3. Project Overview
• Having known Polly for a long time, and being familiar with both her style of music
and creative way of working, I knew she would be an ideal artist to work with on
this project. I contacted her and she seemed very interested, and we decided on a
song to work with. As this song ended up being 'The Camden Backfire Blues', a
song she wrote herself, we decided it made sense to film the video in Camden
Town, London. The location provided a mixture of interesting visuals ranging from
intricately decorated buildings, walls and streets, to more simplistic interior
locations like bars, pubs and shops, all of which happily allowed us to film inside.
This provided us with the opportunity to include a lot of different shots and
camera angles, depending on where we were at the time. The location
synchronised well with the song not only due to its title, but also its theme and
lyrics; the song is about a girl caught up in the seemingly damaging side of the
nightlife and music scene, both of which are heavily weaved into the culture of
Camden Town. This meant that there was a definite visual connection between the
song and its visual representation. The only 'prop' we used in the production was
Polly's guitar, as I wanted to ensure that the video's narrative scenes did not seem
entirely staged; heavy prop usage can often give the impression of a 'studio'
creation, which was not the effect we necessarily desired.
4. Conveying Codes and Conventions
When listening to the Camden Backfire Blues, I was
reminded of several songs and videos I was already
familiar with, such as the story featured in the Arctic
Monkeys' song (and video for) 'When the sun goes
down' or the negative themes of other
songs, particularly Babyshambles 'Delivery', the video
for which I also liked. Various aspects of these, and
others, such as the great use of black and white, as
well as variation in the shots used in Creep's video
for 'You', have been featured in my video, from the
black and white imagery I chose, or the inclusion of a
lone character as the focus of the video. As 'The
Camden Backfire Blues' is a song with a definite
narrative structure, I wanted to reflect this in the
video, but not too overwhelmingly. I gave it a loose
narrative in the sense that there is one central
character being followed through the story the song
is telling, though the lyrics themselves are not
illustrated entirely literally, as this can often make a
video become quite clichéd or tacky. There is also a
performance aspect to the video, emphasising the
fact that the character included is also the artist
behind the song, the one who is telling the story. I
expected that these themes would make the video
enjoyable in a visual sense but also relevant to the
song it accompanies, enhancing it instead of
distracting from it.
5. • As well as studying video's individually, I
also took influence from having observed
certain director's bodies of work, such as
that of Saman Keshavarz, director of
videos for acts such as Russ Chimes
(Midnight EP series), Apparat (Song of
Los) and Cinnamon Chasers (Luv
Deluxe), who despite not using Keshavarz
performance or lyrical illustration in his
videos, does feature narrative, though
usually in a much more traditional
sense, with multiple characters and
definitive plot. What I took from
Keshavarz' style is the way in which he
conveys emotions within his visuals; by
using frequent close ups and focussing on
facial expression as well as action to
create recognizable 'characters' even
within such a short space of time in a
music video. Another director I was
influenced by is Douglas Hart, who often
creates videos for artists much more
similar to my own, such as Fionn Regan
(Catacombs), or Ocean Colour Scene
(various). What I admire about Hart's
work is his effective combination of both
narrative and performance within a
video, something I have incorporated. As Hart
well as this, the aesthetic appeal of his
work is great; he often experiments with
colour distortion and unconventional
camera angles. Removing the colour from
my video, and experimenting (though not
as greatly) with camera angle, has proven
a notable transcendence of Hart's work.
6. Challenging Codes and Conventions
In addition to intertextualising the work of others, I have also
ensured that my video has it's own appeals, so that it doesn't
appear to have copied aforementioned works, or others. It
does not copy all the styles of one video directly, instead
combining effects and ideas to become a production in it's own
right.
The video includes many typical, basic codes and conventions
of such media products such as lip-
synching, performance/narrative, and in terms of editing, the
way in which the video cuts to the beat of the song, as well as
the transition effects used. What challenges these codes
however, is the way the song presents the character. Usually in
songs with similar lyrics, there is a third person
narrative, something that conveys in the video too, with this
character merely being observed and spoken for. What my
video does is present a first person narrative of a song written
for the most part in third person. The fact that a female sings
these lyrics significantly suggests that the song is about
herself, which means therefore the video provides an insight
into this character. It is her story, not a story about her.
As well as this, the fact that lot of the shots I ended up
including in my video were those I did not plan before hand
adds to the video's challenge of convention. I think it gives the
video a natural quality; it does not come across as being too
heavily drafted or staged, instead appearing much more
realistic, and true to the nature of the artist herself. When
directing her, I was careful not to be too specific or constricting
in my proposed actions; as the song, and in turn the
story, were Polly's own, it made much more sense to pluck a
certain amount of the narrative from real life action.
