My ideas for the music video 5555
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Friday, 16 December 2011
Thursday, 24 March 2011
EVALUATION OF PROMO CAMPAIGN
One of the most critical questions to ask ourselves, as a production team is whether or not it appeals to the targeted audience. Firstly, I feel the song choice was appropriate for 16-25 year olds as our research and audience feedback shows that rap music is one of the most popular music genres for this age group. But, because our song does not have all the characteristics of 21st rap; this status may not apply to the Beastie Boys tracks. The style of the pop promo I feel is also very true to what we wanted to promote the band as. I think the style of the pop promo is matched with the design and layout of the poster and digi pak which will give the band more of an overall image than if it were done in a differently styled way. Furthermore, because of these similarities the audience that would be attracted to the pop promo will also be attracted to look at the bands poster, making the band very specifically targeted.
If my pop promo were actually aimed to go into the music industry there would be different expectations. The music business is growing into a multibillion pound industry, thus making competition to become a well known, signed band is getting fiercer. Perhaps instead of us finding a song and getting people form our college to perform in a matter on months would be unreasonable in real life terms. The overall process would take longer as the band may have to go through stages to getting signed and the procedure of making the video will be longer as promotional tours, interviews and radio meetings would have to be organised. Equally, because our band Cobalt Rapture is somewhat similar in style and music kind to the Beastie Boys, Good Charlotte and Bink 182 there may be a lesser chance of them being signed by a major label.
Intergalactic conforms and subverts certain codes and conventions of existing pop promos. The conventions set about in terms of music video by Blink 182 are somewhat mirrored in our music video. I feel cobalt Rapture conforms to the boy band groups who are coming from a lower classed background who poke fun at other peoples lives whilst trying to have a good time. It conforms mostly by shot choice. We chose to include shots of the band messing around and doing things like playing tug of war to give to show their youthful image. But, there are codes the band have subverted for example appearance and music video. In today’s rap charts the majority of the artists are African males, having minimally dressed girls in their videos. In this was our video does not conform as neither of these are evident in the pop promo. We chose to use white males as there may be more of a gap in the market for this type of group. The girls were not featured in the music video as we wanted the promo to focus on the boys themselves going about their seemingly normal day. Although we market the band as organic, there are some synthetic factors to them. We did this so the band could be easily marketable, e.g. could do an advertisement for Coke. To ensure this image was successfully advertised to the public we had to make certain the perfect mix of characters was applied.
The campaign itself is very specific to the pop promo. Not only because we used still from the studio to make it but there is a very clear theme running throughout. This theme is sci-fi with a modern twist, shown by the costumes, set and alien included in the shots. But, possibly the images used for the digi pak should be more varied because if you hadn’t seen the pop promo you may think the style of music was not classic rap. In a way, it think perhaps even one of the inlays should have been the band in their normal attire to show what they are usually like as the video is all about being yourself.
I feel the group may be signed to a lable like Def Jam records and this is a picture of one of the co-founders, Russell Simmons:
If my pop promo were actually aimed to go into the music industry there would be different expectations. The music business is growing into a multibillion pound industry, thus making competition to become a well known, signed band is getting fiercer. Perhaps instead of us finding a song and getting people form our college to perform in a matter on months would be unreasonable in real life terms. The overall process would take longer as the band may have to go through stages to getting signed and the procedure of making the video will be longer as promotional tours, interviews and radio meetings would have to be organised. Equally, because our band Cobalt Rapture is somewhat similar in style and music kind to the Beastie Boys, Good Charlotte and Bink 182 there may be a lesser chance of them being signed by a major label.
Intergalactic conforms and subverts certain codes and conventions of existing pop promos. The conventions set about in terms of music video by Blink 182 are somewhat mirrored in our music video. I feel cobalt Rapture conforms to the boy band groups who are coming from a lower classed background who poke fun at other peoples lives whilst trying to have a good time. It conforms mostly by shot choice. We chose to include shots of the band messing around and doing things like playing tug of war to give to show their youthful image. But, there are codes the band have subverted for example appearance and music video. In today’s rap charts the majority of the artists are African males, having minimally dressed girls in their videos. In this was our video does not conform as neither of these are evident in the pop promo. We chose to use white males as there may be more of a gap in the market for this type of group. The girls were not featured in the music video as we wanted the promo to focus on the boys themselves going about their seemingly normal day. Although we market the band as organic, there are some synthetic factors to them. We did this so the band could be easily marketable, e.g. could do an advertisement for Coke. To ensure this image was successfully advertised to the public we had to make certain the perfect mix of characters was applied.
The campaign itself is very specific to the pop promo. Not only because we used still from the studio to make it but there is a very clear theme running throughout. This theme is sci-fi with a modern twist, shown by the costumes, set and alien included in the shots. But, possibly the images used for the digi pak should be more varied because if you hadn’t seen the pop promo you may think the style of music was not classic rap. In a way, it think perhaps even one of the inlays should have been the band in their normal attire to show what they are usually like as the video is all about being yourself.
The track itself, being rap music does not match the 21st centaury rap star image. However, it does meet the 90s rap star criteria and so there is some evidence to say the image and track match in a package like convention. To ensure everyone knows about the band there would have to be a heavily manufactured marketing campaign by the record label. The band would be fundamentally used to draw in a musical audience so the label may attempt to make the band more seem more ghetto and conform to the rapper stereotype.
At the beginning of this exercise we were given a brief to create a pop promo. Cobalt Rapture as campaign fully meets the brief as there are many marketable aspects of the band, whether they would be performing of endorsing other products. The successful developed image of the pop promo, poster and digi pak make the band as a whole appeal to the target audience of 15-25 years olds. By using the correct forms and conventions of the rap songs around today but also making the video original to the group I feel confident that we will reach our targeted audience.I feel the group may be signed to a lable like Def Jam records and this is a picture of one of the co-founders, Russell Simmons:
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
FINAL POSTER
This is our final promotional band poster for Cobalt Raptures album “Hybrid Dream”. We feel happy with it as it as it clearly shows the tour dates for the band whilst keeping in tune with the sci-fi theme.
