Florence & the Machine website analysis

Florence and the Machine has a very natural look. With red hair and pale skin which gives her a sort of appearence that could have been seen in the early 1900's as the ideal beauty. Personally, I think she has a beautiful face as well as voice, although there are arguments on what is attractive and if she 'cuts it.'

Her websites contains an organic atmosphere to it. With its natural sounds as well as lungs on the left hand side, hanging from worn out white ribbon. This lists the options to the websites such as; Gallery, Videos etc.. 

Overall, the main website has a very old fashioned look to it with some out of the blue images that move with the option of listening to her songs as you browse around the site. With the delight of the sound effects  and the small animations of some of the images that features in her site such as the lungs- which breath in and out, in a slow and calm manner. A butterfly that moves its wings from time to time, a red rose that withers and dies in animation and then falls off the screen. 

Even though, this is the main page- there is a very different style to her usual 'look' and presence when you take a look at the main page that promotes her new album 'Ceremonial.' 

This makes me look at the possibility that she is now abandoning the 'all natural' look and turning a bit more modern. Which would be a shame, since i thought she had such a unique idea with her videos and look. But I guess we'll just have to see. 

Blog of the week,

Congratulations group 31 - You are blog of the week!

Planning - Inspiration

Here are a few images which explore similar looks we are thinking of using to represent our artist.

The majority of the video will be set in the forest so I've been looking at the types of shots there are of current female artists in the woods and gaining influence from them

We want our artist to look natural and connote the idea that they're at one with nature. So these are definitely some potential shots we could use for our digipak or advertisement. I feel it conveys a sense of naturalism and suggests she makes Alternative pop music, as it sways from the stereotypical image of pop artists.
The images I have taken off the internet are of Leona Lewis and Fergie, one image conveying quite a bright atmosphere, connoting a sense of purity and freshness whereas with Leona Lewis its quite dark and sinister, her surrounding and costume. This can suggest the meaning of the song, we are thinking of maybe mixing these two themes into our video, whereby some shots are during the day and others at night to show the animal like/wild side of the artist.

Here is a video by Emily Osment, whereby the lighting
is bright and projected onto her face.

We are thinking of ideas as to how to incorporate this idea
into our own video.

Another two videos we've been looking at for inspirations is:

Alex Winston - Velvet Elvis 
This video uses a special effect through editing whereby the artists physical movements are quicker then her singing so it looks quite distorted and interesting. This is an effect we've definitely been looking into a way of creating this effect, as it will suit our video and the disjuncture we are trying to convey.








In this video Somewhere over the Rainbow - Tara Busche the artist records herself singing the song backwards and plays it whereby it sounds perfect when reverses. Although quite complicated, we are definitely willing to try this kind of effect during one of our chorus' and if we pull it off it will be even better!

Planning - Artists Website

During the research I've been doing I looked at the website for the original artist of the song Howl - Florence and the Machine.
The first thing I noticed when looking at this webpage was the landing page that came up first, before taking me to the homepage. This is a great way for the artist to promote herself, there are three big pictures of the artist in the middle of the page; assuming this is the cover of the artists upcoming album Ceremonials. This helps to promote the artist straight away as it advertises her new album and gives details and dates of an Exclusive Album launch live stream which is a way for the artist to connect to her fans and promote her music. The background of the landing page is black and the title of the artist is at the front. in big, grey, curly joint up writing. The font suggests the type of artist she is, quite alternate and different pop. The repetition of the artists picture is reinforcing herself and to continuously promote her and she is seen from many different angles on just the landing page before her actual homepage. The big image also makes it clear to the fans (who are most probably clear to this) I reminder of who she is and how good she looks in this picture! The same album image is used to link her to the album and continuously promote it to her fans and the buyers of her music.

On the homepage of the website there is the same picture (repetition constantly links the artist to her upcoming album) and there are faded images of her in the background too. The font is the same and black background makes the artist (who is pictures in colour and white to contrast the back) stand out the most on the page, thus promoting her. The artist is looking sophisticated in a silver shimmery v neck dress, with her hair out of her face and her eyes closed. Her body language is quite relaxed yet her arm is positioned across her body giving off timid and self conscious connotations. This conveys the type of artist she is, she is not bold, sexy and pictured as confident and powerful. Instead she is pictured shyly and as though she is day dreaming or resting; which connotes her alternative style rather than the bold RnB and Pop artists. As well we the 'grungy,dirty looking' rock artists.

