For my portfolio I was to create a promotion package for the release of an album and to include a music promo video, together with a magazine advertisement and a cover of a digipak.
For my portfolio the brief was to create a promotion package for the release of an album. The package would include:
- a music promo video
- a magazine advertisement
- a cover for a digipack
As part of the planning for my music video I decided to take it upon myself to do some secondary research on music videos and the different types of genres. I researched the history of music videos and the different codes and conventions of the genres of videos. I researched how music videos had developed over the years including their development before the use of television and the internet as a medium for artists publicity and exposure. I then chose the song and artist I wished to use for my music video and then researched the specific genre I would be using.
How I Chose My Song
At first I decided to use “Mowgli’s Road” by Marina and the Diamonds. However, after some thought on how I might portray this song as a music video I decided that this was a complicated song choice. I felt as thought this song didn't inspire me with ideas for my video. I then decided to look at other songs by the same artist to see if I could find one that would have a strong storyline and offer some good opportunities for visual images in my video. After some thought I chose the song 'Radioactive' from Marina's new upcoming 2012 album 'Electra Heart'. The lyrics and style of music help me to quickly think of some initial ideas for my music video. Because of this, I decided that this song would be a better one to use. I researched the genre and conventions of the song. I searched the song on the web and found several sites which explained what the song was about. Although the song was by the same artist as my first song choice, the music genre of the artist had changed. Mowgli's road from Marina's first album was more Indie Pop/New Wave however 'Radioactive' has leant more to staying in the Indie Pop boundaries with more dance rhythms.
I researched and planned the different camera angles, editing techniques and mise-en-scene that I might used based on my research of the music genre and song content.
The form of production I have chosen is a music video. I decided to chose a music video as I thought this would be the most interesting form of production and I would be able to include all of my ideas through a music video. The genre of my music video is indie pop, a weird mixture of two totally different genres.
- It is a genre of music for bands that are on individual labels but yet are very popular with niche audiences. They release their music independently compared to mainstream music artists who release their music through major music labels.
- Indie pop artists are widely popular but are not always landing a strong place on the main UK charts unlike artist such as Tinie Tempah and Florence and The Machine.
Another definition is that:
- It is a sub-genre of alternative/indie rock music which includes music that is light and less dismal than most indie rock.
- It is usually the music which the commercial radio music consumers will end up buying after hearing it a few times, because of it's first listen appeal.
Production
I have tried to largely follow the conventions of my genre throughout my music video, digipack and poster in keeping them continuous and similar. The conventions of an indie-pop music video are evident through the lighting and effects. In most indie pop videos the effects used are mainly monochrome and sepia, this is used to create a retro look. Otherwise, there are no specific effects used in the video except for increasing the brightness to make it seem less realistic and more like a fantasy. Some Indie pop videos use a montage of shots from scenes which together suggest a collection of memories. In the videos they use a lot of long and close up shots of the artists and use many panning shots to show the setting. The use of close up shots creates focus on the artist and to attract the attention of the audience. From looking at examples, I have noticed a big use of tracking shots. This is because in a lot of indie pop music videos, there is usually a story used and the artist is very active as one of the actors in the story. Costume colours are usually neutral with some bright tones and the artists clothing tends to be loose and layered for example, Demi Lovato in her video for 'Skyscraper' and Florence and The Machine regularly dress similar to this in their music videos. The mise-en-scene in an indie pop video tends to be outside in a scenic area. For example, Ellie Goulding 'The Writer' is set in a field and other surrounding places. This gave me the idea to use the beach as my main location for my music video and in the song lyrics there are references to a beach.
The Artist
Indie Bands tend to have names like Mystery Jets, The Black Keys and Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros.
I decided to create a similar niche name for my artist and came up with the name “Lizzie and The Crystals”. Using the same name as the original artist I created a similar name which would still fit with the genre of the song and music video. The person who I chose to be my artist had the look of the sort of artist who would fit into the genre. She has very long blonde hair which would fit in with the mainstream pop look. She also has an edgy side to her appearance and an alternative bohemian look in the video which would represent the indie side.
Conventions and Presentations
I have been looking at the different conventions and presentations of music videos. There are four different conventions that can be used in a music video.
Performance - a music video using performance will usually show the artist/band singing towards the camera or making it obvious that they are singing the song.
Narrative - a narrated music video will tell a story by the artists taking on the part of an actor in the video. For example, Lady Gaga's videos usually have a narrative. Her music video for 'Telephone' it tells the story of two serial killers running from the law similar to Thelma and Louise. The story even continues into another music video for Beyonce's 'Telephone' song.
Animation - Animated music videos can be anything from plasticine, such as Peter Gabriels 'Sledgehammer' music video, to sketches, such as Ah-ha's music video for 'Take On Me'. The video will use digital movements and features such as stop motion.
Amplification – The features of the music video are simply abstract and have no link to the lyrics or meaning of the song. An good example of an Amplification music video is Gotye's 'Somebody that I Use To Know.'
