Task 4 - A director's commentary on how i used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages.

During the making of our music video we used many new media technologies. We used them extensively at all the five stages of the production including, research and development, planning, pre production, production, post production distribution and evaluation.
We decided to use new media technologies such as, blogger.com, youtube, slideshare, google and Wikipedia because they are available, easy to use and practical. Using these new media technologies are an easy free alternative of using old and unreliable resources such as pen and paper, and looking for hours in large books full of lots of information.Youtube is such an important website because many music artists strongly rely on it for getting there music out and heard. Many artists post their latest music videos and do video blogs of themselves talking to their fans. This is an extremely sufficient way of using youtube to advertise yourself and your music in order to get heard and noticed.

When we where first notified that we would be getting into groups and making a music video for our media work I instantly went onto the internet and started watching music videos for other bands and artists! I went onto youtube to watch these music videos as it is the most used, well known and reliable video sharing website. I looked at a broad range of different artists from country and folk to hip-hop and rap. I feel that it was important to look at a broad range of different music videos because I needed to get a feel of how music videos look and how they are made. This is when I began looking at the more indie and folky music videos and they really began to interest me. I started watching music videos from such bands and artists like Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn. They all had a similar non-image quality, focusing very much on the music rather than a storyline of some sort. They where neither glamorous nor expensive looking and I really liked this factor. I decided to look up one of my favorite bands, Bon Iver on youtube to see what music videos they had. This is when I realised that they did not have any music videos made! I found this extremely interesting as most bands, no matter how small they are have music videos. This is when I decided that I would really like to do one of their songs, as we have nothing to steal ideas and inspiration from.

I also used Wikipedia to gain information about the band Bon Iver who we chose to use. Without Wikipedia I would not have been able to find out the bands record label which I needed to know in order to right a letter to them asking for permission to use their song. When I found out that their record label was ‘Jagwagwar’ I then went on google to find their website and get their headquarters email address. After obtaining this email address, I then used yet another new media technology of email to send ‘Jagwagwar’ our letter. Email is a great stress free and extremely fast way of sending information and letters as an alternative of post.

During the whole process of making this music video I have used Blogger.com to record and keep track of my process. This was a more efficient way to writing down notes because I used things such as posting links to Internet websites, posting photos and videos. If I had just simply written everything I could have easily lost it and also not been able to post links to websites that doing on blogger is so easy to view.

During our shoot we used more new media technology by using digital sony NX5 HD cameras. This is important because only recently has HD been introduced and people have started using it. HD stands for high definition and puts our videoin a much better quality allowing the audience to see everything well.

During the post production we again used new

media technology in order to edit it. We used an editing program for Mac called Final Cut Pro in order to cut and edit our video. We then used another program called After Effects in order to create the effect where our actress Lottie turns black and white and disappears in the end. Without these programs we would be shooting

our music video in film and using the extremely old fashioned process of literally ‘Cutting’ the frames and sticking them together in order to edit and cut our video into the right length.

In order to distribute and get out video out there and seen we used the website youtube that I talked about earlier. It is a very efficient way to distribute our music video because anyone can watch it and leave comments and feedback on our video. It is also very efficient because it we did not have this new media technology of youtube and the internet, we would literally have to have a little show of our music video getting random members of the audience to come in and watch our video on a small TV.

Task 3 - What I learnt from my audience feedback.

In order to obtain some contructive feedback we got ten media students from the year below to watch our music video and fill out the questionaire bellow. The answers bellow are the most common answers with a mix from all the questionaires we handed out and things that where said during a discussion about our music video that carried out after watching it. It was very interesting to see what other people thought about our video and to hear about what they think worked and what they think didn't.

Q: What genre would you pigeonhole this type of music to?
A: "Alternate Folk", "Acoustic Singer Songwriter" "Urban"

Q: Did the use of camera and editing compliment the song, and if so how?
A: The best bits of the video where when the camera tracked slowly around the singer like at the beginning, perhaps more of these shots could have been used. Less static shots, and more tracking/panning. The blurry after effects work very well to create an atmosphere of surreal reminiscence and nostalgia.

Q: What was the purpose of using two locations?
A: There was a constant oscillation between reality and fantasy, and they moved to smoothly between them that the reader felt melancholy and relaxed. Sometimes the song felt depressing. The two locations made a connection between the lead singer and the character in the wood. Was he reflecting on a memory/fantasy? A broken relationship? Teenage fantasies?

