1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Representation of the artist:
I have represented the artist through all three mediums, the digipack, the magazine advert and the music video. I have chosen to represent the artist as understated and retro, I have done this by the use of grayscale in all three media products as well as using grainy filters in the editing of still images in Photoshop and in the video clips in premier elements. Traditionally the genre of Indie Rock music focuses more on the music than videos and marketing themselves, I have tried to enforce this through making the video locations and band equally prevalent in the thought, since it is a legal requirement of the record label for the artist or band to be shown in any representation. By using related images throughout it helps the audience familiarise with the artist and genre, so that from seeing one product they know what to expect when they go to study the next, for example looking at the Digi-pack there are images of some scenes in the video all in greyscale with the same effect. A comparison for this could be studying the Gorillaz ‘Demon Days’ album and music videos, the insert in the album contains multiple pages which are images from videos such as those for the songs ‘Dare’ and ‘Feel Good Inc.’ where the artists and locations are used throughout in the same illustrated cartoon style.
Links between Visuals and Track:
Most music videos show clear links between the visuals and track, here I have tried to subvert these conventions because the majority of indie music videos use abstract videos which follow no linear narration which is what I feel I have achieved with the use of establishing and location shots of the city of Durham. An example of this is the Vaccines music video for ‘All in White’ where the video has nothing to do with the track in the slightest but does show the band which gave me some inspiration for my music video.
Mise en Scene of Images:
All of the images in both my Digi-Pack and magazine advert are greyscale and use grainy filters to give a nostalgic feel to them. The majority of the images are taken in the city of Durham to create continuity and flow between the mediums; these images are also featured in the music video. In my digipack I have used two of the band members to who are featured in the music video which helps to create brand identity as well as being a legal requirement from the record label. These features create familiarity to the audience and continuity through all of the mediums. The use of cityscapes and architecture has been common place in the conventions of modern indie rock digipacks and music videos, I have followed these conventions so that it was easy to recognise the genre of the band and track.
Costumes and Props:
The use of costumes and props are almost vital to enforcing and subverting conventions of media products since music genres are tightly linked to social stereotypes, for example the Arctic Monkeys new album Suck It And See has taken a new direction from the last ones in terms of sound and show inspiration from Mark Bolan and other such artists with a strong feel of Americana, with a lot of the music videos being shot in the U.S.A, the costumes used include cut off denim jackets, plain white t-shirts and leather jackets typical of vintage American rock and roll scenes, where in my music video costumes include skinny jeans, plain t shirts, checked shirts and denim, this helps to enforce the indie rock genre. The only props I have used are in the video, which are an electric guitar, electric bass, drum set and microphone which are used in the performance part of the video to clearly show band members.
Digipack and Magazine Advert Content:
The copy in my digipack and magazine advert follow the conventions of most real media products, they all include copyright information, band names, track listings, record label and album title to create realistic products which look professional and have a brand identity. I have used simple fonts throughout to enforce continuity and so that it doesn’t distract attention from the visuals and tracks. I managed to do this by follow conventions for digipacks by the Horrors and the Vaccines.I chose to follow the post modern convention of digipacks and magazine adverts where evocative images are used even though they have no connection to the current single but still feature the artist or artists.
my Magazine Advert Suggests the Genre:
I intentionally used a simple font and picture using featuring a band member in the advert to suggest the genre because of the costume worn, i.e. skinny jeans and inner city location as well as the greyscale effect and grainy filter since nostalgia features heavily in the indie rock genre, also the band name is shown to be in Broadway lights which suggest a sense of showmanship and theatricality typical of modern indie artists such as The Drums and Foals. These artists I have mentioned have similar magazine adverts which like mine, follow the typical conventions.
How my Digipack Suggests the Genre:
My digipack is typical of real indie rock digpacks such as that of the Mystery Jets album ‘Twenty One’ as images of band members are used as well as stills from the music video location which can be compared to the Gorillaz Demon Days album digipack. I have used the same font on the throughout the digipack as in the magazine advert to help enforce the genre . The inside pane of my digipack can be compared to the front pane of the mystery jets twenty one digipack which both feature band members.
Layout of Digiack and Advert:
Both my digipack and advert are layed out in a way which makes it clear who the artist are, what the album title is and what the track names are, although in smaller print I also include copyright information and the record label. All of the important information such as release date and retailers is also incorporated into the design of the advert but the main selling points are the main image, artist name, and album title which are in the largest font. The simplicity of design, continuity in font type and images used help to make the products memorable and easy to obtain information from.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
Camera
I used the camera to take still images for the digipack and magazine advert,i also used the camera in conjunction with the tripod to take steady images with no motion blurs. Later i edited the stills i took on photoshop 7.0.
Flip Mino HD camera
This is the camera i used to record all of my footage for the my main product, the music video. I chose to use this camera due to its HD capability, however i did not distribute the product in HD due to the time it would take to upload and re format for youtube, also ir is quicker and easier to use the built in USB connector to upload the footage in premiere elements.
Tripod
I used the tripod in conjunction with the digital and flip camera to staedy all my shots and footage to make sure they were the best quality.
Laptop
I downloaded premiere elements on my laptop at home along with photoshop 7.0, this helped me to finish the seperate products at home and sixthform by emailing the work between home and sixthform accounts, this increased my productivity and made it quicker to convert my video to a WMV file.
Guitar (props)
I used my own guitars as props for the actors in the video wich reduced costs and time which may have been spent finding props. For costumes we used our own clothes, colours did not matter as we were going to add a greyscale filter to the video in premiere elements.
