HELLO EXAMINER

Welcome to my A2 Media Blog, which consists of research, planning, production and My Final Product(s). The post below shows my final products that include: My Music Video, My Magazine Advert and my DigiPack. Finally My Evaluation Questions are on separate pages, situated on the top of my Blog.

Jonathan Bohane 9005

OCR A2 Media Studies

September 2011-April 2012

Video Brief: To create a music video along with its ancillary products.

FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

Here is our final music video uploaded on Youtube

DIGIPACK

Front: Here we have used the same futuristic pattern and added a surreal touch by taking off the heads of some band members, we think this is amusing and entertaining and arresting. This also makes the lead singer (Joe) stand out more. The shirt and tie combination takes away the identity of the men. The colours of the pattern are strong and in a neon style, this makes them stand out more contrasted against the plain white shirts of the band members. With the heads taken off it is also similar to famous surreal artist Magritte.

Back: Here on the back we have done a shot which is reversed from the front cover. With the same formal pose of hands behind their back makes it a lost more simplistic. We decided to pose our band in a fully formal pose facing the front so making this image from the back was a lot more symmetrical. This symmetry fits in with the repetitive patterning from the background. The rigidness of the pose is an amusing subversion as to what happens in the music video.

Middle: Here is the song listings from the album added in the middle. we have used the same plain font throughout, it adds a simple but effective look to add to the futuristic theme.

Middle: Here we have added a shot of the band in a casual situation, for example with less rigid shirt and tie and one man doing his cuffs playing around and another facing the other way. with and added effect in the middle. The posterized effect adds more definition of the people. The heads of the people are off also adding a sense of mystery throughout the whole digipack.

Our digipack design fits into our music video really well because;

• We feature the band members as playful
• Our use of bright contrasting colors

MAGAZINE ADVERT FINAL

Here is our final Magazine advert to advertise the band's album. We improved the last one by adding in more colour variations in the pattern. The image has also changed as we did not like the first image. This image shows a more fun and interesting time also fitting the conventions of the playfulness and colourful themes. We also changed the 'Out now' to a specific month of a release date. We chose the image at the bottom of the band to show an intimate shot which isn't posed and is more natural. It gives the audience a sense that they know the band with such a personal shot of them.

The image in the middle is a more dynamic image which really stands out to match our neon and bright themes. The advert is split into 3 parts, the top with the neon patterns, the middle with the artwork and the bottom with the band members. This adds to a more visually interesting and attractive advert. This makes it stand out with a combination of colour and easy information.

The image is changed because of feedback received, we chose a more dynamic, spontaneous and informal image instead, as it fits in with the relaxed image of the band. This is similar to the type of images people put up on Facebook. A more intimate insight into the band.

It is also conventional for the front cover of the CD to appear in the in advertisements for a new release, so creating audience awareness of the product and what to look out for in the shops

MUSIC MAGAZINE ADVERT RESEARCH

Here are some examples of magazine adverts for albums and tour dates. You can see the trending theme is how they have images of the album cover. This allows for audience to know what to look out for when buying the album or tour date ticket in the shops. They also match what we have done for our magazine advert through incorporating bright colours in order for it to stand out. As you can see in the Yolanda Brown advert especially. As you can see on the Rodrigo and Gabriela magazine advert it establishes who they are through the cover image of them posing. This allows the audience to easily understand who they are. They also include an image of their album artwork for audience, along with HMV and a price where they can buy the album specifically. You can also see top right how the album cover is shown in the advert. Adverts also seem to be half text and half image, this way it can stand out and look good but at the same time give enough information about the album for the audience to know about it. The adverts also have the bands specialised fonts. This way people can associate the writing with the band, some fonts really stand out with the band name such as SBTRKT advert. We hope to use our own font which will match with our themes of colour and surreal patterns. It will also have to stand out on the advert.

PERFORMANCE FILMING

Here we have done more filming for band shots in our video. We experimented a lot more with interesting angles and shots of the band playing such as the image above. This shot shows an innovative way in which the band is shown from behind to add to our alternative theme.

MAGAZINE ADVERT DRAFT

Here is our magazine advert made on photoshop it matches our continuing theme of surrealism, colour and playfulness. With the bright strong pattern used it attracts the eye and makes it more aesthetically pleasing. The colourful televisions are also used in our video making a link between the video itself and the new album advert. The playfulness is shown through the band members as they are smiling and laughing looking on at scalextric cars. This also links in well with our video.

SECOND FILMING

Today we did more band performance filming shooting close up scenes of the guitar and drums playing. We will cut these into the song to make it more fast paced to match the music. We feel the filming could of gone better and next time we aim to focus on more close up shots of the lead singer. We are also planning to film the chorus again with the coloured cards.