The use of the Alien to show the bands may encourage brand recognition and shows we have used synergy in the marketing campaign of the group.
Though, one fault perhaps is that if you had not already seen the music video, you may be unaware of the band as it does not show their faces. Equally, from an advertisement point of view you may think that the lead singer is dressed up as an alien, which could be a fault.
We used the same writing font for the poster and digi pak to also promote brand recognition, forming a visual link for the audience from seeing their CD to looking at their poster and going to their shows.
Final digi pak
Inlay 1 :
Inlay 2 :
Back cover:
Front cover:
From our pop promo to the poster and digi pak there are very evident synergistic links. The products are linked in the form of writing font, theme and style. The products should be linked so that the audience can relate from one product to another is a subtle way.
The digi pak and pop promo relates to each other plenty. All of the shots used for the digi pak were taken on the shooting day and so the costumes, make up and set are the same.
Inlay 2 :
Back cover:
Front cover:
From our pop promo to the poster and digi pak there are very evident synergistic links. The products are linked in the form of writing font, theme and style. The products should be linked so that the audience can relate from one product to another is a subtle way.
The digi pak and pop promo relates to each other plenty. All of the shots used for the digi pak were taken on the shooting day and so the costumes, make up and set are the same.
Monday, 21 March 2011
TASK FOUR: HOW DID YOU USE NEW MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH, PLANNING AND EVALUATION STAGES?
Alex:In order to discuss with a visual aid which digital technologies were used in the making of Intergalactic, Alex and I constructed a commentary script:
Steph: For the pre production stage of the pop promo, we continuously used the internet, especially Youtube to research other bands and songs that are similar to our chosen one. The Youtube site enables us to watch, listen and comment of a huge variety of songs which was really helpful. We also used the search engine; Google to research star images and music genre to improve the development of our own ideas of the pop-promo.
Alex: Another example of new media technologies used in the planning of the music video is using a Sony PD170 to film the storyboards. Once filmed we used final cut pro to produce an animatic. During the shoot day we used a Sony NX5s and shot the whole video in high definition giving which gave the video better quality and thus a more professional feel. When in the studio filming the video, a 42 inch Samsung monitor was used whilst the song was being played through a CD player. Steph and I used a blue screen in our pop video as we wanted to put in backgrounds like magazine covers and Simon Cowell to show the aliens rise to fame clearly.
Steph: After filming the music video, the rough cut was transferred onto a Mac G5 where we used final cut pro to edit the music video. The software used for after effects was called After FX, this was used to change the background from the blue screen to the images evident in the music video.
Alex: For the exhibition and distribution of our music video we uploaded it onto Youtube, facebook and Blogger. All of which method are via the internet and so they are new media technologies. Youtube allowed us to reach a mass audience of all ages, cultures and genders which was beneficial as feedback was very broad. On the other hand, facebook only promoted the promo to our friends and therefore to a more confined age group.
Steph: In conclusion, new media technology played a very consistent role in all areas of producing our media product, ultimately making the whole process more efficient and time effective. The most interesting new media technology we used was the after effects, especially as both Alex and I had never used the programme before.
Steph: For the pre production stage of the pop promo, we continuously used the internet, especially Youtube to research other bands and songs that are similar to our chosen one. The Youtube site enables us to watch, listen and comment of a huge variety of songs which was really helpful. We also used the search engine; Google to research star images and music genre to improve the development of our own ideas of the pop-promo.
Alex: Another example of new media technologies used in the planning of the music video is using a Sony PD170 to film the storyboards. Once filmed we used final cut pro to produce an animatic. During the shoot day we used a Sony NX5s and shot the whole video in high definition giving which gave the video better quality and thus a more professional feel. When in the studio filming the video, a 42 inch Samsung monitor was used whilst the song was being played through a CD player. Steph and I used a blue screen in our pop video as we wanted to put in backgrounds like magazine covers and Simon Cowell to show the aliens rise to fame clearly.
Steph: After filming the music video, the rough cut was transferred onto a Mac G5 where we used final cut pro to edit the music video. The software used for after effects was called After FX, this was used to change the background from the blue screen to the images evident in the music video.
Alex: For the exhibition and distribution of our music video we uploaded it onto Youtube, facebook and Blogger. All of which method are via the internet and so they are new media technologies. Youtube allowed us to reach a mass audience of all ages, cultures and genders which was beneficial as feedback was very broad. On the other hand, facebook only promoted the promo to our friends and therefore to a more confined age group.
Steph: In conclusion, new media technology played a very consistent role in all areas of producing our media product, ultimately making the whole process more efficient and time effective. The most interesting new media technology we used was the after effects, especially as both Alex and I had never used the programme before.
What have I learnt from audience feedback?
Alex and I used various new media technologies to receive audience feed back from our music video. Firstly, the promo was uploaded onto YouTube so audiences all over the world could easily access our product and write comments on the same page. Example of feedback Intergalactic received is, “Well performed - narrative slightly unclear. Great setting and after effects :) GOOD JOB. !” The downside, however to using this application was that because you had to enter the specific hurtwoodhousemedia and then find out music video, many users of YouTube may not have come across it. Another way of released our product to an audience was posting it on our online blogs on the Blogger site. But, also like Youtube, Blogger had certain limitations like no everyone can view it easily; you would have to have a log in to view the video. In search of a better, more efficient way of reaching my target audience of 15-21 year olds I posted the Youtube link onto my own facebook profile where I received a wider range of feedback from many different people. Most being positive and an example of this is “Great after effects, good job!” The last area of audience feedback we examined was the standard questionnaire after getting twenty people to watch the music video. We designed the questionnaire to ask detailed questions of their likes and dislikes and what we could have done to make our video appeal more personally to them. I found this area of research to be more useful as we gained a greater understanding of what we could have improved on and whether our video appealed as well as we thought it would to our target audience. However, some of the questioned people did not give us a detailed enough understanding and their answers were relatively broad as there were time constraints. So, overall I think the questionnaire gave the best results but using Youtube allowed more people to watch the media product.
