For my A2 Media Studies coursework I was given a brief to create a promotion package for the release of an album, including a music promo video, a website homepage for the band and an advertisement for it’s release as a Digipak. After researching the history of music videos, I went about choosing a music genre to focus on. I decided to choose the “Indie” genre as it is one I am familiar with and the one I listen to most. I then chose several music videos from the Indie genre to analyse and to help me identify the conventions of the videos from within this genre. I found most videos to be abstract and sometimes have hidden meanings, however all where directly related to the lyrics of the song and reflected the connotations of the lyrics well. I then went on to choose a song. I decided to use Metronomy: Thing For Me as I felt the lyrics where easy to symbolise and I liked the upbeat style of the song. Once I had chosen my song, I continued to plan for my video which involved Lyrics analysis, a story board, props lists and costume ideas.

I tried to create music products that fitted in with the conventions of the indie genre. Below is a conclusion of the conventions I found within the indie genre music videos. The artist is represented in several different situations that run parallel to the lyrics, although in all of them he plays himself as a performer. He in turn represents the lyrics through his actions and uses his role to illustrate the key points of the key points of the song. The song and video fit in with a moral ideology with references to forgiveness: “forgive them even if they are not sorry” and war. This provides a great opportunity for Casablancas to represent himself as a man of morals as he wrote the song, suggesting that it is embedded with his beliefs and feelings.

The video has several denotative levels of meaning. These are shown in the three morals that are addressed within the piece, represented by the three levels of the building that creates the establishing shot of the video. Julian is faced with three situations in which he acts within the boundaries of the three morals that we are shown after every scene. The situation we see involves the artist as an actor, who makes it as a famous actor, and still his manager pays him a tiny amount even though we are shown how much money was made. However, instead of becoming angry at him, he simply turns away, showing his disappointment in the man’s behaviour. This then prompts a clip of Julian writing on a wall the phrase “anger is weakness, patience is strength”. He is then shown running up the stairs, representing his travel to the next scene and situation. On the next “floor” Julian is shown to be a singer in a club, and goes over to greet his friend who is stood with whom we assume to be his girlfriend. He greets them both, but when his friend is looking the other way, the girl mouths “call me” at him. Julian’s response is to shake his head at the girl and start conversation with his friend. This is then followed by another clip of Julian, this time writing “sin is honouring desire above what you know is right”. The final scene is set in a recording studio, and deals with another situation that requires a great moral decision. A man bangs on the door and it is made clear that he is being attacked by three other men. At first he ignores the scene, but after a while he goes out to help the man. This creates a basis for the final phrase of “every positive action has a reward”.

The connotative levels of meaning within the piece are represented by the building itself. It could be seen as a metaphor for the different levels of moral wellbeing Julian faces within the piece. The three different coloured floors could be representative of the three issues the artist faces with the white, neutral coloured top level connoting a feeling of wellbeing and wholeness. Between the different scenes we are shown clips of Julian on a black, techno background that seems to be an empty space. Stood next to him is a mannequin. This could be seen to represent Julian’s conscience and the mannequin is his body; connoting an ideology that it is his conscience that is making the decisions in each situation as when the problems arises in each situation, it freezes and we are shown the clip of Julian and the mannequin. Another explanation for the different levels could be that Julian is in limbo, and we are looking over the situations from his past and how he dealt with them. This would explain why the last level he visits has a white light and we do not actually see what happens there, as this could represent heaven.

Throughout the piece, there is a general dark and dirty theme with the lighting being dim and the locations look used and neglected. This contrast against the end of the piece when Julian is shown to be running towards a higher level that has a white light and connotations of purity. By repeating the phrase “forgive them, even if they are not sorry” throughout the song, this suggests that Julian has lived by this phrase and this is shown in the situations within the video. It could be viewed that the artist is suggesting that by living by this phrase, you will make the right decisions in life and go to heaven.

The audience views the narrative as a story. The video conveys elements of voyeurism as the characters are not aware that we are watching them within the scenes. However, this element is contained within the three “morals” as the artist presents the chorus to us within his character whilst looking directly at the screen as if he was performing to an audience. It is hard to distinguish the hero and villains within the piece. Although it is made clear that Julian plays a protagonist role, the only clear antagonistic roles are played by the men who attack the man in the last situation shown. The other characters, although having slightly different wishes to what may be viewed as right, simply add to the scene and are not used to make Julian look like a “hero”.

