Filming Changes/Problems

Unfortunately, after completing the stop motion sections of the video and filming the footage the first time, this footage would not upload onto the Mac. We had little time left before our video had to be completed so I went out the next day and filmed again on my own. However, this still would not upload but we weren't sure whether this was due to the type of camera, or if the Mac just was not responding properly. This left us with only one day to finish our video. So, I had to find time to film a third time on my own again, and this time it was successful. After drawing all the storyboards myself and having my parts of the work completed on time, I still found the time to film three times and although it was a long, tiring process we got there in the end.

Annotation of CD Cover

Annotation of Magazine Advert

Digi-Pack Final

Magazine Advert Final

As you can see, the design for my magazine advert has changed dramatically. The original design did not reflect the playful nature of our brand identity and was unexciting. This new design is perfect for what we want to try to sell and displays the camper van's personality well.

Digi-pack Flat Plan

Fiming/Editing Update

We found it difficult to find enough people to perform as a band for us due to them having their own commitments at different times and the matter of finding somewhere to perform, therefore we have decided to go down another route with one person and a guitar which should hopefully create the same effect. Because we already have one person walking through the door at the start of the video, we thought this person could still play the song, but outside instead of inside, focusing on the hands playing the guitar to give the song more meaning linked with the camper van's journey. Also, at the instrumental part in the song we will have different mouths singing along with the band as they sing "la la la la la la" repeatedly. This way, we will still have the combination of filmed footage and stop frame animation that we originally wanted.

Magazine Advert Flat Plan

These curved squares represent the campervan travelling towards the logo for the band at the bottom of the page. The size of the camper van increasing creates perspective, as though the vehicle is coming towards you.
The magazine advert will include all the essential information it needs to about the album release date and website etc.

Here the red represents the colour of the camper van.
The background will be black to make the red and white stand out.
Predominately the logo will be red and white to match the colours of the camper van.
The logo is a tape, with the actual black tape coming out of the top making the shape of an 8, while Track Stereo is hand written along the bottom.

An image of the band will also possibly be included at the top under the band name.

Below are some colour ideas for the typography. I wanted a contrast between the red colour of car and the typography.

Filming Progress/Changes

We have made a few changes in the process of filming the music video. For example, we found it too difficult to have cereal spilling out of the box in the kitchen scene, so instead we used spaghetti which was just as effective and easier to clean up. We also added in a new section in the kitchen, and created an obstacle course for the car on the floor with glasses filled with coloured water. Fairy lights were then placed around the glasses to create a maze. To get some of the angles we planned to include, climbing on furniture was necessary which can be seen in the photos on this link below.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55794158@N05/

Brand Identity in Similar Products

Bands and artists need to create brand identities in order to offer something that attracts their particular target audience, and also makes them different from everyone else. Brand identities are used to allow the audience to recognise an artist's music and here are a few of the techniques explained which are used to achieve this:

Colour schemes

Similar colours are used throughout products to make it clear to the audience that they are for the same artist or band, this goes for typography as well as backgrounds, images and logos.
Typography
Often the same font is used, perhaps to state that it is the same artist, and not an artist with a similar name, for example the band All Time Low shown below could be confused with the boyband The Wanted's song 'All Time Low' if people are not familiar with the band below.
Images
Images are also used to create a brand identity, usually by using the same ones across different products. An example of this would be Pixie Lott, who uses the same image on her album cover, website and also television advert promoting her music. These images can be used to create a certain image or style for an artist and allow the audience to recognise this when looking at different products.


I have chosen two bands of a similar genre to Eight Track Stereo to examine their brand identities and see if these conventions have been used. Also, to take inspiration to match our own brand identity to the correct genre.
All Time Low

Official Website

Album Cover

Same typography used to create brand identity.

Magazine Advertisement/Cover

Same typography used again.

Similar colours used on magazine cover to album cover.

Kids In Glass Houses

Official Website

Album Cover

Same typography/colours/flowers used - brand identity.

Magazine Advertisement

Promoting new album and single - album cover shown, date of release, date of availability digitally.

