Final Music Video. This is Annihilation.

 

This is our final Product for the music video task. We have looked closely at codes and conventions of heavy metal music as well as how to brand a band. We also included credits and a TV stations logo.

Ancillary Task 1. Album Pack.

Front

Inside Front

Inside Back.

Disc Design.

Back.

This is the final design for the ancillary task 1- album pack.

The design includes the front cover that depicts an ancient, thorn like tree that is in flames with the band's name and album title. We also included a parental advisory label as some of the tracks contain swear words. For the inside front and back the design continues with black and white drawings of a guitar, drum stick and microphone which represent the band. Theses objects are being covered with thorn like branches that are similar to the tree design. These pages have no text on them as it was not necessary and there was no information to be placed there. For the CD design we kept it simple with a grey coloured background and a darker grey coloured capital 'R' that looks like a water mark. Finally on the back cover there is a drawing of a pocket watch which appears in our music video. This is also covered in thorn like branches. The back also has the nine album songs, a barcode, record company logo, contact details and copyright details.
The overall colour scheme for the album cover consists of black, grey, white and a dark green. This meets the codes and conventions of similar products as they are dark colours that connotes a dark and evil atmosphere which is also represented through the sound of the music. These colours also help with our overall theme of apocalypse and destruction. Finally the typography of the font we used for the album cover also keeps to the codes and conventions of the metal genre as they are Gothic or have very strong, sharp strokes.

Overall I am very happy with the design of the album cover as it is eye catching, has the theme that we wanted to create, whilst still having the correct information and overall conventions that makes it a metal genre product.

Ancillary Task 2. Magazine Advert.

This is the magazine advert promoting the album. It shows the album cover design. Then for promoting the album we have included the band's name, the album name. We have also included the release date and where to pre-order the album. It also shows a review of the album which helps grab audiences attention. The overall colour scheme of the advert is the same as the album cover with dark colours and white font. The typography that we used is the same font that we used for the back of the album. We did this so that it matches the album cover. Additional information that we put on the advert is also the record company and contact details. We did consider putting gig dates onto the advert as this is quite common for metal adverts, however we decided against it as it would ruin the overall layout of the product and we wanted to sell the album and not a tour. 

Overall I am really happy with this magazine advert because it is affective and looks this like a real advert. I also feel that we met the codes and conventions of a real magazine advert as well as the codes and conventions of a metal genre advert.

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgYL4fz-V_I

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

http://prezi.com/siwrb0-zf2xx/how-effective-is-the-combination-of-your-main-product-and-ancillary-texts/?kw=view-siwrb0-zf2xx&rc=ref-14428493

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience Feedback 1:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kljrY29K1MM
Audience Feedback 2:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTlm2p4gVvI
Audience Feedback 3:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlCy1tI4UIo

Our questionnaire and answers.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/analyze/?survey_id=39603619

From listening at our audiences feedback I can see that we have created a music video that is very clear on the type of genre, which we are told can be seen through the mise-en-scene of costume and lighting and of course sound. Most of the audience understood the narrative of the video to an extent and we can see that some got a little confused or found the narrative repetitive and boring. The audience have told us that the overall locations used are strong as well as the cutting to the tempo of the music. To improve on the video we have also been told that we should consider using different camera shots and should have had less performance of the band. Overall the rating was very good with a 50% rating for good and a compared to a 6.25% rating on not great and from this I feel that we have targeted and created a strong audience. 

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

Throughout the whole process of creating my music video and ancillary task I have used many new media technologies that have helped record, research and produce the final piece. One of the most useful pieces of technologies has been the internet. This helped with finding an artist to use and social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter came in use for contacting the artist to ask for permission to use a song. This was a great leaning tool as I had to think of an appropriate way of addressing the band. The internet also allowed me to use websites such as Youtube and Reverbnation. These sites helped me gather research into the codes and conventions of the genre of music that my chosen artists belonged to as well as helping me to find and chose a song to make the music video for. Finally the internet allowed me to use blogging to help me document the creative processes that I have gone through to reach the end product.

For the making of the video and ancillary tasks I began to use more hardware and software technologies. With this I started off by using smart phones and HD cameras to film test shots and later to film the actual footage for the video. The use of the HD cameras allowed me to work with mics and setting up the right shot and camera angel to create the right effect for the video as well as producing good quality footage.

