Change of plan

As me and my original partner Megan came to different conclusions about which way we wanted to go with our project, we decided to continue to work on our own from now on so I will be working on a new idea based not he same research I have done.

Storyboard

Treatment

Artist/band: The arctic Monkeys

Genre of the music: Indie

The song: Arabella

Music video brief:
The music video will feature a range of camera work focusing on a local band that we will be filming locally.  We will also have a storyline to match the lyrics where we have a girl who the audience assume is arabella, where the camera focuses on her and what she looks like varying from the lyrics. We will keep it simple and low budget as indie videos are such as following her walking through streets encountering scenarios and eventually ending up in the place that the singer is singing from, as there is usually a link between the storyline and the artist. 

Camera work/editing:

The camera work on the band will be varying from being in the crowd, close ups of the instruments such as hands playing the guitar, and close up of the artists like their eyes.

We will also get a range of camera shots such as over the shoulder when she is looking in the mirror, long to short cuts when she is walking, etc.
 We will alternate different potential camera shots of the same part so that we can choose what fits together best. 

Target audience

Our target audience is the younger generation between 18-21 year olds, as from our research we have found that they enjoy indie music most popularly. Females are also more likely to enjoy indie music, as we have found. We can use this to influence our video. We can include things that appeal to females such as 'Arabella' getting ready to go out, which females can relate to and desire to be like her as they are made to aspire to be like. Males will also appeal to the video as well as they

Logo

This is what O have come up with for our company logo. I used a standard picture from google as it gave me a range of possible different images I can corporate into out design.

I chose this one because I liked the way to smoke could look like it's coming off the words 'black some productions', as if it were a cigarette. The cigarette has connotations of indie music which is what our record label is about.

I chose the font because it looks edgy, punchy and bold.  It also has an older typewriter kind of effect, which suggests a vintage element.

Creating our companies name and logo

We looked on the internet for already existing independent company names and logos, to get an idea of what we should be aiming for.

'Indie' music itself is just an abbreviation of independent, referring to the fact that record labels may not get as big budgets as the main companies that control the main stream of music media. However, indie music is more now associated with alternative genre music.
We focused don the main concepts of indie alternative music to give us inspiration. These included:

A range of instruments
A direct attention to the singer/ band members in a personal way
Grunge/ black and white
From less well known corporate labels


We played around with the ideas and concepts associated with indie music and the audience that it might attract.

We discussed the kinds of things they might like and be familiar with. Some of our possible names include:

Blue smoke
Black smoke
Scenester
Not from the 90s


After we established a name for our company, we practiced making an ident on photoshop.

Magazine Analysis

I will be taking a look at some advertisements for music that I can use for inspiration and to conclude and evaluate some pros of cons that advert like these generally have. 

 

This is an advertisement of a CD from Madonna, re-releasing her 'ultimate hits'. 

The first and most obvious thing is the use of colour and the saturated, fasted effects that emphasises the use of electric blue on the singers eyelids as well as the red on her lips.

This has been done as madonnas makeup has become an iconic part of her identity. 

It is symbolic of the classic Andy Warhol, which familiarises people with themes from the 20th century 1980s+ when she was at peak of her music career. The reinvention of it compliments the fact that it is a collection of her most popular hits.

The face familiar to millions of people who are familiar with Madonnas music means that the name 'Madonna' is already associated with it, and so it does not need to stand out as much as some information about the album. It is in a cut-out from a black background in block writing in consistent typography to the rest of the information on the poster, however the most highlighted word is 'celebration.' The pink splattered paint effect brings out the retro theme and also compliments the boarder of colour underneath. 

A good thing about this advert is it targets a specific audience of an older age range who may used to have been fans and would still enjoy her music if it was brought into todays music.

This poster is advertising the independent artist Davis Ford and his recent album 'A long time ago.'

The close up of the worn-looking acoustic guitar and his hands playing suggests that he is not made out to be a dramatic, commercialised singer who has the appearance to match pop music. This connotes that the main selling point about him is his actual music and not that he is particularly attractive enough for his face to sell albums, highlighting the quality of his music. Also, the damaged guitar suggests a more personal take to the picture, as if it were his own guitar he has played all his songs on for for a long time. This leads people to think that he must be good and have that typical acoustic selling point.

The sepia scale image with dull colours is common for acoustic albums as they use emotions as the focus of their music. The fact that he is sat on the grass as if he were busking is also connoting that he has got so popular as his music is good and not through money and power or popular record labels. Acoustic artists are often underrated and more down to earth more than pop artists who use big and bold as their eye-catcher.

The information goes for a 'less is more' technique, stating the name of artist and album, then a quote praising the album at the bottom. People will trust a big company name like the Sun and therefore be influenced to buy it, especially as they have awarded it five stars.

The colour scheme of his name and the stars match so that people associate his name and a high rating.

The target audience for this is probably either older people who tend to enjoy acoustic music more commonly. The person in the picture is presumably the artist, David Ford, and is wearing a simple check shirt as do older people, which will attract the older audience as it is relevant to him.

This advert for paramour focuses a lot on the information side of selling the CD. A picture that is made to be overlapped in the background of boarders with information shows the band in a casual picture as if they were unprepared for it. The main singer is pouting into the camera as they all make eye contact at whoever is looking at it. This is quite attention grabbing and the viewer then reads the boxes saying things like 'Album out now!' and even offers a texting service where consumers can easily access the music. The advert is inclusive and engaging to people as it says 'Your favourite band' which is quite rare for simpler album adverts.

The theme of the poster is a wooden background with butterflies which is in correspondence with the front of the album cover.  

Research into the industry

The music industry is a business between the music consumers in the public and artists producing music. Music is sold to the public to make money for the company and individuals that create the music.  This money is put towards promoting music in order to make more money. The more music is brought to the public eye, the more likely people are to purchase it in one way or another. The three major music corporate labels are Sony music, Universal Music, and Warner Music. Labels excluding these three are called independent music companies as they no not compare with the popularity of music that they produce.
The largest music retailer is iTunes from apple. This is a digital company, evolving with modern technology where people more commonly own things digitally rather than physical copies.

Since the digital age of file sharing and music being easier to pirate now than ever before, action has been taken to make it illegal to share, own or distribute music files that have been pirated or have not been paid for, profiting the music industry and crediting the artist.

Brainstorming...

When considering what to focus on for video, we discussed possibilities.

After reviewing my evaluation of how different genres may have their own advantages/ disadvantages, I decided to take a lean towards the indie acoustic genre. The range of music is massively extensive to allow a lot of room for creativity when producing a video, as well as being more choice to go for less generic, popular songs that may be replicated.

Indie acoustic music although can be very popular and therefore well funded by record labels, strive to get that understated basic guitar and microphone raw talent rather than concentrate on graphic effects and sound effects. Because of this they like their lyrics to be volumised as key when being presented to an audience and performative is the most common music video.

This is an example of a typical indie acoustic video. The budget was clearly minimal as the entire focus is on the members who appear completely average, which is accentuated by the location as if they were in a garage and minimal planning was put into the video.

Digipack

A digipak is essentially the casing for what a CD will come in when brought in a hard copy from a shop. Although music is arguably moving on to become digitalised and therefore easier and more convenient to buy through software like tunes, where it can immediately be downloaded to consumers devices, a lot of people still prefer the physicality of buying a CD and owning it where it may be in a safer, robust form.

The digipak usually contains the album cover on the front, with a booklet informing the buyer about the artist, song lyrics, and about the album inside. Other media like DVDs or messages from the artist are becoming increasingly popular- a reason for this is it encourages people to buy the physical copy if they think they are getting more from their money when they get something they will not do when downloading in a digital form.

The digipak will be the first thing a consumer will see when considering buying a CD. This is why a lot of thought and research goes into what an artistis digipak will look like to ensure it looks tempting to buy. It can also connote the genre it stands for
Lets take a look at some digipaks...


The XX are a indie band whose music is mainly relaxed tunes with calming lyrics.

This is their album cover.

The most obvious thing is the contrasting black on white, versa visa illusion. Their bands significant logo is a plain 'X' which is the main attention to this. The album is simplistic as their music is minimal and is not 'busy' like pop music might be, but is one to appreciate the beats and voices of the group members. The cut out cross on the left mirrors the white cross graphic design on the CD. This is to advertise the name of the group, 'the xx' by including information about them in a  creative way. This makes the album more interesting. 

The front of the album cover is the same monochrome black on white. The oversized cross merely suggests that it may be by the band 'The XX'. It suggests that everything needs to be shortened and adhering as minimal as possible. This emphasises the only information that is actually on there, the track listings in white that still reveal much information about the style or genre of the music. The bold cross becomes memorable and easy to replicate. This recognisable theme means that is a motif throughout the album design. 

Here's a screenshot of one of their popular music videos.  The iconic cross design still remains consistent with the minimal style that creates a symbolic, good vs bad illusion.

This technique technique is also used in popular indie alternative band, the arctic monkeys, in their latest album ' Do I wanna know.'  Take a look at their album cover.

They have replicated a sound wave in white on a black background. A small sticker is the only indication of credit to the band when it comes across on a shop shelf. The ambiguous design is then suggested to be the shape of a woman's bra later in the album when a picture following the same theme of appearing to be outlined with a white line on a black background. The picture is obviously sexualising the woman which specifies the target age group range for the album. This indicates that it is for a mature audience as there is some explicit language and sexual themes common in their music. 

This way of revealing more about the music and album through use of pictures that use each other to construct expectations is an interesting method that I will definitely consider using. 