An overall 70% of our focus group answering the questionnaire said they enjoyed the song choice and thought that the video had a good balance between narrative and performance. Only 45% of the focus group already had heard of the Beastie Boys and knew the song Intergalactic, which was beneficial in a way for us as producers as the majority of the audience had to point of reference so thy could not compare ours to the already existing video. All of the audience ticked the enjoyed box on our questionnaire and so I feel the promo was successful to an extent as it entertained our audience, which was our main objective. After conversing with one of the interviewees after the questionnaire was completed, they stated that they felt the editing really fit in with the song choice and quirky set and they felt that kept a upbeat and jolly vibe throughout the video. I think that the close ups of the band members pulling comical faces and engaging in activities not usually carried out on a space ship makes the video fun to watch. A few audience members vaguely mentioned in the other comments section that the scene where the space ship crashes and the rappers are being tossed from side to side could have been filmed better as it was not framed up very well, which I also feel could have been improved on. Alternatively, others commented that it made the promo more visually stimulating and helped them understand what the rappers were actually doing on the ship. The band’s image does not fit into the classical rapper stereotype, as there is only a few other white rapper groups I feel this gives Cobalt Rapture a unique selling point and thus inspire more people to listen to their music.
There were equally apparent weaknesses to our music video that were brought to our attention through the questionnaire and Youtube comments. The main criticisms were a slightly unclear narrative. The audience felt that the story was not built up enough and did not understand the aliens rise ad fall to fame and even why this was included in out music video. Comments on YouTube and from the focus group reflected this particular weakness. Furthermore, there were also comments in our questionnaire saying that the set and lightly were very well done and pulled the whole video together in terms of professionalism and genre. The encoding-decoding model derives from the work of Stuart Hall. It is a theoretical model, which is based upon the notion that the audience do not act as a ‘mass’, but rather as a collection of smaller groups defined by social and ideological elements. Media texts are ‘encoded’ (both consciously and unconsciously) with the values of their producers, who are generally white, middle-class, men. However, the audience is not made up exclusively of these groups and different groups are likely to ‘read’ the text indifferent ways. This ‘decoding’ process has 3 possible outcomes which are a preferred reading, a negotiated reading and an oppositional reading.
A preferred reading is referred to when the audience understand the intended values and the concept behind a given media text. The preferred reading of my music video was a group of lowly skilled workers rapping as a part of having fun, the alien narratives preferred reading is mostly to poke fun at the ease of 21st centaury fame but also to show how quickly the rise and fall happens to most people. This questionnaire proved that majority of the audience was able to understand and accept our preferred reading.
Negotiated readings are when people understand some values and they accept a selected few elements of a media text whilst developing their own opinions. We received a negotiated reading that the rappers were not actually in control of the ship but hijacked it instead and decided to dress as space men. An alternative negotiated reading about the alien was that he was a lonely pop star, supported by the walking down dark roads scenes and we used the video to convey similarities between humans and other life forms.
To conclude what we learnt from audience feedback is that out largest criticism if narrative being slightly unclear at times, especially at the start. We could have improved on this by building up and giving more examples of the alien being not famous. One the other hand, a large extent our narrative was successfully translated to the audience due to the shots, lighting and narrative strands.
Mock up of front cover of the album
I did this picture quickly on paint. I would use photoshop to do the real thing and change various things like contrast, shape of the window and add in the bands name and album name. This was just to show you what we were thinking of doing, having the space craft landing with the boys looking out the window. I also think that we might make the background (landing strip) more cartoony and fictional to carry on the sci fi theme. Within the digipack we can also carry on the space vibe and compliment it with special writting and images.
Sunday, 20 March 2011
ANCILLARY PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 2 – POSTER
The process of deciding what we wanted our poster to look like was a multi stage process. We started by thinking about what we wanted this to show for the band. Firstly we though a shot of the space craft with the three rappers looking out of the window in despair would work. However; after some discussion we though the colour scheme of the dark grey space ship and the writing would not work so we scrapped that.
After looking at the pictures from the shoot day we then thought having the picture of the aliens face would be a worker. But, after putting the photo on Photoshop to edit it, the colour scheme again did not work and the writing made the aliens face look very unclear. This was a real problem as we felt the colour scheme should definitely be blue but we needed to also find a suitable picture for the poster. So we continued to look for a picture we could use that would not have a huge colour clash with the writing colour.
We came across a picture in the spacecraft with standing to the side. This picture would be great to use as the background colour was silver but it had the alien in it, which is a recognisable band image. As the alien is standing to the left of the frame we could use the other empty space to write the bands tour dates and their locations. We really thought this was the best way to promote the band as it incorporated aspects from the video so it makes them recognisable which was needed to make the pop promo actually promotional.
Although we had decided which colour font to use we had to actually find the font we could use for the poster. We started with the jokerman font but found it was unclear and not very easily read. After experimenting and doing some research on the internet, we found a fitting font and decided to write the whole text in it.
The picture is landscape and so this helped us form a basis of the layout. We chose to have the alien on the far left and tour dates written down the right hand side.
This stage took a very long time but now we are happy with the final product and it turned out to promote the band the way we wanted it to. The audience feedback showed that the digi pak and poster complimented the video and the sci-fi theme was carried through successfully.
