Music Video. Petunia and the Monsters-Infidelity.

Petunia and the Monsters from Kathryn Furness on Vimeo.

This is the final version of my Music video it is by the band 'Petunia and the Monsters' and the song is called 'Infidelity'.

Evaluation.

·         In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


When looking at the music videos I saw that the circular narrative worked well to create the effect that I was looking, which was to enable the audience to recognise the female characters sadness and vulnerability. Although at the end they do realise that she is actually happy as she is free from a bad relationship.I decided to use circular narrative as it commonly creates a different illusion at the beginning, from what it actually is towards the end. They also usually had the beginning of the curricular narrative in a different colour for example black and white, later the scene is commonly shown in colour this is a convention that I passed on through into my media product. I developed this further by when it was shown at the end we see the character walk off and the camera pans to the sky which gives the effect of freedom to the character. Another thing I saw when watching the music videos is that the characters that were usually the so called 'goody' would wear very light and flowy clothing and the 'bady' would wear very dark or bright heavy clothing.I passed  this on through my music video as the female character wore clothing that was very light such as whites, creams and shades of brown. Doing this enabled me to show the character once again in a venerable format as the settings I filmed in made the character almost blend in with the background, this also enable the audience to see that the character is very quite and doesn't want to be the centre of attention, this is also linked with my characters make-up and hair that was very light and natural.One thing that I noticed in the music videos was that if the music was dramatic and fast pace it would feature lots of different transitions to show this. I took this on as I thought it would be easy to show the link between the two main characters especially as at the beginning of the video I used a cross dissolve which meant that the two characters where on the screen slightly at the same time.In the ancillary tasks I took a lot from the media conventions, In the advert I decided to use one main image of two young females dressed in very indie and R'n'B clothing. The two models are also in front of a black background which makes them stand out. My previous adverts didn't have much writing on then but once I look at various other advert i saw that they seemed to feature small print of information at the bottom. It featured such things like 'contact us, websites etc' I took this on and decided to also show information such as tour dates and prices. I think this will appeal to my target audience more, as from my research I saw that many teens the are into indie are most likely to go on tours. A very popular convention I saw throughout almost all my my research into adverts for the same tart audience used 'QR codes' which enables the young teens to scan with their smart phones which will then take them to a website, in this case it is my music video. This allows more publicity for my video, but also gives it that extra edge on competition as research has shown that the highest amount of smart phone users are young teens which is exactly my target market.The type of font I used on my advert was very similar to other fonts used on indie and R'n'B advert which was very bold and rustic. I also picked-up on that most advert took upon a colour scheme with their font which is what I have decided to do with blues, pinks and whites. The same colour scheme is also transitioned through into my DigiPak the reason for this is because I wanted to create a house style link between both pieces which is done throughout so many different example that I looked at. My first attempt of my DigiPak and Advert seemed very immature for my target audience which is why I developed them further and decided not to feature small monsters on them although I thought this brought humour to the piece I think it also brought over the wrong message. I thought the same for the images that I used as they didn't seem to be very professional and the model was not dressed in very indie/R'n'B clothing it was much more light, which did allow me to create a link between the video and band but this could also give the message that all the music is like that. The conventions that I used on my DigiPak where greatly formed form the research I had previously done into DigiPak that was I need to keep them bold but not to much 'in you face...' creating a professional style that can be entertaining to the audience. This is domes through the uses of colour schemes and also the images I decided to show. There was also a the general conventions used on my DigiPak for example placing the small text and the bottom of the page with the copyright signal and details of the company once again giving a professional feel.