My music video uses a mixture of performance and amplification. I decided to use abstract shots in my video to fit with the dance feel and the genre of the song. The abstract features in my music video include the different effects which I have used. For example, in the shot for the line 'My heart is nuclear, love is all that I feel' I decided to use two different contrasts. To start with, the shot is in black and white and then gradually dissolves into a bright, high contrast image as Lizzie is walking. I used this to fit with my digipack. I was creating it at the same time as editing my video and as the back of my album I had used a black and white photo and on the front I used a high contrast coloured image. I decided that I would merge both of these styles together in my video.
Although my music video doesn't particularly have a narrative structure, I wanted to show some conventions of the lyrics in my video. Because in the song lyrics there is a mention of a relationship or love affair and the general story of the lyrics is to do with love and hatred, I have shots of a love heart shape. The shape is drawn in the sand, and the video shows the sea washing it away. I decided to use this image to represent the love that the artist is singing about. The words are repeated in the song so I decided to use this image several time and shot and edited it in different ways.
My music video uses some post modern features such as eclectic borrowing. Some of the ideas I have used have been influenced or copied from other existing videos. For example, the shots of Lizzie getting ready in the mirror have come from Marina and The Diamonds video for 'Fear and Loathing'. Also, the shots which show Lizzie standing against a white background have been influenced from another Marina and The Diamonds video for 'The Archetypes'.
Overall, I am very satisfied with the outcome of my work, but if I was to go back and change anything there a few changes that come to mind. I would have planned thoroughly what I wanted to include in my video and instead of rushing into my work, I would have researched other music videos more in order to find my influences. I also would have worked out a suitable time to go re shoot my video. As I started filming in October, the weather went downhill from there and I was unable to revisit the beach and to film again. Once the weather had brightened up it was close to finishing and I hadn't organised more time to return to the beach. Therefore if I could go back I would have made sure that I either made sure that I could of returned to the beach before or as soon as the bad weather had gone, or that I was able to film as much as possible and different ideas the first time I filmed my video. Although this could have improved my work, I am still happy with the footage I was able to film in order to replace what would have been more beach scenes.
If I could change anything, I would have worked more with the artist, taking into consideration any views or ideas they may have to offer in the production of the video. This would have probably helped me get a better picture of their character on the final edit of the video, and also may have helped them feel more comfortable during the filming process. If I was to create another video, I would have asked someone to accompany me to help during the shooting of the video so that I could keep track of the scenes being shot. It would have helped me quite a lot as I was the role of the producer, cameraman, and the person following the story on the location of the shoot, which made it hard to keep track of what needed to be done. If I had asked others to help me I would have been able to focus mainly on the filming of the video.
Another problem with the video was finding time so that someone could take us to the beach. If I had of used a location within walking distance this may have meant I could have filmed on more than one occasion.
Despite these few minor problems, I feel as though I coped well with the organisation and process of the shoots and working with the artist.
My music video uses some post modern features such as eclectic borrowing. Some of the ideas I have used have been influenced or copied from other existing videos. For example, the shots of Lizzie getting ready in the mirror have come from Marina and The Diamonds video for 'Fear and Loathing'. Also, the shots which show Lizzie standing against a white background have been influenced from another Marina and The Diamonds video for 'The Archetypes'.
If I could change anything, I would have worked more with the artist, taking into consideration any views or ideas they may have to offer in the production of the video. This would have probably helped me get a better picture of their character on the final edit of the video, and also may have helped them feel more comfortable during the filming process. If I was to create another video, I would have asked someone to accompany me to help during the shooting of the video so that I could keep track of the scenes being shot. It would have helped me quite a lot as I was the role of the producer, cameraman, and the person following the story on the location of the shoot, which made it hard to keep track of what needed to be done. If I had asked others to help me I would have been able to focus mainly on the filming of the video.
Another problem with the video was finding time so that someone could take us to the beach. If I had of used a location within walking distance this may have meant I could have filmed on more than one occasion.
Despite these few minor problems, I feel as though I coped well with the organisation and process of the shoots and working with the artist.
Digipack and Poster
When creating my digipack and poster, I decided to research the different conventions of a digipack and poster in order to make sure that my own included similar conventions.
-A recognisable font used across the media texts.
I used the same fonts throughout my ancillary texts. For the main font I used 'Shrutti' and the other font used was a 'MS script'. These fonts are used for the texts on the poster and throughout my digipack. By making the font recognisable it makes the digipack and artist to be recognised as well.
-A consistent colour theme throughout the digipack and poster.
As my video was set at the beach and in a park area, I decided to use similar colours which would fit with these for my digipack and poster. For my digipack, I combined both bright beach colours, such as blue, orange, beige etc. and images, of the beach and Lizzie, with vibrant sepia colours and images which were taken in the park such as the one used inside of my digipack.
-Symbolic images and objects which link to the artist or song.
Album art and advertisements for an album release or video promo tend to use images which are featured in the video or on the album. I used images of the beach which I had taken myself for the album art and for the poster, I used a screen shot of Lizzie's eyes which I made opaque to blend in to the background.