After looking at the pictures from the shoot day we then thought having the picture of the aliens face would be a worker. But, after putting the photo on Photoshop to edit it, the colour scheme again did not work and the writing made the aliens face look very unclear. This was a real problem as we felt the colour scheme should definitely be blue but we needed to also find a suitable picture for the poster. So we continued to look for a picture we could use that would not have a huge colour clash with the writing colour.
We came across a picture in the spacecraft with standing to the side. This picture would be great to use as the background colour was silver but it had the alien in it, which is a recognisable band image. As the alien is standing to the left of the frame we could use the other empty space to write the bands tour dates and their locations. We really thought this was the best way to promote the band as it incorporated aspects from the video so it makes them recognisable which was needed to make the pop promo actually promotional.
Although we had decided which colour font to use we had to actually find the font we could use for the poster. We started with the jokerman font but found it was unclear and not very easily read. After experimenting and doing some research on the internet, we found a fitting font and decided to write the whole text in it.
The picture is landscape and so this helped us form a basis of the layout. We chose to have the alien on the far left and tour dates written down the right hand side.
This stage took a very long time but now we are happy with the final product and it turned out to promote the band the way we wanted it to. The audience feedback showed that the digi pak and poster complimented the video and the sci-fi theme was carried through successfully.
Saturday, 19 March 2011
on-going development of the digi-pak
The digi pak should include pictures of the band, a track list, bar code, record label signature photo, small print and maybe a personal message from the band.
All of these aspects form an image for the band and to promote their image we use synergy. For this task Alex and I tried to make the digi pak as different as we could to others out at the moment to attract our target audience and also to
make sure as many people as possible would look at the band.
The front cover is used as a device to attract the target audience as this is the first thing most people will see when in a CD shop. We also wanted to make sure the back cover tied in with the theme and so used a picture of the alien in the spacecraft with the other tracks on the album next to him. Thus, making it very important. Depending on the age, gender and style of the target audience different techniques will be used. For example our target audience is 16-25 years olds and so we wanted a fun looking front cover with the space invader symbol shown predominantly. We then carried on the space invader symbol throughout the digi pak and poster to give the band synergy. After looking at the digi pak, the audience will associate the band with that symbol meaning the record label can then go on to sell Cobalt rapture merchandise with that symbol on it, making the band more recognisable. We felt the audience could relate to this symbol as it is a popular video game and it shows the playful vibe of the band but also their 90s style. The inlays include a picture of all of the rapper bending over. We did this as if the front cover was them leaning toward the camera and the first inlay looks as if there is a camera behind them. This relates to their image of low socioeconomic group as the first photo apart from the album cover looks as if it was an accident. Also relating to the part in the video when everything goes wrong for the rappers and the space ship nearly crashes, causing a visual link to the pop promo. The location of all of our digi pak pictures is the space craft, mostly because we had not made up a set anywhere else, but also because we felt the spacecraft was an iconic look for them as not many other bands had done this recently.
For our digi pak we used a continuous writing style throughout, and also used that font in the poster. We did this for synergy as when the audience see the writing they will relate it to the band. It took quite a while to find an appropriate font that worked with the bands image and pictures. In the end we used a graphiti looking font and put four letters over each other to make it look as though it was moving. The main colour we selected was blue because the bands name is Cobalt Rapture and most people think the element cobalt is blue.
By using the same font and colour scheme in both the digi pak and poster, I feel the image of the band was promoted successfully through synergy. The style of both the poster and digi pak compliment each other and promote the band image of young men wanting to have a good time but not being perfect was achieved successfully.
These are some example of the writing we were thing about using.
All of these aspects form an image for the band and to promote their image we use synergy. For this task Alex and I tried to make the digi pak as different as we could to others out at the moment to attract our target audience and also to
make sure as many people as possible would look at the band.
The front cover is used as a device to attract the target audience as this is the first thing most people will see when in a CD shop. We also wanted to make sure the back cover tied in with the theme and so used a picture of the alien in the spacecraft with the other tracks on the album next to him. Thus, making it very important. Depending on the age, gender and style of the target audience different techniques will be used. For example our target audience is 16-25 years olds and so we wanted a fun looking front cover with the space invader symbol shown predominantly. We then carried on the space invader symbol throughout the digi pak and poster to give the band synergy. After looking at the digi pak, the audience will associate the band with that symbol meaning the record label can then go on to sell Cobalt rapture merchandise with that symbol on it, making the band more recognisable. We felt the audience could relate to this symbol as it is a popular video game and it shows the playful vibe of the band but also their 90s style. The inlays include a picture of all of the rapper bending over. We did this as if the front cover was them leaning toward the camera and the first inlay looks as if there is a camera behind them. This relates to their image of low socioeconomic group as the first photo apart from the album cover looks as if it was an accident. Also relating to the part in the video when everything goes wrong for the rappers and the space ship nearly crashes, causing a visual link to the pop promo. The location of all of our digi pak pictures is the space craft, mostly because we had not made up a set anywhere else, but also because we felt the spacecraft was an iconic look for them as not many other bands had done this recently.
For our digi pak we used a continuous writing style throughout, and also used that font in the poster. We did this for synergy as when the audience see the writing they will relate it to the band. It took quite a while to find an appropriate font that worked with the bands image and pictures. In the end we used a graphiti looking font and put four letters over each other to make it look as though it was moving. The main colour we selected was blue because the bands name is Cobalt Rapture and most people think the element cobalt is blue.
By using the same font and colour scheme in both the digi pak and poster, I feel the image of the band was promoted successfully through synergy. The style of both the poster and digi pak compliment each other and promote the band image of young men wanting to have a good time but not being perfect was achieved successfully.
These are some example of the writing we were thing about using.
