I have finally completed my blog! I hope you enjoy looking through the posts and following my thoughts and ideas, which have led to the creation of my final music video, digipak and advertisement.
As the production team and I had not revisited our 'Superman' music video in a long time, we decided to watch the video with clear thoughts, in an attempt to edit areas which could be improved. While watching the music video we noticed that the lip synchronisation was not successful, and although we tried to alter the speed of the scenes, the scene did not fit the music. Therefore, we changed both the lip sychronisation scenes, however, we were indecisive whether to continue altering the speed of the scenes, or whether we should replace all scenes with something else. Nevertheless, after gaining feedback from both the media teachers and peers, we thought that it was necessary to replace all the lip synchronisation scenes. Furthermore, we noticed that we did not fulfill one criteria, which was to include credits to the music video, therefore, we decided to apply credits to the first 5 seconds of the music video, reading 'Superman- Barrie Gledden'.
This is shown in the two video versions below...
Version 1
Version 2- FINAL
My album advertisement was created using similar imagery to the digipak, as it was necessary to create a obvious link between all products. This would benefit the audience as they would easily relate the music video, digipak and advertisement, therefore revealing that the combination of all three products are effective.
Digipak
Before creating the advertisement for the promotion of The Rockweiler's debut album, I researched a range of advertisements from other pop rock artists, as well as artists from different genres. Exploring a variety of advertisements was beneficial since I was able to establish the most important conventions. I noticed that the most significant conventions were present in all music genre advertisements and therefore were essential in my own production. Furthermore, analysing pop rock advertisements furthered my knowledge of the conventions that were recognisable to pop rock music advertisements. Nevertheless, during the production phase I made decisions which either used, developed or challenged the conventions, in order for the best outcome.
Used Conventions
It was vital that I incorporated the essential conventions such as the name of the album and artists. Although the relationship between the advertisement, the digipak and the music video was clear, it was necessary to establish the artist's name, this ensures that the audience does not forget the artist's and could even broaden the profile on the band by telling others. The release date of the album was also essential as it gives the audience a date to anticipate, hence increasing sales. Furthermore, it was essential for legal reasons to state the institution name and logo, therefore promoting the institution who previously aided the band. This may be part of the contract between the institution and the band. Although it was not essential, I also incorporated contact details, such as web-addresses of the band. This was because I found that it was most important in order to keep in close contact with fans, especially as the use of technology is forever developing world wide. Furthermore, this would also attract listeners from not only the Uk, but from around the world. Moreover, I also stated the forms of which the album took. Although a majority of listeners may not consider this, I think that it could nonetheless influence those who have a great concern about the environment. This is as the digipak was primarily invented as a light weight ,environmentally friendly option, apposed to the conventional jewel case.
Developed Conventions
Conventionally, advertisements employ the same images to the digipak in order to create a direct link between both the products. This idea has been developed as I made use of a new more exciting image, nevertheless the concept of the half human, half dog was still noticeable. I developed this as I thought that it was vital that the advertisement was appealing, even to those who are not interested in the music. This also emphasised the name of the band which would hopefully not be forgotten due to the accompanying images.
Challenged Conventions
I have not challenged many conventions, as I feel that by following the most important conventions the audience will gain the most from the poster. However, when planning the poster I aspired to incorporate tour dates, as this was a common feature in pop rock advertisements. Nevertheless, due to the lack of space I felt that the poster would appear too clumsy, and therefore not appealing to the audience, hence the abolishment of this idea.
By posting both advertisement ideas on the social networking site, Facebook, I was able to decide which advertisement to develop, based on the audience's preferred poster. This was accomplished since all participants gave valid reasons for their decisions, as well as reasons why they did not choose the other advert.
The examples below show the first drafts of my advertisement for 'The Rockweilers' debut album. However I have not yet decided which advertisement I prefer, therefore I will allow the audience to decide since I want to create an advertisement which appeals to the audience in all aspects.
Idea 1
My initial idea is to blend an image of a female with an image of a dog, however this may be difficult so I have tried to experiment with images in order to create different samples...
When searching for music artists and their advertisements, I came across 'The Verve's' cover art as at first I was interested in their subtlety since only a simple sepia tinted image of the sky was used. However when searching for their advertisement, I was shocked to see that it was also very subtle. I found this shocking, as I thought that advertisements were usually busy and very bold, in order to attract an audience, however I soon realised that the most important aim of the advert was to build a bridge between the album and the advertisement. In this example, the bridge was shown by the use of the same image and same sepia effect. The simple image also portrayed the characteristic of their music, for example, the music is relaxing however, it has a rocky edge. This is shown by the image of the sky and clouds, but the use of a sepia effect adds an unusual edge, reflecting the rock element.
