Q.1 ‘In what ways does your media
product us, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our task was to create a music promo
based on the music genre we had chosen then also to create two additional
promotional related materials. The promotional materials we created were a CD
digipack and a magazine advert. These materials will go to advertising the
chosen song and artist. When it Came down to choosing the chosen song and
artist we had to make sure that it was both possible to create a successful
promo and also an artist who we could create our promotional materials around.
The song we chosen was ‘Rock Pride’
which was created by a band called ‘B.I.T.E’ and with this song and artist we
sculpted our promotional materials. The aim was to create a successful promo,
digipack and magazine advert in order to promote the song and artist to the
desired target market. This promotion of the artist would hopefully create a
fan base and give the target audience a taster of what the band is about.
The aim of the digipack is to promote
the band to its audience therefore it has to be eye catching and draw the
audience in to buying it. The promo will help to promote the artist as a whole
and will indicate to the target audience such things as their personality and
style of music. The viewer will then create their own opinion of the artist and
may go on to follow them. As a digipack are a form of advertising they must be
aesthetically pleasing and most of all meet the needs of the target audience.
Above is a picture showing what a traditional digipack has to it. Digipack
often have bold and eye catching titles and images which are all designed to
grab the attention of the audience.
The more and more conventional digipack CD or DVD is a type of packaging
that contains traditional discs or blu-rays. They are normally made from card
or heavy duty paper/cardboard material. They often have extra information in
and even provide behind the scenes disk. An example of these extra information
packs are such things as a band having a biography or pictures/posters of the
band. There are also a lot of different types of digipack, as some open in
different ways or some have more sections to open. this ranges on the preference
or accessibility. The same applies for a DVD digipack case, in the way that
they can both store sufficient amounts of extra photos/information, however the
difference in the two are those aesthetically and sufficiency. A DVD digipack
would often include the DVD and a blu-ray disc on top of that. There are
certain advantages and disadvantages that come when using a digipack case aside
from a plastic case. Some of these are shown below.
Advantages
-
Customer is getting a lot more in regards to content
- Helps a band to promote themselves
when first starting out.;
- They are prone from cracking
- If the teeth break you can still hold
the disc
- More environmentally friendly
- More collectable
- Look more aesthetically appealing
- Store more information inside
Disadvantages
-
Cases can rip easier
- Cost more money to produce
- Cost more money to buy
- They can get tatty faster from over
use
- Can come in different sizes which is
insufficient for storage
When it comes to the music promo,
production companies spend vast amounts of money in order to create an
effective promo that will create a buzz for the artist. These videos create an
image of the artist and promote the artist and there album in order to be seen
by large amounts of viewers. Music promos will mainly consist of a wide variety
of shots and either a narrative or performance based video. It will also give
an idea of the genre of music that is being performed. Depending on the genre
of the music being performed the composition of the promo will be different.
Narrative in music promos can be key to
the success of a music promo. The narrative will vary from genre to genre but
most will be simple as they will focus mainly on the performance area of the
video. The narrative will often show the emotion of the artist and portray the
way in which the video is wanted to be seen as.
Unconventional videos may even decide to
use all narrative or even none at all but most conventional will have mainly
performance but with an effective range of narrative shots. The way in which
the narrative of a music promo is created can be based round many different
ideas. One of the most common is amplification, where the lyrics of a song are
taken and a key idea is created in which the narrative will be based
around. This type of narrative often
makes no sense to the viewer but can also be extremely effective. Another type
of another narrative would be illustration, in which the narrative is created
solely round the lyrics. An example of disjuncture in the narrative of a music
promo would be ‘Mike Snow’- ‘Paddling Out’ this video is very different and
unconventional. To create an effective promo piece a number of different
miss-en-scenes , shot types and editing techniques can be used depending on the way the artist wants to put
across the emotions and style of the promo. the genre often effects the style
in the promo due to the pace or rhythm of the song. We can see this in videos
such as artists like “James Blunt”, the genre that this artist would be classed
under would be acoustic so therefore the songs are conventionally slow which
will affect the promo as it can’t be face paced as it may not make sense.
However bands like “Steel Panther” who come under our chosen genre of glam
rock, have more gimmicky lyrics and faster paced music so their promos tend to
be less serious than other genre’s.
After looking into the genres music
videos, we found that the performance dominated over the narrative in our
genre. This is to show what the band can do, and encourage people to a live
gig. This is a convention to the genre, as they almost always have more
performance. We also found that most of the time, the narrative didn't make
sense, and wasn't completely clear about what was going on. This is to keep the
audience on the edge of their seat throughout. Sometimes the narrative is
justified at the end by a clear ending, others are left a mystery. The
narrative is usually edited like a montage, to add to this confusing element.
Glam Rock is performed by singers and
musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly
platform-soled boots and glitter. The flamboyant costumes and visual styles of
glam performers were often camp or androgynous, and have been connected with
new views of gender roles. Glam rock
songs will often have simple
drum patterns and Guitar laden melodies often relying on riffs. One of the main
conventions of a glam rock band will be they normally have a catchy or gimmicky
chorus that was written to be memorable and lyrics that can be interpreted many
ways which are most often sexual.
“Steel
Panther” is a band that have influenced our promo a huge amount due to them
being a very traditional glam rock band. There range of videos have a unique
style and are also very impressive in the way they are composed and shot. The
video that mainly influenced our promo would be there song “If You Really
Really Love Me”.
This promo has a conventional
composition as it has mainly performance based scenes in it, yet has a very interesting
narrative which is very unconventional as it shows the shooting of the video.
