BlOG FINISHED

Group Interview

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

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

At the beginning of the project we thought about the genre of music we all as a group enjoyed and listened to in our own time. This meant when it came to researching into the existing genre we were already quite well informed about the main features and most common things that fit with this indie pop. We looked at some artists such as Ben Howard, Lana Del Rey and Mumford & Sons etc. Particularly in the music video Old Pine by Ben Howard was a key focus of our research as we felt the ideas we already had for our own music video seemed to link well with this video. We particularly liked the naturalistic setting and feel this music video had and how the majority of the music video was quick shots of beach settings and mountains. This led us to pick a beach setting for the main location of our music video, digi pak imagery and advert.

This is a screen shot from the music video of Old Pine by Ben Howard. Throughout the music video there are various quick shots of waves and a beach setting which led to be a heavy influence in our own work. Like Old Pine, the song we picked (Lover’s Eyes) is a slow and quite relaxing song and we felt the beach setting with the waves fit perfectly as the sea is something that is often associated with calmness. We also felt this type of location fit well with the indie pop genre and usually wouldn’t be seen in music videos going by any other genre. 

We also looked at how the focus of this music video was the one main character and there was various shots showing him walking around. We used a similar idea and made our music video focus around the one female and her past relationship as we felt this fit well with the song we picked. 

As you can see in this shot it shows Ben Howard walking down a quite natural pleasant place. This is similar to ours and I think it works well as a way of telling a story and showing the character is heading somewhere.

We also looked a lot at two music videos in particular for their use of black and white. No Hope by the Vaccines and Waiting For My Chance To Come by Noah & The Whale. These two effectively use the black and white effect to give a rather monotone calm feel to the video and this is something we wanted to represent in our own. In No Hope it is clearly quite a old fashioned vintage style. This is shown obviously by the black and white effect as well as the clothing used. This is something we also wanted to introduce into our music video as well as the digi pak and advert, we did this by dressing the female character in particular in quite vintage clothing giving the products a distinct and quite unique look as well as fitting with the codes and conventions of indie pop media products.

(Vintage old fashioned style clothing)

(Stark melancholy effect) 

(Flip from colour to black and white gives immediate change in mood)

Furthermore in the music video by Noah & the Whale throughout it is shown to flip from black and white back to colour. This is something we thought about doing before our research when we were discussing ideas for the music video. We wanted an effective yet subtle way of demonstrating the shift in change between how the female character was feeling when she is alone at the beach and how she felt when she was in a relationship. I think the black and white clips immediately give a softer and more melancholy mood and this represents the feeling of loss and loneliness of the girl. Whereas with the coloured shots we decided we wanted to make them more hand held and home footage type of style. This makes these shots feel more personal to the audience and give an insight into the relationship. It also lightens the mood and signifies the love and happiness the couple were sharing at that time.


Aswell as the black and white effect we also wanted to use a hand-held old fashioned style of effect over the shots showing the couples relationship. Our initial idea of this was influenced from the music video for Your Song by Ellie Goulding. This type of effect and theme made the piece feel more personal and help involve the audience more and this is the feel we wanted to represent through the shots of the relationship.The colouring of these shots lifted the mood and i think contrasted well with the stark black and white shots. We wanted to make this part of the narrative create a more intimate, happy and warm feel and this effect did that perfectly.

I think we both followed and developed the codes and conventions of existing indie pop media products. For example we wanted to make our project a significant package that worked well separately but even better together. At the beginning of our project we all decided a beach location was what we wanted to use and while we were shooting for our music video and going on location scouts we got some good images of the beach and Catherine’s character (the female in the music video) at the beach. This then led us to use these images for our digi pak as well as the advert. By using the same style of images at the same location for the music video and the print products it tied the whole project together and made it evident that each product was by the artist Elliot Guy. During our research this is something we didn’t find very common in indie pop media products as existing artists tended to use different locations and different imagery throughout their work. For example although Noah & the Whale’s First Days of Spring album and album advert did use the same images their music videos didn’t follow the same theme. We wanted to develop the link between our artist’s products and make it a unique package that had the iconic red balloon and beach environment throughout.

I think we challenged the codes and conventions of existing media products by the use of the red balloon. This idea first came from watching the film Schindler’s List. Although clearly this film had no link to our music video we thought the whole focus of the red against the black and white would work really well as a way of representing our idea of love and the relationship that the music video and album focuses around. This idea had not yet been used as we found in our research so we thought it gave our work an extremely unique quality that the audience would recognise and know the artist Elliot Guy for. We decided to use a balloon as the iconic idea of happiness and hope and then picked the colour red to signify love and passion. I think this was a clear message representing throughout the music video and as a group we all think it worked well and decided it would be good to link this idea with the digi pak and advert and be a main focus of the whole project.