Offers a free download - encouraging consumers.

It is made clear that the significant ways to create a brand identity is by using running themes with colours, typography and images. Both bands, which are of the same style and genre as Eight Track Stereo (our chosen band for our music video), have successfully created brand identities through this. Therefore we will take this on board and develop our own brand identity through the use of similar colours, typography, images and the logo I designed. Because we will feature the red campervan on the album cover and magazine advert, a contrasting colour such as blue or green would work well as these colours also appear in the logo. By using the campervan image instead of the band, they would not be selling their music through their own image, but instead through this concept.

Magazine Adverts

There is often a relationship between adverts and other products when artists are promoting their music. They link together by using the same colour, images and theme. Usually an image of the artist predominates because they are trying to sell their music through an image or style.

1. What type of magazine would your advert appear in?
An advert for our album would appear in magazines such as NME because the genre of music fits those that are usually featured in this magazine. Also, the target audience for this magazine meets our own target audience, so hopefully they would read this magazine and see our advert, and be encouraged to buy the album.


2. How will you link your advert to your main task and other ancillary task?
We will use same typography and colour scheme to create a brand identity. The band's logo which includes the band name will also feature throughout the video and ancillary tasks, linking them all together. An overall theme and brand identity will be created to fit the genre of music and appeal to the target audience.


3. How will your advert appeal to your target audience?
By including reviews and star ratings in the advert this will draw in the target audience and encourage them to buy the album.


Example


Ellie Goulding

This image, typography, colour and theme used in the magazine advert is the same as the one that appears on her album cover.
The font is made to look like lights which reflects the album name - 'Lights'.
The picture of Ellie Goulding predominates the advert which means her image is very important when appealing to her audience, she is selling her music through her style.
By having a black background the 'lights' can stand out even more which is effective and eye catching.
Her name is bigger than the album name which also suggests she is more important than the music.
Album reviews and star ratings appear underneath the artist and album name, encouraging the reader to buy the music and take an interest in the product.

1. What is the purpose of a magazine advert?
-To promote her album
-Selling music through her image


2. What techniques might a designer use to achieve this purpose?
-Creating a brand identity
-Reviews included to encourage buyers
-Name of artist a lot bigger than album name
-Where/how to buy the music
-Release date


3.What information does it need to include?
-Name of artist
-Name of album
-Record label logo
-Website
-Star ratings

Audience Feedback

We had some very positive audience feedback from our video ideas pitch. Some people said our idea was very creative, and that the stop frame animation should enhance our ideas and bring them to life. Others said the main story is going to capture childlike, fun qualities because the car is going on a journey, and using a toy also highlights these qualities. The class also liked our plan to include the band performing, because this still makes the video realistic. The majority of the class agreed that our chosen song fits the theme of our video well and that stop frame animation will work well together with the music because of the predominant beat and fast tempo.
We were given some very useful ideas too which we are planning to also include such as filming inside a real car to create an effect of looking out the campervan window, to include some colourisation which we had already thought about, and also to use big flowers to create a transition between shots fitting the theme of the campervan.

Below you can see a video of us making our pitch of ideas to the class:

 

Storyboards Draft

Storyboards Draft

Lyrics Annotated

Shooting Schedule

 

 

Location shots

The house we are taking pictures of the camper van in for the stop frame animation is quite dark because there aren't many windows in the rooms we are using, so we had some problems when taking the pictures of our location and had to use a flash on the camera and also turn the lights on in those rooms. When we take the actual pictures for our video lamps and torches will have to be used to get the lighting right and create the right feel for the video. For example, at the beginning our idea starts with a high angle shot onto the top of the camper van where the logo we created for the band appears, and light would have to be aimed onto the top of the camper van. Although most of our video takes place in a house, we will be filming the band performing in a hall.
The location shots can be viewed in the slideshow below.

Location shots

View more presentations from sazmobile.

Camerawork and Editing

 Camerawork ideas for my video:

The close up predominates in music videos because of the intimacy it creates between the audience and the band or artist. It also emphasises what is actually on sale which is most important and that is the music and the artist or band.

