Print Work: Cast, Props, Location, Dates.

The concept for my print work was to make my digipak and my advert as redundant to the genre as possible, yet having some entropic parts of it added in. As I have said before hand, knowing the band and the locations well, this made the whole process a lot easier when it come to the photo-shoot and time management. I was able to sort out the best time to do my photo-shoot with the band, as they are quite busy in terms of shows and creating a new album. The band were more than happy to help me out with my A2 media work, as they put in enthusiasm into the project, which again, made the photo-shoot and the whole experience not just easier for me, but a lot more enjoyable. he band themselves are based in Birmingham, which for me, is quite a while away. I planned to meet them at one of the band members houses, which I knew the location of before hand, as I'd been there before. They were again, more than happy to help me out and threw themselves straight into the project, allowing me to take photos of not just themselves, but also of their recording studio, which I used for the inside of my digipak. I didn't need to use many props for my photo-shoot, or a specific choice in costume either, as I wanted a real image of the band and the genre to come across through the print work, I didn't want to paint an image that wasn't correct. I decided to use the style of 'less is more' when planning my print work, as I didn't want it to look overcrowded, as this is why I decided to simply shoot the band for my front/back over and the studio for my inside of the digipak.

Print Work: The Photo-shoot.

For my print work, I planned to involve and include the band themselves into the print work, this way to sell the product to the target audience a lot easier, as the actual artists were involved. I was lucky to know the band personally, as this made it easier for me arrange the photo-shoot and sort out an easy date for me to shoot the photography for the print work. In despite of me knowing the band personally, there were still some difficulties arranging dates and capturing all of the images in one day, this is why I decided to arrange two photo-shoots. This wasn’t the only difficulty I encountered whilst trying to complete my photo-shoots, the main reason I decided to arrange two photo-shoots was the floods that were happening at time, which made it extremely for me to leave my house, let alone travel to shoot the band who are based in Birmingham.

Luckily, I captured the first set of photos on Saturday 24th November, as I travelled to Birmingham to meet the band, shooting the photo-shoot in one of their flats, which again was in Birmingham. My second set of photos I planned to take were from a live gig which I was planning to take on Sunday 25th November, yet this gig got cancelled again due to the floods. My plan now will be try and shoot my gig photos at their upcoming gig later this week, which should be successful depending on weather conditions.

Print work: The Concept.

The concept for my print work is based upon the genre of the music itself and what generic conventions of that genre itself, it will also be based upon the audience profile, and what my target audience would be looking for within not just music video, but also with the print work itself. Taken elements from my starting pitch, for my print work I want to keep the typical teen pop/punk genre conventions prominent within the print work. My photography ideas for my print work will stem from the actual band themselves, showing them performing live and keeping the performance element within my print work itself, this will also help to show the bands identity and what they stand for as a band. My first ideas for the print work in contrast to the music video itself will be to show the band and the performance element through my print work, but in my music video stick the the narrative of the music video itself, not so much focusing on the band, but more on the lyrics of the video and the music itself. This way, I am able to show both generic conventions of the genre, but through different elements of the music and the band.

Music Video Analysis. "Deftones - Beauty School"

Within the genre of music I am working in, the music videos for these artists are all quite similar, as they have a lot of the same generic similarities. A lot like the 'letlive' music video below, 'Deftones' use quite a quick style of editing, as they use constant jump cuts to show a fast pace of the music video. The style of the music video itself is quite redundant in the way that it uses close up of the band members, and that most of the video is backstage footage of the band themselves, apart from at the end of the video where they include a montage of a live performance. The start of the video shows a slow motion montage of the band walking down a low lit corridor; this connotes the professional feel to the band as they have no emotion on their face, walking slowly to the stage door. As the beat kicks into the music, the drummer starts to play – allowing the audience to see the music, as the video and the music are in time with each other. Like most music videos within this specific genre, Pete Fraser’s theory can be used to show the element of performance, allowing the connection between artist and audience to be present. When this element of performance is shown, the camera cuts to a low angle shot of the band performing, which connotes a sense of power and authority as they perform, as they seem higher than the viewing audience. Like the video for "Letlive. – Renegade 86", there is a very obvious difference between performance and non performance within the video, as the band members completely change personalities from when that are performing to when they’re backstage, which gives the audience an insight to who the artist really are as people, and not so much just artists. Synaesthesia is used again in this music video, as the camera movement throughout is dependent on the band members and what they are doing, for example, when the band members are running through corridors, the camera movements changes from a slow pace into a fast, jump cut montage – this keeps the video up with the music’s fast tempo. High angle panning is used during the performance element of the video, panning quickly above the crowd, which are all of the same age as the target audience, so this enables the audience to relate. Most music videos in this genre of music use stedicam or hand held cameras when filming the live element of performance, as it gives the video a more upbeat feel, quickly jump cutting from one shot to the next. The video ends with the performance itself coming to an end, and therefore we see the end of the music video itself as it fades out to black, finishing on a shot of the lead vocalist finishing the performance.

