Question two

Question one

I created an indie music video using Gabrielle Aplins 'panic cord', digipak and magazine advert, I chose the indie genre as I felt it was the genre in which the artist relates to the audience the most and truly creates a close bond with them, it is a genre which promotes artist that are down to earth and will allow them to succeed as the audience appreciate them for their talent and also their likeable personality, this will allow me to create a loyal fan base for my artist, which is essential to the longevity of my artists career. The purpose of the music video was to help the audience understand the narrative and therefore engage into the video, this allows them too truly create a relationship with the artist and therefore helps the artist become more successful and closer to the audience which makes the artist seem more down to earth and become more likeable which therefore helps the artist gain more fans and become more successful. The video was of the indie genre and used a performance and narrative style of performance allowed the audience to see the artists true talents and helps break up the constant narrative before it becomes tedious, the narrative helps the audience understand the meaning of the song, allowing them to truly relate to the story and artist.

The video is conventional as many typical indie genre conventions are used, for example, lots of close ups of the artists, when she is singing, are used, this helps sell the artist to the audience and helps her become more successful within the indie genre, I took the idea of a close up from Birdys - Wings music video as in this video the artists true emotion is portrayed which allows the artist to create a close bond with the audience, the close up is used whilst she is singing, I incorporated this into my work by placing down the camera in front of the artist and using the lens to zoom into the artists face, this allows her emotions to be portrayed to the audience to help build a relationship between her and the audience. I also used the idea of fast paced editing, this was taken from Ed Sheerans - A team, in the Ed Sheeran video this was used to show the homeless girl had been waiting for a long time and makes the audience sympathetic toward her, yet was ignored by everyone that past her, in my video it will help show time has past but show that the artist still has feelings for her ex, this was incorporated into my work through placing the scene onto final cut pro x and using the speed bar to increase the speed and show how time is flying by and helps show the audience how she is living her life in the best possible way she can and is making the most of it. Another convention that was used was a natural setting, this was taken from Gabrielle Aplins - please don't say you love me, this uses fields within the video a lot, to show how down to earth she is and that she is real, not fake like other artists around her, this was incorporated into my work through travelling to different locations that are surrounded by natural settings and setting up filming there, this shows our artist as a normal, down to earth person who isn't above herself and doesn't believe she's better than her audience/fans. The mix of narrative and performance as a style of music video was taken from Gabrielle Aplins Panic Cord, this helps show the artists true, raw talent for singing, as well as engaging the audience through a narrative that helps the audience make sense of the lyrics and truly understand and relate to the artist, helping the artist create a fan base, I incorporated the mix of styles through cutting scenes and placing different styles within the video, I filmed the artist singing for performance, and also a narrative and chopped down scenes to help create a mix of both. I used a narrative of a love story, this is extremely common and conventional within the indie genre, I was inspired by Nina Nesbitts - boy, this helps the audience relate to the artist and truly warm toward her and like/ engage into her music,  the love story was incorporated through careful planning of the scenes and the overall story, this allowed me to decide what scene needed to be filmed by when and place it in final cut pro x in the correct order so the overall narrative makes sense to the video. Finally, I used a dream filter over memories she is reminiscing about, I got this idea from Gabrielle Aplins Panic Cord, she used a different filter over previous memories to show they were the past and help differentiate it for the audience, helping the audience engage and truly understand the artists feelings, this was incorporated through the use of final cut pro x, placing the dream filter over the scene which allowed me to create an effect of a previous time and showing the audience that this is all in the past and is not being lived in the present time, helping the audience sympathise with the artist and help build a relationship

The narrative is about a love story in which a girl is heart broken over her break up with her boyfriend and is reminiscing on all the good times they had previously shared together, this is again, conventional, and is used in lots of indie videos, this is due to a large majority of the audience being able to relate to it, which is what the artist wants. The song is a successful representation of indie genre music and is extremely conventional and would fit in with the indie genre, and helps the artist become successful. I did finish both, my music video and my ancillary texts, I did not challenge conventions in either, but did develop them to help draw in the correct target audience, yet still be unique within the genre, I developed conventions by looking at common themes within the genre, e.g love narrative, and creating my own storyline and creating an engaging and relatable storyline, at some points such as when I decided to create a love narrative, I decided it was best to just follow conventions and make it clearly an indie genre video, allowing my artist to draw in the correct target audience, allowing for her to truly become successful within her genre, however, at some points I developed the conventions as it allowed the audience to relate to typical conventions within the indie whilst also engaging them through unique factors within the video.