We will include this convention in our own video by using:
-close up of car on the floor, band member walks out the door the the far right of the shot, focus is on the car.
-close up of car in mirror
-close ups of band performing (especially singer)
The camera movement may also match the movement of the performs while they are playing the song.
Our camerawork is very important because it needs to create the feeling that the car is going on a journey, and the video needs to take the audience of that journey with it.

 Editing

In many music videos the convention of a fast cut montage features, which makes the viewer want to watch the video again because they are unable to understand it the first time. Although our video does not feature a particular fast cut montage, because we are using stop frame animation the whole video is like a montage, but the viewer can understand what is happening.

Matching the lyrics and music to visuals is an important convention of music videos. For example, every shot changes on the beat of the music, and this can often determine the pace of the video.

Digital effects are actually used more in music videos than in films. Good lighting is essential, and having the artist well-lit also shows how important they are. The lighting in our video is vital because our location is quite dark, we will have to use lamps and torches to achieve the right lighting.

Colourisation can be used to change the colour of the lighting by using tints, these can be placed over lamps to create this effect.

Our Chosen Song

The song we have chosen to feature in our music video is called 'What I Want' by a Scottish, unsigned band called Eight Track Stereo. We liked the overall sound of the song and thought the tempo would fit the speed of our music video, and the lyrics are relevant because they relate to what happens to the camper van on it's journey. For example, in the kitchen once the camper van has driven up a cupboard to sit on the worktop, a box of cereal falls out of a cupboard and knocks the camper van on the floor. Things go wrong for the camper van in each room and we plan to time it so the repeated line 'not getting what I want' plays after something goes wrong, so the concept lyrics to visuals is seen here.

Our video will start with white noise while a band member walks past the camper van holding a guitar (so the audience are aware of where he is going) and leaves through the front door to go to band practice, when the door shuts the music will start.

Below if you click this link you can listen to the song:


http://www.myspace.com/eighttrackstereo/music

Contact Made With Artist

Although our chosen band Eight Track Stereo's song is not copyright, we still needed to obtain permission from them to use it. Below is the email conversation between ourselves and the band in order to get that permission. It took a few weeks for the band to respond to our email, but they were more than happy for us to use their song as we explained it was only for the purpose of our A2 Media work.

Narrative/Audience/Genre Theory

Goodwin's Theory is used to analyse every genre of music video which could be either performance, narrative or concept based. Or this could be a hybrid which is a mixture of video types. When using this theory a number of principles which are:

• Genre characteristics
• What is the relationship between lyrics and visuals?
• What is the relationship between music and visuals?
• Are there close-ups of the artist and star image motifs?
• Is there any reference to the notion of looking?
• Are there any intertextual references?

Coldplay - Fix You (directed by Sophie Muller)
Performance Based

The demands of the record company that Coldplay are signed to will include the need for lots of close ups of the band and they might develop star image motifs which re-occur across their work as a visual style.

Richard Dyer - 'a star is an image constructed from a range of materials'.

In most of Coldplay's videos there is constant direct address, the singer Chris Martin always sings looking into the camera and never away. He doesn't act or play up to a certain image, because the music and lyrics say it all which gives it a very raw sound. These are all genre characteristics which is why they appear in all of the band's videos. The other band members are either not included or they never look at the camera which is indirect address. This direct and indirect address also introduces the notion of looking, the singer looking into the camera creates a relationship with the audience. There is a relationship between music and visuals, because he begins to run as the music speeds up.

This is a typical Coldplay video because it includes most of the features which are usually seen in them, such as the star image motif and performance aspect.

Madonna - Material Girl (directed by Mary Lambert)

Performance/Narrative Based

The idea for this video came from the film 'Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend', so this is a very good intertextuality example because cinema is introduced and stereotypes from that particular film are used.

