look at all this wonderful stuff….

The brief we chose was the promotion package for the release of an album, It had to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options: 

1. a website homepage for the band;
2. a cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD package);
3. a magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

We decided to choose the CD cover for the music video release and also the magazine advertisement for the CD, along with the compulsory music promo video. We chose these options because no one in our group has any substantial experience in making websites and therefore we would not be able to learn and make the website homepage for the band. Also we thought that as we are exposed to CD covers and Magazine Advertisements in our daily lives it would be more simple for us as we already know some of the basic things we are looking for and therefore could reproduce the ideas as our own. To create the CD cover and the Magazine advert we used PhotoShop because we already have the technical skills because of our experience last year with the programe and from our other subjects. This method allowed us to make complex and interesting designs and make it easy to relate a house style so that the CD cover and advertisement linked together well. We created some SMART targets (Specific, Measurable, Agreed upon, Realistic, Time based) in a time-table form so that we had everything we wanted to have done by certain dates. This had to be very specific because we only had a limited time frame to get these three projects done and it needed to be well planned and thought out so that it was complete by the deadline and met the project brief well.  We did some research on the options we had chosen from the brief, by looking on the internet for album and CD covers and advertisements, we also looked in magazines and in shops. We specifically focused on looking at the layout and graphology of the adverts. This is important because it attracts the audience and therefore causes the audience to either be interested and take in what you are promoting, or not take any notice at all. We found that the font size, style and layout for each magazine advertisement was very different depending on the style of music and artist. This gave us a wide range of ideas to work with because we could basically choose anything as long as it promoted our artist and music video. We also looked at music videos that were already out so that we could get inspiration and create our own ideas on what we wanted to do. 

 
Our initial idea was to have an acoustic song and someone playing along to it on their guitar sitting on their bed. Behind them would be ideas and a story of the lyrics of the song. That part would have to be created with stop-motion. After debating with this idea and seeing if it was possible to do we decided not to use this idea because it was too complex and not a realistic target but we did decide to use stop-motion for our music video. This lead to us looking up many stop-motion videos on the internet. Some were just created to show stop-motion but some were videos for songs. This was very beneficial because it helped us understand how stop-motions are put together and how to make them seamless. Also it gave us some ideas on what we wanted to create for our video. This research lead to us create some small stop-motion videos using play-dough and other small props. We did this to practice our skills because we have never really made a stop-motion for this kind of thing before. Also this gave us an opportunity to see how many frames per second we needed to make the video smooth and not jumpy. In industry they generally use either 12 or 24 frames per second but 24 is too many for us to be able to do and therefore we aimed to do more like 12 frames per second. In the end we made three videos, our longest being 40 seconds long, consisting of play-dough creatures. We used techniques such as focus pull, and panning to make the stop-motion more interesting. 
 

We went through many songs that we liked to see if we could find anything suitable. We decided to go for and indie/ rock/ pop style song because they are generally upbeat and have a good tempo and rhythm. This style of music is very popular with our generation at the moment and appeals to a large number of people in the target audience (14 – 25 years).The acoustic idea was also quite dominant because it is generally quite a fun and a nice sound that is liked by a wider range of audience. The song we chose in the end after much deliberation was ‘Have I Been a Fool?’ by Jack Penate. We contacted the CD company, XL, asking for permission to use the song within our project. We received an email back telling us to contact another member of the company and fill in a request form, but after this we did not receive another reply from them. We used the song anyway making sure that everywhere the video is seen we have credited the artist and state that this is not our song. This song is very upbeat and catchy and therefore would appeal to a large percentage of the audience. It’s the kind of song that gets stuck in your head and therefore people will pass on the song and therefore the video by word of mouth. This song has the theme of love and relationships in it. The lyrics talk about the relationship breaking up and not going as well as he has hoped. This creates a great storyline to work with as relationships are a main feature of everyone’s lives and generally sung and shown via video. 

