Evaluation

Evaluation

What Did You Learn From The Audience Feedback?

- Our institution of music give an intended audience of males and females between the ages of 16 – 24. Yet our style and genre of music makes it more appealing to males.
- A main aspect of our video was to ensure that our narrative was easily understood and fitted in well with the concept of the lyrics. From the feedback received we can see how we were successful trying to do this. We have evidence that the audience enjoyed the narrative and commented on how the video and lyrics go hand in hand. The audience believed our video was original and unique. The effects, editing and concepts made the video stand out from other predictable band videos.
Our feedback shows how costume was chosen well to be relevant to the narrative. The police attire and stereotypical clothing of an indie band member was clear to the audience. Yet some criticism shows how the police attire looks similar to a ‘lollypop lady’. It’s fair to say, this is true.

- We received criticism on the lip singing being out of sync. This was only because Louise forgot to mention that the sync would be slightly out on all videos before ours was shown.
We also received criticism on a low angle shot of the police officer looking down. The exposure was poor and was not clear to see the lip syncing. We understand this and know it should have been improved.

- We are happy to know that our video made the audience feel relaxed, convinced, at ease and found the narrative easy to understand.
- From the feedback we understand that our video could have been improved in certain ways and this is something we can take on board. Overall we happy with our final production and are very thankful for the criticism from the audience.

Narrative

- Our group chose The Arctic Monkey's Riot Van due to its simplistic linear narrative.
- We then produced a storyboard that followed this Narrative.
- We interlinked narrative with Lip-syncing but made sure that these sections followed the narrative and added a different Dynamic to the video

Promtion Of The Final Product And Ancillary Texts

- I have promoted my final products with a mise-en-scene of Indie Rock ‘n’ Roll. Images from the final production has been intertwined with the ancillary texts. The front cover of the CD digipak, and the main image on the advert is a shot from the actual music video. This makes the band easily recognisable and portrays a certain style for the band.
- The digipak promotes the image of the band. The artwork gives an impression of their style of genre: Indie Rock ‘n’ Roll. Within the digipak I have provided information on the upcoming songs being released and also information on the band members’ roles and any extra information to do with the album.
- The album advert is a typical form of promotion for a band releasing an album. It contains the information of when the album is being released and how you will be able to acquire the album.
- Both the album advert and the digipak contain information on the record label and band website. This makes it easy for the audience to find out much more information on the band.
- I have created a house style of an Indie Rock Band through the three final products. This makes my band ‘The Kerouacs’ seem realistic and believable for a band trying to be promoted.

Lip-Syncing

Lip-syncing differs in music videos depending on genre and artist. Typically in indie music videos (pictured to the right), the artist is shown close up in a realistic environment. The close nature of the shot highlights the musicians emotion and gives greater importance to the lyrics in the song. A sense of realism is a general rule also as ‘indie’ artist tend to try and promote an image that the audience feels they can emphasize with. We tried to ameliorate this by sticking to the convention of close shot scenes and realism but placing the artist in the video is narrative.

Editing

Whilst editing we tried to Create a video that’s tempo, lighting, colour and overall experience adhered to our video’s genre conventions.

Tempo = we slowed down scenes that involved high tempo movement, such as the running or fighting scenes, so that they didn’t disrupt the songs slow pace

Lighting = We used natural lighting when filming outside so it contrasted with the darker scenes within the jail cell. To created jail bars we made bars of light

Colour = Exterior scenes were changed to black and white to reflect a flashback and to conform to the indie convention. However interior scenes were kept in colour to show it was the present.

Conventions Of The Music Video

- A Simple narrative that reflects the lyrical aspect of the Song
- Feature lip-syncing within the Video
- A video that sticks to the music’s original themes and tempo (editing, costume, lighting)
- Identify a genre that shares similarities with the star image you are trying to project

Conventions Of A Digipak

- Front panel

An image of the artist or in reference to them on the front

A band title or logo that is easily recognisable and visible

Single or album title

- Back panel

Track listing easily visible to the customer

Bar Code and copyright label

Record label

- Inside

Features a Cd

Possibly a small booklet that features lyrics or official photographs of the band

Information on who produced, wrote and performed each track

Conventionts Of An Advert

- Reviews that speak positively of the product

- Where the product can be purchased

- Band name

- Album Title

- Band Website

Digipak

Digipak

This is the front cover of my Digipak. It consists of the same picture which is displayed on my album advert so it is obvious to fans of what album this it.
This has the name of the band clear to see & the name of the album.

This is the inside cover of my Digipak. I have used a picture of cassettes which is retro in these modern times & which also has a relation to music.
The main feature of this cover is that is displays the names of the members of the band & what each member musically plays. It also displays some featured artists which would be well know to the fans.

This is the artwork which will be behind the CD, the picture is a still shot from our music video, it contains two of the main characters in the video.

This is the back cover of my Digipak. I have used a microphone as the main image which also has an relation with music. The bands name is large & clear to see. This cover also contains information to provide to the buyer. This would be the track listing, bonus EP's & website.

Advert

Album Advert

Here is the my final product of the album advert!

This advert is to advertise the upcoming release of 'The Kerouacs' new album 'Youth Of Today'. It shows the release date & how it is possible for the targeted audience to but this album. 

I have used a shot from the music video as I believe it would be recognisable by the fans.

This advert also shows the website of the band & their label 'SHARK Productions'.

Construction

Construction

Here are some photos we took during the shooting of our music video. It shows how we shot the music video, it also displays some angles we used as if it were through the camera.

Also it shows props, preparation & costume. 

Chris holding the camera in a position of shooting

Shot of me on the bed we created using a table

This shows how the shot was filmed, as well as the  angle of the lighting we used

Another shot of how we were filming the music video

This shows how we used cut out card to make the silhouette of jail bars

This shows me positioning the card to have the silhouette effect

This shows the angle we used to shoot part of our music video which was in the jail cell

This shows our attempts of finding the right lighting to use

Another shot of Chris filming

This is the police uniform we were able to use

Planning

Planning

Moodboard

Here is our original moodboard. It involves our bands logo which is highlighted in the centre of the board.
We also have many pictures showing inspirational bands, bands of the same genre, demonstrations of the style our band has aimed for & possible location examples.
The reason for this was to give the audience an idea of what to expect from our music video.

Fonts

These are our examples of fonts which were a possibility to use for our band logo.

Storyboard

This is our storyboard which displays our original ideas of shots and scenes for our music video.

Shooting Schedule

Here is our shooting schedule. It shows what we shot, where we shot it, when we shot it, what we used to shoot it, props, cast & costume.

Location Planning

These pictures display examples of locations of where we were hoping to shoot. Back alleys, city streets & a jail cell. In the music video these become clear as we show active actions in the jail cell, and passive actions through the streets and back alleys. 

Costume & Hair & Make-up Planning

In this picture we have the Arctic Monkeys, who yes were our main inspiration and this relates to the chosen style also. 

We can see a specific style which is very laid back and relaxed. Skinny jeans and a mixture of fashionable clothing such as band tee's, cardigans and jumpers. 

We are also given a sense of their hair and make-up style which is also very relaxed. We have some members with long hair but yet all give a presence of strong heterosexuality.

Props Planning

As our music video contains a police officer chasing drunken and lively youths we needed a police uniform to make it clear to the audience who the characters were. We were able to gain this from the drama department of college. We had a high visibility police coat & police hat. We used regular trousers and shoes to complete the uniform.

We also used cans of beer(which were empty) and cigarettes to show the behaviours of the youths. This also shown the viewers that the youths were drunk and disturbing the peace.

Permisson Letter To The Recording Company of the 'Arctic Monkeys'

Media Studies Department
Yale College
Grove Park Road
Wrexham
01/12/2011

Domino Recording Company
PO Box 47029London
SW18 1WD 

To whom it may concern,
We are a group of A Level Media Studies students at Yale College in Wrexham working on our coursework. As a part of this coursework we are required to produce a promotional music video for an existing track. Please may we have permission to use the track Riot Van by your artist Arctic Monkeys in our video? The video will be submitted to the OCR examination board to be assessed, and will only be shown within the college for academic purposes.

