Our final music video (Odd Shaped Head - Corpse in the Kitchen)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BBI6XiPrv0

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

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

Our promotional materials have been produced with our demographic in mind, created using conventions of the post-punk revival genre to best capitalise on what style of promotion has been proven to be successful. The tongue-in-cheek camp humour seen in our video (akin to that of The Libertines or The Darkness) carries over to our Digipak, although no actual image from the video has been used. This has been done as it better promotes the theme, as to have people on a Digipak slide would undermine the outlandish, unrealistic tone we were trying to achieve. In the Digipak, we used Photoshop quite extensively to make a product that was unachievable through conventional means, making the Digipak look more professional.

Using vibrant colours in our Digipak not only makes the materials stand out from other indie band’s Digipaks, but it also uses colours that were popular in our questionnaire of our market. The video itself is also tailored for our market in that its light-hearted theme is popular with our market and fits conventions set out by the post-pink revival genre.

The front and back covers for the band are seen at the top left and right, while the poster for the song is underneath.

The poster we made combines elements from the front cover (titles) and the back cover (blurred figures and translucent police tape) to create a poster that would be recognisable to people that have seen one and can then associate the images with the others. The newspaper used on the front is continued on the inside of the Digipak. The reason this was not used on the poster was it would be too much visually and we didn't want to overuse the theme too much as it is used extensively elsewhere. We chose to emulate a TV news ticker to solidify the media theme, especially since the camera and presenter overlay it. The choice of wording "case opens" is a more light-hearted way of saying the song is released and is more fitting with the theme.



The other slides in the Digipak have a different colour sceme to the others; red and orange as opposed to different shades of green. We did this as I did the outside coers and the poster while Jack did most of the inside covers. If we didn't change the colour sceme, the greens could have been slightly off, making the whole product look tacky. Another reason we did this was it would give the buying customers an alternate view on the band with the new colours, making them feel like they've seen something other people hadn't. We felt the use of silhouettes the whole way through the Digipak was effective as again it keeps the unrealistic tone. Concealed identity is a convention of the post punk revival genre, one which we adapted for our own use.



Here are the three inset slides of our Digipak.





Here are two examples of concealed identity being used by real bands. The first is The Futureheads' self titled album, while the latter is The Phones - Two Hearts, Two Heads.

Our promotion would  be focused mainly on the internet. Traditional media, such as television, magazines and radio, give little exposure to small bands, especially on a nationwide scale. Conversely, the internet opens up our promotional materials to a much wider audience that would not have heard our song otherwise. The chance of a breakout hit is much higher on the internet, too, as demonstrated by the Arctic Monkeys back in 2005. Our demographic spend more time  on the internet than other age groups, and so we feel this method of advertising would be most appropriate.

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Early audience feedback

The first audience feedback we collected was in the form of twenty questionnaires completed by my form group, both genders between the ages of 11 to 17. A facet of note from the answers was the want for a simple narrative. We chose to adhere to the idea as that would be inclusive of more of the audience and sub plots are difficult to pull off in a couple of minute time frame.  The two favourite genres of film from the questionnaire were thrillers and comedies. We took this into account by using conventions of both, such as differing camera angles, foreshadowing of the corpses and an entertaining blend of narrative and performance. This easy to follow approach was the basis behind the sharing of common themes between many of the Digipak covers, as to not confuse the audience and make the whole product seem more self contained.

Our ideas pitch pulled up some issues with our initial ideas regarding the logistics of how we were actually going to make the video. While the ideas were not bad unto themselves, they were simply too difficult to produce given our lack of time, budget and experience. Our final idea took this into account being being linear in its structure, streamlining both the filming and editing processes.

Feedback from my Media class and other peers of a similar age

The video itself was received mostly positively. While it was commented that the shots we used were particularly amateurish, however the editing and feel of the piece were well received with the conventions used being clear. The Digipak was taken very positively. Aspects such as the composition and placement of images were rated highly, the theme came through clearly and consensus was that we used Photoshop very well. What we learned from this feedback is that we should have put more thought into planning the video, as although the foundations for a good video were laid, more polish was needed to make something resembling a professional production. The gulf in quality between the video and Digipak could be ironed out if the video were to be refined.  

Feedback from a Year 10 class

Around 10 students from a Year 10 class watched our video and looked at our Digipak. The feedback was similar to what my Media class said; however they were less scathing towards the video than my class were. This may be due to them taking the video as a whole rather than looking for more technical aspects. From this, I have learned that cinematography may be less of a deciding factor in whether a younger individual likes a music video than the content.  