 
Once we had chosen our song it was easy to start our storyboard. Our idea was initially objects in a room coming to life such as staplers and chairs. We then refined this because we thought it would be too difficult to get the continuity the same. We minimised this work space to a desktop with the same concept of objects coming to life, but using smaller things like pencils and rubbers. We used 5 pages to make our storyboard, each page having 6 detailed drawings on showing the main scenes. Each picture has notes and annotation around it describing what was happening and for how long. To get the timing right we had to sit playing the song in sections to see where each clip would start and finish. 

 
Once the storyboard was complete it was also simpler to start designing CD covers and the advertisements. Because we knew that the basic characters would be stationary we could start putting together and sketching out some drafts. We used the information found from our research to work out some layouts and styles. As a group we decided we liked the idea of Polaroid photographs and that we could use them throughout our project. This was then the main theme to our CD covers and Advertisement and we arranged them in different ways to create new ideas and drafts. We used our focus group to choose which CD cover they prefered from our sketches so that we could eliminate the other ideas and work on the one that’s favoured. We chose a focus group that is in the middle of our target audience; the target audience is ages 14 years – 25 years old and the focus group was aged 17 – 19 years. Once we had found our basic idea for our CD cover and Advertisement we postponed the production of this for a while because we needed to start filming and also because the pictures used in the filming would be used in our other media pieces. The actual construction of the final pieces was quite simple because we already have knowledge of PhotoShop and how to use it because of last year and our other subjects. After us all making some templates and designs on the computer Jas made the final CD cover and Advertisement with input from Holly and I. This worked out quite well because when Jas had the ideas it left me and Holly to go and shoot, or work on the video. Dividing the jobs up like this worked best than all trying to do one task because we were doing more things at once and it was hard for us all to get involved in a computer activity apart from give ideas and input our thoughts. For both the CD cover and Advertisement we went for the noticeboard and Polaroid theme with handwriting style text; this then became our house style. This style relates to our target audience well because this age range is generally into socialising and recording their experiences. Also this style gives a retro feel to it because Polaroid cameras are very rarely used now but the effect is still created on the computer. Having a house style is a good thing to have because then when someone sees our products they will automatically be able to realise that they are for the same thing and therefore make more impact. 

 
For the stop-motion recording we used a small room (LG1-end room) that was designated for our media work only. This was good becuase then we didn’t have any problems with continuity as there was no-one alowed in to move our objects about. Creating the stop motion was harder than we anticipated I think. It was more time-consuming and therefore our SMART targets all got pushed back by a few dates. Also our original ideas were a bit optimistic and some were unrealistic making it hard for us to create. At first we were all very enthusiastic but as the weeks moved on and some of the shooting ’ go as well as we had hoped it started getting quite tedious. As we were filming I was uploading the photo sequences onto the computer so that I could stay on top of the work. I found it easier to make each sequence into a small video clip so that it was easier to edit, move and change the speed if it didn’t quite fit with the music. At first, because I had never really used Final Cut Pro I found it difficult to use all of the features. It got quite confusing at times but I managed to work out a system that helped me organise and also so that I didn’t lose or ruin our work. Once we had completed about 50% of the work it seemed as if it was difficult for us to get motivated as a group to get more work done. This was frustrating because I wanted to get the music video complete so that we had a reasonable amount of time to get the rest of the project finished. After a few lessons, as we planned the rest of the video in more depth we became more motivated and we ended up doing a large and substantial amount of work in a small amount of time. The short videos were filmed on a new Ipod. We decided on this because it is small and compact but with a good quality camera. This meant that we could take it anywhere as it is small but it is also subtle enough not to draw too much attention to the fact that we were filming. This acceleration in progress was good because it means that we could meet our deadline. Once we had some of our main videos shot we realised that we did not have enough video to fill the space in the song. I decided to try to see if I could cut out some of the song to make it shorter. This worked really well because I cut out the bridge and it fitted back together perfectly. I think if you don’t know the original song you wouldn’t realise it was missing. This also meant that we did not have to find more ideas for videos because now they all fitted in perfectly. Towards the end of creating the music video I realised how well it all fitted together. Some of the shots could have been done better as they were a little bit jumpy and wobbly but we could not re-shoot because we did not stick to our schedule and therefore ran out of time. Although when showing the video to the target audience there was positive feed back on a particular scene that we would have re-shot if we had the time. The comment was that ‘it gave a home-made feel that fitted the whole theme’. This is quite interesting because we didn’t feel this was one of our strongest scenes. Although we managed to get it finished I think that the reason why we didn’t get it done to schedule was because we had not planned sufficiently. Although we had planned and discussed the video a lot, when it came down to it there was not enough definite plans to keep a consistent working ethic. 

