How do you use new media technologies in the construction
and research, planning and evaluation stages?
1. We
started the process by deciding to focus on a ‘rock group’ image,
therefore we knew that a performance element would be key to our video. As
a result, we chose the song ‘Grounds For Divorce’ by Elbow. Having filmed
an animatic of our rough storyboard on the Sony NX5 and cut it together on
Final Cut Pro, we decided that we needed to include a narrative element in
order to add another exciting dimension to the video.
2. We
filmed the performance element on a Sony FS100, as by using prime lenses
we were able to capture higher quality footage that added to the authentic
nature of the band. Equally, by measuring out the length of shot, the
footage was much sharper and helped to bring clarity to the video.
Furthermore, we used a lighting monitor to co-ordinate and control all the
lights, thus ensuring that all the members of the band were visible.
·3. In the post-production stage we used
digitisation to transfer the footage from the camera’s hard drive to the
editing software Adobe Premier. We used the rhythmic determent of the music and
placed marker on the beats on the timeline, thus indicating potential cutting
points. To finish the video we used colouring and grading tools. We adjusted
the colour palette so it had a blue tint, and did this by altering the contrast
and saturation of shots. Also we added a letterbox effect to generate an epic,
cinematic feel.
·4. In order to create the special effects we
imported our footage from Adobe Premier to Adobe After Effects. We used stock
footage of muzzle flashes, and placed them on top of the image. We had to size
and position them correctly in order to ensure that the flash occurred around
the end tip of the gun. By blending the light around the gun the effect merged
with the background, and this helped to make the shot more realistic. By
placing masks around the actors faces, the faces of the actors lit up with the
gunfire, thus made the action more genuine and impressive looking. To emphasise
the continuous gunfire we used motion tracking, as it followed the point of the
gun and highlighted the muzzle flashes.
5. To
film the narrative element we used a Sony NX5, as it allowed us to have a
higher shutter speed and it had integrated lenses, thus we were able to
adjust to the moment, making the footage seem more spontaneous. This
helped us to create a more exciting and tense atmosphere. We used the
camera handheld to further intensify the movements of the actors, as it
helped us to engage the audience and bring them into the drama
·6. For the explosion shot we used multiple
layers of stock footage such as the explosion itself, mud and smoke we speeded
up or slowed down in order to create the most impressive explosion possible. We
also needed to cut around the log in the shot so that the explosion was behind
it. We used motion tracking to do this.
7. In
order to make our set more realistic, we undertook research on the
Internet and used various mediums as inspiration. The most beneficial
source of information was the music video 21 Guns by Green Day and a
section of the film Mr and Mrs Smith as it helped us piece together an
image of what our set and narrative elements should look like. In relation
to the set, we took images of the couple on a Canon 70D and printed them
out in order to heighten the link between the performance and narrative
element.
"An artist’s image is
extremely important, as it conveys the artist’s ethos and character to their
target audience. Richard Dyer defines star image as, the semi-mythological
set of meanings constructed around music performers in order to sell the
performer to large and loyal audience. Thus, the star is not a real person but
just an image that has been created out of a range of materials. Yet, audiences
idolise their favourite artists, and this is due to the fact that they identify
with the star image that has been created. Our bands star image was one of
authenticity and rebellion, and we attempted to portray this throughout our
video and ancillary texts. We gained inspiration from bands such as, The 1975,
Mumford & Sons, Imagine Dragons and Kodaline. These bands all portrayed a
similar star image, and did so through using ‘grungy’ locations in their
videos, casual dark clothing and dark colours on their website and album covers.
The bands also centred their products on key images or themes, thus we decided
to use this idea in the construction of our products. We did this by focusing
on two key motifs, trees and lightbulbs, and this also helped to establish a
link between all of our products.
We constructed our star image through various
creative choices, and attempted to establish links between our video, digipak
and website. By reflecting the bands star image in all three of our media
products, we ensure that the audience recognise our band, thus each product
helps to cross promote our artist. Our target audience is 17-25 year old males,
predominantly Caucasian, middle-class in terms of demographic profiling. The
video will appeal to people who listen to indie rock music, due to the organic
focus on lyrics and the authentic nature of the band. We did not want our band
to appeal to mainstream users, and thus we focused on the ‘Britishness’ of our
band, shown through stereotypical rebellious teenage images.