Here are three images of the sort of things features on the artists webpage. At the top there are several links to pages like:

• Gallery - a constant supply of updated images of the artists to entice fans
• Videos - includes videos from her previous album and interviews etc to give the artists
• Members - a place which gives special offers to members who subscribe to the website
• Signup - a chance for new or old fans to sign up to membership at the website
• Live - live talks between fans, so they can share music and continue to promote the artist globally
• Flotique - (play on words makes it more memorable and personalised) artists merchandise to continuously promote her.

Also on the homepage is an embedded video of the artists latest single off her new album. The song automatically plays when you go on the website which ensures that every fan who clicks on her page (with sound!) will have access to the song. There is also an interactive blog which links to social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook which enables another way for the artists to interact with the music on the website. It is also an easier way to reach its audience, as social networking sites and internet are on the go with most phones and gadgets nowadays. There are also images from the artists debut album Lungs which features the popular tracks she was recognised by. Reference to this in the updated version of the website of her new album will remind her fans of her previous album, the type of music it is and this is entice them to purchase her knew album and possibly even sign up to the website!

http://www.florenceandthemachine.net/index - a link to her website.

Planning - The Pitch

Today we were supposed to present the pitch for our music video. However, our lesson had to be cancelled due to a burst pipe or something or other flooding the college! Anyhow, below you can see each slide from our presentation, and hopefully we'll be able to present next lesson.

 

Planning - Location Permission

We have contacted Abney Park requesting permission to film in the woodland and chapel. Below you can see the message Nick sent on behalf of the group.

Hello,

My name is Nick Bor and I'm writing on behalf of my A-Level Media Studies group, as we are interested in using Abney Park as a filming location for our music video project. Besides the general woodland location itself, we would particularly like to film in the chapel, which we think would look great in our music video. We want to start filming sometime next week for a day long shoot, so a quick response will be much appreciated.

Thank you!

Planning - Test Shots of Performer

 
We have decided that Poppy will be the performer in our music video for several reasons. For one, we know she'll be more reliable than someone from outside our group as they wouldn't be committed to our project or necessarily care about the success of it. Poppy also doesn't mind being on camera, which is a plus, and she knows all the lyrics to the song we've chosen. We will be retaining Poppy's real name for the artist as we feel it's a fitting and memorable one. Below you can see a few photos taken of her to act as our test shots (in addition to those taken for our projection practice).

"Starts so soft and sweet and turns them to hunters"

 

"You are the moon that breaks the night for which I have to howl"

"I hunt for you with bloodied feet across the hallowed ground"

Photography by Diana Evans-Baker

Planning - Audience Profile

We have created a profile for an example of a member from our music video's target audience. Above you can see a college comprising of their lifestyle, hobbies, and interests. Below, you can see a more detailed description of our audience member.

• Name: Hannah Welch
• Age: 20
• Ethnicity: English with Italian heritage
• Is studying Fine Art at Greenwich University, resides on Avery Campus in London
• Occupation: works at a bar part-time
• Shops at Sainsbury’s and Iceland
• Travels by train and shuttle bus
• Reads the Evening Standard and Vogue Magazine
• Gadgets she owns include iPhone, iPad and Kindle e-reader
• Hobbies include painting, photography and writing poetry
• Favourite brand: Converse
• Shops for clothes at Topshop
• Favourite beverages: Pimm's and Starbucks Vanilla Latte
• Would love to go on holiday to Thailand and Tokyo
• The genre of music that our artist falls under appeals to Hannah as she feels she can relate to our artist's positive portrayal of women and enjoys music that has meaningful lyrics
• Hannah can be classed as a succeeder as her parents have a substantial amount of money, but she has no desire for status symbols. She is independent and knows what she wants to do with her life.

Planning - Animatic

Above you can see the animatic we produced, consisting of a mixture of our storyboard sketches done by Poppy and photographs taken with a toy figure. We tried to reflect the kind of cuts we would use for our music video by keeping the shots in time with the track, and used images from our chosen locations in the background.

