Our A2 media
project was to create promotional materials for the release of an album. We had
to choose an unsigned band and create different advertising products. The task
was to create a music promo for a song produced by the band, a digipak for that
song or an album from the band as well as magazine advert or website of which
we chose to produce a website promoting the band from a technological point of
view.
Purpose of the…
Music Video:
The function of
a music video is to promote the band in a more personal way, allowing for the
audience to see a visual side of them as well as hear their emotion and read
their body language, meaning that the audience can then better relate to the
band and the individual performers. This is done by using camerawork to show
the band/artist and advertise their talents to a viewing audience.
This is necessary as it makes the audience want to listen to their music and watch their videos as they know that the band or artist can perform and that their music is always going to be interesting and what they are looking to listen to. It is also used as a key feature in making a song/artist more memorable as, if the video is say, seen on Youtube, this will allow people to link the video to the song, meaning people are more likely to watch/listen to it all the way through because it gives the audience something to watch, maintaining their attention and creating more interest in the song and the artist, making people go back to listen to it or listen to other songs produced by the same artist. This then creates a higher sales figure due to people being more interested in going back to listen to the song again purely because they like the video and it markets the song well to the public.
Music promos are also used as a way of targeting specific audiences. For example, heavy metal music is quite an acquired taste and if there were not any bands to cater for the needs of the people that like this music, then these people would not have the music that they want. They also use specific channels and media forms to market their music to different audiences. For example, classical music tends to use the television more than the internet as this has a much higher target audience viewing potential. This is because classical music tends to be enjoyed more by people of the older generation, who may not be as knowledgeable about the internet or may not use it as much as other ages and types of people.
This is necessary as it makes the audience want to listen to their music and watch their videos as they know that the band or artist can perform and that their music is always going to be interesting and what they are looking to listen to. It is also used as a key feature in making a song/artist more memorable as, if the video is say, seen on Youtube, this will allow people to link the video to the song, meaning people are more likely to watch/listen to it all the way through because it gives the audience something to watch, maintaining their attention and creating more interest in the song and the artist, making people go back to listen to it or listen to other songs produced by the same artist. This then creates a higher sales figure due to people being more interested in going back to listen to the song again purely because they like the video and it markets the song well to the public.
Music promos are also used as a way of targeting specific audiences. For example, heavy metal music is quite an acquired taste and if there were not any bands to cater for the needs of the people that like this music, then these people would not have the music that they want. They also use specific channels and media forms to market their music to different audiences. For example, classical music tends to use the television more than the internet as this has a much higher target audience viewing potential. This is because classical music tends to be enjoyed more by people of the older generation, who may not be as knowledgeable about the internet or may not use it as much as other ages and types of people.
Digipak:
The function of a digipak
is as a means of selling the album or single that a band produces. A digipak
can consist of 4,6 or 8 sections, 2 of which are the general front and back
covers (like on a normal CD). The 6 piece digipak that we have produced also
contains a lyric page, a meet the band section as well as the centrepiece where
the actual disk is held. Digipaks are also often used as limited edition
versions of the album or collectors editions due to the extra information that
they contain and the cost that is involved in producing them.
Website:
A website is used as a technique to advertise
a band/artist in a digital environment because there is such a large internet
audience now for music, using websites like Vimeo and Youtube. This means that
if a band/artist have a website, it can be linked on many sites so that fans of
the artist can view the website and learn about them as well as see extra
material produced like interviews with the band/artist, live recordings and news
about the band.
Genre:
We chose to use the indie-rock genre for
our music video because we decided that the fast editing pace between
performance and narrative shots that are conventional in indie-rock music
videos were best-suited to the resources and actors that we had available to
us. Also, if we produced an indie music promo, we would be able to use the
school stage and Matt Bostock’s lighting and sound systems, creating a better
performance atmosphere, that if seen live looked quite convincing, therefore
selling the promo to the audience as the performance in the music video looked
more realistic and created the right atmosphere for our video.
Chasing Tigers:
The unsigned
band that we chose to use for the music in our music video was Chasing Tigers.
We watched their music video for the song ‘Idols and Upsets’ and decided that
the song was good but the video did not look very professional and was
extremely repetitive. Therefore we decided to use this song and create our own
music video based around this song, aiming to produce a better and more professional
production. In a way our way video was quite unconventional because most Indie
bands tends to push conventions to the limit in order to give that dangerous
and unique sense of being individuals to the audience, whereas we actually
didn’t push these conventions, we made quite a simple video and just used
fast-editing and a fairly simplistic narrative to give a more subtle approach
rather than going all-out to be ‘different’.