Overall the video was extremely successful as it was clearly conventional and related to the audience I targeted, allowing for a more successful video due to the video being catered toward a certain audience, both the ancillaries were successful as well, they drew in the correct target audience due to being conventional to the indie genre, allowing the audience to engage and relate to it. The video and ancillaries appeals to the TA through the use of a relatable narrative, this means that they can emphasise with the artist and the storyline due to previous experiences, this will help the artist bond with her audience and appeal to them, helping her success and helping her create a fan base to endorse her products, . I chose to follow conventions throughout which allowed the artist to be seen as an indie artist by the audience and be recognised throughout the indie genre, helping her create a fan base and clearly define herself as an indie artist.

Rough Cut

Audience feedback is key after creating a rough cut, the rough cut is a plan of our video and allows the audience to see a 'preview' of what the music video will be like, although not the exact thing it allows the audience to see what the artist is thinking of making and therefore they can decide whether they like the idea or not, the artist will release the rough cut to get feedback from their audience, the audience are used to give their opinions and made to give improvements, they focus on their target audience for this and make changes based on feedback, allowing them to adapt their video for the target audience, this gives it more chance of being liked by the target audience and therefore more chance of being successful due to catering toward the audiences needs.

We received feedback through screening our production, questionnaires, vox pops and youtube, screening allowed us to personally show our audience the rough cut and let them explain their criticism in person, this helped us understand the detail more and therefore we were able to effectively change the video to the comments made to help improve the viewing for the audience and make the artist look better, helping him relate to his audience as they build a relationship between them because the audience can engage to the song and relate, therefore helping the artist look more successful and therefore become wider renounced as the audience can really get into and enjoy the music the artist produces. Questionnaires allowed us to see what the audience wanted as a majority, questionnaires are quick and easy and can be distributed to a wider audience, allowing the artist to see what the majority want from the video and therefore making it more likely for them to become successful within their target audience, Vox pops allow the audience to explain their answer in more detail which they can't do in questionnaires, this lets the artist see the reasons for criticisms and help understand why they need to be changed, therefore making it less likely for the same mistake to be repeated in future videos as the artist understand better what his/her audience wants from their work, finally youtube allows a wider audience to look at the video on demand and comment what they think of the video at will, with no pressure to give a certain answer due to being in the comfort of their own home, therefore meaning they are more likely to give proper answers and not what makes them look socially acceptable, helping the artist create a true representation of what the audience actually want from the artist.

The first comment is praising the clear storyline within the video, this was key within our video as we wanted the audience to see an obvious storyline within the video to help them relate to the artist as they may have gone through the same pain and by showing the pain she has gone through it allows the audience to see she is just the same as them and therefore they will like her more as they can see she is an everyday person, making them will for her success more and want her to do well, this is key as the artist needs all the support they can gain within the audience as otherwise they will have no fans backing them and buying their music.

The second comment says about the use of effects within the video were used well, this was another integral part of the video, we tried to make sure the editing was perfect so that the engagement of the audience was not affected throughout the video and that by making sure everything was perfect then the audience would truly relate to the artist and enjoy the music, this is important as if the audience do not engage within the song then they will not relate to the audience and therefore not become a fan, if this happens to lots of the artists audience then the artist will not become successful and therefore not become a widely renounced artist.