Q: Who do you think the target audience are?
A: Young people our age, especially girls who would like to emotionally invest in the narrative. Girls love love stories. Bon Iver appeals to university students, festival-goers.

Q: Any other comments about synergy, film language, representation?
A: We think that the video both conforms and challenges the conventions of pop videos. It conforms because it uses romance as a narrative and the beautiful red haired girl to make a statement about beauty and idealism. However it challenges stereotypical conventions because it has an unhappy ending where we want the boy and girl to fall in love but instead she disappears and this leaves us with a negative take on love.

We also looked at some comments that where posted on our youtube video of what people thought about our video. Some of the comments that where posted where,

I really like the way in which you have set up a dream like world as this is how i feel when i listen to the song.

hurtwoodhousemedia

What i most liked about this video was how the cuts where made. I think that they went well

with the beats and happened in the right places.

musiclover77

LOVE IT!!!!

indiegirlforever

maybe u cud hav created more of a story in the woods

macmacap

Task 2 - A Powerpoint presentation to explore how effective the pop video and ancillary products were in selling the song and the singer

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Task 1 - In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Final Ideas For Ancillary Products

After finishing both our digi pack and our poster we saw many synergistic link qualities between the two and where very happy with the outcome. When making our digi pack on adobe Photoshop, we used a six sided template, however in the process of making it we decided that a six sided digi pack was not necessary for our genre as it is rather simple and more to do with the music than the commercialism. We then changed it, and used a four sided digi pack template and decided that this worked a lot better. We printed it out to see what it looked like, but realised that we needed to flip two of the sides upside down, as when we print it and fold it, it will then all be in the right position etc. I then went back onto Photoshop and flipped the two top sides upside down and re printed it. I then cut it and folded it and it was all in perfect position and looked great! We included a track list on the back, a picture of Leo on the inside so he is not selling his face but letting his fans see him. And also a page with the two character from the music video in, featuring the lyrics to the song 'Flume' that we used, for our music video. We included all these things because we thought this is the kind of thing that our target audience would like to see and expect when buying our CD. We didnt want it to be too, 'in your face', or too dull and boring so we found a mid way point that worked very well. We also made our poster on Adobe Photoshop, using a portrait A4 size layout. We decided to use a picture that I took during the location shoot. It is of a leaf hanging off a spiders web on a branch. We thought that this picture was rather beautiful and very suitable for our poster. We placed this photo into Photoshop and then played around with where we would place the text and Leo’s name. We already knew what font we where using because we needed to sue the same font as on the digi pack. It is the font, Edwardian Script and is very pretty looking and rather old fashioned. We chose this font because I think that our target audience are the kind of people to be into old fashioned and vintage style things. We also used old fashioned and vintage style things in out music video, so by using an old fashioned, vintage style writing helps create even more synergy in our entire production of both music video and campaign. I think that both our digi pack and our poster where a great success and work very well for our style of music. It appeals very well to our target audience and they would be very inclined to either buy our CD or go to one of their concerts. As a campaign I think that it works very well because there is a lot of synergy included in all of the areas. It also goes against the normal conventions of pop music and this is something, as a group, we felt very strongly about doing.

Ancillary Product Development 2

We talked over ideas and plans for the poster as group, just as we did for the digi pack. Again we talked about not featuring Leo our singers face on the poster. If we chose not to put his face on the front of the digi pack, we should also not place his face on the poster, if we wish to conform to the style of this genre of music. By not placing his face on the poster, hopefully it will also draw people in who have an interest in similar music to our band, just as we hope the digi pack will do. However we did also talk about what would happen if we did place Leo’s face on the poster. Would this bring people to want to buy the CD and buy concert tickets or would it make some people slightly less inclined to buy it because of him trying to portray some sort of star image? After an experiment to the right, of trying to make a poster with Leo on it we decided that this was definitely not write for the style and genre of the music. We decided to stick with the idea of using nature to bring in a certain target audience rather than trying to bring in anyone to listen to our band. We decided that whatever font we decide to use for the digi pack, we should also use on the poster as a synergistic use of the font. This will connect the two and help people who are interested be able to relate the two. We thought that the font of the writing worked out very well as we will use this font on our digi pack in order to convey synergy. What we also thought worked was the small gig venues and pubs that where listed in his tour, over London, Nottingham and Oxford as we though these where places where people who might listen to our music might travel or live. However, after this experient we decided to stay with the idea of not using Leo's face on the poster, but using a naturesque picture that will connect very well with our music video and digi pack. Creating more synergy between them.

