Software

This is a list of the Software I have used to complete the Music Video, Digi Pack, Inlay Booklet and Magazine Advert.

-Blogger is the software I have used most as it has been my diary for all my work and research I have. 

-YouTube has been used for updating the work I have produced, but it has also enabled me to searched into other music videos.

 -For varied posts I have used Prezi to help my blog appear more professional, I have used Prezi.

-Final Cut Express is a editing software program which I used throughout my editing this year’s A2 Levels and last year throughout my AS Media Studies.




-Adobe Photoshop was the software I used to edit the images for the Digi Pack, Inlay Booklet, and Magazine Advert, and it has proven to be very useful.

-Survey Monkey was a website we used to create a questionnaire to gain information and increase our research from an online audience.

-We used the music websites SoundCloud and Spotify to research earlier into our artist, as was Twitter and Facebook.

Magazine Advert

For our magazine advert to look as professional and authentic as it could be our group decided that we need to incorporate the following into it; the title of the album, the image of the album, reviews, the Artists website, a design similar to the Album, links to purchases places, ratings, an image of the artist, CD logo and a selection of cross media platforms. These are the common features of all magazine adverts.

The common conventions of Indie Adverts are normally that they have the appearance of being designed with a vintage feel and artistically which overall tends to be quite simple but creative. I believe that an image such as a photo of the artist with a vintage tint would really show that it is from this genre, which is used mostly in Indie. There is often a link to the Artists website or their twitter accounts so they can be easily connected with the artist.

The two types of magazine advert are either artist or album focused adverts; meaning as our artist is still not hugely well known and is still very independently run, our advert will be artist focused. Our advert must link with the Digi pack and relate to each other, at best they can.When choosing the right image, font and content for our magazine advert, it is important I include and take into account the content above.

Props List

In relation to our genre we need to make sure we have the appropriate props to fit in to the scenes and make it seem as if it is the artist environment, these will consist of props with a vintage or retro feel. Additionally we need to incorporate the main props that can link into the lyrics and narrative of our Music Video, therefore putting an image to the words to make it clearer to the audience.

The props that we will need relating to our narrative...
+ A lounger or bed in which the Artist can lay on.. "So I'll Lie Here"
+ A pillow.. "With your eyes closed, and me as your Pillow"
+ Bed Sheets and accessories.. "I know i've found contentment in these sheets"


Other props...

+ Acoustic Guitar... This is one of the main props that will appear more than once. This will feature as an important piece due to the guitar being a typical convention to indie acoustic genre, and will additionally help the narrator and artist be identified by the audience. This will act as the narrator's master shot which will include shots of him and the acoustic guitar in various different locations.

-Here is an image of Ben Howard with an acoustic guitar








+ Bench... We will need to use a bench near the end of the video to add a climax to the storyline; the artist will see his lover (the one he has been singing about) and see she has moved on. This bench and scene will symbolise the end of the relationship.

+ Bag... For the female scene's a handbag will be an obvious and reoccurring item in the music video, this is as it is an everyday item, and will show the age of the girl. This will represent her as an everyday female.

We also had an idea of the male carrying a male bag in some scenes as this will add to the male carrying his own 'weight' and troubles now he is no longer with her.


+ Sofa... In addition to the bed we needed a place in which the artist and his lover could be together, indoors to show the warmth and comfort of their old relationship. We will then contrast this to the male being alone.

+ Stereo Player for the opening scene...

+ Clock
+ Photo Table
+ Coffee
+ Leaves
+ Swings
+ Photo Booth/ Photos

Weather Forecast

Our outdoor locations are Cambridge and the Saffron Walden/Newport area. We were hoping to be able to have the past flashbacks in a more sunny setting as we tend to give them a happy and positive vibe, that the Artist wants back. On the present scenes luckily we do not need to have bright, warm weather; as it is late Autumn in England we are expecting, grey, foggy and rainy weather, which would be ideal for the overall feel of these scenes. So far I can only see Monday's weather report, but both days look rainy, so I feel we should film the more present scenes then because that weather would be perfect for this, hopefully Tuesday will be sunny so we can film the contrasting scenes, if not we will probably film indoors, and have to go out for one more sunny day for filming. Although this, you will never know how right the weather report is until the day. Below are screen shots of the Weather Reports from BBC Weather for our two locations.