Sunday, 13 February 2011
ANCILLARY PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT 1 - Digi pak
Alex and I got together to talk about the sways we could incorporporate synergy. Synergy is referred to as, the interaction of two or more agents or forces so that their combined effect is greater than the sum of their individual effects.
The digi pak has 4-6 frames, usually with a common theme running through the background, writing and style. I have included a picture to show how the folding of paper gives shape of the digi Pak.
Our initial idea for our digi-pak was to have the boys poking their head through the space ship as the front cover, the alien on set for the back cover and pictures of the band on the two inlays. Luckily, on the day of shooting we took many photographs so we had a lot of choice. Because of the video, we wanted to incorporate a sci-fi feel to the digi pak to help for promotions; we did this by using a special font of writing and colours. The symbol we chose for the band is a space invader, which we incorporated into the back cover as a bar code. We felt this could be used as a kind of synergy as when people now see the image they will cast their mind back to Cobalt Rapture. This is the space invader image we used:
The back cover the alien standing within the space craft set smiling. We wanted the alien to be the last thing the audience see so they will remember the music video ad possibly he was the most memorable part of the music video. This further links the digi-pak to the science fiction theme evident in the music video. By using the image the audience will also realise that the band is not regular pop as images of the band are not displayed throughout the digi pak.. The back cover also shows a track list, barcode, record label and small print.
The intended front cover was supposed to be the rappers staring frantically out of the space craft that looks as if it’s rapidly declining down to Earth. However we felt that the front cover instead should be a photo of the rappers with the space invader game over it, to create even more synergy. Some example of the Bestie Boys digi pak covers are:
Friday, 11 February 2011
Still shots from our music video
This image shows some of the affect effects used in our music video. Firstly, we got Ted (the alien) to pretend he was running whilst sitting on a chair to ensure the camera framing was correct. After a few practices the blue screen was taken out and put behind him. Once filmed, we went into using abode after effects in the editing sweet where we found these images and set it as an ongoing background to give the effect as if he were running a long the street. The lighting is dark to reflect his mood of feeling alone and vulnerable in a new city.
I think the cgi worked really well in these scenes as the cartoon like background shows he is a sort of make believe world that seems scary to him.
This image represents how the rappers had made a mistake and our now suffering from turbulence and space craft instability but they are still rapping. The reason for this is not only because it is a music video but it shows that they do not enjoy and are not particularly good at their day jobs but they are truly devoted to their music. From this screen grab one can also deduce a strong sense of band image. The image of the band that we, as a group tried to create was that they are a group of fun, unique and devoted individuals that are not completely conforming to the rapper stereotype, and like to poke fn at the current state of the music industry. This perhaps challenges the conventions of most rap music videos as it is rare to see a group of white rappers getting things wrong and engaging in such a broad range of activities. However, now that synergy is used frequently in music videos today to advertise their outfits and accessories to the audience. An example of this could be fans of Cobalt Rapture going out and buying boiler suites and chains to be more like the band. Another way that our music video does not conform the usual rapper video is that we do not have any females. More and more usually there are half naked girls in rap video to make you feel you want to be more like the rappers as they can get any girls they want. We did not incorporate this into our music video as we felt that the audience should be attracted to the bands sound and personality, and using good looking girls would take away from this. Other music videos of the white rapping genre are similar to our music video. They show the band poking fun at other people and in some cases their own lives; these bands are Blink 182 and Good Charlotte. This is another convention of music videos, as bands are often dressed in a certain way to target their audience and to conform to their genre.
This screen grab is another example of the affect effects used for the pop promo. We used Simon Cowell in the video to illustrate the aliens rise to fame as many people knower days gain stardom from reality TV shows like x factor and American idol. To do this we took an image from the web and photoshoped Ted into the frame.
I chose this picture to show how the costumes and personalities make the rappers conform to a working class, low skilled worker. Traditionally, the blue collar represents low income groups that are on the JICNAR scale as C/D groups. The video was sued to convey that they too have ambitions.
There is a space invader symbol present on every panel of the albums digipak, and is also evident in the bands poster. It was conventional to add this symbol into both promotional packs to give the band synergy. We hope that because the well known symbol had not yet been associated with any bands, it will give the audience as sense of recognition when looking at it. An example of this is the TT symbol Take That have used on all of the band documents.
Thursday, 10 February 2011
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Thursday, 23 December 2010
TASK 2- PRODUCTION DEVELOPMENT AND PLANNING
In this task our group must come up with a promotional poster for our up and coming band. To start this project we needed to research into popular layouts and conventions of bands posters. To do this we used the internet, especially Google as the search engine has an images section which is perfect for what we need to further our ideas of what a music video should look like. We primarily looked at the Beastie Boys music posters to see how they have really given off a vibe that suites their style of music. Next we looked at popular bands that are around now to see how the music poster layout has progressed and developed. Through doing this research we learnt techniques that help us understand what it is that makes a great poster stand and be more attractive to the human eye.
I will now take an example of a very different music poster to ours to highlight the differences in campaigns. I found a poster for the singer Justin Bieber used to advertise his new single “never say never”. From the poster we can see only a side image of him, not showing all of his face. On the other hand our band probably would be unable to have a side shot of them as their image has not yet been released so people would find it more difficult to recognise them and this could even potentially decrease sales. The writing is in block capitals spread diagonally across the portrait showing hat this is the most important part of the campaign. The word “NEVER” is highlighted in purple, perhaps proving the colour choice is to draw in girls and draw their attention to the poster. This is backed up by the fact that Justin Bieber target audience is mainly girls from the ages of 10-16. In a smaller yet still fully visible text it tells the audience they can come and watch the show some time in February, potentially the uncertainty of the actual viewing date means that this poster was created way in advance to the actually shows, trying to create a buzz. Also, the simplistic layout and easily readable text could also be a method to attract people, it is a known theory that a page with lots of writing will deter people from attempting to read at it so perhaps this theory was applied to this poster.