COLOUR
AND FONT:
As our star image focuses on authenticity and
rebellion, we wanted the band to be seen as rather mysterious, therefore
concentrated our products around dark colours. We added a blue tint to our
music video, by altering the saturation and brightness on Adobe Premier Pro, and this generated a cold atmosphere in the video which emphasised
the ‘dangerous’ nature of the band. We also reflected this through our choices
of props and clothing, as the destroyed bedroom in the performance element had
blue wallpaper and the band was all dressed in dark blue or black clothing. We
took inspiration from ‘The 1975’, as they are dressed similarly in dark
clothing that reflects their rebellious star image. As a result, our colour
scheme for our website and digipak centred on this blue and black colour
scheme. We used a white background with black text on our home page screen, as
it was mainly dominated with an image, but the rest of the website pages had a
black background and white font. Although we did not use a blue background, the
pictures on the website were edited with a blue tint, therefore the colour
scheme of the website to an extent matched the video. We took inspiration from
‘The Script’s’ website and album cover, as they used the exact same colour and
font on these two products. This helped to create a link between the products,
and the blue colour helped to reflect the bands organic star image. As a
result, we used images on the digipak that had been edited with a blue tint,
thus the authenticity of our band was emphasised and the album linked with our
other products. We also used the same font on the album cover that we used on
the website, thus another link was drawn between the two products. The font we
chose was simple, but with a slight slant which helped to intensify the
reckless nature of our band. We used the colour black as it helped to intensify
the text, thus we ensured that the text was visible against the image. By
placing the text in the middle of the image the audience was immediately drawn
to it, and this helped to promote the name of our band ‘Carter James’.
MOTIFS:
In all three of our products, we
present the images of lightbulbs and trees. These images reflect our star
image, as the lightbulb represents the quirkiness of our band, whilst the trees
portray the rebellious mysterious nature of the band. These images are central
in our video, as the single lightbulb in the performance element is drawn
attention to through numerous close ups.Imagine Dragons uses the same image in their website and digipak, and
this helps to establish a running theme throughout the bands products. We used
this for inspiration in the creation of our star image, thus we took these central
images from our video and reflected them in our website and digipak. Moreover,
the narrative element is shot in a woods, thus the dangerous side of the band
is effectively conveyed. Equally, the home page of our website displays an
image of a hand holding a lightbulb with a tree growing inside. We constructed
this image through taking a photo of a tree and a lightbulb and merging the two
together on Photoshop. As a result, the audience are immediately drawn into the
mysterious star image of our band, and are able to draw connections between the
website and music video. Throughout the rest of the website, the header
involves an image of lightbulbs, thus this motif is continually emphasised
throughout. Furthermore, on our digipak, the front cover depicts the lead
singer in the woods thus the motif of trees is accentuated. We wanted to
generate a ‘wild’ atmosphere, thus had him standing alone, but surrounded by
trees. This helped to heighten the rebellious star image, but also the
authentic and organic nature of the band. Equally, we had a close up image of
trees on the back of the digipak, and the same on the second panel. We used the
same image of the tree inside the lightbulb on the third panel (where the CD
goes), thus establishing another link between our two products. By continually
using these two motifs the bands star image was emphasised, but it also helped
to familiarise the audience with the band and caused them to identify the band
with these two symbols.
PROMOTION:
In order to promote our band, we
decided that we wanted to use a front man, so that the audience could identify
with both the band as a whole, and as an image. As a result, in our video we
had the lead singer standing slightly forward and away from the rest of the
group, and this distinguished him as the front man. Equally, we began and ended
the video with close ups of him, thus the audience were immediately able to
connect with the bands leading image. We translated this image onto the
digi-pak and website, as we put the lead singer on the front of the digi-pak in
order to infer that he is ‘Carter James’. We also used another photo of him in
the inside cover, as it allowed us to highlight the fact that the band was
represented by the lead singer. We took inspiration from ‘The Script’ here, as
they use the idea of a front man in both their digi-pak and website. In order
to incorporate the idea of a front man in our website, we used images of him in
the gallery and placed them at the top of the page. The majority of the images
centred around him and due to their placement, the audience were immediately
drawn to him. By using a front man we were able to promote our band as the
audience could identify easily with the band as a whole, but mainly through the
eye catching image of the lead singer.