Planning - Original Artist's Website

Today I will be looking at the artist of our chosen song's website, which you can see here.

As soon as we access the site, we are taken to a landing page designed to promote Florence and the Machine's upcoming album, Ceremonials. As a fan of this artist, I am quite familiar with the website, and so when I visited the site today I instantly noticed that the design had changed. The embedded video of her new single (Shake It Out), the dark background coupled with an image of Florence Welch taking up half of the page, and the title showing the album name all tell me that Florence has a new album coming out, and so the website has been redesigned to reflect a new era for her music.

Landing page

The aforementioned elements of this landing page are all important. The large image of Florence has been designed to give the visitor a face behind the music. An image from a recent photo shoot has been used (i.e. not an old image used to promote her debut album, Lungs) which is significant as returning fans wouldn't want to see the same old photos. The new image portrays Welch in a relatively new style to represent the new album and that it is a development from her previous release. This is clear as the artwork for her upcoming album uses this same image. This repetition isn't a coincidence - it's so that the public are able to recognise Florence, whether it's seeing her CD on a shelf in a music store (or the cover art in a digital music store such as iTunes) or advertising such as billboards, flyers, etc.

Repetition of artist imagery

Another important aspect is the embedded music video for her new single. This acts as a starting point for visitors that aren't necessarily fans to get a taste of her music. The fact that this is the lead single of her upcoming album is important as it has been chosen specifically to promote the new record. The music video backs it up, and by viewing it you can tell that it fits in with the overall dark yet classy theme of the site. Below the music video, there are four different links that enable you to pre-order Ceremonials - two from iTunes (standard and deluxe editions), one from Amazon and the other from the 'Flotique' (i.e. Florence' online store), the latter of which advertises the fact that a limited edition poster is available alongside the physical CD. This is to entice the purchaser into ordering a slightly more expensive copy straight from the site, and rewarding them with a 'limited edition' bonus.

Finally, an announcement stating that an 'exclusive album launch show' (in capital letters) will take place soon, for which tickets will be available, is also shown. This one-off  gig ("the only chance to see Florence in the UK this year") again acts as promotion for the new album.

Homepage

Once we navigate to the main site, we are greeted with the previous image of
Florence again (more repetition), the latest

"What the Water Gave Me"

news and blog posts regarding the artist, and another embedded music video at the bottom of the page. The latter is interesting as it is set to auto-play as soon as you load the site. The song in question is What the Water Gave Me, which is a promo single from the new album. Also on the page is a Twitter feed from Forence herself, which is significant as use of social media has pretty much become a requirement of musicians in this day and age. This allows artists to easily communicate with fans, and is a great promotional tool.

A couple of Welch's latest messages to fans, illustrating the marketing potential of social media. These 'tweets', which respectively invites fans to watch her new music video and buy the single from iTunes, appeared in over 80,000 people's Twitter feeds (at time of writing, she has 86,109 'followers').

Underneath the Twitter feed is a 'Featured Items' section promoting Florence's official merchandise - artists are increasingly relying on selling products besides music (along with tickets to see the artist live) to earn revenue due to the rise of music piracy.

Several links are present on the homepage, including separate pages for the latest news concerning Florence and the Machine and blog posts from Welch. There is also an 'about' page, detailing Florence as a performer and artist, her music, and everything in between. A 'media' page is present, which contains information regarding Florence's music releases and where they are available for purchase. Video and gallery pages serve as visual entertainment for the visitors, whilst the link labelled as 'live' leads to a list of upcoming gigs that fans can buy tickets for. In addition, a forum is available which encourages fans to actively engage with other fans, forming a community around the discussion of all things Florence.

The website hierarchy, so-to-speak, has been thought out very carefully. The opening page is specifically designed to promote the artist's latest album, single, and gig, whilst the homepage is a bit more general yet still concentrating on the new album. The links then acts as a gateway for older releases, information, etc, with these pages keeping the 'old' theme that represents the Lungs (debut album) era.