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Music video

We feel our music video mixes conventions from several genres to successfully combine narrative and performance elements. For example, we used Lévi-Strauss's "Binary Opposition" theory in our video, but added themes from the post-punk genre to keep the mood light and better match the fast pace of the song.

Binary Opposition is where the viewer is left in no uncertain terms that the good characters are good, and the evil characters are evil. We did this by showing the good characters engaging with each other and enjoying themselves, juxtaposed by the band who are static and stifled in comparison. Putting a positive spin on a convention of horror makes the video more appropriate for our intended audience.

The conventions behind the interaction between the characters and the song are manipulated to draw the viewer into the video. Since the characters interact with certain lines in the song (eg. "There's been a homicide") it suspends the viewer's disbelief and makes the storyline seem as if it was happening in real time. The blending of illustrative and amplification elements makes our storyline presentation less jarring as the viewer may project themselves upon the emotionally ambivalent characters.

Digipak and poster

Our Digipak and poster follow most of the conventions of promotional artwork of the post-punk genre. My research and planning has shown that similar artists rarely use images of the band in their artwork, so we followed suit. We used Photoshop extensively to create images that were recognisable to our audience, but kept some of the abstract colours typical of genre to keep the artwork interesting.

A packaging convention we have not used is a barcode on the back cover. We planned for the CD to come packaged in a cardboard cover which would have the barcode on it. The barcode was removed as it looked out of place on the green striped background.

In terms of framing on the covers, we have followed conventions as we felt little benefit in changing a universally used format. The front cover has both the band and track name with some bordering, while the back cover has a track listing and a different border style.

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Software:

Unsigned

We found a song to use as a basis for our music video using Unsigned. The advantage of using this website is that all artists featured are unsigned, meaning we won't be sued by a record label for using their song. We emailed the band asking for a response to our video, but as of yet they haven't replied.

Odd Shaped Head's Unsigned profile.

Facebook

We used social media to host our music video and Digipak. We did this a large proportion of the users of Facebook are of the age of our target audience, and so their feedback is very valuable to us. Although the band do have a fan page on Facebook, it has been inactive since 2009. Regardless, we posted a link on their page anyway in the hopes that one of their fans watch it and gives us some feedback.

Odd Shaped Head's Facebook fan page, which has 51 likes.

YouTube

YouTube was used extensively in the research phase of our production. We used it to find existing music videos for use as inspiration, and any other video of note I found was posted on my blog for reference. As well as posting full videos, the screen shot tool on Windows was used to capture still images that were captioned to provide an example for the written text. We used YouTube to host our music video and had the ability to both post the URL and embed the video onto other websites. YouTube also proved useful in finding tutorials on how to do certain things, such as creating the striped background, in Photoshop.

Blogger

Blogger hosts all of my Media coursework, from the preliminary research to the final product. There are many advantages of using Blogger over paper to collate coursework. Firstly, every entry to the blog can be easily edited with pictures and videos from any computer, negating the need for USB sticks to transport work between computers. Comments can be posted directly onto the blog, making their content more direct in a manner that can't be lost or damaged. The blog can be accessed by anyone at anytime online, making feedback easy to collect. The posts are catagorised by date added, so it easy to sift through dozens of posts to find one specifically.

Adobe Photoshop CS6

We used Photoshop to create and compile graphics which became our Digipak and poster. I started with very little knowledge of the software, but through experimentation and tutorials, I ended up quite good with the basic tools by the end. Photoshop allowed us to create a Digipak which I thought was to a very high standard.


iMovie

iMovie was used to store and edit our footage and song together into the music video. Progress was slow to begin with but quickened as we got a grasp of how the software worked. The software also exported the finished product onto a USB stick where it could be uploaded.

iTunes

We used iTunes very briefly; to import the song from Jack's phone so it could be used in iMovie.

Prezi

We used Prezi to create our ideas pitch. We used Prezi as we felt the aesthetic was much cleaner than that of say Powerpoint or SlideShare.

Hardware:

Sony camcorder/tripod

We filmed all of our footage on a Sony camcorder. Although the visual quality of the camera was not what we would of liked, its one button start/stop recording onto an SD card made the camera handle well. The tripod was used to stabilise our footage where able, some shots were too close to the floor or at too much of an acute angle for it to be used.

iMac

We used an iMac as they had the software on them we needed to create our video, namely iMovie and iTunes. Luckily, we didn't have a problem with its differences with Windows as we used Macs in a similar manner for AS Media last year.