When we were planning this project and deciding on the appropriate target audience we didn’t want to limit ourselves in terms of gender. We realised in our research that male artists tend to focus their album art on males (usually themselves) and a lot of their music videos either involved themselves or someone of the same gender. Although their music was something both male and female could listen to it also meant it seemed more likely for males to favour them. We wanted to make sure we tried something different in terms of appealing to an audience so we made our artists a male artist but designed the album work and music video to fit for females as well. I think this is a good way to reach a wider audience and appeal equally to both male and female ultimately leading to the artist being more successful and popular.

Print Products 

When researching into the genre we had chosen we focused a lot on artists such as Mumford & Sons and Lana Del Rey. These two artists led to be of heavy influence for the digi pak. We found that the majority of existing indie pop album artwork tended to use quite simple imagery and a lot of them are photography rather than animated imagery that tends to be common in genres such as rock etc. 

As you can see from the back cover of Lana Del Reys album we were influenced by the layout aswell as the bold font. Existing indie pop album work tend to deviate from the typical layout of the album back cover which is usually positing the song titles in a list form. But just like this album art indie pop genre tend to look more unique and we decided this went well with the image and flowed alot better without taking any emphasis from the image we picked. It also meant our piece fit correctly with the genre we had chosen.

 

(Mumford & Sons existing album work)             

 

(The Root of Memories inside album work)

We were also influenced by the digi pak work of Mumford & Sons. Having a 'thank you' page inside the album seems to be common for this genre as we found in our research and we felt it would make our piece fit well with the genre and the typical conventions as well as making our digi pak look over all a lot more professional.

We also developed the codes and conventions of indie pop genre by looking at other genres that were very similar to the one we had chosen. We looked at album work from Coldplay and although this band does not fit into the indie pop genre completely we were inspired and this led us to develop our ideas more. For example as you can see in the picture of Coldplays work below it shows a quite vibrant and interesting picture that can be found inside the album of Mylo zyloto. Much like our own digi pak photos this image is quite unique and works well as a plain image alone without written work over the top. We considered adding lyrics but felt this would take emphasis from the background image. So instead we were influenced by this Coldplay piece to add subtle text at the bottom of the image giving a little bit of information on the song and the album.This made the whole piece feel more a personal message and involved the audience into the music and the message behind the album.

When researching into the typical typography used for existing media products going by the 'indie pop' genre we found that they tend to stick to quite a simple clean cut text of the band or artists name and use this almost as a logo itself. Other genres tend to use an cartoon picture logo such as the rolling stones lips or the logo used for guns and roses. We felt this wasn't something that fit with the genre and the style of music our artist is. We wanted to make sure our piece did challenge the typical codes and conventions for this genre but also fit to them and make it recognisable for our target audience and people familiar and fond of this genre of music. We made sure throughout all our print products we used the same font to ensure it all tied and worked together as a whole package. We decided the font 'Bookman Old Style' was the most appropriate and professional.

 As you can see from the existing logo and font used for the artist 'lana del rey' it is made to look almost iconic and effective purely for how simple it is. We wanted to go down this root and use the simple effective font of the name of the artist and no other images that could make it over crowded and less professional.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

When collecting audience feedback we each interviewed different people and asked for their opinions of each of the products individually and to comment on how well they worked together as a whole.

From collecting our audience feedback it seems the digi-pak was overall the best piece of our project and it was the thing that looked the most professional. Me and my group also agreed with this and felt the images and typography we had picked all made the piece look better. From our interviews we were widely praised for the professional look the digi pak had and the majority of the people we asked said they thought it was of a high enough standard to be a real indie pop media piece. [EDITED TO ADD- Many interviewees commented on the standard of the images we used for each page of the digi pak and how they were of such a high quality it made the piece very attractive and something an audience would appreciate.  We asked the selected few who we interviewed if they thought of any dislikes and improvements that could be made to the digi Pak and they said it was a good enough piece as it is and everything worked together well. When collected feedback from people we did not interview many said they felt the colours and style of typography we had used fit perfect with the genre of music and style of songs included in the album, One person in particular was a fan of the indie pop genre and felt it was a well constructed and fitting piece.] I and my group also agreed with this and we are exceptionally happy with the outcome of this piece and we feel the research and planning we did successfully led to a well thought out professional piece that suited the indie pop genre well.

