Q1 Directors Commentary

I recorded a directors commentary as part of my evaluation focusing on the use and development of the convention of lip syncing referencing specific examples in the video. 

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

I feel that my three products work in symphony in terms of brand image as I have used several ways of feeding in similarities to the products to make them look similar and to appeal to my audience in the same ways. 

The font 'Hacked' was used in all three media products as I felt that the pixelated look to the font not only illustrated 'crookedness' that I associate with the name The Crookes but also because it emits an edgy, cool feel which is part of what I have built for my artist image. This typography is used on my digipak to show the name of the band and is subsequently used in the same way on my advert, and this continued use makes the combination effective as it presents a running image and brand, thus making the band more recognisable and distinguishable to my audience.

In terms of styling, both the artist and the two girls acting, their clothing was very stylish but casual which added to the relaxed image presented in the song and my desired image for the artist. In the advert, again the clothing is very simple and casual (plain t-shirts) which supports the laid back image from the video. Although no clothing styling took place in the production of the digipak, the images of the sea and waves and the way in which I altered the colour balance also highlights the relaxed impression throughout the music video and advert.

My referencing to zeigeist (dominant trends and preferences in a certain time period) in my main product and ancillary texts makes them effective and successful as a combination. In my music video, the zeigeist that I have referenced is the street art movement, showing all of the impressive graffiti, especially because I feel that indie audiences are more artistic. Additionally, the location of Camden is very popular and iconic and so this could appeal more to my audience as they would know about and enjoy going to Camden . In my digipak, I have also used key things from today's zeitgeist such as the geometric shapes (the triangles) as there is a huge trend of minimalistic and geometric graphic design in much of the modern design work and in advertising and so by using this in my digipak, it makes it more familiar and on trend with design work. Additionally, my advert heavily focuses on trends and fashion that is most popular at the moment;

the beards/stubble on the band members is linked with the popular beard trend that is most common in London, where a large part of my audience would be from, and so this would be familiar and fashionable for them. the tattoos on the band members is also part of the modern day zeitgeist as tattooing, specifically sleeve tattoos are a growing trend, not only in the rock and indie music industry but in the mainstream public as well. By including elements of zeitgeist, it has made my products more effective in the sense that there are elements that are easily recognisable to everyone and links in with current trends in the indie and rock genre.

I asked my target audience feedback group if watching the music video makes them more likely to buy the album.

6/10 said that it made them more likely to buy the album as "listening to the song made me remember the video so I would buy it (the album) as it reminded me of the video" - this suggests that the video has been successful in staying with the viewer after they have seen it, making it more memorable.  

Also "yes, the girls and singer in the video were having fun, which made me happy, so I would buy the album as it would put me in a good mood" - The music video and digipak emit a positive and up lifting feeling which is passed on to my audience, and so by having this running theme, it makes them more effective as one influences the other.

1/10 said they were less likely to buy the album because "I didnt like the song, it was too 'pop' for me so I wouldn't buy it because it's probably pop influenced too and I prefer monochrome album artwork because it usually means the band is more 'rocky'". This perhaps shows that I havent entirely appealed to my audience as the digipak is not dark enough to connect with fans of rock music.

Lastly, I looked at the psychographics (their wants/needs) of my target audience and found that it was to relax and travel, get away from everyday life. In my three products, I tried to relate to this. In my music video, the narrative is about having fun, relaxing with your friends, and the song is about letting go and living in the moment, not worrying about everyday life, "I like the video because it makes me feel like I have escaped for a bit, im living in their world and having fun with them". Likewise, for my digipak, the waves and sea images that I used, the location offers an escape and implies that the music on the album will make the listener feel good and forget about 'the real world' for a while. The advert too I feel that my main product and ancillary text are effective in addressing the psychographics of my audience and providing them with what they want. 

Overall, I feel that the combination of my main product and ancillary texts is effective as there are constant running themes through all three of my products which directly relate to appealing to my audience, and from my target audience feedback, I feel that they have related to it and respond to my products in the way I had hoped.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

As part of my evaluation, I asked a group of 10 people from my target audience of boys and girls aged between 16 and 23 to obtain a better understanding of how successful my music video, digipak and advert are.