This is completely different to the original video produced by the band, as their video was completely performance-based with not much shot variety, just a grainy effect that had been loaded into it to make it look a bit different to other music promos that don’t tend to use such complicated editing effects to change the look of their music video. For example, Mumford and Sons use black and white effects to change the look of their music video, which doesn’t actually make a difference to the video itself, it just removes all colour from the video, without blurring any of the scenes or removing that natural sense from the video. Unfortunately, although this effect looks fairly engaging at first, because the promo is so repetitive in the use of performance, it has no element within that the audience can relate to as all the shots are too similar and nothing actually happens in the video apart from the band performing, which could potentially cause the audience to get bored of watching the same thing throughout the video.
This is completely different to the original video produced by the band, as their video was completely performance-based with not much shot variety, just a grainy effect that had been loaded into it to make it look a bit different to other music promos that don’t tend to use such complicated editing effects to change the look of their music video. For example, Mumford and Sons use black and white effects to change the look of their music video, which doesn’t actually make a difference to the video itself, it just removes all colour from the video, without blurring any of the scenes or removing that natural sense from the video. Unfortunately, although this effect looks fairly engaging at first, because the promo is so repetitive in the use of performance, it has no element within that the audience can relate to as all the shots are too similar and nothing actually happens in the video apart from the band performing, which could potentially cause the audience to get bored of watching the same thing throughout the video.
Elements of a music video:
Mise-en-scene:
The
mise-en-scene in an indie music video is generally the main feature of an indie music video, because the prop usage, lighting, costumes and settings are generally the things that stand out the most on videos from this genre. An example of this is the natural lighting used in indie videos that is key as it creates that realistic and natural 'everyday life' atmosphere.
Prop use in indie music videos tend to be a lot less varied and random, generally just using things like the band instruments and performance materials, because it produces a less cluttered video which doesn't have too much to look at, creating that natural and simplistic yet effective atmosphere.
Prop use in indie music videos tend to be a lot less varied and random, generally just using things like the band instruments and performance materials, because it produces a less cluttered video which doesn't have too much to look at, creating that natural and simplistic yet effective atmosphere.
The setting for
indie music videos are actually quite similar to pop promos, as they
traditionally use quite a few locations, apart from in their performance
scenes, to make the video look quite natural and produce more realistic scenery
for the audience to relate to.
Costume for indie music
video is often very casual involving clothing like jeans and t-shirts (right),
which is a completely different prospect to pop videos, which use expensive and
unique costumes that are more extreme, and challenge society’s norms on
clothing and what people would wear (left).
Also, as shown
by the two photos, lighting in indie music promos is generally natural,
without the need for all the expensive lighting and different effects that have
to be put in place to make the band/artist look the best they can look and make
them look desirable to the audience. This tends to be more of a pop video thing
to do.
Editing:
Because
indie music is born from the rock genre, the tempo tends to be quite quick,
meaning that fast editing is a necessity in order to keep the audience tuned in
and prevent them from losing interest. The faster the tempo of the editing, the
more time the audience have to view the video because many elements of the
video will be missed. Also, the fast editing of indie music promos tends to
switch between many different shots and scenes, from narrative to performance,
from close-ups and long shots to audience POV’s as well as angle changes to add
more variety, rather than keeping the same type of shots throughout, which
makes the video look too simple and unprofessional, very unlike a traditional
indie-rock music video.
Narrative:
The narrative of
an indie-rock video is generally fairly simplistic, referring to quite everyday
circumstances (city, church, schools and the countryside), although this is not
true of all indie music videos as many of them rely on disjuncture to provide
an interesting contrast against their performance shots. Also, in videos like
Contact High by Architecture in Helsinki, they use a completely unrelated
storyline as a way of shooting their performance shots through the narrative,
which is extremely clever with their use of effects to overlay the performance
on the narrative.
Performance is a key part of any indie music video. This is
because it advertises the band and the talents of the individual members. Also,
the compositions and framing of the performance shots show the audience what
each band member does as part of the band. For example, the person with the
microphone or standing at the front, tends to be the lead singer, and then the
rest of the band members tend to be off to the side of the shot or behind the
lead singer with their own individual instrument, highlighting what instrument
or role each member plays as part of the band.
