Friday, 2 December 2011
Mrs D
Tuesday, 29 November 2011
Media Evaluation draft
Typical codes and conventions
· Narrative storyline, which is a very common occurrence in videos these days, especially where the lyrics can be acted out in a story, our video incorporates this
· Close ups, Yet again another very common occurrence in videos, it focus’s on either narrative characters or singers/musicians
· Focus on instruments, not as common in videos focusing on the singer, but since we had a band we wanted to focus on the instruments so that the audience can see the skill of the band members.
· Band in the narrative, but the band was only visible to the audience, more challenging typical codes and conventions, as normally the band interact with the character in frame, but in ours they do interact the narrative character however is not aware of it.
· A very controversial song, although poppy, a very dark meaning, a big challenge towards codes and conventions especially mainstream, our song isn’t mainstream which does make it easier to challenge the code and convention, but still get it to work.
· Blurs, popular in videos where they try to show themselves ‘breaking the rules’. This isn’t actually very common in rock videos, I found that it is more common in rap, but as we want to be seen as going against the grain, with such controversial lyrics, I felt it worked.
· Location, a garage, feels very grungy, almost band rehearsal like. Performances often take place in a location where the band practice, or perform, and a garage like the one we chose, felt like we were close to where the narrative was happening which was the general idea, it also stuck with typical codes and conventions with performance.
· Black was a popular theme (every guitar was black) darker side of the band. This ties in with our ancillary which has lots of black in it, but it also shows the darker theme of the band.
· Outfits where mainly flannels, which shirts such as jack Daniels shirts, which is often the kind of product placement you may see in videos, and the large amount of similar wear ties the band together.
· Outro of song, band stop playing and leave. Flashbacks. Slow mo, more apparently in slowly melody songs, so we challenged the codes an conventions by putting it in a more upbeat song
Similar videos that have all of the codes and conventions that we used, also some which were inspiration for our video, while the genre main be different from our song, the actual band that we chose does perform a similar genre.
- Papa Roach – between angels and insects (garage scene and performance)
- Dragon Force – Heroes of our Time (Close up of instruments)
- Suicide Silence – You Only Live Once (unusual themes, death being the main one)
- Avenged Sevenfold – Dear God (black and white)
- Foo fighters – Ever long (band in narrative)
- Good charlotte – Lifestyles of the rich and famous (similar outfits)
- System of a down – (the whole video is in slow motion where it is narrative)
- Limp Bizkit – My generation (blurring of the shirt)
- Bullet for my valentine – Tears don’t fall (narrative)
Technologies
A laptop was used for editing, a portable version of Sony Vegas 8 meant that we could plug it into any pc with high enough specs and run the editing software off of it, this meant that we could edit anywhere, though mainly a laptop was used as we could take it around with us easily
A canon Digital SLR was used to take pictures for the ancillary, and the studio at Edgbarrow was used for certain shots. I took a few of the pictures while the rest of the group took others
Photoshop CS4 was used for the editing of the photo’s large contrasts where add to distinguish person from background, and the magic wand tool was used to select the people, then a Gaussian blur was used to make the outline smoother.
Ancillary was done in black and white, because we felt it stands out, while it doesn’t have a very strong correlation to the video, the fact it was both this and that, black and white. I felt it went with the song which was happy and sad, very contrasting things, but both being apparent.
Certain parts of the album we kept very simple, the use of silhouettes throughout the ancillary were used, and there where MANY versions until we where happy with it. While certain parts where a bit simple, we did feel it worked very well.
In the editing I did some of the simple editing, cropping clips, framing and syncing, the rest of the group also did this, however I did certain parts of it that the rest of the group didn’t, for example the end of the video where there are stills was me, the pixilation on bottles was also me, and I also colour corrected the footage, so that colours where more vibrant and the blacks where darker.
Mixture of main task and Ancillary
The ancillary was done in pure black and white with no medium which could not actually be said for our main task, while we had black and white, we also had shades of grey, and the performance was very vibrant colour, we did this however to get a contrast like in the ancillary, but the colour scheme of the ancillary was more related to the song, as it was a very happy upbeat song, with a very depressing meaning, which is very this or that, very black and white.
