Introduction
The project that I worked on was the creation of a music video, in which I worked with Kate Lydon, Jessica Sergeant and Vicky Wright. I partnered with Vicky to create one of the Advert Magazine and created the back cover alone. My particular contributions in this project were editing, filming and the creation of the magazine advert and back cover of the CD.
Question 1
The typical conventions of an acoustic music video usually use similar elements, although some can break typical conventions.. In our music video we have used some conventions from others that we had researched, such as using a narrative and also showing the artist perform within the video. In our video we used a linear narrative. Using typical elements in our video was very important because it gives the target audience something that they can relate to and be able to understand the meaning of the song from the artist’s perspective from a typical storyline.
“Genres are created through a process of repetition and recognition leading to anticipation and expectation.” - Graham Burton 2000. His theory of genre suggests that throughout one genre there are many codes and conventions that link it to its particular genre. This is done by repeating techniques in which its conventions become recognisable to the audience.
Our innovations were likely to prove successful because we researched other well known similar artists to gather ideas and create our own based on their choices. Through our audience feedback, we have found that the choices that we have made throughout the video have worked effectively. Below is an example of persons personal response.
The conventions of our Album are quite traditional; this is because we want the audience to know directly from seeing it who the artist is and when the album will be released. The conventions of a typical advert and album that we used are:
· The artist name and Album title
· Readable colours that are eye catching
· Photograph of the artist
· Logo
· Date of album release
The conventions on the album and advert that had to match with the typical acoustic genre were:
· Suitable clothing on the artist
· Location of the shots (old train station)
· The colour scheme had to match the theme of the artists music (we chose blue)
The conventions that we used for the album and advert worked particularly well on our audience feedback. Below are is the back cover of the album and advert that i created..
Question 2
Branding is an important factor for an artist in the music industry; it can increase its chances of selling the product and being able to express a particular image to the audience. Our brand image for our artist is for typical teenagers who are into alternate, acoustic music. We had to make the artist appeal to our target audience by the use of branding, the singer had to have the correct image in order to grab the audience’s attention, therefore we had to create our three products and link them together so that it looks as thought they belong together.
After trying new ideas on Photoshop, the logo that we created is very simple yet eye catching, we decided to do this after looking at a number of acoustic artists in which they used the same technique. By using a simple logo design, the audience could distinctly see who the artist was straight away.
Throughout making the three products, our group have tried to maintain the same brand image in all three, the music video, Album cover and Magazine advert. The Advert and Album cover really had to go with the style of the music video and artist, therefore we used the colours blue, black and white on these products, this created connotations of the single being slow and sad. I believe that using these colours created this effect. The black and white colours on the album went very well with the music video as we had used black and white memory clips within it, this created a link between the two products. On both Advert and Album cover, I edited both images on them with a high contrast and black and white effect, this looked more effective and suited the genre of music. The fonts that I used were very simple and easy to see, I did this because the name of the artist had to be clear to read and I made the font white so that it contrasts with the background so that it was viewable.
The denotation of the music video is a typical romantic narrative that is about a boy thinking of memories of his girlfriend but allows connotations such as showing the emotions that he feels for her within the music video. The flashback sequences give the audience something to see about who the artist is singing about.
After looking at several music labels, the one that I personally think will fit well with this artist and genre of music is Sony Epic Records. Epic records have artists such as The Fray, Editors and The Script which are all similar to our artist. However, the artist that we have is quite different than other acoustic singers; more teenagers would relate to our artist and therefore buy more records. It is known that teenagers are the target audience for music as they spend more on it, therefore, the music label would be earning lots of money
Question 3
Throughout our project our group aimed for the band age of 15-39, we thought the artist would appeal more to this audience because the lyrics and the music can be related to youth, and also the music video has a narrative of a teenage boy who has lost his girlfriend which is also relatable to a young target audience. This target audience is known as the Enthusiasts in which people believe music is key part of life but is also balanced by other interests, this was a research method by a company called ‘Emap’ who wanted to research and map the fan economy. In psychographics the group that we would aim to please would be the “individual”, this is because the genre is different to chart music and wouldn’t appeal to mainstreamers.
A young target audience is a potentially large mass audience, therefore allowing more profit to the label; also, because the artist is different to others bands or artists, loyal fans will still keep purchasing music and concert tickets as well as newer fans. Female fans would most likely be the target audience as well, because of the fact they can relate to this particular music. The secondary audience would most likely be the savants. People who love music and can not live without it, this audience would be very important profit wise in the music industry.
For our audience feedback, our group presented our music video In front of around 10 people in which we handed questionnaire sheets. On this sheet were questions such as Gender, age and then questions about the music video, advert and album cover. Once they had watched the video and viewed our ancillary tasks they filled out our feedback form. Here are the results...
