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

Our current project was based on the development and making of a music promo and two other additional related promotional materials, as a means of advertising the song and artist. We chose an unsigned, new artist, and chose one of his/her songs to base our project around. We had to choose one of the artist’s songs, which we used to create a music promo, and then based on this song and artist we, created a digipak and a magazine article, to advertise the artist and the new single.

The purpose of these three promotional materials: the music promo, digipak and magazine advertisement are to advertise and promote the new artist and his work to the target market. As well as giving the artist an amount of exposure that would otherwise not be achieved without these elements of promotional materials. They aim to create a buzz about the artist, giving the target market an idea of what he is about and what he music is about.

A music video promo will help to show people some of the personality of the performer, as some of their own thoughts and ideas will be included, it will help people to see who the performer is and create their own opinions of the song and artist. A music promo will also; for the record company that produced it, give them a chance to show any new artists to the public rather than just allowing them to be heard over the radio, it gives the audience a chance to put a name to a face.

These images, shows the idea of a using a digipak as a method of advertising the artist, the bold and eye catching images, help to draw attention to the object, before the viewer even knows who the artist is. This is the idea we are using throughout our project, in the production of a music promo, magazine advert and digipak.  

The purpose of a music promo is to give people something to picture when listening to the song, helping to create more of a story behind it, music promos for the album would again help to create a image of the artist and helps to promote the artist and the album as it will be seen by large numbers or people. 

A wide variety of shots are expected in a music promo, shots of instruments are shown to try to show/convince the viewer that the artist is skilled in his or her craft, as well as giving an idea of the genre being performed, giving a better idea of that particular artists style. As well as shots of instruments, music promo’s tend to use a range of close ups, long shots, establishing shots and mid shots to show either the performer or the narrative, there is no one style of shot that is often seen as any can be used to make an effective promo. 

Music promos are expected to show a lot of energy through editing and mise-en-scene. The shots have to keep in time with the structure of the song, to make sure that the narrative or performance works well with the song/music. A lot of shots and cut types are used depending on the genre however most are just straight cuts as these are simple to keep with the beat of the track. Normally the only sound heard would be the song, however in some more unconventional music promos, some of the sounds from the narrative can be heard to help set the scene, this tends to be just at the beginning of the promo, but can however sometimes be heard throughout. Close up shots are seen more than others to try to keep the main point of focus on the performer. A music promo gives the viewer a means of being close to the performer, which they may not get from going to see them live. The mise-en-scenes in most music promo’s can vary depending on the type of genre that they are made from, they vary in the locations and the props used to create different effects. 

Close Up

Mid Shot

Long Shot

The narrative of music promos varies a lot depending on the genre of the track, most tend to be a straight forward narrative to help show the ideas of the music, and the ideas and emotions the artist wanted to portray with that particular song, however some promos can focus completely on the performance and some can switch between both. The narrative of music promos tend to be based around a few different types of narrative: illustration, in which the narrative is take solely from the lyrics in the track, amplification, in which one key idea or theme is taken from the lyrics and then used to create the narrative and disjuncture, in which the narrative is completely separate from the lyrics, tending not to make much sense or connect to the song in any way.  Taking as an example we can see a video by Coldplay, this shows an amount of amplification as well as disjuncture. The narrative is clear, however due to the entire video being in reverse is has elements of disjuncture. 
The requirements of music promos vary a lot from genre to genre, and artist to artist, depending on the type of music and the ideas and emotions they are trying to put across will effect the type of promo produced, and so a number of different mise-en-scenes, shot types and editing techniques may be used and varied for each genre, to create the overall effect that the artist wants. 

This video helps to show how genre affects the style of a music promo, this acoustic music promo demonstrates this as you can see that the main point of focus is solely on the music and the artist, there’s a simple element and idea behind the video, keeping distractions to a minimum, letting the song be the main element. 

