Rough edit of video (before feedback)

Here is our first edit of the music video. This is before we got some constructive criticism and before we changed a few parts with the band shots.

Evaluation Question 2

For this question we have decided to create a video, with us talking over the top. We will have our music video in the background and will put in images of our ancillary tasks throughout the video with us reading through the answer to the question

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We have created a Music Video, Magazine advert and Digipack for the song ‘Friday Nights’ by the’ Pistola Kicks’ who are an indie/alternative genre.

The Cinematography that we used within the video is very stereotypically conventional of the genre, and appeals directly to the target audience. We feel that the close ups of the protagonist’s face (such as when he is drinking the beer) mixed with the high angle shots of the instruments (guitar, bass, drums) are all very effective in attracting the target audience, as they are similar in relation to other comparable texts such as ‘The Killers’ video to their song ‘A Dust-land Fairytale’. Furthermore; black and white coloring is a very typical convention of the indie genre, many videos by ‘The Arctic Monkeys’ and ‘The Pigeon Detectives’ use this technique, and they influenced us to implement the idea into our own work. This is effective because it helps connote the Narrative of the song, and also denotes common themes associated with indie songs and/or videos such as lack of satisfaction, hopelessness and boredom.

We also over-laid some of the instrument shots over others, to help create the experimental style that the indie genre is typically known for. This is also very effective in attracted the target audience.

Mise-en-scène is also used effectively within our video and also linked into our Digipack and Magazine advert to help connote the protagonist’s emotions and character. His costume is very scruffy and represents that he is not bothered about his appearance, which is further denoted by his large beard. This all connotes that he is a very unkempt character, which is again typical of the characters within the indie genre, and would help attract the audience.

Our texts are also very effective in appealing to institutions. The institution we chose to market our Promotional pack was Sony BMG. This is because we researched into other music producers such as EMI, and Sony BMG was much more suited to the indie genre, having produced artists of a similar genre. This would also appeal to the target audience because they would recognize the associated logo with other songs that they like.

In addition to this; the inclusion of screenshots from the video used in the Digipack and Magazine advert is effective in relating all the packages together. Therefore there is a common theme throughout and the audience who have seen the video would instantly recognize the CD and Advert. The themes denoted are similar to other artists work, for instance dejection and loneliness. The link between the three texts is also effective in pleasing the institution. This is because the audience would recognize the link to the video and being more likely to purchase the product.

After uploading our video to Youtube.com and posting it on Facebook, we had some constructive criticism (which was welcomed) from our target audience. We uploaded the original video, but after the responses, we found it necessary to improve some of the scenes and add in some extra footage. The criticism was generally in correlation to the performance shots; the guitar, bass and drum scenes as well as the vocal scenes.

We discovered that not only was the performance not well executed, but also the mise-en-scene was not well planned and could be made better with different locations and well planned costume. After the changes we feel that the combination of the main task and the ancillary tasks is now much more effective, as we can implement the new shots in our research and planning of our ancillary tasks, as well as the ancillaries themselves; rather than images taken from the internet.

Evaluation Question 1

Video feedback

After some constructive criticism of our video (having uploaded it to youtube) we decided to make some changes. We have planned to film some more performance shots of the band to replace the shots we have of the drumming and guitar playing. This is because the mise-en-scene is not very well executed. The fact that the audience realised it was filmed in the school music room ruined the effectiveness of the video. Therfore we will change this to some band shots in a better location with better costume to suit the target audience.

Planning of performance shots

We have planned some of the shots that will be taken tomorrow when the band can play. We have decided to take three cuts, where the band play the song all the way through. The first one will have two different angles of filming from the side of the band and from the front. The second shot will have two different shots, one from an angle from the side facing the drummer, and one from the other side facing the rhythm and drummer. The third will be roaming shots and close ups of the band members and their instruments.

This will give us a huge amount of footage, which we should have done with the rest of the video, and therefore will give us much more footage to edit and choose from. It also means that we will have different angles of the same parts in the song and can choose from which one looks best.

We will need two cameras for this and will book them tomorrow afternoon. We also need to book a place at the Croft (local youth centre) which has a performance room.

Research into indie members

We have researched a number of indie bands, from Paramore to Kings of Leon. Here are some images we thought were inspiring for our own work.

This one we thought was very good for ideas of female indie clothing. There is a female in the band we have found, and it is much harder to choose clothing for females than males. This is because not many other similar texts have female artists within their band. Nevertheless, the clothing is very similar to the males, with skinny jeans and either very dark or very bright tops, along with boots or heels. This is very stereotypical of the indie genre and will help attract the target audience to our video.

This one is slightly different, the female is wearing very bright clothing with leopard print jeans. This is similar to the other shots we have found and we can implement some of the different ideas from this shot into our own costume. The male artists are all wearing similar clothing. With bright colours and tight jeans, this is exactly what we are aiming for with our costume for the band.

This shot is very similar to the others; the female is wearing a checkered shirt and jeans, very stereotypical of the indie genre. The males are also wearing similar clothing to the males in the other pictures. We can implement these ideas into our own work, tight jeans and coloured shirts.

Feedback

After feedback from our video, we realised that the setting and location was not up to standard, at some points one can see that it is filmed in a school music room or in a classroom. This works for the narrative, but for the instrument shots it is completely wrong. This is why we are now getting some extra footage of the band set somewhere else.

We have decided that we need more shots of the band itself within our music video, we have started research into the representation of stereotypical indie bands. The members themselves often wear skinny jeans in black or blue, coupled with tight-fit shirts and skinny ties. This is the look that we are going for with our band and will try and match the mise-en-scene with that of typical indie bands.

Digipack

For the front of the digipack we used an image from the music video which connotes sadness and boredom. There is a close up of a man as the focal point and anchor to the digipack, which would catch the eye of the audience. Furthermore, we positioned the text away from the image, towards the top and to the left. This keeps the focus on the image and then will draw the eye towards the text. This was further influenced by our audience research, most people answered that there should be a link between the mediums. (Music video/Digipack/Magazine advert).

The back of the digipack is another image from the music video. We used this in order to keep the link between the two mediums strong and ensure that the theme does not change throughout. There is still the same denotations and connotations that can be seen throughout the music video and the magazine advert. Those of loneliness, sadness, boredom, repetitiveness etc. This was also influenced by our audience research, the majority of people asked answered that there should be a link between the mediums and that there should be the same denotations and connotations as the music video.

The inside of the digipack is fairly different. We thought that there should also be a link to the band, therefore there is an image of the band playing at a concert/festival. This re-enforces the genre of the music and gives a bit more in terms of color and attraction to the digipack. In addition to this, we put the lyrics over the top. This is due to the answers we received to our questionnaire in our audience research. Almost everyone we asked answered that there should be lyrics within the digipack. On the other side of the inside, we put another image of the band. However this image represents the same themes as the video does. The band are in a tunnel, looking out towards the light. This denotes, again, sadness and loneliness, and connotes that this is what the band is feeling. This is the stereotypical denotation that the target audience could relate to very easily. Finally we put the 'Pistola Kicks' writing underneath, just to bring some reminder that they are the ones in the image.

Reason behind Ancillary tasks

We decided to go with a screenshot from the music video after completing a questionnaire and seeing that this is what most people wanted, a reference to the video. The black and white close up denotes singularity and loneliness, which is a principle theme within the music video. Furthermore; the protagonist denotes boredom and lifelessness. Another common theme that we were aiming for with the music video. We felt that, after looking at similar texts, the layout of the CD cover should be very similar to the magazine advert, and also that it should not have much going on, but attractive font and a large image (screenshot) from the music video. This will really help catch the eye of the target audience.

Magazine Advert complete

Having finished the digipack, we also completed the magazine advert. We made sure that the digipack and the magazine advert were similar, as when we were researching we found that almost all indie/rock artists did this. It also paths a link between the two medium. Here is the magazine advert:

Digipack cover

We have finished the digipack, here is what it looks like.

Front of the CD case:

Back of the CD case:

Inside cover of the CD case:

Inside behind CD cover:
Inside behind CD:

Magazine advert and Digipack almost complete (more influence)

We have been working on our Ancillary tasks these previous few weeks, and have almost completed both of them. All that is left to do is the inside two pages of the digipack.

We got a lot of influence for the magazine advert from some magazines that we looked at. These were the Futureheads advert and another one for Kings of Leon. Here they both are.

 This Kings of Leon magzine advert is almost identical to their CD album cover. The layout influenced our ideas greatly, the text along the bottom for instance, was very helpful. The Amazon.co.uk logo drove us to think about sales, and we implemented the Itunes logo where our single can be bought. In addition to this, the text being towards the top, with the name of the band and the album name together helped us to take the idea and change it to our liking. We ended up having the name of the band 'Pistola Kicks' along the top, but coming from the left (influenced further by the My Chemical Romance CD cover previously). We then put the single name underneath. The text was put away from the image deliberately in order to draw the attention to the image. This is because we really want the image to attract the audience, denoting the typical themes and conventions of the usual indie/rock genre, such as darkness, loneliness and boredom. This is also very similar to how we wanted our music video to look.

This advert for the Pigeon Detectives helped us even further. The 'Brand new album out now' text was drawn into our own work, but rather 'The brand new single'. This will attract the audience, and inform them at the same time of the new song that has been released. It will be especially helpful for fans of the Pistola Kicks, or maybe new-to-be fans that would see this and listen to the song. Moreover; we used the idea for quotes, as seen at the bottom of this advert. We went on the Pistola Kicks' website and used google to find interviews or articles on the band. We then took quotes from these articles and put them on the advert, one we even found from Q magazine.