After deconstructing other popular pop stars music posters we now have to assemble one on our own. As we took many pictures on the shooting day of the characters we will incorporate the most fitting shot into the poster and then write the bands name and their song name and perhaps even the first gig or release date. This is a very important part of advertising our band and we must make sure that the colour scheme, photo choice and style of writing will draw in the attention of our target audience. When first starting to talk to Alex about this we thought of many different colour schemes and pictures to use. We really wanted to create the idea of a fun loving, young and unique group and hopefully in doing this our target audience of 16-23 years old will enjoy and be able to identify with the band. Finally we decided which picture to use and tried out many different styles of writing. To do this we used an application called Photoshop and so we were able to play around with the lighting and writing position using a wide range of tools available on this programme.
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
Editing
We started editing our music video a few days after the shoot day was finished. We were given a time frame of 2 and a half week to have finished the whole music video, which Alex and I found very difficult, especially as our video had lots of special effects. Firstly, we separated the better takes from the unusable one by creating specific bins for each type of shot. Once this stage was completed we then went on to doing the first narrative; the rappers. 
By laying down the track on final cut pro it made it easier so u to get a sense of the timeline and seeing how far into the song we could build up the aliens new found fame. A really difficult part of editing is cutting each shot to the beat of the song and matching up lip movements to the actual song. To find the exact beat you would first listen to a short section of the song where you knew the beat was, then once you think you’ve heard it you pres pace bar and listen to the song beat by beat until you find it. Very luckily our song had a very noticeable and dominant beat so it did not take too long to find it, whereas for others it we very difficult. As for the lip sinking, if you altered the magnification size of the timeline by altering the switch at the bottom left of the screen it gave you a much more precise indication of time. By altering the clip one second forward, especially for parts that needed quick editing e.g. repition of the last word in a verse.
Once this stage was completed we then went on to doing the first narrative; the rappers. Before doing any of the editing we put the track down on final cut pro. We then put the first runthrough of the rap over it cutting it to the beat. Once this is done, the hard part comes when trying to layer other shots of the rappers over the top of it as we were only using smaller parts, maybe only a few seconds long. We only had a few shots of the rappers singing the actual song, so although we were limited in how many shots we could use, it made the process very simple with the selecting shots and inserting them, as we didn't have to go through many shots to find a specific movement or action we liked, as they were already in the shots we had due to good direction on the shoot day. We used shots from all of the runthroughs of the song, as well as the short shots of the rappers repeating the word from the end of each line. After we had got the cut we wanted with the performance, we added the other element of the performance, like the reactions to what was happening to the alien character, and the part where the ship starts to fall apart.
I think we managed this well, and were able to sync the rapping perfectly amidst the chaos of the scene. The final part of the editing process was to put the narrative strand in. This was much easier as the shots were all similar, and all we had to do was to select a shot that could fill in the spaces that we had specifically left for these shots, which matched a certain point in the song. Now all that had to be done was the after effects. For the bulk of after affects Alex and used the Keying technique using abode after effects. This is where you crop out the back ground to replace it with an image that is either made on Photoshop or found on the internet. This is a multistage process and is initiated by resized the image to fit the frame. Once this is resized, you must check the lighting, this is done by clicking effects then keying and finally key light. Then click on the button to the left of the green to select whether a green or blue screen was used. In out media product we used a blue background as the green would have clashed with the green alien. Once the combined matte was allowed, we had to ensure the background was fully black in comparison to the white image we needed to keep to put against the background, e.g. the aliens face. For the beginning sequence of the space ship landing we used a basic key frame animation. This is where we selected specific parts of the screen for the space craft to change direction and the computer fills in in-between frames. The start middle and end point were shown as circular dots on the screen.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Acoount of shooting day
Painting and co-ordinating the set was done on Friday afternoon, the previous school day before actually filming the footage. Our set really came together at this point; the painting and attention to detail on the plastic space-craft like panels truly made the set come to life. To give an idea of the set it was made from three silver painted walls in a rectangular shape, with three vent looking panel across the back walls. We also have a controls box of about four foot with painted knobs and monitors, on the other side there was another panel with many different buttons on it. We left school for the weekend looking forward to filming the music video on Monday.
Because we had many more lighting options on the day then we had previously anticipated, we took time to try out new styles. After applying many different settings we felt the slow flickering strobe teamed with dimmed house lights set the mood correctly. For the scene where the space craft experiences turbulence, we sped up the strobe and used dry ice for dramatic effect.
We positioned the camera at about one and a half meters away from the spacecraft set initially and found that the distance was too small to give the effect of a spacious set. So, to correct this we moved the camera another three quarters of a meter away and checked on the monitor that this was at a good distance. The position in relation to the set was altered only slightly once the boys started rapping to ensure all three of the rappers were in focus and could be seen.
The pre-shot preparation of giving the actors costumes make up, giving the three rappers a couple of times to warm up and be given ideas of what to do started at 9:00 AM. Luckily through taking measurements and buying costumes accordingly, the outfits fitted the cast and props of hats and gold chain were available to them. Everyone was dressed and prepped so we started the practise, sadly after the second time one of the rappers who was previously very ill sad he could not continue with the shoot. Alex therefore had to step in and perform he song with the two other rappers, we could not ask anyone else as they would not know the lines and teaching them would take time we felt we did not have at the time. After a quick costume change and a bit of hair gel, Alex was ready to continue the practises. We then felt that it was time to start filming so we arranged the camera at a mid shot distance, directly in the middle of the set. The aim of the first couple of shots was to give the rappers the confidence to come to a very close vicinity of the camera and say the words with expression and their own interpretations.
