Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our project was to develop and make a music promo and make promotional material linked to the music promo. We chose an unsigned band that ended up being a local band that we as a group knew some on the members which made it easy to communicate with and asked them if we could use their song for our project. By using their song we could create a music promo and based upon the song, create a digipak and magazine article, to promote the band and their song. The benefits of using people that I knew was that we could get in contact with one another easily in organising days to meet up for filming and communicating ideas to one another

The purpose behind the three promotional materials is to advertise and promote the band to a target market. This then gives the band exposure that they would not have gained otherwise as they had nothing to associate themselves with in terms of promotional material. This then gives the target market an idea of what the band is about and what their music is about. This then gets the band more followers which means that they get sell out tours and their gigs get them more money. Their products that they sell such as merchandise become collectable items to the “die hard” fans and also are another way of the band/artist of getting more money due to the increase in fan based support.

A music video will help the band to show the target market what the band as a whole personality is within their video. They incorporate their thoughts and ideas into visual images. By doing this it enables the target market to create their own opinions on the band and their song. Music video promos allow people to picture something when listening to the song. They can put a face to the name and voice. A music promo also is a visual representation of the music that the band has created. Keeping in time with the pace of the music and the different shots changing to the beat of the song. The visual images could have links to the lyrics or no links at all.

 Within a promo there should be a wide variety of camera shot which includes shots of instruments to convince the view of the artist and their talents. It should also include a range of close ups, long shots, establishing shots and mid shots to show whether the performer or the narrative, any of these shots can make an effective promo.

Close ups – these are used to have an up close and personal view of the artist of band member. For this shot you are seeing Examples facial expression and what he looks like giving the audience a face to link with the voice to picture what he looks like when just listening to his music. Close ups are also used for key imagery with the music promo that could link to the narrative of the production.

Mid shots – these are used to show some of the scene around the artist or band but also show the relationship between the band members and anybody involved in the narrative with them. For this shot it shows how Example with some of the equipment around him on the stage and some of the other people on stage with him showing them both enjoying the music that they are performing.

Long shots – these are used to set up the scene of the place but also show everybody involved. This shot shows the whole stage, Example is the key feature in this as he is illuminated in with lighting, but it also shows his relationship with the crowd. Long shots are used in both performance and narrative.

Music promos have to show slick editing which relates to the tempo of the song by changing the pace of shots when it becomes a faster tempo or slower. The shots have to be in time with the structure and pace of the song. Depending on the genre of the song there should be cuts, the most popular cut is the straight cut as it is simple to keep with the beat of the song and also creates pace. Also, the genre of the song depends on the pace of the shots. Acoustic genre tends to be slower paced compared to a dance genre song. The acoustic genre will have slower paced editing and different transitions that may not be seen in the dance genre. 

Sound within a music promo is normally just the song that is heard. If the promo includes performance then the sound of the music could be classed as diegetic sound. Diegetic sound is sound that appears to have a source; this performance aspect appears to have a source as it appears to be coming from the instruments that are being played. Diegetic sound also includes sounds that seem to have a source e.g. a car horn of people talking and seeing the people have this conversation. Having these basic sound effects play alongside the music of the song is unconventional for a music promo due to the promo only normally including the sound of the song. Wretch 32 ft. Ed Sheeran – Hush Little Baby is an unconventional music video in terms of sound because it has these basic sound effects. Non-Diegetic sound is sound that has no source. Narrator or commentary sounds are other names for this type of sound. Sound effects that are added for dramatic effects are also part of Non-Diegetic sound. At the beginning of Taylor Swift – I Knew You Were Trouble, Taylor Swift herself is narrating about her feelings about a boy leaving her but you do not see her speaking these words. The shots that are seen are of her and this boy or of her by herself. This narration is Non-Diegetic sound.

Narrative and performance can make up a music promo either a mixture of both aspects, or just one for the whole promo. The narrative of music promos are split into 3 groups; illustration, amplification and disjuncture. The use of these can depend on the genre of the song or the way in which an artist wants to portray their views, emotions or themselves as an artist/band. Illustration, amplification and disjuncture are all based upon the content of the video in relation to the lyrics of the song. Illustration, in which the narrative of the music promo is taken from the lyrics of the song, amplification, is when the promo uses key parts or verbal images from the lyrics and develops them to amplify the meaning behind the lyrics and disjuncture is when the promo bears no resemblance to the lyrics or their meaning. Disjuncture music promos tend to be unconventional and/or arty videos.

