Question 4: How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation?

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To find our chosen track we look at the website www.unsigned.com. This website allows unsigned artist to post their track and give information about themselves in the hope that they will create a fan base and gain work though their music. We used this website to prevent any issues with copyright, as the music is unsigned and original is not technically copyrighted to anyone, meaning that we can uses the track, make a promo out of it and then unload the video on to YouTube without any problems.  Once we found our track we emailed Andrea asking her permission to uses the track. We did this as we felt it would be the right thing to do, as we would be using her own original work. Andera was very kind and allowed us to use the track with the condition that we sent her a link to the final video, something we were happy to do.  

 

The biggest video shoot skill I have learnt during this production is stop motion. We decided to use stop motion in our music promo after using it in 'Initial ideas for our promo' video and from this we realised how effective it could potentially be.  We were inspired by Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’- as in this video he uses the animation that links to the lyrics. For example as he says ‘You could have a steam train’ a track is built around his head and a toy train starts to move around it. We decided to uses stop motion based around the lyrics ‘as it heals the scabs they crack’ by having black cracks going up our performer arms, neck and back. We had never done something like this in previous projects, so I practise  the stop motion of drawing cracks up my arm. From both the ‘initial ideas for our promo’ and the practise we learnt that continuity was extremely important and only small amount could be added and chanced at a time to get enough footage to make it worthwhile. We applied what we learnt when filming it for our music promo and as a result of this, we had an effect stop motion in our music promo.

 

Another skill we learnt was how to uses lighting effectively when shooting the music promo.  In previous projects we had just relied on natural lighting when filming and sometimes we couldn’t use some of our footage as the lighting was so bad. To ensure that this didn’t happen again we borrowed a professional nature flood light used in drama productions. This gave brilliant lighting, which meant the we could use any shot we filmed as it was clear. However, we did have problems when using this lighting which we had to overcome on the day of filming. The light we used need a high stand to stay on so throughout filming so that light was directly on our performer.  We didn’t have a high stand, so we had to create one. Using a ladder and duct tape we were able to stick the light to the ladder at a suitable high for our filming.  By doing this it allowed uses to move the lighting around very easily and it meant that it was secure so we didn’t have to worry about it falling off during filming.

The other skill we wanted to perfect during our filming was having every shoot steady and not wobbly. In every project we have done before, we always have a couple of shots that were wobbly and our audience always pointed this out. So, we made sure that this didn’t happen by filming every shot on a tri-pod and once we started recording nobody touched it until the shot was finished. We also only planned to have on shot in the whole video that was panning. This worked as all of our shots were steady and was not wobbly in our music promo.

The biggest technical issue we had on our filming days was the memory card we for the camera could only have about 20 minutes of footage put on to it before the memory was full, which when we were filming shot that were 3 minutes long at a time made the memory go very quickly. Not only this but the camera we used battery life did not last long and could over easily died while filming a shot.  We learnt all of this on the days of filming, so it was to late to get a bigger memory card and get a better camera. So, we would film so many shot until the memory was nearly full, them when would transfer the footage on to one of our laptops and change the batteries. This made the filming days last a longer and sometime meant we would waste time just downloading the footage onto a laptop. However, by doing this we did manage to film all of the shot we wanted and the camera never died when filming shots.     

One major issue we had to overcome before we started editing was getting our footage on to Final Cut Express. Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue if we had all the footage on a memory card, but we had all of our footage on a laptop which had automatically changed the footage to file type that suited it. However Final Cut would not put our footage on to the program in this file type. The only way we were able to sort this problem was to put the footage on to IMovie, export every clip individually and them place in on to Final Cut Express. This took a long time do, as we had a lot of clips to do it for and we had to wait every time the clip exported, which meant we had less time to edit the video. It did work buy doing this and meant that we were able to edit on Final Cut, so it was worth it. But given the chance to re-do the project I would make sure we had a big enough memory card to film the footage on so we didn’t have to waste time on both filming days and editing.

The biggest challenge we had had out of the whole production was learning to use Final Cut Express.  In all of our other projects we had used iMovie, however because we wanted to spilt our video in quarters and iMovie cannot do this, we had to learn how use Final Cut.  I took the main role in editing the video, so I was the first person to learn how to us it in our group and I also had the responsibly of teaching another member our group to uses it.  This program is far more complexes than iMovie, so it did take me a day just how to work out how to add shots, cut the shots, move the shots and resize them. I did use Google a lot to help me understand the program and asked for lots a advice from other students and teachers. Not only this but this version of Final Cut renders anything and everything once something is changed.  This meant that using Final Cut was a very time consuming program to uses- by the end of the first week of using the program I had only managed to edited four seconds worth of the video. My skills in using the program did in improve and by the end of the second week not only edited 1 minute and 37 seconds worth of the video, but also I was able to show the other member of our group how to uses the program.  It did work out really well using Final Cut, as we were able to produce something that we not only proud of, but also looked how we wanted it to.     

 

We also had considered the creation of the digipak and advert, not just the music promo. To create these two elements we used Photoshop in which we used several different tools to help create our final products. The most helpful tool we used in Photoshop was that Magic wand tool. This allowed us to select certain parts of the photo (mainly the paint) and edit this without affecting the rest of the image. By using this tool we were able to change the colours of the paint but still just using one image, something which our audience complemented us on when gaining feedback. Also by using the magic wand tool we were very easily able to change the main four images of our artist into black and white by using the adjustment opinion.  This once again helped to make the digipak and advert stand out and look professional. The only issues that we had using Photoshop using different layers made it slightly confusing when trying to edit certain points of the products. But as time went on we got used to the different layers and it became no longer an issue.   

Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Script for the presentation

The following is the script we used for our presentation;

For more information about anything that was discuss in our presentation, please read the following.

All three of our products would help to ensure the success of our artist and her brand. The music promo allows the audience to hear one of the tracks from the album in a visually pleasing way. It gives them a chance to see the artist, hear the track and understand what meaning of the song all for free. This is the most common way that an artist will build up a fan base and have a popular song, which helps ensure that a profit will be made. If the track is good and the music promo is entertaining to watch, then an audience is more likely to buy the digipak. The magazine advert gives the chance for even more people to see the artist and their brand. If done correctly, it will stand out and make people look at it. From this, as the advert cannot play any of the music, people are more likely watch the music promo or buy into the album.  Also it gives a chance to show the audience the reviews of the product, which again can really help to boost sell figures of an album.  The digipak shows the artist at their full, as this is where all the hard-work is shown in the songs. It is important that that the music promo and the magazine advert are done to a high standard, as if there not people won't be interested in buying a whole digipak. The digipak gives the allows to fully understand what the artist is going though at the time they made the album and relate to this (in our case a break up). This is not only personally important to the artist, as the whole point of creating an album is that people will enjoy it and relate to it, but also can help ensure that artist will gain fame and fortune- both of which are very desired in our modern world.

Together, all three of our promotional materials work well in representing our artist. We want to show that our artist music is indie-pop, so the music was the most important thing about her brand and not her image. We did this by having her wear simple clothing in the music promo and only showing her face in both the digipak and the magazine advert. In our music promo video there is not a narrative, as this allows the audience to focuses more on the meaning of the song. Then in our digipak we only had the track names on the back cover and on our music magazine advert we choose just to adverts the album, not a tour or one specific song. As all three of our products do represent our branding of the artist well, it does mean that the audience are far more likely to understand this and respect her for making music the most important part of her career. 