Camera Techniques- POV

During filming we discovered that we were lacking in shots of the couple together. Therefore in order to build the narrative of the song, this was vital, as it would give a personal feel to the video. Our inspiration came from Calvin Harris' music video for 'I Need Your Love'. In that video , the point of view camera technique is used which we felt would be suitable for our video.

Whilst filming, we experimented with this technique in everyday situation with the love interest included. For example, the male (Danny) filmed the two of them sipping coffee at a cafe which looks as though they are having a laugh and so brightens up the video. We then uploaded the POV clip to the Mac and inserted it into our video which we thought looked really good. Therefore we have decided that we should film some more similar clips for the narrative to run more smoothly. Locations could include, in bed, walking in the outdoors, a park. The POV shot is a brilliant way for us to bring the video to life as it really builds up the characters in the video. Developing the characters also allows us to enhance the narrative and so we end up making a video that can relate to our audience.

Risk Assessment

In order to ensure a safe filming day, I looked into some possible hazards when it comes to filming our final project.

As we are aiming to film in a variety of different locations, it is important that we carefully consider how we get there, carrying the props around ensuring nothing drops or anyone trips over any false leads.
- As I intend to drive myself and the group to the locations, I have to make sure that I drive with caution and certify that all seat belts are worn.
- Intending to film at a train station means that we need to be extra cautious when filming and make sure there is nothing or anyone in danger of the tracks.
- To film indoors, we need to make sure no leads are sprawled across the floor in case members of the group or actors don't trip over and injure themselves.

Digi Pack CD Artwork

I researched into a selection of Digi Pack Artwork on coverdude.com and found a bunch of CD covers that will give us inspiration and ideas for our own cover as we are required to design our own.

Analysis of Digi Packs 1... An Artistic Approach

Artist: Bon Iver
Album: Bon Iver
Location: Outdoors by a lake, and possibly a mountainous area. Nature is forming around a small lake house centered in the 'watercolour' type painting of this scene. It seems silent and relaxing, with no sign of urban life.
Colours: The colours are slightly washed out due to the 'watercolour' feel. The image has natural, blue, green and browns; the neutral colours are contrasted slightly with a strong red colour, which creates a feeling the painting has peeled back slightly.
Font: No font features on the front cover, this lets the image be appreciated, like the nature and beauty is in this secluded place.
Editing: The use of the 'watercolour' has enhanced the creative and unique feel of Indie Artists Digi Packs and is a great example of an arty approach to it.
Symbolism: This reflects Bon Iver's music and soft voice perfectly.
Lighting: The lighting is natural and has a sense of the sun reflecting off the lake, which brightens the whole image and makes it look fresh.
Props/Mise-En-Scene: The only sign of life in this painting, is the small lake house.

Artist: Angus and Julia Stone
Album: A book like this
Location: Again the cover has an artistic feel to it due to the image of the three children in the outskirts of a town/village have been created in a pencil, or chalk and charcoal style. I find this image interesting as the choice the children can make is linked to the name of the album as it is like a story, should they explore life by going into the village or the forest; they have different pathways.
Colours: The colours are a monochrome, black & white, giving the impression that you create your own story and colour in your life.
Font: The font for the Title and Artist is the same but the artist is more prominent on the digi-pack as it is spread over the top of the cover, and the title is smaller but closer to the children, showing it links to them. The font is a fairy tale style, again in black.
Editing: No editing is really used, but the use of a piece of art as the cover is a typical indie convention.
Symbolism: The symbolism of Angus and Julia Stone's album cover seems to be that you write your own story and novel and you can pick and choose how you live your life, and how your book progresses.
Lighting: The whole image is slightly dark and mysterious, again giving the implication that you create your own colour.
Props: A sign is used to show the different ways in which your path can take you, and the kids toys enhances there age.
Mise-En-Scene: The costume seems to be fairy tale/storybook like, which links very well.