Audience feedback
We couldn’t decide on certain parts of our poster and it was constantly changing, at the end we had two versions that we liked but couldn’t have them both so we asked for audience feedback on which one the preferred.
At the end we did have two versions, but after talking to people about which one they prefer, we finally chose one, which was the version with the text wrapping around the people and the fleshed out the design more so it did not look as boring. This was also the case with our poster, we had two versions but after asking people we found out that across both the album and the poster that the text wrapping was more popular.
Thursday, 24 November 2011
Original Images
Tuesday, 22 November 2011
Update on Album
Thursday, 10 November 2011
New Front and back of album
Friday, 4 November 2011
Anicillery
Friday, 21 October 2011
Prototype for the front cover of the album
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
Editing at the weekend
Friday, 14 October 2011
Recent Help with the Animatrocs
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Mrs D
Friday, 30 September 2011
Timing Sheet update
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Past Few Days updates
Outfits have also been sorted out, a casual look for the band members involves Flanel shirts aswell things that are common in videos such as branded labels such as DC and Jack Daniels.
For the guardian parts in the videos the band members will be wearing neat shirts, and will be well groomed.
The Narrative character (Robbie) will be in same outfit before the dream and during the dream to show that he has not changed unlike the band.
Monday, 26 September 2011
Dolby
Font Ideas (Yours Sincerely, The Reaper)
The first font is called 'Make Juice' It is a very sinister looking font, i felt it worked very well with the title, because the title itself is fairly sinister, But allthough a very decorative font it is still very easy to read and very Eye Catching.
The second font is 'Death Font' This font is a very blocky Serif Font, however the sideways letters make it stand out from other normall serifs, The horizontal letters look out of place, which i think for a band of this genre would want to use, as they want to stand out, and almost seem rebelious against the norm.
The third font style was chosen for the fact that while the title is sinister, it is also polite, and i feel that almost mocking that politeness in the title makes the font choice very interesting.
(These fonts can be used with a differnt colour, however for simplicity they are only black and white)
'Yours Sincerly, The reaper' will also the chosen album name for my ancillery tasksDigi Pak Advert Layout
Album Layouts

Because the Chosen name for the Album is 'Yours Sincerely, The Reaper' I wanted something that was as almost as ironic as the title, Therefore and idea i had the idea that i could tie it into the song more with the visual image, my idea is to have a Bottle of Pills and Gin (Lyrics taken from the song) and have them wrapped up in a ribbon almost like a gift.
Aniclery Planning
For the album i want a unique style to the album, but i also want it to tie in with the song that i am working on for the main task. Allthough when thinking of names i found it difficult to do so, However to come up with some names i decided to take some of the lyrics out of the song to use, which is common in certain cases.
Name ideas:
Gin, With a side of pills
A Happy suicide
Two Faced
Yours Sincerly, The Reaper
I wanted the name to contradictory much like the song itself, and i didnt want the album cover to be overcomplicated.
Poster/Advert
The poster i do not want to be as closely attached to the song as the album as i feel it represents the band more, as it would most liekly show the in person, For the poster i would want colours that suit the band, most likely dark colours, with the odd brighter colour in, A main image of the artists would probably be the main part of the poster, with tour dates advert, and possibly some infromation on the new album itself.
Monday, 19 September 2011
Mrs D
Research and Planning
Product Placement
Nowadays a lot of music is advertised using the internet. This is because it is incredibly easy for record labels to create websites to for the artists and post their music on YouTube to get it out there. Other ways exist to advertise music, one of the main alternatives is the TV on music channels, though often music related to the channel is advertised, unless music that is considered mainstream might be advertised on multiple channels.
One of the reasons that advertisement on the internet has become so popular is that it is far cheaper then adverting on the TV, as well as very easy, Banner adds exists on almost every webpage, and unlike the TV, they are permanently displayed, which is a constant advertisement. On band websites the banner adverts are normally owned by the music label and used to advertise other artists within the label
Websites like YouTube have also made it VERY easy for music to be advertise, as often when watching a music video on YouTube, there are links to a site where you can purchase music from, along with this, since a company called Vevo came along they increased the advertising on YouTube, now whenever you watch a music video that is on a Vevo channel you will ALLWAYS have a music related advertisement, however it does not seem to do it by genre and rather just advertises music.
Advertisement on the TV does seem to be less related to music nowadays, and like stated above, does seem to be limited to music channels, however unlike the internet, it seems the genre is defined in these advertisement, for example a rock album may be announced but only on a rock channel, the same applies to pop. A case where this doesn’t happen is when a band is very, very large (mainstream), this may be advertised on multiple channels, because it sells well to all audiences, while it may be more common on channels with similar genres, it still often appears on others.
Ancillery Questionaires (Album And Magazine)
What Gender are you?
4(Female)
5(male)
What Age are you?
6 (14-17)
2 ( 18 – 22)
2 (22+)
The ages i tried to vary, however i ended asking people around the age of 14-17 more due to the involvement with music around that age
Album Cover
What style of cover do you prefer?
4(artwork)
3(photographic)
3(band members)
This was fairly even when asked what they preferred for an album cover, with no significant patterns between age or gender
What colours would you prefer?
3 (dark)
6 (bright/colourful)
1 (other)
Brighter and colourful albums seem to be wanted more, which often focuses more around the pop/alternative genre of music, and all of the females that answered the questionnaire chose this option.
Would you want lyrics included?
7(yes)
3(no)
It seems to be that most people would want the booklet which often contains the lyrics for the song, however some people clearly would rather just have the music
Would style of font would you want?
5(decorative)
3(same as the bands)
2(none)
It seems that most people would want the title of the album to be in a decorative font or the bands, however some people would not want font, this could be that some bands make the albums easily recognisable to there own style
Magazine cover
For the cover would you want mainly?
4(main picture)
2(lots of smaller pictures)
4(a main and other pictures)
It seems that most people would want main picture, as well as smaller pictures, this is probably so that they can know what’s include in most of the magazine.
What colours would you prefer
4(dark)
3(colourful)
3(other)
It seems that for magazines the darker colours seems to be the more popular choice, however alot of the others, would have rather had a mix of bright and dark so that the magazine stood out.
Would you want a recognisable logo?
10(yes)
Everyone who filled out the questionnaire felt that magazines should have something which makes them easily recognisable and stand out from other magazines.
What kinds of font would you want?
8(stylized)
2(same as title)
It seems that most people would want a styleized font for the front cover on the magazine so that its unique, but a few people think that the front conver should the same font as the title.
Focus Group
Music video (OK-GO – This Too Shall Pass)
This To Shall pass is a Concept Video by Ok-Go and as a video is very interesting, and unusual so i picked this and showed it to 5 people then asked them some questions.
Do you think the video is entertaining? And what makes it entertaining?
Everyone in the Focus group thought that the video was very clever and very entertaining because of the way in which the video was done, They liked the fact that it was a concept, and so unique that it stood out form almost all other videos.
Is there any particular part which stands out?
The focus group agreed that almost all the video was very entertaining, and was difficult to pick out and one part that stood out above the rest, Though they all thought that at the very end of the video where all the band members appeared stood out, because it was the end of the video and it featured the band members.
Where they are problems with the video??
They all agreed that while the video is very entertaining, and a very good video, they felt that the music took a backseat to video, almost as if the song was added just to make the video slightly more interesting.
Do you feel that the band made a good enough appearance in the video?
Some members of the group felt that the appearance of random members of the band appearing at certain parts of the video fit with the style of the video, however others said that instead of the individuals appearing, the whole band should have been together at regular intervals, but still following the style of the video.
Questionaire Results (music Video)
6(female)
9(Male)
This question was almost evenly split between male and female though a few more males where asked.
How old are you?
2 (9-14)
7 (15-20)
3 (21 – 25)
3 (26+)
The age i tried to vary, however it was mostly older people that answered the questionnaire, i went for this range, as this is one of the age ranges that music tends to aim for
What genre(s) of music are you most interested in?
I did not give a multiple choice for this question as there are many catagories of music, however Rock and alternative seemed to be one of the more common answers, where as classical and Rap/RnB was only talked about a few times
What style of music video did you enjoy most?
5 – concept
8 – performance
7 – Narrative
For this question people circled more then one, however not 1 person circled Concept and then another style, it was always
Are there any Videos that stand out to you in particular, if so what video, and why?
For this question the videos of a band called OK-GO popped up a few times, as they make unusual concept videos which are often very entertaining
If you watch it on TV what channels do you watch them on?
This question was without a multiple choice options as there are many channels, Kerrang was one of the most common among the results which is a rock/alt channel, tying in with the genre related question, Heart(classical) was brought up a few times along with Scuzz(metal), and Stars(rap/RnB)
How do you view these videos?
7 (TV)
13 (YouTube)
2(ITunes)
Most people get there music from the internet these days as it seems easily accessible and is also free, and unlike the tv, you can chose what you want the same seems to apply for the TV, however on iTunes where you have to purchase the video it seems is a less common way of watching them.
How often do you watch music videos?
6 (everyday)
7 (often)
2(rarely)
It seems that music videos are watched regularly by people, this might be due to the accessibility of the internet, as well as the TV
Ancillery (The White Stripes Album)
This is the album cover for ‘Icky Thump’ By the white stripes. Like the Avenged Sevenfold album the first thing you notice is the colour, or in this case, the lack of it. The album colour consists of mainly black and white, which appears to be a re-occurring theme with the while stripes, and in this album cover, taking the band name almost literally. Because of the black and white the album really stands out, particularly the outfits in which the members are wearing.There is not much in the way of font on this, but what little font there is, is displayed in a red box in a white font. Again the colours of White and red re-occur. They clash making the album stand out, and the red on the grey scaled background also makes it stand out even more so.
Ancillery (Avenged Sevenfold Album)
This is the album cover for Avenged Sevenfolds ‘Nightmare’. The first thing you notice is that the colours are very dark, with a blue tint in the background tying in with the name of the album. Aside from just the dark colours, other brighter colours are used, however they are very dull so that it fits in with the rest of the album. The artwork of the album is very Sinister, and it appears that it is almost mimicking the title of the album but through an image.The font used for the Band name stands out as it is the usual font that is used; because it is white it stands out greatly on the dark background. The red that is used for the title of the album stands out even more that the band name, because t is such a brick red on such a dark background
Ancillery (Avenged Sevenfold Magazine)

This is the front cover of the album for the music magazine Kerrang, with the artist Avenged Sevenfold. Unlike the NVM cover with the white stripes, the picture of the artist on this magazine does not take up almost the entire page, although it takes up most of it. It appears you use the front text to attract readers, and then the image. The image is takes up less room then the other magazine perhaps due to the fact that there are more members, but like the NVM magazine, each are given a fair amount of the cover, showing each of their importance
The colours on this magazine are darker than that of the NME cover, however the colours the use with the font appear to stand out more, relying on the font and the colour to draw in the audience rather than the images. The dark background colour matches the shirts of the band members making the foreground and background match making it easier to look at, at more professionally done.
Ancillery (White stripes magazine)

The colours are fairly standard, only ranging from shades of black, yellow and red. This keeps with a constant colour scheme. All of the font follows the colour scheme and is laid out in such a way to grab your attention. By using such colours which stand out on top of each other they can make the magazine far more noticeable.
The font used is a fairly standard serif font, however because of its size it can make you become interested in the magazine, therefore you may approach it and read further into the smaller headings to draw you in.
Friday, 16 September 2011
Dolby
Questionaire (Music Video)
What Gender are you?
[Male] [Female]
How old are you?
[9-14] [15-20] [21-25] [26+]
What genre(s) of music are you most interested in?
What style of music video did you enjoy most?
[Concept] [Performance] [Narrative]
Do you have a Favourite Music video? If so please say, and why do you like the video?