The confidence of the three rappers reached its peak after a few practises and so they were more comfortable trying out new things like playing tug of war etc. Also, because the studio was not very crowded, unlike some of the other music videos, this made the boys relax even more so which was really important to give a confident vibe to the audience.
When filming the video we adopted the professional lingo of words like “turning over” and “roll camera”. This gave the set a much more professional film and showed me how an actual music video would have been filmed and the language I would have to understand. Other aspects that made the shoot feel professional that we adopted were running to a schedule. In the real music industry, the shoot day would have to run very rigidly and there would be no time allowed for discussing which shot came next and so on.
I felt having Alex in the video at this point was a great asset to the performers as he knew what we wanted them to do and lead the way to getting there. With the initial mid shots done after three takes, the performers were instructed to do a sort of free style take including completely improvised and spontaneous movements. For example, they did the canoe, robot and tug of war all adding to one of the main ideas of joking around in the video. I feel because we included so much of these quirky and individual shots into the whole rough cut it has made promoting the band in a light hearted way.
For the majority of the morning we experimented with new shots of the rappers, for the scene where it looks as if the spaceship is breaking we used a smoke machine tilted the with one side of the ship to the other, in the frame was on of the rapper in the for ground and two in the background running from side to side in complete devastation and worry.
After the lunch break, we came back and started to film the narrative strand, all of this was done in the blue screen with exception to the doors opening and closing with the alien either leaving or entering. The door scene was very hard to get right in the way that the two people pulling the door did not know how fast to go and when to open and shut it. After a few takes with excessive smoke and green flashing lights, we had to dismantle the set and make room in front of the blue screen to film the scene. We needed to gather shots of the alien running away whilst looking backwards, walking around looking very shocked and spinning around very slowly on the chair.Using a blue screen was really exciting for me and Alex as we both hadn’t used one before. The blue screen was simply wheeled along like a curtain and a stage was set up directly in front of it. The camera at this point also had to be readjusted to the new set. We used a variety of shots like extreme close ups, mid shots and close ups to suite the varying backgrounds. The lighting was also altered at this point as the alien was not actually in the spacecraft in the video. The ideas we had of him walking down the street and being in pictures with famous people made us alter the lighting to make it much brighter for the picture shots and not flickering but dim for the walking shots.
The day finished at around 4:30 PM and we were very happy with how the day went, all considered it could have been a disaster with one of the main people dropping out.
Editing
Alex and I have now started the process of editing the rough cut into an actual music video. For our group in some ways this is very easy and other are very difficult. The best thing about the song we choose is that the beat is very defined and easy to spot, therefore giving us more ease when cutting two clips together. However, another area of editing we have not yet started is editing in backgrounds fro the blue screen surrounding our alien, as both neither me or Alex have used a blue screen before, making it very difficult and perhaps more timely to edit this in. Our deadline, the end of the winter term I am confident will be kept to ad hopefully will give us time to truly polish the editing of our music video.
Because we had many more lighting options on the day then we had previously anticipated, we took time to try out new styles. After applying many different settings we felt the slow flickering strobe teamed with dimmed house lights set the mood correctly. For the scene where the space craft experiences turbulence, we sped up the strobe and used dry ice for dramatic effect.
We positioned the camera at about one and a half meters away from the spacecraft set initially and found that the distance was too small to give the effect of a spacious set. So, to correct this we moved the camera another three quarters of a meter away and checked on the monitor that this was at a good distance. The position in relation to the set was altered only slightly once the boys started rapping to ensure all three of the rappers were in focus and could be seen.
The pre-shot preparation of giving the actors costumes make up, giving the three rappers a couple of times to warm up and be given ideas of what to do started at 9:00 AM. Luckily through taking measurements and buying costumes accordingly, the outfits fitted the cast and props of hats and gold chain were available to them. Everyone was dressed and prepped so we started the practise, sadly after the second time one of the rappers who was previously very ill sad he could not continue with the shoot. Alex therefore had to step in and perform he song with the two other rappers, we could not ask anyone else as they would not know the lines and teaching them would take time we felt we did not have at the time. After a quick costume change and a bit of hair gel, Alex was ready to continue the practises. We then felt that it was time to start filming so we arranged the camera at a mid shot distance, directly in the middle of the set. The aim of the first couple of shots was to give the rappers the confidence to come to a very close vicinity of the camera and say the words with expression and their own interpretations.
The confidence of the three rappers reached its peak after a few practises and so they were more comfortable trying out new things like playing tug of war etc. Also, because the studio was not very crowded, unlike some of the other music videos, this made the boys relax even more so which was really important to give a confident vibe to the audience.
When filming the video we adopted the professional lingo of words like “turning over” and “roll camera”. This gave the set a much more professional film and showed me how an actual music video would have been filmed and the language I would have to understand. Other aspects that made the shoot feel professional that we adopted were running to a schedule. In the real music industry, the shoot day would have to run very rigidly and there would be no time allowed for discussing which shot came next and so on.
I felt having Alex in the video at this point was a great asset to the performers as he knew what we wanted them to do and lead the way to getting there. With the initial mid shots done after three takes, the performers were instructed to do a sort of free style take including completely improvised and spontaneous movements. For example, they did the canoe, robot and tug of war all adding to one of the main ideas of joking around in the video. I feel because we included so much of these quirky and individual shots into the whole rough cut it has made promoting the band in a light hearted way.
For the majority of the morning we experimented with new shots of the rappers, for the scene where it looks as if the spaceship is breaking we used a smoke machine tilted the with one side of the ship to the other, in the frame was on of the rapper in the for ground and two in the background running from side to side in complete devastation and worry.