Response to our Digipak

We have shown our Digipak to a year 10 class and gathered some responses. On the whole, they really liked the colour scheme and layout of the material. Since they hadn't heard the song, it was hard for us to ask how well the materials linked to the song. However, the theme of lighthearted tongue in cheek crime came through to them which was one of our aims of the Digipak. We felt we used conventions of the post-punk genre effectively and that was a reason behind the success of our Digipak.

Corpse in the Kitchen digipak

Front cover

Back cover

Poster

Slide 1

Slide 2

Slide 3

The shoot - clothing

Many of the actors starring in the video (everyone besides the band who came early) did not know they were going to be in the video. We chose not to tell them beforehand so they came dressed as they would for a party without any intervention. This gives the video some authenticity as the characters are dressed appropriately.

Jamie - jumper and black jeans.

Matt - polo shirt and jeans.
Jack - grey jumper and jeans
Chris - black polo shirt and jeans 

Tyler - grey jumper and jeans
Amy - black shirt with cardigan and jeans

Ben - t-shirt and jeans

The shoot - lighting (and reasoning behind some shots)

As the video is set in a house at night, we had the curtains closed with the main lights on. This had multiple effects; one being the setting looked more natural for the characters, and the lighting was easier to control.

Even through we kept the lighting natural, we used some techniques to make some shots more interesting. For example, in the narrative section, the lighting got progressively more and more dark. This was done by starting off with the main light on, then just lamps in the room, and finally just the glow of the TV. This was done to show the passing of time and to be a metaphor for the worsening situation for the characters and the changing from a party atmosphere to one more serious.

A screen shot of a scene early in the video...

...and another from near the end. Although it is hard to tell (with the screenshot being taken with a cameraphone off of the Mac's screen), the latter is noticeably darker. 

The shots also reflect this shift in tone in the video, in both the performance and narrative aspects. The narrative section started with more high angle and longer shots that gradually turned to mid/close ups and low angle shots as the video wore on. This highlights the dwindling numbers of the characters and introduces almost a sense of claustrophobia to the audience.

The more common low angle shots are reflected in the performance aspect, but the lighting is constant to show the band are fearless. Their fate is hinted at during the chorus shots of the feet of the corpses framing the shot as the darkness of their shoes slowly fill in the frame. This ends with Ben and Jamie's characters legs filling the rest of the frame in the last scene.

The chorus after Tyler's character dies

And the final shot in the house where Ben and Jamie step in front of the camera. There is a shot preceding this where Tyler's and Amy's legs frame the shot, but I don't have a picture available of that. 

The only shot that we had to utilise the lighting in a more complicated way was the "we did warn you not to hear" scene. The homage to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody poster was the only piece of intertextuality we included in the video. We did this to emulate the seriousness and emotion of the line in the song whilst staying upbeat with the reference. We emulate the framing of the shot, a three shot from a slightly low angle with the tallest person in the middle, all looking down their nose at the camera slightly. As for the lighting, I had to hold a torch pointing up from the floor to provide the underside lighting we needed.

The shoot - props

We kept props to a minimum to keep the video looking realistic in relation to the location it is set. We used the following props:

• A deck of cards - used in early scenes to give Tyler's character a motive to go to the kitchen (following the game of Ring of Fire we set up).

• Bottles and cans - used to make the set look more authentic to that of a party and to provide a basis to film cutaways.

• Glasses - Filled and got gradually drank as scenes went on to give a sense of time frame and activity in the video. It shows that when the performance scenes are on screen, the party in the sitting room is going on at the same time.

• Larger bottles - Again, they serve the same purpose as the glasses, but they are also held by the characters in some scenes to give a focal point in the frame during the narrative scenes.

• The iPod and dock - Used in the first scene of the video and tells the audience that all of the events of the video happen within the few minutes that the song takes to play through.

• The instruments (drums,guitar and microphone) - They make the video look more authentic and allowed us to follow the conventions of the indie genre in terms of band shots easily.    

The Notorious B.I.G. - Duets: The Final Chapter CD cover analysis

Duets: The Final Chapter is a rap album released in 2005, 8 years after The Notorious B.I.G. was murdered. The conventions of the rap genre are present, yet they are presented in a more solemn and respectful way than usual.