From this style of promo we got many great ideas and I believe that the style
of promo is effective to the targeted audience. The shot bellow shows the
similarities in the shot composition and how it influenced our promo.
For the location of our promo we wanted
a similar location to what is seen above, however with the budget we had we
could not get an empty space this big. We did not want to be to unconventional
with the location so therefore we decided on filming in an empty hall. From the
two shots above you can see the location similarity.
Our music promo challenged many forms
and conventions of traditional glam rock videos. In most glam rock styled
videos we see that the shots are mostly straight cuts. We stuck to the
convention and kept the types of edits to a minimum however in some places in
the promo we had to use transitions in order to create an effective shot or
composition of a shot. Below is an example of having to use transitions due to
the quick change in lyrics and continuity of the shot change.
With mise-en-scene in our promo we
wanted to stick to a very conventional style of video and I believe we did this
as the costumes and style of the band members are very similar to that of a
modern day glam rock band. Our promo follows many forms and conventions
throughout the 4 minutes. With the mise-en-scene we kept strictly to the
conventions as the mise-en-scene in a glam rock promo is one of the main
characteristic of it. Consume wise I thought we did very well as the way the
band members where dressed is very similar to what we would see in a glam rock
band such as “Steel Panther”. The location of the promo is also conventional
due to it being set on a stage which is what a wide range of glam rock videos
are set on. The location is also very conventional in the way that the location
is not to dramatic and is simple, which emphasis the bands presents. Prop wise
we kept to the obvious of having an electric guitar, a drum kit, a bass guitar,
and amps. As for the camera shots we analysed many different promo in order to
see what range of shots where used. From the research we gathered we found that
there was a lot of handheld shots used and close ups of the band members. Many
glam rock promos also use extreme close ups in order to get an expression
across or also to show a sexual reference which is very common in this genre. When
It came to editing we kept very much to the conventions of having straight cuts
and using quick shots in order to keep to what a traditional glam rock video
would have. However in some parts of our promo transitions where needed.
In a glam rock
promo the venue is often very similar as they will often be set on a stage of
some sort. The room displayed below is the ball room which we mainly used however at the top right of the
picture there is a door which leads to the blue room. The blue room is where we
will film a small chunk of our narrative. The ball room has a fairly small
stage however it has full use of the lighting equipment, and having this access
allowed us to create a satisfactory lighting scene. The reason why we picked
this venue is due to it having a stage and being a very clean and spacious
venue. Having the stage fits into the conventions of the glam rock genre, as in
glam rock videos there tends to be bands playing on stage and 'rocking out'.The
stage will really emphasis the fact that we are filming a music video as our
narrative is concentrated on the band filming the music video being the
performance side. We looked for a suitable location for many weeks and we
managed to find this. A first they wanted to charge by the hour but we managed
to get it down to just £40 both days. Other venues such as the vodoo lounge
wanted such prices as £100 a day, which was too expensive for us to afford. The
only downfall to this venue is that it is over 15 miles away and is in a very
congested area that has very few car parking spaces.
When it
came to the constume and props we wanted to keep verymuch to the conventions as
I belive the costume’s are what make a glam rock video. To keep to these conventions
we had to make the costumes very bright and dramatic and make them very
simmilar to what you would see from a conventional glam rock band. We got our
main influneces costume wise from “Steel Panther” as there costumes (seen
below) stick to these exotic convetions.
When it came to props
we needed to make the set of the video as realistic as possible In terms of the
genre we chose. For example we needed a guitar, bass, microphones, drum kit,
Amps, PAs and much more to help set the scene for our promo. The miss-en-scene
in our promo was one of the key things to get right as we felt it is what makes
a glam rock video. Through these props we wanted to challenge the conventions
in real media products by making the props as realistic as they are seen in the
Glam Rock promos. Below is a picture of the props we used.
Once we had gathered all the footage we needed we
started the editing process. In the stage of the making process it is key to
make the video in which it flows and makes sense. When it came to challenging
the forms and conventions we felt that we had to stick to having mostly
straight cuts and quick paced editing throughout. This is because in most glam
rock videos the pace of the song and editing is very fast in order to create an
effective promo in which the viewer is enticed to keep watching. In most glam
rock styled videos you would also rarely see transitions and effects however in
our promo we used a small range of transitions and effects in order to make our
promo flow. Without putting these transitions in our promo would simply not
work. One of the main areas in which we used these transitions in when we show
all four band members within the jump in the last few seconds of the promo. For
the narrative in our promo we decided to make it black and white in order to
show a contrast from the narrative to the performance and we also used opacity
in a few places in order to create an effect in which the viewer is kept interested
in the promo. below is an example of the opacity where one clip is layered over
the other. You do not see this often in glam rock promos therefore we are
developing the forms and conventions.
Nearly all music promos have both a narrative and
performance side in their video. The performance side in our video was set on a
stage in the Stamford arts centre. In more conventional glam rock videos you
will see that there is mainly a performance side due to them wanting to show
off and be more eccentric.. For the narrative side of our video we decided to
concentrate on the band themselves as we felt this would be a good way to
challenge the forms and conventions of glam rock promo. the main influence for
this would be from Steel Panthers song “If you really really love me” as it
focused on the making of a promo and them preparing for the performance side.
We felt this was a very effective way of composing a promo and therefore took
this =ideaq and adapted it to our preference.
From the two shots above you can see the similarities
as both are very dramatic and explicit in the way the band members are
presenting themselves. The miss-en-scene is also very similar due to the way
the members of the band are dressed and also the location of the shot are also
similar due to them being very dull which makes you focus on the persons in
questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment