Final Ancillary Texts

This is our final version of our magazine advert. We have put all needed information on this advert. The audience will know who's releasing the digipak, what the digipak is called, when it'll be released and where they can buy it. We have also included information on how to contact the artist.

Final Music Video Feedback

We received feedback for our final music video from all the groups in our class. When all feedback was reviewed, we spotted a number of things:

• The music video definitely has appropriate content
• Mise-en-scene has been payed close attention, as there were use of costumes and different lighting techniques
• There was controlled use of the camera
•  A lot of different camera angles were used
• The editing was effective of creating a linear meaning
• There were a few effects and transitions included in the video
• The editing worked perfectly with the pace of the song
• Lip syncing was effective
• Apparently the star persona is not clear
• Overall, the music video was well executed

Taking this feedback into account, we believe the music video we creating is outstanding. One thing we should improve on in the future is making the star persona more clear to the audience.

Final Version of Music Video

Digipak Ideas

After experimenting with using posterization in photoshop, we have agreed that this can create an interesting and effective cover.

We have discussed using all 3 members of the band on different sides of the Digipak, with Michael, the lead singer in our video, being on the cover.

Using this we can create a continuous feel for the digipak. Saying this though, we do feel that while minimalism is a genre convention of indie rock album covers, using just posterized faces like in our previous post may be too simplistic/minimal. 

To combat this we are thinking of inserting a continuous pattern into the back ground. An example of this would be from the band Kid, You'll Move Mountains, who in both their advert for their album "Loomings" use an interesting pattern.

Here, in the advert for the album, it is used to create a wave like effect, which we like. We are thinking about using this kind of pattern, or one very similar, to give a more interesting and diverse look to our cover while maintaining an indie rock and minimalistic feel.

In the album cover, the same pattern is used to a different effect, rather than creating a wave-like effect, it acts more as a background pattern to break the monotony of the image.

Digipak Test Posterizing

Here we have an image we posterized manually of popular musician Neil Fallon of Clutch.
We have done this so we can assess the effectiveness of using posterized images for our digipak and/or magazine advert.

Here is the original picture for reference:

And this is the version we posterized, and we believe that this technique can be used effectively for our Digipak if done well:

Elliott Slingsby: Task 5

Task 5:

Below you can see the two videos I reference later on.

Here It Goes Again:

This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Version):


How would you describe their star persona?
OK Go's star persona is very quirky and unique compared to other artists, because even though they produce serious songs, their videos are far from it, and are usually hard and laborious to actually produce.

What use of Goodwin's theory is made in their videos?
OK Go seem to take a very different approach on Goodwin's theories, because very few of them are implemented often. For example, the most obvious one is the relationship between visuals and lyrics, because literally in every video they've produced, the relationship is non existent.
When it comes to the relationship between the visuals and the music itself, OK Go take a very unconventional approach to it. This is evident in the video "This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Version)", because instead of doing the convention editing on the beat to link the visuals and music, they link actions to the music, even to the point where the rube goldberg mechanism itself plays a small section of the song using forks and wine glasses.
In "Here It Goes Again", you can also see that they link actions to the music, but in this case the actions are dance moves intricately timed on running machines.

How would you describe their target audience?
OK Go's videos are very much targeted towards the internet community, mainly the YouTube community.

How are they attempting to appeal to art alternative audience?
OK Go reach their audience very successfully by making their videos very unique and interesting, as an attempt to make them go viral, and with the video count of up to 15 Million on some of their videos, is obviously very effective.

How would you describe the target audience for your music video?
The target audience for our music video is very similar to OK Go's, because the genre of One Night Only is also indie alt rock.

How are you attempting to target that audience?

Unlike OK Go, we can't produce a very intricate video because we lack time, and the funding. So instead we decided to appeal by making a video that related to the average listener, by having the artist leave the house to have fun in town with friends.

Elliott Slingsby: Task 4

Task 4:

For this task, I chose the YouTube channel (and sub channels) owned by the company "Vevo", and the television channel "MTV", both of which are specifically targeted to show music, and music related media.

         

The difference between MTV and Vevo is the fact that MTV's main presence is only on the TV, and Vevo's main presence is on YouTube. MTV has been around for a lot longer than Vevo, which has only become popular in the last 2 years.

I don't think that MTV and Vevo would show our video, but no because it wouldn't fit, but because as an indie alt rock band's perspective, it probably wouldn't be good for the band's star persona seeing as they want to upkeep the indie alt rock image.

Elliott Slingsby: Task 3

Task 3:

 One Night Only have two connections to social media sites, one of them on Facebook, which you can see below,

and the other one on Twitter.

Both of these have a very strong connection to their demographic, because the common demographic to indie rock music have a very big part on social networking sites.

We could use Twitter and Facebook in the same way as One Night Only to increase the consumption of our video, because doing making these reached out to a much larger community online, and because our video will be uploaded to YouTube, it would be able to reach everyone online quick and easily.

Elliott Slingsby: Task 2

Task 2:

We’re going to combine are ancillary text and a our music video together by having Michael, the main artist in the music video, appear in both the advert and single cover.

The current plan for our CD cover is to have Michael lying down in a green field, with the band in the background jumping about and being silly. The shot will be close up in Michael’s face, and the band in the background will be slightly blurred to draw more focus to Michael. We feel this would really suite the genre, because it’s not too serious, and it’s pretty alternative.

Elliott Slingsby: Task 1

Task 1:

Our current rough cut shows off some of Goodwin’s five points, below are the five points followed by how they’re portrayed in our rough cut.