Firstly I asked what do you think the genre of this song is?

I gave this question in my questionnaire and a comment answer instead of a multiple choice to leave the judgement completely down to my audience.

Half of the people I asked thought it was indie, 3 thought it was pop and 2 thought it was rock. I am pleased with this feedback as it is primarily indie but has elements and influences from the pop and rock genres too and so I am glad that this came across to my target audience.


What did you like about the video?

"the idea of fans attending a concert"
A male member of my target audience spoke about the concert sing-along vibe which I am glad came across as concerts and live shows are such an important part of the indie genre and bands within it. I have learnt from this that my editing and mixing in the girls lip syncing too does convey the idea of fans being able to sing along with one of their favourite artists and that this element is appealing and interesting to my target audience as they can identify with singing along to their favourite song.

"the girls having fun connotes strong friendship"
From an 18 year old member of my focus group of target audience members, I have found that the narrative element appeals more to the female part of my audience more as they can identify with them easier. The girls went on to say how the 'strong friendship' element appealed to them as it was something they could recognise or aspire to.

"how the video is synchronised with the music"
By editing to the beat of the music and keeping up with the fast pace of the song, this has appealed to my target audience. I understand that having the video synchronised with the track makes the music video more appealing and easier to watch as well as holding the attention of viewers throughout the song.

"the use of photos at the beginning and then bringing them back throughout the video and seeing the girls out doing those activities" 
Many of the people in my target audience feedback group enjoyed the running theme of photographs and capturing the best moments in your life which is essentially what the song is about. By having an ongoing repertoire of photos, it enabled me to constantly refer to the narrative and what the girls were doing as it embodied the key themes of the song itself.

"fun ending with the artist mucking about"
The playful, 'I don't care' persona of my artist was referenced a lot and in particular the males in my feedback group found Jeremy's acting and messing around sequence to be their favourite part as they said they felt it influenced them to be more fun and laid back as well as saying that it made the artist more likable and relatable. 



What impressions do you get from the artist singing the song?

Again I left this question open to comments instead of multiple choice as I wanted a true impression of the artist. I asked this question because it is important for me to know if I have branded and sold my artist in the correct way.

3/10 said they thought he was cool, then 2/10 for all the other responses. 

This has led me to believe that I have been successful in presenting my artist as I intended to emulate a cool, laid back artist as is typical of the indie genre. It also means that I didn't do anything to bring him across in any negative way and so he would appeal and attract my target audience.

What could be improved?

"changing up the shots of the girls-they got a bit repetitive"
"shots are a bit jumpy towards the end, edit them closer to the beat"
Based off of this feedback, I now know that, to fully maintain my audiences attention, I should have included a greater variety of shots of the girls singing perhaps in different environments, and also in my editing process, I should have more tightly edited the final shots more in time with the music to make the editing as clean cut as possible.


Out of 10, how clear is it that this is a digipak (album)?

I asked my audience this to simply see if I had met the brief of creating a digipak for my artist.

From the feedback, I have seen that my audience does in fact think it looks like an album. 
"The front and back covers look really professional" - From following the conventions I had found in my research, I was able to create a realistic digipak.

"I like the simple picture as the background of where the disk goes" - The simplistic images and layout of my digipak appealed to my audience as well as the colours - "the colours are really nice and calm and make me feel chilled out", and so from this I can see that using relaxing imagery with a specific colour scheme has appealed to my target audience and the 'chilled out vibe' has been transferred from my digipak onto my audience.

"The track list is good, they stand out because the writing is in white and I like that the song 'Waves' links to the cover" - The choice of using white as my text colour worked well as it enabled everyone to see what was written on the digipak, and I was pleased that two people noticed that the album artwork was influenced by another track title.


Would seeing this poster make you more likely to buy the album?

As the advert poster's purpose is to sell the album, I found that this would be a useful question to ask.

8/10 said that it would make them more likely to buy the album. "seeing the actual band members makes me want to buy it more because I now know who is behind the music" - although the music itself is a main priority when buying an album, my audience said that seeing who the band are also influences their decision when buying music (perhaps a little superficial), and so I can see that by having the band members on the poster, it widens their appeal to the audience and shows that appearance is very important to many music fans. 