Some conventions of the pop music promo are:

http://prezi.com/_xvvsxucn3ch/copy-of-conventions-music-promo/

Some conventions of the acoustic genre for music promos are:
http://prezi.com/kpi5zf-8d-dz/conventions-acoustic-music-promo/ 

This video by Coldplay, breaks some of the usual conventions seen in music promos, due to the entire video being in reverse. It adds a very unconventional element, taking away from the idea that the artist is easily lip syncing the words, and giving the idea that the artist has been challenged. It also creates a more interesting and thought provoking video, as the main concept is amplified from a single message in the song, creating a confusing appearance for the viewer.



This video by Bob Dylan, also breaks all of the usual conventions seen in a pop promo, the setting is very simple and does not look expensive or idyllic, which is a large and obvious contrast from other videos from this genre. He has taken a simple idea, with the lyrics written on the cue cards, which also breaks away from the normal conventions and the artist himself is not performing the song.

This music promo by Rizzle Kicks influenced my own music promo, in the idea of using childhood memories, to give an amplification of the theme of the track, and actors of an older age to show these memories, helping to give and show a more relatable image to our target market, and creating a more emotional response in our viewer.

This video by Ed Sheeran, and the artist Ed Sheeran himself we used as quite a main point of influence for our promo. He himself is quite a well known acoustic artist, linking well to our genre. However as well as this, he in his own music promos doesn’t appear as often as other artists do, and you barely ever see him perform. We took this video as influence because the original artist of the song we used wasn’t available to perform and so we used someone else to perform the track; which is a technique seen in this promo by Ed Sheeran.

We kept quite a conventional view on the showing of our performer and performance. As seen in many acoustic music promos, we showed the artist playing a guitar, to show his talent and skill, and help to show his connection with the music. We did however adapt this conventional element slightly, in the way that we had less performance and more narrative in our promo, taking influence from Ed Sheeran’s music promos. Helping to show some of the emotions and story behind the track. 

We kept the editing slow, and a number of our clips were at a slower speed compared to their originals, we did this as a means of keeping in time and in harmony with our track, as well as a means of creating emotions. As the slower speeds helps to give time for the viewer to think about the memory they are seeing.

We used a variety of different shots ranging from extreme closes ups, to long shots and high to low angle, as a way of showing the different memories from different points of views. We also kept most of our promo in natural settings following the usual conventions of the acoustic genre.

We used a few different locations for our promo, both in a rural setting and a  home setting as a way of creating different memories and making them realistic and believable. For the acoustic genre, the location can vary depending on the type of song and the message that the artist wants to put across, it can be quite a rural location, but can also however be quite an urban one, or one that you cannot really place. This can be seen each of Ed Sheeran’s music promo, as he shows the use of the three different location options. 

Urban:

At times rural and at other times, set in a home environment- this is something we took influence from in the planning of our locations, the use of different locations, both outdoors and indoors:

A location that can’t be placed:

Promos within the acoustic genre, and artists within the acoustic genre, tend to focus more on the music rather than the look of the promo, unlike pop promos, which focus more on the appearance. As so to reinforce the genre we kept out costumes plain and simple so to not cause a distraction from the music.

Directors Cut:

We have used ideas seen in Andrew Goodwin’s theory as throughout the promo we feature a number of shots of our artist, which he states is something always required of the promo by the record labels. We also used ideas from Steve Archer’s theory in the keeping of a strong link between our performance and narrative.

Conventions of a magazine article and digipak:

http://prezi.com/rdypvxigx4h6/conventions-of-a-magazine-advert-and-digipak/

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

These three products work well together as a promotional package as they all clearly advertise and represent the artist ‘Carl Hauck’ they feature his name, and his music. As well as this they all feature a key theme running through the track we are promoting, meaning that anything that relates to this will be quickly connected with this artist, giving a good amount of publicity.  As well as this, with all of them having a clear cohesion and them meaning they will be easily linked with each other, meaning if one part of the package is seen and remember than other aspect will be quickly promoted, as they will be easily recognisable and due to the theme of the song and the images shown, the ar tist and the track will be linked with only good thoughts in the viewers, meaning that the publicity gained from this promotional package will be good.

