How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I feel the combination of my products is very effective, as I think they can be easily recognized as linked. One way this is achieved is through the fact that my music video, digipak and magazine advert all feature the artist, Poppy Power, with shots that are similar (e.g. we do not see Poppy styled completely differently in one product to another). This is because the main purpose is to build a brand identity for a new artist - after all, the music industry is a business.
For my ancillary products, I used similar design aspects in order to further establish my artist's image.
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During the production of our music video, we made sure to take a wide variety of photographs of the process, including ones that we could use for our ancillary products. This is because it is essential that there are clear visual links between our music video, digipak and advertisement. Therefore, we were thinking about this early on, even during our planning phase because we didn't want to have to resort to using low quality stills from the music video itself for our ancillary texts.
Take a look at my prezi below to see how my products link with each other.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our music video follows several aspects of Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin's theories on camerawork, editing, and structure. Goodwin observed that music videos do not present traditional narratives, which is true of our own video. Instead, our artist looks back at the camera as she lip-syncs for the majority of the song. However, one of our shots portrays Poppy running through the woods, which can be seen as her taking on the role of a character. This is another convention of media products - where the artist is seen as both the performer and character. Our video also relies heavily on repetition - whether its through our base tracks that appear throughout the video (e.g. projections, fairy lights) or recurring mise-en-scène (e.g. costume, make-up, location). Like Goodwin notes, our video also follows conventions in the way in which it builds to a climax, reflected through the fast cuts that build up towards the end of the song.
On the other hand, Vernallis believes that editing in music videos is much more frequent than other media, with many cuts that follows the rhythm of the track. This is true of our own video, since the majority of our cuts follow the instrumental. The rules of continuity editing are also definitely broken, with many different shots interlaced to the form our video. In addition, we have several obvious edits that are designed to draw attention, such as speed editing, which we played around with in our slow motion running scene, as well some of our projection shots, which enhance Poppy's movements whilst her lip syncing is still in time (see bottom left). Other obvious edits include one that we only used a single time in the entire video - a glow effect which matches the instrumental (see bottom right) - and the jump cuts we used early on that depict Poppy disappearing and appearing behind the trees.
We also drew inspiration from several music videos, many of which are by British female artists. I have blogged about this quite extensively before, for example in this blog post, but since our music video is now complete, I will go ahead and compare it to our sources of inspiration.
During the planning stages, we though quite extensively about existing music videos and how we could draw inspiration from them. The first prominent example we looked at and decided to have influence on our own work was Lifeline by Imogen Heap, which spawned two prominent base tracks, as well as a few other shots that made it into our music video. What we liked about the video was its use of a projector to display various imagery on the artist, and so we adapted this by having Poppy stand in front of our classroom whiteboard whilst we used the projector.
Above you can see a slideshow which depicts all of the different projections we used, which include an image and video, both of a wolf, that we sourced externally and decided on because of our song name's connotations ("Howl"). Whilst Lifeline influenced the content of our work, we also drew on its mise-en-scène - specifically the use of white face paint, although we opted to only use it around Poppy's eye area.
In addition, the video for Lovesick by Emily Osment further influenced our projection idea. Its highly stylized visuals instantly inspired us and we decided that, whilst we wouldn't be able to pull off something of the same calibre, we would try to replicate its eye-catching and abstract use of colour. The way in which we did this was to use a simple graphics painting program to "draw" over Poppy's face. Despite the simple way in which we produced this effect, we consider it just one of many shots of which we're proud of.
For our projection shots, we concentrated on mid-shots and close-ups of our artist, as both of the videos above also use these shot types. We additionally made this decision for practical reasons too, since we were shooting in front of a whiteboard. Because of this, the outcome wouldn't have been as effective if we used wide shots that made our shooting location evident, not to mention the fact that it is a convention of music videos to feature prominent close-ups of the artist.
Shots inspired by Dido
Next, we looked at several female artists that have used a woodland or forest setting in their videos. This is because this was the main location that we collectively visualised for our music video, and so I figured it would be helpful to research how other artists have implemented this setting. The videos that we looked at were by Leona Lewis, Kate Bush, iamamiwhoami and Dido, and they collectively inspired the overall feel we wanted to achieve by shooting in the woods. In addition, I previously talked about how of the four videos, Dido's Don't Leave Home was my favourite in terms of what we wanted to achieve with our own video. I talked about its effective use of slow motion and fast cuts, both of which we adapted. I also liked the overhead shot that is used in the video which depicts the artist laying on the ground (see below). This particular shot inspired several of our own, which you can see on the right.