Artist: Benjamin Francis Leftwich
Album: Last smoke before the snow storm
Subject: The subject of this image is not clear although i can pick apart the parts and see that in the centre it is an image of the world, around it is illustrations of natural wonders of the world. Such as, flowers, waves, wood, shells and many more. The contrast of the image to the title is also visible.
Colours: The colours in this image are a mix match of muted colours, there seem to be pinks, blues, blacks, whites and creams, the mixture may represent the different areas or the world.
Font: The font of the Artists name seems to be in a basic font centered at the top. The title is in a smaller font again, all lowercase.
Editing: The editing is the about of different artistic illustrations overlay onto each other creating a collage type image.
Symbolism: The symbolism seems to be that the artist is singing about all the natural happenings of the world.
Lighting: The lighting is all produced by the colours used in the illustrations.
Props/Mise-En-Scene: There are not really props or mise-en-scene present in the whole image but there would be in the inspiration of the individual illustrated images.

 

Digi Pack Elements

Due to the laid back and natural feel of our Genre we wanted to incorporate the feel of this onto our digi pack, and create a flow front the front cover to the back cover; additionally we will use the same style of font for the title of the album and the song list on the back cover. I found that the artwork for the album 'Big Echo' by The Morning Benders, flows from the front to the back which I found really appealing. Although the art is slightly different as the swimmers are entering the sea on the front and exiting on the back. This effect slightly adds to the start of the album and the end, which is a really interesting convention of an Indie digi pack which I liked also, the colours are linked to the type of tones we would like to incorporate in our digi pack, due to the muted blues and greens, representing nature.

Similar Music Video's and their Conventions

In this post I will talk about the Conventions we have decided to use in our Music Video, and similar Music Videos and Artists that have also used them. Most of the examples I will use are a good representation of the Indie Genre, although they all may have their individual sub-genre's.

Narrative within the Indie Genre
In many Indie Music Videos there are a combination of performance and narrative; the narrative is mostly filmed in a contrasting and dissimilar location the where the performance footage is based; an example of this is in One Night Only's 'Say you don't want it', where the narrative is in the city and is busy, and the performance is on the roof of the building, just outside the city, where it is free and empty.

To complete and apply this Convention of narrative theory to the music videos, I have found a narrative in the Indie Genre in which I can analyse and make sure we can attract the audience in the same way.

In Kate Nash's Music Video for 'Foundations' I found that the lyrics link to the action is the scene, such as when the lyrics ' and I know that I should let go, but I can't...' are sung the couple are holding hands until the words 'let go' are sung. This links to an aspect we were interested in applying as in our lyrics when the singer says 'go to sleep my love...' the female character of the relationship in the video will be laying on the bed and a close up of her eyes closing will be filmed. The narrative is represented as a casual, average day, in which our scene will be as firstly the average day of when they were together, and now when they are apart; the Artist 'Kate Nash' is singing to the camera, whilst getting on with her everyday life.

Editing Technique- Overlay
As we have decided to create an overlay of scene's in the middle of our Music Video to show the Artist
singing alone, and the overlay of a previous time when the characters spent their time together there happy.


Olly Murs song 'Dear Darlin' is a perfect example of when this is used, as he uses an identical location but overlays him and his ex-girlfriends past times and fun they have shared in that location whilst he is singing alone of the bed about losing her. From this video you can tell that this Music Video is effective as the similar narrative and love story can be represented by this technique and help the audience understand the emotions involved in the song, which links to the Artist himself. To complete this in the most professional way possible we would have to film twice in the same location, with the camera running throughout; after we would have to edit it on final cut pro, by cutting, overlaying and tweaking the opacity of the image to make it subtle and appear a memory.

