Evaluation

The task for our A2 Media was to create a music video for a song by an unsigned artist, and then create a Digi-Pack and Magazine Advertisement for this single.

I was to work in a pair for this project however, finding my partner unreliable; I instead chose to work alone at the last minute. I intially found working in a group difficult, having worked alone for the Charity website tak the year previous, and to work alone again was a bit of a sigh of relief because I knew I could rely upon myself.
The first task we had to do was to find a song by an unsigned artist, who would grant us permission to use their single. I was lucky there was a band I had encountered when visiting Sheffield who had never been singed, and had since split. However, three of the four members were now in a new band and very active on social networking sites, so I gained a reply to initial e-mail asking for permission rather quickly. Proof of this can be seen on my blog.

After this, I decided upon the kind of image I wanted my band to portray, and this would remain relevant to all of my products. I decided that the band would have a new feel to them, and with the music sounding similar to bands like the Arctic Monkeys because of growing up in the same area, I wanted my band to be seen in the same light as them.
The song itself was about living in backstreets and pubs when they were young and growing up, so I also wanted to incorporate this into my products where possible.

Having already planned, filmed and edited the majority of one music video. It was my decision that to achieve the top grades which I aimed for, I had to do a music video that was entirely my own idea. I had my song, which was an acoustic song because I didn’t have the time to book a performance area, instruments or find a band. Instead I decided that I would play the guitar myself and my Teacher would film me with the shots I had chosen.
To begin the planning, I drew a storyboard of what I hoped the video would look like but, predictably, there has been changes made from that in the final video. One major difference I wish hadn’t occurred was the fact that in my planning, the singer sat on a beer keg, relating to the name of the song, however finding one of these at short notice, as well as moving it to school, was too difficult to do.
Another change I made was the fact that in my story board, the singer had longer hair than I have. The image I was trying to present usually involved people having longer hair, however it wasn’t possible to find a wig that fitted the description I was looking for.
Another problem I encountered when trying to edit the video according to my story board was that I had been very vague in the shots I had selected, and if I had simply put these shots in, the video in my opinion, would have been slow moving and made it boring. I had already elected to do my video in black and white to relate to the backstreets where the band grew up, and if I had used a few long lasting shots to make up the video, I wouldn’t watch it, and so the audience definitely wouldn’t watch it in its entirety.
When filming, to make it easier to edit later on, I connected an iPod to the speakers in the room where we was filming, so I could match up the music in the video, to the actual track and therefore make the lip syncing easier to achieve.
Because I would now be in the video, I needed someone else to film it, and I chose my teacher, for a number of reasons. Obviously he has knowledge around the subject and would give constant feedback on the camera shots, and how they went with my acting.
Another problem we encountered was because we were filming in a classroom in front of the green screen, children kept coming in which sometimes disturbed the lighting which had been set up, as well as me. It also turned very warm in the room because of the spot lights that were focused on me, and I was wearing a t-shirt, jumper and jacket, which didn’t help the conditions, so I had to made sure I didn’t use close ups with a drop of sweat sliding down my forehead.
But apart from that, everything went according to plan. I made sure we filmed the entire song for each shot, so if I needed more when it came to editing, I had plenty to choose from. I learnt this lesson from the website I made the previous year, when I took a camera out to take images for the website. But I didn’t have a clear idea of what images I wanted and ended up not having anything that I needed, or anything usable and relative to the website, so I ended up going out three times in order to take pictures for the website before being finally happy with the ones I had taken.
For editing, we used the Final Cut Pro software on Apple Mac’s, which were very different to the PC’s I was used to using, especially with the saving arrangements enforced upon us by our teacher. If we were to save something outside our own personal folder, it would be deleted at the end of the week, so I had to be very careful not to save anything anywhere but in my folder. Although there are a few differences in the interfaces of the computers I was used to using, and the Mac’s, I found it fairly easy to get used to the major differences that would hinder my progress.
The super impose effect was one I found fitted my video very well. Instead of cutting to a frame solely for the picture I wanted to show, I could super impose it over the video, to make it seem as if the singer is thinking about the image, remembering it from the past.


