Our music video would be exhibited on multiple forms of media. The first being the website YouTube as this is a very successful form of promotion and a video can easily gather millions of views. Elements of the website, such as the suggested menu on the right hand side of the viewer's screen, means that our target audience will be met because the suggested videos link to the style of the videos the viewer has recently been watching. YouTube is now commonly the first place a person will look to when they want to hear a new song or see the promotional music video. This is because it is accessible to many people because it has convergence; it is a website and it is also an App so can be used on a huge range of technical devices making it available to everyone. It is also free, incredibly easy to use and quick to look up music on. This makes Youtube a logical choice of exhibition.
We would also use TV music channels such as 4music or Kiss to promote the music video because although our music genre is indie, it has a lot of pop conventions combined with it making these channels appropriate to target the right audience. Although this is not the most popular form of discovering music, many people use the music channel as you would a radio while at home for background music while with friends and so would still be an effective way of exhibiting both our song and video to a wider audience listening to the top charts.
Another way of exhibiting our music video would be through social media, most popularly Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Facebook is commonly used now to view a wide range of different videos and what a users friend 'likes' will also appear on their newsfeed too. Instagram and Twitter work in a similar way however there would be two ways that these social networks would work. If our production team created an account on these networks specifically for the artist or the new single, we would post a clip of the music video or an image of the digi-pak or poster with a link to the music video to be viewed on YouTube. This is a form of convergence and links a lot of the forms of exhibition together because one media company can use another to promote different forms of a product and this in turn benefits both companies.. The second way that these sites would successfully exhibit our products is by the users of these social networks 'tweeting' or 'instagramming' about our products which their friends or followers would also see. This would be an effective form of free advertisement. In many ways new media, such as social networking, is more effective than traditional media because it is so accessible, anywhere at any time. Traditional media such as adverts and billboards are still an effective marketing tool and can prompt consumers to look into the products using new media after seeing it on traditional media. New media allows consumers to be connected with each other at all times and also connects them with people all over the world meaning that there are higher conversation rates about products. Another advantage of new media is that it can cost very little for a company, especially in terms of social media.
In terms of our magazine advert, it would obviously be displayed on the pages of a magazine however could be effectively displayed in a similar way using traditional media such as a billboard at train stations or road sides. The dig-pak would be exhibited in a high-street shop such as HMV which is well known by consumers to distribute the latest albums or singles. It would also be distributed on websites such as Amazon, Play.com and Google Play where the consumer can purchase a physical or MP3 version of the music or iTunes, Microsoft Groove and Spotify where the consumer can listen to the music for free or pay monthly to listen to a wide range of music on the go.
In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
A promotional music video is designed to promote the song and get the audience to buy the album or single of the artist that will in turn expand the artists profile and get the artist more exposure. They are commonly used to invoke a reaction to make the audience remember the song. A video can be used to make the audience understand the message or narrative behind the lyrics of the song or can be used to showcase other talents of the artist e.g. acting/dancing. There is a whole repertoire of elements that create an effective pop music promo:
Performance or a narrative as the basis for the visuals
Performance is commonly the artist singing with a band or back up singers and dancers, dancers introduce a fun element and entertains the audience
Narrative is not as common in pop videos as other genres but can be used to help the audience develop an understanding of the song
Camerawork keeps the audiences attention with changing shots and angles
Conventional shots include close ups of the artists face (promoting the artist and making them more recognisable to the audience), long shots of location, mid shots of the artists in the location and extreme close ups of props
Effective editing with the shots cut to the beat
Short shots to keep the audience looking at the screen
Actors or the artist acting because pop usually adheres to popular culture, teenagers and younger audiences are influenced by costumes, makeup, dance moves
High key lighting or coloured spotlights, colours used in costumes, props or background stand out even more (bright colours match the fun and upbeat nature of pop)
Locations are varied but commonly urban or in studios with backdrops of unrealistic places
Katy Perry is a prime example of a pop artist who consistenly uses extravagancy in her music videos in terms of bright colours and costumes. Her videos are usually thoroughly choreographed usually with back up dancers such as in the video 'California Gurls:'
Editing Techniques
When editing our promo we did not want to over complicate the look of the editing because our chosen track is so simple and slow. It was difficult to edit the shots in the beginning because the shots became long due to the slow beat of the song but when we used the drum beats in the background in order to cut to the beat, it made the shots shorter and flowed with a much better pace. It allowed us to keep audience interest more easily. In our first cut of our promo, there were a lot of close ups or mid shots of our actress miming which were very long and this caused the audience to lose interest:
However in our second cut we re-filmed shots of our actress miming and these included long shots, mid shots, close ups and extreme close ups to get as much diversity and interesting shots as possible. We also made the shots shorter and filmed a lot more visually interesting shots of extreme close ups of antiques and jewellery. In our final cut, we preferred the shots used so that they all had a similar style and this made all the shots fit better together.