7. The Digipak
This is the design for my music
video digipak. It contains many
important features such as the
artist's image, logo, song
title, video age rating and a bar
code. The back also contains a list
of the pack's features as well as
positive quotes from its magazine
reviews, further encouraging the
viewer to purchase the pack. It's
main features is it's photography.
The fact that the digipak contains
strong visual imagery suggests to
the potential buyer that the
imagery found in the contained
video will also be strong. I tried
not to crowd the digipak too
much, as I wanted it to be simple
and aesthetically pleasing
enough that it is still pleasant to
look at after having owned it and
looked at it for a long time.
8. Print Based Adverts
The print advert is essentially an alternate version of the digipak's front cover. This way, there can be no
confusion over what the product it promotes will look like. It includes extra details, like a release date
and information about Polly's website. These things would only be found on an advertisement and not
on the cover itself, as the information they contain will become outdated and irrelevant, not an aspect
you want to include in a product you want people to keep for a long time.
I also produced this small printed flyer, which could be handed out at gigs. It too features an image of
the digipaks cover, but also some original photography, providing variation for someone who has
already seen the main print advert.
9. Codes and Conventions of the
Ancillary Texts
The influences I looked to for My music digipak were similarly interesting as those of the video. I had to use imagery and text that
corresponded with the song and video, to ensure a consistent house style; with the plans I had already made for the video I
looked to the print-based imagery the artists I had already studied were using. What I found was that because a lot of the artists I
had studied in terms of video were male, even though they were often promoting music of the same genre, their albums and
digipak covers were less focussed on personal image than the way in which I wanted mine to be.
A female artists' work, whether intentionally or not, will be subjected to more scrutinous analysis in terms of that female's image;
by both male and female audiences alike. Because of this I knew it was important to present Polly in the exact way I wanted her
video to be viewed; professional, aesthetically pleasing, and also representative of her music genre, but not in a stereotypical
sense.
Some digipaks that I found to include these conventions were Lana Del Rey's 'Video Games/Blue Jeans' release, and Kate Walsh's
'Tim's House' album. What I liked about these covers was the way that colour and pose were used; Del Rey's had a great use of
vibrant colour, Walsh's were muted. This is something I combined in my own digipak, with Polly wearing bright colours, as well as
the bright colour of her eyes, then being muted slightly so that the image was much more easy on the eye.
10. Representation of the Brand Identity
I think the digipak and print advert, in spite of visual
differences form the video, do represent it well, as they
both incorporate features relatively typical of Polly's
indie, folk, or acoustic style, such as both's main
image, a pretty, though not sexualised image of the
artist, relatively simplistic in structure so as not to
distract from the photography, it's main aspect. Neither
the print advert or digipak cover feature heavy use of
text, as I think this can often cause a potential buyer to
avoid both, not wanting to read the words just to
understand the content. All text on the back of the
digipak is less likely to have this effect, as it will not be
seen at all until the buyer has picked up the
product, clearly aready interested by the visuals on the
front, or the artist, whose name and image are featured
prominently for this reason.
When viewing all the products I have created together, I
think that they all represent eachother well. There is a
definite house style and sense of brand identity
between the digipak and print advert; they are almost
the same; I made them this way because an advert for a
product would logically contain an image of the product
it presents, so the viewer knows what it is they are to
look for; for this reason, both have the same main
image, and Polly's name and song title in large print.
This also works well in terms of a person who sees the
video before encountering the print advert or the
digipak. The song's title 'The Camden Backfire Blues' is
repeated in the lyrics of the song; anyone who knows
the song will recognize those words when they see
them on either the print advert or the digipak.
11. Audience Feedback
In order to get an accurate view of what
people would think of the video, I used
a number of methods to collect
response. Polly shared the video on her
Facebook page, a good way to get the
video seen by it's target audience;
people who already enjoy Polly's music
and subscribe to her page will be
interested in seeing this video. The
response we received from this was
great, 79 people 'liked' the video, and it
received a number of positive
comments, complimenting various
aspects such as the video's locations,
Polly's song, 'Camden Backfire Blues' is available online to Polly's style, the visuals we created, it's
download, and she informed me that there were a significant use of black and white, among other
number of downloads of the song in the time following the video's
release; this is absolutely great for both of us, as the reason any
things. This proves that the video looks
musician creates a video is to promote the song, to raise awareness professional and is enjoyable to those
in the hope that it will be bought. This has happened, proving that who viewed it. The fact that people have
the video is a great advertisement for it's song and artist. With it complimented Polly on her look and her
being extremely low budget to create, this also means that Polly has voice as well shows that the video
profited from the creation of the video, another great aspect of the
project.
represents her well too.