· How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 

The main product and the ancillary texts may seem slightly different as the main product seems like it would be from a Emotional type of band. Whereas when you look at my ancillary tasks you will instantly think that the band is indie\R'n'B which is what it is although I don't think this will effect how the band looks toward the audience as in most cases R'n'B artists will have a least one emotional track on their albums. I also think that doing this creates an unexpected mix which also allows the band to branch out into various other types of genres and target at many other markets. In my main product the female I have used was originally passed on into my ancillary task, I later changed this to a more teen looking couple of females that were dressed in more indie/R'n'B clothing. The resin behind this was because I felt that if I kept the same model from the video it would create the illusion that it was an emotional band and most of their song where like 'infidelity'. I also decided that using the first lot of images it targeted at the wrong audience much younger teens than I wanted as it had more of a comedic vibe to it. Now I think it really targets the right audience especially with the type of working I have decided to use on the advert. I am not saying exactly saying that the images on my DigiPak and advert are infact images of 'petunia and the monsters' as I think it gives as slight amount of mystery behind the models.I think that I have created an effective main product because it relates really well with the music and it tells the story how I wanted it to. I feel as though  if I had to much going on in the video that may take some of the attention off the actual music, this way I have done it will very simple and smooth scenes means that it creates a great mix between the music and the video therefore telling the story in the correct way. The ancillary task are very effective in my point of view as they really show the indie side to the artists but then with the house style colours and some of the images that I have decided to use we can see that there is also a R'n'B theme going on. In the main product I thought it was very hard to create a house style that could relate to my ancillary tasks although once again linking with the fact that most R'n'B artists usually feature emotional tracks on their album, I think the music is a good match.

· What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

From my audience feedback I found that it was very important to appeal to the audience. I decided I wanted to make sure that my product didn’t just appeal to one market but a few, the way that this was done was by choosing music that was versatile and that could fit into many different genres of music from R’n’B, Indie, Emotional, and slightly Pop as many pop artist do tend to create a few tracks on there albums that are emotional and have a lot of feeling to them. I found that the audience thought that the music video was very important and that the music and the video its self both complimented one another.From this I learnt that we needed create a video that was emotional and that could be shown across without any dialogue. The way this was done, was firstly by create a black and white scene at the beginning of the video that would be a circular narrative effect, it would begin with us seeing the female walk into the park place her self on the swing and look into the distance with a blank expression. This clip is then later shown in colour towards the end of the video which shows that at the beginning we think that she is very sad and lonely, by the end we actually find out that she has resolved her problem. Although she is still upset she feels she has done the right thing and she is an empowered women. We show this as she walks off into the distance and we slowing glance the camera upwards towards the sky, as if she was a trapped bird and now is able to fly free. From the audience feedback we also found that people wanted to know that she had resolved a problem and that the female was no longer trapped that is another reason we decided to have the ending that we did. The feedback told us that the audience wanted something to clearly present the 'bady' from the 'goody' this was done by showing the women in light and neutral coloured clothing and her make-up was very natural and light as well another thing we also did was make sure that the women’s hair was very flawless and delicate so that it gave a very vulnerable look, it also enabled me to make sure that her character blended in with the background to show that she didn't want to be the centre of attention. Whereas the bady would be wearing dark, bright and heavy clothing,this would show that he is not bothered and just does what he wants, it also allows the two characters to create a juxtaposition between one another without dialogue as the bright colours would be a big contracts again the neutral colours.

I was initially going to create the whole music video in a black and white effect but from the market research I found that the audience though it would be hard for them to tell where the circular narrative was. This is when I decided to split up the black and white effect and only have it at the beginning when the flash forward is beginning but then later show this in colour like the rest of the video, I feel like this made it a lot easier to show the story how I wanted to. The audience told me that they didn’t think dialogue in the video would be a good idea as it could take the attention off the actual music. This is why I decided not to have dialogue but I did feature text messages as this will tell the audience the story more clearly.
The audience feedback told me that for the advert and DigiPak they wanted to see a good colour scheme and bold photos, that is why I decided to have colours that all complimented one another for example blues and whites. With the main image in my advert I made sure it stood out by using two female young teens that were dressed very indie/R'n'B which is exactly my target audience, but I also made the background black so they stood right out. Another thing that the target audience told me was to have something that really attracted the younger teens the way I did this was by creating a 'QR code' that you can scan with a smart phone and it directs you to my music video. I thought this was a good idea as my main tart market is younger teens and looking at research the biggest owners of smart phones are generally young teens.

