Music video

Final Digipak

Final Magazine Advert

Evalutation Question 1

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

At the start of the year for the research and planning we had to conduct a list on conventions that appeared in a music video, some conventions I followed whereas some I want against, this is to attempt to create my media product to stand out from the rest and to attempt to draw an audience in how it is executed. 
Some conventions I used and stuck with are the aspect of editing to the beat, as my song is indie-pop it means that there are some fast paced beats which I have edited my clips to fit with, but there are also some slow sections which then take over with some longer clips. You can see this through the use of my clips below. For the start of my music video I used quick pace editing, this was to match the song but to also get across what genre it is. An example of this is below:

As the narrative scene's are cut with some shots of performance clips which gets across the idea that it is indie-pop. As my first section is of a guy and girl in bed, this connotes to the audience straight away that it is going to be a love story, allowing the story to come across quickly lets the audience understand what is happening instead of keeping it a secret. My music video this way is easy to understand and straight forward. 

At the start, when the guitar is strummed I have edited it so that each strum resembles a straight cut edit, as it is an indie genre there is no techno beats that you would find in a stereotypical pop song like in the Top 40 UK chart, so this guitar strum resembles that beat that would be present in a pop song. Keeping this convention means that there are no long clips that would bore the viewer, it is fast paced and would keep the audiences attention. 

Another convention which I have gone along with is matching the action on screen to the lyrics which are said in the song. At various points in my music video I have done this, for example when the song says 'I've been walkin' around tryin' to figure out' both the male and female characters descend down the stairs. Another example of this is  'than I have got on my plate.' The male protagonist is then presented with a plate with food on which is handed to him by the female character. 
I also believe that my costumes fit with my chosen genre, as linking back to my research at the start of the year the female is wearing bits of clothing that i selected from a mood board i created and took ideas from this. 

This is the mood board I created and using this I found clothes which would be suitable for the music video, from this i derived a prezzie in order to determine which outfits would be suitable and which colours of clothing could help develop my narrative. This prezzie can be found here:

However the conclusion I made on this prezzie is now outdated as I slightly changed my narrative so only 1 female outfit was needed and this happened to be outfit 5. This was because the white shirt underneath the black connotes that she is innocent but the black shirt over the top is to show she is trying to hide how innocent she actually is. But the red skirt connotes the idea of love, and desire. I did however stick with the Dr.Martens, as they fit with the indie genre nicely. 

For the male characters I also tried to stick to the genre. I created like for the female cast, a mood board in which I would relate my genre to, to find out what conventional clothes would be. I found out that overall it is more smart/casual clothing. Button up shirts and jeans, with smart shoes. However, as my narrative involves them waking up, the costume for half the video tends to be pajamas. But as the male is wearing the brand 'Drop Dead' & 'Top man' clothing It still fits with my genre. 


On the editing side of my music video I have added in elements such as 'Flash forwards'. This aspect is not conventional of most music videos, however I feel this fits nicely, and the slow build up of music as the female character runs towards the lead male, is almost as if him playing is allowing her to understand her true feelings for him. This then shows the future of the main Male character and female characters future together. This links the lyrics of the song to the video as it brings across the message that even though people do wrong things and may stray from the correct path in life, everyone can have a second chance and will never be judged for it. These flash forwards are represented by a small flash of white, followed by the clip being a milky white colour. It took me awhile to figure out how i could give the videos an effect which did in-fact resemble the flash forward, as they are not typical in music videos, if some do this aspect it is normally always a flash back, but due to the genre being half 'Indie' this word means individual so if I allow my music video to offer the audience a different version of how music videos are seen, this will attract a larger audience as it is different and not the 'norm'.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Through the duration of my course I looked at features which would appear in all texts of a promotional package, I used technologies of those stated in question 4 to help me with this. I figured out features such as using the same font, using the same talent, using the same colour schemes. From this I then created a magazine advert and a digipak which all use these aspects. Such as, my genre is 'indie-pop' and due to this the lead females hair fits well within this category, and as her hair is so bright and she is a main character within my music video i used the pink of her hair to drag this into my digipak and my magazine advert. However I did not use much on my magazine advert and I could not find anywhere it could go apart from in the photo triangle that I had created which included screen grabs from my music video, other than that I didn't want to use such a different design to that used on the front cover of my digipak. 

Another aspect that I believe makes my products effective is that I have used two people who are within the age range of my demographic, doing so brings in the audience I want. But also allows the audience to be attracted to my talent, as most people who watch music videos do so to see their favourite people on their screen. But also using people from my demographic age also allows the audience to connect with the narrative better as they can then sympathize with the characters and understand how they feel as they may have been through the situation these characters are living through. Due to this it would allow people to share their feelings through videos and encourage them to share the video. 

Another feature I used was tying the album name to the song, I did this via naming the album 'Numbers' this is because the song is 'I love you 5' not 'I love you five'. Then having to make up the rest of the songs within the featured album I then incorporated numbers into each song to get this aspect across. But I also added the album name to the digipak and onto the magazine advert so this is also creating links between all three making them more effective so people can identify them as belonging to each other. 


Do you think that these three media products are effective as a promotional package?

All the people that I asked this question to said yes they do. One person expanded on this idea and said at across all three media texts I have used the same male lead to they are easily relatble to each other. This could also be due to the fact that i've used screen grabs from my music video so the images on each are the same product, or this could be due to using a similar colour scheme.

Can you see any clear links?
One person said that the pink of the females hair is then brought across into the digipak on the cd's so this is a clear link. Another person said that some of the pictures have been taken directly from the  music video to create the triangle used on the front cover of the album. This then backs up my thoughts on question 1.


Do you think they work well together?
All people I asked said yes, so this shows me that the links I created between the three products work well and can clearly draw them together to be an effective promotional package.



Is there anything you would do to improve any product?
One person said no, and another person said that I could add pink onto the magazine advert, as my music video has a female lead in it, and using this I have then used pink within my digipak to bring this factor across so they link more. However I did not think to add pink to my music magazine, no one in my feedback had said this so this opinion is good, however I wish i had found it before this moment so I had time to change it and update it. Another comment was that there should have been more performance shots within my music video, and I can understand this as I used a lot of performance a the beginning, and after this I didn't use much only during the narrative. So maybe I should have considered this more.

Overall I believe that due to the feedback I was given through these videos I created an effective promotional package that entices the viewer to share the video to others, and to eventually buy the song when it is out. 

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From my feedback during the course of creating my products I gained feedback at various points throughout and this helped me to understand where I was going wrong and how I could fix various problems. 
Once I had finished production I then again reviewed everything I had been told to improve on and looked at my product to see if I had met the criteria. After feeling that I had done this, I asked a set of questions to determine whether or not people agreed.

Thinking of genre conventions do you think they fit with mine, and why? 

Due to me being able to know what the conventions of my genre are I had to tell all participants what the conventions of my products were by showing them a selection of music videos within the same genre as mine. Some videos I showed them were :
1. Phillip Phillips - Gone Gone Gone
2. Never Shout Never - Can't Stand it
3. The Fray - How to save a life
After watching these I then showed them my music video and were able to relate back to each music video with something they all had in common. 


Are there any parts of my products that you like/dislike or would change?



For this question all three people commented on different aspects. The male answering said that I could have changed the font size. However looking at the conventions of other posters within my genre, a similar font size is used. So this however I would not change, but one of the girls commented on how I didnt not include pink within my magazine advert, and I believe this to be true that I should have. I used pink for the CD within my digipak to resemble how much of a large factor this girl is for this album, and how much of an 'inspiration' she is. But I did not transfer this across to my digipak, so this is something I should have done. 
After asking these two questions I then asked all three people if they would watch my music video again and would they recommend it to other people? All three of them said they would, and have watched it again, and would recommend it to family. Two of the three said their family had also watched it after they told them about it.

Using the social media I was able to post my video online onto Facebook and YouTube and get comments back on my work to help me progress.

These comments and likes were a few from family and friends, they all gave positive feedback apart from one saying she didn't quite understand an aspect of something I had created. However I completely understand the justification of her answer, the music stopping during my music video is not conventional and challenges those conventions of most music videos as spoken about in question 1, so due to the fact that most of my family/friends listen to the top 40 they would not see videos such as mine where the music stops for a small section. Whereas people who listen to my genre of music a lot would understand why that it there, and as to why i researched this genre a lot so I could understand it better. 

Also due to posting my video onto youtube I was also able to see feedback through that via youtube having a selection of allowing people to comment on your videos and also like or dislike them. The feedback I was given on my music video told me that people liked my music video overall which is good. 

I conducted a questionnaire for my class mates and some family so I had some people of different ages. This photo on the left is this questionnaire.
I handed this questionnaire to 20 people and gathered the answers to help improve and understand what music videos do. 

Most people I handed this questionnaire seemed to be mostly from the age range of 15-24 and this is the audience I have targeted with my music video so the feedback from this helped me to understand what to do with my music video and if it would be successful.

The gender of the people who participated where 11 female, and 9 male. So this is almost half and half, So this then allows me to understand both responses from both and interpret them to see if the reaction is different or similar. 