Another reason why I noticed this cover was because I realised that it was similar to my album cover, as we both made use of skies which were tinted unusually.
Album Cover
In order to begin creating my advertisement of Fireworks, I decided to create plans (like I did for the digipak). This will help me when producing the drafts, as the posters contain all the vital information and images, however as I produce these I may decide to add further images of text.
Idea 1
Before I begin creating the advertisement for the promotion of the digipak, I have made a few stable decisions based on the conventions of the advertisement, as well as the colour scheme and layout. These ideas have come about as I believe that they will create an established link between the digipak and advertisement, which is the proposal for the advertisement.
Decisions
Throughout the creation of the music video, my group and I made use of media technology on a daily basis, these media included researching simple images on the internet to filming hours of footage using hand held cameras. However, at different stages of creation media was used in diverse ways, for example some stages meant that media technology was vital, whereas other stages only utilised technology for simple tasks.
Research
During the research stage of the music video I made use of media technology in order to explore different music genres and their conventions. For example, I carried out a number of research tasks where the proposal was to consider what genre of music played on certain radio station and television channels. It is for this reason that the aid of media technology such as 'Sky television' or radios were important. Furthermore, media technology such as the internet was also fundamental in the research stage as it allowed me to expand my knowledge of different genre around the world, for example Bollywood in order to influence ideas for the music video. Moreover, at this stage the team and I were able to use the internet to find the most suitable song for our chosen genre. This was carried out by searching through hundreds of listed songs on the 'LGFL Audio Network Website', which was extremely helpful as it allowed us to search songs by specific categories such as genre, mood, tempo.
Planning
Media technology was also of great help during the planning stages of the music video. Firstly, the group and I explored different techniques of making sounds in order to play over parts of the song. For example, we learned how to create sounds on a I Mac programme known as 'Garage Band', this helped, as before creating our storyboards the team had an initial idea of recording comical kissing noises over the ending of the song. Although this idea was abolished the use of 'Garage Band' furthered our knowledge of media technology. Secondly, to begin discussing the setting of the music video it was necessary for the team and I to explore a variety of settings. However, this was accomplished as we had access to a video camera, which allowed us to video different settings and later discuss which areas appeared better on film. Furthermore, this gave the team the chance to practice our filming techniques. Furthermore, with the use of software such as 'Microsoft' I created a number of costume designs for the characters of the narrative. Finally, throughout this planning stage it was necessary to continue searching for influence from other pop rock bands in order to create a genuine pop rock music video, hence the internet acting as a great source for researching videos and song lyrics.
Construction
The third stage of construction was the stage of which media technology was mostly utilised. The first step to the construction was the filming process which involved using a video camera and lighting equipment, without such media technology the filming process would not have been as productive as it was. Secondly, the editing process was to be carried out using a computer based software known as 'I Movie', therefore this meant that the team and I dealt with this software on a weekly basis. During the this time, the team and I were constantly looking for feedback in order to change and alter areas of the music video which could be improved. This was made easier as it was possible to revisit past scenes and edit them for the best possible outcome. Nevertheless, the disadvantages were that the software was not always reliable and therefore did not always work or save correctly. This was the case for my team and I as after the first week of editing our work was deleted and lost as a result of a computer crash, nonetheless we overcame problems such as these as we learned to back our working progress onto a portable hard drive continuously.
Evaluation
To evaluate audience feedback it was vital that media technology was utilised in order to store and evaluate data from questionnaires. For example, I made use of the software Microsoft Excel when analysing data which influenced the decisions made in the music video. Nevertheless, this was most useful when analysing open and closed questions, since I soon found that Microsoft Excel was most beneficial with quantitative data. Furthermore, media technology such as the video camera gave me the opportunity to explore different ways of collecting audience feedback, since I was able to film few candidates as proof of my audience feedback survey. Moreover, the internet was of great use when evaluating the music video, as it offered a range of platforms to submit our final music video and gain audience feedback. Therefore it is evident that media technologies came of use throughout all stages of research, planning, construction and evaluation.
When creating and designing my digipak I had to consider the ways in which the combination of the music video and album art related. This would therefore create strong synergy between both the products, furthermore it would ensure that my target audience is able to build a relationship between the products when either looking at the music video or the digipak.
Digipak
As the coursework tasks are to firstly create a music video for a specific genre, secondly create a digipak album that includes the song title of the previously made music video, and thirdly create an advertisement that promotes the digipak, it is vital that the combination is promoted in an effective manner. This means that each aspect such as the music video, digipak and advertisement show synergy and therefore promote each other creating a larger, more successful outcome.
(SYNERGY- when different entities cooporate to create a more successful final outcome.)
