Evaluation for advanced production Question 4

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

I used my blog to record all aspects of research and planning for my music video. With the blog I was able to research the genre of ska before the shoot and this helped me gain inspiration and ideas. One of the features of the blog I found useful was that I was able to analyse and compare original ska videos against my own.

For example when it came to choosing the location for my music video I took a series of shots around Norwich, specifically Anglia Square it had a similar style to the video ‘Ghost Town’ by 1980’s ska band ‘The Specials’. I was able to post this information on my blog to enable me to see the comparison as well as draw others to the tributes of classic ska genre which occur throughout the music video. The blog also allowed me to embed music videos from the website Youtube. I could then analyse modern ska bands such as ‘Less Than Jake’ and develop my ideas through their influences.

The blog also allowed me to support my reasons for the use of costume and cast within my music video. I was able to post images of the style I was trying to convey by posting images researched on the internet. This was important when it came to deciding on the costume used for the females within my music video as due to my music video being male dominant, I didn’t want the females to appear sexualised and, as said previously, used for ‘audience pleasure’. I was able to research and develop this idea on my blog by looking into a ‘tomboy’ style for my females and posting images of celebrities such as Agynes Dean, who is associated with this image, therefore my blog allowed me to support this idea.

The blog allowed me to insert images of my digi-pak and allow people to comment and give me advice on how ways to strengthen promotion. It also allowed me to look at and compare my own digi-pak with other ska-punk bands such as Less Than Jake and Sonic Boom Six. Like the research for the music video, I could develop my own ideas from theirs and look at the way in which they promote the genre ska punk.

I used the blog in the same way when it came to researching ideas for my magazine advert which was promoting Smaller Than You’s latest EP. The blog allowed me to gain audience feedback of my advert as well as an understanding of what information is needed to successfully promote an artist by being able to look at and insert other adverts.


Music Video:
The camera used to film the music video was a Canon Mini DV. Most of the footage was taken using a tri-pod to allow the shots to be a clear as possible. The camera allowed us to view the raw footage of our music video and pick up on any footage we had missed or needed to add in order to strengthen the promotion of the band. The lighting used for the shoot was ambient as we had no access to artificial lighting. This created problems as some of the footage towards the end of the video is too dark as it was filmed at dusk.
The editing software used was Adobe Premier Elements. This software allowed us to blend our narrative together. Due to our narrative revolving around a ‘chase’ it meant the edit had to be continuous and well constructed. The editing software made this possible as we could use special effects such as the ‘cross fade’ to help blend the shots together and allow it flow. Another effect which helped develop our narrative was ‘time delay’, this allowed us to speed up footage which took too much time as well as helping us move the narrative forward by making the sped up footage resemble the day moving on so we could move onto a different location.
One aspect of filming I had to remember was Goodwin’s theory. Andrew Goodwin states that their ‘needs to be a lots of close ups of the band to allow strong promotion’. Therefore we went out and filmed the band playing the single ‘Who Knew’ the whole way through whilst getting close ups of their instruments and faces. With this footage the audience would recognise the band and strengthen their promotion.

Print Productions:
For my print productions I used the editing software Photoshop Elements.
The pictures were taken using an ‘Olympus’ stills camera and where taken at dusk in order to bring out the harshness of the urban setting.
Photoshop allowed me to manipulate the image and make it appear more striking. For instance the original design of the front of my digi-pak had a layer put over the lamppost to give it a ‘doodled’ effect to the image and to resemble the American ska Digi-pak covers but to also give it a British twist. However this design ended up making my image look juvenile and weakened the image. Therefore instead I removed the layer added the poster filter to still give a ‘cartoon’ effect but make it appear more professional and for it to still to resemble the American ska digi-paks. The skateboard used for the front and back of the image wasn’t strong enough and due to it being black didn’t stand out. Instead I took a skateboard from another image I had taken which showed the underside of the skateboard which was much brighter and was therefore more striking, this allowed the audience to recognise the ‘skater’ style of Smaller Than You.

For the inside right panel of the image I used a grain filter to make the image of the skateboarder stand out against the dark background. At first I this was a simple image without the font. However as I was able to post this image onto my blog I was able to gain feedback that the image wasn’t strong enough with just the skateboarder on his own and didn’t have a strong enough promotion of the band. Therefore I improved the image and placed the band members names around the image. I reduced the opacity of the text to make it appear drawn on the tarmac and positioned each name so it would fit into the shape of the CD.

