First of all I produced a Prezi, in order to present the main dominant ideas and to include the inspirations that I have been affected by during the course of the planning and research and production. The Prezi includes an outline of what I had used, developed or challenged. I also included links to my Youtube Video, my digipak and my magazine advertisement, therefore I could refer to the production of these whilst explaining my decisions.
In terms of the digipak, I looked on the Bastille Official
Website for a source of information. This is where I found the Brits Logos and
the couple of iTunes advertisements, therefore I thought these would be
appropriate to add on, as they were featuring on the website, therefore they
must be official and effective. The colour of them also fitted in with the
colour scheme, therefore they were effective to apply onto the digipak. I
placed them both fairly small, as they are not as important as the other
conventions, such as the song titles or the image on the back cover, as this
was the conventional thing to do.
Also, on Rihanna’s digipak, I liked the way she had an extreme
close up with her eyes closed. Therefore, I applied this to my disc covers, as
I think it looked effective. I feel like it created a bond between the audience
and the cast members and audience. The fact she has her eyes closed also
symbolises that an ending to something has arrived. Therefore, this links in
with my music video, as I was trying to emphasise that the ending to the bad
lifestyle has arrived. Also, to create continuity I applied the same side
borders all along the digipak, I also took the side borders from one of the
drafts from my magazine posters, and therefore it allows them all to fit
together. On all the side borders that I have researched, it appeared that the
band name and the single title were the main aspects, therefore I made them quite
significant and large. Also, I followed the conventions of putting these pieces
of information on the side, as for example, when the digipak is stacked in the
shop, the artist and song title is clearly visible, as there is more chance
that the audience will recognise it, and be more likely to purchase it.
Also, the cocktail glasses and the clock were significant
parts of the music video, therefore I decided to add them onto the digipak, and
this way the audience can easily recognise these aspects from the video and
link them together. For example, within the script digipak, the hands of the
people involved were included and well as guitars, therefore I followed this
example of using existing conventions of digipak and used abstracts ideas. I
put these on the inside covers, as I did not think they were as important as
the other conventions, such as the photographs of the cast member on the front
cover for example. In terms of conventions, on digipaks the location is usually
used, for example as in the Katy Perry digipak. Therefore, I included a
photograph of the nightclub, as this was the location of the music video,
therefore the audience can immediately form a bond between the music video and
the accompanying ancillary texts.
I changed conventions when I was applying the effects to the
photographs as I rarely see this aspect used in digipaks, therefore it was
something different. When I was experimenting with different colouring and
lighting on Photoshop, I was able to look at different edits. I liked the look
of them, as I felt they looked effective, therefore I confidently applied them.
This was not based on existing conventions as I had not seen this previously,
therefore I had no inspiration to base it upon.
Also I had never seen the tripling of a photograph on the
front cover when I was researching digipaks during the planning and research
stages. It was once again based upon me experimenting with effects upon lots of
different drafts. When I decided upon duplicating the photograph three times, I
also experiment with adding different brightness and contrast to each
photograph, therefore I applied this and I felt it also fitted in with the rest
of the digipak and looked effective. The photograph also fits in with my
narrative as I desired, as it begins light and turns dark, suggesting there has
been some form of major change throughout the narrative.
In terms of the Music Video Magazine advertisement, I changed
conventions quite a lot. As I made the conscious decision to use the same cast
member throughout, I was attempting to create ideas that included both of these
different personas within one poster. Therefore, I decided I would merge their
faces together. This way the narrative would also fit together, as the two
people meet within the video, as their lives change. I also made changes to the
typical conventions that I had seen, for example within the Ellie Goulding
music poster, she has the same colour scheme and it is consistent throughout.
In terms of my poster, I didn’t use this technique, as I was merging two
different lifestyles together, I thought it would be appropriate to merge two
different colour schemes together too, to provide the audience with some
element of continuity.
In terms of following conventions, I had the social media
aspects included at the bottom of the page, as I have seen regularly when I
have been researching music magazine advertisements, therefore I decided it
would be sensible to apply the social media logos at the bottom of the page
with the name of the artist and how they appear on these networking sites, this
was a postmodern element and therefore it is very stereotypical to use this, as
the audience would initially already expect these conventions when they see a
music magazine advertisement. Also, I included another convention, as I
included a review from a well-established newspaper, this way the audience will
become larger as a popular newspaper has spoken of the song in a high and
appreciative way. This is a good convention to include, as again the audience
will expect to see this convention, as two media forms are merging together and
improving business for one another. Another unconventional aspect of the
magazine advertisement was that I expressed two different emotions on one page,
which was something I had not seen before, as on the left side the face is
upset and on the right side, more emotions of happiness are expressed,
therefore it directly expresses two different forms of emotions. This would
also contribute to the idea of ambiguity that I wanted to develop further.
