The document provides details about the various elements used in a music video for an indie folk song. It discusses the influences from other music videos, the costume and lack of props, use of natural lighting and weather, camera techniques including various shots, editing techniques using fades, the simple narrative storyline, lip syncing performance, representation of typical indie folk genre traits, and minimal direct links between visuals and lyrics. It also outlines the design of a digipak and website for the album, including cover artwork, song listings, photos, blog layout, and merchandise/contact pages that align with research of other artists' designs.

1. Evluation Question 1
In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge
forms and conventions of real media
products?

2. Music Video

3. Mise En Scene
My music video follows the form of a narrative. I based my video on ones that I
analysed such as Kassidy's 'Take Another Ride' by having a lot of long shots of the
main character. Another video that helped influence my video was Ben Howard's
'Only Love' as the video follows him take a journey on a bike, but as the song I chose
wasn't s upbeat I decided to have my actor walking. The last element I took from the
videos I looked at included having the character walk around in a house in the video
to help the narrative. I took thies from Bombay Bicycle Club's 'Dust on the Ground'
and The Civil War's 'Poison and Wine'

4. For the costume I chose to stick to JVM's normal attire. This included plaid shirts
and jeans. I decided to stick to this as it not only meant that I didn't have think of a
new look for him but it also is the stereotypical clothing wear for the indie folk
genre. Besides from this the actor I chose wears these clothes as well, so I only
had to give him an outline on what to wear, so he wasn't out of his comfort zone at
all.

5. I chose to have a video that wasnt prop heavy, I did did
so the audience mainly focused on the character, which
meant they felt empathy towards him. The only prop I
used was the picture frame and picture of him and his
siblings when he was younger, which again helped the
audience empathise with the character.

6. Thankfully the weather on the day I chose to film was the perfect weather for what I
wanted the video to look like. The main reason I wanted the weather to be sunny was
because filming during golden hour. This was the best time to get the timelapse, as
as the video follows the main character during the day, so timing of the video and the
weather shows what time of day it is as the time. I didn't want to have much of a
noticable filter put on my video as I wanted to keep it is natural looking as possible,
especially with the natural lighting through out to create the most natural setting
possible.

7. Camera Techniques
I used a large variety of shots throughout my video, ranging from long shots to close ups. I
chose to have such a variety of shots as my storyline was so simple, it made it more
interesting. To vary the long shots I had them at different angles and has some looking
through things like a fence. One shot that I think worked very well was the ones towards the
end during golden hour, and also shots of the strings as the lighting for both, although very
different were effective to help create the right mood. A common shot used within indie folk is
the use of closeup instruments in a cleverly lit setting, so I wanted to recreate this as it looks
very effective, and also worked well within my video. At some points of the filming of the string
section I had to film several takes after altering where they were sat to make sure they didn't
go into darkness as they moved when they played.

8. Editing Techniques
As the pace of the song is quite slow, I chose to have fades between shots
rather than cuts, this made the video seem a lot smoother, and less edgy. I
also chose to have the narrative seem like a whole day, so the cross
dissolves and fades makes it seem like time is passing rather than having
cuts. I chose to edit to the beat, as it made it more stylistic overall. At some
points during the video I timed the two shots so they blended to each other
which added to the overall look of the video.

9. Narrative
Although some videos don't have an actual story line I found within the folk
indie genre that most did, even it was just a simple one. Some may have the
majority with them playing their instuments (which is present in Kassidy's
'Take Another Ride') but still has a little bit of narrative at the end. Some
videos have artists singing/playing but also have some shots of them when
they aren't acting, which could have been shot as a 'behind the scenes/the
making of' but then chose to add it to the video as it fit. This method
alsosometimes creates a nostalgic feel to it.
For my video I chose to have the majority as a simple story line. This
included having the main character go on a journey and end up a his house.
He then sees the table set, pictures of him and his family, but they are
nowhere to be seen. He then goesback on his journey, and as the music
picks up pace, he starts to pick up pace, in somewhat fustration. He then
ends up next to the resevoir and throws pebbles into it. It then ends with him
singing looking into the sunset, then there is a timelapse of the sunset. To
break the narrative up i added footage of strings playing. They start when
the strings in the song start, so have been put in to mimic it, and play as a
'band' within the song.