A yet-to-be redesigned section of the website

It is fair to say that this site uses multimedia very well, with the media players alone serving as engaging features. On every link from the homepage there is a music player that auto-plays music from Florence's first album. On the landing and home page there are songs from her new album in the form of music videos. Thus, you can play the artist's tracks from virtually every page of the website, which is really clever as it is exposing the visitor to their music as much as possible during their visit.

On the video page, an embedded player is present that allows the visitor to also view all of Florence's music videos, in addition to footage of live performances, "in the studio" features, and short films narrated by Welch herself. Whilst Florence and the Machine are technically a band, it is clear that emphasis is placed on Florence as the performer and image of the band. It is also evident that their website is a successful one that acts as a hub of latest information and media, which is bound to keep new fans exploring for more than just a couple of minutes.

PLANNING: Artist's Website Analysis

Front Page of the website.

Here is the front page of the website for the artist Florence and the Machine. Straight away the audience is presented with a huge image of the artist against a black background. The image of the artist is deliberately shown to promote herself to whoever visits the webpage. I initially didn't really know what the artist actually looked like until I visited the website itself. Now, after seeing the front page, I know exactly who Florence and the Machine is and what they look like, and this is what their aim is. The huge image of the artist on the front page of the website is there to basically show who she is and who Florence and the Machine is. Against the black background, the artist really stands out with the reflection of her showing both sides of her face as well as the back of her head. This is so we can see what she looks like from every angle. Its a very cleverly thought out image to present/promote the brand, of which it is artist them self. 

To the left of the front page, there is a music video of her latest song, Shake it Out. The main reason this is shown there is to yet again promote the music video as it is one of the first things people will see when they first visit the site. The main reason it is there is so her latest content is shown directly to the audience, thus advertising her music and herself. To the top right of the front page, there is a little button which says "Click for Main Site". This tells me that the objective of the front page is to just promote the artist and her music to the audience, and do nothing more. This is because if you want to find out more, then you can visit the homepage of the website where there will be much more info.

Home Page of the website.

Moving on to the main page of the website and straight away we can see there is a menu of links to navigate around the site. This was not evident on the front page of the website as its soul purpose was to just promote the artist and her latest music, which is why there was an option to continue to the full site if you wanted to know more. The fact that there are links such as Media, Video, Gallery and Live show that the artist is trying to give their fans as much content of them as possible with various ways of accessing it. Yet again on the homepage we can see a large image of the artist so we know who she is and what she looks like as an audience. We can also see News and Blog section which is trying to show the audience the latest information about the artist. This can include news telling the audience about her latest album releases or tours she may be going on. This is yet again trying advertise herself and her work.

As soon as you go on the main page of the website, one of the artists music videos automatically begin playing. I personally find this very annoying as, if I want to watch a video, I would go and search for what I want to watch, then view it. However, the reason the music video automatically plays when you go onto the home page is because the artist is trying to share her music with you. By automatically playing, I as the audience am forced to scroll down and pause it. However even doing this is giving the artist attention from me which is what they want, as I will at least see the name of the song playing while I'm pausing the video, thus advertising the artist's music. If I don't do nothing about the video, the music will just play until it is done, which in a way is the artist forcing their music upon me. The fact that the music video is placed at the very bottom of the homepage is very clever, as it allows me to see all the other content they have on that webpage before I get to the video. This is a very good method in which to show her content as much as possible to any person visiting the Florence and the Machine website.

Florence and the Machine Website

PLANNING: Analysis of Original Music Video

Currently, there is no official music video for the song, Howl by Florence and the Machine. This may be because the song had already seen success in the music charts. A music video's main purpose is to promote the artist as well as the song. Yet, this song was able to get over 2.3 million views on Youtube with just her album cover for people to look at while the song is being played.

I believe that a music video was not created as the artist felt it was unnecessary to create a music video if the song itself has already become a hit. When my group first mentioned to use this song in our music video, I had no idea what the song was. But until I actually heard the track, I instantly recognised what song it was as I had heard it before (even though I didn't know the name of it). Florence and the Machine is not an artist I personally listen to, however, the fact that I had heard this song multiple times before even though I do not listen to the artist's music at all shows how mainstream this song is.