The inside left panel didn’t need much modifying as the image was strong enough on its own. However in order to make the image stand out I increased the contrast and brightness levels, this made the image look more professional.

Magazine advert
The software used to create my magazine advert was the same as the digi-pak, Photoshop Elements. The image follows continuity from the digi-pak as the shot used is the front cover of the digi-pak but from a different perspective, I’ve also used the same font and cast in order to make it continuous. I increased the brightness of the image in order to make it more striking and give the impression of artificial light reflecting on the ‘skateboarder’ from the streetlight, this allows the audience to see him as the focal point of the image and understand the message of youth culture.
For the image of the man climbing the wall I had to enhance the colour. The image was already painted on the wall and when it came to uploading the image I found the colour didn’t stand out. I wanted this to be bold and eye-catching as it resembles the rebellion of the youth within the image.

Evaluation for advanced production Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Before the filming of our music video I had to gain an understanding of who I was marketing the video for. To do this I had made a questionnaire and handed it out to 20 to people in total, 10 of those being male and the other 10 being female. I created a closed questionnaire which consisted of 12 questions such as, what is your favourite genre? , How often do you buy your music in a month? And, which websites do you use on a regular basis? Once I had the results I uploaded the results into Microsoft Excel and created two separate graphs for each question, this way I could compare the results of the males and females. I evaluated each graph on my blog and this allowed me to create an understanding of my audience demographic. Here is an example of my findings for the question:

Where do you buy your music?
(Blue= female. Green= male)
For this question I could understand that males tend to shop in a variety of places for their music where as females tend to only shop on itunes, supermarkets and HMV. Therefore it is noticeable that our fan base is likely to be male due to 40% answering that they shop at independent retailers for their music. Therefore when our artist is first released it may not make it straight to high street retailers but instead independent shops such as Norwich's Soundclash which sells artists on smaller labels such as Smaller Than You. These smaller labels are also likely to be found on internet sites such itunes, thus with 40% of each gender choosing itunes it shows how there will be a small minority of female fans but it will be mainly male dominant.
Another question which helped me to understand my audience demographic was:

Where do you hear about new music/bands?

It is clear that males prefer to research for new music/bands with 60% of males finding new music/bands on the internet whereas 80% of females will find their new music through music channels on the television or the 60% who will simply listen to what’s on the radio. Therefore when promoting Smaller Than You it is more likely that we will have a mainly male dominant fan base at first as our music video will only be able to be promoted on You Tube or the bands Myspace. Once the band are signed and have a big enough budget to promote the video on music channels such as MTV the female fan base will begin to increase.
These two questions allowed me to understand that the audience demographic for our music video would be male due their gender being more interested in researching new music and buying from independent retailers.

This questionnaire was given to a young audience aged 16-25. I chose this age bracket as my own knowledge gained from going to watch Smaller Than You live, their audience mainly consisted of young people between these ages.
Therefore my audience research for Smaller Than You gave me the audience demographic of males aged between 16-25. With this information I could begin planning my music video as I had knowledge of who my target audience consisted of.

Once my music video was completed I gained audience feedback on my completed production. This consisted once again on a questionnaire which evaluated aspects of my music video such as, mise-en-scene, camera work and editing, how much is was enjoyed etc. Overall my results from my male demographic gave me a rating of 4.5 for my overall production, as they said the video was the correct length and they would listen to the single ‘Who Knew’ again. However I was criticised for the way the instruments where synced with the music as some noticed it was out of time. Another point raised was that my skateboarders weren’t doing enough tricks and that this would have improved the appeal, but overall the males reflected that the video suited the ska genre well and it successfully promoted Smaller Than You.
My female audience gave me an average of 4 out of 5 for my production, 1being the lowest and 5 being the highest. They rated me highly one my mise-en-scene, camera work and editing and length with an average again of 4 out of 5. However my female audience found it harder to understand the narrative showing that they paid closer attention to the finer details of the music video but still said the narrative held their attention and it highlighted the fast pace of the music video. Overall my female audience thought the video was slightly too long but would listen to the track again and found it promoted Smaller Than You successfully.