Music Video Analysis. "Letlive. – Renegade 86"

Like the band I am studying, ‘letlive.’ are classed as a pop/punk band who a lot like ‘Strangle Kojak’ are quite an unknown band, who depend purely on viral ads for the selling of their music. In a lot of their music videos like the video for “Renegade 86”, they have included a portion of performance into their music video, which is seen as quite redundant for this specific genre of music. The theorist, Pete Fraser, could be used here, as he said that the element of performance was vital. The video includes many close ups and low angle shots of the lead singer in particular, as it forms a connection from artist to audience, it also allows the audience to get the lyrics across to the audience, as we can see the artist himself singing them. A lot like in Strangle Kojak videos, audience participation is used within letlive’s music videos, which is again seen as a very redundant way of making music videos, as it brings the audience into the music itself. Jump cuts are used between band members as they are running through the streets, showing no time lapse. The use of slow motion is used constantly in this specific music video every time the beat in the music changes, which allows the audience to ‘see the music’. This is used a lot in many music videos, not just for this genre, as it’s a good way for the audience to connect with the artist and the track. For example, as the beat changes near the end of the music, the whole band jump in the air and land as the beat ends, this again, allows the audience to see the music. Like most ‘boy-bands’ now, a large proportion of their fans and audiences are female based, but for this specific genre of music, it changes to a mixed audience type of female and male, as the music itself attracts both genders, which is a generic idea I’d like to use for my own music video. Synaesthesia is also used within this music video as the movement of the camera throughout the video is motivated by the band running through the streets, which keeps the video itself fast moving and pacey to match the songs tempo. The fast cutting between band members and audience during the performance segment of the video emphasises the quick pace and youth of the audience and the band, connoting the young feel of the music itself. Quick panning is used as the camera pans around during the performance, showing high angle shots of the audience listening to the band, cutting away during quick shots of the audience dancing or participating within the performance itself – again, showing the pacey movement of the video. Generically, it is a very typical ‘pop/punk’ video, as it shows close ups the leader vocalist throughout the video, an element of performance nearer the end of the video, audience participation throughout and a series of jump cuts connoting the quick pace of the music video and the band themselves. The final shots show a long shot of the band performing, which eventually fades to black. Through the performance itself, lowlighting is used apart from a few glimpses of colour as other lights are used, which focuses of the fast pace of the music, as the colours change quite rapidly, along with the tempo.

Print Research (magazine ads)

For another part of my research into advertising the band and their music, I looked into magazine articles/ads, and what they were able to do by advertising bands and artists.

On the right shows a magazine advertisement for a new album, which shows clearly the band name, the main image of the advertisement, where to physically purchase the album (in this case, HMV), the iTunes download link and the music labels name. This has helped me try and work out what I want to include within my own print work, as it allows mt to see what other bands within this genre are creating, inspiring me to use some of their ideas and using them within my own work. Alot like most bands now, the band shown in this ad have their own signature font, which they obviously use throughout their work to get them recognized - I'd like to do the same.