However, a music video may not have been created for this song as the artist may of thought there is nothing extra they can show on screen that the artist hasn't made the audience visualise in their heads while listening to this song. The fact that you can listen to the song with such powerful lyrics alone shows that a music video may not capture the concept they were trying to perceive, as everyone can relate to the emotions the artist is trying to convey in the lyrics.

Planning - Abney Park

Today Nick visited Abney Park (one of our potential locations) on behalf of the group and took some photos, which you can view below.

Planning - Visiting Potential Locations

Yesterday, Nick, Mustafa and Poppy (Charon could not attend in this instance as she had work commitments) visited two potential filming locations. Originally, the plan was to meet at Highgate and have a look around Parkland Walk, before heading to Abney Park. However, Queen's Wood was close-by so we went there first. We really liked the feel of this location and could potentially look even better at night or dawn. Afterwards, we had a look through Parkland Walk, which is a a 4.5 mile walkway. Whilst it was enjoyable, we weren't as inspired by this location compared to the woodland, but we will definitely consider filming a few shots here, possibly for the running scenes.

Below you can see a quick video slideshow that Nick created from the photos he took.

Planning - Analysis of Influential Music Videos

During the planning stage we have been looking at many music videos from female vocalists similar to the original artist of our song choice. We have blogged about some of these before, but here is my shortlist of videos that have influenced us, along with explanations of what kind of ideas we have taken away from them.

First of all, we talked about incorporating a forest/woodland setting very early on in our planning. I went on to research videos from female artists that have used this kind of setting before, and shared my findings with my group via Facebook, which included videos from Kate Bush, Leona Lewis, and iamamiwhoami.

But my favourite that I found has to be Don't Leave Home by Dido. The cuts in this video are fast-paced, which contrast with the song's slower tempo. This works well in giving the video a quick and snappy feel which flows from one scene to the next. In our video, we will want to replicate this kind of editing, including the use of slow motion and jump cuts. The mise-en-scène is of a high standard for all four videos, but particularly that of Don't Leave Home as you can tell that a lot of thought and planning has been put into it. The shadowy lighting, costume, and props such as candles, are what we hope to replicate for our own video.  In our music video, we will definitely be attempting to show a contrast between night and day, which can be seen in three out of these four videos. All four of the performers can also be seen wearing some form of dress, which we are considering for Poppy's costume. Below, you can watch a video compilation I edited together outlining these, as well as other, features that I found particularly effective.



As part of the mise-en-scène and artist image, we have also been looking at make-up inspired by artist Bat for Lashes, particularly from her video Daniel...

Poppy's make-up experimentation

We will be adapting this by possibly using food colouring (although we're worried this might not come off easily) or watercolour paint (we'll have to make sure to apply it carefully). We'll be sure to use mid-shots, as shown in the original music video, as well as close-ups, for the scenes with this style of make-up. Poppy has additionally been experimenting with her own make-up, as shown on the right.

Finally, as we blogged about before, we were inspired by the music video for Imogen Heap's Lifeline (as well as Lovesick by Emily Osment, although this style looks much harder to reproduce and heavily edited). In addition to the concept of projecting footage onto the artist, we would again use a mixture of mid-shots and close-ups, as any wider angles wouldn't be as effective.

A few sequences from the Lovesick music video:

 

 

Finally, Alex Winston's music video for Velvet Elvis was one that stuck out for me ever since the beginning of my research. The editing in it is fast-paced, in-time with the track, and really exciting to watch. During the chorus (which portrays Andrew Goodwin's theory through repetitive elements), the speed of Winston's body movements are obviously edited in places, with her lip-syncing not being affected at all. This inspired me into suggesting the following idea to our group: we take our chosen music track, slow it down by half, and then film a base track of lip-syncing to it. Afterwards, once we edit, we will take the footage and double the speed up, meaning the lip syncing will be in time with the track whilst the performer's movements will be abnormally fast! I think this could be a really interested effect, and so I briefly tested it out by recording myself lip-syncing and following the aforementioned steps (unfortunately, there is no way that I will allow this video to see the light of day, sorry!) The result was pretty creepy, especially at one point where I suddenly got up out of my chair. I feel this editing effect will be fitting for our music video and we plan on implementing this in the setting of Abney Park's chapel.