10. Performance
The perfomance during my vdeo was mainly just to show emotion during some parts
of the song, and then the lip syncing. The lip syncing could have been better, but
from what I shot there was enough to make it believeable. The main issue when lip
syncing is to get it exactly on time, which at time my actor found a little hard,
because although I gave him plenty of notice for filming, he wasn't as familiar with
the song as he could be, but what I got did work. Towards the end of the day he got
better at being able to connect with the audience, as he looked at the camera, but
did it purposely, which fitted well with what I wanted. He was good to work with, as
he was able to portray emotion even when singing, but even in the official music
video to this song James doesn't do a particularly good job at lip syncing, which
shows that even in the professional industry things may seem slightly ameature like.

11. Representation
The representation of the Indie folk genre seems quite relaxed and passive in
general, this is mainly due to the fact that a lot of the songs have a slower pace
compared to other genres. Most of the artists within this specific genre are males, but
the females within the genres are usually a little more upbeat compared to the males.
This co uld be percived to the stereotypical gender personalities, or it could just be
due to the characteristics of the artists that are drawn to perform within this genre
have a specific type of personality. As the song I chose is performed by a male,
rather than doing something completely against the genre stereotype I chose to stick
to what is within the norms of a male indie folk music video.

12. Link between visuals
and lyrics
I chose to stay away from the obvious link towards the visuals
and lyrics as I think that it can make a video seem very cheesy
and cheap in some respect. The only obvious link there is
within the video is the fact that there is a set table. I picked out
several words and phrases such as 'so I wonder on' as he is
walking down the paths and 'we'd just be running down' as he
starts to run, so there are less obvious connections between
the lyrics and visuals.

13. Digipak Design

14. 4 Sided Digipak design
Cover artwork
The cover usually gives some indication of what the genre is. It also
includes the title of the album and the band/artist name. These
features are usually linked by the colour scheme. The colour
scheme would then follow throughout the digipak.
Song titles
Every CD and Digipak will have the song titles on the back, the only
thing that will differ will be the layout and format chosen to do so.
Key Information and spine
Information such as the record company, barcode, copyright
information, reference number and procuction logo.
Inside cover
The inside of digipaks can vary, some include extra information
about the band, some includes photos of the band, others include a
booklet which could have more information, more photos and lyrics
from the album and the making of.

16. Artwork
The artwork on albums can sometimes include fan
made art (usually absract), photo of the band/artist,
photo of scenery that might be in the video, abstract
photos. All of these vary, and would usually be
cohesive with one or both of a music video and their
website.

17. My final design
My digipak design was meant to follow the music video, so follows the park
of the day during the video. I chose the ictures due to them having the same
colour scheme. The font I chose I had to experinement with. I had to use
different fonts and try out which worked best as the background was so
busy. I came to the final conclusion to make the section where the writing
would go slightly transparent so we could see the writing. I then did the
same on the back where the song titles would go. During reasearch upon
JVM's two other albums, they both had a very nature like approach, and as
my video did the same I chose to have the same type of appraoch. I wanted
the album to lookvery homey, so I chos to have the font look handwritten. I
had the photo on the front and back not reaveal much, so my actor from the
back could almost look like James himself, which I liked the look of. For the
inside I chose to go with the scenery side, the first is the picture of the tree,
which I put a quote from my song as I thought it fit really well. I then chose
to have the CD and inside cover to have the same photo on it, rather than
having a plain CD design, this I think looked effective as it fit together when
aligned. I aded key information on the back, spin and CD, this included
copyright information, production company logo, JVM logo (which I had to
make myself), barcode, reference number, the designer. the year made and
so on.

19. Website Design

20. Homepage
3/4 websites I looked at now have the video on the home page
as soon as you enter the site. This is the same overall
approach I took when I designed my website. Although Kassidy
has used the video on the home page (enter page), I decided
to go with the same layout as The Lumineers and Bastille - by
having the video on a page that looks the same as the rest of
the website.

21. Newspage
I went for the overall blog look, which I found that
James Vincent McMorrow and The lumineers does as
well. I thought this layout is a much easier way to
follow the most recent things if you were to look their
websites.

22. Gallery
I decided to go for the grid layout for the gallery page as it
shows the pictures together, Unfortunately i couldn't change the
layout that much for the gallery page (like James Vincent
McMorrow's gallery page)

23. Tour page
For the tour page I decided to use the list layout as
looking for the dates is a lot easier.

24. Music page
The music pages I looked at whilst making my website
had a mixture of soundcloud boxes and youtube
videos that you can play and listen to.

25. Store page
The store usually sells band merchandise related to what is on
the website at the time, and they sometimes have an external
one to show previous merchandise.

26. Contact page
The contact page usually sends to the record company or
producer/manager, or adds you to their mailing list. So I went
with the sending it to the record label/producer.