1.       Lyrics and Visuals Relationship.

We portray this point by having a narrative to our video. The narrative at the moment is completely clear because our rough cut is unfinished, but the intention was to have the main artist follow along with the theme of the song, which is to go out and waste his time in the sunshine. Which you can see in our rough cut, when Michael, the main artist, puts on his hoodie and leaves the house to go outside.

2.       Music and Visuals Relationship.

This point was portrayed whenever we cut to the actual instruments being played every now and then. The band playing are playing the real band “One Night Only”.

3.       Genre Characteristics.

The genre characteristics for alternative indie rock can normally be put across with quirky editing and not so serious actions. We did this in our rough cut with the cuts of the main artist on the sofa, and we intend to add more quirky edits by using split screens.

4.       Focus on the Vocalist.

We did this by splitting the video into two parts, the narrative which features the main artist, and the band playing, which focuses on the band playing the music itself. By doing this we’ve made it so that the vocalist is focused upon for at least half the entire video. We also reassure this point by including a lot of close ups of the vocalist.

5.       Intertextuality.

We haven’t included any intertextuality as of yet in our rough cut.

If we could use another day’s worth of filming, then we’d use it to film the main artist walking around town again but in better weather. We’d do this because we currently only have the main artist walking around town in poor rainy conditions, and it doesn’t really suite the song.

Michael Moursi: Rough Cut Feedback

I have managed to show 3 people my rough cut music video and asked for their views and opinions of the video. I asked them what they liked about the video, and anything we should improve on next time we go and edit. This is what they had to say:

• Person 1: I really liked the beginning of the video. The cuts with the singer on the sofa were brilliant. However, as the video went on, the quality of editing slowly went down. So, improve the later on bits with more cuts.

• Person 2: I can see where you are editing and where you are not! The first part of the video was good. But it got sloppy towards the end. The clips need to be shorter. Also, there needs to be more variety.

• Person 3: It was good you were the singer. You looked really indie and it helped the song well. The only bit I would improve is towards the end. More cutaways would be great.

Overall, it seems that the beginning of the video really catches the viewers attention. All three people said there need to be more cuts. I will take this feedback into account and will try to include more cuts in the video and to shorten clips so there is more room for variety.

Michael Moursi: OKGo Music Video Analysis

I have watched and analysed OKGo's music videos. The bands star persona if much different to other bands and artists. The videos they make are extremely unique as there is no intertextuality involved in their videos. Almost all their videos are captured in one shot and are not really edited at all. They rely on perfect choreography and appealing distractions in their videos, instead of focusing on editing techniques. All members of the band are always featured in their videos. Pretty much everyone band member is equal in their music videos, instead of having one main focus, such as one singer. Here is an example of an OKGo music video. This is called 'Here It Goes Again'. It has amazing choreography, and it is a unique style of music video. It is taken in one entire shot:



There is not much use of Goodwin's theory in OKGo's music videos. The seem to be almost going against the theory, which is quite interesting. OKGo has definately ignored genre characteristics. They like to put their own spin on things. The visuals and lyrics do not exactly match together. The only use of Goodwin's theory is the need to sell the artist. They do this by creating visually appealing things in their videos. Apart from 'Here It Goes Again', here is another music video by the band called 'This Too Shall Pass'. It has the most amazing domino chain which keeps the viewer gripped from start to finish. It is a great way to sell the artist:



OKGo's target audience is anyone who can enjoy a good quality video. It does not matter what age or gender you are, the band's take on music video is very special, as everybody can watch it. This results in a large, diverse fanbase. When it comes to their music however, they would have a fixed target audience of young teenagers or young adults, either male or female.

Our target audience for our music video are teenagers or young adults, mainly females as they are more into indie bands such as 'One Night Only'. To attempt to target that audience, we would follow the conventions of a indie music video, for example having the band perform and to include elements of voyeurism so the viewer can see what the artist does in his social life. Also with our ancillary products, we would make sure that they are really appealing to the eye, plus to include members of the band on the cover of the digipak or on the magazine advert so our target audience would hopefully buy our material.

Michael Moursi: Music Video Exhibition

You need to exhibit your video in order to get a large consumption. Fortunately, there are various ways you can exhibit your music videos. One example are music television channels. The two big dogs in this particular industry are MTV (Music Television) and VIVA. These channels exhibit popular, mainstream music videos to their audience. Furthermore, these channels will always show the Top 40 music videos, putting other videos to one side. Apart from music, they show TV shows instead of using that space to have different music videos shown. Our music video would definitely not get onto channels, such as MTV as we are not that commercial and popular enough to get onto these channels. MTV and VIVA would only show videos if they get on their Top 40 list. This is a shame, as viewers miss out on other videos which deserve to be on channels like this.


Another example is the internet. Websites such as YouTube is a great way to exhibit your video to the world, as YouTube allows anything and everything, varying from different styles and genre, to commercial and non-commercial music videos. YouTube works well as you can upload the video yourself, notify your fans through Twitter and Facebook, and you would eventually get views. Alternatively, fans can subscribe to your YouTube channel and keep up to date with your uploads. Therefore, websites like YouTube would be able to exhibit our video as you do not need to be mainstream and popular in order to exhibit your video. All you need to do is upload it yourself.

OKGo Music Video Analysis

In this video by OKGo, the band use a very off-kilter video, using a random sequence of events and a domino effect that doesn't relate to the music video, with the band members themselves in the background.

This is obviously an unconventional music video, but it's still effective as it can grip the audiences attention rather quickly with them trying to follow the sequence of events in the video.

"Here It Goes Again" is another unconventional music video by OKGo.
One of the most obvious things here, is the lack of cuts and camera movement, the footage is captured solely from a static camera.
Another rather obvious unconventional aspect of this video is the fact there is no performance by the band, instead the video is the band doing a routine on the treadmills.