1/10 said it would make them less likely to buy the album as they found the band members to look a little intimidating and too 'edgy', lessening the band's appeal to her. 

1/10 said they were just likely to buy the album as "their appearance doesnt make me more or less likely to buy the album, I like the song so that it all that matters to me". This piece of feedback, be it small, reinforces the idea that to some music fans, appearance and image is irrelevant, the quality of the music is what matters.

From all of my feedback on the music video, the digipak and the advert, I have learnt that I was able to get across my desired image and impression of my artist and the genre of the song. Additionally, I have found that despite having quite a refined target audience, there is still variation on how different members of the audience react to my media products and so this, in the future, would make me thing differently when trying to appeal to a mass audience-ensuring there is something that appeals to everyone.

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

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

Feedback - 27/03/15

What went well:
Alicia has done Directors commentary on lip syncing and editing to the beat (part of question 1). she is now completing the rest of question 1 using a table on Powerpoint.

Even better if:
many of the points are in not for - e.g. challenging instrument performance form and convention - make sure you expand on these points.
There are some aspects of research and planning that need to be added to the blog-remember the deadline for this is next friday.

Music Video

 

Using language to address my audience

To address my target audience and to address consumers in general, i included specific language features. For example, the review from Kerrang! magazine that I wrote, i intentionally used very strong, emotive language to emphasise how good the album is (Stunning, classic).

Additionally, i added 'AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE' to address my audience as i recognise that my audience of young adults tend to get the majority of their music online and so by offering an alternative way to buy the music other than in shops would greatly appeal to them.

'THE NEW ALBUM' -monumental, creates excitement. Also as i have included 'THE NEW ALBUM' directly under the image of the band, as well as in capital letters, it implies that its release is a monumental event, creating excitement for my target audience, which would then generate more attention around the band and the album.

by having the release date 19.02.15 on the advert, obviously it informs my audience as to when it will be released. However, by it being bold it also creates a kind of sense of urgency about buying the album, it almost gives the impression that everyone is waiting and keen for its release, therefore encouraging more people to buy it.

Digipak feedback

After completing my digipak, I got feedback on it:

• The digipak as a whole looks quite professional,the images and layout are clear

• Should the cover feature the artist? However, I have justified the choice of not including the band on the album cover through my research into album covers of artists belonging to the same genre.

• The back cover: the track listings are good as well as the positioning of them

• EBI: add video to track listings as it is a digipak-digipak's have other forms of media on them compared to an album which usually just has music

“good to see that you have added the video to the track listings”

• Inside disk: the white disk is a little plain and resembles a sample CD, album disks tend to be more sophisticated

• EBI: do an alternate version of the inside with the opaque disk template without the actual disk to be used on the net of the digipak

• Inner lyrics: good for including a band logo

• EBI: add the black band along the bottom to ensure it looks like an opening for a booklet, not just a plain cover saying 'lyric booklet'

I did several sketches of logos before hand to experiment with what looks most appropriate. some consisted of the band initials inside shapes to like with the geometric patterns on the album artwork, however, they tended to look to childish and so I decided to use just the initials but put one inside the other. 

Feedback question: can you explain where the fonts are from and reasons for use?

Throughout my research on digipaks and artist branding, I found that most bands have a font that is associated with them; a font they use for all of their products and so I decided that I must use a distinguishable font for my band too. I have used the font ‘Hacked’ from dafont.com for the name of the band as I felt that it embodied my desired image for the band as it is quite contemporary and edgy. Additionally, for the normal text (track listings and font on the magazine advert) I used Avenir, a font in Photoshop as it is very simple and clean and went well with the busy title.

Advert feedback

I created my advert by using the original images of the two guys who I chose to be the band members, however I felt their clothing in the images doesn't reflect the genre properly and so I used Photoshop to place the heads on to separate bodies that I had chosen which better embody the typical look of artists in a band. Additionally, I chose a mostly monochrome colour palette to ensure that the digipak cover and the artists stand out. Finally, I included reviews from publications that would typically review the music of a rock band (Rolling Stone, Kerrang and NME). 

