Q4) How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

To get a song without copyright we went through www.unsigned.com as they featured unsigned artists who would be willing to let you use their songs. Also as they were unsigned it meant we could overcome copyright issues which would occur if we used a signed artist. After finding their email on their Facebook page we emailed them about using their song for our video to which they agreed. We listened to their song on

www.unsigned.com as well as YouTube and found other promos done with this song which gave us inspiration.

YouTube has helped as a research method as we could search for different examples of music promos and other promos to the same song. It also helped to find Indie/Alternative videos which helped us in understanding our genre and get some ideas from the conventions used. Some examples of videos we watched for inspiration are: 

• Bastille - Bad Blood
• Bjork – Human Behaviour
• Arctic Monkeys – Do I Wanna Know?

They are of our genre and have inspired our final promo. YouTube also helped us to exhibit our promo as we uploaded it to there and people would watch it on there; due to the sharing options they could share it on social networking sites e.g. Facebook.

We have used Facebook as a way of researching for our promo. Also using this technology helped in finding and contacting the band as they have a Facebook page. This gave us background information about the band and their songs.

I’ve also learned how to film more effective footage and that if you film at least 3 times of the same shot to guarantee you get good footage. i-Movie was another technology we used to edit our promo in which we added clips together, adding transitions and speeding up clips. Once uploading our footage to iMovie we added the song to it and then added all filler footage from the day on, and started to make our promo by putting clips together. After that we added the singing footage and synced it up by editing the clips to match the pace. Although we didn’t want to cut to the beat too much as it’s not conventional and wouldn’t suit the genre. Also to do the stop-motion we had to upload the images to i-Movie and add them in one at a time. Although time consuming it made images look like stop-motion and helped in developing my skills with i-Movie.

We used Photoshop when editing our photos for our ancillaries; digipak and magazine advert. To create the products I scanned in the painting I did to the computer and then moved it on to Photoshop and edited in on there. We chose as a group what painting we wanted to use and colour scheme, as well as help from our audience. To create the sections we used PowerPoint and then saved it as a jpeg so it would open on Photoshop. Then to create the digipak we used a template on it to fit the sections and adjusted them. For the CD in the center we placed the picture behind a layer of circles done on PowerPoint and used the rubber tool to get rid of the white parts. This allowed me to broaden my knowledge of Photoshop. I did the same for the magazine advert but added the text with PowerPoint too.

This task has allowed me to learn and expand my skills in shooting and planning, as well as editing for the promo. I’ve also learned how to research around our genre and find the conventions. By using Photoshop I have learnt how to use the programme and used many different functions on it. This promo has also helped me in my filming and learning to film lots of different shots and a wide range to create an effective promo. I’ve learnt how editing can show emotion - in our promo we edited the beginning really fast so it would match but also to create like chaos. Compared to our preliminary my skills have improved, as we have got more varied shots types and also learnt how to make a digipak and magazine advert.

Google provided a way of searching for things such as information, pictures and other technologies. I used it to find pictures for location ideas, costumes ideas and other elements for our promo. I also used it to find fonts for the digipak/magazine advert. We also used a YouTube song convertor so we could download the song and listen to it whenever we needed in filming.

Blogger was our way of recording and showing our planning, research and production. It also was a place to put our ideas and any changes we made. As we made tabs on the blog as well it made it easy to find things for filming e.g. Planning > Storyboard. Blogger also put our promo etc. to a wider audience as its used everywhere in the world. 

By putting our promo on YouTube and exhibiting it on there we have put it out to a worldwide audience, as well as our target audience. As our target audience ages are 15-23 it means they use the internet a lot and watch it on there. Also YouTube is a free publicity page so it won’t cost to upload the song but will still gain views. It was also effective as it will give the band more exposure and more people will watch it; therefore giving the band more recognition.

Q3) What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Research was important in making our promo and the ancillaries as we wanted to appeal to the people who were going to watch it and wanted to make sure our audience enjoyed watching it and would talk about it.

To gain audience research and feedback we did an initial vox pop to understand what music people like and what they like as a theme for a music video. A vox pop is an opinion from the general public. Vox pops were effective as they were simple to do and you got a varied response. We wanted to find out about peoples favourite videos and genre so when we choose our song we know what genre to choose. We found that heartbreak was a common theme in Indie/Alternative and that people liked that so therefore included it in our video. This vox pop meant we could choose the correct genre of song and inspirations from other music videos.