Our music promo video will be shown of YouTube and across popular music channels such

as MTV. These are the two most common ways for people to see music promo video, gain an interest in the artist/song and then buy into their brand.  YouTube is a great way for people to view the promo video anywhere and at anytime. Also a profit can be made with YouTube though advertisement. As the more hit of a video, the more money will be paid from advertisement companies will pay to have their products show before, during or around the music promo video. The problem with YouTube is that because is so accessible and free, it can result in less people buying the song/album, which could result in a lower profit being made.   A music channel like MTV can prevent this, as the video can only be shown on the TV once at a time. Therefore if the person saw the video and liked the song they would have to buy it or album to be able to listen to it more frequently.  However the problem with music channels is that they don't have as many viewers anymore as a result of online platforms and they show so many music videos that our promo wouldn't be shown sufficiently enough to get a lot of people interested in it. So, the best way to deal with both of the these problems is to show it on both so that people have choice in how they would like to view the promo video.

 

 

We think our artist appeals to large range of people so, it's important that we have the our magazine advert in different types of magazine. So, we have would have the advert in Q magazine, Heat magazine and Top of the Pops magazine. All three of these are very different to one another, but all play an important role ensure the success of our artist. Q magazine is a well respected music magazine and if we want our artist music to be take seriously (which we do, as this is a part of her brand)  the it important that we advertise her in a magazine like this. If her music is taken seriously it could help ensure good reviews and high sells figures.   The next magazine we would choose is Heat Magazine as it is one of the most poplar celebrities gossip based magazine.  By advertising in this magazine it could help ensure our artist fame and popularity- which would help to ensure high album sells. Also Heat magazine has a music channel and a radio station, so if it was poplar in  the magazine then it is more likely the promo will be shown on the channel and the song will be played of the radio station.  The other magazine we would place our advert in is Top of the Pops magazine as it is one of the biggest selling teen magazines. The teen and pre-teen are a big demographic in buying music, so it would seem stupid not to advertise in this magazine.  Teenagers, especially girls will find our artist music relatable as they are the age were they first experience break-ups and heart breaks. So by adverting in this magazine it help ensure higher album/song sells and could really help our artist have  large fan base.  The only problem is with adverting in three very different magazine is that some people may question our artist brand and the genre of the music, but we would be willing to take that risk.

The digipak would be available to buy both online though platforms such as iTunes and in shops like HMV.  It is important that we offer the product on both platform as this appeals to a larger audience by doing so, which would help to ensure a good profit being made.  Online distribution is the biggest way song/albums are bought today, so it make sense to place our digipak on there as well. The only problem with this is that they wouldn't actually be buying physical digipak, so they wouldn't not be able to see all the artwork and different panels we have created, which does represent our artist very well. So, buy having the digipak on offer at shops, like HMV, then the audience have a choices in how to buy it. By having digipak in a shop the audience will be fully be able to see the digipak in its fully, which is important when creating a strong brand image. The only problem with having it a shop is that it is not the most popular way of buying music, so it could potentially be a waste of money to put in shop. But as it’s a digipak and not just a CD, fans would want to the special addition of the music, so would be more likely to go out and buy it from a shop.

Question 1: In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our task was to promotional martial for an album though the creation of  a music promo video with an magazine advert and a digipak. We had to create a brand of an artist that would be reflected in our video, advert and digipak.  These three promotional martial's would be used in the industry and all play a vital role in ensuring an artist success.

A promo videos are used for the audience to see what the artist brand is and what they

represent.  It usually allows the audience to see who the artist is and can help show what the meaning of a song is (although, there are cases where this isn't true). It is one of the most important things for an artist to do, especially now that music video are so easy to watch online. Having a successful video that gains lots of hits online (for example on YouTube) can and has made the different in ensuring an artist get a number 1 record , high album sells and high profits earned-even if the song. A good example of this is Nicki Minaj's song Anaconda. It was a very controversial video for its sexual nature, but as a result of that it currently has 300,000,000+ views on YouTube, which help it to be in 24 different countries weekly chart and helped it to go double platinum in the USA.

A magazine advert for an artist is used to help promote the artist and there brand on a different platform. It allows larger number of different types of people to see it and more the more people that see it, the more likely it is that artist will be a hit. It can be used to adverts the release of a song, an album or a tour. As long as the advert grabs people's attention, people are more likely to look into the artist, become a fan and buy into their brand.  For example this advert of The McBusted Tour appeared in Heat Magazine, which has an average circulation of 200,000+. This has help McBusted sell a lot of tickets,with some of the tour dates sold out.

A Digipak is usually a special edition of a CD.  It gives fan a chance to have even more contents of the artist to enjoy and can be limited edition, so they may be getting a rare copy.  It is used to help sell more albums and boost sell figures.  For example Katy Perry's Teenage Dream digipak included more images of the artist and included a second CD with bones, never heard before track, which a fan would really want.
 

For more information about the things discussed, please read the following below:

 music promo normally requires certain conventions to be consider as a good video. There are certain elements commonly used in camerawork, editing, lighting, costume, props, location, narrative and performance.  A good example that shows these conventions well are Avril Lavigne song 'Girlfriend'. The common shots used in a promo music video is long shots, mid shots and close-ups. The long shot is used to help establish the location of the music video and allows the other members of the band to be shown. In 'Girlfriend' this is long shot shows the audience that some type of studio and that there are in fact other members of the band other than the sing, Avril Lavigne. The mid shots are used to help make the music video seem more real, as it is common for these shots to evolve the main artist singing the song or being a part of the narrative. This help to make it more interesting and enjoyable for the audience to watch. In ‘Girlfriend ’ most of the mid shots show Arvil Lavgine either using a microphone and singing the song or being a part of the narrative (sometimes even both!). The close up shots are used mainly to show the emotion of the an artist in the band. These shot help the audience get a feel for a song/narrative. In ‘Girlfriend’ the song is upbeat and involves the narrative of trying to steal a another girls boyfriend, so the close ups of Arvil Lavgine she always looks happy or determined to steal the boyfriend.  

 In a music video the only type of camera movement commonly used is a panning shot. This is used to make the music video seem more real and makes the audience feel that they are more a part of the narrative/performance. In ‘Girlfriend’ panning shots are used though the performance part of the video.

The conventions of a music promo video can change slightly depending on the type of genre the song/artist is. Our song 'Ink Settles In' is an indie-pop song. Therefore some of the conventions in the pop promo are different/ not needed in our video. A good example that illustrates the differences is Ellie Goulding's 'Starry Eyes'. The camera work is similar in that it does commonly uses long shots, mid shots and close-ups. This has been done so the audience can fully understand what is happening the video and they have a chance to see the artist. But the difference is that indie pop videos contain extreme close-ups thought out  the video. These types of shots usually show something in extreme detail so the audience cannot fully understand what is happening in the shot, they only get a glimpse of it.  It is unique, which makes it different from other music videos and it can help keep the audience interested throughout the video as they will want to see these shots in full. In 'Starry Eyes' one of the first shots we see is the one photo. It is an extreme close-up of part of Ellie's face.

 

The main three shot types we used in our music promo video were mid shots, close-ups and extreame close-ups. We did uses very simlar camrea shots from pop promos and indie-pop promos as we felt this types of shots are what help to create the most effective music videos. A mid shot allows the audicne to see what is happening around the singer, but not so much that they loose intrested in them. We used this for the shot where the singer is in the date like setting, the audicne can see that she is alone which suggest that her date isn't coming, which realtes well to song as it is about heartbreak. But it the shot also allows her to be the main fouces point.  We a lot of close-up shot, mainly one of our actress singing the song. These shots are shown thoughout, as the allow the audicne see our performer (which is imporant in making the performeer famous) and see the emotions she is going though. At the beginnig of the song, she is quite calm but as the video goes on she is clearly becomes more angry and upset- which follows the structure of the song perfectly. All of this helps the audicne to understand the meaning of the song, which hopefully people will find reltable.  We also used several extreame close-ups shot mainly at the beginning of the song.  When researching into indie-pop videos, this is a very common that this type of shot is using at the beginning of a music video. The shot is unique and makes indie pop music promos stand out from pop promos.  We felt that it was vital that we used these shots in our promo as it is true to the conventions of indie-pop. Also extreme closes-ups helped to keep our music promo interesting as the audience cannot fully understand what is happening in these shots so they are more likely to watch the whole video to understand it, which I think is very important considering we don't have a narrative in our video.  

 

In our music promo we only used one panning shot, in which the camera pans across the romantic table, revealing what's on it in more detail and allowing the audience to see this.  We only did this panning shot because we did not feel that in was necessary any other part of our video to have another panning shot and it is more a of common convention in a pop promo, not an indie pop promo and we wanted to create a realistic indie-pop promo.

 

In a music video the main editing technique used is a straight-cut, in fact it is unusual for any other type of editing to be used. This is done simply because there is no need for it. A music video only care about the artist and their song, so technically the video can be very straight forward to help keep the focuses on the song and nothing else. Unlike films, people don’t care about amazing editing in music videos so it is pointless for people to waste time on something which isn’t that important. In ‘Girlfriend’ there is a lot of jump cuts used. For example there tends to be quick shots showing Arvil Lavgine singing the song for different angles and camera shots.

 

The indie-pop music promo is no different to a pop music promo with editing, as both normally uses straight cut editing.. This is done simply because there is no need for anything else. The main focus for this video is the lyrics of the song and the meaning, so technically the video is very straight forward as it helps keep the audience focused.  In ‘Starry Eyes ’,like most indie pop videos,  the pace of the editing is done to suit the structure of the song.  In the bridges the editing is normal pace, where as when the chorus is on the editing is a lot faster, as the song is fast at those points. For example the three stills pictured above are all shots shown in the chores over the space of about three seconds.  This is done because it helps keep the audience interested in the video till the very end. Some shots are only shown very briefly, so the audience want to keep watching to see the shots in more detail. Also in connects the editing to the song, as the editing is slower in the bridges and  faster in the chorus.

In most music videos, regardless of the genre they uses straight cuts as the editing in a music video is not the most important thing- it’s the song, the artist and the imagery shown in the video. So, we decided to stay true to this convention  and just uses straight cuts in our video. Most of music video (especially at the start of the video) was edited to the beat of the song, we did this because it look visually pleasing for the audience to watch and allows for regular shot changes. The pace of the editing became quicker as the singer of the song becomes more angry and upset.  So, at the beginning of the song the shots change at a normal pace in patterns, whereas towards the end of the song shot change quicker and more randomly.  This is a common thing indie pop videos do, as it's another way of keeping the audience interested in the video when there is no narrative.   The other unique selling point of our music video is that nearly the whole video is edited into four quarters. We wanted to make the video that is different and would ensure that it would be enjoyable to watch the whole way though and we felt that this was the perfect way to do it. By having four different shots playing at once, it means that the audience always have to pay attention to it so they can understand what is happening, which means they are more likely to watch the video more than once. It also makes our music promo stand out from others, as it rare to find a music video like ours that has it split into four quarters and have no narrative in it. This means that the music promo is more likely to be remember by people, which would help insure the success of our artist and brand. 

 

 In a music video the lighting is used to represent the feeling and mood of the song. This is done so the audience can fully understand the meaning of a song and it makes much more entertaining to watch. ‘Girlfriend ’ is an upbeat, pop song about wanting to date someone so the lighting is very bright and happy feeling.   

 

In ‘Starry Eyes’ the lighting is mainly very natural and bright, so the audience can clearly see Ellie and the different things around her. However there are also shorter shots that are too bright and seem to reflect the lighting on set . This is different to a pop promo video, as that usually only has natural lighting. It  has been done to make the video stand out and be different (which fits perfectly with the indie pop genre), as it not normal to have bad lighting within a music video and it fits with the lyrics of the song, as starts are bright. Also this has been done, like the extreme close up, to give audience hints of the different shots in the video as the audience want to see the shot in full, so therefore keep watching the video till the very end.

