Evaluation Question 2 -draft

How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

 (photo of indie groups)



I feel both main product (music video) and ancillary texts (digipak and advert) are effective In targeting the intended audience who would be fans of the indie/alternative genre.
(photo of digipak cover and advert)
The digipak and advert are naturally very similar in appearance and style as fonts, colour scheme, alignments and imagery were translated across the two products. This was intended to create a form of branding for the band on release of the debut album to allow the audience to notice the similarities in both products and be able to identify the digipak/advert belonging to Parables when they are exposed to the ancillary texts in future. (Screen shot of video titles)

In the opening of the music video I used identical fonts to the digipak and advert 'Orator Std' to further emphasis the branding of the band. The sharp and stylish appearing fonts create a sense of formality and allow the viewers to gain an idea of complexity and seriousness of the narrative within the video and od content within the album as a whole.

 (section of video and cover of digipak and advert)

However there are few correlations between the ancillary texts and the music video created for Parables in relation to styling. The music video adopts a minimalistic approach through the costume shown in the mise en scene and the black and white effect added onto the footage. This element of simplicity could have been employed on the digipak and advertisement, however I decided to play on the stylish and edgy aspects of Pabables given from the music video and translated this into the ancillary texts. Emotions and a sense of heartache is something which is portrayed clearly to the audience through each of the products, making them very effective. The music video expresses the male figure's desperacy to escape a relationship as it is isolating the individual, where as the digipak and advert shows this from a different perspective through using a female (focus is on opposite sex to the music video) to express the same feelings through the still image of a female appearing sorrowful and downhearted. All products appear stylish and classic with a clear boldness giving them the ability to make a statement. Reinforcing essentially the same message through the music video and ancillary texts for Parables creates a functional and effective image for the band.(digipak and back cover)

The digipak and advert promotional tools act as a homage of Bombay Bicycle Club's 'Flaws' album. This is something which has proven to be effective as this is replicated by many other artists within the industry. The idea of copying the main features of a digipak and developing my own version was something I felt would be successful for Parables album as the layout and conventions suite to the indie genre matched those of Bombay Bicycle Club's.
 

The stylish, slick element to the ancillary texts comes from the detail and precision in the layout and design carried out. It is made clear that the designer of the Flaws album has thought carefully about the artistic choices employed in the design and there is an artists level of perfection presented. Hence the reason I felt a homage was appropriate and appealing for Parables- Hypnotised album.

 The cover pop-art style image is an illusion which does not reveal any insight into the album's content. The target audience exposed to the ancillary texts would have no expectations which adds to the excitement in purchasing the album to uncover the meaning behind the ideas presented in the digipak and advertisement.

Many constants are dissimilar, although they all fit within the indie genre of music and have a stylish, modern effect. I feel that more conventions (such as a minimalistic theme and a consistent monotone colour scheme) could have been more prominent or frequent to improve the branding of Parables. Many artists/bands within this type of music have taken ideas and conventions directly from one of their music videos and applied them onto the promotional tools; for example Artic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know? And The 1975.

 

Artist influences for the main product (music video) included Ed Sheeran - Thinking Out Loud, Sia -Chandelier, P!nk- Try, Lotus Flower - Radiohead, The xx- Islands and Robyn - Call Your Girlfriend. Despite not all of the above mentioned are placed within the indie genre of music, they all feature forms of choreographed contemporary dance with matches music visuals- this is something which is also clearly presented in My Body is a Cage. In terms of influences for the ancillary texts from pre-existing examples, Bombay Bicycle Club was my obvious main inspiration for design and layout as this was the basis of my homage on both the digipak and advert. Also, Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better; this album was one example which inspired me to create a pop-art style cover image for the digipak which was then translated on the advertisement for branding reasons.