Camerawork:
The camerawork for an indie-rock music promo tends to be extremely varied. The use of creative angles and effective range shots means that editing looks a lot faster and the audience interest in the promo is much higher because of the general complication of the video. Mumford and Sons break the conventional idea that the two locations should be different as well as shot differently depending on whether it is the narrative or performance with their video ‘Hopeless Wanderer’ where they use the exact same location for both and integrate their narrative into the performance. Pop videos have a lot more close-ups of the actual artist as part of the narrative whereas indie promos prefer to use artist/band close-ups in the performance shots rather than the actual narrative scenes, showing off their talents for playing instruments and singing rather than putting their talents on show against the backdrop of their story.
Concepts:
Amplification:
Amplification is
the idea of using the video to amplify the general moral of the lyrics or maybe
the song title rather than producing a video that matches to each individual
line in the lyrics, which sometimes produces quite a jumpy storyline and
therefore an unprofessional-looking video.
Indie videos conventionally use Amplification
as this is the most traditional way of producing a promo. This is a popular
choice because it amplifies the moral of the song or the song title, without
following every single lyric with something related. We chose to stick to conventions and use amplification as
we decided that it was the best way to display the song because the lyrics
meant that we would have struggled to literally follow every lyric and the
moral of the song is quite sad and depressing (talking about the ups and downs
of a relationship).
Illustration:
Sometimes,
illustration (Illustrating every lyric with a shot that relates directly to each line of the song) is used in indie promos but it is not the most common convention
because the whole idea of indie-rock tends to form a fairly casual atmosphere,
so therefore, trying to follow every lyric can leave a music video with no
structure. This is because it means that the video tends to jump between shots of things that
relate to the specific lyric being sung, meaning that it is difficult to follow
a storyline. Also, music promos are there to advertise the band/artist, and
therefore, in an indie video, if there are no shots of the band/artist actually
performing, then the audience are unable to see the talents of the band and are
therefore less likely to want to see them live and be fans of the band.
Disjuncture:
Disjuncture (Completely random shooting and mise-en-scene) is
used more than illustration but not as often as amplification. This is
generally because indie music videos can be quite fast-paced and quirky,
therefore it is sometimes necessary to use a more ‘arty’ concept in the promos
to maintain that pace as well as keep the interest in the more repetitive or
songs with less depressing ideas behind them. Disjuncture is a useful technique
in the below video as the song is so fast-paced and the music has no real
structure, therefore the promo matches that tempo and lack of organisation
portrayed in the music.
Influences:
Take On Me
The video ‘Take on me’ by A-ha was an
influential video for us as their use of stop-motion in order to work the comic
strip scenes effectively was something that we looked at using in our music
video because we decided that, if done successfully, stop-motion filming can
look very effective and interesting because it still looks like a film, it just
has slight jumps between movement which is different and doesn’t fit the usual
talent-showing camerawork in conventional indie-rock videos, even if it does
create repeatability Although this is an unconventional aspect for an indie
promo, it still fits those conventions in some ways because the use of many
different shots all edited together quickly to make it look like one scene adds
to that fast-editing pace that indie-rock music videos are famous for and
traditionally use.
Keep On Walking
Another key influence on our
final music promo is ‘Keep on Walking’ by Passenger. This video is not
extremely popular, even though it has been produced by a famous indie
artist. In this low-budget video, Passenger can be seen walking towards a
camera, in multiple different locations, highlighting the idea of going on a
journey somewhere. Now, although this video does go on a journey, it amplifies
the lyrics through the idea of constant walking, so therefore it never reaches
a destination, it just carries on going and the video ends there. This is
dissimilar to our music promo as there is a destination for our narrative, but
the idea of moving from place to place on a journey still relates in a big way
to our final production, which goes to show how big an inspiration this was to
our music video. This video actually challenges the conventions of the genre
because it is unusual and it does seem to be disjuncture because of the arty
way in which it is filmed but it also amplifies the title of the song ‘Keep On
Walking’ as the whole video is about him walking from place to place, which is
still quite conventional even if the filming techniques challenges the
traditional conventions.
Advert:
This video is not an actual music video, but for me, it was still an inspiration for our music video’s narrative because, like ‘Keep on Walking’ it also featured the idea of going on a journey through different settings and maintaining the same atmosphere and emotions throughout.