However, this isn't the only shot in which we've taken inspiration from an existing music video. For example, we have a base track running throughout which consists of a close-up of Poppy's mouth as she lip-syncs. We have witnessed this kind of shot twice before, in the music videos for Imogen Heap's Lifeline and I Am Not A Robot by Marina & The Diamonds (see below).
Clockwise from top left: Imogen Heap, Marina & The Diamonds, Poppy Power
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Finally, whilst planning our music video, we made a conscious effort to not just copy Florence + the Machine's videos. However, it was inevitable that we would be influenced by the artist of our song choice. For example, it is fair to say that Poppy's performance in the video is influenced by Florence. An example of this is the gestures that she conveys whilst lip-syncing, such as putting her hands together as a symbol of prayer during the lyric: "A man who's pure of heart and says his prayers by night". This is similarly done in Florence's video for Drumming Song, when she sings: "I pray that the water will drown out the din".
Furthermore, the lighting in the video can be compared to that of Oh Land's for the song Heavy Eyes. Like our video, it uses a strobe-like effect, although the flashes are in a much quicker succession, that creates an eerie atmosphere. In addition, we used a spotlight for several of our shots. Heavy Eyes uses similar lighting achieved with what looks like a flashlight, again creating a dark atmosphere.
Because of all of these influences (see video below for a compilation) and our following Carol Vernallis and Andrew Goodwin's theories, it is clear that our music video develops the forms and conventions of real music videos.
For my ancillary work, I researched many different examples, drawing on existing digipaks and magazine advertisements I had at my disposal. My digipak was influenced predominantly by Bat For Lashes, who's digipak inspired me to produce a promotional slipcase, in addition to the digipak. Like this example, I chose a completely different image to the digipak for the slipcase, and created a sticker that is affixed to the front in order to advertise the digipak's features. The format of this is similar to that of Two Suns, as they both repeat the artist and album name, state that the album is a special edition version, and display a star rating from a review.
Clockwise from top left: Bat For Lashes - slipcase cover, Bat For Lashes - digipak cover, Poppy Power - digipak cover, Poppy Power - slipcase cover
All the panels of my digipak have a recurring dark theme, predominantly in terms of the background but also the shadowy photos I opted for, which is fitting for the album's title. This was influenced by albums such as Lights by Ellie Goulding and Bjork's Biophilia digipak. For my inside panels, I added a typographical design aspect inspired by the deluxe edition of Imogen Heap's Ellipse, and as a whole, my digipak is conventional in the fact that the artist is depicted on each panel, as the focus is on promoting her. However, whilst most albums tend to feature photos of the artist looking directly at the camera, my digipak does not. My choice in depicting Poppy looking away in an artistic manner is reinforced by the fact that neither Ellie Goulding nor Bjork maintain eye contact for their album covers. In fact, I've found that this kind of pose is actually quite common, or at least within the genre I'm working in, and is also adopted by Florence + The Machine on the cover for Ceremonials. Because of all of this, I believe my digipak does not challenge the conventions of real life examples.
Top: pages from the booklet of Imogen Heap's Ellipse, which depicts the album's song names in a "light graffiti" style. Bottom: the inside panels for Lights Out by Poppy Power.
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Finally, my magazine advertisement also follows the conventions of existing examples. Whilst producing it, I adopted a similar layout to that of I Blame Coco for their album, The Constant, whilst an advert for the digipak edition of Dark Horse by Nickelback informed me in deciding additional information to include. The latter also gave me the idea of including the cover art separately, or in my case, the slipcase cover art, which allowed me to use my digipak's image in big to advertise my artist.
In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
There are people in the media world who have certain theories or state that there are certain conventions most forms of media follow. An example of a theory is Laura Mulvey.
Laura Mulvey
She states that: "In a world of sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure which is styled accordingly."
Laura Mulvey has a theory in which she believes that currently, females are represented as a male fantasy in the media. She feels as if females are represented as more of an object for male audiences. Here is my interpretation of what she is saying: "In a world of sterotypical sexism, male and female representation is divided between dominance of males and sexulisation of females. Male fantasies are projected onto woman who fit these fantasies."