For the advertising poster, I wanted it to relate loosely to the video, but still be unique. Sticking with the theme of urban back streets, I sketched a couple of simple designs out for me to model the final product on. The first design involved an actor rested against a JCB digger on a building site, with the picture being taken from behind a fence. The aim of this was to use the building site as a way of representing the youth of today breaking in to places, they shouldn’t be, represented by the bars. The purpose of the building site is to show the backstreets of the city, in juxtaposition to the built up areas commonly associated with big cities. When made in Adobe’s Photoshop, I was able to near enough recreate my design exactly how I wanted it due to the school I attend currently undergoing building works. I asked permission of the head teacher if I was allowed to use the sight as a location and he was okay for me to take pictures on there, as long as we didn’t touch or move anything on the site. I also downloaded a font from www.dafont.com, which I thought fitted the urban look more than the preset fonts on the program. The feedback I received for this product was very positive, with many people saying “the look fitted the sound of the band,” and it was “eye catching” which is always essential when trying to shout out to viewers to buy the single. Some people however thought there was a bit “too much going on” for it to be a advertisement, and that the focus was on the picture rather than the band name and their song title.
The second design involved a typical bandit machine in a stereotypical English pub. I wanted to use this to relate to the alcohol obsessed youth Britain is now known for across the world. I wanted to include an empty beer glass on top of the bandit, to show people had been drinking and gambling there. The bandit, associated with bars also relates to the title of the song, which links to beer.
Initially the feedback for this wasn’t as positive as it was for the first design. I was told there was too much empty space that could be put to better use, and the font had no real placing and looked like I had put it where it was without any thought.
To combat this, I took a close up of the buttons on the bandit and decided that instead of using the entire machine. The bright colours that contrast each other make it easily recognisable as a bandit, and I chose to take pictures of the buttons to again make it easy for the reader to recognise what it was. By only using a small proportion of the machine, there was no empty space around the edges and the bright colours made it more eye catching. I chose to use the same font I had used for the first design, because I wanted to emphasize the urban look of the band, and the font presents this well. I had learned from the website I made in my AS course that it was essential to use a font that linked to what you was trying to say, rather than settling for one that isn’t really what you want.
The feedback I received for this final design was more positive, with people saying it was eye catching and that the bandit showed what the British youth of today had become.
To offer an alternative from the urban look, I decided my final poster would offer a different image of the band. I used beige and blue stripes, which I thought were fairly nice colours to show the band don’t make unfriendly music. It also relates to popular colours of clothing worn by the genre the music is aimed at. I made the image in the bottom of the poster white, to match the white font I had elected to use in the top half of the advert. The aim of the image was just to show that the band were like any other people, and I chose to get an image of some friends just sat around enjoying themselves in an attempt to link the audience to the band. I didn’t want to use black on the advert at all, because although it may stand out more, I thought it would contrast with the beige and blue too much and make it look dirty. I found the white, a lot more neutral with the colours, but the feedback I received didn’t match this opinion. They thought the white font “blended in too much and made it hard to read from a glance.” Despite this, I chose to stick to what I thought because I was certain if I was to change my font to a darker colour, the advert would look worse.
After viewing all of the feedback, I came to the conclusion that my first design was the one I wanted to use as the band’s advertising poster. I thought the feedback I received from this was very preferential to this design, and it was a personal favourite, mainly because it was the one I had modelled on my opinion of the bands look and sound. Instead of having the bands name across the whole of the bottom half of the poster, I chose to put it in one corner, mainly because I thought this made it a little less ‘in your face’ and a bit more professional.I also opted to use the rule of thirds, because making picture's agree with this rule make them look more proffesional.

For my digi-packs, I was keen to keep a theme running through with the advertising poster. To plan out the designs, I near enough used the same images as I did for the advertising poster. To start of with, I needed to know how it would all piece together, and for this I used a template from the internet, just to show me where I should put the front, back and tray sides. These were just really rough sketches because I knew what pictures I wanted to use.
The second task was getting the images, and this again was a tough task because the previous year, I had obtained a lot of images I thought were no good, where as this time, I got less pictures, but took more care that they were ones I could use. These were the same images I took to use for the advertising poster.
I also used the same font I downloaded to keep continuity throughout the theme.
I am happy with how my product turned out because I think it looks like a professional digi-pack that wouldn’t look out of place on the shelves of record stores. I also used specific shots like mid-shots and close ups, to emphasize different subjects in the images; these rules were also learnt in the planning stages of my charity website.