As the younger generation now seem to live on the internet I expected the answer to this question be the internet however the high answer for TV surprised me. I expected a little less for that answer, so this shows me that I must post my video online to see what the response would be as most of my target audience spend the majority on there. Using Youtube would then be a perfect place to host my music video as it would get to a greater audience. 

This question was to determine what my chosen age range listens to the most to see what genre of music would be most liked when i produce my video. Choosing a song that my audience would like was crucial, there was no point choosing a genre such as Classical if no one would want to watch it again or recommend it to others.

 This question allowed me to see what my audience would do with it after they watched it. Seeing that it is a 50% chance for either watch it again and share it online is very good, this shows that not only if people liked my music video they would watch it, but they would also share it amongst their friends so my video would then reach a larger audience quicker. 

This question then helped me to understand whether music videos are a good source for promoting the song. This shows me that they are, the better the video it seems the most chance that the audience will then go out and buy it. As the music video is normally the promotional factor for the album promoting the single, this shows that music videos fulfill their purpose. 

Overall this questionnaire helped me to plan what I should do next within my planning and research and what actions to take in order to create and successful and effective product. 

Evaluation Question 4

Itunes Promotion

 Firstly I screen shotted a song on my phone from an album that has the same amount of songs that my product has. I then uploaded this from my phone onto the blogger app. Due to proliferation and miniaturization using my iPhone 4s I am able to easily update my blog from my phone, so if I ever got inspiration I can make a post quickly instead of emailing myself images and then uploading them when I got home.

After I uploaded it to blogger I then saved it from my blog onto my computer, and from this I was then able to open it from within photoshop and begin to edit it.

I then used the clone tool and began to scrub away the writing as using a rectangle box to go over could be seen due to Photoshop not being able to match the colour exactly as the colour picker only takes a sample colour from one pixel, it cannot create the entire colour. 

I then added in my photo and my text trying to copy the format exactly. This included typing the song title in bold and having the artist and album name in standard writing. So I then had created a good looking image which would look like people had bought my song from iTunes.

Final Draft of Music Video

Music Video Draft 4

This draft process was using the clip with the protagonist playing guitar as filling the gap, however again audience feedback was not good. People said it seemed out of place within the gap, and it should be filled entirely or not at all. I then got my protagonist to play the song and edit it to how I wanted him to play it, to then fill this gap. This video is below:



When I listened to this back to figure out which section I could use I realised the part in the song I needed he made a mistake in the notes.  So I then had to cut the section I needed and use the final note from the beginning. I liked the beginning note a lot as it lasted on a high note and then after editing it into my music video I then left a gap between the final note of the acoustic and the beginning of the song so there is a 2 second silence from when the protagonist opens the door, and when she begins to hug him. This I believe creates tension between the characters and the audience as he could have rejected her, but when they hug and the music kicks in again it's like a wave of emotion over the audience.

Draft ideas:

As my music video is only 2.15 seconds I need to adjust the song slightly to get it up to at least 3 minutes.
There are two ways that I can see which is plausible in doing this so it doesn't look stupid.
1. I  could edit the song at a certain part to create a loop in the music which is not exactly easy for the audience to tell. However, this could be hard to do. I could easily use Adobe Audition to edit the song into multiple layers and find a pause in the song to then repeat this section. I will then change my story line slightly so I have enough clips to fill the new section.
2. I could create a break in the music to lengthen my music video to the 3 minute mark. This would be easier than creating a loop, and would sound better too. The background noise from the camera would take over, which would be a nice spin during the section where female lead would be running towards lead males house. This approach would be very easy in comparison. 

I will do two drafts with each of these ways because then i can compare between the two and I can then get audience feedback on which is the best. 

Music Video Draft 3

Getting opinions from the people sat around me during class while I uploaded this video made me realise that I needed to fill the silence gap. They said they didn't understand why it happened, and it needed to be filled as it is not conventional of music videos to stop half way through. If this happens it normally happens at the beginning of the music video with a voice over from the artist, such as Rihanna - We found love and another Taylor Swift - I knew you were trouble Rihanna - We found love.


These music videos are very similar to one another in the fact of the voice over/ no music.
So a girl sat next to me and my teacher -Tim Anderson, began throwing suggestions into what I could fill the void with, one idea was that it would just be camera noise just a lot louder than is shown here, and another idea was that I could get someone to play the song acoustically to fill this gap and this would then play while she is running towards the protagonist male. This would then be almost as if he is 'drawing' her to him with the music he is playing. I liked this idea a lot, so decided to use it.

Magazine advert in a real magazine

To test out my magazine advert I printed it out and placed it within a real magazine to see how it looked and compared to others.
I believe it is effective and is eye catching due to using a contrast of colour between the black and white, the white catches peoples attention and due to its quirky nature of being triangular it also catches peoples attention.

