Task 1

Music Video's include a variety of different shot types to maximise the artist the location and emotions shown in the video. We knew it was important to show the artists emotions throughout the video so the audience could understand, to an extent, what the artist is going through. We achieved this with the different shot types, and in particular close ups. This then uses the conventions of an R'n'B music video by following what is usually perceived to be seen in the same genre video.

Yet again, the panning shot in this case, is to show the artist's emotions as we get a full prospectus of how he feels about the situation but in camera movement form. Just like the previous comment, this follows the conventions of a typical R'n'B music video.

This screen shots represents the mise-en-scene of the video. In the video we first see the artist with his hood down before he knows his girlfriend is splitting up with him. Then as soon as she walks away, the hood goes up. This reflects the artists mood and vulnerability that he feels at that moment. Also, the shot being dark lighting through ally ways as such through town shows how he wants to distance himself from others and wants to be alone and reflect on proceedings. This also follows conventions of this music video type and likewise with the clothing. High tops, black jeans and a hoodie is typical fashion of an R'n'B artist.

Jump cuts are used mostly in music video's as the editing technique that can provide the sudden change of location and change from one scene to another which is important to give the audience a better prospectus and to keep them entertained. Here we also used de-saturation to use another effect, and so we gave another view of the relationship. I feel that we challenged the form of editing in an R'n'B music video as there is not often flashbacks of the 'happy days' but often just on how the artist is feeling at the time.

Here is a screen shot of a dark setting representing the colour of the video, and the mood of the song which can be represented as dark and sad. But this is not the usual colours seen in a R'n'B video. This is because we normally associate R'n'B with bright colours, mainly white, and more Rock styled video's to be of a black/darker background. Here i think we are challenging the normal conventions of this genre.

This screen shot shows how the video consists of a narrative by the use of the dialogue from both characters. This narrative is present throughout the video, as shown by the flashbacks referring to 'happy times' and then back to 'reality' and the present day. When first listening to the lyrics i knew we had to stick with a narrative to allow the video to make sense. This then doesn't follow the normal conventions of an R'n'B music video as they do not usual follow a storyline, but mostly follows the genre.

We decided that we should sell the artist as much as possible. This is because it is a typical convention of an R'n'B video. But at the same time we also wanted to draw as much attention to the lyrics and narrative. However, we used a range of different shot types i.e close ups and long shots of the artist centralised. We did this to show that the video and song was all about him and for the audience to focus on him and his feelings.

This is an example of voyeurism. The way the artist is walking away and the camera following represents him trying to walk away from the situation but the feelings and thought (camera) following and that he can't get away from them this easily. I feel we challenged the typical form as usually the camera is constantly on the performer as with R'n'B they are focusing on the artists wealth and fame rather than the song, usually.

The lyrics of the song are shown to be very illustrative during the video, as the video relies on the lyrics to shape what happens and what the scenes are in the Music Video. In this screen shot, he realises that what they had is over. The artist shows this by shaking arms and walking off as if he is walking away from the girl. in a way i believe we are challenging usual conventions and forms as not often does the video concentrate so much on the lyrics of the song.

Throughout the song, it sticks to the same beat and tempo so this is then represented in our, to a point, slow cuts. this is because we usually associate quick cuts with up beat songs like 'One Direction -Live While We're Young' as this video shows them having a good time at party etc. Whereas this song is slow and upsetting so we had to cut to reflect the mood. But towards the end we Incorporated a section of quick cuts as the song came to a close to show how quickly the relationship had come to an end.
We also changed the location as the chorus came in. This was when the flashbacks were used as this was when the mood changed in the song. But when the chorus had finished, the artist got back to the present.

This magazine is in the same location of where the first few scenes of the music video was set to show a link between the two. We also gave the magazine a blue tint as we believed this gave a 'frozen' look this to link to the title of the song.

the inside of the digi pak shows the artist sitting alone with a dark scenery and dark lighting around. This then links to the mood of the song with the darkness. This also links to how the artist feels during the video, alone and vulnerable.

Photoshop Progress Magazine Ad/Front+Back of Digipack

This is part of our digipack, we are going to use this image, cut it in half and use it for the front/back/spine of our digipack. we are also going to use this for our Magazine advert.