The last positive comment was about the good use of fast paced editing and cinematography, these were both focused on when filming and creating the video, we decided that fast paced editing was essential toward the end of the video where the speed of the music picked up, we used it to keep up with the pace of the music and it was used to keep the audience engaged within the music video as if it is slow throughout then the audience will become bored and the video will drag on, this will stop the audience from enjoying the video and therefore will reflect on the artist as boring and repetitive which is an image they do not want, therefore the videos need to keep the audience interested throughout.

The first criticism is that the name of the artist and song is not placed within the song and therefore the audience will not know what artist is singing and the name of the song, this will prevent the artist from growing their reputation and the song from selling as the audience will not know what to look for, therefore we need to add these to the song to make sure the artist is successful and sells the song to the audience, making her wider renounced and more recognisable.

The second criticism of the video was that more performance is needed, this is going to be added at the beginning as there is an over use of narrative, this bores the audience as there is no change in camera angles/shots and therefore it is slow and repetitive,by adding in performance it breaks up the story in to manageable pieces and therefore stops boredom from setting in with the audience and they are more likely to engage in the song as they stay engaged throughout, this is key for making the artist/song recognisable to wider audiences and therefore successful within the indie genre.

The last criticism is that more transitions are needed between shots, this will be added to more as well have rarely used transitions, these transitions allow the shots to change more smoothly and keep the audience engaged into the song and prevents them from being disengaged by the sudden change in scene, by using transitions it slowly moves on and therefore gives the audience a chance to adapt and makes it more enjoyable for the audience and therefore they will remember the artist as more professional and enjoy their work more, this is important for becoming successful within the genre and needs to be focused on when re editing the video.

Overall the changes that will be made to the video are that the name of the artist and song will be added at the beginning of the song to help the audience remember the name of the artist and song and therefore are more likely to buy the song and help the artist become bigger within the music industry, also more transitions between shots will be added as they need to be smoother and less jolty when switching between scenes and this will help do this, and therefore keep the audience engaged in the video, making it more likely for them to create a relationship with the artist as they can relate and enjoy the song, finally more performance will be put in at the beginning to break up the lengthy narrative and allow the audience to see the talent of the artist and that she is truly a great artist, helping make her more successful within the indie and music industry.

Individual digipak

I created an individual digipak to help sell the artist to an audience and help her become wider renounced and therefore more likely to be successful and not a flop, by advertising her it allows for more publicity and therefore draws in more fans.

I tended to use darker colours/dull colours within my photos to show that the music isn't all about the happiness of love and also shows a deeper, darker side to it, helping her audience realise that love isn't all like fairy tales say (as she says in the song 'panic cord'), however there are bits of brightness within the digipak to show that the songs are not all doom and gloom and that there are good tines in loving relationships as well, helping show the audience she has a lighter side as well. Giving off the right impression of what the artists music is about helps the audience get the jist of what her music is about and draws in fans that would be interested in this particular side of music, and not the wrong set of fans as this could cause her to flop if the correct set of fans are not drawn to her music.

I have conformed to the indie genre conventions, I tried to use lots of conventions to draw in an indie audience so that they would be drawn to her music and therefore draw in the correct audience and make it more likely for her to be more successful as an artist within the indie genre and therefore more likely to bean overall more successful artist. I used lots of natural settings for the backgrounds of the pictures to help show how down to earth and innocent she is, this is a convention of the indie genre and will help the audience understand the artists personality, I also used the convention of dull colouring to show the darker side of the artists music and that it isn't all happiness, this allows the audience to see there is a 'realer' side to her music and she isn't selling a fake dream to her audience.

I used images to show the artist is natural and innocent, I done this by using natural backgrounds such as trees, fields, etc, also in the front cover I have used a glow around the artist, almost making her look god like and showing her purity to the audience, the fact it is a white glow can also back up the idea of the artist being innocent, using white colours contrasting against a darker/duller background, making the artist stand out makes the audience feel like she is always happy, even throughout the rough times, making her seem more likeable and more of a role model, also the use of colours make the audience feel she is more down to earth and approachable if they saw her on the streets, making her become a favourite within the music industry.