It is made very clear what film this video is based on, because it is so well-known and Madonna is dressed identically like Marilyn Monroe. The whole video is a recreation of a scene from the film, so Madonna is imitating Marilyn Monroe.                                                                 The notion of looking features throughout the whole video with Madonna directly addressing the audience the whole time. A very carefully choreographed dance makes up most of the video which creates a relationship between music and visuals. There aren't any particular genre characteristics, but the title of the song fits the stereotype used in the video. She is very much the centre of attention, surrounded by men who are all competing to win her over. Her glamorous appearance makes this even more clear. In this video, approximately 60 shots are used in one minute, which shows how much work goes into creating a music video and how many shots I will need to include in my own.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (directed by Jonathon Dayton/Valerie Falis)

Concept/Performance Based

This concept based music video was designed to look like a video game. Some concept videos don't feature the band or artist, but characters for the game were created to be the Red Hot Chili Peppers band members. 
 

The band's logo which looks like a red star, as seen to the left, appears as an icon throughout the video or 'game', which creates a star image motif because this is recognised as their logo. This type of video gains audience engagement on a different level because it allows the audience access to the performer in a much greater range of ways than a stage performance could, or even just a narrative video. There is still a performance element in this video because parts are the band themselves playing the song.

Rihanna - Te Amo (directed by Anthony Mandler)
Performance/Narrative Based


In this video by Rihanna features a very clear relationship between music and visuals, and also lyrics and visuals. Once the pace of the video picks up and the music starts, the shot changes with the rhythm of the music, meaning that a lot more shots are used than in Madonna's video.

VIDEO

In most of Rihanna's videos voyeurism appears throughout, which means the audience is made to look at her in an appealing or sexual way, and the clothes she wears adds to this. Voyeurism is linked to the notion of looking and it features greatly in this particular video, with dancing choreographed carefully to create a relationship between music and visuals. There is a mixture of direct and indirect address used , which together with voyeurism makes the viewer connect with the artist and help them to understand the video. Direct address is also used on her album cover, so there is a link here.

John Stewart's description of the music video - 'incorporating, raiding and reconstructing' is essentially the essence of intertextuality.

Goodwin's prinicpals will appear throughout my own music video in a number of ways. The notion of looking will be included by using mirrors, and although the camper van cannot look directly at the camera because it does not have eyes, by sticking on googley eyes this effect can be created with an element of humour added. A relationship between lyrics and visuals will be seen throughout as things start to go wrong for the camper van, which matches the repeated line in the song "not getting what I want". Music to visuals will also be included as the picture will change on the beat of the music, and change pace accordingly. Close ups of the camper van will be used a lot, as this particular camera shot predominates music videos.

Video Ideas

For my own music video I want to use stop frame animation to create something original that isn't often seen in them. The type of music video would be concept with a twist, because we will be using objects to tell a story. We didn't want to do a performance based video because most people would choose to do that. Our first idea involved using vegetables and taking them on a road trip, where they get stopped by the police for speeding and get sent to prison, and the story would have ended with them escaping. We thought this idea would be too difficult to actually produce so decided to stick with the car on its own going on a trip around a house. Something will happen in each room the car goes into in the house to create the story. The inspiration for this idea came from an advert which involves a gnome travelling around London, although this is not a music video, adapting it to create one will be an exciting challenge.

The car we want to use in the video is actually a camper van, because we thought this would add a quirky edge.

At first we were only going to include the camper van and not have a band feature in the video, but we decided it would be better to also use a band so the viewer can understand what is actually going on in the video. We thought that without the band, it would seem like we made up a random story to match a song we liked.

Obviously we couldn't get the actual band to be involved, so we are going to create our own band and have them 'perform' the song for us to film.

The scenes with the band in won't be stop frame, but actual video footage, so there will be a mix of stop frame and videoing which we think will work really well and match the theme of the video.

Websites

Websites are a way for bands and artists to promote their music, give their audiences information about tours and gigs, sell merchandise and even talk to fans. The websites have to be designed to reflect the particular band or artist, as this helps to establish their brand identity and also tell an audience what type of genre the music is. This is all done through colour, images and typography.