To the left is another example of a print advertisement which is in the same genre as the music I am working with, so again, I used this for inspiration for my own work. Like the advertisement above, the same house style is used through the advertisement along with the same font being used to show the bands star image. Again, this pulls in the same audience that bands like to target, the audience that are classed as 'fans' of the music. Again, subtle colours have been used on this magazine advert, which attracts the right type of audience which the band are aiming for (young teenagers, ect). Unlike online advertisements and despatching music online, magazine advertisements tend to target a very niche audience, as a specific type of audience only read hard copies of magazine. This is why I find it important to make the magazine print itself more specific to my audience type, as actual fans of the band/music tend to buy the hard copies of magazines, albums, ect. Although I only intend to create a half page spread, if that for my print work, I'd still like to make it as fitting to my audience type as possible. As more people have access to the internet and as it is becoming more of a popular thing, more people are tending to buy and look at music/music advertisements online, which is why its important for me to put the same amount of detail and information in both as possible. As before, I intend to make both of my print work as redundant to my audience and music genre as possible, yet still managing to make it a bit different to other print work that has been produced before.

Print Research (Digipaks)

To the right shows a digipak from the same genre of music as my own band for my own production work, so some of the layout techniques and style is the same as what I’d like to use for my own production work. The use of bright colours within the digipak works well with the genre of music, the pop-punk or teen-punk genre often use bright colours that stand out to the audience to show the loud, young message they connote with their music.

The redundant style they have used will pull in the target audience, as it’s what the audience are looking for and expect when purchasing the product. The use of pins to hold up the images on the product itself shows a younger, more fun side to the product, along with the patterning used behind the images, which also connotes a young, fresh feel to the product. The font used is the bands signature font, so it makes it recognizable to the audience; this also helps make the product itself stand out. The font used to write the song titles is also quite informal and ‘fun’, matching the rest of the product’s style. The use of lots of bright colours and different pattern on the digipaks themselves comes across as quite redundant, as its what the audience woudld expect for this young, modern genre of music.

The digipak above is from another band who have influenced my own production work, using their style and video inspiration and influence as a starting point to decide where to go when creating my own production work and my own music video. Although quite different from the other digipak shown before, this digipak is a lot more subtle and mature, targeting an older audience, who may have a slight different taste in music, but yet who still listen to the punk/pop genre of music. Again, the signiture font has been used by the band to get across their name and their image, which allows them to pull in their usual target audience. The little use of colour in this digipak shows a more mature, sophisticated side to the music genre, which changes the target audience from the one above this. An image of the whole band themselves has been used, which again connotes their style and who they are to the audience. As an image of the whole band has been used, this as a whole connotes a more successful view to not only the band themselves, but to the product and to the album as a whole. The use of upper case font also makes the product look alor more successful, as it stands out a lot more than if it were in lower case, this also makes it look a lot more sophisticated as a product, as it looks a lore more ‘cleaner’ and well lay out on the page.

The image to the right shows a digipak of the same band above, yet this shows a totally different style and layout to the digipak shown above. Unlike the product above, this digipak shows a younger, more pop/punk style, using colour to connote style and audience, yet still managing to come across as a mature, sophisticated product. Although using colour in this digipak, the colour scheme they have used is all quite dark colours, which although still show some colour, it’s still very toned down and subtle. The way they have produced this digipak, a lot like the other digipak above, shows their star image as still young pop/rock, but although they are targeting a young audience, they manage to stay looking quite subtle and well designed. Again, the font in the same unique style for the band’s image and star persona, letting the audience know it is their product.

The use of detail in these digipaks is typical for the genre of music they are in, although most digipaks contain the same information and detail. They all mostly contain a thanks note from the artist/band, their label being mentioned, an iTunes download link, small posters and a lyric booklet, song titles and extra tracks included, ect. Although, for my own print work, I'm going to just include a few of these, as I want my print work to look as subtle as possible. I will probably mostly include a thanks note, an iTunes download link to the bands page/songs and I'd like to do all of this in my own house style, or the bands image that they have already. I don't want to challenge the conventions of the music genre that my band are in, so I'm going to stick to using the bands house style and signature font on my own print work, as the audience know then instantly which band the print work is for. I am going to use quite subtle colours and images within my own print work, not being to eccentric, although still eye catching enough to grab the audiences attention. The size of my print advert (magazine) is at maximum, going to be a half page spread. The reason I have chosen to not make it a full page spread is that the band themselves are only still an independent band, not reaching a mass audience, so there would be no reason to make the advert itself a full page spread, as not many people know of them yet. Although the band themselves have their own UK tours and albums, they're not a in a major record label, so they aren't a band that would be seen to have a full page spread in a magazine.