· How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

 The first media technologies I used was the camera which I did come across many challenges in making both of my media products the first that I was very disappointed about was that I was unable to get a tripod stand. This effected my finished product in a massive way in the end as sometimes especially in the outdoor scenes, you could see a slight wobble in some of the shots due to high winds, this does not ruin the effect in the video but it is something that I would prefer was not there.
One thing I was unable to use was the correct lighting this did cause a few problems which is slightly visible in some of the shots was the lighting, I was very hard to film with natural day like as there was not much of it throughout the days of out filming and when there was some it wasn’t very bright at all but I did think in some ways this would give the depressing effect that I was looking for in he actual video, when doing the indoor shots I had to use mainly artificial lighting which I really did not want to do but there was no other possible way and in one scene in the video the artificial lighting is so obvious and in some ways I think it completely ruins the shot. I then had a few minor challenge, firstly shadows, because it was hard to get the natural lighting when I did it was usually in the early morning this meant that the sun was still changing and moving which meant my shadow was always unpredictable that is why when looking closely at the park scene there is a slight glimpse of my shadow as the sun has slightly shifted. Not having the right scenery, when filming the bed scene I did initially want to show the character awakening up out of a double bed because of course she was living with her boy friend but I was only able to get a hold of a single I don’t believe this is a big problem but it is a small thing that doesn’t effect the video so much.
I was able to use a Mac mini to edit my video this was a really good editing system as I could edit clips easily and in a quick amount of time if need I could easily add transitions and change the colour how I wanted to. When editing the video I did find some difficulties but nothing to bad for example in the top left hand corner I wanted to have a small symbol that would represent the channel that people were watching it on for example ‘MTV’ I did want this to be shown throughout the whole video but the editing system that I was using would only allow this to be shown at the beginning of the video. The timing of the music video, I did find it quite hard to actually get a good amount of time in the music video as some of the scene I had to ad just to create more time were scenes that I may not of generally liked and would have preferred not to add.
In the ancillary task I used Fireworks to edit my photos which did have some good points about it for example I was able to add the small monsters in fairly easily and I was also able to put text on the photos easily, although the quality was not what I would have liked to use I would of preferred a better quality system for example photo shop. I would have like to have some type of system that would of allowed me to create the DigiPak more efficiently instead of ‘microsoft publisher’. I did find some difficulty when I was trying to create the eyeball effect on the CD in the actually DigiPak as it came up more cartoon like then I actually wanted. I did find it good in some points for example I was able to create the shape I wanted fairly easily and I could move them around how I pleased. My final advert was actually created in 'pages' for iMac which I loved using as I was able to create my advert in the exact way that I wanted to.
The Blogger was the Main thing that I used as I had to put all of my work on there I generally liked it as I was able to add things pretty easily and I could put photos in with different captions how I liked. But there was a few difficulties for example there was some case where I lost some of my work and was unable to recover it. I do like how you are able to view you blog easily after putting a post on but then sometimes my images would not show up.

Music Magazine advert Planning.

This is my final advert for my music single the reason i have completely changed it is because I thought my previous adverts looked rather childish and armature and I didn't feel like it target at the right audience I felt it targeted more at the lower aged viewers whereas I wanted it to be targeted at more young teens interested in indie and R'n'B. I also thing the two models in this advert do fit with my target audience more as they are dressed in very indie clothing but they are then making the 'YOLO' sign in their hand which represents the R'n'B in the advert. I have also added a QR code that takes you to my music video the reason for doing this is because it really appeals to the young teens which is who I want to target at as that is my biggest market for indie/R'n'B. I have also edited the background of the image so that the models stand out and look like they are in darkness. I have added infomation at the bottom because this is used in a lot of modern day adverts so it allows the advert to have more awarness and much more ways to be closer to their audience.