After the lunch break, we came back and started to film the narrative strand, all of this was done in the blue screen with exception to the doors opening and closing with the alien either leaving or entering. The door scene was very hard to get right in the way that the two people pulling the door did not know how fast to go and when to open and shut it. After a few takes with excessive smoke and green flashing lights, we had to dismantle the set and make room in front of the blue screen to film the scene. We needed to gather shots of the alien running away whilst looking backwards, walking around looking very shocked and spinning around very slowly on the chair.Using a blue screen was really exciting for me and Alex as we both hadn’t used one before. The blue screen was simply wheeled along like a curtain and a stage was set up directly in front of it. The camera at this point also had to be readjusted to the new set. We used a variety of shots like extreme close ups, mid shots and close ups to suite the varying backgrounds. The lighting was also altered at this point as the alien was not actually in the spacecraft in the video. The ideas we had of him walking down the street and being in pictures with famous people made us alter the lighting to make it much brighter for the picture shots and not flickering but dim for the walking shots.
The day finished at around 4:30 PM and we were very happy with how the day went, all considered it could have been a disaster with one of the main people dropping out.
Editing
Alex and I have now started the process of editing the rough cut into an actual music video. For our group in some ways this is very easy and other are very difficult. The best thing about the song we choose is that the beat is very defined and easy to spot, therefore giving us more ease when cutting two clips together. However, another area of editing we have not yet started is editing in backgrounds fro the blue screen surrounding our alien, as both neither me or Alex have used a blue screen before, making it very difficult and perhaps more timely to edit this in. Our deadline, the end of the winter term I am confident will be kept to ad hopefully will give us time to truly polish the editing of our music video.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Set Building
The afternoon before shooting Alex and I were able to go along and help with the painting and putting together of the set. The set for our video had three main functions: inside the space craft, the outside of the space craft and the blue screen background. Our first shot of the day according to the shooting schedule was the rappers within the space craft so we therefore set up the ship to save time the following day. Apart from the initial painting there were other areas like ensuring the panel on the set were straight and which colours to use on the knobs of the control pads that took up a lot of time.
We felt that by putting in small details and paying attention to detail it would create more of a professional vide and ultimately make our video look better. One of the largest issues we had whilst set building was deciding what to do with the doors. Firstly we had decided to try to incorporate them into the set so they could be shown at all time and equally so the audience would be more aware that the alien was leaving the ship that had the rappers in, not that they were separate. But after a short chat, we felt that it would be more advantageous to not include the doors and have them separately and instead build up narrative of many reactions shots of the rappers from the actions of the alien. Now the only issue was getting the doors to open at the same time and at the same speed with people pulling them apart. This was very difficult, especially with lots of smoke and flashing lights but after around four attempts the doors were starting to move evenly and the monitor showed promising results.
Another issue we discovered on the day was that we were intending to use the green screen; however our alien had previously been painted green. Therefore he would not show up when in after effects. So luckily a blue screen was also available for us to use, otherwise our video would have been a disaster!
The reason for the attention to detail within the spacecraft set was to tie in with the music video convention of reality. We wanted to audience to feel as if the band could actually be in a space ship, making them feel, even more so, the quirky nature of the band. The more real the set felt, the bigger impression the band would have on the audience in my opinion. Equally, it would also high light their seemingly low socio-economic grouping, that they are in a fabulous state of the art space ship, yet they are lower classed. Specifically, the part of the set that ties the most into the narrative strand of the video is the control boards located on the left hand side of the set. This relates dominantly as there are parts of the video where the rapper are frantically switching the knob to help stabilise the aircraft.
We felt that by putting in small details and paying attention to detail it would create more of a professional vide and ultimately make our video look better. One of the largest issues we had whilst set building was deciding what to do with the doors. Firstly we had decided to try to incorporate them into the set so they could be shown at all time and equally so the audience would be more aware that the alien was leaving the ship that had the rappers in, not that they were separate. But after a short chat, we felt that it would be more advantageous to not include the doors and have them separately and instead build up narrative of many reactions shots of the rappers from the actions of the alien. Now the only issue was getting the doors to open at the same time and at the same speed with people pulling them apart. This was very difficult, especially with lots of smoke and flashing lights but after around four attempts the doors were starting to move evenly and the monitor showed promising results.
Another issue we discovered on the day was that we were intending to use the green screen; however our alien had previously been painted green. Therefore he would not show up when in after effects. So luckily a blue screen was also available for us to use, otherwise our video would have been a disaster!
The reason for the attention to detail within the spacecraft set was to tie in with the music video convention of reality. We wanted to audience to feel as if the band could actually be in a space ship, making them feel, even more so, the quirky nature of the band. The more real the set felt, the bigger impression the band would have on the audience in my opinion. Equally, it would also high light their seemingly low socio-economic grouping, that they are in a fabulous state of the art space ship, yet they are lower classed. Specifically, the part of the set that ties the most into the narrative strand of the video is the control boards located on the left hand side of the set. This relates dominantly as there are parts of the video where the rapper are frantically switching the knob to help stabilise the aircraft.
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Set Design
We hope to build a replica of this set in the studio
We used this drawing to show to the media teachers how we wanted the studio space to look. By having a diagram with labels indicating colour scheme and taking into account the size of the studo, this will help them to visualise the set. For example the background colour was light silver, used as most of the other spacecrafts we looked at for a point of reference. The light silver colour worked well as a background colour as it did not detract from the performance element of the media product. Equally, we also noted briefly about small flashing red LEDS appearing as if they were buttons on the control boards which are evident in other sci-fi themed media products like Star Trek. We tried to make full use of the studio space we had available to us and space out the props accordingly but also kept in mind the fact that the rappers would be running around the whole et so we needed to ensure the right mise en scene was provided everywhere. There were only a few subtle changes to the set from out sketch to the set of the sctual filming including a different type of lighting and one less control pannel within the ship due to lack of space.
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