Problems we faced and overcome

Throughout the duration of our task to create a music video, digipak and magazine advert we faced and over come many problems. Sometimes we found it tough to work through problems when time was running out and we didn't know if there was a solution to fix the problem. But in the end we always achieved our goals set and create 3 products to the best of our ability. Here are some of the problems we faced during this process and the solutions we found.


PROBLEM: Filming space: Due various complications such as times, and travelling arrangements we were unable to use our first desired location to film - Sabrina's mums beauty studio. SOLUTION: Therefore to overcome this I went and spoke to my drama teachers from last year, and booked us a slot to use the college's drama studio. This was a little disappointing as our first location would have created the exact look we wanted, but this location still allowed us to achieve what we wanted to.

PROBLEM: When we arrived at our second filming location in the underpass tunnels near the Grafton in Cambridge, we found that the drawings on the walls of the tunnels has been painted over and did not remain as graffiti like they once had. SOLUTION: However, we still used this location as one of our main sets because in the shots, the drawings on the walls still create the urban feel we were trying to achieve, and the lighting worked really well in creating a the atmosphere we wanted. We also came up with a plan B which was to film some of our footage along Newmarket Road Cambridge in front of the Graffiti on the main wall running along the road. (embarrassment had to be overcome when filming this part, as rush hour was at it's peak!)

PROBLEM: Lack of knowledge in using Photoshop left us wasting time in some lessons trying to figure out how to edit our photos and create the effects we wanted. SOLUTION: However, we worked as a team and put all our heads together and became a lot quicker and more confident when using this programme by the end of the process. Having a team effort in this part of the task helped us to achieve our goal for this part of the package, and create an continuous theme of the graffiti pattern throughout all of our products.

Creating an interesting music package

To create a package which all ties in there has to be a common theme running throughout. Themes such as colours, motifs, patterns, textures, and fonts are all good ways to make all 3 products link together. For example; the digipak could have a graffiti based background with pink font, the advert could then use this same graffiti image but use it as a motif on one of the band/artist member t-shirts as well as using the pink writing the same, this idea of graffiti could then be brought out in the music video by using it as a backdrop for some of the shots in the video.

If there isn't clear links between the 3 products - the digipak, the advert and the music video, then they do not look like a package to be promoted and sold. The target audience will not be able to relate all three together and class them as a promotional package by the artist. Also, because the advert is promoting the album which is releasing the song in the music video, some of the design elements from the video have to shine through in the advert otherwise customers will not make the connection and see the advert as promoting the video as well as other songs.

A clear motif or theme etc can also be a good basis for the band/artist to base the style around and create an original unique branding for themselves. For example JLS all have their own colours. Therefore, when their fans buy their merchandise they know that if its yellow it represents JB etc. This is a good idea to create early on in the design process because then fans get to know this original design and motif quickly, resulting in more sales and profit because the band/artist becomes well known.

< Example of unique branding 

Magazine Advert Research

The main purpose for businesses/bands/solo artists etc putting adverts into magazines is for them to get recognition for their work, and to promote their product etc, enticing people to buy it and support their individual or business profits.

Every magazine has a specific market of the types of adverts they show in the magazines  This specific market is chosen according to the genre of magazine. For example; magazines such as Vogue, Glamour and Cosmopolitan advertise perfumes, clothing ranges, make up and hair products. Examples being:

 MASCARA ADVERT

HAIR PRODUCT ADVERT

CLOTHING ADVERT

LIPSTICK ADVERT  

Other magazines such as Mens Health, Adventure Fishing and What Car will have adverts in them appropriate for those genres. Examples being: 

DIESEL CAR ADVERT

HEALTH PRODUCT ADVERT

FISHING BATE ADVERT

Adverts are visual merchandising techniques to introduce new and up and coming trends, products and offers  in a way which is pleasing to the eye, interesting, has variation and is easy to read and understand. 

Music promoting adverts don't often have offers on them unlike general product adverts. However, they do give you all the key facts, in big bold, colourful, people friendly writing which tells you all you need to know, and is understandable at a glance. Music promoting adverts provide you with; the artists name/band name, logo, album name, digipak name, key dates, Record label, Review quotes, images of the band, stores it is being sold in and web details. All of this information on one single page. Therefore these types of adverts have to be specially designed. Using bigger fonts for the very key points such as release dates the album name and band name/artist name. And smaller fonts for other details such as the web addresses and record labels. 

Magazines are very useful ways for big artists and also up and coming artists to promote their material as thousands of magazines are sold every day. Therefore every magazine sold with an advert promoting their material in it, adds another person to their fan base (hopefully). Overall increasing their popularity and profit numbers. 

Examples of music promoting adverts: 

Audience Research - Qualitative Research

Here are the results that I received from the people who I asked to do my questionnaire, concerning the choice of song for our music video.