When we presented our music video we did the same as the digi pak and asked for an opinion on the piece alone and how well it worked with the rest of the project. Over all it seems people grasped the main concept of the two different settings we used in the music video. [EDITED TO ADD- With one particular interviewee we asked for a brief outline of how they interpreted the music video with any influence from us within the group, the comments that we got back fit with the idea we were wanted to get across and I think this is important with the genre we picked and the narrative we went with as it was quite a personal message and something that the audience could relate to.] This was the thing we hoped came across clearly and something the audience would understand and from our feedback it seems the black and white successfully demonstrated the mood of the female and gave an overall melancholy feel where as the light coloured scenes did the opposite and the audience knew it was to show the difference in the mood of the character and the main narrative being the lost relationship. This was the same with the red balloon and from the audiences comments it seems it was mainly a successful way of representing the love and lost relationship and this was a clear understanding of that. [EDITED TO ADD- Some people we interviewed particularly commented on the ended of the music video and the way we made the female character let go of the balloon, they felt this was a clear way of showing the character letting go of the relationship, I am pleased with the overall feedback of the balloon as I feel it could be easily confused due to the fact we didn’t specifically make it clear the balloon was something linked to the relationship, however it seems this idea was clear.]Furthermore it seems although the initial concept of the balloon was successful a few people felt the colour we had used was maybe too bright and rich for the black and white and maybe in future we would tone it to a more natural realistic colour. We as a group also agreed with this but feel the bright balloon did represent the idea we wanted it to and felt we were pleased with the outcome.

[EDITED TO ADD- However it seems the audience did like the idea of the red balloon being used against the black and white and felt it gave our piece a unique quality that made it both distinguishable to the artist but tied in with the print products as well.]

When it came to the advert however the audience agreed it was our least successful piece [EDITED TO ADD- due to the fact the image used wasn’t as high quality as the rest of the images included throughout our project. Some interviewees also noted that they feel it would be more fitting and appropriate to have stuck with the colour filter effect that we had used throughout the digi pak as this would make the advert tie in well with the digi pak artwork.]  I and my group also felt this and this would be our made improvement if we were to look back at our project. [EDITED TO ADD- However people did feel the image we used went well with the music video and the digi pak and did show successful influence from existing indie pop adverts and fit well with our chosen genre but it looked less professional and seems by picking the image we did and having the red balloon as the main focus again it meant we had to take the colour away from the rest of the image and this made it look less professional and seem pixilated and dull]

FILE0095 1 from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

FILE0094 1 from Chris Earl on Vimeo.

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

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

Throughout this project we used a variety of different technologies such as Adobe Photoshop and Premier, Instagram, after effects and our blogs. During the researching into the genre we had chosen and the artists we specifically studied as a group we depended a lot on our blogs. Seen as though we were in a large group and had a huge amount of ideas individually blogging allowed us to view each other’s ideas and interpretations of existing music videos and products. It allowed us to ensure we kept up to date with each other’s opinions and i think this made our project extremely unique and well thought out. It also meant when it came to planning and constructing each piece we were able to refer back to our research and this helped with influencing when making our own music video and digi pak etc. I used the internet for the majority of the researching side to the project and watched existing music videos and analysed album art from artists such as Mumford & Sons.[EDITED TO ADD] I used Youtube in order to view exisiting music videos and this influenced me by giving me a wide combination of ideas. During the planning stages the blog became the most useful as it allowed me to put all my ideas into words and get opinions from friends in my class and others that looked at my posts. This meant we get the best possible results and managed to get a breif idea of what the audience and viewers would prefer to see from their feedback. When it came to picking the final typography to use and imagery as a group we couldn’t always agree on one so we were able to ask people via our blogs and this often helped us come to an appropriate conclusion.

We also used an IPHONE app called Instagram to give our digi pak images that we had took on a location scout a unique colour scheme. This is a video showing how we got the ‘early bird’ effect. During the construction of the digi pak we tried to get the same effect in photoshop but this was unsuccessful so we stuck to using instagram. I think without this effect our digi pak would not look as professional and successful as it does.[EDITED TO ADD] Because each image has the same colour filter to it, it meant the whole digi pak worked well and each image would be recognisable to the artist Elliot Guy. The filter we used added to the warm feel of the beach and made the images seem more soothing and relaxing which i think was a good way of representing the type of music the artist we made produced.

For the construction of our music video we used Adobe Premier. During previous projects such as the making of an opening film we also used this programme. This meant each of us individually knew the basics of editing each scenes and cropping etc. However this time we wanted to make the project unique by the black and white scenes and hand-held style scenes. This was something we hadn’t done before but looked at during the planning and it helped develop our skills of this programme. We each as a group took park in editing the music video either in pairs or individually so we all managed to have a clear understanding of this software. However when it came to editing the balloon we were unable to get the effect we wanting in this software due to the shots we had filmed and the windiness of the day we shot them.[EDITED TO ADD] we initially tested the balloon using the 'matte effect' in this programme but this wasnt successful. We then decided to hire someone who was more experienced with adding these sorts of effects. This video shows James editing the red balloon frame by frame in a piece of software called After Effects. He did it by using a leave colour style of effect that focused on the red balloon and left it the only remaining colour when adding the black and white effect. 