Music Video Exhibition on The Internet and TV

 Many TV channels broadcast music videos, such as Kerrang, MTV, Viva and Fuse all play music videos throughout their programming . MTV and Viva both play almost exlusively Top 40 songs though will sometime play older pop songs in a playlist format. Kerrang and Fuse on the other hand play mostly if not, only rock songs and are a channel much more likely One Night Only would be shown on. It also means it'd be unlikely for our video to be featured on MTV or Viva as their selection of music videos is very restrictive, as our song would have to be popular beforehand to get on these channels and One Night Only is not popular enough to gain entry into their channels.

Kerrang and Fuse on the other hand play less popular songs and have a broader range of material used, as they play rock songs from many sub-genre's.

Online, there are multiple places where audiences can watch music video, the most obvious would be YouTube where anyone can upload their music to promote themselves. Multiple artists have launched successful careers off of uploading music videos onto YouTube.

Another place where audiences can be introduced to new musicians would be Vevo, where bands signed to either  Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI videos can been seen here.

Michael Moursi: The Use of Social Media to Increase Consumption

We have researched our artists Facebook presence and Twitter use. It turns out that the band has both Facebook and Twitter, plus a website which is under development.

One Night Only use both Twitter and Facebook to communicate with their fans and to increase consumption of their music. On their Twitter, they usually talk to fans as it is more easier to communicate with them than on Facebook. By talking to fans, it keeps their fanbase strong, plus fans would deliver a good word of mouth to people they know about how the band keeps in touch with their fans. Here is a screenshot of One Night Only talking to one of their fans on Twitter:

Apart from talking to fans, they keep fans up to date with new releases of their songs, etc. They do this by 'tweeting' an update on what is going on with the band, if they are making new tracks, or if they are making a new music video. One example is recently, One Night Only posted on twitter that there will be a new music video. This increases consumption of their music as their fans are aware of what is being released. Therefore, they will be ready to by the product when it eventually comes out.

On the One Night Only Facebook fan page, the band members post all kinds of things to show to their fans. Varying from where they will be playing, notifying fans when new singles are released, and pictures of their personal life. When fans or members of Facebook see this, they would leave a 'Like' to their post. Again, this creates a stronger fanbase and more consumption of their music.

If we were to use Facebook and Twitter to increase consumption of our music video, we would do it the exact same way as One Night Only. This is because it is a nice way to keep in touch with your fans, as well as selling your music.

Michael Moursi: Ancillary Products

As we are doing a music video for a indie rock song, the ancillary products should match the indie rock conventions. Therefore, the main conventions for an indie rock album cover are:

• Filter effects are often used when real photos are the focus of the cover
• Drawings are often the main feature of the album cover
• Minimalism plays a big part on the text layer
• Most real photos look old and sepia, like a Polaroid picture or something taken with Instagram
• The text in the images are positioned in either the far left, the centre, or the far right
• The band often appear in the cover
• Colours appear crushed in real world photos

We managed to create a quick practice album cover to see what suits our initial ideas for our digipak. So we used  the conventions and created this:

As you can see, the album cover we have created is very minimalistic, but as various filters over it to make it more special. It follows the conventions of crushing down the colours, as we turned down the green and red on the image we used (the field). This creates a slightly vintage feel with a calm, relaxed tone. The surrounding inner shadow and the blurred background emphasis the crisp, vintage look, making it look more professional. A cream border is added as a finishing touch to the image, then finally the text 'One Night Only' is overlayed. This is a very nice example of what we would like. However, we need to make sure we add even more things to our digipak design when it comes to the time we do it. It is too minimalistic, and it does not have an album title, plus it really does not relate to the band as One Night Only's music is a little more upbeat and fun, and the album cover we made contrasts this a little. In the future, we would add the band to the digipak design and more fresh filters and colours to attract our audience.

We also did some research into indie rock magazine adverts. We did analyze these and found out some conventions we need to consider when making our magazine advert. This is what we have discovered:

• Must contain the band name
• Must make it clear what it's advertising
• Either has a picture of the band, or a drawing
• Is either square or vertically long
• The text is big and attention grabbing

This is what we would use in our magazine advert. We have looked at some indie rock magazine adverts for  research. Here is one advert:

This minimalist indie rock magazine advert by The Maccabees shows the use of stylish images and slick text to attract the viewer and to sell the artist. We defiantly would like to incorporate bold text for our digipak cover just like this advert as it is eye catching straight away. Also, on the bottom of the advert, you can see a quote from NME giving praise to the band. In our advert, we would like to have something similar, possibly a star rating. On the bottom right of the magazine advert, you can see The Maccabees website. Again, we want to include something similar to this. Apart from putting the One Night Only website on the advert, we could advertise the One Night Only Facebook fan page, or their Twitter, as the band does also rely on social networking and the internet to increase their consumption of their music, instead of relying on playing in loads of gigs and festivals to get a response. However, this advert does not really include the band members in anyway. In our advert, we will include all of the band members in our advert, but it mainly focuses on the singer.

Michael Moursi: Rough Cut Analysis - Goodwins Points and Micro Elements

Rough Cut

 

Goodwins Points Analysis:

1. Genre Characteristics

The indie genre does not include that many characteristics, apart from two. Almost every indie music video includes methods of band performance. In our rough cut, we have managed to do this as a group. The music video consists of the band performing the song 'Stay At Home'. We managed to get instruments such as a drum kit, guitars and a bass. These are typical indie instruments so the match the genre nicely. Plus, we booked a room in which we can film the performance.To keep the viewer interested in the video, there is a narrative for the viewer to follow. The narrative cuts back and fourth from performance. This is another indie genre characteristic.