CALL SHEET

• Title of page: A2 Media Studies Call Sheet for The Maccabees - Precious Time
• Length: 4 pm - 6pm
• 9th December 2011
• JGC Hall
• Crew: Jonny Bohane, 07789764914, jonnybohane@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Richard Holt, 07592016332, richard_holt@hotmail.com
• Crew: Alex Atkinson, 07523208980, aatkinson@yahoo.co.uk
• Crew: Will Jones, 07708633380, willjones567@hotmail.co.uk
• Crew: Greg Flynn
• Camera equipment: Nikon SLR D5000
• Lighting equipment: Overhead and Stand lights - Lighting Booth
• Props: instruments - Guitar, Bass, and Drums, 2 Key Boards - Band Clothing

SCALEXTRIC SHOOTING

Today we did the shooting of our Scarelextric idea, we set up the digital scarelextric and shot the cars going around the track from low angles and high ones. We want to fit the scarelextric shots into our video to match with our colourful and playful theme. We have added to the colour by placing a green rug underneath the track. We want to speed up the shots of the scarelextric in the video to compliment the fast paced music.

SCALEXTRIC IDEA

In todays lesson we came up with a new idea for our music video. For the lyric "and play super Scalextric" We want to emulate this childhood game by setting up out own set of Scalextric. We want to shot a scene of the cars going around as we can also fit them into other parts of our song. It also fits into our playful theme through the video.

CONSTRUCTING NOUGHTS & CROSSES

Today we got together our noughts and crosses cut outs and coloured card to shoot the scene to go into our music video. We made a high angle shot with strong lighting looking down onto the cards. With primary colours these strongly link into our current themes of the video such as our playful element. and also our digipack. We got band member to place down the noughts and crosses and then edited it to speed the shot up so it adds a quick fire effect along with playful themes. We also experimented with reversing the shot so that it adds to the fast paced music and verse.

NOUGHTS & CROSSES IDEA

In todays lesson we had the idea of using the same coloured cards as the chorus but using them on the floor to play a game of noughts and crosses in the video. This will fit our theme of bright intense colours and playfulness throughout the video. We cut out card in the shape of O's and X's and then made the board on the floor to practise the shot and how it will go. We want to have a high angle shot to really emphasise the game being played with the band members included in the shot also. This shot can then be put into the video during a non-band performance scene and most likely a verse.

BAND PERFORMANCE SHOOTING

In todays lesson we spent an hour filming most of the band performance shots. We set up the drum kit and amps and mic on the stage. We made the lighting very intense to focus on the band playing. We then took shots of the whole band synced to music played through the speakers. We then edited in the shots on iMovie to add into the band performance scenes of our music video.

YUDU PRESENTATION

Here i have been experimenting with new technologies to present my work. Here is a new software online called Yudu where you upload word documents and it transfers them into magazine presentations where you can flick through the pages online following the link below. I focused on more pictures in the magazine so it is more visually intersting.

Click Here To see my Yudu presentation

CHORUS SHOOTING

In todays lesson we started filming our chorus of the song. The lyrics go 'lets take our precious time about it' with a short space in-between them. We had the idea of having each band member saying a word each with a different colour background for them. With the colours of the background we made them more bright and vibrant. Each person is edited in iMovie to match the lip syncing of the words. It is a good effect for a main part of the song with bright colours that make it stand out.

MUSIC RESEARCH TWEET

Here is a tweet showing how i have read about British bands similar to the Maccabees that they have been turned into brands on the times.co.uk. It says how their image can become more important than their actually work and songs.

DIGIPACK EXPERIMENTATION

Here i have experimented with a digipack look inspired by the Maccabees. there is a mid shotof the band members all wearing similar shirt and ties and on photoshop i have added.

a hyperbolic pattern in the background with strong and futuristic, vibrant colours. This adds to the image in the foreground i have removed the heads of some band members making it more surreal and interesting.

SLIDESHARE

I have been experimenting with new technologies in order to present my work and in this case research in a new way through new technologies. Here i have used Slideshare an online way of presenting my work in an online slide show

to see my Slideshare click here

BAND RESEARCH ONLINE

The Maccabees interact and socialise with fans through many different ways online one way is through Twitter. This is a very direct link to the band on here the are able to contact fans who also have twitter account. They can see how many fans they've have gained through the amount of followers they have.

Social media have completely changed the way audiences interact with their preferred bands. This is a new trend i have noticed with many other band and artists included. It is also avoids record labels having a stranglehold who have previously been gatekeepers, controlling access to bands and artists as gatekeepers.

I read in The Times newspaper (19/10/2011) Shaun Parkers claim that the American Indie band Foster the People in the past year has gone from obscurity to the most listened to band on Spotify. He says "this was because fans began sharing their songs over social networks".

Another way is through The Maccabees official website where they have more promotions and advertisements e.g. band touring dates and latest releases. Here they have also used new album artwork and themes to introduce their new album and have also advertised to pre order it on Amazon.co.uk. Most people use new technology to do their shopping and music buying is a really good example of this with a whole variety of different way to buy music, such as Amazon, iTunes and Napster. They also provide links at the bottom to their other pages.

I researched what was trending at San Francisco Web 2.0 2011 conference this week. I noticed that there were innovate ways of buying, listening to and sharing music.

Another social networking site they use is Tumblr which is an alternative blog allowing short posts of mainly pictures. Here they have publicised there own 4 page spread on NME via Tumblr to show that they are back and up and coming.

I read NME regularly online, i have noticed that many different institutions have now produced online versions such as The Times and The Guardian also with other music magazines such as Wired. Apple has also introduced a news stand app allowing you to download magazines in the same way as audiobooks. Both institutions like the music industry and audiences like myself use a huge number of new technologies as a matter of course.