Evaluation Task 3 Planning/Script

• Whole music video
• Ancillary tasks downloaded onto a phone
• Talk about pitch feedback
• Talk about rough-cut feedback from Holly
• Feedback on final video from classmates
• Record on Wednesday

Unfortunately, it did rain during our shoot in town. This meant we did not have time to rearrange the location of the filming. 

Luckily the rain soon stopped so we were able to continue unabated. 

Our narrative remained essentially unchanged. The only thing that differs is the lack of a girlfriend or argument as we instead opted to only utilise the singer for this narrative section. 

This was mainly because we felt the inclusion of this narrative thread would feel tired, trite and cliched.

We conformed to genre conventions of indie rock as originally planned. The only thing that might be conceived as uncharacteristic is our ancillary texts as we have used a brighter colour scheme for these products compared to current artists.

When it came to the drama studio, we decided to use the music studio instead. Unfortunately this has bright green walls, so the use of desaturation during the editing process manages to hide this fact as well as stick to genre conventions.

Well, firstly we have used a house for a setting in our music video. Secondly we stuck to our original idea and interpretation of the song which we believe ended up in a successful video.

Our teacher Holly watched our rough-cut and gave us feedback on what we've done so far and what she feels could be added to the video to improve it. One of the first things she picked up on was the good performance of the band members and particularly Michael's role as the lead singer & guitarist. 

Holly also said we need to be aware that we'll need to keep up the pace of our cuts and editing, especially our edits on the beat. Because of this advice we were conscious to maintain the same speed of editing.

After other suggestions from Holly we also implemented more cutaways to Michael walking in the streets and the use of split-screen in our video.

After we finished our music video and ancillary products and uploaded them to the blog we received feedback on them from our classmates and peers.

For the ancillary products there were comments that were raised multiple times, either positive or negative.

A positive point that was brought up by all of the groups was the good use of colour and effects in our poster and digipak. The posterization we used on the band members was a popular effect we used so we're pleased with this feedback.

Other positive feedback included that it represented the artist and genre effectively, the information was clearly visible and that the magazine advert and digipak were closely linked and there was an obvious theme.

Unfortunately we also received negative feedback for these ancillary texts. Though thankfully this was minimal, as the only negatives were the lack of "extra" information on the magazine advert and that the back panels of the digipak were too plain.

When it came to the magazine advert we were fine with this negative feedback as we purposefully neglected to include any reviews or quotes about the digipak. We did this to maintain our minimalist theme of our products and we felt that it also fitted with our genre conventions.

With the negative feedback about the digipak, we believe this to be fair, but are also adamant about the reasons we did this. The spaces with only our background pattern are where we're putting the DVD and CD so we decided that we should keep this area clear because it'd be wasted time and effort for something the consumer will not be looking at.

With the feedback on our music video, again it was mostly positive from our classmates. They almost unanimously agreed that our video used a wide variety of shot types, was well edited and fitted with our genre's conventions. The only negatives we received is that they felt we should have included more shots of Michael walking down a certain street because they felt it was effective.

We agree that this was an effective shot but we used it to it's capacity for the video, and because it is a narrative video we can only include it in sequence.

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.

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.

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

Rough Cut

Costumes

Singer's costume (Michael Moursi);

(For the narrative sequences).

- The singer will wear a long coat, most likely a duffle coat in a passive tone yet not too earthy, something in the blue spectrum, in a darker shade.

- He will also be wearing tight fitting trousers, in a park tone, but not too similar to the shade of his coat, darker. Black skinny jeans for this sequence.

- He will also wear a muted plaid shirt, featuring red and green, adding in colour into the wardrobe without becoming a singular focus for the outfit.

- For his shoes, we will have the singer wear brown leather and suede chukkas, to help complete this indie outfit.

(For the performance sequences).

- The singer will wear a white, or similar low-key colour, t-shirt. It would be a band t-shirt of a band in a similar style to the band. Something like Nirvana or The Ramones.

- He would also wear black, slim/skinny fit trousers in black.

Drummer's costume (Elliott Slingsby)

(For the performance sequence)

- In this sequence the keyboarder will wear a black hooded jumper.