After completing the magazine advert for the album and artist, I got feedback on how to improve it. 

Feedback: It is simple and looks professional, the front of the digipak is on the advert, which shows what it is advertising. 
Even better if: the arm of the man (Ed) with the beard looks slightly crooked/ at a wrong angle so to fix this  i could move his arm out of the frame or alter the shape. 

I experimented with trying to fix the arm problem by moving his arm entirely out of the picture, this however it looked slightly strange as there was just one arm in the picture belonging to the other guy.

I also tried moving the image so that more of the arm was in the picture so that it showed the angle of the arm wasn't distorted or bent. However, this resulted in the two band members being too close, and Ed looks more like a background figure instead of part of the band.




I have decided to move the image so that the arm is no longer visible as i think the composition as a whole is improved as the two men look more like a duo and the space between the top and the arm left a white space which drew too much attention.

Additional feedback: "good to see changes to positioning of the artist i.e. his arm"

Feedback question: Can you explain how the band and the image is tapping into the zeitgeist?

Zeitgeist is the intellectual fashion or domininant school of though that is typical and influences the culture of a particular period of time. I have addressed the current zeitgeist in music which is the trend of beards and tattoos, especially within the rock music industry. Firstly, I chose a man who had a beard as it is commonly associated with being fashionable and 'cool' among young men, as well as the tattoos which are typical for current musicians. by utilising these features, I have made the band image more believable and in turn, provided potential for them to be popular as they fit in with the desirable musician image at the moment.

Advert research

As part of the marketing for the band, we have to create a magazine advert for the artist and the album.

I have looked at several typical magazine adverts and I have found:

The artist, even if they don’t appear on the cover of the album, they often appear on the advert to sell their image as well as their music, for example, All Time Low. This feature makes it more obvious that it is a product that its trying to sell, as usually the artist is as the centre of selling their products, additionally, as the artists are in the music video featured on the digipak as well as on the advert, it links the two together, further selling their image.

 Another element of the adverts are that it always has the cover of the album in some way to emphasise the product and ensure it is recognisable when people go to buy it. Both Fall Out Boy and Florence and the Machine do this by using the cover of the album as the image for the advert. On the other hand bands such as All Time Low include an image of the cover of the album on the advert somewhere. This is effective as is solidifies the brand of the artist and makes the album more memorable as there is a single reoccurring image for consumers to see.

The obvious feature that is used is a constant typeface. Each artist always has a particular font that is specific to them to ensure that people immediately associate the lettering to the artist.

Additionally, the date of album release and critic reviews also make an appearance on the advert to provide consumers with information on when to get the album, the reviews could act as a comfort for consumers as often people seek out others’ opinions and acceptance before buying things.

I will use all of these features and elements whilst creating my magazine advert, to make it as realistic and successful as possible. 

advert sketches

 

 

I sketched out possible designs and layouts for my advert poster to get an idea of the most effective and realistic layout for it. My first sketch is influenced by other adverts I have looked at, as well as influenced by the aesthetic of polaroid photographs as polaroid's are associated with the alternative/indie culture and so matches the genre of the band and the song in particular. I have put the name and album name at the top to instantly inform viewers of what the poster is advertising, also this would make it more recognisable to fans. A typical convention of album adverts is that they have the release date and reviews of the album on the poster to encourage people to buy it. In my sketches, I too have included this as it is key information for my audience.

 

The second sketch is more open, the text is over the background and placed in the spaces between their bodies. The name and album are still at the top of the poster, in the largest font to attract attention to the artist. I feel this sketch is much less successful compared to the other one as it looks just as an image with text on top. with no borders or any other objects to accentuate the band or to make other things stand out, I feel this layout would not catch people's eye and so would not be as successful in marketing the band. 

Mumford and Sons advert analysis

Taking images

Taking original images:

I took images of the two people who I wanted to act as the band members of The Crookes. Firstly, I took pictures outside, however, I realised that it would be more difficult to isolate the image in Photoshop when I come to create my advert poster and so I moved inside and photographed Ed against a white wall.