To the right is the print work used for latest 'Strangle Kojak' album, which was released earlier this year. It shows a perfect example of the bands house style and star image, as they have used dark, bold colours to stand out to the audience, yet still manage to keep quite subtle with the amount of images they have used. I'd like to use this house style for my own print work, as it allows me to not only use a redundant style, which would attract the audiences eye as it is similar to what the band usually produce, but it also allows me to use the conventions to my advantage, as I can what I would be able to change to make it stand out in my own style. I want to still make my own print work as best as it can be, even though online downloading and online purchases are alot more successful in the music industry now, as it allows the artist to sell themselves as a full package, rather than restricting themselves to just online downloads, allowing them to target a wider audience and therefore able to sell their music to a vast network. This also reinforces the star image of an artist as it allows them to come across to an audience as a lot more successful in the industry, even if they are independent.

Initial Ideas.

For my own music video, I have chosen to work in the pop/punk genre of music, as it is a genre I myself am a fan of, and already know quite a lot about the genre itself. have also chosen this genre of music as I already know quite a few independent, un-signed bands which are involved within this genre, which whilst making my own music video, will help me a lot. For the project itself, I have chosen to work independently, as I find I work better when I am working on my own. I am able to plan out my own work more efficiently, rather than depending on other partners, I am able to take control of my own work. The band I am thinking of using in my own music video are a local band from Birmingham, called "Strangle Kojak", who were formed in 2007. They're a pop/punk band which consists of 4 members, all male. Their latest album which was released earlier this year has the song on it which I am planning to use for my own music video, called "Fuzzy Stuff", which was one of the most popular songs on the album. I myself know the band personally, as they are all old friends of mine, so it wasn't difficult at all to get consent to use their song for my own media project:

Down to the reason that the band themselves are old friends of mine, this now makes it easier for me to include the band in my project, which will hopefully allow me to use the song to a better advantage. To narrow down what song I wanted to use specifically, I listened to all of the bands recent and older music, deciding which sounded more pop/punk, and which song would fit the best with my music video idea. My own music video idea is to have a loud, 'in your face' party scene taking place. So, because of the narrative and plot ideas, I wanted to choose a loud and pop/punk sounding track. Again, because I know the band well, especially Max Such (drummer), I had a phone call with him on the 17/10/2012, also asking permission to use the track that I wanted to use, which was helpful as I was able to speak to him about ideas and narrative ideas, which he gave me his opinion on. This was useful for my own research as having one of the band members from the band I wanted to use for my own project give me his advice, it allowed me to then work on ideas and build up my narrative, structuring it in a lot more detail.

Genre Research.

Pitch (prezi)

Pitch for own music video. on Prezi

Green Screen Animation.

What was your idea? Our idea was to use the green screen and a Panasonic video recorder to merge both videos together, using the technology of Premiere Pro CS5. We decided on creating a video of Charlotte chasing herself in a kind of zombie genre, making the green screen video look a lot smaller than the first video we recorded outside. How did you come up with your idea? We decided on our idea brain storming and deciding on which idea would come out and look more effective and which would look the least edited/more realistic. We decided to brainstorm quite simple ideas to begin with, and then build up these ideas to come up with something that could be quite effective. How did you create your animation? To create our animation, we used the green screen that was already being used by others students in our class to create the effect on two different videos merging together, this would in turn create one video, which we could then edit however we wanted. To create our animation, we used Premiere Pro CS5, which allowed us to merge the two videos together and edit them in the way that we wanted. What technologies did you use? When creating our green screen animation, we used Premiere Pro CS5, a Panasonic video recorder and YouTube. What problems did you encounter? We only encountered a few problems when creating our animation, one of them being trying to get the two videos which were recorded to match in time, and make them look as real as possible. During the editing process, we also had to flip one of the videos to make it look as if Charlotte was really chasing herself, otherwise the video would have shown her running in the wrong direction. How did you overcome these difficulties? To overcome the difficulties we encountered, we had to use the features in Premiere Pro CS5 to rotate the video which was causing us problems, once we had done this, there were no other difficulties that had to be overcome. Altogether, it was a very enjoyable task.