      2. Visuals/Lyrics

There is not too much of visuals matching the lyrics. This only happens when we want the artist to lip-sync to the song. However, there is one point in with the visuals match the lyrics. For example at 0:54, the singer leaves the house (you can see this with the sped up clip) whilst the lyrics go "You wanted me to stay at home, but I didn't want to". Therefore, the visuals match the lyrics. In the future, we will try to incorporate more matchmaking with the visuals and lyrics, by trying to have the singer outside with his friends with the lines "Because I wanted to go out" in the background.

       3. Visuals/Music

Editing on the beat is one of our main priorities, and we have managed to keep that consistant so far with our editing. Throughout the rough cut, you can see that almost every shot is edited to the beat. One example which really sells itself is at 0:21. The artist is sitting on the sofa, so when every time there is a snare drum being hit, the artist changes position on the sofa. Overall, this keeps the viewer interested as there are some elements of quirkiness in the video, yet it looks professional as the visuals and music match perfectly.

       4. Need To Sell Artist

To sell the artist, we have made sure that the singer is the main focus throughout the music video. The reason for making the singer the more important figure instead of making the whole band equally important is because our audience are usually more interested in the singer. We have done this by creating a narrative which is entirely about the singer, plus included the singer multiple times performing.

       5. Intertextuality

Unfortunately, we did not include much intertextuality in our music video, due to the fact that we could not see this video having references from another music video, as our music video is indie, therefore it should be different. However, there is one element of intertextuality used in our music video. During the performance sequences, the singer wears a T-shirt with a Nirvana print on it. This could symbolize the artist's influences as interests.

       6. Voyeurism

Throughout the video, there is some voyeurism used to keep our audience (mainly our female audience) interested. In the rough cut, the audience have unscripted social interaction with the artist as viewers can see what the artist does in his time, for example when the artist is at home laying down on the sofa. Once we edit some more, we would include the artist socializing with friends in narrative parts. So viewers would be able to see where the artist socializes.


Micro Elements Analysis:

1. Editing

In the rough cut, we have various types of editing techniques included to keep the viewer appealed and to make the music video professional. For example, we make sure that every clip is edited on the beat. This keeps the video at a professional standard which audiences like. Another technique we used is speeding up clips. This was used when the artist leaves home. The clips speed was increased by around 400% to make the process of the artist leaving the house quicker. The editing technique works as the sped up clip matches the beat of the music, plus it fits in nicely with the build up. Finally, we have incorporated filters in our piece. We have decided that all performance clips in the video are black and white, because the room we booked to capture footage for performance scenes did not look the part, as all the walls were bright green, therefore it would not look professional and would not appeal to the audience. To make the clips black and white, we put a desaturation filter over every single performance clip in our video.

      2. Cinematography

 To make our rough cut visually appealing, we managed to include different types of shots. We have used close up and extreme close up shots right from the start and throughout. This helps the viewer pay attention to specific things in the music video, plus every close up gives a lot of detail. To have more variety with shot distances, we included medium shots (one example of a use of a medium shot in our video is 0:23 where the artist is sitting on the sofa), and long shots of the singer. Different angles were used, varying from high angle, low angle and canted angle shots. These were mainly used in performance scenes. Over the shoulder shots were used when the artist is walking out of the house. There were a number of tracking shots used in the video, for example when the singer is walking on the street at 1:04. The shots taken were sometimes handheld and on a tripod. We wanted to include a wide range of shots and positions for this video. It keeps it sharp, enjoyable to watch and overall, professional.

       3. Sound

Obviously, the song 'Stay At Home' in the music video is the main sound. To include different types of sound, we have added diagetic sound in the beginning of the video. As the video starts, you hear a drummer ending his warm up. Next, you see and hear an amp being turned on by one of the band members. Finally, the lead from the guitar is plugged into the amp and once it is plugged in, the music starts, which is now non-diagetic.

       4. Mise-En-Scene

• Lighting: During filming, we wanted to use lighting to hopefully make the footage more professional. We tried a number of techniques. However, we found that natural lighting looked more suitable for our video, and surprisingly it looked extremely better than using unnatural lighting. On the other hand, we did use a street light over the singer in one clip (this is not on the rough cut but will be in the video), which gave a nice shadowy effect on the artist's face. We managed to add a nice touch to that particular clip with the lip syncing. Under the street light with an orange glow, the singer says "I started to smile as you put out the fire, because it feels right". This is perfect clip as the orange light represents fire, plus the shadow effects look great overall.
• Costume: As you can see in the rough cut, the artist and the band members wear typical indie clothing. The singer wears black skinny carrot trousers, a white Nirvana T-shirts and brown leather and suede chukkas in the performance sequences. For the narrative, he wears black skinny jeans, a dark blue duffle coat, a checkered shirt and some light blue Vans. The reason why we had different costumes for different locations is because we had to make sure that the video does not have any continuity errors.
•  Hair/Make up: This was not a main priority for our video as indie people are not really fussed with their look. We can see this with our singer as his hair is quite scruffy.
• Location: There are a number of locations used in the rough cut. For example, we have the house were the artist lives, the forest where the artist walks through to get to a certain location, various roads and streets, plus the performance area where we can see the whole band performing the song together. There are more locations we have used, but we have not yet included them. The locations we need to include are Christ Pieces and the Cambridge city centre and town.
• Props: The only props used in the rough cut so far are the instruments used in the performance sequence. There will be more props included later on in the editing process, such as alcohol used in the scene where the artist, one of his band members and a friend sit down and socialize.