 After coming up with a main idea we showed this to a focus group (talking with a group of people and giving them questions on the video) to gain feedback on their opinions and to see if they would watch it/how unique it is. This was effective as we could get a lot of feedback and varied feedback from many people of our target audience. Our focus group was aged 16-18 and was a mixture of boys and girls – we did this as this was our target audience. The focus group meant we could get many answers from people, although it was time consuming. It was important to gain audience feedback as they were going to watch it so if they liked the idea they would watch it more. After gaining feedback we adjusted the video to more of our audience’s preference and then handed out a questionnaire in order to work out if our new video idea was better. One positive of a questionnaire is that it’s quick and easy to distribute. The questionnaire gave us the audience feedback we needed to finalise our music video idea. We then took this to a pitch in front of the class to see if all the video elements worked. The pitch provided needed feedback on the video and our ancillaries. It was important for us to get audience feedback on our products as they would be the ones buying it, seeing it, listening to it etc.

For our ancillaries we did research for the font and also got opinions on the colour scheme and layout. We also got written responses on the magazine advert draft when we started it and to see if we needed to change anything. Due to our audience not liking the hand drawn writing on the magazine and digipak we changed it for Photoshop to see if it looked better with computerised fonts which is what our audience preferred. Also by using Photoshop to do it, it made it neater and look less messy which is similar to real digipak/magazine adverts. As our audience liked the simplistic text we used that throughout our digipak and magazine advert we used in it and made sure we kept the ancillaries quite simplistic yet colourful.

Once completed we got together a questionnaire and got people’s opinions on it and what they would've changed and if it looks like a real promo/digipak; we used a questionnaire to gain feedback as they’re simple and effective. They enjoyed the link between the three texts and the links with the band name etc which shows us that in terms of synergy it was a success as our audience saw the link we tried to show. They said they liked the concept and the painting meaning but thought that acting was poor in some places. Although they did like the chemistry between Hope and Josh and said it looked like real relationship. 

Q2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Our main product is the music video for The Colours – Tonight I Let You Go. This is where we got the main ideas for ancillaries, as well as trying to include these ideas within the video. The band name ‘The Colours’ is where is we got the inspiration for lots of colours in the video and the digipak/magazine advert, and ‘Tonight I Let You Go’ drew inspiration for hands letting go (this is a visual concept ), which is in the video as stop-motion, digipak and on the magazine advert. This means that all three things link and all work together to achieve a theme for our promotional package. Also as the band name and song link as well it creates an image for them which are recognisable. 

These texts also have synergetic links as the hands letting go, featured in the digipak/magazine advert, are in the video and would therefore promote the other as people would see the hands and then think of the video. Also due to the simplicity of the hands and colours it makes it memorable and will stay in people minds making it more appealing and successful, similar to real promos.  

To exhibit our product we will use both traditional and new media so it can reach to a wider audience. For the traditional media we will show it on music channels specifically ‘Q’ music channel as the songs are similar in genre, but also ‘Kiss’ music channel as it will reach to other ages and will fit into the sub-genre of music played. For the magazine advert we will place it in NME, Q and Rolling Stones to appeal to our audience as those magazines display indie/alternative music and bands. This will mean that readers of this magazine will see our advert and will be more inclined to listen to it. We will also sell it on music shops such as HMV as then people can get the digipak. This will mean people will buy it, find out more about the band members and can form a strong fan base. For new media we will put the single on i-Tunes so our audience can download the song and listen to it on their phones. 

This will link to YouTube as you can watch the video and then buy the video on i-Tunes. Also another way to exhibit the video is to do a teaser of it on Twitter with a link to YouTube and a hashtag - this will not only link many platforms but also create excitement on social media.

One problem with using traditional media is that in this day and age not many people go to music stores and buy CD’s as they can download on their phones/tablets and stream it across their computer. With the popularity of YouTube, Vevo etc. you don’t need to buy the song to listen to it. But if we avoid the traditional media you also miss out on a large part of an audience as not everyone has access to computers etc. 

Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For this task we had make the promotional material for an album release. We had to promote a music video for a song of our choice as well as a digipak and magazine advert; the music video was to be done for a single. The digipak is used to display the CD and information on the band - this is often a special edition of the single. They are usually make of cardboard with 4,6 or 8 panels which usually include pictures of the band or artist as well as other components like lyric sheets, posters and the bands tour dates and places. The magazine advert is used to promote the artist in magazines of the genre so that people who like that genre can know about the release of the promo. Here is the Arctic Monkey’s digipak for their album Favourite Worst Nightmare, and is showing special information and pics of the band. This is done for digipaks as it’s a collector’s item and includes more info than a normal album.