This is a good way to intrigue consumers who may be curious about what the album may include and to emphasis information, which I may find a useful element in my album cover design.


Other indie album digipaks tend to be more quirky, as I analysed earlier.

This is what online music shopping looks like. It focuses on the information as when browsing online, all our interests are based on statistics like what we are suggested to enjoy, what other people are enjoying and what ratings it has received. 

When in a physical copy being sold in a shop, they are presented something like this. There are many many CDs for shops to sell in a great range of genres.  That means there is only limited space for one CD among many others, so competition for consumers to attract and purchase one CD is high. CDs that look the best are more successful at attention grabbing. Although ones with more brightly coloured designs have an advantage here, CDs with a genre that would not suit a brightly coloured cover have to still look professional to reflect the quality of the music they are selling. 

Survey

Questionnaire survey 

This is my survey I will distribute. 

I started by asking basic questions to get an idea of my audience. Gaining an understanding of my audience will direct me to knowing which music genre particular age groups enjoy most. I have identified my target audience as 18-24 years old, so can base it off that. 

I then asked them fundamental questions on what devices they access music on, so I know how to distribute my video when it is composed. 

I would like to get a better understanding of what my music video should include. I am indecisive about whether it should feature a storyline etc, but the decision will be mainly based on genre.

People can openly comment what interests them most about music videos, whether it's inspiring dances, attractive celebrities or some creative camera work.

What will be most obvious is what people dislike in videos: it can be hard to specify what you like however people may feel strongly about dislikes as they tend to stand out more. If i get a lot of responses with replies consistently saying they dislike long, boring shots of someones face or an instrument, then I can gain an idea of what to avoid. 

Although I will research in more detail what is popular amongst album covers, I thought it would be helpful to link responses now hat people like to what genres they prefer.

Album cover analysis

This is an album cover from the popular singer Adele. Her music concentrates on her extensive range of vocals and emotions she portrays through her songs. 

To reflect the genre, the album cover is a close up of her face looking down, suggesting a melancholy vibe to it. Although she has obviously has her face made up for the shot, she looks natural from the positioning of her hand pushing her hair back. The plain grey background ensures all attention is drawn to the singer and also creates a dull but sincere feel. The colour scheme of a black and white filter indicates a soul, neutral theme but the shadowy element of it connotes an underlying, darker theme which is brought out in her songs. She is not made out to be glamorous or bold like a pop singer, but subtly attractive in a more understated way. There is no evidence of other music composition like instruments, so that it is obvious with the bold title 'ADELE' she is the credit taker for the album.

This album style would be ideal for an independent singer. Her videos are very much uniform with the cover: they share a black and white colour scheme with close ups throughout.

The majority of the time is of her face singing the words to create a connection with the audience that they are getting a close performance of her emotional lyrics. This is ideal for a soul-singer genre. This will not be too great for our video as we would like to include a bit of creativity and explore with different camera shots and include a storyline. Having a lot of face to camera time gives the person credit to the song, which would be unrealistic.

This is an album cover from the group 'Mika.' It is extremely vibrant and busy. There is a lot of colour going on with a doodle-theme cartoon of random objects. The colours create a cheerful reflection of the music which suits the pop genre. It includes minimal information, only giving credit to the group and specifying the name of the album. The main focus of the picture is the words in bold, 'MIKA,' with all sorts of colours and cartoons tied into it to draw the eye. This is effective because it would certainly stand out on a shop shelf. Again, it is consistent with the music videos 

The background clashes with what the singer is wearing, creating an attention-grabbing illusion. The singer is also dancing in big excited movements as if to the beat of the music to highlight the bouncy, fast pace of the music that makes it so inclusive in the pop genre.

This would be interesting to attempt. The album cover will take a lot of creativity and either graphic design skills or handy work. 

Indie album covers all have a uniqueness that are fairly common the indie music industry. They all have a grunge theme, light colour schemes with one element or object the eye-catcher. A lot of them have a weird iconic theme, like a landscape or image with something wrong with it. 

These are some examples. 

These are fairly easy to do provided a basic design with a quirky twist can be done and still look professional. The theme in these is that there is a cartoon with a disturbed element. This leaves the audience open minded about what they are going to hear; there is not much suggesting what kind of music tune there may be so the audience cannot prepare for it in the same way that they can an adele album. This can create a suspense and interest as well as surprise in the music and video. The videos can be randomised and quirky which can be fun to do.

Music Video Analysis

Pop

Iggy Azalea- Fancy

The target audience of this music is for teens and young people. The setting of the video being in a school/ at a party scene is relevant to the target audience. I have recognised certain components of videos that are common in pop videos. These include:
Bright colours
Dance sequences
Confident females being the main focus, usually the singer of the song.