Pixie Lott

Pixie Lott has a very distinctive image and her website helps to display that in order to tell an audience what genre of music she produces. She nearly always wears black clothes and dark eye make-up, which stands out against her blonde hair. The same sort of thing has been created on this website with the pink typography against the black background. The colour pink lets us assume she is a 'girly' girl, which is also reflected in her image.


On the home page the picture above shows all the available features the website offers, such as the ability to watch her music videos, buy merchandise, get tour and gig information and also talk to other fans. There is also access to social networking sites through the website, such as Twitter as shown in the picture below.

The picture above 'Latest News' is the same image that features on Pixie's album cover. By using it here on the website as well helps to create her brand identity along with the colours and typography. Below that to the right appears a window to watch her latest video, which establishes that this is her most recent song release. Also under 'Latest News' it gives dates for significant occasions in her career, like the first play of her new single and the announcement of tour support acts, all promoting her music and album.

Overall this website makes it very clear the type of music genre being promoted and also establishes her particular brand identity. Her audience has the ability through this website to talk to each other as well as to leave comments foe Pixie herself, and also gain access to all of her music just to listen to or watch the videos.


A Day To Remember

 

A Day To Remember is a heavy American rock band and their website makes it obvious that this is the genre of music they produce. The colours are very dark and compared to Pixie Lott, although hers had a black background it was brightened by the pink typography, whereas this one is just dark. The red background is detailed with a pattern that makes it look like wallpaper, reflecting that they are not a stereotypical heavy rock band as one of those would probably just have a plain red background.

The band members themselves do not appear on the website homepage, which suggests that their music is more important than their image or being popular.

Although this website has the same features as Pixie Lott's such as news, access to music and videos and the ability to talk to the band and other fans, there is a lot less going on and the band are actually talking to the audience themselves, so to them it would feel like they are interacting with the actual band members. It also promotes the album very well by making a feature out of that alone on the right of the picture above, stating the album name and then telling the audience 'buy the album' next to it. It is clear that this website was created purely for the music, and that image and popularity is not important to the band.

Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding is a female, British singer songwriter just like Pixie Lott but they are two very different artists which is reflected by this website. Although this one also has a black background, the typography used is softer and doesn't stand out as much, suggesting that she produces a different genre of music which is also shown through other features. Again, pictures of the artist appear all over the website, but these pictures don't portray the same thing as they do on Pixie Lott's website, they are showing that Ellie Goulding has a particularly individual style and image, which is also made clear through the sound of her music.

All the separate social networking and file sharing sites are listed at the top of the page, giving the audience access to her music from different places. Adverts for her latest single and the album feature at the top, telling the consumer to 'buy it now', which is a similarity to A Day To Remember's website.

The overall layout of this website homepage is unusual and not found on many other websites, especially not for bands and artist, however it still manages to promote the album very well and encourages consumers to buy the music, merchandise and gig tickets.

Branding

All types of merchandise such as stickers, flyers, posters and badges can be used to create an individual brand identity for a particular band or artist. These types of product are often sold in record shops such as HMV, because one of the main purposes of that store is to sell CDs, it makes sense to also sell merchandise for the bands and artists there. Also, if the consumer was only going in to purchase something in particular and hadn't intended to buy any of this merchandise, they might be encouraged to. Even clothing is sold in these stores which establish a brand identity of the artist or band as well. All of this can also be found in markets, for example Camden market would sell merchandise for bands that weren't particularly mainstream and popular. Some bands and artists even have dolls of themselves made, like Katy Perry.


It is made clear by this Katy Perry merchandise what her brand identity is - 'girly' and sugary sweet, almost in a naughty but nice way, even the typography on the T-shirt is made to look like candy.

She continued with this theme in one of her recent videos for the song 'California Gurls', where everything is made out of sweets and candy. This merchandise almost sells itself, Katy Perry's biggest fans are going to want the Katy Perry doll, and even if you weren't a huge fan of hers, the clothing could still appeal to different audiences.

Target Audience

Bands and artists of different genres clearly have different target audiences according to style, therefore they probably have different ways of promoting their music due to their target audiences because they may need a certain approach to reach them. This can be done through websites and other promotional material such as television adverts for albums.