A music promo is a video that is used for promotional purposes for the band. They are sent out to music video stations and the press so they can get views on YouTube/music video station s and sales for the digipak etc.  If a video is fun or different to watch then it will be watched many times (repeatability) on the TV/internet therefore getting more attention. A promo is basically the main part of the promo package (adverts, album cover etc.) and is used to get attention from press and record labels as well as being a visual representation of the song so people know what the song means or what the artist is trying to convey. Music promos can be viewed on many places such as YouTube, MTV and 4music (music TV channels). Social media can also be used as a platform as the video can be posted on their Facebook page as well as a link on Twitter pages. This also brings in more views from other audiences giving it more attention.  Although throughout the years people tend to view them on YouTube more than on the television. This is due to the increase in technology/computers which has also changed the consumption and exhibition of music promo. Music promos are consumed through app stores now (Windows store, App store, Amazon apps) and are also exhibited through pre-orders etc. Also iTunes has made it easy to download songs and also music videos on your phone/iPod/iPad. This makes the video seen by more as its on portable devices so can be show to many.

As our video is a hybrid of genres we had to take into account both genres in our video and follow/challenge these conventions of both.

	Black and White Filter		Low Key Lighting

 

As there is many genres in music this can change the style of music video, for example pop promos have a OTT setting and fast editing, while country has checked shirts and slow editing & with more focus and performance. For our band they were Indie/Alternative so we looked into the elements of this genre. Whereas in pop/hip-hop the costumes, setting, location and narrative are very grand, in Indie/Alternative these elements are very simple and plain. The costumes are natural and very realistic, the same with make-up. The locations are again very real and the performance is more focused on then narrative. One example of an Indie/Alternative music video is Arctic Monkeys ‘R U Mine?’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQH8ZTgna3Q)

Although not all bands of this genre stick to these conventions and they sometimes can be broken or changed which is unconventional. One example of band/song which doesn't stick to these elements is The Maccabees ‘Precious Time’ as it includes stop-motion and is OTT. Stop-motion is not conventional for the genre and breaks our genre conventions. We decided to include this in ours as it’s different and breaks conventions.

In our video we are going to take inspirations from Vance Joy as they literally interpret it. We will use this in ours as we will take the word heartbreak and literally show it e.g. hearts breaking etc.  As this video is like our genre we will use this convention in ours to make it conventional.

In the Bjork 'Human Behaviour' video she uses very arty scenes and objects. The video is also very weird and unique. This is disjuncture and is what we tried to include in ours as we had some arty scenes. This will inspire us as we will do an arty video that is visually appealing and also a little bit weird so people watch it a lot.

Two theorists who apply to our promo in terms of genre are Knight and Allen whose theories speak about how genre can affect the way we think about a song and what we get out of it. For example Allen said that ‘To make any sense of any text audiences require ‘cultural capital’ i.e. they bring their knowledge and experience of a text in order to understand it’. The knowledge we will bring is from other Indie/Alternative promos and uses them for ours and their themes.  This means we are going to make our own meanings of the song/ genre.

With this video/song this theory links as when watching it we add our own meaning to the song and we take our own interpretation. For some it can mean that the song is about a bad friendship or a relationship. While other might think it’s about the start of a new relationship. Also as the genre is Indie/Alternative the common themes are heartbreak.

Also Knight's theory says 'Genre may offer various emotional pleasures, such as empathy and escapism. We enjoy identifying with the characters and imaging ourselves living out their experiences'. This means we fit ourselves into the song/video and empathise to them & what they feel (e.g. loss of friend).

With this video/song this theory links as when watching it you see the meaning in it and take it into your own e.g. the heart painting is an expression of the girls feelings towards someone.
 

We took influence from many digipak covers and magazine adverts for our own. For our magazine advert we took inspiration from The Manic Street Preachers and Elbow. We took the layout from TMSP’s advert as it was simplistic but worked and showed all key details. Elbow’s was painted and was a drawing so we thought this would look good for ours and fits with the video as the theme was painting. The conventional magazine advert for our genre is quite simplistic and includes the key details e.g. band name, name of single and a rating from a magazine. For the digipak we looked at Arcade Fire’s front cover as they painted theirs as well and are our genre. We also looked at the Arctic Monkeys digipak which includes the lyrics, info on the band and credits. This is conventional so we followed this so ours is of our genre. We wanted to keep a theme within our ancillaries as it will keep a certain look to it all.
 

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