There is a point in our chosen track which is a period of 30 seconds without any singing and in our first and second cuts this bored our audience and we considered cutting it out however instead we decided to shorten the shots which made them quicker and included a lot of abstract shots to keep the audience interested. In our final feedback the comments on this section were much more positive. In terms of transitions used, we used mostly straight cuts however to add more interest we included some overlay transitions. These were an extreme close up of the actress miming overlaying a long shot of the actress on the beach. The other overlay used is an over the shoulder shot of the actress overlaying a shot of the beach.
We kept the use of any effects, transitions and cuts very simple because our song is very simple and it creates harmony between the two. This is very reflective of the indie genre because conventionally the songs are humble and about personal experience and they reflect this in their music promos. They do this by using natural locations and simple editing in order to allow the audience to focus on the songs message rather than extravagant editing, locations or costumes. We introduced the beach location at the very beginning as a hook however then we included many shots of the Victorian era house location to make the audience wonder how the beach will be incorporated. We then had shots of the woman changing her clothes and walking out of the front door. This then introduces the shots at the beach to indicate that the woman has escaped her life at home and is at the beach to have fresh surroundings.
Performance & Narrative
We attempted to keep a simple balance between the amount of shots expressing the narrative and the performance. We decided to include both aspects because our artist is an indie artist and it is conventional to have simple performance in an indie video of the singer miming on their own or the band performing in a small bar however we have used conventions of pop or R&B videos as well and so we thought a subtle narrative would also add more interest and depth to the video and also help the audience understand the lyrics of the song. The performance in our promo is purely miming and we did not use a band, back-up singers or any other things which distract the audience from the actress.
This was to be consistent with the simplicity of the video and we used many different types of shots from extreme close ups to long shots of the actress miming in order to keep the performance visually refreshing for the audience. As previously mentioned, indie music promos conventionally do involve a band in their performance but are usually performing to a small audience to show the humble nature of the artist because it is something they do to enjoy, not to sell out arenas. Our song is very slow and we decided that using a band in our performance shots would not have looked right, we decided that the video would only have one actress because it links to our inspiration Lana Del Rey who is an indie pop artist and commonly only uses herself as the key focus in her promos. E.g. 'Young and Beautiful':
In terms of narrative we were influenced by the song's lyrics and we deconstructed and annotate these lyrics to find metaphors and hidden meanings. As a group, we determined that the song was about a woman who has been in an abusive relationship. It is not completely clear whether she has just told the boyfriend to leave ("Come away honey, just leave") or whether he has just left her and she is talking to herself or giving another person advice. We created a narrative for our video using this basic idea. We decided to have one of the earliest shots in the promo of the front door open to represent the boyfriend having just left her:
We also had shots of the actress removing and putting on different pieces of jewellery all the way through the video and also removing her lipstick and high heels to represent her trying to remove anything that the boyfriend had given her or anything she wore to please him:
There is also a mid shot of the actress removing the new costume out of her wardrobe and this represents the look which she really wanted to have but never wore because she was trying to impress her boyfriend with the glamorous clothing, makeup and jewellery. There are shots of the woman walking down the stairs and out of the front door and this is the part of our narrative which represents escapism. The idea was that the woman was leaving her glamorous and materialistic house and possessions and instead escapes to the beach where she could be herself and breathe without having to act or look a certain way.
Some aspects of the video are illustrative for example when the line "So light up another one" is sung, there is a shot of the actress lighting a cigarette or when the line "Come away honey" is sung she walks out the door and escapes to the beach. However the majority of the video is an amplification of the lyrics because we have taken the main concept from the lyrics and exaggerated it to make it into a narrative.
I posted on the social media website 'Facebook' in order to gather feedback on both of my groups ancillary tasks. This images below show the mount of 'likes' the post received and the comments on the photos:
The results of this feedback are extremely positive. Some repeating comments are about the effective use of selective colour, the black and white filter, the typography used and that this creates a clear selling point and displays the style of the artist well. The feedback shows a very positive reaction and indicates that our ancillary tasks have strong visual synergy with one another.