Editing Technique- Filter/ Camera use
The effect we want to portray in our music video is that of a warm and comforting video, despise the narrative behind it. The hue we want to create it that alike the colours and hues in Ben Howard's video, 'Keep Your Head Up'.

The filter of this video creates a more exciting feel to the Music Video and draws the audience in to watch for the rest of the song.

Another convention of the music video we are using are the different Camera shots we will use, in which will make, what could be, a boring love story into something more eye-catching and emotional. This is used in the Music Video on the left when the character is sliding down the water slide, the worm view perspective, the handheld showing shots of the reaction shots whilst sliding down the hill, and the birds-eye view assist the video in having a more exciting aspect and captures the listeners attention.





Lip- Syncing
The use of lip-syncing was important for us as the narrative will be happening around the Artist through an overlay and the 'average day' happening around him; the song in which is being used diagetically.

The Artist Daughter uses this is their song 'Still' this was influential and a linking convention to our Music video as the use of the artists image being presented on the T.V and the narrative working around it reminded me of our Artist sitting and having the narrative around him. This is effective due to the creativity but the unhappy narrative explains and shows the audience the details.







Binary Opposition Urban and Nature
The use of the Binary Opposition will be used due to the contrast we will use of the Urban and natural setting. This convention is used in Ben Howard's 'Only Love' video.

We firstly see Howard riding his bike, at a low angle capturing the power and the sunlight through the tree's. A jump cut is then used to show an urban setting in which the cuts are in time to the beat of the song, this adds interest and the audience want to know where the character will end up, why and for what? This is a convention that we are going to use.

Artist (Danny) in Test Costumes

Through our research as posted previously we decided to create the different looks ourselves, on our Artist and come to a conclusion of what works and what does not. These are Danny's own clothes which are useful as we did not have to purchase any ourselves, although the outfits may not be to his taste, he has styled his different items to create the Indie look. I believe all these looks have an Indie vibe about them, but linking to our real Artist, Mike Dignam, we need to find the appropriate one for his look.

























The skinny jeans in all of the images seem to work for the Indie look, and the plain black brogue/desert boot type shoes really suit and fit the style we are trying to recreate. The buttoned up shirt works, although I feel that the t-shirt under the shirt, may not work as well as just buttoned up, for example the Denim looking ombre Style on the right, which with the denim has an aspect of Mike Dignam's style. The Green Parka was something we found was popular in our research, although I do not feel Danny should wear this throughout the whole video, possibly just in some sections.

Possible Filming Locations... Indoor

Typical Male Bedroom

Due to the majority of our scenes being shot outside we wanted to take the opportunity to use the lyrics "I'll lie here" to shoot inside. The Narrator and Artist is male so we feel like a typical male mature bedroom would be a suitable setting, through this is also shows the music elements and organic sound of the song, such as the guitar in the room.

Photo Booth

We wanted to create a memory for the couple, so we decided to try and film in a photo booth to incorporate a happy scene for the when the couple were together; possibly taking silly photo's.

Indie Magazine Adverts

Possible Filming Locations... Outdoor

From our research we have decided that a successful and common convention of an Indie Music Video and Digi Pack, that the location incorporates a natural and vintage feel. We have decided to use this and film a lot of our scenes outside, we also wanted to use a slightly urban setting, which we are still using, but have toned it down slightly as the 'urban' settings we are using are not modern in anyway. The locations below are all easily accessible to us for filming; they are also close to our meeting place; which is helpful.

Newport Train Station 

Parker's Piece- Cambridge

Saffron Walden Common
















Cambridge City

Lastly for the Outdoor locations we wanted to use the more urban setting for some scenes in contrast to the rural areas when the couple were together, the busy scene portrays to the audience that a lot is happening and nothing is settled.