For the post production stage I used the software Final Cut Pro on the Apple Macs. This software is used in the actual media industry and I found this useful as I gained a great amount of knowledge about the challenges of editing whilst creating a video that could be up to industry quality. With this software I learnt techniques such as creating lighting effects like strobing, altering the colour to create a more dramatic atmosphere and using simple cuts and transitions. I also found it useful and easier for cutting the footage and placing on the timeline in time with the pace and tempo of our chosen song compared to other software.

Finally I used Adobe Photoshop to make alterations to the images used for my ancillary tasks. I used this software to crop images as well as altering contrast and colour saturation. This was a very useful tool to have as it helped to create a final product that met the codes and conventions of similar media products.

Research and Planning- Adverts VS Album cover.

To get an understanding on what to put on our magazine advert we have compared and contrasted the difference between album covers and album adverts. An example I have chosen is for the album 'Dead Set On Living' by the hardcore metal band 'Cancer Bats'.

The only information presented on the album cover is the band's name, album name and logo.

Where as on the album advert to the right it has all of the above as well as the release date, names of the hit singles and fine print including contact details, record label and store names to buy the album.
Some extra information that can be found on a magazine album could be critics reviews of the album and gig dates for a tour to promote the album. This is defiantly common for the metal genre and we will consider including this on our advert. 

The reason for not having these details on the front of the album cover is because this information can be found on the back page of the CD, whereas an advert or poster does not have a back. It also means that the information is easily obtainable for the audience.

Looking at this is useful as I know what information to include or not include for the Ancillary tasks.

Further editing to music video.

In lesson today we added some little details to our music video which makes it look more professional. The first change we made was add a small logo in the top left hand corner. The logo we used was the 'Scuzz TV' logo. We used this logo because we feel that our kind of music video and the genre of the song would most likely be shown on this TV channel.

The second aspect that we added was credits at the beginning of the video. The credits read the band's name, the song title and the record company. We have done this because it is a common thing that you see on music channels as audience need to know the artists of the song, the name of the song and if they want to do further research they can look up the band on the record company's website.

We have decided to use the record company 'Nuclear Blast'. This is because they are a record company purely for metal bands and the sub-genres of metal. We also decided to use them because they are already the record company for bands that have a similar sound to Ravenface's music. 

Research and Planning- Finding a suitable font for the ancillary.

After planning the design for our album cover I have started to look at possible typography fonts. A site that i found useful for this was cool text which converts text into a chosen font. After trying several designs i found that the following two worked best. This was because they met the codes and conventions for the metal genre and worked with the overall design of the the cover.

From these basic templates for font I will draw them onto the design. This is because using font from the computer would brake up the design and make it look amateur. However on the back cover I have found a suitable font for the song titles. This will not be drawn on.

Research and Planning- Designing Ancillary.

After looking at examples of album cover designs we have made a plan of what we shall do for our own cover. For this we took into consideration the codes and conventions of other metal album cover products such as Gothic typography, dark colours and a theme. We also used iconography from our music video in our design with the image of the pocket watch and hinting to the presence of the band members by showing instruments.

Research and Planning- Analysis of Ravenface's typography.

This is Ravenface's existing typography. The overall font height is made up of capital letters. The arms on the letter 'E' is of all the same length and there are no sharp strokes on the 'N'. This creates an overall simple font which is quite different from the conventions of a metal band's typography because usually they have a Gothic font. However this font creates a very bold and strong feel which is very typical within the metal conventions as the music overall is very powerful. The white colour of the font is contrasted against the black background. These colours are very common for this genre as they are simple but dark. What makes the typography interesting is the way that the letters fade in some areas. This can meet some of the codes and conventions of the metal genre as it could connote old, weathered and decaying objects. This meets the conventions of a Gothic font as Gothic is associated with older things.

Looking at Ravenface's typography has been useful as it gives me an idea of the type of font that we should look at for our album cover design.

Research and Planning- Typography.

Typography is the technique of 'arranging type in order to make a language visible' as well as the appearance of the type.  To begin with my group had to decide on a common type that is used with in the metal genre. We decide on this type:-

 

This was because it was a Gothic font that connotes old or a scary atmosphere. We also decided that the Capital font would not be used much as it is to bold and a lot of  metal album cover fonts are subtle compared to the imagery. We were also given this sheet which shows the typography names for the style of font. Typography is important in establishing iconography and brand as there are the codes and conventions of each genre that audience look for when buying an album.

 

 

Next we started to design a font that we could use for our album cover. As I had already started to design this earlier on I developed the designs.