Due to each text featuring the same images, font style and ideas being the track, being so easily linked together and related to one another will quickly help to promote each other, as when one is seen the other will be easily recognized.

Each of these texts will be exhibited using traditional media methods, e.g. music channels, music magazines and in record stores. As these methods still reach a larger number of our target market, and keep in well with the theme of memories and simplicity that we want running through and being related with our products, this will give a good amount of promotion for the video, and help give a good initial representation of our artist to his target market. However the problem with using this method is that less and less people are visiting these types of stores, and finding their music in the more traditional ways. So as well as using these traditional methods I will also use the newer media methods as a means of exhibiting the three texts, e.g. Facebook, youtube, Itunes and the web. This is due to the growing number of people that are now using these methods of finding, listening and buying music compared to the more traditional methods, meaning that if we don’t also use this method, we may miss out on a larger chunk of our target market to promote the new track and artist to. The benefits of using and consuming music in this was is the much larger market the product will be exposed to due to the growing number of people now using these methods, as well as the increase in profit it will allow.

Evaluation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When carrying out our research, we decided in order to get a more trusted range of results rather than using a questionnaire, as this method does always allow the person being questionned to give valid results as they feel they need to answer in a way they think is correct, and so we would carry out interviews in order to get some feedback from our audience on what they expected from a music promo in general and a music promo in the acoustic genre. Due to this we got a vague range of results from which we could start using as a means of developing our own ideas for the promo, making sure to include elements found in our results that would create a better all round music promo. From the research we decided that our performer would have to be using a guitar in the promo and that the promo would need to be set in a natural environment, to meet the ideals and conventions that our audience expected from an acoustic music promo. I feel that this method of collecting our data worked well as we got honest opinions from people, however I think we could have gone and got a better range of results by interviewing a range of different people, from a variety of different ages, rather than focussing on a younger audience, as they audience for this genre is not really one that can be specified.

The final research I undertook was to post the final products onto a number of social networking sites and other websites e.g. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. So that people could watch/ see and comment for themselves. I also sent our final products to our artist for him to look at and give us his own feedback on: "I really like the footage you filmed outdoors with you girls in it.  The old family photos are cool too.  The only odd thing for me was seeing someone else lip-syncing the song, but I’m guessing it’s probably fine to other people"

As well as this we also carried out a number of short question and answer interviews to get a range of different feedback on our final texts.

Getting this feedback was very useful, as we could then see what elements worked and what didn’t from someone else’s point of view. This helped us work out what we could have improved and what we did that worked really well. It also helped us understand if the message we wanted to put across was clear enough and was easily understandable.

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

To overcome the issues with copy write within this industry, both the artist and the track we found and chose, we found using the website www.unsigned.com. Finding our artist and track using this website meant that we could use the song, and also meant that our artist would be much easier to contact and ask for permission from.

Facebook: We used Facebook as a means of carrying out research into what people expect of a music promo, through posting up a questionnaire and getting our target markets feedback. Using this technology also helped in the contacting of our artist, as he has his own page. This method was quick and simple, letting us easily find out some background information about him and the song as well as getting a fast response to any questions we had for him about the track. Using this technology also helped us gain feedback on our final products as it was a means of exhibiting our promotional package.

Twitter: This technology helped us to gain a wider area of research as it is open to a larger range of people, giving us much broader results which aided us in our research as it helped us to develop our idea into one that would be like by a larger number of our potential market. I also used twitter as a means of exhibiting our final products, as it opened them up to be viewed by a wider group of people, meaning that we would get a more accurate amount of feedback on our promo.

Youtube: Using Youtube helped as a research method. Through this technology we could easily search for and explore different
examples of music promos from a range of genres, this helped me to develop my own ideas for our promo as from this site you get a good idea of conventions, as well as a good idea of what people do and do not like. This technology also helped with the exhibiting of our finished promo, from which we can see a range of different peoples responses and opinions, and whether or not our final product was successful.

iMovie: This technology was used in the making of our music promo, we used this to put the selected clips together, add transitions and edit and add effects when needed or when necessary.