I also followed conventions, as for example, within the Lana
Del Rey music magazine advertisement and the majority of the other magazine
advertisements that I have seen, had a close up of the most important person
within the video, sometimes it is the cast member and sometimes it is the
actual artist. Although, I thought this camera framing was extremely effective
for the size and measurements of the poster that I was dealing with and also
the outcome that I wanted to achieve of merging the two faces together,
therefore I used this aspect. It allowed me to split the page into two and also
allowed me to highlight the cast member as the convention with highest level of
importance on the magazine advertisement. Therefore, the audience will be able
to establish that she is the most memorable and important within the music
video, they are also more likely to remember the face, as I used techniques
such as direct address in terms of the cast members eye contact. I also
followed conventions, as when I was looking at music magazine advertisement
that other students had made and also existing music magazine advertisements, I
could see that applying a band across the bottom of the screen was very
conventional. But, it made the advertisement look neat and presentable, this
was also really good as it allowed me to put the text and information somewhere
and therefore it did not contrast directly onto the photographs that I was
using. I experimented with colouring and size with the band across the bottom
and after many drafts I finally decided on a design which I liked and thought
was appropriate to work in conjunction with the music video and the digipak.
In terms of the video, my idea stemmed from Ed Sheeran’s –
Give me Love video, where there was a poor girl and she had to find her way to
happiness somehow. My orginal idea was to have a poor girl who needed help and
then a boy came and rescued her, I pursued this idea continuously for a long
time, but I did not feel like it was interesting nor did it really fit what I
wanted to achieve in the end. It was also very conventional and had been done
many times before. Therefore, when I began filming I came up with the idea of
the contrast between a poor girl and rich girl, but the girl being the same
person. I wanted to convey the message that things can get better and life can
be massively improved. Therefore, this is how my ending idea was established
and developed further.
A major problem with my music video was lighting, as I
filmed some parts in the day and night and it was difficult to make them work
together, this was not very conventional as I have never seen this before, as
it did not look very effective. I used a range of camera shots throughout the
music, for example at the beginning of the music video when the feeling of the
video was sad, I used a lot of long, slow shots to reflect her mood, to support
this I also used close ups of her face to represent sadness and shots of her
full body to show the dirty and lack of respect she had for herself. This was illustrated
with the mise-en-scene of her living outside and having ripped and muddy
clothing. Whereas, in the second half of the video I used a wide range of fast
and short shots to show the rich party lifestyle that had been established. To
develop these conventions, I also used a dramatic change in colour scheme, as
the beginning was dull and dark and the ending was bright and colourful, as I
thought this illustrated the contrasting themes really well and supported my
ideas.
I did not follow conventions particularly with the music
video, as my aim was surround the video around love between a man and woman.
But instead I focused on the girls love for herself and how her life could be
dramatically changed if she realised this. I also did not follow conventions,
as I changed them, as I used words within the music video to help illustrate
what was occurring, for example when the person met the opposing side of
herself, I had the words “Let’s Unite” come up on the screen. I had never seen
this effect used within the genre of Alternative Rock, I had only seen it used
by the artist David Guetta in songs such as Bad, within the genre of Pop.
Therefore, I attempted to change this convention and use it within a different
genre. I enjoyed experimenting with different words as I felt like it
illustrated the images nicely and was a strange and peculiar aspect to include,
that would stimulate thought within the audience.
Also, the ending of the music video is much more dominant
and significant than the beginning of the video. The beginning focuses on the
stereotypical “damsel in distress” therefore, this is a very conventional
aspect and she turns rich and successful, and there is also a stereotypical
“happy ending”, therefore conventions of a narrative could be found in these
aspects. My narrative differed from this as in terms of timing I focused
predominantly on the happy aspects as not many music videos merge happiness and
sadness together in such a drastic and dramatic way. Although, I did changed
conventions slightly, as stereotypically in music videos with a narrative that
involve a “damsel in distress” followed by a “happy ending” usually include two
people, therefore I have differed slightly by deciding to have my cast member
playing the antagonist and the protagonist but with two different personas.
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