Another aspect of the brief for my advanced production was to create a digi-pak which successfully promoted the release of the album for Smaller Than You, this would include the single ‘Who Knew’ which was used in the music video. I was able to use my blog for this aspect of my production as I could post the images I was going to use and gain audience feedback on whether or not they suited the genre of my music video. Once this was determined I used Photoshop Elements to enhance my images and posted the ideas I wanted to include within my digi-pak. The audience feedback gained from the comments on my blog allowed me to understand that my front cover appeared juvenile as I had added a layer onto the lamppost within the image to make it appear as though it was drawn on. My idea was to make it reflect the image of the ‘skateboarder’ used within my music video by making it appear ‘graffitied’ on. This however wasn’t what my audience saw in the image and I was told my image would be stronger if it was removed. Therefore instead I used the ‘poster’ filter to make it still appear animated.

Another part of my digi-pak I was able to change due to my comments on my blog was the back cover. I had originally wanted to use the same male on the front but instead have him as a close up image smoking. This was to be intertextually referencing the album ‘Whatever People Say I Am Is What I’m Not’, by The Arctic Monkeys. However I was told this was didn’t promote the genre or the band and had no audience appeal. Therefore I was able to change it completely by using an image similar to the front but only including the skateboard and the lamppost and used the same font for the front of the image for my track names. This therefore developed the continuity of the digi-pak and reflected the ‘skateboarder’ brand style of Smaller Than You.

The inside panels I was told where strong therefore didn’t need much changing, however for the inside right panel I was told the image was too dull as it just showed a skateboarder doing a trick whilst holding drumsticks. Therefore to strengthen the promotion of Smaller Than You I included the band members names around the image and made it look like they had been written on the road the skateboarder was on.

For my magazine advert I used a similar image to the front of the digi-pak but instead took the image at a different angle. This therefore didn’t show a repetition in the images used but also allowed audience recognition with the digi-pak and the magazine advert. I posted the advert on my blog and was told through comments it was ‘splendidly generic and represents the essence of the single very well.’

Like my music video, I gained audience feedback on my completed digi-pak and magazine advert.
I chose to ask males as this is my audience demographic. Overall I got an average of 4 out of 5 for my print productions. I was rated highly on whether or not it successfully reflected the genre with an average of 4 out of 5 as well as a high rating for my standard of graphics and aspect of brutishness with again an average of 4 out of 5. However I was told to improve the font on the front of the digi-pak which advertised the name of the album ‘Who Knew’ as it was dull and didn’t fit well with the other panels of my digi-pak. The males liked the location used for the digi-pak and thought it reflected the brutishness of the band well and the graphics used on the images enhanced the appeal. The magazine advert however didn’t have enough audience appeal to make my audience demographic buy the digi-pak this would need to be improved if I had more time.

Evaluation for advanced production Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product with ancillary texts?

Digi-pak:
I created a brand style to promote Smaller Than You, which was the ‘skater’ image. I chose to market the ‘skater’ image as this is often associated with the ska/punk genre such as American ska punk band Less Than Jake. This association would allow the strong promotion of Smaller Than You as the genre theory states, ‘Many genres have built-in audiences and corresponding publications that support them’ therefore fans of ska/punk would be able to recognise the brand style of the genre within our music video .

In order to increase the audience appeal of my digi-pak I wanted it to follow the style of the music video. I did this by continuing the the ‘skater’ theme. The image shows the ‘skateboarder’ wearing a ‘hoody’ and appears isolated and menacing. This is a response to the stereotype associated with youth culture of Britain created by the media. This stereotype often associates young males with crime and rebellion and therefore creates a negative image of youth within Britain. The audience demographic of Smaller Than You (young males aged 16-25) will be able to relate to the image and see that as Smaller Than You are embracing the negative stereotype. This will therefore gain strong promotion as it appeals to the audience demographic.

The font used for ‘Smaller Than You’ which is printed on the wall of the image of my digi-pak is inspired by the graffiti artist ‘Banksy’. Banksy is an anonymous British graffiti artist who is known for using stencils within his artwork. He is a representative of youth rebellion as he goes against the laws put down by society. His influence strengthened the rebellious attitude seen within my music video and digi-pak and is a symbol of how British youth don’t want to be controlled.

I’ve reflected on the skateboarding culture throughout my digi-pak in order to build a generic style for Smaller Than You. The inside left panel shows ‘Smaller Than You’ written on public property. This is a tribute to the band Less Than Jake who use this idea within their music video ‘Does The Lion City Still Roar’, as within the video the edit shows the bands performance as graffiti on the wall.