The video belongs to the alternative, abstract genre as it has no surface meaning as a video. It shows elements of the abstract genre through its alien setting and the design of the clothing and props used which have a surreal, techno theme to them. The genre is supported by the artist himself, as he is often related to alternative music and more abstract videos.

The text has been mainly distributed by its institution over the internet on video sites such as YouTube and not produced in DVD format as the target audience is not large enough for them to make a profit on such a large scale of production. The source is a commercial institution so the text doesn’t try and please or persuade anyone, it can be as controversial and eclectic as it wants as it is expressing itself in a form of art rather than commercialism.

The audience the text is aimed at is those who are interested in alternative/indie music. They may have sourced the artist from his involvement in the better known band The Strokes who are also involved in the indie/alternative scene. As an audience member myself, I see the text as an interesting metaphor for the journey through life and the problems we face. I like the way it shows different situations and how we should deal with them by representing them with moral codes. [for more details please see post Wednesday 12^th October 2011]

I think I successfully created a Music video that followed the conventions of the indie genre. It was abstract in the way that it was not filmed in a natural setting, I simply used a blank background to ensure all attention was on the actors and interlinked this with animation to create a video that did not run in chronological order and had no narrative storyline to it. This is a clear convention of the indie genre as the purpose of texts is to be different and reflect the feelings of the band and not what the audience want to see. By not using continuity editing I ensure that the video was quick paced with short clips that kept the audience on their toes and did not appear boring or out of time with the temp of the music.

I think my music video works well with my ancillary texts. Originally, I was going to use the fridge magnets 

to form the base style for both the advertisement and webpage however I decided against it as I wanted to show use of a digital camera and therefore organised a photo shoot using the people I used for my video to ensure continuity was kept throughout all three texts.

I wanted my music video to reflect the indie genre therefore I used conventional effects such as creating an abstract video and using animation to ensure it was clear which genre it belonged to. The song itself belonged to the indie genre therefore the lyrics clearly reflected the ideology of the genre. I also used fridge magnets to reflect some of the lyrics and also cartoon images of objects that shared the same connotation as the lyrics such as an image of a ewe for the lyric “you”. The costumes also reflected the indie genre as I chose outfits I thought fitted in with the style of “indie” and I used minimal props as I did not want it to appear a real life situation, I wanted to make the audience aware of the self reflexive style of the actors by placing them against a blank background which was clearly a studio set up. The majority of the shots I used were close ups and medium close ups as I wanted to focus on the lip sync of the actors. However at some points I did pan out to a full shot by gradually changing the shots from close up, to medium close up, through to a full shot. Although I think the style of the video and the way it is edited reflects the indie genre, some of my filming such as some of the fridge magnet clips, are very blurry and do not appear professional. This could potentially ruin the feel of the video as it makes it look unprofessional and stands out against the rest of the filming which is all of an even quality. I wanted to make the video feel light hearted so at the end of the video once the last clip had played and the song had ended, I put in a clip of footage that did not make the cut, it showed the two actresses laughing and thought that this touch added to the feel of light heartedness and showed that it was not a serious video, connoting fun and informality. I used short clips throughout the video to keep in time with the tempo of the video and to also to emphasise the fun attitude I wanted to portray when creating the video as the focus was on the quick paced tempo and short, snappy clips rather than the content of the narrative. I used two female actresses to act as the couple within my video as I wanted to break the conventions of popular culture. I felt this gave me an edge and helped add to the videos “indie” image as it was unexpected and not the norm, which is what the indie genre often tries to do. However, I did make a distinction between the two actress’ in the way that I styled one wearing a more masculine shirt with her hair up and the other wearing jewellery and lots of makeup with her hair long and flowing. I felt it was neccassary to make some sort of distinction between the two as otherwise it would look as though I had just picked anyone and that I had not though the costume or actors through. Although I originally started filming with a girl and a boy, I decided I wanted to do something  a little more edgy and create an image for the band that stood out against others by using the two girls instead of the conventional boy/girl set up. I feel I could have followed the storyboard a bit better and if I did the project again I would have allowed myself more time to re-film again to perhaps try out some clips that I did not have chance to try in the filming I did. Although I did refilm a few times as I struggled with the lighting and the lip sync and wanted to get the best clips possible.