12. Survey Results
• Another way I collected response was through the creation of a survey on Survey
monkey. All the questions can be viewed here, but a selection of them provided
more of an insight into people's views than others, as follows:
75% of those surveyed said that the video was very entertaining and interesting
to watch, and the other 25% said it had good qualities. The fact that no-one
responded negatively is great as it proves the video is a good piece of work even
when not considered within Polly's body of work; people enjoyed the video for
more than just it's song and artist.
13. This question received exactly the response I wanted- When creating all the products I
tried to keep in mind a brand identity, and each product's representation of its
counterparts, and the fact that this has communicated to 95% of the entire audience
proves that this was successful. It also mentions how the fan would be 'impressed' or
'pleased' in both the answers that received votes. No one thought that the fan would
feel 'mislead' by the way the video was presented by it's print advert or digipak, great
because disappointing a fan is the exact opposite intention of any artist's releases.
14. 40% of the people who watched the video and took the survey researched Polly's
work afterwards. This is a good amount, and it means that those people were directly
compelled to check out Polly's music after the way the video presented her and her
work, the explicit intention of the project. A further 40% said they would check out
her music in the future, still meaning that the enjoyed the song featured. 20% of
people simply said that she was 'ok', although no specifically a negative reaction. It is
great that no one said they definitely wouldn't want to check out her music, as it
proves that she was definitely not presented in a bad way. After collecting responses
for this question however, I did realise it's flaw; I did not include an option for those
who were already familiar with Polly's music, although those who are would probably
still be able to use one of the answers provided to voice their opinion of the song.
15. Every person surveyed said that they think both the digipak and video would
be satisfactory to a professional artist, an excellent result. The reasons for
such a response included references to the professional photography of the
digipak and print advert, as well as their eye-catching images. In terms of the
video, people voted yes because they thought it was well made and fit well
with the song, and also that it did not look like a college project, but like a
professionally made video.
I also asked people to rate each product out of 10, and neither were rated
below 7 at all by anyone, which is also a great response to receive.
16. Artist Response
Polly herself was also very happy with the video; the way she shared it on Facebook proves this, as well as
this message she sent me:
I'm very glad she is happy with the video, as important as audience feedback is, it's also crucial that the
artist themself is happy to share and be proud of their work.
17. Media Technologies
I used a wide variety of media technologies throughout the project.
Research and Planning Stages:
My research stage included the use of media technologies in the way I consumed the
media I was then referencing; I used the internet, namely YouTube to gain knowledge of
the types of music video that are out there, how they can differ, the effects one can
include in them, as well as the way each one represents it's artist. This was similar when
I research existing digipaks.
When planning the video I created a small animation on Adobe Premier, as video editing
software was not something I had much experience in using. I found this helpful later on
in my editing phase, as I had learnt certain skills that were then included in the final
video. I did not actually use Premier to edit my music video, but a lot of its basic
conventions are the same as Final Cut, which I did use.
18. Construction, Editing and Evaluation Stages:
In the construction of all the products, I used several technologies. To create the digipak, print advert and
booklet, I used an SLR camera, and after capturing the shots I needed, Photoshop to create the images I
wanted to use. After using effects that muted the colours of the photos, and that slightly adjusted their
focus, and added text and frames to some, they looked much more professional and in keeping with the house
style I wanted. Photoshop was a program I had used a lot before, both in the previous year's magazine
project, as well as in outside projects, so I feel that my prior knowledge of such technology assisted the
proficiency with which I used it, creating some images I am very proud of.
When constructing the video, I used a handheld video camera, and then Final cut to edit. The camera itself was
quite simple to use, and most of the effects I added to the video came in the editing phase, such as the removal
of colour saturation, transition effects and cropping certain shots. Final cut was a program I had not used
before, and even with my prior knowledge of Adobe Premier, I did find some aspects of the program quite time
consuming to begin with, but as the editing went on I became much more confident in using it, meaning that I
picked up some great skills for similar projects in the future, which is great.
In my evaluation I used technology to gain audience feedback. The video was posted onto YouTube and
Facebook, both great ways of sharing media. Facebook, a more personal way of doing do proved excellent for
audience feedback, as well as giving a lot of people the opportunity to see a video they might not have
otherwise seen; as it appeared on their homepages, watching it was so easy to do.
Throughout the project, I have posted all stages onto a blog on Blogger. This was a very useful way to present
work, as it gives me and those interested in the project an outlet to find all information and references in one
place. The fact that it is online has been very useful too as it meant I could access my work anywhere, be that
at home or even on my phone if I was in the production phase of the project.
As well as the blog, a lot of my correspondences with Polly took place via e-mail, great because it meant we
could share ideas in the form of links to existing music videos, as well as online images and articles, even
when we couldn't meet up to do so.