For our promo we have used a mixture of narrative and performance. The band had already got a gig scheduled around the time of us filming so we were able to include this into our planning and then final production giving us the performance element. For our narrative the band had made some requests in the form of including something different and creating a band image about themselves in a similar way to Ok Go does within their music videos.

  

With the lyrics of DanceGrenade’s song Korma Chameleon we as a group wanted an element of illustration of the lyric. We annotated the lyrics so that we could find something that we could link to. In the end we came up with a bonfire scene and fireworks due to the link mentions of noise, light, hustle, bustle and tonight.

So for the narrative of our music promo we used illustration and also included a disjuncture element with the OK Go aspect as it has no relation to the lyrics whatsoever.

The alternative genre is the genre of the song chosen to create a music promo, digipak and magazine advert. Within the alternative genre are many bands/artists; Muse, Linken Park, OK GO, The Killers, Coldplay, Gorillaz and The Black Keys.

Black Key – Gold on Ceiling shows the band setting up a gig, with some shots of them actually playing at the gig. It includes a variety of shots, such as close ups, medium shots and long shots. There are close ups of the equipment and close ups of the lead singer. These get a feel of what the band are like on a personal feel in showing their emotions when they are playing their music and how each member of the band interacts with one another. The mid shots show the band members playing their instruments and show the relationship between one another. The audience gets a feel of what life is like on tour with the band and in recording studies. The long shots mainly show the location of where they are such as at the beginning of the video there are long shots of the bands van and people lining the streets. The main aspect of the music video is performance but the narrative is that of the band behind the scenes of the gigs or traveling to their different destinations. The live performance and the behind the scenes have no link to the lyrics in anyway meaning that this form of narrative is disjuncture.

Ok Go – End Love is a continuous shot of a routine that has been sped up which gives the band a signature way in producing a music video. In all of their music videos they have some sort of dance routine or continuous shot throughout the entire music video. In this one the camera moves with them and has a variety of fast motion and slow motion incorporated into it giving a variety of paces. These variety of paces goes with the change in pace within the song. The band are the key aspects with their bright coloured onesies which makes them so eye catching to the audience that even in a crowded area they are still the main focus.

Linken Park – Waiting for the End is a very technical video with special effects and displaying different objects that can be found in everyday life.

Within our alternative genre promo we used the bands ideas of keeping it humorous. The band wanted an inspired music video just like Ok Go – End Love with the dance routine but the wanted the dance routine to flow with the song. When looking into the alternative genre, most artists/bands make a video that focuses on their love for their music, relationship with their audience and creating something different to view which is something that we wanted to create for our chosen band. As the pace of the song picks up towards the end more shots with fast paced editing were added in to keep it engaging and exciting to watch as the viewer’s excitement would pick up with the pace of the song/shots. With our camera shots we could be a bit looser with stability but we also kept it professional in using a tripod within certain aspects such as the Ok Go inspired dance routine. Our music promo illustrates the lyrics as we have used darker shots for the live performance and shots of the fireworks. These elements within our promo illustrates certain parts of the lyrics such as ‘Tonight Belongs to us’ where we would show the band or a band member in the dark surrounds of the stage and ‘Then I take you back to the noise and bustle, the evening people with the evening hustle’ this was shown by fireworks or the crowd at the live performance venue.

 

Conventions of digipaks and magazine adverts help promote the band even more. A digipak can include posters or lyric booklets with pictures of the band which can be classed as collectable items. Reviews from magazines or newspapers can help promote the band even more if they are put on digipaks especially if they are good reviews. Digipaks tend to be special editions because there are more content inside/included. This content could be booklets on information about the band, song lyric booklet or a poster. These tend to be special editions for collectable purposes due to this content that is inside it meaning that the fans of that band would be more likely to pay out for this so that they have all the collectable items that they can have to do with that band. The magazine advert allows the target market/audience to know when the digipak or music video is being released so that they can get it as soon as it comes out. The magazine advert includes reviews to sell it even more making the band/artist more money as well as their record deal.

Digipaks and magazine adverts from the alternative genre tend to include a lot of colour. These colours are contrasting colours against a black background. This makes them both eye catching and people are more likely to buy them or be aware of the new release that is being advertised. The font tends to be large and bold which also catches the audience’s attention. The boldness of the digipaks and magazine adverts is that they link to the boldness of the band and use some of their visual images from the music video into their digipak and magazine advert linking them altogether creating a whole product that the artist/band can advertise themselves with and their music.