- He will also wear a checked shirt underneath this, featuring red, blue and white, this will again add colour to this wardrobe but we'll play it down by either covering it slightly by the jumper of desaturating the colours.

Guitarist's costume (Luthais Morrison)

(For the performance sequences)

- The guitarist will wear a white T-shirt, possibly with a print on it, but the print must not be too in your face.

- Luthais would wear loose, baggy trousers.

- To complete his look, he will wear brown boots.

Focuses & Ambient Audiences

For this blog post I will be referencing "Can't Stop" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers, which you can see below.


How does the chosen music video appeal to the focus audience:
The focus audience for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers is (approximately) mostly males between the ages of 15 - 25, so anywhere between young teens and young adults. The way they appeal to this audience in the video, is mainly the theme of general silliness, and non-sensical scenes. For example, there's a scene where Anthony Kiedis, the lead singer, is getting empty plastic bottles wedged inbetween his legs and arms by one of the other band members.
The whole theme of silliness appeals to the alt rock audience, because people don't listen to alternative rock for whole hearted meaningful lyrics, but just because it sounds good. So making a video of the band being silly seems more real, and people watching can relate to being quirky and crazy.
To add to the theme, there's a wide array of costumes, that go from a "Tent Suit", to a giant purple dinosaur head. On top of this the video has zero to very little narrative, and literally is just a video consisting of crazy non-linear scenes of the band being zany.

Qualitative Audience Research

While doing audience research we used a quick questionnaire to gain an insight in what audiences expect of our song and it's music video.

To get the best results possible we played the audiences the song and then proceeded to ask them questions from our questionnaire.
The questions we used were:

1. Did you like the track?
2. What type of person would like this track?
3. Which age range would you typically associate with this song?
4. How would you picture the band/lead?
5. What sort of music video would you expect to accompany this track?
6. If performance, where and what type?
7. If narrative, what sort?

Audience #1

1. It was alright but something I wouldn't normally listen to or find.
2. Average teenager/young adult would probably be the type of person I would expect to listen to this track. "Indie" types in particular.
3. 12-20's
4. Black/dark hair, scruffy facial hair, wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Laid back style/attitude.
5. Mainly performance rather than a solid narrative.
6. Small gig e.g. pubs, bars, the junction. Maybe practice sessions like in a garage.
7. A consistent narrative/small, self contained story.

Audience #2

1. Yeah I liked the song.
2. Indie music types. Kings of Leon people.
3. 14-20's
4. Curly/indie hair, skinny jeans and stuff.
5. Narrative based, with a simple story. No performance sequences.
6. Small pub, like the Portland Arms
7. In the narrative, he would be playing a videogame, then the camera would go into the game and the character would be him. Like the "Califonication" video by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Audience #3

1. Yes. It's the style of music i like to listen to but felt the chorus could have been differentiate from the verse in a better way.
2. People who like Indie, maybe some soft rock style of music. 
3. Probably teens to 30 years. Mostly a male audience.
4. Probably quite casually dressed but still with a particular 'look', such as certain haircuts or style or trainers etc
5. I think there would be elements of performance to show off the bands skills and talent, so that audiences would know what to expect at a gig. Also maybe some shots of the audience. This would be intercut with some narrative elements to reflect the lyrics. 
6. Small venue with a small stage, more of a focus on lighting and instruments rather than grand venues and costume.
7. Narrative would feature a band member as the centre of the storyline. In locations that are relatable to an everyday audience member. 

Audience #4

1. I liked it, it's definitely something I'd listen to.
2. Relaxed people, people who put the music on in the background and chill out. Just lounging about.
3. 16+
4. Laid back attitude. Casually dressed but not in tracksuits or anything similar.
5. Mix of both. Some narrative sequences, but the majority of the video is of the band playing, with the narrative sequences just used to accompany and support the performance sequences.
6. Practice session, in a very small location. Not too cramped but definitely not spacious.
7. Singer walking through town, shots of him singing the lines in the song. 