Improvements:

1. We must keep up with pace of edits and editing on the beat. Therefore, we need to include more shots on the beat and make the video more thrilling and fast paced.
2. Reduce the length of clips. The reason for this is because the longer the clip, the more chance the viewer will get bored watching your video, unless if the clips have amazing content
3. Another way we could attract our audience is to use split screen in one part of our video. We thought of having this particular moment when the instrumental comes in where all the band go "Do-doo-do-do-do". So in this case, there is a split screen of four so each member of the band is doing that part of the song.
4. We need to include more intertextuality in the music video. This is because we only have one example of intertextuality; which is the Nirvana T-shirt the artist wears during performance.
5. Include more locations and performance spaces. This means that we would have a lot of diverse footage to work with in the editing stage. Also, with more locations, comes more interest from the audience.

Additional Time Usage:

If we were given additional time to go out and film some more footage, we would defiantly use this time wisely. In the additional time, we would film scenes which include more intertextuality, as we only have one reference. Some clips that we have filmed in town look really unprofessional as the typical accident of getting the camera equipment in shot arrived when we looked back at the town clips. Using this time, we would gladly re-film those scenes as they did not take much time to capture. Whilst filming, we could go to random locations for the artist to sing. Therefore when it comes down to editing, we have more footage we can work with

Use of Social Media to Increase Consumption

One Night Only make use of both Facebook and Twitter, this allows their fans to interact with the band and helps promote their band persona by showing the band in their down time and their thoughts throughout the year. They also increase the consumption of their music using these social networks and they can do this by posting updates on what they are doing, such as announcing plans for new albums or music videos and posting songs so fans and casual browsers can hear their output. The use of Twitter can increase consumption through word of mouth quickly as a fan can retweet so more fans see and then they can retweet that, etc. so more people have a chance to stumble upon the band and be introduced to their work. The more places you promote your band the more consumption you will get.

Ancillary Texts (Digipak and Magazine Advert)

For the main idea of our digipak we did some research into what a indie cover might look like, and came up with these common features of an album cover:

Use of filters if the main image for the album cover is a photograph.

A lot of indie album covers use drawings or abstract images.

Text is kept minimalist, usually just block white on a black background.

Text for album covers is usually kept on the sides of the covers instead of the centre.

The band may also appear on the album cover.

Colours are usually crushed of slightly desaturated.

Using these notes to get an idea of what the cover should look like, we decided to make a mock album cover which ended up looking like this:

This is just an idea for what we might use for our final product, as we feel it follows the conventions for indie album covers we've seen so far. The minimalistic appearance helps us stick with convention, though hopefully we'd go for something relating more with the title of the album, as this is just a rough idea and also something more abstract. We hope that keeping things unfussy fits with the style of the bands music and it's tempo.

After researching indie album covers, we came up with this list of consistent themes:

Must contain the band name

Must make it clear what it's advertising

Either has a picture of the band, or a drawing

Is either square or vertically long

The text is big and attention grabbing

Rough Cut Feedback

Some feedback we have received:

• Good performance
• must keep up with pace of edits
• Reduce length of clip thats sped up
• More cut aways when Michael is in the street
• Try split screen?
• Remain focussed on lead but show more of band members
• Ensure there is a conclusion

Analysing Goodwin's Framework and Evaluating Microelements.

Goodwins Points Analysis

1. Genre Characteristics

For our music video we have conformed to genre characteristics, so we make use of performance sequences to show the band's talent. To be able to perform the performance sequences I brought in my bass and guitar. We also managed to acquire the use of a bass and a performance area for the filming. Having this performance area and the props needed for filming allowed us plenty of opportunities to shoot performance sequences for the video.We also made use of a narrative for our music video, showing our lead singer leaving his house to meet with some friends. The way we use this is by cutting from the performance sequences to the narrative sequences intermittently so we don't bore the audience and can progress the music video.

By doing this we have hopefully managed to create a music video fitting with the indie rock genre.

2. Visuals/Lyrics

We don't make much use of matching the visuals to the lyrics besides lip syncing. The only other time we have matched the visuals to the lyrics would be when the singer is leaving his house, the lyrics

"You wanted me to stay at home

But I didn't want too"

Here we have a sped up tracking shot of the singer leaving his house.

3. Visuals/Music

We have matched the visuals to the music in our video so far, as we have edited on the beat throughout the video. We did this as we believe this makes it much easier for the audience to watch as it makes the video flow. It also helps the video much more professional as the editing comes across as seamless.

4. Need To Sell Artist

We have made the singer the focus of our music video, in both the performance and the narrative sequences.

For the performance sequences we have also included shots of the drummer and bassist but because we wanted to include lip syncing and to follow genre conventions the singer is the prominent focus. In the narrative sections we have also made the singer the focus, as we again wanted to sell the artist as this is what a record company would want as this promotes the band's image.

5. Intertextuality

We haven't included much intertextuality because we didn't see how to this would really be relevant to our music video. The only piece of intertextuality we have included so far is the singer's Nirvana t-shirt in the performance sequences and we included this because we felt it would show the bands influences.

6. Voyeurism

We have used voyeurism in our music video as the audience sees the artist at home, what his lifestyle may be like and by showing the small amount of the house they can see what his home life is like. Later in the music video they will also see what his social life is like and where they socialise.

Micro Elements Analysis

1. Editing

So far we have used a couple of editing techniques to improve the image our music video. We have used a desaturation filter over the performance parts of the video as this helps hide where we filmed this sequence as originally this was a green room for our Sixth Form's media department and so it had bright green walls. Editing on the beat is another technique, which makes the video easier to follow for the audience and look more professional. We also made use of a fade at the start of the video to smoothly start the video instead of a sudden start. Speeding up clips is another way we edited our video. When the artist is leaving his home, and we have a tracking shot, we sped up the clip 500% because the song speeds up slightly here and this matches the tempo and beat of the music.