Then using the technical terms that we learnt in this lesson we wrote a quick overview of the design. :-
The use of red colours connotes blood and anger as well as fire, which corresponds with our theme of apocalypse and also with the codes and conventions of the metal genre.  The serifs on the letters make it seem classic and Gothic, handwritten and script like which again keeps to the codes and conventions of the type on other metal album covers.

This design is a development from some font that i used in a previous design. After looking at it we decided that is had quite an Oriental feel to it which we liked. It also keeps to the codes and conventions of the metal genre as it has a script like feel with pointed serifs, stems and strokes.

Research and Planning:- Iconography and branding of my chosen artist.

Another useful thing that I have looked at in preparation for creating my album cover is looking at iconography and branding. Iconography is studying the description and layout of images and interpretation what the effect or meaning is of these images. This is very important for making an album cover because if there is an image on the album that is completely unrelated to the theme then the audience will be confused and will most likely not but the product.

Branding is also important because you have to make sure that you are selling the artist to the audience. Branding is the "name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that identifies one seller's good and distinguishes them from other sellers."

To help visualise the branding of my chosen band I made a collage of their existing image. Ravenface's existing branding consists of mostly dark colours with a feather motif and their name in bold, Gothic font.

For our branding that we are going to have on our album cover we have decided to not use a feather motif as we do not want to copy the bands existing logo. Instead we are using a Gothic font of the band's name and from developing iconography from our music video we have decided to have a repeated image of twisted, dark tree branches with a watch that was shown in the video. This is because our theme that we wanted to depict was the 'annihilation' of the world and running against time.

Research and Planning- Conventions of my chosen genre in the album cover.

As we are creating an album cover for our music video I have looked at the codes and conventions that are shown on other artists albums within the metal genre. The most common conventions are:-

• Gothic/ Old text.
• Dark iconography such as skulls, pentagrams and blood.
• Colours suck as black, dark green, red, dark purple.
• Most has a very stylised design that is drawn.
• In some modern cases an image of the band.

To help me get a visual on the conventions in metal album covers I made a collage of other metal band's album covers. This is helpful for making my own album cover as I can see the overall layout of the covers and see how the bands have branded themselves through the covers, which are important factors that should be included on my album cover.

 

 After looking at these covers I have decided that I would like to have a drawn elemnet in the cover and am going to stay with using darker colours such as black, dark green and grey.  However I would like to include a more natural design instead of a very industrial image as the theme of our song is annihilation and apocolypse.



Creative Task- Magazine Advert.

In class today we have looked at making a magazine advert by looking at the branding of an artist. To start with we where shown a music video by 'The Courteeners'. The song title is 'Take Over the World'.

After watching the video for the second time we then had to write down ideas or iconography that was triggered from the video. We were also given dates that we had to include on a magazine advert that sells an upcoming gig for a new album. The dates and venues are as follows:-

• February 21st - Nottingham Rock City.
• February 22nd - Leeds O2 Academy.
• February 23rd - Birmingham O2 Academy.
• February 24th - Liverpool O2 Academy.
• February 25ht- Dundee Fat Sam's.

Whilst making the advert the group had to take into consideration the branding of the band and album and to make the poster draw in the audience. This was done by having similar bands touring with 'The Courteeners' and by naming the tour after the song we were shown. we also included a website for the audience to buy the tickets and used similar iconography to what was shown in the video. This is our advert:-

 

I found this exercise useful as it let me understand that audience and the branding of the band is really important for these adverts. I will apply what I have learnt from this for the album advert that we will make.

Looking back onto our first cut.

After looking back onto our first cut of our music video we have realized that in some areas of the footage our variety of shot distances and angles are not always in the appropriate place or do not convey the right image.  For example at 0:14, there is a shot of the guitarist strumming one note on his guitar. This is the first shot that the audience see of the band preforming the song and we feel this shot can be improved. As we have used Final Cut Pro to zoom in on this shot in post-production the shot is grainy, which ruins the quality of the video as other shots do not have this. We also used a straight on camera angle which doesn't look very dramatic and powerful, which is what we wanted. If we are able to re-shoot this clip we will use a lower angle to make the subject appear more dominant. This is also true for most of the band preforming shoots at 0:17, 0:23, 0:53, 1:00, 1:04, 1:13, 1:17, 1:37 and 2:06. At 0:39 the angle is okay, however it again has been zoomed in on in post production and this makes it too blurry. By re-shooting these shots we can make the music video more professional as a convention on metal music videos is to make the band look powerful and strong, which will be accomplished by changing some of the camera angles we have used to lower ones looking up at the band as this makes them appear bigger.