Rose:

1. Did you like the track?
2.What type of person would like this track?
3. Which age range would you typically associate with this song?
4. How would you picture the band/lead
5. What sort of music video would you expect to accompany this track
6. In performance, where and what type?
7. If narrative (tells a story) what sort?

1. It's okay
2. Probably someone who likes RnB, chart music etc
3. 13-17
4. Someone with an individual singer, in the media a lot
5. By the title, probably something with an atmosphere of war about it but also romance
6. Big arena, tour venues such as O2
7. A boy and girl singing about their relationship, love story

Hannah:

1. Did you like the track?
2.What type of person would like this track?
3. Which age range would you typically associate with this song?
4. How would you picture the band/lead
5. What sort of music video would you expect to accompany this track
6. In performance, where and what type?
7. If narrative (tells a story) what sort?

1. I did yes 
2. people like us
3. Probably 12-20
4. R'n'B style. Group of musicians and one lead singer
5. Rita Ora looking glamorous and then J Cole rapping
6. dramatic venues, big stages
7. i think it would be like a story between girl and guy... she doesn't want to do it any more  because of the fights and stuff. Set on a beach but its a dark-ish day/night, waves crashing in the background, quite windy, and she's singing there and he's wanting her back. A bit like Rihanna BURN THIS HOUSE ON FIRE! Really emotional and quite angry.. then they turn out ok and is a happy ending :-)

Chloe:
1. Did you like the track?
2.What type of person would like this track?
3. Which age range would you typically associate with this song?
4. How would you picture the band/lead
5. What sort of music video would you expect to accompany this track
6. In performance, where and what type?
7. If narrative (tells a story) what sort?

1. Yes I did like the track :)
2. I would say a girl would prefer this song, someone who liked pop/rap music really. 
3. Mainly teenagers, starting from year 7 up to uni I would say. Because they could dance to it at clubs but its mainstream enough for secondary school children to like it. 
4. I would picture the lead to be a girl, not a girly-girl. Maybe someone similar to Rihanna, because the music is quite similar. But I don't imagine a girl in a frilly dress, maybe leather trousers. 
5. I don't really know, maybe a story about a couple but also have clips of them singing together. Like the video With Blu Cantrell and Sean Paul - Breathe. That's what I imagine. 
6. (Unanswered) 
7. A story of a couple, arguing and talking to each other/on the phone/to friends. Nothing really cheesy because its a cool song.

Evaluation of Final Cut Music Video - Sophie O'Dell

Overall I am very pleased with what we have achieved and the way our final music video has turned out. Myself, Chloe and Sabrina worked very hard to capture urban footage out in Cambridge to use in our music video and as a result it was the footage we were able to use the most, and that gave our music video the strong urban style it has. We were very pleased with how that footage turned out, and how easily we were able to sync the actual song with our lip syncing movements. The colours we captured in our footage from the graffiti along Newmarket Road really enhanced the video and highlighted the pop genre. We were able to edit these shots and enhance the colours making them bolder and more eye catching for the audience.

Due to a few difficulties with our first option for the white background setting in the beginning, we were a little delayed in filming this part of the music video, therefore we lost a lesson or two of editing. However, we were able to use the college drama studio which allowed us to have a completely white room and a completely black room to shoot in. Giving us variation and options for filming a variety of shots.

The shots we captured in the drama studio I didn't feel looked as proffesional as I had originally imagined, however, saying that we did the best we could to work with the materials we had and use the available settings that we had. The rooms provided good space and block colours for us to use and continuous themes (black and white) and we were able to use this to our advantage when choosing outfits to wear, because we then felt it worked really well wearing the black clothing against the white background.

Due to the tight time schedule I don't feel every clip was finished off to perfection, but we did try our very best to achieve our desired goal which was to create a brightly coloured pop video, with good lip syncing and fast choppy shots.

I feel we made some really good decisions which helped enhance our music video such as colour editing the clips to make the colours stand out and catch your eye, and also to add in ghosting over some of the clips so every clip we used had an edit on it.

Overall I feel really pleased with how our music video turned out, and how we worked to overcome the problems we faced and adapted ideas in order to work with what we had, to the best of our ability. I feel we worked well together, and all had different roles that we played in the process of making this whole promotional package.

Evaluation Questions Chloe Northrop

 Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and 
 conventions of real media products?  




Q3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Task: Create a director’s commentary which includes clips from the music video and ancillary tasks, as well as vox-pop presentations of audience feedback. 

Here is our group's commentary video:





Q4: How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

This is my video of myself talking about how we used different technologies throughout our video and how well they worked with what we wanted to create:

 Q2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

This is the prezi I made for question 2:

Evaluation questions

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

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

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? on Prezi

Question 3: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

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