Evaluation of music video

Today we made a mind map of the possible cinematography, editing and mise-en-scene we could have used within our music video. 

Blue Circles- Represent the aspects that we managed to include within our video.

Orange Circles- Represent that we developed this.

Red Circles- Represent how we challenged this.

From doing this we saw that we have used everything we put down, which shows that we have effectively achieved our aims of including a variety of camera shots and editing techniques, as well as including all the props stereotypical to our genre. In using all of these techniques it will make our music video more appealing to our target audience and will subsequently help to encode our genre well. In addition we have developed various techniques and have not challenged anything within our mind map. However our use of the rubix cube theme throughout the video is challenging the typical props used and themes of a rock genre e.g skating and rebelling. 

Evaluation of music video

What went well with creating our music video:

• From lip sync practice I knew how to edit and use markings to match up video clips to the lyrics of the song. This made the process of getting clips onto our timeline and matching them up faster. This way we then had more time to edit each individual clip and use effects to improve the look of our music video.
• Our costumes used on the artist and the band members effectively matched our music video genre. This way the audience could easily decode the style and match it to our chosen genre of rock.
• From audience feedback we found out that our target audience would watch our video more than once, which as a record company was our aim.
• Our props were easy to get hold of as we could use the ones from our school and therefore made filming easier.
• Our music video is set in different locations within our school, which meant that we could film inside and outside our lessons.
• Did not have to travel to locations so therefore saved time, which allowed more time for filming our video.
• We used two cameras while filming to get different shot-angles and therefore made our music video look more interesting, in addition to allowing us to have more clips to use throughout the timeline.
• We previously knew how to create overlapping editing from our AS film trailer, which allowed us to save time when editing as we did not have to learn new skills. Additionally our overlapping linked to the beat of the music as we could effectively show a clip and over lap it with a instrument being played when the beat changed. This made our video then flow and look more appealing to our target audience.
• We learned how to do new editing skills that we did not know previously and made our video look better editing wise.
• The concept of ''games' linking to the rubix cube was effective as it gave us a clear concept and linked to the lyrics of the song, therefore the audience could easily decode our visuals.
  

What I would do differently next time:

• Next time I would use more locations for our video, such as a actual stage that the band can perform on. We could have made a stage out of equipment from our theatre at school or gone to a venue which hosts small gigs, which my friends sometimes play at.
• Although we used two camera when filming in some clips, I would use two cameras to film every clip we used. This way we would have more shot angles to use, which makes our music video more appealing to audiences, in addition to having more clips to fill our timeline with and use for editing.
• Would include more shot types that are not commonly seen such as high angles looking towards and over the shoulder shots. This then would give the music video more uniqueness, instead of focusing mostly on close-up shots which can become boring to the audience.

What were the difficulties with creating our music video:

• On final cut express I found that when adding another clip to the timeline, the other clips alone the timeline would move and therefore the video and the lyrics would not match up and make our video out of sync. This then was time consuming as we had to reorder our original clips and use markers to match up the video to the lyrics.
• The length of the music provided a problem. This was because our rock genre had to have fast paced clips and therefore every clip we filmed would have to be fasted and added to the timeline on final cut express. As a result of fastening the clips, we had to film double the amount to fill the whole time line compared to a pop genre, which can be slower and have longer durations of each clip.

CD cover

Digipack ideas for layout

Digipack design ideas

Unfinished version of our music video for audience feedback

We decided to show our nearly finished music video to our target audience to gain their feedback and use their comments to develop our product. Through this we found that they thought our use of costumes and props linked effectively to our genre, as well as the clips linking to the lyrics and beat of the music. Additionally we found that they believed our concept of linking "games" with the genre was effective and original, as well as the fact that they would watch our music video more than once. This is good as our aim was to have props, costumes and a theme that would link to our genre and be easy to decode as a rock genre by our target audience.

My plan for our magazine advertisement

For our magazine advertisement I felt that the album of the artist should be settled in the centre to make it the main focus of the advertisement. To emphasis the album cover further I would include a colour scheme of black and white vs the colour of the album particularly the old fashioned megaphone situated on her cheek - symbolising her sudden outburst of anger. The font will remain in the style of the rock genre with a similar font to David Guetta's electronic logo which is slightly electronic looking. Additionally the title name 'loud' will be much larger in sizing than the other details to draw attention to the concept of the album which is to break free and use your own voice! But other details include the date of release, our record label, reviews, our website and most importantly we want the song to our music video to be mentioned as the best seller on the advertisement - as it will bring our video more attention.

