Ancillary products draft...

Here's the first examples of the ancillary products. The silhouettes are where photos will be inserted once they are taken. I've also taken a screen shot of the print work with the gridlines on as I've been told it works quite well with the designs. The evolution silhouette is to show the proxemics and rising status of the band, it is NOT meant as a stab at religion.

~ Jack ~

Location Recce and Risk Assessment...

Okay, so I think I've decided on the places where to film... My house, and the areas surrounding where I live. The areas are rather rural and isolated which is why I think they are perfect for the feeling of isolation the protagonists of the narrative feel. Here's the risk assessment and recce for the filming locations...

first draft... the story so far...

Here's the initial drafts for the ancillary products... Obviously they are not finished as of yet with the digipak very lacking in images. Already I have been told that the digipak outer panels look better with the grid that I was using as a guideline, which makes it look like a matrix sort of background. I will edit this later when the first draft is complete, stay tuned... 

~ Jack ~

I think we have an emergency... Continue?

So on Saturday, it came to filming the narrative... And that's where the problems arose...

Talking to my actors in a focus group, the narrative has practically been shot down due to being convoluted. This has caused me to completely rethink the narrative from themes upwards... Here's a list of what is being considered...

• Evolution of the characters - self growth
• Merging the narrative and performance - using characters as performers.
• Peripeteia - role reversal of the geeks and "jocks"/ Prom King/Queen
• Ignoring voyeurism - positive characters not sexualised. 
• Taking themes of retro gaming/etc from Ancillary products...
• Jump cuts/Stop Motion for long shots to be shortened.
• Remove the violence scenes - not a positive representation

To achieve this I would use more ideas with props. The evolution/self growth idea I would like to achieve by using the change in instruments from

• Air Guitar => Guitar Hero instruments => Actual instruments.

The merging of the performance including the protagonists in the band... This ties in with the proxemics and evolution of the characters and their relationship. I intend to have the protagonists relationship as ambiguous as possible and up to the audiences reading of it. This ties into the use of Peripeteia in which while the two rise, the cooler people sink... This can be shown with an evolution and devolution type scene... This would involve:

• Silhouettes of a typical evolution image
• regression or progression of characters - metaphorical reading.
• ties into time travel reference/etc at the end - brighter future?

I'll update with anything new as it unfolds...

~ Jack ~

Storyboards are finished! \o/

Here is the finished storyboard... any of the blank slides (such as on pictures 3,6,7,8 and 9) are where short additional scenes were added or space for repetition of past scenes but the characters will be portrayed a lot more positively...

All comments will be greatly appreciated!

~ Jack ~

Poster design...

These are the basic ideas of my second ancillary product, the album poster...
Comment with which you think is most effective!
~ Jack ~

Digipak design...

This is a design for the 1st of the ancillary products, the Digipak.

It's dangerous to go alone... take this!

OK so planning has got me a little snowed under lately so I thought I'd give you an idea of what I'm going to be using to film the music video...

My main arsenal is going to include the camcorder and this tripod attached to a dolly. This will enable me to easily accomplish tracking shots and tilts, pans, you name it!

I also want to use this Canon Bridge camera because I'll a) have the option of a manual focus to perform focus pulls and  also it has a nifty "super slow-mo" function which I'd like to try out. I will probably any slow-mo with both cameras, and decide whether post production slow motion or this slow motion works best.

Stay Tuned,

~Jack~

Lyrics analysis... Obtaining the Narrative...

Smaller ideas to include...

Here's just some small ideas of what I would like to include in the music video somewhere...

@ 0.27

Questionnaire Analysis...

Mission Control - #001

So here we have it, beginning the final stages of planning! ^o^
First of all I believe the music video will be largely narrative based to reduce the monotony of seeing people constantly playing instruments. The narrative exactly I have not fully decided however... Roughly I intend to use a non-linear narrative style beginning and ending with the protagonist of the narrative listening to the song himself and day-dreaming the narrative up. After the use of this framing device I intend for the narrative to become more unrealistic like a game or comic strip. For this reason I intend to use Adobe After Effects for special effects like balls of energy and other super-impositions such as comic "sound effects" words like "Thwok" and the like. The main narrative I intend to be pretty straightforward to the lyrics and the title, the idea that The Geek protagonist will inherit all and eventually the Earth. I wanted to focus on the protagonist getting the girl literally of his dreams. I also wanted to merge the narrative with the performance at times such as the protagonist playing games and the band - through use of a green screen - appear to be playing within the game. The ending of the video I wanted to use the protagonist meeting the female protagonist for the first time as a sort of cyclical narrative and to represent hope. I will post a more in-depth plan of the storyboard in time to come.