[EDITED TO ADD] As you can see each clip had to be edited frame by frame, this enabled us to get the more accurate and best possible result of the balloon and made it more realistic.

When constructing our digi pak for example we did the majority of our work in Adobe Photoshop. We all as a group managed to develop our skills and improve the images we had taken for the digi pak. For example we picked an image of the female character who was shown throughout the music video as our advert image and digi pak from cover but the image made the red balloon have a more pinky colour to it and this meant it didn’t stand out as much as we all liked. We decided to edit it in photoshop, here are the steps demonstrating how we got to the final product.

We opened the image in photoshop

We then used the magic wand tool

We highlighted the two balloon by keeping the alt button pressed down

We then clicked refine edge

Once this had opened we used the feathering tool to make the edges of the balloon less harsh and the shift edge tool to make sure the whole of the balloon was evenly selected. This meant when changes the colour to a more vibrant red it would look as natural as possible.

We then went on image > adjustments > Hue and saturation to change the colour.

We then changed the played around with the hue, saturation and lightless until the balloon looked a natural and professional red.

This is our final edit outcome.

[Edited to add] I think by using this software to edit the balloon it made the picture more fitting and successful. The red balloons in this image then perfectly fits with the one featured in the music video and advert and is a crucial part of our whole project as a way of making it unique and iconic.

How effective is the combination of your main prodcut and ancillary texts?

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

For this project we decided on creating a music video, advert and digi pak for an artist we had made ourselves. As a group we chose to follow a project under the indie pop genre as we felt this was the type of music we all favoured most and were more familiar with. Our initial idea was to have a music video focusing around the theme of love. We picked a song we all liked and found a cover of it on youtube. This then led us to focus the main product which is our music video around a single female and her past relationship. We also wanted to give our project a unique twist and to challenge typical codes and conventions of the indie pop genre. We decided to do this by the use of the red balloon and felt during the construction of the music video it was such a successful and unique idea we would go on to use it as an iconic symbol of love throughout the ancillary texts as well. We also picked a beach location as the main setting of our music video, this was inspired from existing music videos that had focused around naturalistic environments such as Old Pine by Ben Howard. Again we found this setting to be so successful it would be an ideal theme to use throughout. We took pictures on the location scout of the music video location and these images turned out to be of such good quality we used them throughout our music video. We also took an image during filming of Catherine’s female character holding two red balloons. Surprisingly this picture was taken on a mobile phone but it turned out to be a perfect advert image and from digi pak cover. We decided it would make the piece link better with the music video by editing the red balloon and make it more of a vibrant red like the one in the music video. This meant that our music video, digi pak and advert were all focused around the red balloon and the beach setting giving it an over all theme that made the artist Elliot Guy recognisable for. We wanted each product to be successful alone but even better with the other products and I think this idea worked really well. We wanted to have each product following the same beach red balloon theme so when it came to the audience either watching the music video or seeing the digi pak it would then mean they would immediately begin to recognise the artist we made with the beach and the balloon.

We made the advert in particular to be the simplest piece as we only used one image and text. However because the image we used was almost a still of the music video and the same image used in the digi pak it meant when the audience looked at this advert they would automatically know what artist it belonged to. We also picked a font called Bookman Old Style for the typography we would use throughout any piece of text in the project. We didn’t want to make the advert in particular too over crowded with several different types of fonts so we decided it would look more professional just sticking to one font that fit with the genre we had picked. [EDITED TO ADD] As you can see the advert image and the from of the album is the same image. We thought this was needed as the advert was advertising the album and would be more recognisable to a viewer. However inorder to make the text that we included on the advert readbale and a focus of it we had to tone down the colouring of the image. This is the only difference between the who products but i think although the advert may not be as succesful as we had of liked it still works perfectly with the album by the use of the same image and focus on the red balloon which also links to the music video.

Because the music video was quite a personal piece that was something the audience could relate to and it would trigger emotion for we felt by making the rest of our products fitting to this theme it also gave them a personal and unique feel like telling a story and involving the audience with the feel of the beach that is often related to a calm feeling.

We also picked the INSTAGRAM ‘early-bird’ theme as an effect we would use throughout the whole digipak. This effect gave a warm and calm feel to the images and this also linked in with the coloured scenes of the music video, tying these two products together.

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