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We carried out our initial research by doing a questionnaire for people to answer so that we could gain a target market and what people want to see within a music video. We also got the people carrying out our questionnaire to listen to the chosen song to hear what they would expect to see in a music video for this song. Getting this feedback was effective in that we could collect a large amount of feedback and audience research just by printing off questionnaires.

We also gained some research by videoing a range of ages about music promos and what they could vision in an alternative genre music video. We also played them the song and asked them a few questions to do with our chosen song by Dance Grenade ‘Korma Chameleon’.

By getting this feedback then we could get inspirations from other bands that are already available and find out what people want to see also by getting a range of ages it opens up our target audience to not just being in that teenage group, it opens it up to a wider range, 16-30 years. Our main findings from our audience feedback was where people would like to see it in terms of season is in Summer or Autumn. Around the time of us filming it was in Autumn which was the season that we set our production in. Our other main finding was that of what visual image did the audiences want to see. It was between live performance and being with friends so we used both of these within our production. We used some of our feedback with our bands ideas to be able to begin constructing and planning our music video so that it features elements of what the audience/target market would like to see. From our feedback we decided that we are going to have a happy feel to it and slightly humorous with lots of people having a good time which links to being with friends. Having both of these methods of collating research allowed us to be able to get more responses and more audience research so that we had more to work from.

Whilst making the music video we wanted to know, because it was a local band and we wanted to get a buzz about ready for their music video that we were making for them, if people were looking forward to it coming out soon. So we made a Promo Preview with some of the footage from what we took on days of filming. This was effective because the band could see what footage we had and also the quality of the footage. it also gave the band an 'advert' for themselve but also for the release of the music video that we were producing. Having the band close by meant that they could actually be in the music video and apart of the digipak/magazine advert but also we could capture them in the music video instead of using actors so that we were actually producing a video for somebody not just for this course. We did have to go with what they had visioned as well as what we had visioned for this music video so had to combine the two ideas. We did have some drawbacks in that we had ideas but it wasnt the bands vision but because we were making the production for the band as well as for this course we all had to come to a compromise which did work out better than what we had expected.

This allowed people to spread the word that the music video was coming out and it gave us an idea of how our footage looked in as part of a mini film.

We then posted the actual music video onto Facebook and onto DanceGrenade’s Facebook page. By posting it onto social networking sites people can easily watch the video and comment on whether they like it and what they like about it.

We also asked the band what their opinion on the music video is and what they feel we could have improved on so that we got their initial feedback.

Loui, Gavin and Adam are 3 of the band members and they thoroughly liked the digipak which we posted onto Facebook. Getting this feedback from the band for the ancilliary tasks and the music video was successful for us and for them. They liked both aspects and were very pleased with the overall outcome. They were also very happy that we had chosen them at the end of this project and showing them what we had made in terms of music promo as well as digipak and magazine advert.

We then went to most of the same people that we had interviewed before constructing the music video to get there feedback as to whether they like the different elements that they wanted in a music video promo that we have featured. The people that we interviewed first allowed us to have a target market so by re-interviewing them we got their opinion as to how much they liked it.



Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We got in contact with the band via Facebook and text as to whether we could use them and their song for our project. This overcame the use of copyright against a song that is already in the music industry. We also used Facebook to carry out audience research and feedback by posting our videos that we had made. This was an effective means of gathering information as to positive and negative feedback. Facebook is a well used social networking site that a lot of people are a part of meaning that the friends we have could all see it as most of them are a part of the Facebook community. This meant that feedback got back to us quicker than if we had gone out with a questionnaire. Facebook also became the means of keeping in contact with the band throughout the whole process of filming and getting their feedback. This was an effective method because we as a group and them as a band, one of us would be on at some point. DanceGrenade have their own facebook page meaning we could private message the whole band instead of doing a joint conversation or just emailing one member. This then meant that all the members of the band would see our questions and then either one or all of them reply back to us. This meant that communication with the band was simpler and quicker.

We used YouTube to get inspirational material from by looking at what is already available for people to view and enjoy. It allowed us to be able to see what videos are available as part of a similar genre to the song we chose. It allowed me to view different conventions within music video promos and gave me ideas as to what we could put into our promo. We also used YouTube to get feedback from people as they commented on the video giving us positive and negative feedback. We posted both our music video promo and our preliminary task onto YouTube as it was easy and simple to upload these videos onto YouTube and its easy to access on social networking sites and easy to upload onto blogger.