Carrol Vernallis
There are also people who believe that there are certain conventions media forms follow and an example of this is Carrol Vernallis. Carol Vernallis studied editing and camera work closely in music videos. She realised that edits in music videos are much more frequent than in film. She noticed that many current music videos stand out as disjuncture (Andrew Goodwin's theory) and that the editing in music videos seem to have a rhythmic basis closely connected to the song. Her findings are as follows:
What she had realised was that continuity was not an issue in music videos; the rules of continuity were not applied in music videos as broken shots of editing is used to draw attention to what is on screen.
Edits such as wipes and special effects were used in an obvious manner. This is because it draws attention to the music video itself as such obvious editing is not seen in film.
Jump cuts are often used and continually used. This is turn rules out the possibility of continuity as jump cuts jump from one scene to another often. This can relate to disjuncture as one shot can vary from another in jump cuts making no sense or relation to the song.
A master shot (also known as a base track) is frequently used in order to give the video some structure. A base track allows the editor to cut away back to this shot many times in order to make the video have some structure. This does not necessarily mean that the video will have a structured story or narrative to it.
The camera may move in time with the music. This can add a sense of connection to the audience as well as rhythm. While the camera moves to eat beat, the audience can relate to this as they too can move to the music along with the beat. This can also give the music video some structure as the audience can interpret where/how the camera is going to move in relation to the music.
Andrew Goodwin
Andrew Goodwin's theory states that mainstream music videos do not match and work with a traditional narrative structure like the one you would find in a TV drama. He feels that mainstream music videos are built around the songs and so does not pose the traditional narrative structure of normality, problem and in the end a resolution. This is where his theories of Illustration, Amplification and Disjuncture apply. Illustration is where the video tells the story of the lyrics through images on screen. Amplification is when the video on screen creates new meaning or adds new layers to the lyrics without being contradicting the lyrics, and Disjuncture is when there is little or no connection between the lyrics and the images on screen.
Having created a music video as well as associated ancillary products, I feel that overall my media products use, develop and also challenge forms of conventions of real media products. This is because at the initial stage of planning our music video, my group (consisting of me, Poppy, Charon and Nick) wanted to create something similar to conventional media conventions as well as challenge others through our own ideas. To gain some main ideas, we had to research and observe many different music videos within the same genre we were going to explore. Having decided to create a music video for the song Howl by Florence and the Machine, we began to assess what similar music videos contain within the same genre. As the song Howl did not have an original video to make any comparisons to in reference of our own ideas, we felt it was a great idea to exploit ideas which we have not seen yet as well as mimicking some other artists ideas.
An example of using a convention from a real media product which we became influenced by came from Emily Osment's music video Lovesick. This music video contains many unique forms of camerawork, edit and general mise en scene. What influenced us in this music video are the effects used on the artist. The projection effects of where random images and colours are projected onto the artists face influenced us heavily. We feel it is a relatively unique effect as each projection shot looks different from any other. This is because all the images projected on to the artist are different and therefore display a different effect. Below is an example from Emily Osment's music video Lovesick which had influenced us to use this convention within our own music video.
The colours projected onto the artist in this video was what had influenced us to implement the same idea within our music video. I felt the colours projected onto the artist had created a brilliant effect and presented a strong image. Although we didn't want to exactly copy this clip (in terms of the colour effects), we felt that as the colours presented a strong image, we can project our own images thus producing a strong effect in our own way. This clip influenced us heavily, however we wanted to develop the conventions of real media by producing our own projection shots and projecting images related to the lyrics of the song. We also wanted to project images which would give extra meaning towards the lyrics.
We also took inspiration from Imogen Heap's music video, Lifeline. This music video contains projection shots like Emily Osments's music video Lovesick, however, this video displays a different effect. Instead of just colours (like Emily Osment's video), Imogen Heap's video mainly displays videos or animated effects. Below are a few images showing an example of Imogen Heap's projection effect:
With these ideas in place, we made use of the projectors in the college classrooms and used the same media conventions as seen in the above real media music videos. In Emily Osment's Lovesick, there is a medium shot of the her in front of the projector. In our own music video, we had done the same thing; Poppy was placed in front of a projector and we were able to record the shots shown below. The shots below consist of medium shots and close ups.