Photoshop: This technology was used in the making of our digipak and magazine article, the range of different effects that can be applied using this program helped us to create a high quality and professional final product. It helped us to confidently meet the plan we had set, as it allowed us to create our ideas as well as find ways of improving them.

Final Cut Express : We used this program as a means of joining two clips together that did not work separately. This helped us create a much more technically skilled clip, that gave an almost professional look to our promo. Helping also to give more depth and detail to the promo.

From this piece of work I have learnt and developed new skills of shooting and planning shots for filming. This project has helped me to develop my understanding on the layout of a shot and what makes a more effective shot, understanding this better has helped me to create and plan a range of effective and interesting shots. I have also learnt to make sure the area for my shot is completely clear and exactly how planned, and that there is nothing to compromise the mise-en-scene. e.g. litter. For example in my prelim, we didn't look too much at the rest of the mise-en-scene in our shots and below we can see a small amount of litter in the background.

Through this promo I have learnt how to use editing in an effective way, to compliment the promo, rather than outdo or overwork certain shots. We used sepia and black and white video effects on certain clips, and used the other video effects tools to help us to create a more effective image. By using only these set editing effects we created a consistent piece, that works well throughout, this is a skill I feel I have learnt a bit more about and so developed since earlier pieces of work.

Through using the Apple Macs, iMovie and Photoshop, I have learnt how to develop my pieces of work, in a way that brings them to a high quality professional standard. Using iMovie to create our promo, aided in the final outcome due to the range of different editing software available and the ease of being able to change and adapt ideas. The Apple Macs and Photoshop also helped in the making of our digipak and magazine article. I learnt how to use Photoshop in a way that creates a good, high quality final outcome, without looking fake. By taking ideas from other promos and promotional material we had seen and trying to recreate certain aspects using these programs, it helped to develop my own skills as I found new ways of completely tasks and new means of creating a better final outcome. This can be seen in the final outcome of our magazine article, the changing of the fading and opacity in the shots shows a development in skills as this technique I would never have considered before. However using it gives a much stronger image and final outcome.

Some problems we faced whilst filming were:
Low Lighting: During our filming one problem we came across that both of the days we had very bad lighting for anything we filmed, to solve this problem when it came to editing, we altered some of the variable elements such as the contrast, to create a better and lighter effect on the badly effected original shots. We also added effects such as sepia, which aided in the lightening of some of our shots.
Bad Weather: Another problem we faced when filming was bad weather, to overcome this problem we learnt about using different angles to get a better and clearer shot, and to use a better location where the weather was not effecting the planned shot as much e.g. somewhere under more cover.
Lip Syncing: When it came to adding sound to our promo, we found that parts of the lip syncing did not match up as well as they could do, to fix this problem, we magnified the timeline of the clip, helping us to gain a much more accurate result. 

Blogger: We used Blogger as a means of noting down our planning, research and ideas for the final outcome. This helped to keep everything in order, making sure everything was up to date, and so that when we came round to it, all the planning for our products would be completely sorted, and easy to find and use. 

Search Engines: We used search engines as a means of finding and sourcing information, for research and planning, such as images and information. We also used search engines as a way of finding out information about and contacting our artist, this helped up to understand our artist better and so, understand some of the key aspects behind the track.

Itunes: We used Itunes as a means of sourcing our track. This program allowed us to access the song at any point during filming, as well as add the song onto our finished product.

Through exhibiting our three texts online, we can find and gain a range of different views and opinions on our products. Due to the vast amount of people our promo will be available; we can achieve a large and informative range of results. Also by exhibiting our material online, it helped us reach the full range of our target market, meaning that most would either hear about or see the three products. Exhibiting our material online it opens up a number of free publicity options for our products. Due to the amount of people using the internet compared to the more traditional methods of sourcing music, our products will reach a much wider target market gaining a lot more publicity for the track and creating a buzz on this new artist.