We used iMovie to construct our music video. We put in certain clips that we wanted and was easy to use when editing to crop, select, stabilise and add any effects or transitions that we wanted or if it was needed. We increased and decreased the speed on the dance routine so that it was in the style of Ok Go's - End Love music video. We used iMovie's tools that they supplies to slow down or speed up certain clips to a precise speed that we wanted to achieve. To get a professional music video the lip syncing needs to be perfectly in line with the lyrics of the song. if this is not done then it looks unprofessional and 'rubbish'. Towards the end of making our music promo we had a technical difficulty in that the sound started to play through on certain clips and when we first burnt of a disc the sound bled through all the way through so to overcome this we burnt off the music promo with the sound on and then uploaded to video onto the Apple Mac’s and deleted all the sound off and put the sound back in which stopped the sound from bleeding through on the clips.

Photoshop was used as a means of creating our digipak and magazine advert. It includes a range of effects that we could use and created an overall professional look to the products as it is a high quality editing programme. It is simple to use and also allowed us to be more creative in adding different layers within the image to improve our products that little bit further. To create the overall digipak and magazine advert we used photoshop by using an image that was taken on the day and using a select tool to delete out everything in the background, leaving just the band members figures. We then had paint which we smeared onto black paper giving it a marbled effect and then took a photo of it. On Photoshop we edited it so that the colours were different to what they were originally. We did this by clicking on the Enhance drop down menu > Adjust Colour > Adjust Hue/Saturation. We then dragged the image of the band members over the top of the paint and adjusted the size of the band figures creating an image that looks eye catching and would allow audiences to recognise the band.













We used dafont.com to get fonts for our digipak and magazine advert. Dafont offers a wide range of font styles to choose from. We ended up going for 2 different Sci-Fi fonts that complimented the reach of the background and overall magazine advert/digipak. Using Dafont was an easier and simpler way of getting these fonts as it is free to use and it was a quicker way instead of us as a group or one of us to design a font when there is this site that is available to many to use.

 

Blogger was used to record all of our research, feedback, developments, final products and evaluation. It was a good way of keeping the work organised and was easy to record all of my work that I have done over the course of this project.

For this project I have learnt new skills that range from Photoshop skills, editing and camera work skills. The Photoshop skills that I have learnt is that of layering the different images over one another to help create an overall professional magazine advert and digipak. When doing our preliminary task I learnt how to create different shots and used a dolly on a certain part so that the camera moved when the lead person was walking. This made the production look more professional. For our preliminary task as a group decided we were going to do Britney Spears Baby One More Time and we did a copy of the music video in our own school setting and made a dance routine just like in the original includes. having to sync up the dance routine as well as the lip syncing made this difficult but it was a good skill to learn in getting every clip to flow with one another as well to the lyrics within the song. The Preliminary helped the overall production of our DanceGrenade music video as that included a dance routine in it but because it was all one shot it was a long shot of all the figures which we had also included in our preliminary to capture the dancers and the corridor. The skills that I had used last year have now been developed and improved by this project.

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 

The combination of these three products work well together as a promotional package as they have a clear link in advertising and representing the band ‘Dance Grenade’ as they feature the band name, music and an image of the band. The magazine advert and the digipak have a clear link in colour schemes with the paint splats. Also they have the same image from one of the sides of the digipak for the magazine advert which is of the band with their instruments posing. We chose this image because it showed the band having fun and showed them with their instruments. Within the music video is a variety of colours that are in the digipak and they occur mainly in the lighting of the stage, the fireworks and in the sparklers where we repeated the clip but changed the colour of each one linking the parts together. The digipaks and magazine adverts have eye catching colours in the paint splats which are more likely to drag the target markets attention to these than it would for another promotional package of a different band. The colours keep it fun just like the fun factor in the music video which the band wanted.

Exhibiting these products will be done by traditional media methods such as, music channels, music magazines, general magazines and/or in music stores/online music stores. These methods of exhibiting a product are widely looked at by the general public opening up the bands fan base than what it would maybe have done if they had only put it out there and word of mouth took it. It would still reach their target market but older or younger people may hear/see it making it more of a success. A downside to some of these exhibiting media methods is that less people are actually going into stores or watching music videos on music channels as there are newer methods such as downloading albums instead of buying the actual album and having it on disc format. The increase in downloading music and videos on exhibiting media methods like YouTube, ITunes and the internet means that there may be less of a promotional target market for the band to reach out too. So thereby exhibiting the promotional package on these sites too will mean that every aspect of the target audience is achieved in promoting the song and band. Music Chanels such as MTVmusic will be more suitable due to the popularity and the diverse genres that are shown on these chanels. By using both these methods, traditional and modern it allows the band an increase in fans and profit. Those that are the hardcore fans in collecting everything from the artist/band are able to do this in this case of Dance Grenade as they can buy the digipak which is promoted by the magazine advert but also download the music video from ITunes allowing them to have all aspects of promotional material themselves.