This video is not, in itself, an inspiration for our music video or for the actual concept of our promo, but it did give us the idea to use a sketchbook for our stop-motion imagery, therefore giving our music video that ‘bit more’ that was necessary to improve the final production value. The use of the stop-motion in this video was very effective as it produced a slight distraction from the storyline, and because this music promo is not really the indie genre, it did not involve any performance shots, which meant that, if they hadn’t have included anything in there, it would have been a music video purely based on the narrative, which could have caused the audience to lose interest early on. The idea that it maintains the interest and gives this necessary distraction was what made us want to include stop-motion in our video and we decided that the best way to use it was to introduce the song during the brief instrumental at the beginning as well as to highlight the key lyrics of the song.
Conventions
of Location:
Skegness
is one of the locations that we chose to use was Skegness beach. Although the
beach does not feature that often in indie music videos, it is still seen in
some. One example, yet again, would be ‘Keep on Walking’ by Passenger where
Passenger is seen on the beach, although not on Skegness beach. We decided that
this location fits in quite well with the conventions of the genre because of
the relaxing and lazy atmosphere that the beach is supposed to impose on people,
just like the traditional casual approach to music that indie bands and artists
take.
Another
of our locations is the typical urban city-like atmosphere of Peterborough.
This is an extremely conventional location for an indie-rock music promo
because of the qualities of the genre and the pleasant yet loud atmosphere that
there are in most city centres. This means that the use of everyday scenery
like cities and the countryside are generally the typical locations for an
indie music video.
Morton fen road is our third narrative location and this is also a
conventional location for an indie music video because of how isolated and
quiet it is, matching the depressive point of the characters life at that point
in the narrative. We decided to use Morton because it seemed pointless to
travel greater distances to experience the same thing as most countryside areas
within our travelling range are all pretty similar, therefore we thought we
would just go with the most easily accessible place.For the performance, we decided to use the stage at our school because it was already set up for us and it meant that we were able to use the stage lighting for that coloured effect (left) as well as the speaker system that allowed us as band members to play/sing along to the music and make the production look more realistic and professional once we had overlaid the track on top of the video and muted the sound of our own performing. Also, this stage location and atmosphere was created through the framing of the shots too. For example, the lead singer being the key person in the shot with the instrument-playing members of the band being behind him and off to the side advertises to the audience who the key member of the band is. This is quite a conventional setting for indie music videos because, most artists/bands tend to have performance scenes in their promo and, although some do not use stage atmospheres, many do. One example of a band that do is Mumford and Sons in their song ‘I Will Wait’ where a stage atmosphere is used to show their performance and give the audience a feel for what a concert of theirs would be like. Theirs does have a more professional feel to it than ours does but that is purely because they have shots of their thousands of fans whereas we were unable to produce something of that magnitude.
Our Production:
Costumes:
We decided to go
with the conventional costume for the genre of music. The typical indie costume
is very casual (jeans, t-shirt) but also has a slightly smart look (shirts,
blazers) to it to give that relaxed feeling without dipping too much into the
expensive look that pop and classical music hosts. Indie music costume tends to
lie between the expensive costumes of pop or classical and the rough look that
normal rock music portrays. This means that wearing a shirt with the top button
undone or a branded t-shirt with jeans is the type of look that we felt we
should go for, not unlike the costume that artists like Fun and Mumford and
Sons go for.
Key Shots:
This is the first key shot in our music
video as it is the introduction to the band. This is important as it reflects
the main reasoning behind producing a music promo in the first place, to
promote and advertise the band. This shot fits in well with the music too
because the short instrumental at the start of the song contrasts with the idea
of introducing the song and the artist/band.
This is the second key shot of our music
promo. This is because it straight away introduces the band to the audience on
a more personal level because of the visuals of the band that show off their
talents and what they look like. This shot creates a better connection and more
personal link to the audience straight away, which is conventional of an indie
music video; to create this connection with the audience right at the
beginning.
Another key shot is
this one of the lead singer of the band looking down and unhappy. It also has a
significant amount of the background in this shot, which is there on purpose in
order to highlight to the audience his surroundings, introducing the narrative
and giving them an insight into the idea that this narrative may be about bad
emotions and foreshadowing the coming events of the storyline.
This shot highlights that key idea of going on a journey to the audience. It also
offers an insight into the fact that the lead singer is obviously going to go
from place to place rather than stick to the same location throughout the
narrative. Also, the time-lapse effect used in this shot produces an idea in
the mind of the audience that he is unaware of his surroundings and is that
deep in his own thoughts that he is careless of what is happening
around him.