The layout has the artist in the centre to emphasise how important she is and that she should be the main focus, and therefore helps the audience remember her face and therefore makes it more likely for her to be successful as she is recognisable to a wider audience, therefore it means her albums are more likely to sell as the public recognise her name, selling her music to the audience, also the colours used are darker, duller colours used to show the sadness and reality of her music, showing she is real and showing the darker side of love, this helps the audience prepare for what they are listening to and not be shocked by the lyrics being sadder rather than happy lyrics, it also allows the artist to draw in the correct audience that would listen to her music and therefore gives her more chance of succeeding as an artist.

The typography used is mostly squiggly hand writing, this links with childhood and childish hand writing and therefore is linked back to memories, which is the name of the album (memory lane) and the song is focused on memories between the artist and her ex boyfriend and she is looking over memories fondly, similar to how people remember their childhood fondly, wishing they could go back to the simpler times, similar to the artist wanting to go back to old times when she was still with her ex boyfriend, using this allows the audience to see a clear connection between the typography and music and therefore understand the song better and emphasise with the artist more, also happy memories of the audience may arise when memories are mentioned, helping sell the album to the audience as they associate the happiness with the album.

Finally language such as

A weakness I found whilst using Photoshop was the blur tool, I found this very time consuming and difficult to really use to a good effect, this caused me to spend a lot of time doing it and eventually have to find an alternative, I needed to help blend in the artist to the background I placed her on, so instead if blurring her in, I placed a glow around her which stopped the contrast and allowed her to fit into the picture more.

I found cutting out images and placing them into the layers, this allowed me to create a much wider variety of effects and images due to this and worked out how to do it straight away and therefore could create a much more impressive digipak, helping the artist stand out to her target audience and therefore increasing the chances of being successful within the indie genre.

My digipak conforms to the indie genre as in the background of all the digipak slides there are natural settings as backgrounds, linking to the down to earth and loving feel about the indie genre, by using natural backgrounds the artist is shown as down to earth and real/approachable and the audience don't feel like the artist feels they are better than the people that follow them, by using settings that are recognisable to everyday people then the audience don't feel far away from the artist, therefore I have conformed to genre conventions for the indie genre, I done this because by following conventions of certain genres then the particular audience you want will be drawn in, therefore making the artist more likely to become successful.

My digipak appeals to my artists target audience as I follow many indie conventions, this helps draw in the audience that will enjoy our artists music and therefore allows the artist to have more chance of being successful in the indie genre, darker colours allow the audience to see that the music is real and not just the happy side of love, this allows the target audience to be drawn in as they know what type of music/lyrics the artist will have on their album.

Meetings and discussions

Meeting with my group regularly allows us to discuss our ideas and discuss when we will be meeting for filming, etc. It allowed us to stay organised and we could communicate any concerns or improvements we thought we could add to our video, this allowed us to create as good a video as we could between us, the ideas are then developed as a group and we decide whether to put them into the final cut of the actual video, by working as a group we can decide as a majority and not leave it to one person. We used our meetings schedule to decide n times that everyone could do, by having it written down everyone knew that they needed to keep certain dates/times open and could therefore always make it, leaving no reason for the whole group not to be there, this lead to much more efficient and organised filming.

Our group did work well together as we were able to discuss ideas as a group and decide fairly what we wanted as a majority, by doing this the group had a much better chance of making a successful video and it was done fairly, also the use of the meeting schedule allowed us to discuss ideas and problems we had for filming as a group and everyone was available to hear the ideas/concerns. We kept records of what was discussed in the meetings so that we could refer back to the ideas on later dates if needed, this prevented us from forgetting any ideas brought up in previous meetings and therefore we could add them in at a later date without forgetting, this allowed us to be efficient and not waste time on adding parts of the video in/filming new ideas.