(image of teacher feedback on video)
(image of teacher feedback on draft digipak and advert)
Audience feedback in relation to the music video largely impacted the final version. Comments from teachers concerning the draft version included the lack of a clear narrative within the video as ideas presented within the draft did not make it obvious that the female was an illusion in the room and simply a figure of the males imagination as he was desperate to keep her off of his mind. This is something we considered and improved when filming for the final music video as we ensured there was constant referral to the male being shown in the room alone and then switching constantly to the pair dancing together in the cage like space; I feel this constructive cristicm allowed us to enhance the effectiveness of the music video in comparison to the draft created previously. Other audience feedback was provided by peers who had viewed both the draft and final versions of the music video. Many agreed that in the draft, there were issues with the mise en scene as the pair featured in the msuci video failed to present personality and as a result the storyline was negatively effected. As a group, we thought about ways to improve this element and agreed on a better choice of costume for the couple. The draft verison seemed to portray the actors as a dancing duo which was not the intention. Instead, we decided to add a sense of formality and quirkiness to the styling of the male and female through the costume appearing much more suited to the complex storyline and giving the formality of the video consistency to make it much more effective.

Teacher feedback concerning the draft versions of the digipak and advert included "images not suited to the indie genre" and "too many plain black panels". I used this feedback to completely change my idea as I no longer liked my design or layout. After searching for inspiration around designing an effective indie style digipak I came across the Flaws album for which I decided to homage. This was something the teachers claimed was 'Stylish' and 'effective in representing the indie genre'. Feedback from peers were mainly give to me verbally after showing those around me at the time of creation. After design, it was made clear that the draft versions did not outline any relevance to the band or style of music produced by Parables; I gathered this mainly concerned the image featured.

However the feedback gained on the final ancillary texts suggested improvements.
(print screen of comments on digipak and advert)
Peers mentioned that it had a stylish appearance, which was something I intended to achieve. Colour schemes used were recognised and mentioned by a fellow student on the final version of the digipak, this is one of the main features of the design and has a huge impact on the audience. This has the ability to grab the attention of the audience and make a statement, giving an Impression of Parables- the fact that feedback regarding this is positive and states that colours are effective gives me confidence that the product is realistic and attractive.

(print screen of comment)
The element of professionalism was also mentioned by one of my peers, I feel this was inevitable on the basis of creating a homage as this has already been proven to be of an industry standard by the original designer producing the design for another artist/band. Also in this comment there was mention of 'maintaining the right level of busyness' which I feel added to the stylishness and is something which would entice the audience to pick up a copy of the album as take an interest in the information on the advertisement.

(print screen of comment)
A peer identified that my ancillary texts look similar to Bombay Bicycle Club's promotional tools, this was something which I was very pleased about as I had aimed to homage their work and the fact that it was recognised proves that I have done this successfully and effectively.

Evaluation 4 (draft)

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

When making the digipack, advert and the music video i used different forms of technology to create, develop and promote each different media products.

Pre Production -
Twitter (Private account (Lauren, Sophie, Lauren) @parables)
Blogger (Group blog, Mr ford, Mr smith, Classmates)
Email (Google mail, Outlook)
Internet (Safari)
Chrome
Apple mac
Scribd
Flickr
Animoto
 
Production -
Camera (SLR, VHD)
Lights
Tripod
Shoulder stand
I tunes
I pod
I phone

Post Production -
Twitter
Blogger
YouTube
Final cut pro
Apple Mac
I tunes

Evaluation 3 (draft)

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

 

Evaluation 2 (draft)

Evaluation Question 2 How Effective is the Combination of Your Main Product and Ancillary Texts?

 