2. Cinematography

We used many different shot types throughout the video to make it interesting as repeated use of the same type of shot would make the video look unprofessional and difficult to watch for the audience. We have used the normal close up and mid shots which just add a variation of distance between the camera and the object (artist normally), we have also made use of tracking shots of the singer in the video, as the camera movement helps the flow of the video. Using over the shoulder shots is another shot we used, most prominently seen when the singer is leaving his house, which we also combine with a tracking shot. We have used high angle shots for the performance sequences of the band members and also of the singer when he is laying on his sofa. Extreme close ups on the instruments to see the band members playing them and in the start of the music video where we see an amp being turned on and the bass being tuned. A low angle shots have also been used, with the singer in the performance sequence and also in the narrative sequences too. We have also use a dutch angle shot briefly in the performance sequence where the camera tracks down the neck of the bass.

3. Sound

The main sound in the video is the track playing, however we have also at the beginning of the video left in the diagetic sound. This diagetic sound is of the drummer warming up, as we can hear him gently hitting his drums and of the amp being turned on.
Once the lead has been plugged into the amp the non-diagetic sound of the music starts.

4. Mise-En-Scene

For mise-en-scene, we were very careful about what we used and what was filmed. For the costumes we were very conscious of continuity of the video, so we made sure that different costumes were worn for the performance and the narrative sequences. Also because we filmed the performance on two separate days we made sure that the same costumes were worn. We only used natural lighting in our video, as when we began filming we realised that the natural light was fine for shooting as everything was clearly illuminated. The props we used were, alcohol in sequences not yet included in the rough cut, which was to show his casual lifestyle and socialising with his friends and the instruments used when performing.So far we have used three main locations, the singers house, the performance space and finally the village the singer is walking through. Later more locations will be added, such as the centre of Cambridge and Christ Pieces where he will be meeting his friends. Make-up and hair were ignored as we have an all male indie band so the band members needed to come across as aloof and carefree and having a pruned look would ruin that image.

Improvements

1. Experiment with some other filters, to help create a distinct look, mainly in the narrative sequences.

2. Use more cuts, the beat of the song is fairly quick we need to decide whether we want to cut on the bigger beats or onto the quicker, small beats of the song as this will decide how many cuts we will use in our music video.

3. Include more intertextuality, as we only have once piece of intertextuality and including it would be something that would make the video appear better as it would show knowledge of other media or other artists work.

4. Use of a lager performance space, as the space we used was quite small and so fitting the entire band and instruments in left it rather cramped. It also left very little room for camera movement and different shots as the space was so limited.

5. We could include more people in the music video, as we have a small 3 piece band at the moment and the singer only meets two friends later in the video. Including more people would make the singer look much more popular and give the social aspect of the video a bit more significance.

Additional Time Usage

If we were to use an additional nights of filming time, it would used to shoot more narrative scenes. This would be so we could include more shot types and camera movement and we need to refilm certain shots as we can see equipment in some shots making the video look unprofessional and sloppy.
Also, as the weather was a dull and drizzly day, we would be able to get a more light hearted feel for the video as the sun would impact significantly on the overall feeling of these scenes.

Rough Cut Feedback

I have asked 3 people on their opinions on our rough cut music video, asking them what they thought about the video, whether it fit the genre of indie rock and if there were any improvements they thought we should make.

Person 1: The video is good, I like the variation in location and that there are lots of different camera angles. One improvement would be to put a few more cuts in to match the beat more.

Person 2: Liking the general feel to the video, you matched the genre to the video very well! I think that everything you have done so far is good, just make sure the rest of the video matches it.

Person 3:  More cuts are needed, the beat is faster than the pace of the cutting. But apart from that its really good!

My overall impression from the 3 people I asked is that we need to add some more cuts into the video to match the beat of the song more, but apart from that they seemed alright with what we have done so far. I have taken positives from the responses and they seemed to enjoy the video when they were watching it as well.

OKGo Music Video Analysis

OKGo have a different star persona to most other artists, the members of the band feature prominently throughout all of their videos however the audience would mostly be distracted by the things going on around them. They make their music videos very original, creating ideas that have never been done before in music video and this makes their star persona focus on the creativeness included in the video and not necessarily the music itself or the band members. An example is in the music video 'This Too Shall Pass' which is a one take music video of a domino effect chain of events which would keep the audience interested.



Goodwins theory is prominent in their music videos, especially music/visuals as there is a large amound of editing on the beat, one music video I watched called 'End Love' used editing on the beat very well and is a well shot music video. Genre characteristics are thrown out the window in the video, with them being a alternative rock group the videos don't represent this at all. The need to sell artist is a Goodwin point included, as the band members are included throughout the whole video, its just that other things distract your attention. Apart from those two points the other Goodwins points aren't really referenced, which shows they are rebelling against the norm and trying to do somthing different.




The target audience for OKGo is anyone really, they can appeal to all ages through their fun and interesting approach to their music videos. As they are dominantly a alternative rock band, it shows they are trying to appeal to a different target audience, probably still teenagers and young adults but people in that age range that prefer maybe mainstream pop or other genres. Through the modern technology use and wide range of different editing techniques used, like the way they have sped up the video 'End Love', this has been achieved by them sufficiently. This helps them to appeal to an alternative audience, and also they do this by making their videos more mass market and so they extend their audience wider than what would be expected, incorporating all different ages and different people to create a more diversified fan base.