As for my audience, from my current analysis of my audience - this too will be up on the blog within the week - I have deduced that my target audience are students, generally of the age 16-21 and with socio-economic values of Social Climbers or Explorers and watch music videos for a means of escapism. My secondary audience will likely be older than younger as the music is reminiscent toward those growing up in the 80s and 90s and generally, a younger audience would be unfamiliar with these sounds and so the music video can be aimed at those a little older. Equally, there was a (roughly) equal proportion of heterosexual and LGBT people in my questionnaire so to risk not offending anyone or to narrow my audience any more than is necessary, I decided it is best to go against the conventions of voyeurism, I do not feel it is needed either to represent the genre of music.

Finally, and definitely not least important is where on earth am I going to film the thing?! Well for the performance based areas I am currently searching for a place with a completely flat wall and plenty of space to film with the green screen to doctor in other scenery from video games, etc. I shall keep you all posted on this as it develops while for the other parts, I am in search of a small-ish room which can be lit rather dimly for the camera to pick up the flickering lights from a TV screen for my ideas with the sofa and the fading to show passage of time. I am also considering requesting the help of my old high school as the song mentions high school and I had an idea of the male protagonist being too shy in high school and to appeal to explorers, show the protagonist earn confidence and go through personal growth to gain success like a social climber. As I continue to plan my narrative, I shall immediately update this blog and try to envision a suitable location for it. I have also given which certain "actors" to use. Obviously I need to have reliable characters to enlist the help of. I have already been talking with currently unofficial focus groups about ideas and I shall try to intrigue these people to helping. I shall update when I have thought more clearly on costume and character types.

feel free to comment!!

~ Jack ~

Questionnaire!

These are my finished questionnaires which will help me determine what I should use in my video. Please! Save/print the images and answer the questionnaire for me, then upload the photo to a photo sharing site or something and comment with the link. I'm very interested in your views. 

~ Jack ~ 

Identifying Audiences...

My Audience for my music video is stereotypically going to be aimed at what society class as nerds or geeks. But what exactly does this audience symbolise?

Generally I would say that my audience will be more likely to be male because of the association of sci-fi and game interests although this doesn't rule out of girls being part of the audience. There isn't a direct link with these interests and gender. However I would suggest that age-wise, older people have less knowledge on gadgets and the music is a lot more modern. For this reason the audience would likely be aged 18-25. These people are of the generation that grew up with video games also so it would make sense to aim the video at people no older than 30 at a stretch.
Other factors of audiences:

• Sexuality does not affect interests in my opinion because it is typically a unisex interest... for this reason I may refrain from using the convention of voyeurism. However as my interpretation of lyrics, part of my narrative ideas involve a heterosexual couple, however I do not wish to sexualise them.
• Ethnicity: most likely of the western culture but on a very loose basis. Access to electronic age items and references to these may be recognisable by other countries but I think the music video will be most easily related to American and British cult culture. This includes interests in anime, video games, niche artists, sci-fi/fantasy TV genres. I wish to relate to my audience via allusions and references to these materials through mise-en-scene.
• Education: my video is mostly going to be straightforward but hopefully full of detail so that it is universal and not narrowing my audience down further. It should not be too challenging to make sense of the narrative. Equally I don't think that class should dictate a persons interests, especially as western culture is not generally restricted to certain classes.
• Like sexuality choices, I do not think political ideas and viewpoints are relevant due to the themes within my video revolving around psychosis and perhaps even considered childish escapism while sexuality, politics and ethnicity are serious real ideas, I would like the video to be a little "unhinged".
• Location: again as I've stated, I would like to aim the music video at western culture, particular of a cult subculture. This typically is a broad area and impossible to represent every location of America and Britain.
• Aimed at the "E" social grade mostly. Of the 18-25 band, most of these people will be unemployed or part-time employed students. A secondary audience could also exist within any of the rest of the categories who apply to other audience factors such as interests and the need for escapism. The video could also be used for personal identity as the use of psychosis in the video would help deal with the difficult solutions. I think that personally my video could possibly apply to all of the socio-economic values because people can have a little bit of all of the grouped values. If anything I would suggest that the audience would be Social Climbers or Explorers as stereotypical geeks, the audience may want to climb higher in society - hence why they would be students - and by result would change themselves personally making them Explorers also.

To establish this audiences interests and choices for sure, I am going to conduct a survey or questionnaire to determine what to use in my music video. Feel free to comment if you disagree with any of my ideas.

~ Jack ~

Audience feedback...

After showing the Prezi in the previous post to the class, I have taken in feedback. Mostly the feedback was positive apart from more examples or posters and print adverts on a whole. For this reason I may analyse a poster and digipak each in full.