Are there any Videos that stand out to you in particular, if so what video, and why?
What would you expect to see in a music video?
If you watch it on TV what channels do you watch them on?
How do you view these videos?
[TV] [YouTube] [ITunes] [Other
How often do you watch music videos?
[Everyday] [Often] [Rarely] [never]
Do you think the promotion from music videos encourages people to buy their music, or do you feel other forms of promotion are better?
Avenged Sevenfold - Seize the Day
Avenged Sevenfold – Seize the Day
Seize the day is a narrative music video, mixed with a performance based video. It is an acoustic rock song, so typical styles of rock videos don’t worry. The video almost instantly starts out with the band playing instruments.
The Performance in this video is all done in a single area, with darkish dark colours; this perhaps reflects the lyrics of the song. A lot of close up camera shots are used of each of the Band members to show their skill with their instrument, which is a common thing for a music video for a band. In the intense parts of the song very fast zooms are used on the lead singer, helping the intense part of the songs, and the eye contact of the lead singer helps make the video personal because of the meaning.
The narrative is acted out by the band which is a common thing in most videos, in the narrative the colours are very dull, again fitting in with the lyrics. While the video does not fit directly with the lyrics, it still follows the basic meaning. In the narrative part of the video a large amount of close ups, as well as extreme are used to show the emotion of each of the people’s faces, so that it fits strongly with the meaning of the lyrics.
In one part of the video where the Band are robbing a convenience store the music becomes more intense, and so does the video, a high contrast to add to the intensity, Also handheld shots are used so that you feel you are there in the store are the time, drawing the viewer into the video more. Some unusual camera angles are used here. For example some of the camera angles are CCTV footage, which adds a sense of realism to the video.
Normally videos of this genre have hard cuts to the next scene, however a lot of fades are used when the scene changes, though hard cuts are then used to change takes from within that scene, making each scene feel obviously different form the others. perhaps to reflect the calmer side of the song, as well as this Bloom fades are used, These fades perhaps show the calmer side of the song.
Something that is quite a common feature in strong narrative videos is that sometimes the song stops, and it is pure narration, this happens in the middle of the video. The scene which is shown then strongly ties in with the lyrics within the song.
Gallows - Staring at the Rude Bois
Gallows are a British punk band with very loud and aggressive style songs, the video for staring at the rude bois, is a mainly performance based song, with a small amount of narrative. Which is a fairly common feature in rock videos, however what’s different is that this happens early on, where as it is normally towards the end.
The video starts on with Frank carter (lead singer) walking through a train yard at night singing the star to the song. The abandoned and dark area fits in with the bands theme. During the early narrative the camera changes from medium close ups, to close ups while he sings, because of the close ups you see all of the aggression in his face, which makes the video more believable as it fits the song. And by looking directly at the camera as well as the audience the idea that the viewer is there is fortified. He eventually ends up climbing into a carriage where the rest of the band is.
The video at this point becomes very intense, as the audience are also in there jumping around to the music. The camera shot becomes incredibly shaky, like it is being shot handheld, almost to make the audience feel as if they are there, within these cuts there are a large amounts of close ups or medium close ups. This fits in with the intensity of the video. Along with this a lot of close ups on the instruments being played is shown, which is a very common aspect of the Rock/Punk genre. By using these techniques they are making the video interesting, showing the skill of the band members, as well as getting them involved with the audience in the carriage, by doing this they make the video very entertaining.
The lighting in the video varies, sometimes it is very dark, fitting in the with area, however in some of the intense parts of the songs a strong white light is shone on the camera adding to the intensity, a harsh red is also seen in the background, tinting almost the entire video. Adding aggression through the lighting almost brings even more intensity to the video.
The White stripes - Seven Nation Army
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
The first thing you notice about the video is the fact that the video is a performance, However it is done in a very conceptual way. The song itself is a rock song so it has typical things that you would expect from it, for example, very early on in the video Instruments become apparent, and close up on the person playing the song.
The video actually follows the tempo of the song as it has a solid beat, however in the faster parts of the song the video itself starts speeding up and flashing lights are incorporated into the video, making it more intense and fitting the genre itself, this is quite a common thing within the rock genre of videos.