Sincerely,


Ryan Sharkey,
Chris Whitehall,
Ruari Cambell,
Amy Jones

Research Survey

Research Survey

During our lesson we carried out a reseach survey on what genre's and types of music people are interested in. The majority of people were mainly interested in the styles of Rock and Indie bands. This was an influence for our choice as we discovered it has the largest audience.

This is a pie chart displaying the survey results. As we can see the Indie/Rock genre is the dominant one.

We asked many questions such as:
- What genre do you mainly listen to?
- What genre would you find the most appealing when creating a music video?
- What genre is your favourite artist based in?

Storyboard

Storyboard

We were set the task of choosing an already existing music video & analysing shots within the screen. I chose certain shots through the music video to show the narrative as this was our main component of the music video we created.

Here is my analysis:

Storyboard Analysis

The music video I chose to analyse was ‘The Reason’ by Hoobastank. This video is a perfect example to compare to our own music video being created as it has a narrative which fits with the video, we also see how the band members are the main characters involved in the narrative of the film which is a technique we are also using.

I have chosen specific shots throughout the video in my storyboard to give an easy understanding of the story within the video and the plot. The basic plot of this music video is - The band members are a group of thieves and create a diversion (the car hitting the woman) to give them time to break into a store and to steal a very large and valuable ruby.

We see many different shots in different scenes to show emotions, actions and to reveal the characters intentions. We have low angle shots, high angle shots, wide shots, mid-shots, close up shots, long shots, action shots and establishing shots. 

Inspirations

Inspirations

In this post I will be showing you some of the many bands which have made an impact on my personal music taste and which have also inspired our choice of genre, song, style & performance.



Arctic Monkeys

Arctic Monkeys are one of my many personal favourite bands. I admire their style, passion, lyrics, performance & true talent to produce absolute brilliance.

Our choice of song was a song created by the Arctic Monkeys. 'Riot Van' has no music video to go with the song, therefore this gave us the opportunity to create from scratch a video to match the music.

The Arctic Monkeys were our most important inspiration as we based many of our aspects of the music video around them. The song choice of course, as well as the costume & make-up departments which was aimed to give a Indie presence. 

Here are a few other bands which are similar to the Arctic Monkeys in the sense that they're also from the Indie genre which have inspired us on creating our music video:

The Kooks

The Strokes

The Vaccines

 

Kasabian

Although each of these artists come from a similar genre, each artist is completely different with different styles & sounds. I personally hold songs from each of these artists and listen to them regularly, therefore     

     inspired me to contribute a style and performance which has relation to these bands.

History of The Music Video

History of The Music Video

Here is a timeline displaying examples of historic moments which have occurred through different generations which have made a vital impact on the development and features of the Music Video.

1930

Series of cartoon films which encouraged audiences to sing along by "following the bouncing ball."

1930 - 1940

Many artists featured in dramatized performances of hit songs.

1940 - 1949

These were short films of many famous jazz artists and their bands on a movie-set bandstand.

1956 - 1960

The rise of popular music was tied with the rise of television as the format exposed new stars.

1964

The Beatles set the stage for the modern music video with the motion picture "A Hard Days Night."

1981

24hr broadcast means music videos begin to play a central role in music marketing by the mid 1980s

1983

Michael Jackson's most successful and influential video of all time released.

1985

This featured softer music and catered to an older demographic, widening the audience of videos.

1992

Listed in the credits for the first time, directors such as Gondry and Romanek launch careers.

1995

The Jackson's "Scream", costing seven million to produce, is the most expensive music video ever.

2005

Allows people to watch videos online. New artists see popularity rise through internet.

Introduction To My Blog

Welcome To My Blog!

For our A level media coursework we were set the task of creating a music video & several ancillary texts to support. These are displayed in the website I created to display our final products and everything which contributed towards it.