We have modified this image on photoshop. We have cut around James and put a blue tint on him. We have blurred the outside of the image. We have adjusted the brightness and contrast levels on the photo as well. we have also included a solar flare in the image to make the light look brighter. The main effect we have gone for with this image is to make it look colder as our song/album is about cold emotions. We did play around with putting an ice image with no colour in the background to add texture but we decided that it didn't look good enough. 

This is our original image.

Feedback

Overall our feedback was positive that we received from our peers. From what the other groups had out we had answered all the questions asked with a positive and what was expected.
One of the comments we received was with the question of 'Is there appropriate use of transitions and other affects?' was that from Q1-20 they said we could have used more effects but was still good.

In the overall summary of our video most of the comments were that the video gets the story across well and that it has a good narrative. But two groups disagreed with each other over the different angle types and shots. One had said 'lots of angles and us which makes it flow' whereas the other group disagreed by saying 'could use more creative angle and shot types'.

So overall our feedback was positive from all groups.

Ideas for branding our artist in our digipak and magazine advert

We want to show our artist in a way where you can see the emotion of the song, this will give an indiction of what the song is like and the message behind it, we want to show our artist clearly and use his popularity to sell our products.














We want him to look quite vulnerable and this will make the audience feel sorry for him and because he is a popular figure among women we are playing on their need to nurture.

Evaluation of the Final Cut

Our final Cut of our video met my expectations and more. Our first thought of how we would approach making our own version of the video was to make the video appealing to our target audience, of 15-25 year olds who have experienced heartache or who know and understand what the artist is feeling. I feel we have done this by using the dialogue at the start of the video to represent what has happened, and to allow the audience know how she had broke up with him and how the artist felt directly after this, showing his emotions and attracting the audience into knowing the rest of the story and the words he describes what has happened. We have also helped to link to the audience with the amount of close ups. Although we could have added more, we still have a substantial amount so the audience can understand the hurt he going through because of the facial expressions as well as the words, the close ups allow this to happen. another way that we believed we achieved this was with the slow tempo of the different shots and the sharpness of the cuts. The slow tempo represents how the artist feels at the present time, slow and sad. Whereas the sharpness of the cuts reflects his heart racing and how fast the time went between them in the past. This, yet again, shows feeling and emotion and pulls in the audience.

I also think we have reached our expectations as we have changed the way our chorus was intended to be set out. We had initially planned to just have the artist singing the lyrics whilst at a random location. But as we thought about it, and how the filming went with already having locations with just singing, with feedback from others we took on there advice and filmed 'Flashbacks' of when time was good between the couple to give another convention and so the video would not become repetitive and boring. This gave us another dimension with the editing process with making the shots black and white to show coldness when reflecting what had happened. This then met and exceeded our expectations as it gave the video another edge and something that isn't included in the verses, which was one thing we wanted to achieve.

Final Version Music Video

This is our final cut of our music video.

Progress with editing

Today we have finished a full version of our music video, we are open to change on the video if someone outside of the group has any issues with it, but if our feedback is good our video is finished and editing is done.

Since them we added blue tint to the daylight shots to add a more 'colder' look to the shots. We also realised that in one of the shots when the artist and his girlfriend were discussing their relationship there was a prop, light, that was on show. We dealt with this by cropping it out and blending it with the background. Another thing we felt we had to edit was to put more clips in the chorus. We did this so it wouldn't become boring and add a new dimension to the chorus and not to make it repetitive.

Digipak Conventions

A digipak is a compilation of  number of different by an artist- usually featuring songs, videos, interviews, live courage and behind the scenes coverage. To encourage fans to buy the digi pak they usually include exclusive 'extras' such as posters, free exclusive downloads, t-shirts, gig tickets, competition entries or other free band/artist merchandise. This is to make the physical copy of the digipak worthwhile, so the fans feel they are getting there money's worth. The advert needs to be appealing to the fans, there needs to be  a reoccurring aesthetically theme between the digipak and its advert, as well as between both these things and the music video itself.

A Digi Pak needs to include:

• A recognisable font used across the digipak, posters, magazines
• The colour scheme would stereotypically be simple and used throughout the campaign with little or no change.
• Usually there will also be symbolic objects, pictures, ect. Things that link to the artist or the video and give the audience a slight hint and arouse interest. 

Digi Pak analysis

The Digi Pak that we looked at was by the 'Arctic Monkeys', the album is called Favorite Worst Nightmare. In the Digi Pak there are no pictures of the band at all.