Music Video Techniques...Split Screen

An idea that was brainstormed in our group was a split screen edit, in which throughout the video the audience will see a variety of perspectives on the scene. Through our research we found that this can be shots of the location that the narrative is based on, where the music video was filmed and a personal perspective of the characters in the scene; also if it is a band performance, the camera can identify the different instruments used by using the split screen to focus on the individual band members. The idea of a split screen can effect to the music video that provides the listener, or audience with a better insight of the narrative, band and music video.

This idea, I feel will be a good edition and aspect to our Music Video as the love narrative could be shown through the personal perspective of the male and female of relationship, which the narrative is based upon. The different emotions and feeling of the relationship, and the breakup will be expressed through this editing technique.

Here are some examples of other Artists, although not Indie, where the split screen has been used-

The Narrative of Daniel Powters' Bad Day, is similar to the music video in which we would like to create as it is based upon a break-up. The cross cutting shows the couple, now split, getting on with their lives after the break-up day in and day out; what effect it has had on them and how they feel emotionally. The questions asked by the audience, such as 'how' and 'why' are answered due to this technique also; initially you can see that the couple are not happy without each other. The singer is acting as the God Figure, as he is not the character involved in the relationship but is in some of the same locations of the character, although they cannot hear him, this is a convention of Omniscience.

Michael Jackson's song Billie Jean, again is not in the Indie Genre, and is not initially about a break-up but it is about lust and a girl. The screen split in this video is used by using props, in this case, a lamp post to separate the two different scenes in the narrative. This is a different way in which we can use the split screen idea, as we can shown the couple in the same location at different times, but have them on the same scene, and split them with an object, such as a tree, lamp post or a wall.

Outdoors/ Guitar/ Urban-Natural

John Mayer's Video, 'Queen of California' contains all three of these factors which we are interested in using within our video, we know we want to incorporate the outdoors and the guitar; an idea of binary opposition and a contrast of an urban-natural setting is an idea we liked. As you can see on this Music video the guitar features at the start, and as he is walking through the streets it changes to walking through a forest; his outfit and accessorizes change throughout this also, which I found very exciting and fun.

Mise En Scene... Male/Artist Costume Ideas

Danny is playing the role of the main character and the Artist, Mike Dignam. His image throughout will be important in our music video and photo's for our Digi Pack.

In order for him to look authentic our group has started to look into different clothing ideas' for our chosen Indie Artist, with this in mind, the clothes he wears are an important factor of this image. Indie/ Indie Acoustic artists wear a laid-back and effortless look which may have come from a selection of vintage shops, such as Rokit and Beyond Retro. Our group decided to look at ASOS, Urban Outfitters Renewal section and the international fashion social site, LookBook. Below is a selection of looks our group has found to express and present the style in which our Artist will be dressed.

Danny will definitely be wearing the typical Indie Style such as this outfit establishes on the left. The dark jeans such as these are a brilliant base trouser to work with and style; the black vans are also a casual aspect of the typical indie style. The buttoned up shirt is a stereotypical item of clothing for and Indie artist to wear, so we will be sure to use this. We used the different items on the clothing website, such as ASOS, to create the perfect look for our Artist; due to the full outfit not being right or working for our Genre.


We have decided to stick with the colour palette as being quite earthy with clothes that represents the natural and casual of aspect of Indie, such as: navy's, dark green, grey, black and blue's.





Another outfit my group put together is the one on the left, again this establishes the colour palette that we believed was appropriate for the Genre. As you can see layering is a big part of the Indie image, through the use of tee-shirts, shirts, jumpers and coats; a specific and very popular item that is worn is the Parka Jacket. The skinny jean and baggy top look is also worn quite a lot in the indie scene, along with brogues or desert boots for the footwear.

Due to us using the Artist, Mike Dignam, we wanted to make sure we kept his personal style as this is very important for his look, and his fans. Through the research I see that he wears a lot of denim, a short sleeved t-shirt or rolled up sleeved, buttoned up shirt. A guitar is also going to feature in the Music Video so we want the style of the outfit to match the style of the music, and acoustic feel of the Indie Genre.