Well that's Planning and Research done! Now I need to research for my audience...
Typically my audience is going to be followers of cult shows and interests because it is already a niche artist. The primary audience is most likely aimed at young adults like students and newly graduated students under 25, because these are the people who have grown up around technology and video games. I now need to establish my audience's interests... In the extremely near future I shall be releasing a questionnaire for people to fill in to establish a general audience representation. I should also like to establish a focus group as a way to informally reach out to my audience and to take on board feedback and any ideas!

Feel free to comment with any ideas!
~ Jack ~

Prezi of Planning and Research

Planning and Research! on Prezi

Research into Technical Aspects... Audience and Representation

Media is probably the most important way in society now to convey opinions on people and social groups, be in stereotypical or subversive. In Save World Get Girl all of the characters are portrayed as being in control towards the end although there is an initial worry and shock at the realisation of all of the spaceships in the narrative. They are portrayed as aspirational to their target audience of students generally under 25 of  class E on the Socio-demographic table, The band are aspirational because of their control and popularity in the narrative, which goes against conventions of the stereotypical "nerd" which is usually a negative representation. As with most music videos the star image is used to promote the band by making them seem aspirational and connected to the audience. A good example of this was in Awolnation's Kill Your Heroes in which Awol is a presenter on a TV show and in a band, playing on the natural psychology of most people that they want to be famous and/or appreciated, the Children in the video are symbolic of the audience's reaction in listening to Awol's message. This is a negative representation mostly because of the children being rebellious to society. However they are also aspiring to be like Awol who is an irresponsible role model swearing in front of young children and so he is represented negatively. Furthermore the children can be represented negatively because they are trying to be like someone else rather than being themselves, this could simply link to the name of the band as AWOLnation and that they are just represented as such as the term awol has started to be used for a general miscrient...

Typical, I want my music video to be positive and so the "protagonist" of the narrative would be represented positively also. As I am thinking about the idea of a kind of Good vs. Evil game-esque narrative, I would want to represent certain people in the narrative as particularly negative. Comments are most welcome!

~ Jack ~

Research into Ancillary Products...

On top of the music video, I am going to create 2 ancillary products: a promotional poster for an album and artwork for a Digipak. This would usually include a  direct link between the Digipak and poster and at least a link between the ancillary products and the music video. To show this, I've decided to use two of each product to research, two that promote the same album, The Resistance by Muse and two others that are completely different in theme and layout. For this reason I've chosen the TRON soundtrack created by Daft Punk, and after struggling to find a poster that had more going on in the picture, an album by Mika. I've also got example artwork from Welcome to the Breakdown by I Fight Dragons to establish themes and ideologies.

First of all, lets look at the posters. The poster for the resistance is very minimalistic with just 3 keys parts to the artwork, the titles and the image. The poster does slightly conform to the Gutenberg diagram, refraining from putting lots of information in the top right and bottom left corners. That being said, it is not really read diagonally and so it conforms more to the rule of thirds being centred to the middle third, overlapping the first and third but not spanning the entire page. The second poster is much more the opposite, there are things everywhere! Most importantly the title, included tracks and the date of release are in the primary optical area (P.O.A.) and ending in the terminal area. The strong fallow area contains a lesser important image which isn't as key as Mika's name as his music is sold as part of brand identity. In the weak fallow area there is only part of the background article so is least significant. As for rule of thirds, it conforms but only loosely, if "MIKA" is perceived as being written in the firstst and middle thirds and the third is where the picture of Mika himself is. The lower information would then be slipping into the middle third from the right, which could anchor the idea of the artwork that it is absolutely everywhere!

As for the Digipak artwork, there is a clear consistency between the poster and digipak for Muse, The Resistance shown by the repetition of the main artwork and the font with the two lines above and below the artist name. OK, both of these examples of these digipaks are not like usual 6 sided digipaks - I struggled to find any that were relevant and I don't have any of my own to scan/photograph. However they do represent how consistency creates a professional feel to an album. The album artwork varies for The Resistance however as it completely follows the Gutenberg diagram, unlike it's poster as the artist name and album name are both in the POA and ending in the terminal area. The colour is also consistent in both with the black and neon blue/white feel of Daft Punk and the black, white and the colour wheel is a repeated contrast throughout The Resistance. The TRON album is really rather simplistic which acts as a counterweight to the bold contrast of the blue and white on black although subversively, the images and titles are in a middle horizontal third rather than the conventional vertical rule of thirds.

After researching this, I think it is clear to see that consistency is definitely key and that minimalistic or busy designs can work but it all depends on how deep the contrast is between background and the subjects in the images and text colour/font. Establishing a house style is the single-most important part of making a brand for an artist. For my own product I am interested in taking I Fight Dragon's current ideas on artwork and making changes like showing the members of the band and steering away from using 100% pixel art, but I wont rule out the use of it completely. Feel free to post any comments as always!