Magazine advertisement idea

Drawing of my magazine advertisement idea:

For my magazine advertisement idea I took inspiration from looking at previous artists advertisements of their album, as well as the layout within the magazine. I have put the bands name at the top of the advertisement, in the biggest letters so that it stands out to audiences. Furthermore the majority of the space is took up with the artists image which will appear at the front of the album. This is because as it is a new artist, we want to advertise her as well as the band, so she is a popular image within the music industry. In addition the audience will recognise the album within shops as they know what it looks like. Moreover along the bottom there will be reviews out of five, in addition to the release date, record label and production company. 

Practicing editing still photos

For this I took still photos in various locations and shot types, so we have a range of ideas for what camera angles to use within our music video, to make it more exciting for audiences to watch more than once. On final cut express I then edited each one in different styles and colour themes so that there is a range of ideas to consider for editing that can be used on different parts of our music video. I have tried to stick with a red or black theme so that it goes with our rock genre, therefore audiences will be able to recognise this and decode our video. However I have also used one or two in a paint/blur style, in very colourful colours to represent our artist being in what she describes as a 'game', along with the colours representing the rubix cube.

Analysing music magazine advertisements

                                Magazine Advertisements

Jesse.J's magazine advertisement for her album 'Who are you'

Having analysed this advertisement I found that there are some specific key factors that we as a group should use to attract an audience for our music video, such as:

• the artist name
• a picture of the artist
• the album name
• the best selling song on the album - we could make this 'what do you want from me' as it'd make someone viewing it more likely to go straight to that song and its video
• logos of the record label/s
• where you can find the song such as the artist's very own website or somewhere like iTunes and HMV...

There are actually some other key factors that we could consider to include for our magazine advertisement, such as:

• the release date
• any reviews to make the album seem better

Its therefore evident that Jessie.J is trying to rely solely on her status alone in order to sell the album as she hasn't found it necessary to include further details. In conclusion we need to think about what details our artist needs to inform their audience with and how we could be display them to attract the target crowd.



Analysing music magazine advertisements

 Analysing conventions of a magazine advert for a CD: 

I looked at the Arctic Monkey's advertisement for their CD within a magazine, looking at the conventions of the layout, colour, text and themes. The name of the artist was the biggest on the ad, showing that they rely on their branding alone to draw attention. The CD was a medium close up of a girls face, showing that the artists are not even on the advertisement, which could suggest they are not interested in promoting themselves/ their image, but the music itself. 

The main conventions that are normally seen within a magazine advertisement for music is:

1) The artists name

2) A picture of the artist/band

3) The logo or name of the record label

4) Reviews in the style of stars out of five

5) The release date of the album

6) The albums names, in addition to some of the previous singles being advertised

Album Name

These are words that we have brainstormed in relation to our song genre and artist, we hope to get an idea of an album name from these.

When brainstorming we thought about how the artist is singing about her controlling relationship and how now she is tired of her partners 'game' and how she just wants 'independence' rather than the 'mayhem' its causing her to feel. We also believed that her relationship could resemble a natural disaster hence the use of 'riptide'...

But overall we like 'independence', 'play' and 'loud' the most, therefore we hope to use these within our album name.

My first attempt using Adobe Photoshop CS5 to edit album covers

Adobe photoshop cs5 from Madeleine Fox

Practice editing on Adobe

Analysing the success of music videos

    

From looking on the top best selling music videos on iTunes, it is clear that the pop genre dominants the sales. This is a good type of research to conduct as it allows me to see the most successful video for its visuals, rather than the song having an influence. The top best selling is Adele's 'Hello' video, which is filmed using a variety of shot angles, with the most common being a close up of the artists face. In addition the music video is slow paced and has a series of slow-motion shots, as well as being in sepia effect all the way through. 

Overall through looking at the majority in the top best selling music videos there is a common theme of dance moves, big effects and close ups of the artist. Through this research we can therefore take these themes and portray them within our music video so that it attracts our audience more into watching it.

Editing for our music video

One type of editing that looks effective on our music video is the use of still pictures. We took 12 different stills of our artist holding the guitar at different angles, all in the position of clock hands. We then lined them up along our timeline in the right order and made the speed faster for each individual one. This way when played the still shots would look like a moving image/timelapse of the guitar representing a clock going round. This additionally looks successful as it matches the lyrics of our song through "Don't wanna waste my time on you again", and still keeps the rock feel to the music video.