 
In my opinion our final product were good for the skill and time we had but I think if we had used our time more wisely and had planned it more thoroughly it could have been better. When making the video by the end there was quite a bit that we had changed since we made the plan. Originally our plan was too complex and we over estimated the time it would take for each frame, ending up with us having gaps in the video that was not filled. Although we changed the plan a lot, I think that our final draft was better than previous ideas. I think that if I hadn’t of cut out the bridge of the song, it would have made the video too long and could have potentially been boring. The music video used characters and real people to narrate the lyrics because the target audience would relate well to this idea. The thought that your stationery could come to life is exciting and the real people in the film create a sence of reality and can link to situations that could, and most likely, have happened to the audience. As a whole, our music video turned out well because it meets the project criteria, and suits our target audience. 
 

The CD cover and Magazine advertisement were also quite well done. Along with the video I do think that if we had used our time more wisely that they would have been at a better standard. These were created using PhotoShop and therefore we could easily create a house style. The house style was the idea of cork boards, Polaroid photographs (also seen in the music video in the sketch book) and hand written fonts. This related to our audience because at this age (14 years to 25 years) people generally like to document and write accounts of important and special occasions in their life. This is now generally done on the internet now on social networking sites such as Facebook; but before it used to be written in a book and had photographs and other items suck in. This is what we were aiming for our products to look like; rustic and homely. I think we managed to achieve this by making notes on PhotoShop and making them look like they had been ripped out of another book, and pinning them and Polaroids to a noticeboard. We used handwriting style fonts to make it connect with the audience more. If this was a harsh bold text then I do not think it would relate and be as influential for the audience.

When researching similar media products we had to look at the graphology, style and target audience so that we were able to see what each audience was looking for and to also make our media products more professional and therefore be able to compared to existing media products. I believe our target audience would ‘receive’ our media products through a variety of different outlets. The music video would mainly be streamed on websites such as YouTube because there is a large fan base here and it is on demand to anyone who wishes to watch it. Also the video would be seen on the Artist’s website and on the music channels on TV. The CD cover would be seen in shops and perhaps TV advertisement but also when downloading music now you get the CD cover artwork that shows up on your computer documents, Itunes/ Windows Media Player, and portable devices such as Ipods. The Magazine Advertisement would obviously be seen in music magazines such as Karange! and NME. It would appear in this kind of magazine because the style of music is very ‘indie’ / rock and this magazine generally caters for these styles plus many more. It could also appear in middle market magazines such as Instyle and Bliss or Cosmopolitan. These magazines are mainly focused on the fashion market but they also look at what is ‘Hot’ that month. This can be from new films out to new music. This would be good advertisement space because it would be targeting an audience that might not have heard of or listened to the song/ artist before. Similar artist’s such as Paolo Nutini used TV advertisement to get himself noticed. These advertisements showed the CD cover and the artist himself. We used this idea within our house theme. On the CD cover, Advertisement and in the video we have placed our ‘artist’ (He is not the real artist of this song but for copywrite issues of photographs and merchandise we have used him). We used photographs of the singer because it helps the audience relate to the song better and makes them empathise with the character they play.

Overall I think that our Music Video, CD cover and Magazine Advertisement worked well as a promotion for the album of this chosen song. I think that it fitted the brief of the coursework well and related to our target audience. There are a few things that I would change or work on in the future but in reflection of the experience I have learnt new skills such as how to use Final Cut Pro and how to create a stop-motion. Also how to link different media pieces together so that they promote and suit the targeted audience.