Saturday, 31 March 2012
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
During the creation of my Music video and ancillary tasks, I made deliberate efforts to maintain a consistent image across all the products.
Technical aspects
-Colour
The most consistent aspect I used to link the tasks together was the colouration on the videos, all the products had a washed out look achieved through a lowered contrast and higher brightness. This combined with a blue tint gave the products a cold look, I chose to do this as I thought that it fit with the feel of the song, and also the image I was attempting to create for the band.
The colour was used on the digipack, however the key background colour on the digipack was darker in tone than the video and magazine advert. This was because I wanted to keep the key colours in the images within the digipack, and in order to stop them from blending in to the background they had to stand out slightly from it, hence the darker background.
I think where I could have improved with the colourisation was in the variety of colours used, what was brought up from my audience feedback was that it was too washed out at times, and whilst this was improved having a greater variety of colour types across the products could have helped to differentiate between different songs on the album in terms of the digipack. or in the video different colours for the locations to help to separate them and make the individual scenes more clear.
- Fonts
Whilst not relevant for the Music video as the only font was for a kerrang Ident, which although it uses font, this wasn't part of the actual band products, being something which is added later by the specific broadcaster. Had I included for example a title in the video then the fonts used would have been the same, however a specific title on a music video is more of a pop music convention.
The fonts I used for the magazine advert and digipack however were far more consistent. consisting of "Broken ghost" for the titles.
And "dirt2stickler" for the main body of the text.
"Flame" effect
I used a flame effect produced by a plug-in on the digipack and the magazine advert, this helped them to make the panels and images more interesting and to keep some of the areas of the digipack from being blank solid colour or just a gradient. as this was included in the digipack I chose to have it on the magazine advert as well as it helped to maintain a consistent image across all my products.
An interesting effect I could have included would have been these kind of effects on the music video, however whilst they work for the printed products. I think it wouldn't have fit with the deliberately subdued feel I had created. also I don't think it would have been worth the time it would take to create.
Framing
When thinking about the framing in my products, I made the decision as a part of my research and planning and also from my audience feedback, to have the focus on the main singer. this was continued across most of the products, the video had a location with purely the singer and the shots tended to focus on him, particularly when there was lyrics. the magazine advert featured only a picture of the main singer. however the digipack wasn't too good for this, as the main focus was more on the bassist, as all the band members were in the 3 panel spread, and then the single panel had an image of the bass, which whilst it was relevant to the genre, the focus could perhaps have been slanted more to the singer perhaps a picture of his guitar instead.
Mise-en-scene
Costume
For the costume I knew I wanted the band members to wear simple attire, as I felt the lack of extravagant costumes was befitting of the tone of the song, I asked the band members to wear simple clothing, jeans but also preferably shirts, as I felt from the song and from conventions that a "smart casual" look would be befitting of the genre, feel of the song and image I was creating.
Expression
When directing the band members across all the products it was important they set the same tone through their expression.
Therefore during production of the products, I made sure to direct the band members appropriately.
Props
Across all the products I tried to include images of the bands equipment in the shot, I chose to do this at firstly it helped to reinforce that they are a band, this is unquestionably clear when the shots contain musical equipment.
The band equipment generally fitted the style and image I was creating for the band, however in the case of the bass it may perhaps have appeared to have too much of a metal style, unfortunately I didn't have access to another bass on the production day, and the one used is close enough as to not pose a huge problem.
In order to maintain consistency between the main music video and the ancillary tasks, I made sure all the equipment used in the products was the same, this was easier than expected as transporting a guitar is relatively easy whereas a drum kit would be more challenging, the drum kit however was only needed at one location.
Lighting
Lighting overall was high key, this was due to all the locations being outdoors during the day, because of this it would have been very difficult to obtain low key lighting, but also with the image and style I was attempting to craft for the band, lower key lighting wouldn't have been necessary or appropriate.
This picture shows all the aspects of the mise-en-scene being consistent across the products. the costumes whilst not all the same have a consistent style. as does the lighting and framing of the shots, also highlighted is the consistent use of certain props across all the products.
Conclusion
Overall from looking at all the aspects of production I would say that the combination of my ancillary tasks and music video was highly effective. The technical elements such a framing, editing etc... was all consistent across the various products, this consistency was partially down to my own developed style but primarily through conscious decisions on how to frame the shots, and how to portray the ideas and feeling I felt the song invoked, to create not only a consistent band image but one which fit the genre I had identified for the band.
The visual aspects, or mise-en-scene, were also consistent across all the products as I was careful when planning to pay attention to these elements, as during for the AS coursework we didn't focus enough on this and the film suffered as a result.
Technical aspects
-Colour
The most consistent aspect I used to link the tasks together was the colouration on the videos, all the products had a washed out look achieved through a lowered contrast and higher brightness. This combined with a blue tint gave the products a cold look, I chose to do this as I thought that it fit with the feel of the song, and also the image I was attempting to create for the band.
The colour was used on the digipack, however the key background colour on the digipack was darker in tone than the video and magazine advert. This was because I wanted to keep the key colours in the images within the digipack, and in order to stop them from blending in to the background they had to stand out slightly from it, hence the darker background.
I think where I could have improved with the colourisation was in the variety of colours used, what was brought up from my audience feedback was that it was too washed out at times, and whilst this was improved having a greater variety of colour types across the products could have helped to differentiate between different songs on the album in terms of the digipack. or in the video different colours for the locations to help to separate them and make the individual scenes more clear.
- Fonts
Whilst not relevant for the Music video as the only font was for a kerrang Ident, which although it uses font, this wasn't part of the actual band products, being something which is added later by the specific broadcaster. Had I included for example a title in the video then the fonts used would have been the same, however a specific title on a music video is more of a pop music convention.
The fonts I used for the magazine advert and digipack however were far more consistent. consisting of "Broken ghost" for the titles.
And "dirt2stickler" for the main body of the text.
"Flame" effect
I used a flame effect produced by a plug-in on the digipack and the magazine advert, this helped them to make the panels and images more interesting and to keep some of the areas of the digipack from being blank solid colour or just a gradient. as this was included in the digipack I chose to have it on the magazine advert as well as it helped to maintain a consistent image across all my products.
An interesting effect I could have included would have been these kind of effects on the music video, however whilst they work for the printed products. I think it wouldn't have fit with the deliberately subdued feel I had created. also I don't think it would have been worth the time it would take to create.
 |
| example of flame effect |
Framing
When thinking about the framing in my products, I made the decision as a part of my research and planning and also from my audience feedback, to have the focus on the main singer. this was continued across most of the products, the video had a location with purely the singer and the shots tended to focus on him, particularly when there was lyrics. the magazine advert featured only a picture of the main singer. however the digipack wasn't too good for this, as the main focus was more on the bassist, as all the band members were in the 3 panel spread, and then the single panel had an image of the bass, which whilst it was relevant to the genre, the focus could perhaps have been slanted more to the singer perhaps a picture of his guitar instead.
Mise-en-scene
Costume
For the costume I knew I wanted the band members to wear simple attire, as I felt the lack of extravagant costumes was befitting of the tone of the song, I asked the band members to wear simple clothing, jeans but also preferably shirts, as I felt from the song and from conventions that a "smart casual" look would be befitting of the genre, feel of the song and image I was creating.
Expression
When directing the band members across all the products it was important they set the same tone through their expression.
Therefore during production of the products, I made sure to direct the band members appropriately.
Props
Across all the products I tried to include images of the bands equipment in the shot, I chose to do this at firstly it helped to reinforce that they are a band, this is unquestionably clear when the shots contain musical equipment.
The band equipment generally fitted the style and image I was creating for the band, however in the case of the bass it may perhaps have appeared to have too much of a metal style, unfortunately I didn't have access to another bass on the production day, and the one used is close enough as to not pose a huge problem.
In order to maintain consistency between the main music video and the ancillary tasks, I made sure all the equipment used in the products was the same, this was easier than expected as transporting a guitar is relatively easy whereas a drum kit would be more challenging, the drum kit however was only needed at one location.
Lighting
Lighting overall was high key, this was due to all the locations being outdoors during the day, because of this it would have been very difficult to obtain low key lighting, but also with the image and style I was attempting to craft for the band, lower key lighting wouldn't have been necessary or appropriate.
This picture shows all the aspects of the mise-en-scene being consistent across the products. the costumes whilst not all the same have a consistent style. as does the lighting and framing of the shots, also highlighted is the consistent use of certain props across all the products.
ConclusionOverall from looking at all the aspects of production I would say that the combination of my ancillary tasks and music video was highly effective. The technical elements such a framing, editing etc... was all consistent across the various products, this consistency was partially down to my own developed style but primarily through conscious decisions on how to frame the shots, and how to portray the ideas and feeling I felt the song invoked, to create not only a consistent band image but one which fit the genre I had identified for the band.
The visual aspects, or mise-en-scene, were also consistent across all the products as I was careful when planning to pay attention to these elements, as during for the AS coursework we didn't focus enough on this and the film suffered as a result.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
A mock Q and A session outlining the importance of audience feedback to my media products.
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