For our music video, we are going for a target audience within the genre of indie rock, which is teenagers and young adults like for OKGo. We are appealing to them through adhering to the genre characteristics that indie rock videos carry, with there being narrative and performance sections to the video, and also through our plans for the digipak and magazine advert, in researching what other bands and groups have done, like including mainly either the band or a drawing on the covers.

Music Video Exhibition On The TV and Internet

There are many places that exhibit music videos both on and off the web, there are TV channels which exhibit music videos, the main 2 channels being VIVA and MTV. Both of the channels exhibit music videos however they mostly only show Top 40 videos rather than just music videos in general. MTV used to show music videos in general but they have since removed the 'Music Television' part of the logo as they mostly show general TV shows rather than just music videos. Whilst VIVA only cover the Top 40 chart and shows TV shows and cartoons other than this. This means that our music video would have to be popular to get on these channels and even then it would have to be popular for a period of time to have any decent exposure to the general public. They would have to exhibit our music video if it went into the Top 40 otherwise they would get complaints.

 

 

There are also internet channels that exhinit music videos, one of which is MUZU. This music channel is based purely on the internet and exhibits not only the Top 40 but has music videos in general up for viewing. For our music video to be exhibited on this website it would have to be mildly popular, as they exhibit quite a lot of music which isn't necessarily mainstream but still has a following enough to make it popular enough to be put on there. Another music video channel on the internet is Youtube. Although it has anything and everything on it, there are a large collection of music videos also included. We would be able to put the video on ourselves and build up a following that way, and if the music video got popular it would mostly probably pop up on VEVO which show all the mainstream music videos on their Youtube channel, which would increase exposure greatly.

 



 

 

 



Social Media Consumption Of Music Videos

One Night Only are on Twitter and Facebook, and they use both of these social networking sites to communicate to their fans and increase their consumption. They can do this by posting updates on what they are doing, like on Twitter a couple of days ago they posted they are currently doing a new music video. Fans will want to know what the band are up to and updates like this keep them interested and its most likely on places like social networking sites that fans will hear about it first. Their music consumption would increase because if someone on Twitter just randomly came across them and liked the look of them, it would not only increase their fanbase but their music consumption as well. The more places you promote your band the more consumption you will get. People will also talk about them through word of mouth after they have found them on any social networking sites. It is also evident from the 2 tweets towards the bottom of the picture that they reply and respond to fan messages left. This will also keep fans interested and probably excite them that their favourite band have replied to them.

One Night Only are also present on Facebook, and are also active and posting things all the time. For example they posted a picture of one of the band members looking like the Joker for Halloween. Also, the half picture at the bottom of the picture is a list for the set they are playing at their next gig. Facebook is probably where fans would hear about it first and so would 'Like' them.

Their presence on Facebook was also felt by us as a group, as earlier in the blog we said we sent a message to them through Facebook asking permission to use their song, and well we got a sort of reply as they 'Liked' the comment, which we are assuming as permission given to use the song 'Stay at Home' for our coursework! (I would post a picture of the evidence however it was too long ago to find it, although it was only about a month ago!)

Ancillary Text Combination With Main Product

For the main idea of our digipak we did some research into what a indie cover might look like, and came up with these ideas:

Filter effects are often used when real photos are the focus of the cover

Drawings are often the main feature of the album cover

Minimalism plays a big part on the text layer

Most real photos look old and sepia, like a Polaroid picture or something taken with Instagram

The text in the images are positioned in either the far left, the centre, or the far right

The band often appear in the cover

Colours appear crushed in real world photos

These were ideas we found which could be used when we design our digipak. To put these points into practice, we designed a mock album cover incorporating some of the points above, and this is the outcome:

This is just one idea for what we could incorporate into our digipak for the album cover itself, the cover looks vintage and cinematic which are the effects we found are popular among other covers. There is also a minimalistic aspect which sets the tone although the tone for the cover may contradict the beat and style of the music. We feel these ideas will work well and don't contradict the beat and the style of the song 'Stay at Home' too much. The mise-en-scene being a field in the test cover is something we would go for, or something similar which isn't too plain but something interesting to look at. These ideas will be replicated throughout the whole CD case itself.

For the magazine advert we also did some preliminary research into what other indie band posters look like:

Must contain the band name

Must make it clear what it's advertising

Either has a picture of the band, or a drawing

Is either square or vertically long

The text is big and attention grabbing

These ideas would all combine to make a decent magazine advert for us, I have found some adverts that indie bands have used and they represent these points.

This magazine advert by Razorlight, an indie band, demonstrates the use of the band members in the advert as the main picture. They have faded outlines to the pictures which is an idea that we used on our mock CD cover and this eems to work well. They have bold white text that contrasts the black background so that it is easily readable from a reasonable distance. The idea of the band members in the main picture is something that we won't be using as we don't have the time or the resources really to shoot a decent picture that can be used on a magazine advert, as a picture we could do would probably look quite unprofessional and wouldn't we exactly what we intend on using.

This advert by Bloc Party is more of a type we would probably do, who are also an indie band. They demonstrate the use of drawings as the main picture, and it is simple but effective. The drawing relates to the album name of 'Four' as there are four circles in the picture. This is a advert we would be more able to create and although it seems plain it obviously works otherwise bands wouldn't use it. Again, a black background is used with contrasting white text. Also, through the research we did this advert matches the points we made and is something we are likely to do.