Iggy Azalea

 Here in Iggy Azalea's 'fancy', she is strutting down the hall ways of a 'typical' American high school, being the main focus as she mouths out the words of her own song. Her clothes portray confidence and draw a lot of attention to her. The video follows the theme of a high school which has been used a lot in pop. The video imitates the iconic film 'clueless'. The reinactment is suggesting a typical theme that has been done many times before but with a twist.

Katy Perry 'This is how we do'

                   

Here in Katy Perry's 'This is how we do' the singer herself is the main focus. Her character is conveyed as bold, confident and a bit 'out there.'  Contrasting colours make her stand out, which compliment the punchy, repetitive lyrics.

Another good example in in Taylor swift's 'shake it off'. Again, it is base don stereotypes of teenage character roles using eccentric colours and dramatic make up. The choreography is to suit the theme that the track is about - dancing.

As an overview, pop music videos include

• Singers, dressed in colourful,mainstream and dramatic outfits
• A happy, enthusiastic attitude to match pop music theme
• Partying,dancing, enjoying youthful life as many of the target audience of teens do
• Technology graphics bald and attention-grabbing
• coreography montages
• Fast, or jump shots and editing.

Evaluating these pop videos, I found that the themes that are consistent like graphics and dramatic dance coregoraphies would be hard to replicate for my own video. This is because professional looking graphics require quality software, as well as a lot of experise in graphic design skills. In order to create a pop video with these conventions, the end product may not look as closely related to other pop videos around, as if we haven't quite captured the essence of them. We also have limited resources when it comes to people and budget. Another thing to consider is that our target audience of younger people as a majority listen to the mainstream music which is pop, hense popular music. This means if we choose another genre our audience may be more limited or more specific, and may have to go to extra measures to accommodate this.

Indie

I researched the top charts for specifically indie genre tracks.



Arctic Monkeys are a very popular band having released their album 'Do I wanna know' over a year ago and their tracks are still highly ranked in today's charts. This is a screen grab from their video 'Arabella'. A lot of the videos are in a  black and white filter, which insinuates dark themes. This suits the music because the instruments build up in an edgy way that creates suspense.  Another theme is a lot of focus being on the band playing the music: indie includes a lot of variation in guitar riffs, drums and singers. The lead singers are usually in a montage of singing and playing an instrument as well as being involved in another scene or storyline which may or may not link to the lyrics.

Arctic Monkeys Arabella

Kings of Leon Notion

Another highly popular indie band are Kings of leon. Their video focuses on a lot of instrumental camera time focusing on the artists actually producing the music as if it were live.This video among many others of theirs is consistent in dark colours.
Technological effects are a lot more subtle such as fade ins of sound, digetic sound, etc. Editing is soft and slow, like fade ins and slow cuts to other shots, slow motions. The effect of not having noticeable, dramatic effects is that the video looks low budget and therefore suits the theme of a live, alternative band. Low budget means less action. This is relatable to us and means we need to be creative with our limited resources.

Conventions

• Live music
• Montage storyline
• Sound effects
• Graphic effects are slow and subtle like fades, slow mos
• Groups dress similarly; usually dark, grunge clothing
• explicit themes: drugs, alcohol, sexual 

These indie, alternative videos all have a theme of a home-made, low budget video to suit the theme of indie having garage-band feel to them. Camera skill work is subtly professional, in a way that does not go noticed by audience but overall creates a feel to the music that it is happening live, so highly professional and attention-grabbing effects would destroy this illusion. This would be beneficial to us as we can concentrate on aspects like camera work and putting together a video with a storyline and creatively linking it together.

Acoustic

Acoustic music is notorious for acoustic guitar structure and riffs as well as its relaxed sound. A common setting associated with acoustic music is a countryside, rural area, because of its focus on the instrument itself, editing and choreographing is unneeded and will often ruin the natural effect of the guitar work.

In the video  Old Pine by Ben Howard, a popular acoustic artist, known for his connection with nature which is common in his videos, many conventions of acoustic music are portrayed.

The filming could be done on minimal budget as it shows scenery of settings from woodlands to the beach. The singer is involved a lot in the video itself, singing into the camera so that the viewer is connected personally to him.  In contrast to in Katy Perrys video where she is singing into the camera, the audience does not feel the same personal connection to Katy as all the visual effects are in place and looks more set up.

Typical acoustic music video conventions

• Variation between positive/negative/ often nostalgic 'vibe' or attitude
• minimal/subtle effects graphically and editing
• Location
• Close ups
• 
  

Would an acoustic video be a good idea?

Pros: Acoustic videos tick a few boxes that are preferable to us like budget, easily accessible settings living in a rural area. We can use various camera shots and editing.

Research Timetable

18-25th September
I will research music videos and analyse ones that stand out, including variety in genre.

25-2 nd October
I will start my research on digipacks.

2nd-9th October
I will research magazines and analyse them

9th-16th
Decide on what type of music industry I will research.