This is my almost complete version of my advert it is vastly different from my previous version my reason for this is because I didn't feel like it targeted at the right target audience. Although I still want to make a few changes to this advert just to make it that more appealing for example I want to add a QR code which can be scanned and take the viewer to my music video this just appeals more to my target audience which is you teens as they are able to scan it with their smart phone and what the video instantly. This is done to a lot of advertisements that target at younger teens and the main reason being is because young teens are the biggest holders of smart phones. I also want to edit my main photo a little bit more to cut out all of the back ground so it just makes the models look like they are in darkness, which allows them to stand out from the background.

This is my final copy and I have decided to keep the theme of the big bold font of the bands name at the very bottom of the page and I have also kept the same image throughout as I think this image shows the character in the way I would like which is Innocent and likable. I have also kept the small advert in the top left hand corner because from research I have seen that there is often adverts for where you can buy them in these sorts of adverts. I decided to make a house style with the colours which is different shades this is also used in my Digipak so that the audience know that this colour resembles the band and when they see the colours and they know it is them. 'Infedleity' is in a different font compared to the name of the band this is because I wanted to make it obvious that this is the name of the single and of the album I have also made it italic because it shows the elegance of the song. I have decided to remove the page number at the top right hand corner the reason for this is because when doing my research I did not find many to have the page number on the adverts.

This is the second draft to my music magazine, as you can see I have decided to use a big main image of the main band member, this member will also be shown on the cover and throughout my digipak. I have made the colour of the image black and white, then made it slightly lighter so it gives a washed out effect. The reason for doing this is because it shows the genre of the single which is slightly sad and depressing. But it also shows the innocence of the character. I have slightly changed the font of 'inferdelity' so that is matches in more with the name of the band. The font colour I have chosen on this draft is a mixture so that it all stands out from the background but I think I will change the colour scheme though because it does not mix very well together.
Once again I have decided to add in  a advert for 'HMV' I just think this gives a more realistic effect.
I did think about actually adding a the Digipak image in the advert but I have decided just to stick with the image on the main band member.

This is the fist draft of my music magazine advert.I have decided to use a big tittle at the top left hand corner of the page 'Hot and New' this is because in my research I was able to see that many of the magazine had a certain page or number of pages that featured a new band in them and at the beginning they would have a big tittle for example 'NEW', or the date in bold writing.
For the name of the band I have decided to use big bold font which I will carry out in all my ancillary tasks. I have made the 'and the' slightly smaller because I like the effect and look that is gives and nit also shows that more of the attention is on 'PETUNIA' and 'MONSTERS'. Infidelity is the name of the album and the single that is why I have placed that above the name of the band so that people know that his is the new song and not the band name.
I have featured a little advert that says that it shall be sold in 'HMV' and the price it shall be the reasons for this are because some of the magazine adverts where by different stores trying to get people to buy the album there and not by the actual band for example 'play.com' or 'amazon'.

DigiPak Planning.

This is the final inside of my DigiPak this is very different to my previous versions just like I said before because I thought the previous ones weren't targeted at the right audience I felt they targeted at a younger audience that I wanted.In my research I found that many of the DigiPaks featured a thank you note, I took this on board and decided to also have one, once again it is in the same font and colour scheme as my advert creating a house style. I decided to keep the CD its self very plain, making it black but at the bottom I decided to have a in white writing 'deluxe edition'. To create a more professional effect I decided to put 'petunia' on the very top left of the didpak in bold writing, then on the CD i decided to put 'and the; and then at the top right hand corner of the digipak 'monsters so when the digipak is opened it will read 'petunia and the monsters' I really like the effect that this gave and looking at my research a lot of indie digipaks did similar things.The images that i used inside are very similar to the outside as they both feature the same two models in the same indie/R'n'B clothing, I also edited the background making it black to make the models stand out more I was going to feature some writing on the pages with the images but I felt it would look less professional and would take away attention from the models. 