The front cover of the album has dark and simple colours in black and grey. this is regally used by such Indie/Rock bands as the Arctic Monkeys. The dark colours also reflect the title of the album and the lyrics of the songs in the album. 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' is obviously an unhappy topic and with songs like "If You Were There Beware" and "The Bad Thing" are not happy songs and reflect the mood of the colours used. The picture of the estate, possibly council housing, gives reference back to their roots of childhood growing up in Sheffield, which relates to the genre of most Indie bands coming from working class backgrounds. The rooms that include multi coloured drawings show that the album includes a different twist on the song lyrics. So for instance all the songs are not the genetic Indie genre. For instance 'Fluorescent Adolescent' is more of the pop genre than Arctic Monkeys usually take to, there is no heavy guitarist moments and the beat is more up beat to the other songs on the album.

The traditional inside of a Digi Pak usually includes pictures of the artist performing or of the artist in their videos but these pictures are of everyday things like folks and parts of tea mugs yet again in the dull colours to show of the style of the genre.

Pictures For Ancillary

This will hopefully be our front cover of the digi pak. we think the natural lighting works well to attract our target audience into looking at the digi pak. This will be the initial impression that the target audience will see.

We intend to use tis picture for the back of our digi pak. This shot will have the other songs on the album to the left of the picture.

Our idea for the use of this picture is to have this shot across the inside of the digi pak. We plan to not cut it ip, just the use the full picture.

Progress with filming

We have finished our second day of filming, our locations were Long Road Media room(the dark shots) and Long Road field for the trees. We have started editing these clips for the chorus. In the Black shots James is singing the words to the chorus. The shots in the trees are also for the chorus but these are flash backs, these will be desaturated to show that they aren't at the same time with the rest of the shots. We feel that we do have enough footage to fill the rest of the shots. And we considered the feedback given and produced more shot types.

Rough cut Feedback

You need more close ups/ extreme close ups of your artist


It's good that the camera moves + there are different angles but you still need a wider variety


Chorus- Flash backs to ''happy times'' with a change of venue to make it more interesting?


You need some cutaways to lyric references.

Task One- Kieran

Plan for another nights filming:

When we film again we will concentrate on filming the artist singing the chorus. We will also focus on filming the artist with the love interest to use as flash backs as we don't have enough footage currently.

I would also say to use a different location to show the change however we may use the same location but de-saturate to look like a memory.

Task Five- Kieran

OKGo

1.I would say that their star persona is being different, and being very artistic, they use very different techniques in their music video and to good effect, you want to see more of their videos because of this.

2. I would say that they definitely try and sell themselves in the video as you see them in all of their videos.

They do not live up to the genre characterisation although with indie music the videos have started to become more artistic like OKGo's videos ans i fell they have definitely started a trend. They also use voyeurism in the way that their videos are very entertaining and people enjoy watching them just for the entertainment not necessarily the music.

3. I would say their target audience is late teens, male and into indie music  they would also be quite intelligent and artistic.

4.They are attempting to appeal to an alternative audience by braking away from mainstream pop videos and starting their own type of video where they are artistic, clever and fun to watch.

5. I would say that our target audience is also late teens and male, however they would be into R&B and possibly be of lesser intelligence and more social.

6.WE are attempting to target this audience by showing the artist in the video, and by trying to connect to our audience on an emotional level.

Task Four- Kieran

Internet Channel

One music channel on the internet is YouTube, this would be ideal to show our music video on, it is free to use and anyone can watch the video, this would help us increase consumption and also on Chris Browns own channel so that people who like Chris Brown would see this as well.

TV Channels

One Channel that would definitely be suitable would be 'Flava' this music channel is for R&B music so people who watch this will like the genre and will want to watch our video.

One Channel that would not be suitable is 'Kerrang' This is a channel for rock/indie-rock music and our song would not be popular on this channel.

Task Three- Kieran

The Artist for our video, Chris Brown, uses Social media such as twitter to interact with fans, he also updates them on what he is doing and when new songs/videos are released.
A way we could use this to increase consumption of our music video would be for him to link the video or tweet about the video so his followers would go and watch the video.

Task Two- Kieran

Ancillary Product

Our idea is to use a panoramic picture of the artist on our Digi-pack and only the bit with the artist in for the poster, the idea was to use the picture at the bus station, it links with the music video as it is taken at one of the shots. The poster and digi-pack will clearly show the artist in the same costume as in the video.

Half Term Blog Tasks