The right inside panel is a reflection of the skateboarders within the video for the single ‘who knew’. The image shows the skateboarder holding the drumsticks which, in the music video, the drummer wanted back for his gig. This audience will be able to recognise this from the music video, which will in turn increase the appeal of the single ‘who knew . I wanted to promote the band as well as the video within this image therefore I placed each name of the members of the band and their role. I made sure this stayed behind the CD to keep the image in order with the digi-pak.
The back cover uses the re-occuring motif of the skateboard. I made sure the skateboard was the focal point of the image as this promotes the brand style of Smaller Than You as well as reflecting the style of the digi-pak. I also used the same font for the track names as the one which is used for ‘Smaller Than You’ on the front of the digi-pak which, as said before, was inspired by the font of British graffiti artist Banksy.

Magazine Advert:
The advert follows a continuity of the digi-pak as it uses the same location, cast and font in doing this it helps to develop the brand style of Smaller Than You as it develops the ‘skater’ image. The magazine advert promotes the EP for Smaller Than You and will include the single used within the music video titled ‘Who Knew’.

I would want this advert to go in the free magazine 'Outline' which is available in Norwich and Cambridge. As the band Smaller Than You are located in Norwich it would allow promotion for fans within the area as well as introduce new fans to their music as they would have access to see them live. On their webiste they offer a section on their website for unsigned local bands in Norwich. This section offers fans to get background information on the band and their myspace address. The magazine is free, therefore it will appeal to our younger target audience such as students who don't have a lot of money.
I would also like to place the advert in NME as it is usually bought by those wanting to find new artists or bands and offers the chance for fans to find out about these new bands on their website. This would therefore appeal to the target audience of Smaller Than You on a larger scale.

Evaluation for advanced production Question 1

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

The brief for the advanced production was to create a music video for an unsigned artist/band. I chose to promote a Norwich band called Smaller than You. The genre of Smaller than You is ska/punk. This is a genre which has developed from the original Ska of the 70’s with artists such as Madness and The Specials. I chose Ska/Punk due to it being upbeat and challengingly fast pace to construct a lively and appealing promotion.

The music video is set in Norwich and focuses on a performance based narrative, utilising elements of slapstick comedy. The basic story revolves around a zany relay race as the drummer tries to get his stolen drumsticks back before his gig. The narrative indicates that either fellow band members or friends where involved int he prank. The dominant performers are skateboarders who steal the drumsticks at different iconic areas around Norwich, specifically around the postwar 1960’s brutal architecture which reflects the ska genre. This idea followed the convention of ska/punk as Skateboarders are associated with modern day ska as they represent a teenage subculture. The American ska/punk band Less Than Jake use the ‘skater’ image in their music video. I was able to understand the generic conventions of ska from the band Less Than Jake which inspired the mise-en-scene, specifically the narrative and costume of the skaters within the music video.

For example the circular narrative of their video ‘Does the Lion City Still Roar’ follows a young male in an urban area finding a pair of sunglasses which changes perspective of something negative into a positive and by the end of the video the glasses have been picked up by another male for the experience to start again. I thought this idea was interesting as the use of circulatory narrative, the playfulness and excitement of skateboarding would signify this popular past time for our band. Less Than Jake also allowed me to understand how male dominated modern day ska music is, as the only female seen in the video has been sexualised, and the male uses his sunglasses to see her pole dancing around a lamppost.

This idea links to Laura Mulveys ‘The gaze theory’. She states that ‘various features of cinema viewing conditions facilitate for the viewer both the voyeuristic process of objectification of female characters and also the narcissistic process of identification with an ‘ideal ego’ seen on the screen’, this idea links with the music video for ‘Does The Lion City Still Roar’ as the image shows a males idea of ‘idealised woman’ to which viewers can gain pleasure. I followed a similar idea within my music video by making the cast male dominant specifically because the genre and skateboarding appeals to the 16-25 male demographic. However I challenged the ‘gaze theory’ by showing a tomboy image of a female and allow my female performers to be part of the chase. This challenged the convention of music videos which according to Goodwins theory which see’s a ‘particularly voyeuristic treatment of the female body’, like the woman seen in Less Than Jakes video ‘Does The Lion City Roar’.

By strongly representing British ska within my music video it allowed my music video to act as a tribute to the classic ska genre. One of the ways I did this was the use of setting. I chose to film parts of my music video in isolated and run down areas of the city. This was to act as a tribute to the music video ‘Ghost Town’ by the Specials. Within that video there are low angle shots of buildings which create a claustrophobic setting. The buildings in The Specials video are old and decrepit, therefore I chose Anglia Square as the buildings are run-down. This 60’s development is an eyesore and has become a slum. Anglia Square is associated with urban decay where once was a community.