Photoshoot

The pictures will be used on the digipak and therefore are extremely important, these will be sold to the audience as part of the CD and need to portray the indie genre to the audience so that indie fans buy the digipak and therefore it is more likely to be more successful as the targeted audience will be buying into it and therefore enjoying it as it is accustomed to their taste. Multiple pictures needed to be taken as it allows us to have a choice of photos for the digipak and therefore use the best possible photos we can, if we have no choice we will not be able to make a really professional digipak as the photos may not suit well.

The first image is our artist on a swing, this shows her innocence and purity and that she has a vibrant personality and stands out from the rest of the music buisness, this will be used within the digipak, this is conventional as it uses a natural setting of a field, this allows the audience to see that the artist is down to earth and that she doesn't need an expensive/flashy background like a party to draw in an audience and can become famous purely through her talent. I personally like how well the natural setting works with the artist and how the tree and clouds match with the theme of nature on the rest of the digipak, allowing the audience to see how it all fits in and suits therefore creating a relationship with the artist as they can see she cares about her work and the audience who listen to it and that she wants to make it as good as possible for them.

The second image is the artist on top of a fence sitting down, she has a natural setting behind her, this is showing the same as the last image, a innocent and caring person, as she is caring toward the environment and cares about nature, this will also be used in the digipak, this is conventional as it uses a natural setting of a field, this allows the audience to see that the artist is down to earth, this lets the audience see that she isn't a show off and that she is an everyday person that can use normal settings to advertise herself and doesn't need thousands of pounds to do it. It allows the audience to see how relaxed the artist is in front of the camera, showing her screen presence and helping the audience see she is a natural, this will help the audience see she is truly a talent and the audience will build a relationship with her as they will see that she truly is good and they will want her to do well as she is a naturally talented artist.

The third image is our artist against a wall, this is used to show how she uses normal, everyday settings, this makes the audience relate to her much easier as they feel that she is an everyday person like them and that she doesn't believe she is better than her audience, making her more likeable, this will be used in my magazine advert and the background will be changed to a more natural setting with clouds and a tree in the background, showing again how down to earth she is. It is conventional as it uses natural and everyday environments to help the audience feel like they are just like the artist and therefore they will the artist to do well as they believe if the artist can do well, and she is similar to them, then they could make it as well. I believe the way the artist is acting natural in front of the camera for this shot allows the audience to see how comfortable she is infront of camera and therefore believe she is destined to be a star in the music industry, this helps the audience relate to her as the everyday setting allows them to see that she isn't a massive star and that she is just a normal person trying to be successful as a music artist, this makes the want her to do well as she is such an underdog and they try to do everything they can to help her succeed.

The fourth image is our artist against a tree sitting down against it, this shows how close she is with nature and that she is a caring and down to earth person who uses natural and shows the audience she can make the most of her talents with little money and she is battling big companies/labels. This will be used in the digipak. It is conventional as it is in a field setting with trees, this allows the audience to see she is a natural and down to earth person. I feel this is good as it gets our artist involved with nature as much as possible and shows the audience that she really does care for nature and is a loving person, this allows the audience to relate to the artist as the field is a common place for normal people and they can relate to it, also, the fact that she is battling big artists with lots of money, the audience root for the underdog and want her to succeed against the odds, this helps her do well as she has lots of people behind her willing her to do well.

We used the setting well as there were numerous shots/ settings within our photoshoot so we didn't stick to one, this gives us a number of choices so that our digipak is boring and repetitive, however we found getting different places fairly difficult as we only could find some places suitable to our genre and wanted a good quality picture so took a while finding the best places.

Individual magazine advert analysis

I created my magazine advert to allow Kerry (our artist) to reach wider audience through magazines, this would allow her to widen her target audience/fan base and help her become more successful. The magazine advert is key as without it the artist would have no form of advertisement and she would not be able to reach a wider audience, causing her and her music to be a flop and not sell. This is why the magazine advert is such an important stage, if the advert does not attract an audience then it will not get any attention and therefore not sell, also the advert has to give off the right impressions in terms of genre, the advert must show what genre it is through using conventions of that specific genre and therefore drawing in the correct target audience, this therefore would lead to her success as it would only draw in the correct audience and people that would enjoy her music.