WEAKNESSES:
There
were certain aspects that we could have improved, in order to emphasise the
bands star image and the link between the products. For example, we did not
involve a logo on any of our products, and this would have really helped to
intensify the link between the digipak and website. Using a logo would have
allowed us to brand the band with a specific image that the audience could
relate to, yet instead we relied on the power of colour and motifs. Also, the
colour scheme on the website is mainly black and white, with only a slight blue
tint, whereas the video and digipak have a very obvious blue tint. This
prevents the products from being completely similar, therefore slightly
detracts from the bands star image and limits audience recognition".
Forms are elements of structure that give a media text
its ‘shape’ and meaning. One of the forms we used in our video was performance.
It serves to highlight the artist, possibly demonstrate his/her abilities and
create a star image. In our video, we used a performance of a band, which we
consider being ‘organic’ rather than ‘synthetic’. Keith Negus argues that the
seeds of success for this kind of an artist lie within them, within the songs.
Our band contains rebellious young people who create in alternative rock genre.
Organic acts usually take time to evolve and progress through their career.
Every member of a band has its own individuality and contributes to the music,
thus final product appears to be of high esthetic and moral quality. Our artist
is aimed on reasonably sophisticated audience which displays some kind of
individuality when selecting what to listen. Performance was used in the
original video for ‘Grounds for Divorce’ by ‘Elbow’. This is a reasonably
famous band, which also aims at more sophisticated audience and seems to be
organic.
Conventions are elements of content, which are
recognizable from similar texts. One of conventions is the artist Close Up, since
it sells the artist and may showcase his abilities. It also gives an audience
an opportunity to take this image and remember the artist next time members of
audience see him. This reflect the concept of ‘star’ devised by Richard Dyer.
This term refers to the semi-mythological set of meanings constructed around
music performers in order to sell the performer to a large and loyal audience.
The star image is constructed out of a range of materials and meanings that are
attractive to the target audience. Fundamentally, the star image is incoherent,
incomplete and ‘open’. Due to this fact target audience will strive to consume
more and more information about the artist, but ultimately will never get all
the information it wants, therefore, it will continue consuming the artist’s
products. CU is one of this bits of information that may particularly excite
the audience since it seems like it gives even more information away, while it
doesn’t. For this reason, we used quite a few CUs in our video. It brings our
audience closer to the artist and may as well create a perceived connation with
the artist. Real music industry uses CUs of artists very frequently as well.
For instance, a music video directed by David Fincher with Justin Timberlake
and Jay-Z ‘Suit & Tie’ uses CU several times, which may increase the number
of people who watch the video.
Another important form we applied to our video is
narrative. It may help to showcase other ‘intangible’ qualities of the artist,
create a link to target audience or may even create a character for the artist.
We cut between performance and narrative establishing a visual link, since the
performance actually happens in the room where the characters were before and
where this huge fight has started. Through this connection we create a metaphor
of the star image of our band which is supposed to give more information about
the artist. The narrative in our video also contributes to “extraorinarity”,
which makes a greater contrast between ordinary and extraordinary (first
paradox of a star according to Dyer) more possible. Our narrative is
constituted of a boy (simultaneously, the singer) and a girl running in the
forest with guns and shooting each other. It is also an attempt to appeal to
our target audience which is probably mainly males 18-25 years old. They
probably enjoy watching thrillers and gunfights. Music industry also has an
example of such narratives. A good instance of a similar use of narrative in
the real music industry is shown in a video by Alt-J, ‘Hunger of the Pine’,
although it serves different purpose in their video.
‘Artistic’ camerawork is another convention we tried
to implement in our video. It obviously increases entertainment of the video
making it more pleasurable to watch as well as increasing the chances of
repeated watching of the video. It also contributes to the star image. Our band
is organic, so it is indie and artistic to some extent, at least in the
beginning of their career. Therefore, the fact that we tried to use ‘artistic’
camerawork is consistent with the notion that our artist is unique, individual
and tries to express its inner World rather than appeal to wide audiences. The
‘artistic’ camerawork in a way is a reflection of this World. It also possibly
makes our band more extraordinary and harder to grasp to some extent. Thus our
target audience would potentially be riveted trying to solve the ’mystery’ our
artist, simultaneously enjoying great music. There are some examples of music
videos in the real industry which also betook this convention e.g.
‘Breezeblocks’ by Alt-j, ‘Suit & Tie’ by Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z etc.
Conspicuous use of the lighting adds to the ‘artistic’
camera work. In some cases the sense of concert may be created, however, in
many cases it is also used for the reason of creating a beautiful image on the
screen as well as ‘expressive’ (or ‘low key’) lighting in a movie. We use
expressive lighting for exactly the same reason we used ‘artistic’ camerawork.
Target audience will hopefully be attracted by the imagery but also by the
inner World of the artist. Lighting is an inseparable element of astonishing
camerawork. Target audience may as well associate the colours and the lighting
in the video with this band, so whenever someone sees these colours, it reminds
him/her of our band and hopefully makes him/her talk about it spreading the
word of mouth. Our colour palette in performance bit seems sophisticated with a
lot of ‘artistic’ shadows which makes it easily memorable. Examples of the
videos in the music industry that distinguish themselves by the use of lighting
include ‘Suit & Tie’, ‘Tessellate’, ‘Unconditionally’.
We also
made an attempt to implement symbolism in our video which is another music
video form. Symbolism usually helps to heighten the meaning of the track, or
links closely with a star image thus creating distinct identity with the
artist. The symbolism that we used, however, is not that profound, but it still
has a connection with a star image making the band look cooler and probably
introducing some inner rage that drives our artist to write the songs. Moreover,
it contributes to the ‘mysteriousness’ of the band even more making them look
more extraordinary. Perhaps, this symbol (the light bulb) means something to
the members of the band, so this is another look inside the band’s soul. Feathers
are another symbol, which are, however, linked predominantly with the plot of
the video and indicate the fact that there was a fight in a room. Alt-J uses
symbolism a lot, but the most conspicuous use is in the video ‘Tessellate’.
We followed the industry conventions in terms of digipak as well. Particular styles of digipaks help to attract particular audiences. We went for a young, rebellious and stylish star image. The image is processed in a certain way, we have chosen a specific color palette featuring yellow, golden colors, which gives this picture a very stylish look. Usually, on the front cover of albums of pop artists we can see the artist himself very clearly since this is a good way to promote the artist. That is why we have our artist standing alone facing the camera. We put our front man in the forest, so that it corresponds with our music video since we develop the theme of forest in our music video. Therefore, our star image remains consistent. Other artists also used that kind of pictures in their digipaks as well. For instance, J. Cole "2014 Forest Hills Drive" album. One of the pictures in his digipak is him standing watching into the camera with the forest on background, which is consistent with the name of his album.
We also follow the industry conventions in terms of website. On our 'Home' page we have a big picture that symbolically represents the artist. In our case it is light bulbs and trees since in our music video we develop the theme of light bulbs demonstrating it in the performance, which happens in the room where the characters has just started their fight. In the context of the video the light bulb is given a more profound meaning - rage, rebelliousness, youth. Then we follow the narrative which leads us into the forest where the gunfight with the explosion happens. This is the development of the forest theme. We combined both of those motifs in this image. We also have artist's accounts in various social networks that audience may follow and thus be in contact with the artist and find out news about him. Our website includes several categories very often used by the music industry e.g. 'Gallery', 'About', 'Sigh Up', 'Merchandise' etc. This may help to enhance the awareness of the artist, give more information about his life and eventually build a fan base. An example of the real industry website may be the website of 'The Script'. A picture of a kiss on their 'Home' page is also quite symbolical and gives a hint that the target audience is probably females rather than males. They also have all the links on the top of the website as well as the links to their accounts on Facebook, YouTube etc.