I continued to support the role of the two girl band by using them both as the main focus for the photo shoot for my two ancillary texts. The first ancillary text I created was a magazine advertisement for the CD/Digipak. After looking at other advertisements I thought it was best to use minimal language on my advertisement to ensure that the audience did not get bored of reading and miss crucial information, however provided enough information for the consumer to know where and when to purchase the album. The main text on my advertisement appeared in large fount in the house style I used throughout both advertisements and simply showed the name of the band and the name of their new album. I used this to grab the audience’s attention and then had in smaller font two reviews from reputable institutions and the date of the album’s release. As the advertisement was made to appear in magazine such as NME I did not need to add any more information about the band as fans of NME generally listen to music from the indie genre therefore would know that the band would probably be of interest to them even if they had not heard of them before. The institutions I used within the advertisement are the bands record label “Style Records” and the place where the CD is available from “HMV”. I though it was necessary to include a record label for the band as if it where a real label then there reputation could provide the band with support as fans of the label could then decide to purchase the album based on any feelings they have towards the label. Also, by showing support from a major well known store such as HMV, consumer are even more likely to by the bands album as they will see that a store lie HMV is stocking it therefore it must be good as, especially as it does not belong to a very popular genre, it must be very good to have reached popularity enough to be stocked in such a mainstream store. It would also allow consumers who planned to buy the CD to know where to get it from making it more convenient for fans of the music. I also used the institutions “The Independent” and “Q” within the reviews of the CD to give the band support from yet more reputable institutions that are all connected with an independent way of thinking and living. The Independent only reviews music that is good quality and made because of the artist and not because it will be popular in the mainstream, this is a huge piece of support for a band from the indie genre as being reviewed by The independent shows that if such a large institution is aware of them then they must be worth a listen. It is a similar situation with “Q” who also has a reputation of only supporting good quality music that is written and played by the artist. By showing to fantastic reviews from such major institutions it is made clear to the audience that the band has a good reputation among the serious music industry and therefore must be producing good music that is worth listening to. The carefree ideology of the band is continued through the music video onto the advertisement as the image shows the two band members having fun in the sunshine. This promotes the bands fun image and also suggests that there music will be upbeat and easy to listen to, giving the audience a taste of their music without them listening to it. As I create the advertisement to appear in a magazine such as NME, the audience does not need to be defined by the advertisement as it will be filtered by the magazine as NME is a specialist magazine for people who are a fan of the indie music genre. However, the institutions the band is supported by and the fact that the image of the band is not aimed to show prosthetics that make the band look attractive to the mainstream audience makes it clear that the audience of the band are not mainstream and that not everyone will particularly like their music which may intrigue some people who see the advert but not the content it is in so may choose to investigate the band further. I think the advertisement works well with the music video and webpage to create a reputable image for the band that portrays them as fun loving and carefree, a popular character for the indie genre and giving the audience some idea as to what their music would be like. By including the names of different institutions I have made it clear to which audience the band is aimed at and by including it in magazines such as NME it will get the right coverage it needs to ensure that it is seen by the audience it wants to reach. If I did the advertisement again I would perhaps change the colours of the background as I used a plain black background to make the band name and image stand out, however it could be seen as quite bland and boring and put some potential consumers off as the first thing they would see would be the black background before being able to properly look at the image or the reviews the album has been given. Therefore a coloured or paler coloured background may have worked better although I would have to ensure I carried this house style through to the webpage aswell as I want them to be easily connected to each other.