Final Draft of Magazine Advert

Ancillary Text images draft

Digipak Final draft

Draft 1

Music Video Draft 2

First Draft of music video!

Magazine advert conventions

Band idea's:

So as my genre is indie-pop, I needed some indie pop names.
Taking inspiration from bands that are already out there, they are normally short, or very random.
Such as The Who, The Smiths, Fun, the Drums, The xx, Blur, Two Door Cinema Club. Taking this idea as my own I sat and drafted a few idea's of which I could possibly use. 

Band names: 

• Do yourself a favour
• The Forfeit
• There
• Supersede
• Consciousness
• Hierarchy
• Commitee 

The band name I chose to be my final name is 'Hierarchy'. The reasons behind this is because people always associate Indie with Triangles, and pyramids, sepia or black and white photos. My main reason for choosing Hierarchy is because the music industry is based on ranks, trying to go from no one, to number one. But also I could relate this name to the Hypodermic Needle Theory, bands take an image they want or song they want and try and inject this idea into the media and into their fans. More often than not the fans do not relate to them in the way that they wish, but the band have one intended meaning which they wish could always be brought across by their music. 

Due to relating my band name to a hierarchy triangle, I easily though of an album name which could easily relate to my song and my artists name. The album name which i have chosen is 'Numbers'. As my song is called I love you 5, and not all indie-pop songs are all about love, the only other thing which popped into my head which i could relate it to, is numbers.

So basing my idea on this, I created 11 other song names which will feature on the album. These are as follows:

1) Full Circle

2) Millennium

3) 3rd Floor

4) Just for you

5) I love you 5

6) Six Degrees of Faith

7) Arithmetic

8) Figure 8

9) 9mm

10) Like Counting Stars

11) Angles

12) Clocks run out

I have made up these song titles for the reason that one way or another they relate to the song track they are placed in. For example, I love you 5 is track number 5. Figure 8 is track number 8. I realized I did not want all of the songs listed to have numbers within them, so for track number 4, I have 'Just for you' which I believe is very clever, as when 'for' is heard it also sounds like the word 'four'. 

Other names i've chosen to resemble the life of the album, so the first song is called 'Full Circle' as when you listen to an album you travel a full circle when you listen to the music. Linking this again to a circle, the final song on the album is 'Clocks run out' and as a clock face is a circle, when the album has finished it could represent that the clock has run out.

The album artwork idea's I could use is black and white band photos, 

Digipak draft 1

Music Video Performance section

Because I wanted to have a performance element in my music video I needed it to look the part. This then led to me wanting to schedule a slot in the theater to film there. I then emailed Andy who is in charge of booking the theater out to people. This is the email and reply i was given.

Once I had spoken to Andy about booking out the theater we decided the 12th February would be a good time. I then asked for him to go through the lighting choices that I had so I knew what i could be dealing with. Finally I choose the colour red as a back light and side light. This gave a nice effect on the guitar, and his face, however with both side lights on it was too much, for the camera to handle. I chose the colour red for the connotation of love, and as this is the theme of my song it seemed fitting.

Digipack template

I used a website called discwizards to find a template for my digipack, I had never realised just how many different styles and ways a single digipack could be represented. 
As there were so many different styles and I had to consider which one would be most suitable for me and look right. I finally decided it down to two, one having  the CD on the right hand cover, and one with the CD in the center. 
To me it seems like the center panel would be more suitable for a CD as it would mean it has more protection from damage, and would be central for the images I select to accompany it. 
The digipack template I will use is below

Album Artwork Examples

A friend recently introduced me to a band called Decade, Decade brought out a new album on 13.01.14 called 'Good luck'. The album artwork jumped out at me, and even the merchandise is very clever. 

The album artwork is : 

This album artwork is very very clever, the idea of 'good luck' calming someones nerves when they are about to take a test, or undergo an important aspect in their life and they need someone to say the simple words of 'good luck' to make them feel better about the situation. However there are things in life that some people believe have bad omens, these things make people believe that good luck can be cancelled out, and may even give someone 'bad luck' for a period of time.

These actions which can create bad omens are simple things such as cracking a mirror, letting a black cat walk into your path, walking under a ladder, stepping on cracks in the pavement. All these simples things can create thoughts in someones head to make them believe that bad luck is coming their way. 

Bearing this in mind, a mirror has been cracked in this image, and is standing up against the wall, and the words written behind the mirror are the words 'Good luck' which is completely contradictory of the whole idea of bad luck.

This is something I could consider as part of my artwork as my bands name is 'Never Shout Never' So I could take the simple idea of someone saying the word 'Never' which is contradictory of the artists name. This is an idea I will plan out and consider heavily.