In terms of direction, I asked for him to look quite straight faced and look away from the camera, instead of using images with direct mode of address, as the pose of looking past the camera emits a 'cool', relaxed feeling.

whilst taking images of Jeremy, I used the same direction of looking away from the camera, however, here I experimented more with different angles at which to take the images. I wanted to see if side angles or low or high angles would create or contribute to a particular image. However, I feel that to suit my sketches for the advert and the pose in which I want the two band members, a more level angle looking directly at their face is best suited.

Copyright and record labels

An important feature of the back cover of an album is the copyright text, without it, it looks bare and as if something is missing. I will include copyright text on the back and so I have to research the contents of the copyright text in order to make my digipak look professional and realistic.
the text always starts with the year that the album is being released, followed by the name of the band and the record label who produced the album. this is followed by lines of text that are exactly the same in every copyright statement which warn of things such as replicating and lending the album which is prohibited.
My copyright text:
2015 The Crookes, under exclusive licence to Fueled by Ramen. The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Fueled by Ramen. Unauthorised copying, hiring, lending, reproduction, public performance and broadcasting of the record is prohibited. Made in the Uk.

Another feature that was important to research was the record label that I would use throughout the marketing of my artist. Different record labels are specific to different genres and artists and so I have to choose an appropriate and realistic label and feature them on the copyright text and their logo on the digipak packaging itself.
I looked at some record labels that are connected with British rock bands and found these:

Virgin Records-
You Me At Six are signed to this label and so initially I thought they may be suitable for The Crookes, however after some more in depth research, i found that more high profile pop acts typically belong to this label and so i decided it was not suitable for my artist.






Sony Music Entertainment-
a popular record label that many bands are signed to, however, again the acts most commonly associated with the label are pop acts such as Adele, Bruno Mars and Calvin Harris





Fueled By Ramen-
this record label is heavily linked with rock/indie bands, for example Fall Out Boy, Fun. , Panic at the Disco and Twenty One Pilots (duo much like my artist). and so I have chosen Fueled By Ramen as my record label as the bands signed by them make fun and energetic music similar to The Crookes, so i feel this is the most suitable record label to chose.

digipak planning

For my digipak, I have decided to use images of the sea instead of an image of the band. I have chosen this because not only do indie album covers never feature a photograph of the actual band, but also because it relates to one of the tracks on the album 'waves'. This is a common thing to do for bands-they either name the album after, or base the artwork around a song on the track list, not necessarily the main singles from the album.

 

By researching on several websites for high quality images to use on my digipak, I found this image that I will use as the background image. I will crop it slightly and alter the colour levels to match the feel and colour scheme that I am aiming for (more blues, greens and pinks) as this matches the most frequently appearing colours in my music video. 

I am also using an original image that I have taken. This image is a cropped version of a photo I took on holiday in the canary islands of waves against a cliff. I feel that this image will go well with my found image as it creates contrast between distance-far and close up shots of the sea.

I intend to combine the two images together by using geometric shapes e.g. a triangle or hexagon with the close up inside the shape and the found image as the background. I have found that many indie album covers feature some element and use of shapes, with scenic images. Additionally, I feel that by using images of soft waves and subtly combining them, it will create a relaxed, laid back feel which is an ideal state to listen to music in and project the image and attitudes of the band in general.

I also did some sketches to design a band logo for the inside of the digipak.

 

 I decided to use the two letters of the band name and link them together. Firstly I tried to continue my use of shapes by putting the letters inside a circle or triangle, however this looked very boring and wouldn't translate well onto Photoshop. I believe that the most successful and minimalistic logo design is the T within the C as it has the most potential to represent the band and make them recognisable and during live performances, it would be on the kick drum or on the backdrop.

Targeting my audience

I used several pieces of iconography and specifically used the mise en scene to appeal and access my target audience. 

Trying on sunglasses-I included this sequence of shots to enable my audience to identify with the girls in the music video. For many young people, especially those in my target audience, fashion is important and sunglasses tend to be a key staple in many people's outfits and so this identifies with the activity of shopping which many young people do with their friends. Additionally, the clothing for sale in the background is similar to the style of clothing that I believe my target audience wears and buys. 