The Saturdays

The Saturdays are a typical girl group whose target audience would also be mainly female. To begin with they appealed more to younger girls than anybody over the age of 16, but with their latest album their music and style has matured to reach an older audience. Males may enjoy their music but probably would only like them because of their sex appeal. Currently their website is designed to match the album cover and style of that album.

It is made obvious by this image that the target audience is female because of the colours and typography used, and the overall style of the website page. The way the girls are looking at the camera makes the audience feel like they are actually communicating with them which creates intimacy between the band and the audience. The album name is made clear in a way where it isn't made too obvious that their music is more important than the audience or that they are just trying to sell the album through this picture by it being printed on magazine covers that the band are supposed to be reading. This also links together because headlines are found on the covers of magazines and newspapers, as the word is here. Under 'store', the viewer is also encouraged to buy the album, and they are more likely to do so if they feel like it's the actual band telling them to.

As well as appearing in adverts promoting their own music, The Saturdays are the faces of Impulse bodyspray for girls, and feature in the adverts for the product, giving them another way to reach their audience and allowing the audience to feel like they have a connection with the band if they buy the bodyspray. Fans of The Saturdays might not have bought the product previous to them appearing in the adverts. The picture below shows the girls using the bodyspray themselves.

Paramore

Paramore produce music of a completely different genre to The Saturdays and all together have a different style. Although the band is all male, they have a female singer, so a female audience could still relate to them. Paramores target audience is a mixture of males and females but mostly teenagers because of their image. The music they make matches their image because they use live instruments, unlike The Saturdays who produce music which is more like pop. Just by looking at Paramore's website the viewer can see what genre of music they make. Currently it looks like this:

Just like The Saturdays, the design of Paramore's website corresponds with their latest album cover and theme. The cover for their album 'Brand New Eyes' looks like this:

Although the butterfly wings aren't placed next to the band name on the album cover, they still feature on it which creates the link between the album cover and website design, but adding an extra twist and imagination. Paramore were also part of the soundtrack for the hit teen film Twilight which helped their audience to grow. Because it was the soundtrack for a teen film, this made the majority of their audience teenagers, because this helped them to appeal to them more.

Recently Hayley Williams (the singer) also featured on one of B.o.B's songs which could be considered quite controversial because the style was of a completely different genre. This helped her to be seen as an individual instead of just a female singer in an all-male band, but also helped Paramore's audience to grow.

On the website, the band are encouraging even more people to become part of their constantly growing fan base by communicating with them themselves. The viewer can leave comments on there for the band and talk to other fans, and could even get a reply from a band member. Female fans probably look up to Hayley Williams as a role model and base their own image on her.

The Script

The Script are an Irish band which has three members who are all male. Again, their target audience is completely different to The Saturdays and Paramore. Although their fan base is mainly female because of the lead singer Danny's sex appeal, their music reaches all types of audiences, not a particular one. The often produce songs which appeals to an older audience, but the overall sound would appeal to a younger audience. Just like the other two bands, The Script's website plays a vital part in promoting their music.

The picture at the top of the homepage is on a loop, so it constantly changes. These pictures alternate between photos from the band's gigs and images photo shoots.

Danny recently appeared on the lunchtime chat show Loose Women on his own, because he is the main face of the band and everybody recognises him as the singer from The Script, people wouldn't recognise the other members on their own. The picture on the bottom right is similar to the image that features on the band's new album cover, so there is a re-occurring theme with all of these bands. The website must be of the same design as the latest album to keep it current and up to date.

All three of these bands have clever ways of promoting their music which are very effective. They have all become more popular over time as their music and styles have developed with their image.

Our own target audience is teenagers aged 13 to 16 with a few exceptions, which is a very small age range to be aiming, so ways of reaching this particular audience will have to be clearly thought about in order to be successful with this. Our introduced concept involving the red toy camper van in our music video should target the younger groups in this audience. This along with the genre of music should appeal to the older groups within the audience. This is often the stage when teenagers develop their music preferences and start listening to more guitar-based genres such as Eight Track Stereo (our chosen band).