In conclusion, I am happy with all of my products as I think they resemble products from the genre of music, and image of band I’m trying to promote. I also think by using an actor rather than the singer resembles work done by the Arctic Monkeys and Reverend and the Makers, both who come from the same city and area as my band. The style of music as well relates back to the images used on the products, and the black and white of the video, adds to the effect of grungy city streets.

Final Advertising Poster

Here is my final advertising Poster. It is made to fit half a page in a typical magazine such as "Q" or "NME."

I have kept the theme with the final digi-pack by using the same picture and font. I thought that if i kept the same theme, someone who had seen the poster would immediately recognise the CD case if they went into a shop looking for it. However, i changed the size of my font because I felt that when the font stretched all the way across the screen, it looked a bit too big, and took a lot of attention away from the image. The boy, in both the poster and on the front cover of the digi-pack represents the singer, who also feels alone, and the bars are there to represent his personality locked away inside him, for fear of upsetting other people.

Final Digi-Pack

Here is my final design for my digi-pack.

As you can see, it is very similar to the design, and this is due to mostly positive feedback being received. However there were a few things I decided to change, one of these being the angle of which the photo of the bin was taken. I found that if I took a picture of it straight on, the sun's glare off the metal made it difficult to distinguish it as a bin. Where as by taking the picture from above, it is easily seen as a bin, and the cigarette tray on the top also adds to the dirtiness. I also chose to take an angled shot of the beer pumps, simply because a shot straight on wasted a lot of room in the picture and looked very boring. I have however, kept the big lettering, the JCB and the names of the band because they were the good points picked out in the feedback i received.

Schedule Sheet

Setting

• Media Room, booked for after school Tuesday 2^nd March, 3pm – 4:45pm

Camera/Lighting Equipment

• Spotlights x3
• Camera, booked for Tuesday 2^nd March, 3pm – 4:45pm

Cameramen

• Media teacher to film the performance, Tuesday 2^nd Mark, 3pm – 4:45pm

Props and Miscellaneous

• Guitar, brought from home on the day of the performance
• iPod brought from home on the day of the performance
• iPod connection to speaker system
• Clothing worn to match the genre of the song

As well as this, I had to arrange to take some still images which I could watermark on top of the video. These were:

• People Dancing
• Face of an attractive girl
• Face with mascara running down it from the eyes

Editing then took place in the two lessons I had which were given for video editing. I also used the media facilities in various lunchtimes and after school sessions to ensure the video would be finished in the two weeks I allocated for editing the video.

The two weeks stretched from the 4/3/2010 until 18/3/2010.

Advertising Poster Planning

To begin the planning for my advertising poster, I sketched up some initial designs of what my posters could look like. I wanted to keep a very visible link with the digi-packs, but also make the design unique.

Design 1

For the first design, I used to same slot machine that I had used on the cover of one of my digi-packs. The aim of this really was to keep the same theme running through the two products. I hoped the colours of the slot machine would help the advert jump of the page and catch reader's eyes.

Feedback

• Colours would be good when coloured in
• Too much wasted space
• Theme links well
• Clear link to Digi-pack

Design 2

I decided to venture away from the digi-pack design for my next product, just to freshen it up, and make sure people know it is two separate products. When conducting research into links between the two, I found that although bands liked a theme running through, the products very rarely were identical. This poster is of a sign previously saying keep of the grass, however I chose to change the words to the band name, song title an release date.

Feedback

• A bit bare
• No direct link to digi-pack
• Doesn't fit the image of the band
• Too basic, doesn't look professional.

Design 3

My third and final design involved using the same theme as one of my digi-pack designs, through the use of the same setting and props; i.e. the JCB. I made the writing big at the bottom, to stand out, especially the name of the band so grab peoples attention. All the writing is in the bottom half of the page, so no attention is drawn away from the image.