Lighting
We used a blonde lighting kit to enhance the lighting in all of our still shots and most of our video recordings, this helped to create depth of shadow and give the footage a proffessional feel. The barn doors were used to focus the lighting on the subject in still images so that ther lighting looked as if it had been purposley altered to enhance the images pre editing, which would save time.
USB Cable
I used this piece of kit to transfer stills and video footage between the digital camera and computer at sixthform and laptop at home. I found that this was invaluble when taking still images at different points through out the course.
Programmes used:
Microsoft word
I used microsoft word to write up drafts for my blogs and spell check all of the copy on my blog.
Powerpoint
Photoshop 7.0(to edit images to use in media texts)
Photoshop 7.0 was one piece of software that i found to be invaluble due to the useage i got out of it from adding filters to images, altering the lighting and colour levels and resizing and cropping images. By using this i was able to create two of my ancillary tasks and use the text tool, light level altering features and black and white filter to create a brand identity heavily featuring nostalgia for 1900s broadway in america, with the band having a largely americana influenced sound.
Premiere elements ( to create main media product)
I used adobe Premiere elements to create my main prouct and upload the video footage I had recorded on my Mino Flip HD camera. After uploading footage I then cut the clips down to size to fit into a roughly 4 minute time space, I also added greyscale filters to all clips to make it a black and white video while slowing down and reversing some clips toward the end. This was another vital piece of software alongside photoshop.
Prezi
I utilized prezi as a way of presenting my work such as evaluation and research and planning to show how well I could use different programmes to make my blog stand out and be more aesthetically pleasing. It gave a professional look to the information I was trying to relay to the audience for my blog but took relativley little time, which was important for the time constraints in which I had to work.
This is my final music video compared to a similar music video for a track by another band, from watching the videos there are clear similarities in the use of greyscale filters but also differences in the plot and the way that the visuals match the audio and lyrics. i have also follwed some conventions such as using a range of shots e.g. close up, mid shot and tracking shots.
2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
The ancillary texts I had to produce were a) a digipack following or subverting conventions of real examples and b) a music magazine advert again following or subverting existing conventions. The purpose of the ancillary texts is to promote the music video, which is the main product. Before producing both ancillary tasks I studied various real ancillary media products and how they helped to promote the main product they were advertising. For example I looked at the Kings of Leon album ‘Come Around Sun Down’, there are themes throughout both ancillary and main products, such as the font for the copy on the magazine advert and digipack, as well as the effects used on images; all of the still images used in the digipack and magazine advert have a sepia, orange/brown tinted effect to create a feeling of nostalgia and warmth, the same effects are used in the music video for the albums debut single ‘Radioactive.’ When all three products are studied together it is clear to see that they are related through the methods I have mentioned above, so after seeing the advert, the audience can anticipate what the music video for the single will look like as well as the digipack. I have tried to do this with my three products through the use of the same font throughout the two ancillary texts and the use of the copyright information and record labelling, all of the still images used are also in grey-scale with editing to highlight shadows and brighten any light. I feel that by doing this I have created continuity and identity relating to the indie genre which is again emphasised in the main product through the use of location, effects and band members which are used throughout all three products.
3. How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
Equipment used:
Camera
I used the camera to take still images for the digipack and magazine advert,i also used the camera in conjunction with the tripod to take steady images with no motion blurs. Later i edited the stills i took on photoshop 7.0.
Flip Mino HD camera
Tripod
Laptop
Guitar (props)
I used my own guitars as props for the actors in the video wich reduced costs and time which may have been spent finding props. For costumes we used our own clothes, colours did not matter as we were going to add a greyscale filter to the video in premiere elements.Lighting
We used a blonde lighting kit to enhance the lighting in all of our still shots and most of our video recordings, this helped to create depth of shadow and give the footage a proffessional feel. The barn doors were used to focus the lighting on the subject in still images so that ther lighting looked as if it had been purposley altered to enhance the images pre editing, which would save time.USB Cable
Programmes used:
Microsoft word
I used microsoft word to write up drafts for my blogs and spell check all of the copy on my blog.
Powerpoint
I used this programme to create slide shows so that i could present work on my blog in varying ways by uploading it to slideshare.
Blogger
I used blogger to create my blog and record all of my research and planning, construction and evaluation of my media products in an easy to read format, wiht the capability to embed prezi and slideshare as well as videos.
Blogger
I used blogger to create my blog and record all of my research and planning, construction and evaluation of my media products in an easy to read format, wiht the capability to embed prezi and slideshare as well as videos.
Photoshop 7.0(to edit images to use in media texts)
Photoshop 7.0 was one piece of software that i found to be invaluble due to the useage i got out of it from adding filters to images, altering the lighting and colour levels and resizing and cropping images. By using this i was able to create two of my ancillary tasks and use the text tool, light level altering features and black and white filter to create a brand identity heavily featuring nostalgia for 1900s broadway in america, with the band having a largely americana influenced sound.
Premiere elements ( to create main media product)
I used adobe Premiere elements to create my main prouct and upload the video footage I had recorded on my Mino Flip HD camera. After uploading footage I then cut the clips down to size to fit into a roughly 4 minute time space, I also added greyscale filters to all clips to make it a black and white video while slowing down and reversing some clips toward the end. This was another vital piece of software alongside photoshop.
Prezi
I utilized prezi as a way of presenting my work such as evaluation and research and planning to show how well I could use different programmes to make my blog stand out and be more aesthetically pleasing. It gave a professional look to the information I was trying to relay to the audience for my blog but took relativley little time, which was important for the time constraints in which I had to work.
Evaluation Question 4:
Evaluation question 4 media
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