Stop Motion.

What was your idea? My idea was to create a stop motion movie with the use of a Nikon DX60 and singular pictures, which I would then turn into a movie. The idea behind my movie was to recreate the idea of YouTube, but to create it in real life. To do this, I took print screens of a YouTube video, cut each other singular image out of and took a picture of each, which I then turned into a stop motion movie. Each picture was placed in the same place on a wooden desk, which helped as it made the video look more fluent, as each picture was placed in the same place. How did you come up with your idea? I came up with the idea to recreate a YouTube video by first of all brain storming ideas of what kind of video I’d like to make and what would be the main idea behind the video, in the end, I came up with the idea to recreate a YouTube video using singular pictures, giving the idea of YouTube not only being watched on the internet, but in real life. How did you create your animation? I created my animation by print screening and cutting out images from a YouTube video, placing each image down on a desk and taking an image from each. This gave the video more fluency, giving the impression that you were actually watching the YouTube video itself. What technologies did you use? To create my stop motion movie, I used a Nikon DX60 and YouTube, creating the movie on the camera itself. What problems did you encounter? I only encountered a few problems whilst creating my stop motion movie; one of them being the use of the camera, and how close up I should the images and whether or not the images were viewable. Also, I created my stop motion movie with JPEG’s, which I then turned into a movie, yet I set that at 15FPS, which made the movie itself jumpy and too quick to watch. To fix this, I slowed it down to only 10FPS, which made the movie a lot more fluent and easier to watch. Other than that, I didn’t really encounter any other problems. How did you overcome the difficulties? I overcame this minor difficultly by testing out a few camera angles and debating which one was the best to use for my video, when I was decided, I then chose that camera angle and it wasn’t an issue.

Art Movement Presentation.

For another creativity lesson, we were out into groups to create a presentation about specific art style which we given before starting the task. For my presentation, we were given "pop art", which we had to research into and give a presentation on to the rest of the class. For our research into pop art, we decided to not just use the internet as a source of information, we also used books and videos to show find out information about this specific art style. We were left totally to our own devises on this task, as were just given the art style, no further information. Using the aid of PowerPoint, we were able to show our research simply, it also made our research more interesting to watch, as using PowerPoint meant we could show videos to get our research across to the audience. Our PowerPoint consisted of five different sections. The origin of pop art, the definition, how it's still used today, celebrities use for pop art and other sources that show pop art (videos, books, ect). Each section was researched through and looked into, which allowed us to not only share our new found research with the audience, but it also allowed us to learn new things about the art style for ourselves. As we were left to research the art style on our own, it allowed us to gain a sense of independence when working, even when working in a group. We had to order out our time management, what we were going to include in our presentation, who was showing what section, ect. I personally work a lot better interdependently, but working in a group for this task helped me a lot, as it allowed to me spread out the workload and it allowed me to learn skills of working collaboratively. It also gave me confidence when actually presenting my presentation, as working with others boosting my confidence when speaking in front of others. Personally, I don't do well speaking out loud, yet, during this task, I did well.

Random sentence generator game.

One of our creativity tasks last term was to use a random sentence generator to come up with a band name, an album title and a song at random, and we had to use the first words that came up at random. To do this, we had to work individually, this was to see if we worked individually or collaboratively as a group. After selecting our band name, album title and the song title, we needed to at random choose a album cover from Google images, which we couldn't change once we had chosen it. Using Photoshop, we designed and created our own album from the materials that we had just chosen, showing our creativity skills and how we made use of the materials we had. During this task, I came to the conclusion that I defiantly work better individually, as it allows me to use my own creativity skills, whereas when I'm part of a group, this sometimes gets ignored. It allowed me to use what I had in front of me and make the best from what I had, being able to create something that was all down to myself. I found this activity task helpful for my all around learning for my Media studies as it allowed me to test my own creativity skills, which will be useful for later tasks not only in Media, but for other subjects too.