The other ancillary text I created was a webpage for the band. I used the same image as I did for the advertisement to continue a house style throughout the texts and ensure they could be easily linked to each other. after looking at examples of other bands web pages I decided to follow the conventions I had found and used minimal language, simply featuring the bands name at the top of the page, links to pages on the site and information about the new bands album. I didn't want to overcrowd the page with information as I felt it may put off the audience as they would have to fish through a lot of information to find what they wanted. Although I did not want to overcrowd with language. I did make clear which institutions supported the band. I clearly advertised the bands record label at the left hand bottom of the page. This was to ensure that the audience knew who the bands record label where create a synergy between the bands webpage and the record labels website. I also created a social bar on the right hand side of the webpage. I created a button bar that would quick link the webpage to social networking sites such as Youtube, Blogger, Twitter and Facebook. This not only makes it easy for the audience to access their favourite network sites, it also meant that the audience would be relocated to the bands page on each social site from which they can gain valuable information about the band and upcoming news/events. The ideology of the band are made clear by the links to the social network sites, which show the band are interested in being publicised and want to get the word of their band out. Also, by showing the bands record label, any fans of the record label can then draw opinions of the band from what they think of the record label. I did not use the website for much advertising of the new album as it was not my primary use of the website and I wanted to use it for more background information of the band rather than advertising their new album. This means that the website is more for actual fans of the band rather than potential and will help them gain a greater understanding of the band and listen to more of their music. I feel that the webpage I created reflected the conventions of the indie genre and I am happy with the images I created and used and feel that the webpage itself looks professional and easy to navigate around. If I did this project again however, I would try and use a video of the bands music somewhere that would catch the audiences eye, meaning that anyone who visits the site would be able to hear what the band sounds like immediately. 

Once I had completed my music video, I created a questionnaire and asked for audience feedback on my music video. The questions I asked included “did you enjoy the video?”, “how effective do you think the video was in supporting the lyrics of the song?” and “what do you think could have been done better?”. I asked the question “did you enjoy the video” to see if the video I had created by following the conventions of the indie genre actually appealed to my target audience as, even if I followed the conventions as best as I could, if the audience did not enjoy it, it would be unsuccessful in the band’s music campaign. However the responses i received showed that the video was popular with my target audience and that they enjoyed it, although comments such as “you can tell it was not professionally made” raised my awareness to the fact that the quality of some of the filming was quite poor. The next question I asked “how effective do you think the video was in supporting the lyrics to the song” made it clear that the audience where pleased with the way the video fit together. Their responses showed that the use of the magnet images and lip sync where successful however due to the fast pace at times they thought it was difficult to follow what was being represented. The final question I asked “what could have been done better?” I asked to see what I could improve on my video. My target audience thought that the footage could have been of a better quality but this was the main concern for improvement. If I had more time after completing my audience feedback I would have made sure I re-filmed the parts of my video that were not as good quality as other parts. Unfortunately, I was not able to do this as I ran out of time towards the end of the project, which if i did the project again, I would ensure was not the case. Overall I am quite confident about my video due to the audience feedback reassuring me that it fits into the genre and works with the lyrics. If  I had time to refilm some of my footage I think I would have had a very successful, professional looking music video. 

I used several different elements of digital technology when creating my coursework project. The main one being the use of Blogger which I used as a template on which to build my work. Blogger allowed me to manage my work easily and present it in a variety of formats such as text, images and video. This made it easier to collet all of my work in one place and ensured that I didn’t lose any. I found it easy to use as all the necessary buttons were laid out in a handy toolbar. However, I did struggle uploading videos at first and had to change the format. Overall, I found blogger easy to use and enjoyed tracking my progress as well as it making it easier for my teachers to track my progress. I also used Blogger to create an audience poll to find out the preferences of my audience. This was a simple way to find out the preferences of my audience using a platform that was familiar with them and easy to reach them by. This helped me throughout my planning stage as I got a firsthand view of what my audiences wanted from a music video.

I used a digital camera throughout my project. It was very useful during the planning stage of my project and allowed me to take pictures of costume examples that I uploaded to my blog to give an example of what type of costume I would look to use in my video. I also used a digital camera to take the fridge magnet images that I used within my video. Although this was probably not the best technique as I struggled to find a good surface on which to take the photos to ensure they were clear and did not have the flash reflected in the image. I also used a digital camera to take the pictures for my ancillary texts. The digital camera was one of my favourite digital technologies to use as it was straight forward and quick to use and check if I had the images I needed and whether I needed to take more. Also, as I borrowed the colleges canon camera I was able to take very high quality images that looked very professional. However, some of the fridge magnet images were not as good quality due to the fact that I could not find the right surface to take the pictures on and I tried a variety of backgrounds such as a fridge and a plain piece of paper. If I was to take the images again I  may have just printed the letters off a computer or drawn them free hand and then scanned them onto the computer.