Rough Cut Analysis Through Goodwins Points and Micro Elements

Goodwins Points Analysis

1. Genre Characteristics

We have tried to conform to the genre characteristics, one of which is that there is a fair chunk of performance in the video. We were able to get hold of a couple of guitars and a drum kit, and having access to these gave us the opportunity to film quite a lot of performance sequences to include in the video. Another genre characteristic is that there is also a narrative part to the video running alongside the performance. We have included this in our video as well, and switch between the two intermittently. By using both we try to go with the genre as well as we can and the instruments we use are typically used in indie rock music and videos as well.

2. Visuals/Lyrics

We have matched the visuals and the lyrics as much as we feel is appropriate in the video, it gives the video more meaning if the lyrics match it. An example is at 0:53 when the lyrics say 'you wanted me to stay at home, but I didn't want to' and we see the singer leaving his house.

3. Visuals/Music

Matching the video cuts to the beat of the music is something we have attempted all throughout the video so far, when the audience is watching the video it makes it easier to watch as the video flows to the beat. It also makes the video look more professional rather than tacky with bad editing.

4. Need To Sell Artist

Throughout the video so far it is evident that the artist is the prominent figure, as record labels will want the artist as the main person in the video for promotional reasons. Also, the audience mainly want to see the artist as usually it is the person they are interested in watching.

5. Intertextuality

We haven't really used much intertextuality throughout the video, there is one example where the artist during the performances sequences is wearing a Nirvana t-shirt. The reason why there isn't much intertextuality included is that we didn't have many things that we thought would be relevant to include in the video.

6. Voyeurism

Voyeurism is used throughout the video so far, the audience sees the artist at home and by the small amount of the house shown would be able to see what home life is like. They also see places that the artist would be likely to generally hang out as well.

Micro Elements Analysis

1. Editing

We have used many editing techniques throughout the video so far. We have used a desaturation filter over the performance parts of the video as the bright green background in the performance sections don't suit the genre of the video well. Editing on the beat is another technique, which makes the video flow and look more professional. We used a fade at the start of the video to bring it in not suddenly but smoothly. Another technique we used is speeding up a clip. When you see the artist going through the house quickly we sped up the clip 500% and it matches the lyrics and the beat of the music intensifies at this point, and matches it quite well.

2. Cinematography

We used many different shot types throughout the video to make it more appealing to the audience. If the same shot type was used all the time the video would be dull and plain. We have used the normal close up and mid shots which just add a variation of distance between the camera and the object (artist normally), we have also used a tracking shot/over the shoulder shot where the camera follows the artist through the house. We have used high angle shots over the drummer to give an overall view of him and the drum kit, and also over the artist singing when he is lying on the sofa. Extreme close ups on the instruments to see the band members playing them. A low angle shot looking up at the artist singing during one of the performance sequences. Canted angle shots when looking down the guitar strings which looks quite funky and adds a unique shot into the sequence.

3. Sound

The main sound in the video is the track playing, however we have also at the beginning of the video left in the diegetic sound of what sounds like the end of the band practicing before starting to perform the main song, one of the band members flicking the switch on the amp and then plugging in a guitar, then the non-diegetic sound of the track starts as soon as the wire is plugged in.

4. Mise-En-Scene

For mise-en-scene, everything within the frame, we made sure that the costumes worn were different between the performance and narrative sequences, and as we filmed the performance on two separate days we made sure of this as well. If the artist was seen wearing two different costumes in the same scene continuity would be impacted upon and the video wouldn't look as professional. We only used natural lighting in our video, even though we did have access to other lights when we actually got to film we saw that the natural light was perfectly adequate for what we were wanting to do. In one part of the video which isn't included in the rough cut, where we make the artist stand under a street light which gives a orange glow over him as he says the lines 'I started to smile as you put out the fire' to give a fire-like effect. The only props used were a coat for when the artist was outside, alcohol in some sequences not included yet to show him having a good time with his friends and the instruments used when performing. We used three main locations in the rough cut, the performance space, the house and the forest. A couple more locations will be included later in the video, the use of a few locations introduces variations into the video as the same place would get boring after three and a half minutes of music. Make-up and hair weren't considered in the video, especially as its an all male band and and indie band suggests a care-free approach which means that they wouldn't worry about what they look like.

Improvements

1. Experiment with some other filters, rather than just looking at the normal desaturation filter we could use some others to see what effect they can have to improve the video and make it more appealing to the audience.

2. Use more cuts, the beat of the song is fairly quick it is just deciding whether to edit on to the main beats or the majority of the beats, seeing what one works better as if we edited on the majority it might be a bit too quick, whereas on the main beats it might seem too slow.

3. Include more intertextuality, as we only have 1 reference of the Nirvana t-shirt and that isn't enough to fully say we have used intertextuality, we could fit it in during the narrative sequences more when he is out in the town and at his house.

4. Get a larger performance space, the space in which we filmed the performance aspects of the video is very small and cramped to fit 2 guitarists, a drummer and drum kit and to film it all. We would need to try and get hold of a bigger performance area to make it look more professional and also so that we can film much easier and get more variation in the shots we took.

5. Include more people in the video, typical indie groups normally have about 5 members and sometimes have extras as well, whereas we weren't able to get hold of anyone else apart from 1 person who is included in the narrative sequence in town. This would give more variation in character and gives more content as well.

Additional Time Usage

If we were to use an additional nights filming time we would most likely go back to the narrative sections and refilm some of them as we could get more variations in the shots we took and while we are at it include some more intertextuality as well. The sections would be in town which isn't included in the video yet, as there are some shots where some equipment has crept into the shot and so it looks unprofessional. Also, the weather wasn't kind to us on the day we filmed that sequence and so we would hope for a dry evening of filming which would make the general lighting better and the general location would look better in the dry than it does in the wet.