Feedback

• Good link back to digi-pack
• A little too much going on
• Big writing stands out
• Eye catching
• Song title needs to line up with band name.

Music Video Brainstorm

To begin the initial planning for my music video, I created a spider diagram just listing my ideas and some details about what they would need/involve.

Here are the three ideas I came up with for my Music Video:

Idea 1 Narrative

The first idea was to do a video without any performance by the band at all. The narrative would tell the story of a man who feels he is being messed around by a girl he likes. I would want her wearing too much make up and not enough clothes, to show her low class. The man would look constantly fed up, as she drags him around and then dances with every other bloke she sees. The locations for this would be on streets and in night clubs, however, I would have to film at night when there are people out, to make it believable that she has gone out. I would also need a lot of actors to be the men she flirts with, as a girl randomly flirting with strangers could lead to complications. The meaning of this video is to show what the song is about clearly to the audience.

Idea 2 Narrative and Performance

This video would follow a similar storyline to the first one however be more simple as there would be less time to fill. For the narrative half of the story, I would shoot it from the mans point of view, so the audience can relate to him more, and show the woman for what she really is. It would all take place in one bar where the band would be performing in an "open-mike" night, to show they are not the global superstars they crave to be yet. The fact that they're performing in a bar shows that they are still in the early days of their careers, trying to spread their name.

Idea 3 Performance

For my final idea, I wanted to just do a performance video. These have worked well for many bands throughout the years, by using the band to connect with the audience. By just having the singer in the video, it would be as if he is singing to the audience, making the song sound personal to him. The video would either be filmed out in the streets with drunken happenings going on in the background, or in front of a green screen. To link the performance to the song, I would cut to short shots of what the singer is singing about, for example someone crying and mascara running when the lyrics "mascara runs down her cheeks" is sung.

As part of my planning for my digi-pack, i drew up some very basic designs of ideas. These can be seen below.

The first design is of a man stood up against a JCB on a building site. The back has the band members names to show who the song is by with a picture of a bin, to show the dirty environment they have grown up in. When opened up, there is a picture of a t-bar of beer's, used in bars to save space rather than having individual pumps. This is to link to the meaning of the song.

Feedback

• Lots going on and very eye catching
• Images fit the image of the band
• Names introduce the band to the public
• Would like to see more done with the band name and song title on front cover

For my second design, I wanted a professional looking album cover, and so there wasn't a phot used, rather an image of the lead singer, in front of a blue and beige background, with the name of the band and song wrote in big letters behind him. When opened up, the theme is continued with the disk tray and inside cover, which is all beige and blue apart from the band name and song title in small letters.

Feedback

• Colours contrast well to give an old style effect
• Lead singer maybe should be left out or the whole band should be used
• inside looks a little bare

For my final design, I really wanted to emphasize the pub nature described in the song. For the front cover, i chose to design a bandit typically found in English pubs, with a beer pump on the back cover. On the inside, there is the disk tray and a close up of a packet of crisps, which is a common pub snack. The design on the tray hasn't scanned well because I didn't make the pencil lines bold enough.

Feedback

• Theme relates to band and song well
• Too much empty space on the front cover
• Band and song name don't stand out enough
• Get rid of the empty space around the crisp packet

Storyboard

As part of my music video planning, I created a storyboard for the music video. Due to a fault with blogger, the storyboard is in reverse order, so you have to read it from bottom to top. Apologies for the inconvenience

The Song

Italics denotes shot.

Singer appears and begins to play guitar.
Bitches and glances - Midshot of singer
Rough romances
I'm sorry if I caught your eye
What is she wearing? - Close up
That's a bit daring!
Oh please put away those thunderous thighs...