Audience Feedback

We interviewed nearly everyone that we interviewed before actually making the music video so that we could get their feedback from them. Because they had given us their initial ideas of what they would like to see within this music video we felt it was better to film the same people so that they can see the overall product using their ideas.

Within the video interview the older end of the target market age range prefered the narrative shots rather than the live performanc because it was darker lighting than the rest of the production. This was out of our control as the venue had the lights set up for DanceGrenade and also the few bands that were playing before them. Because of this we tried our best to get a variety of shots so that the audience could see the band in a live environment. The overall feedback though from this video interview was that they enjoyed the video and fitted the alternative genre well.

We also posted the video onto Youtube where some people commented on it

Leigh has done a media degree so knows the technicality of creating a music video and different software to use to create a professional looking music video. This is valuable feedback as he can give us positive and negative feedback so that for future references we could use his feedback for future products. Overall both of these comments explain themselves. That they both think the video is fun and this is the effect that we wanted to give.

We then posted it onto facebook where we had a numerous of 'likes' and a comment that a friend posted on.

A friend of Lucy's sent her an email with his feedback. Steven has done the same course and now works for Ideal Home as a camera man.
The video is a strong product. It has followed a clear theme that is set by the ideas and tone generated by the song. If I had to sum it up all in one word, that word would be FUN. Obviously though, there are both good points and points that could be worked on for next time.
Some of the things I really enjoyed about the video was the mix of techniques and effects that were used. From slow motion to fast motion. From static withdrawing shots too handheld shots helping bring the audience in and feel apart of the video. I especially thought the following of someone into the concert was clever. It’s a music video, experimentation works.

That being said, one of the points I wasn’t quite as keen on was the dancing. In some places it worked well, in others, not so much. For example, I liked the part where they were sped up spinning in a circle. Not entirely sure how it fitted in but it worked. On the other hand, where they were standing in a line doing choreographed moves, it didn’t work so well. They weren’t in time with one another and looked really awkward, which distracted me (the viewer) from the overall feel of the video. I much preferred the few shots where the band were chasing each other with branches and having a laugh, it fitted in much better with the theme.

There were some great shots of the band in concert, as well as shots of the crowd. Again this being shot handheld helps bring the audience in and feel like they’re part of the concert. But sadly, I felt there wasn’t enough of these shots.

The shots of the fireworks and bonfire were fantastic. They really helped bring the video to life towards the climatic end. Although I was slightly perplexed as to why they were shot on the side. I understand that it was a nice shot of the firework going from the ground to the air, but as it wasn’t righted in post-production it felt rather odd.

In all, I thought this was a great final product. It captured the essential idea of fun well, and had the benefit of being entertaining. It could do with a few tweaks here and there, but hey, what films can’t. Well done guys.

We also sent the video to the band to get their feedback where gave replied back on pointers that he liked and what he felt could be improved about the video we had made for them. they also posted the video onto their facebook page where a numerous amount of likes were attached to video. The band also showed it to their parents and they liked the video. They liked the video that much that they shared it to their facebook profiles so that the older generation can see it as well as our target audience.

We then posted the magazine advert and the digipak image onto Facebook to get feedback. Unfortunately there was no feedback for the magazine advert but there was feedback from 3 members of DanceGrenade and somebody who does this course that commented on it giving us their feedback.

Having some of the band members comment on this saying how much they like it or which panel they prefer/like the most is a really rewarding factor in that we didnt expect this sort of response. Loui, Gavin and Adam are the 3 that are from DanceGrenade. Hannah, who is doing the course gave us more technical feedback in the overall look and keeping a continuing theme throughout each panel rather than a different background or theme on each panel.

Magazine Advert: Final Design

This is our final design for our Magazne advert. The magazine advert that we have made helps the band promote themselves in music magazines or in other magazines. 

Digipak

This is our final design for our digipak. We changed the colours of the paint splats to make the colours look so much brighter and more eye catching than the original colours. We took a section of the image of the paint and used that section continuously so that it didnt look to different. We then used images that we had taken on one of the days of filming for our music video and used them for the othe sections of the digipak.

These are screen shots as to how we changed the

colours of the paint splats to get them to a nicer

range of colours.

We went to the enhance drop down menu and

then to adjust Hue/Saturation and changed

the levels.