video without much view of any of the band members.
Lastly blogger was used to blog all my progress, post everything I have learnt and what I have done and just for the entire planning, research and evaluation.
I also used programs like :
Photoshop CS4 was used to make my Digipak on it and also my advertisement.
I used various brushes from deviantart.com on my digipak.
I used took like the brush and bucket. The bucket was used to make the whole digipak black and the brush tool was to use all the downloaded brushes I possibly could. I also used the text tool to write my text on the digipak and change the colour of that text.
Final cut pro was used to edit our music video and we used a few effects like changing the contrast, hue, fading effect and also edited it to be in sync with the actual song. My group members focused on getting everything all in sync whereas I focused on adding the fades and playing around with the contrast and hue till I found something that I felt worked well.
This was the template I used on photoshop to do my Digipak to start it.
Lastly we used a professional video camera to film all our shots for our music video and a tripod to keep the camera on so that our shots are steady rather than shaky and tacky.