Audience #5

1. The song was pretty good.
2. Ambient music, played in the background of a house. The people might not buy the whole album but this song is something they'd listen to as they relax.
3. 13+
4. Conservative style. No mohawks, dyed hair or piercings. Just a fairly average guy, with a chilled attitude.
5. Mainly narrative based, focusing mainly on the singer but with performance sequences to add to the video.
6. Small, low-key venue, such as a music based pub or a plain room.
7. Relationships would feature, relationship changes like a falling out, a break up and mood changes. Happy to sad etc.

Audience #6

1. Okay, but not my type of thing.
2. Indie kinda people.
3. 15-19
4. Skinny jeans, converse, t-shirts and fashionable haircuts.
5. Them playing I would say.
6. Small venue, just them playing. No crowds.
7. Just walking about really.

Theoretical Study Into Audience - Uses and Gratifications

Our audience would approach and use our product for the reasons that Blumler and Katz argued, that audiences are active and not passive and will approach and use our music video for the following reasons:

Diversion - our target audiences are teenagers and young adults, these people can be pressured by the everyday stress of college, university, coursework and exams (teenagers) and work in general (young adults) and they could use our music video as a distraction to help them overcome the stress and to help them relax for a while.

Personal Relationships - our target audience could gain companionship with the singer in our music video, the audience may be able to feel like they know what the singer is going through. The narrative could also be a centre for conversation with others about the music video because of the fact that it could be viewed a lot of people included in the target audience and that some points in the video could be a topic for conversation, like the similarity/differentiation of our video compared to others.

Personal Identity - the target audience would most likely be able to compare themselves to the singer in our music video through the narrative that is told in the lyrics and represented through the video. They could see that they need to just go out and have some fun like the singer in the video does which would help them to answer a question on their identity and re-affirm what they should be doing.

Surveillance - this is something that the target audience wouldn't use our video for as we don't supply any information throughout the video and so the audience would only view the video for pleasure and nothing else.

Editing Techniques: Cuts

One vital part of the editing process which can make or break a music video is the number of cuts included in the video. Usually the cuts are made on the beat of the song and can make a music video look very smooth and professional. To get an idea of how many cuts we should perhaps use in our video, we decided to look at a mainstream music video and count how many cuts are in the video altogether.

Watch the video here

PSY - GANGNAM STYLE is a mainstream video at the moment which has gone to number 1 in the UK Chart Top 40 and has gained 480 million views on YouTube in the first 3 months. We counted around 170 cuts in the video but it was hard to count as at 2 parts there was some very fast cuts between alternate shots fitting about 20-30 cuts in the space of 3-4 seconds. This isn't something we would do in our video as there aren't any beats in the song to match this speed. However the overall figure of 170 cuts taking out the very fast cuts means that we ought to aim for around 120 cuts for the video to look smooth and professional like the current mainstream videos do.

Storyboards, Shot Lists, and Call Sheet

Text

This shot list shows what shots we want to utilise in our video and where. This may not be exactly what is shown in our music video but will be approximately similar.

These shots of our storyboard are showing the basic premise and start to our music video. This again is subject to change but the basic premise is going to stay the same.

Here we'll have more shots than shown, stressing the importance the performance of the singer at this time.

This storyboard shows the narrative of video. Again this may not be precisely what is in the finished video but the overarching "story" of the video will be the same.

Here we will have more shots of the band performing, making use of a lot of small, quick shots to have a more up-tempo feel to the performance making it fast paced.

Here is our production sheet, showing some locations we'll be using, contacts for that location and who the director and cameraman are for our project.

Alternative Music Videos

Johnny Cash - God's Gonna Cut You Down

This video is quite alternative as Johnny himself doesn't actually appear in the video himself at all, most videos have the main singer as the person at the centre of the video. The video also has no narrative structure, the video just consists of various shots of celebrities which has no meaning to the song or lyrics. You do see quite a lot of videos that have a narrative structure, but then you do see a lot that have a weak narrative that is hard to follow. You don't see many with no narrative at all and this and the fact Johnny doesn't appear in the video himself shows that the video is alternative and breaking the norm.

Controversial Videos

Prodigy - Smack my Bitch up

This music video is a typical example of a controversial video. Prodigy 'Smack my Bitch Up' includes moments of assaulting women, rampant violence, cocaine use, and drinking and driving. This is all shot from the point of view of the disturbed minded protagonist. Plus, it all ends with a unusual twist.