This shot, again,
shows off the guitarist’s talents and is there purely to market the song and the
band as a whole. It allows the audience to see specific band members rather
than focusing on the band as a whole, which could lead to a better personal
connection and attraction to the band because of the unique talents of
particular members.
This shot is one of
the most important shots of the narrative throughout the whole video, due to
the mystery that it creates and represents. It straight away causes the
audience to subconsciously ask ‘what is the book’ which is exactly how we want
them to feel this early on in the video as it becomes more obvious as the
storyline continues.
This shot is also important because it highlights
that ‘journey’ that the person is going on. The use of fast-forward editing is
effective in highlights the time-consuming journey that he has embarked on and
just how far he is travelling to reach his destination.
Another key shot is this one of the person in exactly
the same position since the last shot but in a different location, still
walking, reflecting that concept of travelling a long distance. Also, the beach
behind the character shows the audience that the journey is coming to an end.
Also, people escape from places like the city to the country and the beach as
they are generally more peaceful and allow more space to think and ‘get away’
from everything.
This shot is important as it finally reveals to the
audience the reasoning behind the person trying to ‘escape’ something, and the
black and white effect added to the shot highlights that idea of it being
something that has happened in the past, not something that is going on at
present time.
The previous shot is then shortly followed, after a
short performance scene, by this shot, which is important because it portrays
the reasoning behind the ‘need to escape’ and why the character has been sad
throughout the narrative so far. This shot is quite conventional when added
into the narrative, because it highlights that anger and sadness through the
framing of the shot and the way in which the two characters are facing away from
each other and look unhappy.
This shot is then used to show that the female
character has moved on and is happy whilst the protagonist is still suffering
and emotional after what has happened. This is important as it highlights the
key lyric ‘You pick me up, you put me down’ and shows just why the protagonist
is so sad and has gone on such a journey to escape his past. This idea of using
flashbacks to fill in the blanks is quite conventional, especially when used in
emotional narratives like the one being used.
This shot is my favourite shot of the whole sequence, because of the feelings
that is imposes on the audience, the whole concept of him still being able to
find something beautiful after all that is happening/has happened to him. It is
also important as it foreshadows that impending ‘end of the journey’.
This final shot is the most important image of the
video. This is down to the fact that it finally reveals to the audience the end
of the mystery as they now know what was in the book and also why he has left
the book on the beach as well as why he was trying to get away too. This is a
good closing shot for the video as it also has been slowed down to allow the
pages to flip on the book, as well as the character walking away after holding
the book in every shot and it being so noticeable throughout the video,
symbolising his relationship and how they were so close and it got thrown away
in the end.
Digipak:
This
is the digipak that we produced as part of our promotional package. It is quite
conventional of the indie-rock genre because of the dark colours and the high
amount of personal band marketing like the ‘About the band’ and the ‘Meet the
band’ pages. The large font of the writing on the front cover contrasts well
with the image because, although the rest of the digipak isn’t very
eye-catching and doesn’t stand out very much, the front cover is there for
exactly that purpose and is very noticeable because of the contrast and the
colours.
The digipak
that I have produced is conventional of most traditional digipaks because of
the structure and layout that I have used. Most usually have a front and back
cover, combined with a lyric page/booklet, an about the band page, as well as a
picture page and the area where the disk is held. The only factor that we
decided to change was to have a meet the band for each specific member’s
background instead of the picture band as we thought that this would encourage
more or a personal connection between the band members and their audience.
The use of
the black and white design is very good at simplifying the digipak, yet still
making it look professional, because of the way that the white text stands out
so well against the black background, causing the digipak to be noticeable and
catch the audience’s eye. Also, the contrast of the use of the large colourful
eye on the front cover compared with the rest of the digipak means that it is
even more bold and professional-looking.
Website:
This is our website that
makes up part of our Chasing Tigers promotional package. We chose to stick with
the same theme (black background and white text) with this as we used in our
digipak, using the same font and the same sort of images taken from the
performance scenes of our music promo. We chose to use red as the colour to
show the highlighted navigation bar options because, originally the colour red
was going to be our theme in the digipak and therefore we wanted to use a
continuous theme. As it turns out, in accordance with our digipak, black and
white were the main colours so we had to choose another colour that wasn’t in
our digipak to use for this purpose on the website so as it turns out, it
doesn’t matter that we used red.