The lighting our video is quite natural and bright the whole way though. In previous filming projects our lighting had been poor and as a result of that, some of the shot were unclear. So we learnt from that and decided to uses a professional  lighting, ensuring that every shot would clear and could potentially be used. Admittedly, the lighting maybe doesn't represent the meaning of the song, it properly should have been darker in some shots. But we really want for the audience to see everything that was happening, as some shot require the audience to think of the meaning and we would not of be able to do this with darker lighting

 

The costumes used in a music video are always used to match the genre and narrative of  Arvil Lavgine wears very fashionable (for its time) clothing, as it is a pop song. This shows her audience that she is very up to date and is therefore cool.  In the narrative, the girlfriend wear very unfashionable, nerdy clothing. This done because the audience are not meant to like her, so by having her in bad clothing it makes her less appealing.  Whereas the girl trying to get the boyfriend wears black, punk, rebel clothing. This has been done as she is the one the audience are meant to think is cool and likeable- she is being a rebel for stealing someone's boyfriend and the clothing represents that.

the video. This is done to represent the artist in a certain way, for example in this video the costumes that Arvil is a cool, fashionable, fun young women. In the performance parts of the song

 

The costumes for an indie pop video a significantly different to a pop promo video.  Instead  of wearing clothing which is consider fashionable, cool and stylish (like in 'Girlfriend') the indie pop video are more concerned about the song itself. So it is a more likely that the clothing is a big deal with in the video. Also the artist tends to wear clothing that represents the song and there brand. This is very true in 'Starry Eyes' as Ellie wears quite quirky clothing, that keeps her well covered up and is quite simple. This has been done to show that Ellie is more concerned about her music than what she looks like (which is very typical for an indie pop artist). 

 

 

We only had one costume in our video and that was of a white, simple dress with purple converse. In indie-pop videos the costume normally aren't the most important element, the artist will wear something that represent who they are, but not so that it takes the attention away from the song and its meaning.  We felt like this was an important convention for use to follow, so we choose for our actress to wear a simple white dress. It represents the innocents of her, which makes people sympathize with her when singing about heartbreak. Also it mean that coloured paint showed up on the dress really well.  We choose the purple converse for her to wear to give her a bit an edge, as it is not considered fashionable to wear converse with  dress. This show that she does not follow stereotypes and is unique with her style, which is a very common for indie-pop artist to do.

The most common props used in a music video are the instruments guitar, drums and bass. These props are used because they help to make music videos realistic, as when the artist performs live there would be instruments.  It also allows the other members of the band a chance to show who they are and it not just focus on the lead singer. In ‘Girlfriend’  this is done throughout the video in one scene.

 

The props is also very different in a indie pop video. There can be props such as instruments or things that relate to the song, but it also very common for these types of promo video to have very little. This is because the main focus of the video should be the song it self and the artist, so by having little props, the audience does not get distracted.  This is very true with 'Starry Eyes' as there are no real props throughout the video, only two dancers. The dancers help to keep the video interesting, but do not take the attention away from Ellie, so the audience will focus on her instead. 

 

 

 

In our music promo we did uses a lot of props, which isn't commonly done in indie-pop promos. We wanted to challenge this as the props we used really helped to get the meaning of the song across and give another interesting element to the video.   Our five main props shown throughout the videos are; a rose, I heart-shaped pillow, a heart shaped ornament, a love teddy bear and a heart shaped candle stick holder. All five of the items represent love and during the course of the video, these items get covered in paint starting slowly with drips of paint and then getting covered all over in paint. We did this because to symbolises the lyrics of the song and its meaning. The song is about heartbreak and realising that you never going to get back together with someone, 'the ink settles in' and these love items

getting covered in pain is one of the ways we show this in the video.  We used six different coloured paints in our video all of which a pastel colours. We choose these because individually they all pretty coloured, which symbolised how pretty love can be. But, when these colours are mixed together they become ugly, like a breakup. So at the beginning of the song (when it calm) the colours are dript individually, then when the songs become angrier  all the colour are drop onto our actress-suggesting she has been though an ugly break up and the ink is settling in that they are not going to get back together.