As you can see, the shots we recorded in comparison to Emily Osment's Lovesick music video and Imogen Heap's Lifeline music video all vary in terms of the way the projector was used. Where Emily Osment's focused on colours and Imogen Heap's video focused on imagery, our video focused on both effects evenly. We displayed vivid colours within our projection shot as well as displaying videos and images onto Poppy herself. This I feel used real media conventions as well as challenging what real artists have implemented into their music videos. We took the best of both ideas and put it into our own video. Although we did not have the same equipment as professional music video producers, we used the general ideas from the music videos Lovesick and Lifeline to create a different effect from the both videos.
Both Imogen Heap and Emily Osment used various camera shots within their projection shots. However, as we were limited into the kind of shots we could use in our own projection shots, we could only use extreme close ups, close ups and mid-shots. We would have liked to record a few long shots, however, as the projector we used was in a fixed position and could not be moved, we could not record a mid/long shot with the whole projection filling up the screen. This would have been impractical and looked terrible in the final edit, so we stuck to the shots which we possible to do.
I did want to use real media conventions by creating a projection shot where the camera tracks the artists. However, with our limitations of the projector being in a fixed position, my group was not able to do this. The above clip from Imogen Heap's video Lifeline shows exactly what I wanted to do with the camera movement.
In terms on scenery, costume and mise en scene, we got direct influence from Florence and the Machine herself. After looking at her website and her various other videos, we felt that we should follow the artists conventions of the genre and stick to what Florence and the Machine would have created herself is she were to make an original video for our song, Howl.
The idea of scenery, costume and other things within the mise en scene came from Florence and the Machine's website and album cover, "Lungs". The dark setting yet simple layout on the artist's official website gave us the general idea of what type of lighting we would implement in our video.
The album cover led us to stick with the setting the artist showed in her album. A nature and forest filled music video was what we felt is the artists natural environment and felt the song we were creating a video for matched this setting. In her album cover, she is surrounded by flowers, (even the curtain behind her has a flower design) and this link with nature led us to recording our music video in the woods. Instead of challenging real media conventions here, we developed the ideas instead. For example, the costume Poppy is wearing in our music video was influenced by what the artist is wearing in her album cover.
As you can see, on the left is a shot from our music video while on the right is the real artists webpage. You can see from the dark colours in our music video on the left, we copied the same dark colour scheme as associated with Florence and the Machines website. We wanted to recreate something the real artist would be likely to create if they made an official music video for the song, Howl.
The forest and nature look in Florence and the Machine's album cover Lungs inspired us enough to record our music video within the same setting.
As you have noticed, Poppy is consistently looking at the camera in nearly every single shot she appears in. This follows Carol Vernallis' theory that in music videos, the artist consistently look directly at the camera, whereas in films, the people on screen do not. Carol Vernallis also, states that when creating music videos, base tracks are recorded in order to make editing easier. This was exactly what we had done in order easily pick the shots we want as shown below.
Overall I feel my music video fits into the amplification group within Andrew Goodwins theory. This is because, my music video does not contain shots which have absolutely nothing to do with the lyrics. They contain shots which add another layer to meaning to the lyrics. For example, the song itself is called Howl; in some shots of the music video, a wolf is shown in the background on a projector. This is to amplify and show extra meaning to the lyrics through visual images. I feel my music video does not fit into the illustration group of Andrew Goodwins theory as what is shown on screen is not showing the audience a story lyric by lyric. It is more showing the audience the emotions of the artist with certain lyrics linked to certain visuals, (e.g. chrous Howl is when a wolf is shown on screen).
In comparison to Laura Mulveys theory, her theory does not apply to our video. This is because Poppy, our artist in the music video was not shown in a provocative way or in a way which would imply she is "eye candy" to the male audience. This is because our song does not fit into that genre where this theory will apply. Laura Mulvey's theory more applies to pop, hip-hop and R'n'B where most women on screen are dressed in a revealing way. This is where Laura Mulvey's theory would apply showing where the women on screen shown to portray the male fantasy.
The two main designs both from Ellie Goulding which
had inspired me with my designs. I had also used a similar
font as I felt it would suit the design of my
digipak as mine would look similar to this.
For my ancillary work, I had looked at many different examples to see firstly what the main conventions of a digipak and advertisement have. Having created drawings based on our music video, I looked else where to see what needs to be added and what all/most digipaks and advertisements have in common in comparison to my designs. The digipak artwork which had inspired me greatly was the two digipak covers from Ellie Goulding. Both digipaks I feel had simple yet very effective designs which in turn inspired me to creating my own digipak with a slight similar design. This allowed me to develop upon the real media convention of Ellie Gouldings digipaks. I felt the glowing effects in both digipaks produced a great visual effect and this was what I had to implement into my work. The layout and format was simple and just worked, however the placement of the titles I felt would not suit the images my group had, and therefore decided the album name and artist would go better on the top right hand corner.
Initially I wanted to create a 5 panel digipak which meant I would have to design and create 10 separate panels (5 outside panels and 5 inside panels). However, after a bit more research, I found this design a bit too complicated and relatively unused in the media world. This would have been a great idea in challenging the conventions of real world media, as digipaks of this design are unusual an unique. But the images my group had were too limited to even attempt this sort of design.
A 5 panel digipak. Relatively unseen and highly uncommon. It would have been
great to explore and challenge conventional conventions if I did go ahead with this
digipak design.
After a bit more research, I had discovered that most digipak consisted of just 1 image filling up the whole panel, with a bit text and a little editing added to give it a polished look. This is what I had based my design on, however, with limited images I had at my disposal I had to put some work into making the image look easy on the eye rather than it being blurred and bland. The basic concept of using one image to fill up the panel is a general real world media convention most artists use in their digipaks, and I had followed this convention.
All of the panels on my digipak contain a recurring colour scheme. This is a colour scheme of black, red and gold. The reason I kept the colour scheme consistent throughout the design was because the overall design would link up and suited one-another. Also, real world media conventions mainly follow the same design style to keep things consistent within edit and make everything match up. This makes my digipak conventional as I felt challenging media conventions in this aspect of my digipak would make it not look like a digipak at all and would be the wrong thing to do. I also feel my digipak follows conventions of real media products by the way the artist is shown in every panel within my digipak to promote her as much as possible. The track list like nearly all digipaks is placed on the rear panel as this makes it easier for the user find the song they are looking instead of having to open the case. Relative copyright information as well as company logos and CD information are common on all digipaks as well as my own, thus meaning my digipak follows the typical conventions of real media products. A promotional sticker is seen on many digipaks which are trying to offer people something more than just a CD and this is why it is present on my digipak. It is seen as a way of convincing people to purchase the digipak instead of the normal CD and can be seen as a marketing strategy to lure customers into paying more for the digipak.
I have kept to the original design of most digipak designs where it only consists of 4 panels (2 front and 2 in side) as this is most common and suit all genres in music. The is the general layout of most conventional digipaks and would go well with the genre I have chosen. As I have used conventions of real media products in terms of style, design and layout, I do not feel as if my digipak has challenged the conventions of most digipaks.
On to my advertisement and yet again, inspiration came from Ellie Goulding's advert in which she is trying to promote her album, Lights. As you can see in the image below, there are similarities and differences between my design, and my inspiration. Both contain large images of the artist which is mainly done to promote the artist. However, Ellie Goulding's advert contains the same image as her album cover which is why her advert does not contain an image of the front of her digipak, whereas my advertisement does. Also in terms of similarities, both adverts have reviews from independent organisations. Although this can be seen as a conventional real media convention, not all advertisements have this, so I feel I have developed upon the idea by making it a main feature point on my advert. I had done this to promote the artist as when people see the reviews from top newspaper companies, they are more willing to trust their judgement and purchase the media product. Ellie Goulding however has decided to not make this a main feature on her advert, and has instead focused more on advertising herself and her image.
There a similarities and differences between both advertisements. Both feature a large image of the artist with reviews from independent organisations. While Ellie Goulding's advert focuses more on image, my advert focuses more on promoting the album as well as the artist.
My media product here does in some aspects challenge the conventions of real media products as it contains forms of edit like no other. For example, the way my advert contains not one, but two images of the artist blended together is not something usually seen in an advert as the artist likes to keep it simple. However, I challenged this convention of simple edit, layout and design by including two images of the artist as well as the album cover. This is to promote the artist as well as the product as much as possible which is something an artist never really does as they like to focus on one more than the other.
Above are examples of advertisements showing how certain conventions for an advert for different between various genres.