• The styling that has been used through my digipack, advert and music video are all linking, all have the minimalistic look about them, all three have the monotone colour pallet used throughout. This links back to the genre again of indie/alternative. My digipack and magazine cover are stripped back plain and simplistic with bold shapes and a text that stands out, this again is linking with my video the way in which the dancers are dressed are simple and minimalistic, I feel that as we filmed in a plain white room this made the black costume seem bold and were made to stand out.
• From looking at other digipack's and adverts already produced taking The XX for example, these also have a stripped back look about them using the monotone colours. I feel that this look will attract my target audience.
• A typical point that you will see in videos the male is the main vocalist this have given the video a polished look, again relating to the digipack and advert as they too are both polished.
• The typography that I decided to use on my digipack and advert again matches with the text on the music video with a black background and white text, this also links with the white room and the black costume.
• The shots that are used throughout my video show the narrative of this story line that the girl dancer is in his imagination. The way that the shots and the order of them are shoed portray the meaning the audience.
• The way that the dancers are styled are showed continuously through the ancillary texts.
• Neither of the dancers make direct eye contact with the camera lenses apart from when the boy is lip syncing, throughout this they are both showing emotions though their faces and towards each other this connects and engages the audience in. Both have taken it seriously and want to ensure that they can relate to the public by showing the narrative meaning.

Evaluation 1 (draft)

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

MUSIC VIDEO:

The Parables new music video 'my body is a cage' has developed Slow Club -Two Cousins,
Slow Club -  Complete Surrender, Sia - Chandelier, Ed Sheeran - Thinking out Loud  as a narrative has been established. Before deciding on the type of video we wanted, we researched  and analysed different styles we could use. Having taken inspiration form Slow Club - Two Cousins through the basic set up of the white room, the shots and angles used, we took the performance element of this video and combined a story line. This lead to the decision of the song choice that we had, we feel that we could portray deep emotions and feelings to an audience. The reason for choosing a narrative performance is because we feel that it complimented the artists style, more of a performance based video would go against and contradict this as the band is more of a vocalist performance than performers with instruments.
Conventions that we used from real media products such as Ed Sheeran - Thinking out Loud this showed a relationship between the male and female dancers, we thought that this was an effective way of showing feelings and emotions by dancing as a perdedor (in a partnership). Therefore this is one of the main conventions we used in our own video. We also took inspiration from Slow Club - Two Cousins, Slow Club -  Complete Surrender as both of these videos are filtered in black and white, we thought that this was effective and was able to reflect the mood and atmosphere of the shots that we chose to use this was the best way to show the genre of the artists style.

DIGIPAC AND ADVERT:
I wanted both pieces of work to be as minimalistic as possible taking inspiration from modern covers such as Arctic Monkeys, The XX and also ACDC all of these covers are plain and simple I felt that this was best suited to my designs so I followed these designs, all had little if any text and this stood out as its focus point was on other things, The so called typical features that you will find on my work are the barcode, record label, terms and conditions and the band albums name these will all be found on existing media products (mainly for the legal reasons of a recording label) This is shown through my research of album covers. I didn't use and images for my work as I waned it to be plain so I went with simple shapes, however this have given it and effective professional look throughout relating back to the genre of indie. The audience feedback the I revived all seemed to be positive as both pieces of work matched and complemented one another I have chosen to use monotone colours so they work well with one another. I have also designed my own minimalistic record label which is also found on most media products, I have decided to keep this small so it doesn't take the attention off of the main piece itself. Throughout all three media products I have created I have kept constant with the minimalistic look and the black and whit colour, this is effective as the audience know what there looking for if they were to purchase the products.

Learning from the draft

After creating our draft version of the music video. we found that it was essential we continuously switched to different camera angles showing the same footage to appear professional and effective and to prevent the audience becoming bored. We also learnt that we need to further emphasise our storyline to ensure the audience does not interpret the material as something different.


The main idea was to create a story of emotion though the movements and expressions of a couple who were no longer happy together. We decided to narrow the focus down to the idea of the female dancer not actually being in the room dancing with him, but was a figure of his illusion; this was not presented as clearly as we hoped in the draft video, therefore we intend to refilm using the same studio, dancers and routine. We recognised that lip synching only occurred at the beginning and end of the video, we will ensure we film coverage of lip synching for the entire song and refer to these clips more frequently throughout in terms of editing for the final version. However certain elements such as costume to present identity and more individual shots will be something we will achieve though revisiting and getting more footage at the studio.

FINAL MUSIC VIDEO DRAFT

Lauren Roberts Digipak and advert draft

Sophie magazine advert draft

Sophie Digipack Draft