Do you see what I see? - Longshot of
He's looking straight at me as if I've done something wrong
And I looked at his missus - Cut to shot of tarted up woman
High heels, pink lipstick
Won't be for very long
Oh I won't be for very long - Cut back to singer, midshot.
- Shot of guitar
But I'm alright they all cried - Longshot of singer
As they stumble down the stairs
I'm just finding no inhibitions - Close up of singer
No rhythm worries or cares
And you're unstoppable now - Cut to shot of people dancing
Moving on the dance floor
You're unstoppable the world is at your feet if only for tonight
- Shot of guitar frets and fingers of the singer.
I was just passing you dancing - Longshot of singer
You asked me to walk to the floor
Where are we going?
Stop tooing and frowing - Close up
Don't ask me cos I don't know
You tried to control her
I can't control her
Mascara runs down her cheek - Cut to shot of girl crying
Call 'em a bastards - Close up of singer
Oh when plastered they'll be back together next week
By the end of next week - Midshot

But I'm alright they all cried - Longshot
As they stumble down the stairs
I'm just finding no inhibitions - Close up
No rhythm worries or cares
And you're unstoppable now - Cut to dancers
Moving on the dance floor
You're unstoppable the world is at your feet if only for tonight - Close up of singer
If only for tonight

Ooh no - Shot of guitar
When they've had too much - Close up
Everybody wants her
Everybody wants him
Oh just a faintest touch
The bouncers shout to the screams on top of the bar - Longshot
And the crowd disappears as the police arrive
And throw the thugs in the back of the car - Close up
Yea it all comes part of the package - Midshot
Front row viewing at no extra cost
Just fill 'em up with the barrel
Now you've lit the fuse so watch the fireworks go off

Roll out the barrel
Bring out the barrel
Roll out the barrel
Don't bring out the barrel now
- shot of guitar for the solo
Roll out the barrel - close up
Bring out the barrel
Roll out the barrel - longshot
Don't bring out the barrel now
- fade to black

Whats the song about?

The song was written by Milburn to show the atompshere in modern day clubs. In the opening verses, the typical English ladette is described with the "thunderous thighs," "high heels," and "pink lipstick." They also describe how after a drink or two, most lads will agree to anything involving a girl, as they describe the fact that "everybody wants her" despite her appearance. Tom Carnall, Milburn's lead singer who wrote this song, also describes the hostility show by many men who catch people looking at their girlfriends, who may well be going around flirting with almost every bloke in the club, but the boyfriend turns a blind eye to that. This song tells the tale of Carnall, who once in a club found himself caught in a vicious love circle, and this song shows his point of view, as well as what he imagines the other people in the club to be thinking as fights break out of girls who wind lads up as a hobby.

Permission

To gain permission to use the song I wanted, I emailed ex-lead singer of Milburn, Tom Carnall, to ask for permission.


This was the E-mail I sent to Tom Carnall:

Dear Tom,

My name is also Tom, and I'm writing to you to ask for permission to use one of Milburn's songs; "Roll of the Barrel" for my A-Level Media Coursework.
I know you have since split with the rest of the band, and am unsure as to who has the rights to give permission of the use of the song out, but as you wrote it, I thought it would be best to ask you.
Our task is to make a video, digi-pack and advertising poster for our chosen song, and this will only be used for exam purposes.

Regards, Tom O'Brien.


To which he replied:

Dear Tom,

Im honoured you would choose Milburn's song to use, and after consulting the other members of Milburn who I remain on good terms with; we are more than happy for you to use our song.
All the best for your exams.

TC

Representation

Laura Mulvey - The "Gaze Theory"

Shows the way different people are represented in videos. For feminists, this can be seen in 3 different ways:
How men look at women
How women look at themselves
How women look at other women

Features of this theory include the camera lingering on the curves of a woman's body, and the events which occur to women are usually presented from a male's point of view. This shows women more as objects than people.

Some of the effects on the media of this theory could be:
Hypodermic syringe – women are changed by ideas given to them
Cultivation theory – slower effect –Passive audience
Two step flow – passing information from people
Use of gratification - active audience – one of the four reasons
Servalience
Identification
Socialisation
Entertainment or escapism


Some video's which show this are:
· Sexy chick – David Guetta
o Women in swim suits
o Close ups of there curves
o Up shots of them
o Girls dancing seductivly in the back ground
o Cuts to shots of girls in bakini's
o Photos of the girls
o Shows him controlling you
o Men looking at women

· Hotel room - Pitbull
o Stars straight way focusing on women curves
o Low cut, tight or skimpy outfits
o Has women going for him
o Has lots of women pawing at him
o He has the power
o Girl brakes in to confront him but he pushes her out showing his power.