I used a scanner to scan my work onto a computer. This was a very handy tool as I could not do all of my work on the computer and I wanted to show some variety within the formats of my work. I used the scanner to upload my storyboard, drafts of ancillary texts, images used within the video and mind maps. I had to use the scanner to upload my storyboard as it would have been too difficult to design it on the computer and having access to a scanner both at college and at home was very useful. It was also a lot easier to draw my ancillary texts free hand as it meant that I could make as many drafts as I wanted quickly and easily and could jot down as many ideas as I could fit on my mind map. Although when using the scanner I had to be careful about how dark the writing/drawing was on the paper as the scanner would not pick up really light sketches, I found the scanner easy to use and the on screen instructions were easy to follow. It was also handy when I wanted to upload examples of magazine advertisements I wanted to use, although I could not fit the whole advert on as the scanner was only A4 in size and the advertisements were slightly bigger than this, however as the size difference was only slight I did not miss out any important information when scanning them onto my blog. Overall, I found using a scanner really helpful and easy to use and feel it was a crucial factor in creating my blog on a whole.

I used Photoshop towards the end of my project to create my ancillary texts. At first I was not very confident with using Photoshop as I had struggled using it within my first year project, however with a little practise I was able to use Photoshop confidently and created two ancillary texts I am very proud of and feel look very professional. I did struggle with the layering of the images and took a little time to recall what all the buttons where for but eventually I was able to work my way around Photoshop quickly and efficiently. 

I used a video camera to shoot my footage for my music video. I had used this type of camera before for an end of year project last year so found it fairly straightforward to use. This meant that I did not waste any time learning how to shoot properly and could get on with filming straight away. I use the camera three times to do three different shootings as in my first shooting the lighting was too dark and I had to re-film parts of my second shooting as some of the lip sync was out of time. In the end though I was happy with the footage I had collected and feel I was able to create a good music video without having to cut out anything due to not having the right footage. However, if I was to film again I would perhaps film a greater variety of scenes as I did have to repeat quite a few clips within my video.

Once I had shot my music video, I used Adobe Premiere to produce my music video. I had only used this programme briefly before in my AS course and therefore struggled getting to terms with all of the different effects and functions. Although it took a while to get used to, one I did I found it easy to use and was able to create a video that featured snappy changes and effects such as fading and flashing. If I did this project again I would try and make use of more of the functions of Adobe Premiere such as using a wider variety of effects such as split screen which I originally intended to use however did not have time to work with once I had put my clips to the music and ensured the lip sync was in time. I liked the format of Adobe Premiere as it was well set out and easy to access my clips whilst also viewing my video as a working progress and seeing the set out of my video. This allowed me to view my video as a draft as I worked and ensured it was easy to fix any problems I faced as I went along. I faced a few problems with rendering clips as I used a lot of still images which all had to be rendered to ensure they were in time with the music, this did take a while however once finished they added to the effect of the video immensely.

Not only did I use a variety of programmes and equipment. I also used computer accessories such as a memory stick to transfer my chosen song and images for my music video from a regular laptop to the editing suite. This was a very easy progress as I am familiar with how to use a memory stick and found it simple to upload them to my music video project. However I had to ensure that I had scanned my memory stick properly before inserting it into the editing suite as I did not want to risk transferring virus’ from the computers to the editing hard drive.

Overall, I think I worked well throughout my project, producing a successful music videos and well presented ancillary texts to support it. I feel I did well during the planning stage of my project, however I am aware that I could have managed my time better when producing and editing my video and did not give myself perhaps as much time as I would have liked. If I did the project again I would ensure that I managed my time better to ensure I would have plenty of time to make a first edit of my video and amend any changes, this I feel, would help me create a smoother, better quality video as audience feedback has raised my awareness to the fact that my video, although following the conventions of the genre and well edited, could be of a better quality. 

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