Ancillary Product Development 1

As a group we discussed how we would like our digi pack to look. We thought that it was important to portray our artist in the correct manor by not putting his face on the front on the cover. It may be very similar to the Laura Marling poster or the Sufjan Stevens digi pack cover. Both of these do not feature the artists face but a picture that relates back to the theme of the music. During the location shoot of our music video, I took many photos of the woods and other things around us. I got many pictures of the nature that surrounded us and we thought that something like this would be a great front cover for our digi pack.

We also discussed font style and which would look the best and suit the digi pack most. We agreed on a script style font as this connects the best to the music and the target audience members would probably most prefer a script font. We decided that it is extremely important to keep the digi pack looking natural and as inartificial as possible because of our target audience. Our target audience is men and woman between the ages on about 17-30. Probably mostly women because of the dream like quality of the music and the theme. Our target audience also enjoy not seeing the artists face on the front of the digi pack because they like to listen to music with a passion, being made because they love the music. Not because they just want to make money and sell their face. The fact that the front cover may not be his face, I think may draw in people who like similar music, to buy our CD.

We also had the idea of placing a drawn picture of our singer Leo on the front of the digi pack. We thought that by placing a drawn picture of him it would be seen as selling his music on his image as it is only a drawn picture of him. However we decided against this as we wanted to keep the digi pack as true to the genre of music as much as possible. This was important to me as I enjoy this type of music and respect artists who make music for the sake of music and not for the sake of selling and making money.

Ancillary Task Planning 2

This poster I have uploaded is for Justin Bieber. He is a very mainstream artist who makes pop music. His songs normally feature famous mainstream rap artists. As you can see by his poster he is clearly shown and covers almost the whole poster. He is shown in a way that by will excite his female fans because he looks quite attractive. The writing that is featured on the poster is quite pop looking as it is sans serif and smooth. Part of the writing is in purple and I think this is because his target audience is mainly girls between the ages of 10-18. By making the text a bright colour like purple it draws the girls into looking at it, and getting rather excited by seeing Justin Bieber’s face featured on a large poster.

You can tell by just looking at this poster that he definitely relies on his star image to sell his music. I think that many young girls buy his music and will go to his concerts because he is a teenage heartthrob and they all fancy him. The fact that he has an average voice doesn’t seem to matter to his fans, because it is all about his image. Also the fact that he normally features other famous artists in his songs, tells us that he is not good enough to just sell a song with his voice. He needs other artists to sell it by their names as well as his.

The next poster I have uploaded is for the singer/songwriter Laura Marling. She is an acoustic folk musician who is extremely into her music career. As you can see by her poster I have uploaded she is not featured on it. However, instead is a drawing of a man with lots of plants and leaves around him. It almost looks like a very old fashioned poster that they used to use when they didn’t have cameras and such.

The poster does include her name in a script font, with details on her new CD. It also explains that a 7inch vinyl is available to buy. By featuring that vinyls of her music are available it tells us that her target audience is a very different one to that of Justin Bieber’s. The sort of people who would buy and listen to vinyls are people who are really into their music and listen to it for the sound of their music. It Not the singer’s image or how good-looking they are. It would probably be aimed at an older audience too, maybe from the ages of about 17-30. Laura Marling obviously does not rely on her image in order to sell her music. She relies totally on people listening to her music and deciding from that.

These two artists are very different from each other and have extremely different posters. That is why I chose them because I thought that it would be interesting to compare and contrast the two.

Ancillary Task Planning 1

A digi pack is a special edition CD case/cover that usual contains anything from 4-8 sides that is primarily used for promotion purposes.

I did some research and looked at other bands digi packs in order to get an idea of how to make my own. First I looked the rock band, Paramore’s digi pack. You can see it in the picture shown here. It features a picture of the band on the front, their names, and their songs written all over the front. I think that this band focus’ on their star image in order to sell their music. They have a very specific look in the clothes they are wearing and the rocky image they have portrayed on the front.

However, the next digi pack I have featured here is Sufjan Stevens CD cover. This is a band that makes similar music to Bon Iver and we can relate to very much in our music. As you can see, it is extremely different to the Paramore CD cover. This cover does not include Sufjans Stevens face but only his name in very small at the top of the pack. It’s very interesting. Also everything featured on the front of the pack is natural and man-made. The tree, the flowers, the deer and the fish. Whereas the Paramore digi pack looked very artificial and man-made. It is very clear that he is not trying to sell his image here. He focuses on his music rather than selling himself.