Graffiti wall- I am trying to attract an artists and creative audience and so by incorporating contemporary artwork and street art into the music video, it makes it more accessible to my audience and more appealing too. Additionally, the bright colours along with Jeremy messing around having fun against these backgrounds encompasses the young, energetic, free image I was aiming for

Underground- Famous iconography of London so it is a familiar and recognisable sight to my London audience as they use it often which would make them more likely to watch the video if they can personally connect with something. 

Looking through art prints and records is specifically aimed at my target audience as these are two important interests for them.  Also, some prints in the background featuring the union jack solidify the bands' British origin and the typical nationality of the target audience. 

Editing

Editing has been a slightly different process throughout my music video production compared to my film opening production. As there are a much greater number of shots, I have edited them in a way where the clips are ascending upwards, overlapping the clip before as only the top clip is shown. In my last project, I was able to line the footage along one line, however in a music video, the pace of editing has to be much faster. 

By using the audio wave forms on the original track, it has made it much easier to edit to the beat of the music, making it look much more like a music video as making it easier and more pleasing to watch. 

A new skill I had to learn whilst editing is how to edit the lip syncing to perfectly match the original track. I completed practise exercises to learn how to link the video to the original wave forms so that the lip syncing was in time; these exercises were the Britney Spears re-make as well as editing a small sequence for 'You wanna what', a country song. Additionally, an issue I have had throughout this editing process is loosing time rendering, as the lip syncing clips were much longer than usual, and so they took a long time to render. To reduce this time as much as possible, when filming, we filmed each verse separately to make the clips shorter than one clip lasting the whole song. 

feedback on music video

In class, we did a peer feedback session where the other class watched our unfinished music videos to suggest what could be adapted or changed to make it more successful, as well as offer feedback on audience and brand image.

Describe the brand image:

 

What conventions of the form/genre can you see clearly?

 

 

 

 

What is your favourite shot in the music video?

• chorus-all characters are singing
• bright backgrounds
• birds eye view of the girls walking and the pictures
• snapshots of the girls having fun

 

Who do you think the target audience is?

 

 

what do you think could be added/adapted in order to improve overall impact of the music video?

• different setting for artist/crop shots so artist is alone in the shots
• change mise en scene of artist-its less thoughtful considering he is the one you need to brand
• faster pace of edit to carry fun vibe

After gaining this feedback, we have decided to re-film the lip syncing shots as they did not fit in with the fun, colourful mise en scene of the rest of the video. Initially, after filming him in a room with a white background as we were limited with time, these shots were not atmospheric or presented any image of the artist which is what the video is supposed to be about. We will re-film the lip syncing in the same setting as the girls-we will film against graffiti backgrounds in Camden to create a running image and atmosphere throughout the video.
This feedback was very helpful in validating our filming and how we approached our audience as the feedback from the brand image and the target audience is accurate to what we intended to achieve. Additionally, it has helped me in deciding to change the video to make it look better, and more exciting and to properly sell and brand my artist.



Album covers

I have decided to do some further research into album covers to get an accurate idea about what they usually have on the front. Despite my research of Lower Than Atlantis' album cover, i have found that almost all rock/indie bands never have the band members themselves on the cover. this is probably due to the fact that generally in the rock genre, their popularity and brand are not focused on their image, but more on the music itself. 

All of the covers, despite not having a relation to the artists in terms of appearance, the photos always have strong links to the album title or the title of a song on the album.

The Killers, a very popular band, never feature themselves on the front cover of their albums, this is because they have a very distinctive theme of artwork that is on all of their covers and so their appearance is irrelevant to selling their music as they have already established an image. this suggests that they have no need for them to appear on their covers.

 Additionally, You Me At Six, a popular British rock band have also never featured on the cover of any of their albums. They are probably most similar to my artist as they are of the same nationality, music genre and fan base and so their marketing techniques would be similar. I can also take inspiration from this album as i like the layout of the song titles on the back being in the middle and also the continuation of the image from the front to back. 

I have also found that the disks belonging to the albums tend to be quite plain. The typical design of them is that they are a plain colour, usually monochrome and they feature the name of the album and often the band. This simplicity is typical of the genre as album artwork tends not to be very extravagant but they also continue the themes and colour schemes of the rest of the album artwork.