I decided to use black and white within the advert to demonstrate the sadness, linking in with the music video as it is about her breaking up with her boyfriend and the sadness she is experiencing whilst reminiscing on all the happy memories they had together, trying to relive the past and not wanting to go into the future without him. I gained this inspiration from Gabrielle Aplins magazine advert, this also uses a black and white filter. This helps the audience see that she is distraught about her boyfriend leaving her and the audience sympathise toward her, this causes the audience to warm to her as they can see she wears her heart on her sleeve and doesn't hide her emotions, making the audience feel that they know her better as they know when she is upset, helping create a relationship between her and her audience which makes her more likely to be more successful as she has fans wanting her to do well and helping her as much as possible.

In the advert I have conformed to the conventions of the indie genre through the use of natural setting, I have trees and grass in the background showing how natural/pure and down to earth she is. I gained this inspiration from Gabrielle Aplins magazine advert, in which she has a background of the sky and fields, I replicated this within my magazine advert using a field and sky filled with clouds as a background. personality trait that the public warm to and therefore the audience warm toward her and want her to do well, helping her become more successful in whatever way they can (buying albums, etc) and spreading awareness of her work, the natural setting also gives off the impression she is caring and loving and the audience therefore warm to her as a person.

I used a picture of our artist with a background of trees and clouds/blue skies, this shows how she is a natural person and doesn't need a flashy background and represent herself voyeuristicly to attract an audience and can use simple things that you see everyday and still be a successful artist and therefore is appreciated truly for her talent and not other reasons, the audience appreciate the fact that she is a normal person who doesn't use unfair means to advertise themselves and attract wider audiences, for this reason fans will warm to her and help her become successful by spreading awareness of her music as they want her to do well.

The artist has been placed directly in the center to help the audience focus on purely the artist and not be distracted by other things in the background, again, I took this idea from Gabrielle Aplins magazine advert, in which the artist is exactly in the middle of the advert. This will help the audience memorise the artists face and therefore make them more likely to be successful as they will see the artists face on other songs and therefore buy it due to recognising her and enjoying her music, this helps the artist become successful and widen her audience due to her popularity.

For Kerry's name and the song title 'panic cord' a squiggly font is used, this makes her seem more innocent to the audience which makes them like her more, also it can be seen as more natural and free flowing writing, linking with the natural setting of the background and helping the audience see that she is a caring and thoughtful person due to the writing being so innocent and tidy, also showing that she would be focused on her work and make sure everything is perfect for her audience, which they appreciate.

The connotation of all the above show that she is a caring and loving person who can really relate to her audience and appreciates them, also that she has nothing to hide from them and is a really open person that her audience can relate to.

I found the blur tool very hard to use effectively on Photoshop as it was very fiddly and I struggled with it, so instead I decided to look at using another tool, I created a glow around the artist, this allowed the image to not need to be blurred an meant it didn't completely separate itself from the background and fit in well

I found the quick selection tool very easy to use and used it a lot due to this, it was key for my advert as it allowed me to choose what background I wanted and not just have to stick with the background I had in my picture, it also allowed me to change the opacity of certain images and the darkness/ make it black and white on certain bits, this helped my image look professional and a advert a real artist would create, the audience can see that the artist is sad and that she is trying to break through the darkness with her bright personality, which will make them warm to her.

I feel the advert conforms to the genre conventions of indie as it uses a natural setting with a tree and clouds in the background, this helps the audience see how caring she is and helps them build a relationship with them, which is key if the artist wants to become successful and widely renounced.

It appeals to the target audience as the writing, and image are conventionally indie, hey both show a natural side to the artist and help show that she is down to earth, caring and like an everyday person who the audience would be able to relate to, this makes it easier for them to listen to her music as they can understand where she is coming from and emphasise with her.