The message of the cover is that Biggie is finished with the industry and is fed up with all of the controversy surrounding him. This has been done through his tired eyes and his image being made up of, and surrounded by, newspaper stories. The use of the askew crown is telling; as it shows he is still the greatest but his heart isn't in it in the same way anymore. If the crown was upright, it would be more fitting of the arrogant, egotisical figures typical of the rap genre.

The only colour other than black and white used is red, which has connotations of anger and violence. The red leaks into his eye, implying that these stories and the rap game have physically hurt him. The font used is bold and sans serif which is complementary to Biggie's deadpan expression. Similarly to the crown, the text for the album and artist's name are slanted. This continues the theme of dejection and imperfection.    

Promotional materials

Since our song and music video are marketed towards teenagers and young adults, it makes most sense that our promotional materials are appealing to that group.

Our front and back cover used the same background, light and dark horizontal green stripes. This colour scene was chosen as it is easy on the eye and contrasts with the black, yellow and pink used elsewhere on the covers.

Throughout the materials, we aimed to keep a consistent theme in terms of colours, images, fonts and how the ban/song are represented. The newspaper headlines, silhouettes and police tape on the front and back covers have a tongue-in-cheek quality to them, expanded upon in the Digipak.

The light and dark green stripes from the covers and poster became red and orange stripes in the booklet. This was done for some visual variety and the red and orange contrasted better with the usually white newspaper headlines we used.

How small bands have used promotion to earn success - The Arctic Monkeys Story

While one of the more well known rags to riches stories, how the Arctic Monkeys promoted themselves in the early days shows the influence the internet can have.

AM circa 2005 - all of the members were still teenagers

Starting as many do, the Arctic Monkeys played small venues in their home town, Sheffield. The band gave away CD's to all of the audience members which gained them popularity; not only with their small fanbase but allowed their influence in the local area to spread. This made them stand out from the dozens of similar bands in the area. The Arctic Monkeys became more and more popular through word of mouth, with hundreds of fans singing along with songs that were not officially released yet.

MySpace - an early social media site that focused itself on attracting bands to create pages.

Along with giving away CD's, the band had their own MySpace page. The page had links to all of their songs and gave fans the option to download all of them for free. The band spoke to their fans daily from this page with information such as gigs, song releases and just chatting informally on a personal level. Such vigourous self promotion led to the Arctic Monkeys making their first TV appearance (on Jools Holland) before they had a record label and before their first album came out in 2005.

A screenshot of the early Arctic Monkeys MySpace page

In the months following their first TV appearance, the band signed up to Domino Records, who had signed Franz Ferdinand shortly beforehand. The hype surrounding the band led to their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, becoming the fastest selling debut album in British music history, selling 360,000 copies in its first week.

Actor list from our video

The following all had an on screen role in our music video:

The "band":

Jack Burton - lead vocalist (and other half of my media group). We chose him to be the singer as he knows the song and so it would save time during the shoot as he already knows the words to mime. 

Chris Gent - drummer. We chose him to be the drummer as he looked the most natural out of the three, being the most physical. What he lacked in drumming talent, he made up for with enthusiasm. 

Matt McQueen - guitarist. We chose him to play the guitar as he plays it in real life where the other two do not,  making him look the most natural (as well as it being his left-handed guitar so it made sense). 

The "victims":

Tyler Bailey - the first victim. We chose him to go first for several reasons. The first was practicality in regards to editing. As he was the tallest person available to us, it gave us more to pan upwards on later in the video when he is on the floor. Secondly, in our test shots it arose that Tyler wasn't very good at acting. Therefore, it made sense to kill him off quickly. The third reason I will elaborate on shortly.

Amy Dimbleby - the second victim. As she was the only female at the party who wanted to take part, we had her be one of the victims as it would be better suited for our promotional material later. Out of everyone, there is the biggest height difference between Tyler and Amy. This is significant one of ideas for a Digipak slide was silhouettes of the two corpses, and the height difference makes the two actors more recognisable as the same two actors from the video. Similarly, having a female play a vital role in the video and promotional material will increase appeal with the female audience. 

The "discoverers":

Jamie Pick - goes through and sees the bodies and comes back to alert Ben. As he didn't want to be in the video much, the role he plays for the most part (being involved in story links and cutaways) suited him as while we filmed the band scenes, he could do other, unrelated things. 

Ben Thorogood - gets alerted to the band by Jamie and goes into the kitchen in the final scene. As he was the most open to the idea of creating a lively atmosphere, most of the cutaways involve him in some way. Because of this, it made sense for him to be kept alive as it allowed us to use cutaways featuring Ben the whole way through the video without breaking continuity.