However since the video is a conceptual video there are some unexpected things, for example the whole video is one camera shot, it never changes. Instead the video, is made up of separately recorded pieces of footage, these pieces are shaped onto a diamond which then come from a point of origin within a 4 point perspective frame. Most of the camera shots used are of the band members themselves, possible to show their importance in the video, For the guitarist allot of low camera angles showing him as a strong figure, which is a common aspect of rock videos. But it also changes from medium close ups to close ups when he is singing the song without his guitar. The drummer however rarely has different angles, they are mainly medium shots, which change from a front on angle to a side, although there is not much diversity in the camera angles it keeps with the beat, which rarely changes, almost showing the consistency of the drummer.
The colours used in the Video do fit in with the band name ‘The White Stripes’ as the colour white is a constantly reoccurring colour. The video itself looks like it has been edited with an increased contrast which brings out paler colours more, but the red looks like it has been enhanced to stand out on top of the white and black Along with this the colour Black and Red and a very common reoccurring colour. The video itself is situated on top of a black background, and made to look like there is a reflective floor, which shows a reflection of the video.
With the Conceptual video it immediately becomes very interesting to watch, and even though it is constantly repeating, and when the song is added on-to the video it becomes almost hypnotic, as the song and the video are repetitive, but it works as both the song and video become very catchy.
Mrs D
Gallows - Staring At the Rude Bois (Draft)
Gallows - Staring at the Rude Bois
Gallows are a British punk band with very loud and aggressive style songs, the video for staring at the rude bois, is a mainly performance based song, with a small amount of narrative. Which is a fairly common feature in rock videos, however what’s different is that this happens early on, where as it is normally towards the end.
The video starts on with Frank carter (lead singer) walking through a train yard at night singing the star to the song. The abandoned and dark area fits in with the bands them. During the early narrative the camera changes from medium close ups, to close ups while he sings, though he never makes eye contact with the camera. He eventually ends up climbing into a carriage where the rest of the band is.
The video at this point becomes very intense, as the audience are also in there jumping around to the music. The camera shot becomes incredibly shaky, like it is being shot handheld, the cuts are very short, and a very large amount of close ups are used. This fits in with the intensity of the video. Along with this a lot of close ups on the instruments being played is shown, which is a very common aspect of the Rock/Punk genre. By using these techniques they are making the video interesting to watch along with listening to the song as it fits together
The lighting in the video varies, sometimes it is very dark, fitting in the with area, however in some of the intense parts of the songs a strong white light is shone on the camera adding to the intensity, a harsh red is also seen in the background, tinting almost the entire video
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army (Draft)
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
The first thing you notice about the video is the fact that the video is a performance, However it is done in a very conceptual way. The song itself is a rock song so it has typical things that you would expect from it, for example, very early on in the video Instruments become apparent, and close up on the person playing the song.
The video actually follows the tempo of the song as it has a solid beat, however in the faster parts of the song the video itself starts speeding up and flashing lights are incorporated into the video, making it more intense and fitting the genre itself, this is quite a common thing within the rock genre of videos.
However since the video is a conceptual video there are some unexpected things, for example the whole video is one camera shot, it never changes. Instead the video, is made up of separately recorded pieces of footage, these pieces are shaped onto a diamond which then come from a point of origin within a 4 point perspective frame.
The colours used in the Video do fit in with the band name ‘The White Stripes’ as the colour white is a constantly reoccurring colour. The video itself looks like it has been edited with an increased contrast which brings out paler colours more, but the red looks like it has been enhanced to stand out on top of the white and black Along with this the colour Black and Red and a very common reoccurring colour. The video itself is situated on top of a black background, and made to look like there is a reflective floor, which shows a reflection of the video.
With the Conceptual video it immediately becomes very interesting to watch, and even though it is constantly repeating, and when the song is added on-to the video it becomes almost hypnotic, as the song and the video are repetitive, but it works as both the song and video become very catchy.