Another aspect we have chosen to focus on in more depth is the framing of shots, including and excluding elements as appropriate.Our main filming location was a car park. We used this location because of the stone walls and harsh lighting which created a desolate, disorientating effect. However through filming it was hard to keep out cars in the surrounding area out of the shot. This ruined the overall effect of the video as it looks like a low-budget film and the cars do not fit with the theme of the rest of the music video. So, at 0:49, 1:25 and 1:28 we have to re-shoot to make sure these cars are not included. Also at 1:06 there is a reflection of the cars in the bass drum, which is not obvious as the other car shots but ideally we would still re-film this as it is these small details that will make our video look professional.

In post production we also need to work on our mise-en-scene including colour, figure, lighting, props and setting. The main point that we need to focus on is the lighting. Due to filming at different times the lighting changes between shots and this makes it look jarring and draws the eye to the inaccuracies in colour instead of the shot itself, such as from 0:32-0:33 and 0:51-0:52. To change this we will edit it using Final Cut Pro. We will do this by using the colour corrector wheel and finding a suitable lighting level for all the shots, we will then transfer this over to all the performance aspects of the video so that all the shots have the same lighting and colour tones. This ill improve on the flow of the video and stop it from looking so displaced.

We also feel that we could improve using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set. This is because our song is of a heavy metal/metalcore genre and there are certain expectations that are to be met to attract a similar audience for similar products and as well as meeting the codes and conventions of this genre. Some of our shots, such as at 2:33, where there is a mushroom in harsh lighting and 2:34 where there is a teddy bear, don't match these conventions and expectations. Whilst originally we used theses shots for the narrative of our video we can now see that with the whole music video put together they do not match up with the rest of the mise-en-scene and this makes the audience confused and ask the wrong kind of questions. As they disrupt the flow of the video we have decided to simple remove them all together. But to do this we need to make sure we film more scenes to replace them.

Using a variety of shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the brief of this task is something that, overall we have done quite well. However we feel that we can still improve our music video by using these aspects even better. For example at 1:38 we use the effect 'blink' to create an almost strobe light effect on the video and we have decided to cut down on the length of this, from 2:05 onwards as we thought it was a bit too disorientating and took away the focus from the actual shots we were using. Finally we have also decided to us captions at the start or end of the music video saying the band name, song title and distributor as this will make it look more professional and will attract more audience viewings.

First Cut and Second Cut of Music Video.

We have now finished our first cut of our music video. Our first cut is a fully pieced together sequence.This includes a continuous sequence of clips of both performance and narrative that follow along with our chosen song. We have also used a blink effect on a section of the song and in the other video it has been shorten as we were told that the flashing was too long and disorientating. We also shorten the length of our song as the footage was beginning to get repetitive and we felt that the ending of the song was not needed. After doing looking at this final product we know that to improve it we need to schedule a couple of days of filming, both performance and narrative. We also need to re-do the lighting on the Mac and finally think about putting a burnt film/ old film effect on and adding a TV station logo and song title on. The most possible TV station that this video to be viewed on would either be Kerrang! or Scuzz TV.

Research and Planning- Narrative.

We have decided to slightly change our story’s narrative within our music video as at the moment it is quite complicated and not easy to follow. So far our narrative looks like our band running through a forest. We have developed our apocalypse theme by placing props in the wood location which hint to past lives and memories. We feel that these object also work well with the mood we want to create as some objects are quite represents something usually quite normal and we have given them a darker effect. For example the teddy bear can represent childhood and innocence however because the teddy bear we have used is dirty and abandoned it has begun to create a scary effect and can also pull on our audiences heart strings. These objects can engage our audience further as they begin to ask questions on how they got to that location and what meaning the objects have. However I also think that this is too complicated and we have also begun to explore the narrative of time. We are going this by slowing down footage and repeating the imagery of the pocket watch. I think this is a much more interesting narrative and it works well with our past theme of an apocalypse and previous footage.

Ancillary- Edited Photos.

 After filming on the weekend and taking photographs of the abandoned objects I have edited them to create a darker effect. To do this I used photoshop and converted each image into black and white. I then used the burn tool which darkens area. with this tool I darkened then background and some areas to create a dark frame around the object.