For one of our main performance scenes our actress is in a date like setting. There is a heart shaped balloon, wine, a candle and lots of rose petals- all of which would help make a very romantic date.  However in our scene, our actress is alone and the other wine glass clearly hasn't been touched. We choose to place these props in the scene because again it helps to represent the meaning of the song- a breakup and  realisation that you are never going to get back together with the person. It also suggest that our actress has either been stood up or the date has left, which gives the audience something to think about while watching the video.

The other prop we had in our video was a guitar. We chose to have this as it is a common convention found in most music videos. Our song only has one instrument and when researching into our artist, we found that she could in fact play the guitar, so made sense to show this in our video. We also included it because we wanted to smash an instrument in our video, as we thought that once again this would be a good way of representing the structure  of the song. It calm to begin with, so the audience see the artist playing the guitar  but then the song becomes angry so the audience see the guitar being smashing- showing that are artist is so upset and hurt by the break up that she is smashing something she loves.

 

The location of a music video very much depends on the type of genre the song is and what the songs meaning is. If the song is a apart of pop genre than it is likely the music video is going to be filmed in  ‘normal’ location. Where as if it was a part of the rock genre it likely the location is going to be somewhere dark. This is done so the audience can fully understand what the song is about song is about and what type of artist created it. Also having a good location can help to create a good narrative storyline. ‘Girlfriend’ is an upbeat, fun song about wanting to steal someone else's boyfriend, so narrative part of the story is set at an arcade, as there I s plenty of different actives to try and steal the boyfriend. The performances part of the video is a studio, as it allows the audience just to focus on the artist at certain points in the video.

We filmed our music promo video is a primary school hall, which is not a common place to film a music video. We chose to film there because we could have it for two days for free and we were allowed to do all that we had planned with in the hall, including covering our actress in paint. We didn't have to worry about staining anything with paint as we were covering the walls and the floor was wooden. All of this made planning for the video a lot easier and less stressful. To make it look like a set, one of the members of our group had wallpaper which we felt was appropriate  for our video. They are girly colours with girly designs on them, which suit the artist and the style of the song. We felt that it made the background of the video look visually pleasing which can help ensure a successful video. Also the wallpaper made it look like we weren't filming a primary school, but in fact a studio. 

 

The narrative of a music promo video is very depend on how the song is interpreted, what the artist wants to do and what genre of music the song fits into. ‘Girlfriend' is all about disliking a boys girlfriend and wanting to steal the boy. So, the narrative in this video is all about Arvil Lavgine sabotaging a girlfriend and boyfriends date though a series of different actives because she wants to date the boy. (for example in the images, the girlfriend is go-karting and Arvil knocks her off the root). This has been done because it relates well with the lyrics of the song- ‘Hey! Hey! You! You! I don't like your girlfriend! No way No way! I think you need a new one!'. The unique part of this video is that Arvil is the girlfriend as well, which is comical to watch and would be very appealing to fans. At the end of the video Arvil gets the boy and the girlfriend is dumped. 

 

Indie pop promo music videos commonly don't have a narrative and are purely performance. This is a very simple concept that allows the audience to focuses on the meaning of the song and not get to distracted by the looks of it, which indie pop does a lot. To help keep the video interesting, it common for them not to reveal every shot at once. What indie pop does is show shorter shots that are unclear (often though an extreme close-up) or a shot that is shown too quick to be fully understood, then later on in the video the whole of the shot will be shown. This is done in 'Starry Eyes' as one the first shots the audience see is an extreme close up of a Ellie's face, which is not the full shot. It is not until one minute into the video that whole shot is revealed.