In order to design my own digipack, I looked at other album artwork for existing albums. One main influence was 'Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros' album art work for 'Up From Below' from 2009. Although this band are a different genre to the song I have used, they influenced my design with their contrast and the mise-en-scene of their image. The image is set in a beach like area and looks similar to the photo I had taken myself. Therefore I used their album cover art work as inspiration when designing my own front cover similar to this as it was exactly the style and look that I was aiming for. 
In the same way, for the back of my digipack, I created a black and white image for the background where the song titles are placed for which I used both of the contrasts used in my video. I also liked the use of black and white for the back and colour for the front. It is important to make the front more attractive as this is what lures the audience to buying the CD.
I do no regret my decisions for my digipack as I am happy with my designs. The only thing that I would have liked to do again is to have made time to go back and take more professional images. I was lucky enough that the photos which I had taken came out rather well as they were only taken on my phone and were surprisingly good quality. I wish that I had gone back to take more which could have been used for the rest of the digipack however I am happy with my outcome.
For my poster, there wasn't any particular influence for the design. I found it difficult trying to design a poster which had a similar theme to my digipack and I tried many different styles. When I was experimenting to find my final design, I realised that what was missing was a powerful image of the artist. I had the album as the background and the information on when the album was going to be released and where it can be purchased from, however something felt like it was missing. I decided to test out different ways in which to include some image of Lizzie but without the image clashing with the background. I had already cut a screen shot from my video of the eyes and thought that they would work well for my poster. I made the image opaque so that the eyes looked as if they were in the sky on the background.
To create the finished project, I used several different computer editing programs. To edit my music video I used Adobe premiere. I found it quite easy to get to grips with how the tools worked and what each tool did. I had previously used this program for another project so I already had some idea as to how to use the program. Another program which was used significantly to produce my work was Adobe Photoshop. I had used this programme many times before so I was well equipped with how to use it. I used Photoshop to edit my images for my digipack and poster and it was used to put my digipack template together. These computer programs had a huge impact with the outcome of my work. If I hadn't have had access to these, I don't think that my work would have been to the standard that it is now. Using these has allowed me to make my video how I wanted with the tools to change the colour, transitions and effects.
In order to present my work, I have uploaded all my research, planning and finished work onto Blogger. Blogging is a very sufficient and easy way to present work as it's layout is tidy and it allows you to explain you're work with both images and text. It is also a reliable when wanting to find previous work as blog posts are dated and timed so that they can be located efficiently. Blogger also makes it easier for students like me to keep a profile of my work without having to produce too many pieces of work by hand.
In order to present my work, I have uploaded all my research, planning and finished work onto Blogger. Blogging is a very sufficient and easy way to present work as it's layout is tidy and it allows you to explain you're work with both images and text. It is also a reliable when wanting to find previous work as blog posts are dated and timed so that they can be located efficiently. Blogger also makes it easier for students like me to keep a profile of my work without having to produce too many pieces of work by hand.
Audience Feedback
Once I had completed my video, poster and digipack, I asked several questions about my video and ancillary texts to get a broader idea of their thought's and opinions.
The following are the results of their feedback.
- “Do you think the features and contents of my music video, digipack and advertisement fit within the genre of my song? (indie pop)”
100% said that they thought this was true. This is good feedback as it means that my audience can recognise the conventions which I have included in my video as well which shows that they are noticeable and recognisable.
- “Do you think my music video, advertisement and digipack are consistent with the theme?”
My audience thought that overall my music video and ancillary texts matched and were consistent. 100% liked my texts and said that they would buy them. This is great feedback as the people who I asked were ranged between the ages, 16-24, that I had intended to create this for.
Conclusion
In conclusion I have found that the project has helped me in the following areas. Thinking about the whole of production from concept to sales and promotion. I discovered that when planning a project I need to be certain that I know from the start how I am going to go about producing my project and that all my ideas will be accessible. In my project some of the ideas came at the end which if I had given them more thought, initially my video would have been better developed.
From the start, I need to think through the project thoroughly so I know exactly what I will be doing and how I will be doing it and the advantages and disadvantages of what I plan to do. I need to think about any barriers that I may stumble upon, for example the bad weather causing problems with getting to locations, and what I would do in those circumstances. The bad weather forced me to change the location to something that would fit with the genre of the song and which would also fit with the beach scenes. This caused me to give a lot of thought as to how this might affect the look of the video without it changing my plan for the whole video.
I have learnt about the need for planning a project in depth and not just jumping in straight away with the first idea that comes to mind. If I had done this in this project, I believe that my outcome may have shown better results in the filming of the video. However I did decide to change my idea quite early on in the project so I do not think that this is a major issue.
The project has given me an understanding of design concepts and how consumers respond to marketing and design. If I had more time or if I did this project again I would improve my design concept by researching more in depth into the different designs that my genre uses for their media texts. I would make sure that I had enough time to experiment with more ideas so that if I needed time to create something that I wanted to used e.g. a specific image for digipack, I would have the right amount of time to do this without loosing time for the rest of my work.
Overall, I have learnt that a lot of time and thought is needed for a project such as this. Although I am happy with the outcome of my work, I do think that if I had been more certain as to what I was going to do at the beginning, I would not have had the struggles, to produce the work, which I have had in making my video. 
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