Getting ideas from different social media

To portray what type of props we have used in our music video i have used the website Pinterest to make a 'board' displaying pictures of the items. Each prop is stereotypical for our rock, therefore our audience will be able to decode the genre of our video fairly easily. The only prop that does not stereotypically fit our genre is the rubix cube. This is because we have decided to make our video stand out, so that the audience will want to view it more than once and not follow the usual look of rock genres, as through our research we have found they are not as popular amongst our target audience as pop genres are.  Through this change we hope to attract more audience and additionally link to the lyrics of our song, for example "I am not your game".

Researching the Design of Marketed Products in HMV



Rhianna stood by the top sellers

she is telling someone to be quiet

she is biting down on a chain

HMV
As we are about to start creating products like CD covers, we felt that it would be a good idea to visit somewhere that has a diverse amount of similar products (like HMV) in order to see what we like and get an idea of what we want our own CD cover to look like. One of the most influential factors we obtained from visiting was the fact that we could see which CD's were selling the most, giving us an even better idea of what a good cover looks like. For example Adele's CD was the best seller and unlike the rest it stood out due to its desaturation and boldness with the close up on her face.
P!nk

We thought it would be a good idea to look at our main inspiration (P!nk) as an example of what our CD cover may look like. Having looked at 2 of her CD's it is obvious that she opts for a fierce independent look, something which could be a great aspect for our artist (as her lyrics are about the fact that she is independent).

this CD shouts rock to us

this CD cover shouts rock to us

this CD cover shouts rock to us

Rock Genre



When we visited HMV we thought it was imperative that we looked at rock genre CD covers, as we feel our cover also needs to display what genre we have chosen. Having looked at multiple ones we felt that the use of darker colours like reds and blues seem to be identified more with the genre (perhaps due to their intensity) - we want our song to be associated with intensity also. Furthemore rock styled CD covers seem to have quite emotive figures on them. for example Paolo Nutini has a very emoive face and Thin Lizzy has a powerful stance on his cover - these powerful and emotive poses leaves the suggestion that their music if good (as it is very moving). This could be something we incorporate in our own CD cover as we like the idea that the artist is displayed at moving and perhaps even inspirational.

    

guitars central to CD

guitars central to CD

            Guitars

We found a couple of CD's which focus purely on the music rather than the artist. For instance both these CD covers have guitars as their main feature rather than their artists. This is something really important that we have tried to incorporate from the start of our process, as we don't want our artist to be too sexualised (we want the music to be the main feature to the video and other products like the CD).

the thermal colours and geometric style

the colour scheme

          Colour
For something to stand out it usually means its got a lot of colour that makes it appealing to the corner of your eye. These 2 CD covers both have a lot of colour and the this makes them stand out well. Particularly with the use of our rubix cube theme, we feel that colour on our CD could be a significant choice. 




Positioning



the logo placement is intriguing

his placement and the background



the movement of her hair

Each of these 3 CD covers along with many others have been carefully and cleverly positioned to attract buyers and make the artists appear within their personality types and genre of their music. For instance each artist is positioned centrally as it makes them the main feature of the cover, however The Vamps are positioned in a roughly with serious expressions (in an attempt to make them appear amnly - perhaps because they dont want to be associated as a teen boyband anymore), where as Ellie Goulding is portrayed as angelic (as her hair has been positioned to mask her from others - creating an innocent look), and Bieber is positioned looking downwards with a prayer like position to make him seem almost 'holy' perhaps because he wants to be portrayed as a good person. Because positioning can change so much about the way an artist is portrayed, it is very crucial that we position are artist carefully.

  

         Other forms of marketing we saw in HMV





Record covers



 Merchandise

We saw lots of records which we could also look at as inspiration for the cover of our CD; the records that were instore also seemed to be mainly rock (this was helpful as we furthered our ideas - for example their was one record which simple had a stage light looking down onto a rock artist)! Another thing we saw in store which could relate to our music based coursework was the selling of t-shirts with different music logos on them (ACDC...).





Storyboard changes and progress

We decided to make a video discussing our storyboard changes and why we have decided to remove clips or edit our storyboard. Additionally we explained what more we were going to do and how we were going to film certain clips.

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