this is the final outside of my DigiPak. It is vastly different from my previous ones the reason for this is because I felt that the previous versions didn't target the right target audience that I wanted to target at which is young teens. The images that I have decided to use are very indie/R'n"B which also helps to pull in the right audience. I have edited the background of the images so that is it black the reason for this is so that the images stand out more, I also thnk it gives it a more professional look. I have decided to use very bold urban font which links in with the indie theme. The colours that I have chosen create a house style I think as the same font and colour is the same as the advert. I have chosen to add a QR code which links to the my music video the reason for doing this is because in my research I found that the  biggest owners of smart phones are young teens, which is my target market also. I thought adding the QR code made it more attractive to the young teens. I decided to have mainly photos the reason for this is because in my research I found that most digipaks were made up with images.

This is an image of my Digipak piece I have decided to have one main image on the inside of the character that is shown throughout my digipak and my poster and she is also in the music video the reason I used the same model was because it creates a house style and it makes people think that she is 'Petunia ' and I like this because it give some mystery being her. The CD has the effect of an eyeball and the reason I have decided to do this is because it is fun and creates the style I am looking for, I also did this because the bands name is 'Petunia and the Monsters' so this in fact could be the main monster as the images throughout my ancillary tasks to show many small monsters which once again make the audience think that the female is 'Petunia' and then small images are the 'Monsters'. On the left hand side is the brief synopsis of what 'Petunia' is saying about the album and who she is thanking, below that I have added the copy right material the reason I have done this is so that I am using the conventions of a real media text and it give a real effect to the digipak. The big 'P' and 'M' is to represent the bands initials I have done this because this can be shown as there symbol and trade like how Rhianna has a 'R'. This will allow the audience to know that it is this band when they see these initials.

This is the outside of my digipak this is mainly filled with images of the same model with the small drawing of the monsters the monsters look hand drawn because I think it makes it seem more fun and creative. The images I have used are mix between colour and black and white because I wanted to make some in black and white but not all because I thought that this would make it seem more depressing which is what I did not want to make, the coloured pictures I think makes it more fun once again. On the back I have added the tittle and the number track but I have made it slightly different as usually the number is before the tittle but i have decided to show them after as it makes it different and stand out from the other Cd's. Once again we can see that the 'P' and 'M' has been added but in a smaller font this is like Brittney Spears album has she has the initials dotted around her pages I think this makes it seem more professional and realistic. Below that I have also added another copy right sentence this once again just gives it a real effect.

Planning:

Looking at this research the Digipak is very important to make sure that is suitable and will appeal to our audience is is also important that we create a good colour and font scheme that goes with our genre of music. Our Digipak is going to feature lots of things that will appeal to our audience and make them want to buy it.
We will feature pictures that will probably be taken when filming the music video so that they are similar and can clearly show that they are by the same people. We will probably only have four or less images but we will make then big so that they are all over the digipak because we don't want to many images so that it looks to busy and unattractive but we don't want to have to less images so that it looks boring.
We will have a house style colour throughout the Digipak this will be our colour which shows whenever you see this colour you know that it is us and it just create recognition, this colour will also be a colour that actually goes with our genre.
We will feature a two pounds voucher for itunes in each and every pack, this will appeal to our target audience because our target audience will be more younger girls/boys this means that we are not suggesting that they have much money which means they will enjoy to use this voucher online especially as iTunes is very popular now and lots of people prefer to buy off iTunes then go to buy the actual CD.
We will also have a special prize sort of like a 'golden ticket' type theme which is, in one of the Digipaks there will be a special price which is that the person who has this will be able to meet the band and spend a day with them.
We think it is important for us to have special prizes like this because it will probably gain more buyers of the album and it will also show that we care about our fans.