In what ways does your media product develop, or change forms, and conventions of real media products?
Music videos are a principal method of media by which artists and their subsequent record labels can promote themselves in televised form, of which is often more appealing to audiences than streams of audio or promotional cd’s.
Our media product thus develops and amplifies on what is described in the music industry as ‘Indie’, a genre of music categorised for being independent, uncomforting to traditional genre constraints. For example, typical indie groups such as: the Kooks, Kasabian and Arctic monkeys often include visuals within their music videos of which are of an abstract nature i.e. ‘Thermals Pillar of Salt video’. We thus opted in favour of a 1st person viewpoint for the first segment of video instead of a traditional 3rd person perspective. This developed the ‘abstract’ form talked about previously; helping to solidify what convention was to run throughout our product. As a group we then decided, as a result of our research to also implement lip-syncing, a technique used universally in the music industry to create a seamless relational link between the audio and the visuals. We then resolved to accompany the lip-syncing with similar synced actions for example, whereby we included band members playing the keyboard were appropriate and also the drums and bass guitar. As with most music videos, the visuals only aid to compliment the audio of which is the most important media type in a music video, we therefore tried to augment the audio by accompanying visuals which were of an illustrative nature, personifying the tempo of the music. Again as with most music videos, we opted in favour of quick, abrupt, edits between clips to keep the flow of the product up-beat; it is also particularly good when the audio suddenly changes where a common fade would be too slow and inappropriate. Our product doesn’t have any underlying message as such and so doesn’t challenge any particular forms, it does however exhibit similar conventions stereotypically seen in music videos classified as ‘indie’ whereby their main intention is to be as out-going and non-representational as possible as possible, containing a majority of teenage actors, implying the audience should be of the same age group. Because our video is of an Indie convention we didn’t have to conform to any structured design of a typical music video i.e. where a pop video would need to include close-ups of the artist face, so to that extent we had relative freedom in what was produced. As a group we exploited this oppertunity by using an array of camerashots, for example, low angle shots, high angle, long shot and extreme close up, refering to Andrew Goodwin's analysis, we also included a few references to the notion of looking to conform to a general music video . To further embody this freedom we also made use the green-screening technology so as to expand our possible settings for our video. This was primarily done so we could replicate that of a high-budget video, however we were also trying to conform to the standard convention of the typical indie band of whom many, if not all make use of the same green-screen method. In terms of mise en scene our media product(s) develops the standard conventions of Indie paradigms i.e. dress sense were by one of my main goals was to make our products as believable as possible, consequently, authentic clothing was essential.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
With regards to all the medias we produced as a group: the magazine poster, digi-pak cd cover and our video piece, I believe that we achieved a universal theme and style accross all products whilst still retaining individuality for each product. To justify this, in an attemp to solidify for the viewer a link between both the magazine poster and digi-pak we opted to use an image already used once in our digipak design, the intention was that viewers who had recognised that certain image in one of our medias previously would instantly realise, when seeing that same image again that the two must be related. This is then made even more obvious when the same characters in both images are present in our main video piece, cementing a link. Indie elements are instantly realised in all of our media products, such as the clothing and also even more so the background to which we based the medias, again personifying a correlation between them all. To make absolutely obvious the link we even edited both the magazine poster and digi-pak with the same colouring setting and contrast ratio, additional including Polaroid camera stills in both to further solidify similarities. The idea behind including NME’s notorious logo was not a hard one, as all in our group recognised it to represent and epitomise the indie sub genre. Most Indie groups will be rated by this company and thus there is an indirect link. The essentially ‘dark’/ ‘sombre’ fashion to both the magazine poster and digi-pak bears resemblance although this is rather contradictive of our video piece which in respect is the complete opposite, being up-beat, jump up rock/indie. In terms of effectiveness, with all medias working in conjunction to sell the artist I believe it would be effective as with the differentiating settings and styles this would entice both the older and younger generations of punk and indie to the band. Perosnally I believe all products expressed what we wanted to connotate, all represent what we, as a group invisaged to be 'Indie' and in that sense on a whole, our main product and ancillary tasks where effective in combination.
We received, as expected, negative but nevertheless constructive feedback for our main video, however we also received positive feedback regarding our magazine and digi-pak medias with which was somewhat expected as we better managed our time on the two projects. Personally I have learnt that video based projects should be met with much longer periods of planning and preparation as it was evident and also commented that our piece looked “rushed”, this was due to our green-screen not working as expected and also me being absent for one of the most important editing lessons. The most notable feedback was that we should have included sound into our preliminary rough cut; however we did try to implement it although evidently it didn’t come together when rendered and uploaded to YouTube. In general though we where told we had good ideas and many noted that it was obvious it was definitely of an indie genre. This was pleasing as it showed that our main product and ancillary pieces were effective and conveyed a strong constant indie theme. One of the many areas subject to feedback was the digi-pak design media. One such feedback was that it would have benefited the product on a whole if we had made use of items commonly found on real cd packs. These included bar codes, record label logos and company information as well as band details and references such as websites plus comments from individual band members saying their thanks to fans and friends e.t.c. We will no doubt make note of these feedbacks to utilise again when we are tasked with creating a similar product.
How did you use new technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During the process of creating our media products, we made subsequent use of an array of different media technologies, all of which intertwined and were utilised in all medias. The primary media technology which was most important throughout the creation of our products was undoubtedly the Internet. The internet provided our group with essential research which was to prove most beneficial for finalising our video, magazine and digi-pak. Referring to the internet, of all sites available, the most notable one of which we made use of was YouTube, mainly for inspirational ideas for our music video, but also to watch professional videos of the same genre to give us an idea of how to structure our own video. In terms of technology, the two predominant pieces of software employed for all three pieces of media were Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Express. Photoshop enabled us to apply affects to a relatively bland stock image so we were able to manipulate it to our tastes, this was also the same function for Final cut express ultimately, however instead of being designed for Images it was meant for video. The functions of Final cut express do extend further however, for example it was also utilised for separating unwanted video footage, implementing transitions such as the dominant cross-fade used to soften the change from one scene to the next, and also adding in the audio track so we could sync and create an illustrative bond between the audio and visuals. ITunes was also made use of, as was the artists MySpace, blogger and web domain. ITunes provided our group with samples of the artist’s tracks and previous works as well as the media to use in our product. MySpace and the artist web domain gave us the ability to easily find images to extract and play with in Photoshop as a test in creating an indie-esque image which would be important when creating our magazine and digi-pak. During the evaluation period blogger.com was exceptionally important as it enabled our group to not only view other groups work and use their ideas to adapt our own, but also much needed feedback through comments which was to prove invaluable when finalising the products.
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