Both of the above photos were taken at our first location, the Victorian era house. We used the first photo on our magazine advert and the second photo on the front of our digipak. We made sure that the photos were all of good quality and we used a Cannon DSLR to assure this. We chose these photos because they suit the atmosphere and mood of our video because the actress is melancholy and has a wistful look. This links strongly to our influencing artist Lana Del Rey who's style is very similar and she often writes songs about lost loves and her look/style displays this. We used the same costume and makeup as in our video and decided that red lips would be a central focus throughout all the products. We will edit the photo to be black and white however keep the red colour of her lips to emphasise this theme. The black and white effect will emphasise our 50s era theme and the antiques used in the video while the pop of colour represents the more modern look of the actress at the beach.
The photo below is used on the back of our digipak and nicely links the ancillary product to our music video because it uses our second location and the actress wearing the second costume:
The four photos below were used on the four remaining panels of our digipak. They are all extreme close ups of objects used in our music video and links with the vintage themes in the video. Using these images creates a strong link between the digipak and our video and the images were also made black and white with subtle hints of colour, linking the magazine advert.
Photos we chose not to use:
We chose to use only one photo of our actress on the beach and this was a long shot of her looking out to sea. We felt that this represented the wistful atmosphere of the video rather than a close up of the actresses face. We also decided to only use a close up of her face on the front of the digipak which is rather conventional of indie-pop album covers. Our group decided that using many extreme close ups of antiques from the video on our digipak, was more effective than long shots of locations. This is because these were very important factors in our music video which created interesting and unique shots inbetween our shots of the actress miming or location shots. Therefore the rest of the photos taken at the beach, which are below, were rejected from our final digipak design. Although the photo of the vintage chair suited our theme, it was not an object used in our music video and also did not suit our theme of extreme close ups on the rest of the panels.
This was a basic design for our digipak. The shots were varied with extreme close ups to long shots. We decided that the outside of the digipak should have shots of the beach while the inside was the shots inside the house. We will be using the same typography on our digipak and advert as the one on our music video to create synergetic links. We were unsure of the long shot of the beach on the front cover of the digipak because although our chosen artist is an indie artist, she has a style similar to Lana Del Rey who is an indie-pop artist. Lana Del Rey commonly has an image of herself on her album covers in a similar way to pop artists.
Design #2
We chose to have the front of the digipak as a close up of our artists face because alhough this is not common for indie artists, it suited her style. The image is of the actress at the beach, while the back of the digipak is of the back of our actresses head. This creates an artistic image of a 360 degree movement around her head. The inside of the digipak has been changed to the beach and is one continous shot of the beach landscape. This has two sides of empty beach with our actress in the background on the third side. We also included an image of a ring which is significant in our video and the song is also called 'Gem' which provides illustrative links.
Design #3
This design progresses to make all the images have a filter of black and white and this links to our music video idea. Most of our shots are of antique items and the actress has makeup relating to the 50s era and so the black and white filter relates to the theme of an older time period. We have used mostly close ups or extreme close ups which also relate to the shots used in our video while some sections still contain beach shots to keep a link with our second location.
Final Design
This design is very similar to Design #3 however we have just perfected the images used. We chose to only include one image of the beach as this is an important location in the video because it represents the actress escaping her situation of an abusive boyfriend and all of the gifts of jewellery he gave her however the beach is not the most important image from our video. This led us to include extreme close ups of antique objects on the rest of the digipak because these items are key shots in our video while jewellery is also extremely important. We decided to keep the image of the actress on the front of the digipak to keep with the idea that although the music is indie based, she still has elements of other genres in a similar way to Lana Del Rey and this suggests that the artist would be a key focus of the products created to showcase their look and style. The typography will be kept the same throughout the digipak and is the same font used on our music video and the magazine advert to create synergy. The black and white filter is still used because as stated for design #3, it represents the antique objects and older time period look throughout our video however we will give the digipak a pop of colour by keeping the red lips on our actress on the front cover. The red lips are a common theme throughout our music video, with extreme close ups of them miming and our actress also removes the lipstick in one shot to represent her removing the things she wore for her boyfriend. We decided that they also represent how the actress escaped to the beach wearing more modern clothing and so creates a contrast between the black and white vintage side of the music video and the more modern colourful side.
We chose this as an example of an indie artist digipak because it has typical illustrative artwork which is representative of the indie genre. The disjunctive art adds interest and depth to the digipak and the colours are very typical of indie-folk artist album covers.
The 1975
We chose this as an example of an indie artist digipak because the minimalist art and colours used is conventional of indie artist who commonly strip back the look their merchandise and promotion in order to let the music express the bands style. Our group liked the design of their CD disc because the plain colour and synchronous typography makes it simple but memorable.
The Foals
We chose this as an example of an indie artist digipak because the images represent the artists style and are illustrative of their music's lyrics. They also use a lot of artistic close up shots of things linking to their music videos which our group liked because they add a lot of interest and synergy throughout the artists promotional pieces.
Artists belonging to the indie genre are very varied as the indie genre is for 'independent' artists, usually because their style is so unique that they do not fit into any niche categories. With this in mind, we decided to explore some artists from other genres that had some similarities with our own chosen artist Natalie Lungley.
Rihanna
Although Rihanna is not an indie artist, our group really liked the design of her digipak because it had a similar style to our video. Our artist Natalie Lungley, although an indie artist, has strong links to Lana Del Rey who is an indie-pop artist. This made our group want to explore some pop artists and we found Rihanna's 'Loud' album. She has red lips with matching hair and red lips is a feature throughout our own music video. We liked the link to our strong use of makeup and have decided to use close up images of our actress to create a similar style.
Our video will include both performance and narrative. The performance in our video will have no band, but it will be close ups of our actress Georgia miming to the lyrics. We will include many extreme close ups of objects such as jewellery and antique items to create interest and there will also be extreme close ups of the singers mouth while miming and her other features. There will be many long shots of both locations because these suit the style and time period look we are aiming for.
Example of extreme close up of eyes
There will be only one actress through out the video and this means that her emotions will need to be intense to create a narrative while it also creates an enigma for the audience to guess whether she is singing about an ex-boyfriend or someone else. We will try our best to make sure all the shots have excellent lighting and are as clear as possible however some shots may have a filter to make them look dream-like which is a technique we admire from some of Lana Del Rey's videos. The editing will match the pace of the song which is quite slow however we may include a montage of faster paced shots to maintain audience interest. Our video will also use slow motion in some shots such as when the actress drops the ring on the floor and this is inspired by some of Lana Del Rey's slow motion shots in her videos.
Lana Del Rey - Music video 'Ride' - An example of strong filter
What style will your video be and did any artists/videos inspire you?
The sound of our song choice is very melancholic and the way the artist sings sounds as though she is very hurt by her boyfriend which made our group feel as though our music videos mood and atmosphere should reflect the singers emotions. The two locations we are filming our video in are Sutton on Sea beach and Georgia Allman's house. These locations have a lot of natural lighting and as we are filming in October the dull weather will reflect the melancholic mood of the lyrics.
Lana Del Rey was a huge inspiration to us while we thought of ideas. The style of our song is very similar to Lana Del Rey's music and so we explored her music videos to find out that she uses very wistful themes and her videos contain a lot of her 50s/60s style. We loved her editing techniques which were a homemade video style and also the filters she uses which makes the video look like an old polaroid. We decided to research 50s icons and realised that Lana got a lot of inspiration for her style from Marilyn Monroe and we also liked the style of the 50s pin up Veronica Lake who was famous for how she styled her hair.
One video which inspired us was Gabrielle Aplin's video for 'Home'. Aplin is an indie-folk artist who uses rural areas in her videos with a lot of close ups and extreme close ups of her face while she mimes. We liked the idea that when the actress ran away in our video, it would be to a more natural place than her stylised house full of antiques and expensive furnishings. This is when we began to look at more videos and found the music video 'Flood' by Cheryl Cole. In the video, Cole is singing about the pain she is going through during problems with her lover and the setting is on a beach. We liked the interpretation that Cole had escaped to the beach to be free from her lover and the location is also natural. A beach setting would be a contrast to the Edwardian house and we decided that our actresses look and style would also become more natural and less glamorous. This signifies escapism and the artist leaving behind her boyfriend and the things she associates with him.
Below is a moodboard with images of artists and icons which inspired us:
Will you subvert/adhere to any theories?
1. Narrative Theory - Narrative is rarely complete and often fragmentary"..."therefore complete meanings/narratives don't exist"
Our promotional music video will adhere to this theory as there will not be a complete narrative throughout the whole video. Instead there will be fragments which suggest a narrative, helped by the lyrics. For example the narrative we have decided on for our video is about a girl who has an abusive boyfriend and she has just broken up with him or has decided to leave him. This is represented by her removing her jewellery (which could have been gifted by him) or by removing her glamorous makeup which she wore for her boyfriend. She will also escape to the beach away from her troubles so the narrative is hinted upon however the audience does not find out what happened between her and her boyfriend or what will happen when she returns home from the beach or whether she returns at all.
2. Binary Opposition
This theory by Strauss is adhered to in our music video because there are obvious contrasts during the video. This includes the actresses makeup/costume and the location. In the beginning of the video everything is very stylised, for example the makeup and hair are very glamorous and the costume is dressed up. The location of an Edwardian house is also stylised with antiques and expensive furniture. However towards the end of the video the actresses hair and makeup are more subtle and natural while the location of a beach is also more natural and contrasts the house. This opposition is meant to highlight how the girls boyfriend changed her or how she had to act like a different person while she was with him.
3. Laura Mulvey's Theory
The male gaze theory suggests that we are viewing the video through a mans eyes and the shots of female characters are there to please men. It also states that women are portrayed as either a "virgin or a whore". Our music video will subvert this theory as the video is about the girl escaping her boyfriend and her situation and becoming empowered, finally being who she wants to be without him. She is not presented as a sexual object or something for men to look at because she is upset during the beginning of the video and despite being styled to be glamorous, she is not purposely portrayed as being a 'virgin' or a 'whore'. However, there will be shots panning up and down her body and of an extreme close up of her mouth which could be thought of as sexualising the character and this could relate to the way her boyfriend thought of her.
We are filming in two locations. The first location is at Georgia's house and we decided to film here as part of our music video production because the style of rooms goes well with the 1950's theme we decided on. This includes the antique furniture and antiques we can use as props and it is also an Edwardian house which makes it a more interesting location than a modern home. It is also consistent with our theme of having a less modern look through out the video until the girls style change. There are specific rooms which we want film in and these include the living room, the hallway, conservatory and possibly the dining room which all are well lit for our filming.
The second location where we will be filming at will be Sutton on Sea beach and this is where the girl's costume changes. Her style evolves and she breaks free from the end of a troubled relationship. We think here will be an ideal area to film in because it represents her moving away from her troubles and also is a location with older style building which suits our theme.
Costume & Hair
We decided on a 50's theme for our music video and this is because our chosen song by Natalie Lungley sounds very similar to Lana Del Rey. Lana Del Rey is an indie/alternative artist who has created her unique style of modern clothing combined with hair and makeup from the 50s/60s eras. We were inspired by Lana's style which is mostly inspired by 1950s icons. In terms of the costume we will use the 50's style and the first outfit idea is for our actress to be wearing a white dress and black heeled shoes. Her hair and makeup will be styled in a very glamorous way suiting the Marilyn Monroe and Veronica Lake iconic looks from the 50s. We will curl Georgia's hair in a similar style and she will apply her makeup to look heavy and 'done up' similar to Marilyn Monroe's look.
Our second costume will change to make her style look more modern; we found an image of Lana Del Rey which inspired this look and it shows a slightly more rebellious look compared to the pure white dress before. She will be wearing black jeans, a leather jacket and her makeup will be a more modern style. It will represent our interpretation of the lyrics which is that she has an abusive boyfriend and she begins to remove her jewellery and heavy makeup which she wore for him to be more natural and modern.
Props
A lot of the main props we will use are already in Georgia's house and this includes the antique ornaments and furniture. We are also planning on using items of jewellery and a jewellery box where she will remove the jewellery and put it all away like she is closing a chapter of her life with an ex partner and moving on. We thought this would link effectively to the song since the song is called 'Gem' it has a clear reference. We may also be using the idea of 'a diamond in the rough' suggesting that the girl is escaping her boyfriend to be the person she wanted to be and who she really is. The furniture and ornaments match our theme of less modern styles even though they are not 50's. Props are not a huge part of our video as the video is more focussed on the actresses two different looks and the change of location. The actress will not be actively using any of the props accept from maybe applying red lipstick or using the mirror or props which are part of our chosen locations already. The images below are images of rooms and ornaments around Georgia's house that we will include in our music video.