For our music promo we decided not to have a narrative and just a performance based video. This is something that is very commonly done in indie-pop music as it allows the audience to focuses on the meaning of the song and not get to distracted by the looks of it, which we something really wanted as the lyrics to our song are not straightforward. The risk of doing a video like this is that can get boring for an audience to watch.  Luckily with our song it develops from a calm song into an angry song, so we were created the idea of the girl getting covered in paint when the song get angry which gives a interesting ending to the video. But this doesn't happen until the last minute of the song and we didn't want our audience to stop watching before then. So, we used lots of quick shots and extreme close-ups which show the what will happen towards the end of the video . This meant that the audience would want to watch the video until so they could fully understand see what they were shown earlier in the video. The other thing we did in our promo to keep the performance interesting was has most of the video shot in four quarters. All of this meant that even though it is just performance but still managers to keep the audience interest throughout as there is so much going on, which means we are more likely to have a successful music video and have a successful artist.

Another thing that was important for us when creating this music promo video is that we really wanted to break the serotypes of how women are portrayed in the media. Laura Mulvey created  the theory called  'The Male Gaze' in which women are show in certain ways to pleases a male audience. This is very true especially in pop promos. For example in 'Girlfriend' Avril Lavigne wears very short shorts which does look appealing for a male audience. In indie-pop music promos this is less common especially as the artist are usually more concerned about the song and the music rather than their image. So, we were able to show this in our music promo as well. The dress our actress wore was very simple design that showed no cleavage and not too much leg.  This meant that the our audience would not get distracted by the looks of our actress and instead focus on the song and its meaning.

 Directors' Commentary

There was several music promos that inspired and influenced our video. The one had the most influence was Gotye’s video for ‘Somebody That I Used to Know’. This was because we felt that there was an element to the song that was like ours, and this was how it begins with only one or two instruments, but it becomes more powerful and louder as the song goes on. This meant that we looked at the video for the song to see how they approached this style. We liked how the artists were seen in just one room and had strange face paint on. In the video, paint builds up across the walls and goes onto the bodies of the performers. We found this very creative and thus were keen to use face paint to make the performance of an artist more interesting than just seeing their face as they sing. For the chorus of our chosen song, the lyrics are ‘underneath my skin, as the ink settles in’. Therefore the idea of paint building up and spreading across someone’s skin could be linked to the lyrics.

For our performance style and imagery we were influenced by Adele's 'Rolling in The Deep'. We liked the idea of the video alternating from the performer on their own, to lots of other shots of varying length that showed simple actions; glasses of water vibrating, somebody  drumming, someone dancing on a floor covered in white powder, plates being smashed etc. The song we chose did not lend itself well to a video with a linear narrative. Instead we thought a better approach would be similar to this video as it has performance but also a whole range of other occurrences that link to the lyrics and the tone of the song.

A technique that wanted to uses (and did uses) in our music promo video was stop motion. A famous music video that does this very well and influenced how we did it, is Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’. Throughout the whole video we see the singer’s head, and around it stop motion has been used to animate lots of objects that link to the lyrics. For instance, as he says ‘You could have a steam train’ a track is built around his head and a toy train starts to move around it. We believed using stop motion was another way of keeping the video  interesting and would challenge us to use more skills. As the song uses only one instruments it gives a simplistic feeling and we think that stop motion would be very suitable for this as it is quite a simple technique itself. For the part of our song where we used stop motion was when the lyrics are ‘as it heals, they scabs the crack and bleed all-over again' , we used stop motion by showing cracks spreading across our performers body.

A music promo that influenced our editing was Mumford and Sons video ‘Whispers in the Dark’. The whole video splits the screen into quarters showing four different things at once. This is interesting to watch, as there are lots of different things to focus on throughout the video, which also means that the audience are more like to watch the video more than once. We thought this would be a very good idea for our video, especially as there wasn't a narrative so we needed find alternative to keep the video interesting and enjoyable to watch throughout.

For our ancillaries the biggest influence and inspiration was defiantly Andy Warhol pop art. As he would show the same picture in different colours four times. His work is world know and high poplar among lots of different people, making it easily recognisable. We thought this type of art would work really well as the main image on our advert and as the cover to our digipak. We wanted to create a strong brand that is recognisable and relates to the song. The paint we used was perfect for having the same image but in different colours, so we took full advantage of this idea and created our own take on it.