The technologies that we had used in this project were Photo Shop and Final Cut, by using these programs, our group was able to achieve better quality results in our feedback. The planning and construction of our final products aloud us to test different techniques that we could use before have a final piece. Such as creating different logos and seeing which one we liked the best, also looking at planning the effects that we would use in the music video, this made the construction less time consuming.
The main feature of the products was to try and attract the target audience. We did this by using unusual effects on the music video such as black and white effects, transitions and a shot of a swing and then the exact same shot but with the girl there, this created the sense of flashbacks and created more of a narrative to the song. On our ancillary texts I used many techniques on Photoshop to make them more appealing to its target audience, for example, changing photographs to black and white and then adding a high contrast. Also on the Album covers by having the front of the artists body on the front of the album and then a shot of his back on the back of the album.
From looking at the audience feedback on the questionnaires, our products came out with lots of positive reactions. From this reaction I have learned that using more effects can make the video more appealing towards the audience, causing it not be dull or boring, and thought that the right amount of effects had been used and not over edited.
The black and white effects were of the teenage boys memories in which the audience that viewed our video knew straight away. This was a main feature of the video and I found it good that people knew exactly what we had tried to do by changing the shots to black and white.
From looking back at the feedback, overall, many of the people said that the appearing of the girl was one of the best shots that was in the music video. Also in the video many people complimented on the different locations that we had used and thought the video overall suited its genre. In our ancillary tasks, the audience feedback said that our magazine advert and Album covers matched very well with suitable colours and appealing text.
Looking back at the feedback, I think I would have added more shots of the artist within the music video, it was hard to meet up with the main actor of the video but if I could have taken more shots of him I would have. Although having more clips of the girl did not ruin the video in anyway, it just created more of a storyline to the song.
Question 4
The programmes and software that I had to use in order to complete the final products were Final Cut and Photoshop. In AS level our group created an opening sequence of film, in doing this we had to use the programme IMovie, I knew how to work the basic settings of this programme, I also had prior knowledge to Photoshop as I have taken photography so I didn’t really learn any new skills just the ones that I already had knowledge of.
After using Final Cut I used some of my knowledge of IMovie to enhance new skills, such as changing clips to black and white and fading out clips. I also learned how to add sound and the technique of slowing down a clip, this helped very much within this project as it was main part of the video. The advantages of Final Cut were the fact that in our music video we were able to use more effects to make the video look more effective and interesting. Although we did have a problem with one of the clips looking very grainy and pixilated. This wasn’t a major problem and fixed it by importing the same shot again which was not time consuming.
Throughout our project it was important to use the digital camera and DV cameras as this was a main part of our project. The cameras were very easy to work and took no time at all to set up and start filming. However, a disadvantage was one of the DV cameras battery was not charged to the full amount and our group had to reschedule another filming date.
The website that we used to upload all of our research and planning was Blogger. I found this site easier than having a file with all of our work in, this is because we could add more to them if we had too and was easy to access from home if we wanted to do extra work. On blogger we could upload pictures and videos, this became very helpful in our research as we could upload photographs of other artists albums and music videos to evaluate them in full detail.
As part of this evaluation I created a short Power Point presentation with the audience feedback results. This was much easier to use than adding them straight to blogger because of the fact that it was not time consuming and looking much more neat and tidy.
The technologies that I have used have certainly improved my creativity skills; they have aloud me to have different effects to create very professional products. In Final Cut the scenes of the artist performing had dull colours, by using the programme I was able to add more brightness and contrast to the clips which created a much more stylish and professional look. In AS I was able to achieve new skills on software and programmes specifically meant for media products, after a year I have generated skills of a high standard in able to create real looking products.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the research and planning that I did at the beginning of the project enabled me have more ideas on what could be included for the genre that we chose to do. By planning what we were going to do in a group created discussions in which choices had to be made, my social skills were a major part of this project and I learned to listen to other peoples ideas in order to create what we wanted our products to look like.
In my opinion, I think the final products look very professional considered the time we had to make them. The disadvantages of the project were that we had to change the main character of the teenage boy. The person that we initially had didn’t have the same frees as us and lived out of the way. After changing the artist it was much easier to record and start editing. Another problem was that we wanted to film at Blackburn Train station but was not able to; the problem was later solved when we changed the location. Other than these problems everything was good, we were able to have schedule for editing during college time and planned what we were going to film before be did it to make the project less time consuming.
Overall, I have learned many new skills and knowledge over the course of this project, for instance I have learned to work with other people and was able to input my own ideas. I also learned new skills on the software which I did not know before. I think the project went very well, although time consuming, I believe that our finished products are at a high standard.