The designs for my digi-pak are a reflection of the niche target audience for the band Smaller Than You which is young males aged around 16-25. The images used show a stereotype which is often depicted by the media of young males. The male within the front cover image shows a male wearing a hoody and the idea that he is thinking about or has just robbed someone’s house, due to the image of graffiti showing a figure climbing a wall. This image will therefore allow Smaller Than You’s fan base to relate to the image shown as it suggests that Smaller Than You recognise the negative impact the mass media has on young males.

This idea is influenced by American ska band Less Than Jake who also shows the rebellious nature of ska within the album artwork, such as the album ‘Absolution and Addicts’ which shows drugs, alcohol and razor blades, falling from a rain cloud. They are doing this to play up to the stereotype often given to those who listen to ska music and therefore giving the audience something to rebel against by listening to their music.

I also gained inspiration for my digi-pak from American Ska band ‘Sonic Boom Six’. The front cover of their album ‘The Concrete We’re Trapped Within’, shows a futuristic dytopian setting with a police officer as the focal point of the image. The images I used challenge the American ska convetion as I wanted it to distinctly represent ‘Britishness’.

My image does this by using less colour than the American ska digi-paks thus intertextually referencing the pallet of British Social Realist films such as ‘This is England’ and ‘Fish Tank’. This see’s characters such as Mia from ‘FishTank’ representing stereotypical youth culture of Britain in the way she dresses and talks which automatically makes her seem threatening to the general public. I wanted to reflect this stereotype within my digi-pak and therefore used the costume of the young male to reflect the British stereotype of youth culture which is the ‘hoody’.

The ‘hoody’ wearer is a sign that the youth wearing it is associated with anti social behaviour. The location I used is a run-down alleyway, which reinforces the urban nature of the music video whilst also signifying the subculture of ska.
Most of my designs are influenced by American ska, however I wanted to show an influence of the classic ska genre and did this through the use of the ‘hoodies’ costume. His clothes are black and white and are a tribute to Jerry Dammers record label ‘2 Tone’. The image often used to represent his record label is a man in a black suit, black tie, white shirt and sunglasses. Therefore the costume used for my digi-pak is a modern twist on this classic logo and image associated with ska of the 1980’s.

Influences of ska punk within my digipak

The idea for my digipak was influenced by the American phenomenon ska punk.

The album covers from ska-punk bands Less Than Jake and Sonic Boom Six use mainly graphics for their Digi-paks. In doing this they are responding to the youth culture within ska which is the 'skateboarder image' and their target audience of young males between 16-25. They do this by orientating their graphics around rebellion and crime. These are two conceptions often linked to listeners of ska-punk, that they are against the law and are free-willed.

This is the cover of Less Than Jakes album 'Absoloution For Idiots'. The graphics used show razor blades, alcohol and drugs. Immediatley a fan will be able to look at this digi-pak cover and feel that they can relate to the ban by using the idea that 'this band is rebellious, if I listen to their music then so will I'. Less Than Jake are responding to their target audience and picking up on the stereotypical image given to teenagers and instead of trying to fight against it they are working with it to give their target audience the power to rebel.

This album cover works similarly with Less Than Jake in the way it responds to the target audience. The image of the 'corrupt' security gard holding a gun represents how the law is corrupting the cities we live in as the colours within the image are dull and oppressing as though we are suffocated by what society tells us what we can and can't do. This therefore links back to teen rebellion and the image represents how the law doesnt allow free-will on the young. Therefore by using this image Sonic Boom Six are marketing that in listening to their music you are going against what soicety is telling you to do.

I feel my digi-pak was influenced by American ska-punk as I am promoting teen rebellion within my images and, like Sonic Boom Six, I am showing how society can corrupt those around us. For instance within my image I am showing a teen who is stereotypical of youth culture. He is stereotypical as he is wearing a hoody to hide is face and gives off the impression that he doesn't care. By using this image I am allowing fans of Smaller Than You to relate to the image and therefore relate to Smaller Than You's music with the idea that 'Smaller Than You know you hate this streotype and so do Smaller Than You'. I've also resonded to the stereotype associated with ska-punk which is the 'skateboarder' image. This also shows how I have responded to the youth culture recognised of my target audience of young males aged between 16 and 25.

Analysis of music video The rumble Strips 'Not The Only Person'

Final images for digi-pak

Front Cover

Left Side Panel

Right Panel Behind CD

Back Cover