Synergy is VITAL in the promotion of music and in the music industry in general. An example of synergy is shown by the growth and success of P!nk. This is shown by her songs, music videos, albums, album advertisements, merchandise and tours. Nevertheless, the synergy would not be as effective if there was not a strong relationship between each of these aspects.
Video
After analysing previous album advertisements, I have created a set of conventions, which will aid the creation of my own magazine advert promoting 'The Rockweilers'. This has encouraged my ideas about the most important features of my design. Furthermore, this will hopefully emphasise the authenticity of my album advertisement.
Conventions
In order to understand and recognise the decision made when designing an album advertisement, I have produced two analysis of dissimilar album advertisements. This will hopefully also encourage my ideas and thoughts about how to design my advertisement. Furthermore, I will be able to recognise the changes within album advertising throughout time due to previous analysis on advertisements during the 80's.
In order to begin analysing album advertisements for pop rock I have began researching advertisements from historic periods such as the 80's as this was known to be the period of rising rock bands such as ACDC and 7th Stranger.
To gain audience feedback on the digipak, I have posted my work on social networking site 'facebook' in order for friends to view and comment their opinions. The three main questions that I have prompted the candidates to ask are...
In order to ensure that my final Digipak cover is successful and appealing to my Target audience, I have compared 'The Rockweilers' album cover to 'P!nk's- I'm not dead' cover, as they are of the same Pop Rock genre.
After completing the music video the team and I thought that it would be useful to gain feedback from a variety of people in order to evaluate the music video from an audience's perspective, as well as confirm our target audience. Overall we received feedback from 10 candidates, five of these candidates were female, and the remaining male, however the age of the candidates varied between 16 to 40. When questioning the candidates, we asked four compulsory questions these were...
Although the music video that we created was based on a Pop Rock song, it is expected that we have made use of all conventions of a Pop Rock music video, however, after analysing the video I have noticed that there are areas where the conventions have either been used, developed and even challenged.
Used Conventions
As the song 'Superman' of a pop rock genre, we have made use of conventions found in a pop video, for example the narrative is based on love, which is common (is not essential) in pop music videos. Furthermore, the characters that we have used in our narrative have been portrayed in a dramatic manor, making use of archetypes such as the Punk, Hunk and the Geek. Over exaggeration is also extremely common is pop rock music video as pop rock music is usually targeted as a young age group, therefore the use of humor is essential in order to keep the audience excited. Furthermore, it is conventional for pop rock music videos to follow a illustrative narrative, which means the lyrics are accompanied by the illustration, this was accomplished in a number of ways especially by the use of lip synchronisation as well as scenes that literally follow the narrative. For example, the scene of the Devil "..doing a deal...". Camera angles that were similar to angles used in pop rock music videos were also employed such as Medium shots, and two shots emphasised the love related narrative, and also kept the audience engaged with the emotions of the characters.
Developed Conventions
The team and I developed a number of conventions since our genre was a mix of both pop and rock, it was necessary to use conventions of both genres and develop them, but also making sure that the combination is well accompanied by the images. Firstly we developed the speed and transitions of the music video, as they are short and quick changing, the emphasis is put upon the rock element. Nevertheless, the images and clips used are commonly associated with the pop genre. Moreover, we made use of special effect editing techniques which are usually present in pop music videos is order to reveal a chronological change. However, we developed this by using other special effects such as the cartoon effects.
Challenged Conventions
We challenged a number of conventions as our target audience was of a smaller range compared to the target audience of renowned artists such as P!nk. This influenced the settings that we picked, as they revealed an urban environment, for example the flats in the background and the terraced housing. These are characteristics that appeal to a pop rock music video, however they appeal to an audience from a middle class upbringing in an urban environment.
Over the past week I have been carefully planning and creating the digipak cover for the band 'The Rockweilers', however I have finally come to an end and I now feel confident to reveal the digipak as a whole. I have demonstrated the outside and inside cover in the form of a net, so that it is possible to see the fold in the digipak, as well as the designs in the position that it would in reality be in.
Outside Net
The final panel that I was left to design was the outside fold, which would be seen on the same side as the back and front cover when open in a net. I did not feel that I needed to produce a plan before designing this panel as I knew what type of images I wanted to use, moreover, I was confident with exploring different images and buildings from different perspectives.
My final draft is shown below...
I have noticed that when albums are on sale in music stores, they are usually displayed in a manner which allows the audience to see only the spine of the album. Therefore, it is most important that the spine of the album is noticeable, distinct, attractive and clear. To expand on this theory I have taken five different album and placed them on top of each other, therefore only showing the spine of the cover, I then asked a group of people which album spine they found most attracting.
When designing the back cover of the digipak, I needed to consider all the information and features that are vital to the design. This includes conventions such as the barcode, and song listings, however these features are only the basic.
On closer inspection of Linkin Park's Meteora album, I found that other features included:
