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.
Saturday, 21 January 2012
Aquiring Audience Feedback
I chose to mention my A2 media coursework in a recent video to get audience feedback on it, here's a clip from that video:
So far much of the feedback has been perhaps the video is a little slow, however as mentioned in the feedback this seems to be down more to the personal music preference of the audience.
So far much of the feedback has been perhaps the video is a little slow, however as mentioned in the feedback this seems to be down more to the personal music preference of the audience.
Thursday, 19 January 2012
Magazine Advert: 2nd draft
My next draft addressed the issues raised from my audience feedback.
I chose to also include the Digipack/album cover on the advert as through my research I found that commonly music adverts contained an image of the album cover, so I chose to conform to this convention, which also gave the advert a more professional air.
Plus it was important to include some indication of what product was being advertised so that it was clear to the consumer reading the text!
Part of the feedback I recieved on this draft is that it looked quite flat, due to the very clean and ordered look it had. It was suggested to make the indent in the bottom right more vertical for example in this advert.
Plus it was important to include some indication of what product was being advertised so that it was clear to the consumer reading the text!
Part of the feedback I recieved on this draft is that it looked quite flat, due to the very clean and ordered look it had. It was suggested to make the indent in the bottom right more vertical for example in this advert.
also to give more contrast to the piece as a whole, I chose to include a black gradient along the bottom of the advert, as seen in the example above. this would also allow the white text of the advert to stand out from the background photograph.
Magazine Advert: 1st draft Audience feedback
From my research, I found magazine adverts tended to focus on the main singer, a convention often seen in all aspects of creating the image of a band.
However I chose to challenge the usual convention of showing the entire band and elected to go purely with just the singer, as I felt it was more representative of the style and image I was creating for the band.
The feedback I got from this was that first the colouration of the whole advert was too washed out, as in the video the colours appeared too washed out, this will be a simple fix of increasing the contrast of the video
Also suggested was to include a release date and more information about the album, from looking at real media texts I opted to include a banner near the bottom with details about the album, as seen in the "The Dirty Youth" magazine advert, this would require me to move the web address and record label logo as well
Magazine Advert: Creating the advert
I chose to have the magazine advert focus on the main singer of the band as I wanted to reinforce the almost lonely image and idea I had already created for the band.
Also when capturing photographs for the advert I attempted to get shots of this kind, but from a reflection in a puddle, however in the end I chose to go with the normal low angle shot as I felt it complied more with the image I had created for the band.
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| This was the image I chose to use as I felt it had the best framing of all the images, I also liked how the model was framed up against the clouds, creating a split in the image. |
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| Whilst very similar to the first I felt the split created by the clouds was not as prominent as before, Also the tilt in this photo was far too steep which reduced the impact of the shot, as it felt more unprofessional. |
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| Whilst my model was far more centred in this shot I felt it didn't have the feeling of the others, the low angle was too steep becoming more of a worms eye which gave my model far too much headroom. |
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| This would have been the image I would have used had i chosen to use the reflection idea, however unless there was a large amount of refraction on the surface it wasn't clear it was a reflection and it was extrememly difficuly to see my model when that happened. |
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| here is an example of what I meant by unable to see the model, also for my model to be the correct way up, I had to flip the image which made non-reflected image appear upside down, which was not an effect I wanted |
Friday, 9 December 2011
Music video draft: audience feedback
The audience feedback overall was rather positive, one of the key parts people said was good, was the camera angles and shots.
one of the areas which was brought up, was the colour grading, whilst throughout the majority of the video, the colour grading was correct, giving a slight blue tint, in some places the colours looked very bleached out.
also brought up was how in one location the singer was both lip syncing and keeping his mouth closed when the track had vocals, someone suggested that perhaps to keep it more consistent and either have him lip syncing or not in the same location. I chose to keep this in as it helped to reinforce the subdued feel of the video and song.
one of the areas which was brought up, was the colour grading, whilst throughout the majority of the video, the colour grading was correct, giving a slight blue tint, in some places the colours looked very bleached out.
also brought up was how in one location the singer was both lip syncing and keeping his mouth closed when the track had vocals, someone suggested that perhaps to keep it more consistent and either have him lip syncing or not in the same location. I chose to keep this in as it helped to reinforce the subdued feel of the video and song.
Friday, 2 December 2011
Magazine Advert: Continued Research
Whilst looking at the various magazines I started thinking of the various elements the advert would need to include, for the final magazine advert I want it to be quite simplistic, which fits the style created with the digipack and music video.
I knew I would have to include the band name and album name, perhaps the name of the song "bad dreams" which the music video is for.
Also the name and logo of the record company would be needed.
I chose to include a quote as well, from a well known music magazine such a nme, or kerrang as it is more appropriate to my genre.
I knew I would have to include the band name and album name, perhaps the name of the song "bad dreams" which the music video is for.
Also the name and logo of the record company would be needed.
I chose to include a quote as well, from a well known music magazine such a nme, or kerrang as it is more appropriate to my genre.
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Music Video: 3rd video shoot
On this final shooting weekend, I captured the footage of the hill scene, this was the complete performance part of the video with the entire band performing with equipment,
The shoot itself went reasonably well, I managed to capture all the required shots. Unfortunately however some of the shots cam out overexposed due to having to manually adjust the exposure for some shots, and forgetting to reset it.
I had some trouble acquiring a drum kit for this shoot, only locating one about an hour before the shoot, the first kit we planned on using was unavailable as, on the day I was told, someone else had it, and I unfortunately couldn't get hold of that person. luckily the bassist of the band had a brother who allowed us to borrow his.
The shoot itself went reasonably well, I managed to capture all the required shots. Unfortunately however some of the shots cam out overexposed due to having to manually adjust the exposure for some shots, and forgetting to reset it.
I had some trouble acquiring a drum kit for this shoot, only locating one about an hour before the shoot, the first kit we planned on using was unavailable as, on the day I was told, someone else had it, and I unfortunately couldn't get hold of that person. luckily the bassist of the band had a brother who allowed us to borrow his.
Music Video- editing
Unfortunately during editing I lost my memory stick which contained the premiere pro editing file, luckily I had backups of the actual footage, but had to begin the editing process again.
For this version, I did the initial edit in a program called power director, because I don't have access to premiere pro on my home computer.
This was then exported to be colour graded on premiere pro.
For this version, I did the initial edit in a program called power director, because I don't have access to premiere pro on my home computer.
This was then exported to be colour graded on premiere pro.
Magazine Advert: Research and Planning
When planning my magazine advert I looked back at the images and ideas I had gathered for the digipack and the music video, I needed to make sure the advert had the same look as the digipack and music video in order to maintain a consistent image for the band.
We had been provided with a number of magazine adverts, I picked out a couple which I felt matched the genre of the band, and also matched the kind of look I am trying to create.
Also within these adverts though were a couple which whilst they didn't quite fit the image I was attempting to create, they included ideas which I thought could work well.
For example, in these two images I liked how they had the singer at the forefront thus conforming to genre conventions, but still pictures the entire band instead of relying on just a single band member(the singer).
From this preliminary research my thoughts were to have the majority of the advert be a photograph of the band. such as with the "The Dirty Youth" example.
Font wise for the magazine advert I chose to use the same font as on my digipack, this would keep a level of consistency across all the products, the same would go for the colours and other aspects of mise-en-scene, such as costume. in order to keep to the product and image I have created for the band.
We had been provided with a number of magazine adverts, I picked out a couple which I felt matched the genre of the band, and also matched the kind of look I am trying to create.
For example, in these two images I liked how they had the singer at the forefront thus conforming to genre conventions, but still pictures the entire band instead of relying on just a single band member(the singer).
From this preliminary research my thoughts were to have the majority of the advert be a photograph of the band. such as with the "The Dirty Youth" example.
Font wise for the magazine advert I chose to use the same font as on my digipack, this would keep a level of consistency across all the products, the same would go for the colours and other aspects of mise-en-scene, such as costume. in order to keep to the product and image I have created for the band.
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Digipack- Creating the Product
To create the digipack I used primarily gimp(gnu image manipulation program) and photoshop, I started the design by creating a basic template, this template had the basic structure I wanted and also the kinds of colours I wanted to use. by making sure the panels worked with the template in terms of design it would help in keeping the panels cohesive.
Wednesday, 23 November 2011
Digipack - Planning
From my research I saw that rock digipacks often had examples of more traditional media so in my planning I decided to have a smoky or swirling effect to join the panels together and make the piece more cohesive overall.
I also knew that I wanted to incorporate some of the ideas I had identified for the music video into the digipack, for example the washed out blue colours I was thinking of for the video inspired the main colour scheme for the digipack.
I also knew that I wanted to incorporate some of the ideas I had identified for the music video into the digipack, for example the washed out blue colours I was thinking of for the video inspired the main colour scheme for the digipack.
Friday, 11 November 2011
Digipack- Research and planning 2
I started by looking over my blog, using the music videos I had looked at, the images I had gathered for my moodboard and the albumcovers/digipack images I had located for my digipack research. this helped me to really cement the ideas I had gethered to create a digipack representative of the band image I was trying to create.
I began by searching for an appropriate font, I knew I wanted something modern, so without seraphs. but it also had to be slightly distressed.
Through a google search I found this site, which I had used before as it has a huge variety of different fonts. after creating a simple image with the fonts I had found I decided that I would use the font Dirt2Stickler.
I felt that it made an acceptable compromise between the distressed look I wanted, whilst also fitting the feel of the song and image for the band I had created up to this point. I had footage of the hill scene from before which I hadn't been able to use on the final film, so I chose to incorporate some of the footage into the imagery in the digipack.
I began by searching for an appropriate font, I knew I wanted something modern, so without seraphs. but it also had to be slightly distressed.
Through a google search I found this site, which I had used before as it has a huge variety of different fonts. after creating a simple image with the fonts I had found I decided that I would use the font Dirt2Stickler.
I felt that it made an acceptable compromise between the distressed look I wanted, whilst also fitting the feel of the song and image for the band I had created up to this point. I had footage of the hill scene from before which I hadn't been able to use on the final film, so I chose to incorporate some of the footage into the imagery in the digipack.
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Digipack - research and planning
I started researching into digi packs designs for my chosen genre with a simple google search, I managed to find these images which showed the content which bands of a similar genre used in thier digipaks. these also were similar to the feel of the song and the band which I am already building in relation to the music video, and the images I had already located for my mood board.
I also searched for similar bands on amazon and looked at the designs of their album covers and digipacks, the bands I looked at were sigur ros, mogwai which I had identified through using last fm and also nirvana
One of the motifs I noticed with rock digipaks, is that the images used contain a spread of traditional art, paintings and drawings and also photographs. so for my digipak I decided to not only include photographs of the band but also to include drawings and traditional art as well.
I also searched for similar bands on amazon and looked at the designs of their album covers and digipacks, the bands I looked at were sigur ros, mogwai which I had identified through using last fm and also nirvana
One of the motifs I noticed with rock digipaks, is that the images used contain a spread of traditional art, paintings and drawings and also photographs. so for my digipak I decided to not only include photographs of the band but also to include drawings and traditional art as well.
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