~ Jack ~

Research into Technical Aspects... (Sound and Lighting)

Well in a music video, sound is most important! Sound and Lighting are probably lesser aspects within the media in my opinion, but both are still important. Lighting can establish a genre; poorly lit music videos could show suspense while lighting similar to natural lighting represents being down to earth and basically, a natural setting!

This next video can represent how lighting can establish a genre. This next video is an internet success by The GAG Quartet, it is also a huge show of intertextuality to the internet.
   
The lighting here is natural which blends with the theme of the internet and that it is based on real events on the internet. The last little riff of the song is shown with the colours desaturated and a lot darker than the rest of the video which is synchronous with the minor key used with the music which is symbolic of darker themes.
To oppose this, in Save World Get Girl, the set has Low Key lighting and lit by the red lights, with connotations of danger and warnings. The low lighting is useful to portray tension to the narrative of the video with the aliens and battles.

As for Sound, the GAG quartet appears to be diegetic but it will likely, like all music videos be non-diegetic and edited to be synchronous to what is happening in the music video. The Save World Get Girl video is definitely non-diegetic because looking closely at the instruments, nothing is connected to them to record the sound. This is completely synchronous though and excellently edited. In addition, the music video uses many over-dubbed sound effects that are non-diegetic but synchronous to the actions on screen. This emphasises the representation of the genre of chip-tune or nintendo-rock, etc

From this, I am going to take on that the performance is not actually usually performed because of the need to be edited and to make both video and audio look and sound authentic and professional. I am going to take on board the idea of sound effects and make sure to make them appropriate and representative of the audience and the genre, although this will have to be decided after the audience research and/or focus groups.

~ Jack ~

Research into Technical Aspects... Mise-en-Scene

Mise-en-Scene is going to be massive to my music video for the use of intertextuality, allusions and to get the genre across to audiences. 2 Example videos of what I think about the importance Mise-en-Scene are Kill Your Heroes by Awolnation and the previously seen Save World Get Girl by I Fight Dragons. I decided to re-use the second video because I believe it is similar to ideas I want to include in my own video.
The video begins with a very pale, slightly desaturated setting using more pastille-y colours. Awol is dressed in a grey shirt with a pale red while the decor is full of pastille blues and greens and a nearby lamp is a soft yellow colour. This is combined with the music which is rather soft and childish aimed - which is later shown to be Awol on a children's show. The whole video seems to set "Awol and the milkmen" in a 70's home, but this is subverted by the body language of the children head-banging and Awol's censored language. This could also represent the entry of rock in the 70's, the children would symbolise the first generation of rock and also an introduction is the beginning of something, much like how the children are young and being introduced to world at the time. Awol's message could be to rebel from society and become the first rockers. The instruments used establish this setting further - there are no electronic instruments besides the Moog Synthesiser and the Microphone, the guitarists use acoustic guitars and so the rebellious nature is subverted to the acoustic instruments because they are not traditionally rock instruments.


Now, Save World Get Girl, on the other hand is very very similar to the kind of mise-en-scene I want to include, now I don't mean filming on a cheap 80's sci-fi set, the way that intertexuality is used to establish the genre (through games consoles, cheap tacky - yet awesome - looking aliens, rhythm game instruments, glasses, etc!) is fantastic!

These two images to the left represent just how proxemics have been used to create effect. In the first case the laptop is shown so we can see what "Dr Romulus" is reacting to, the goggles are also used to exaggerate his shock. The second image on the other hand shows the hierarchy of the band starting with the singer and guitarists closely followed. The drummer and keyboardist/midi controller are shown last which conforms to conventions of star image even though the electronic sound is arguably the defining aspect of the genre.

~ Jack ~

Research into Technical Aspects... Editing

This video is a bit different... Trying to find similar artists is proving difficult due to how niche the band is. However, this is Black Sheep by Metric. The video was created as a pre-order bonus for Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and uses the footage from the film as a narrative and performance video. The video begins with a caption which introduces the happenings in the video and is coupled with overdubbing of a voiceover. Throughout the video there is a lot of superimposition which is synchronous to the genre as if it is a comic or a video game. There is also a red line in the bottom half of the screen like an oscilloscope representing the sound and changes with the beat/bass. The red "oh yeah" is significant as it is synonymous with sex appeal representing Brie Larson as a sex icon. Other text is edited in later in the video which are coupled with the actions on screen (like the "thonk!" when Michael Cera headbutts the pole. Initially the video uses longer takes of Larson singing and then synchronous editing of shots between Michael Cera and Larson which is repeated with other actors in similar parts of the song. It is used as a way to contrast characters between positive and negative representations of them. Also, as its part of a film, the performance is also part of the narrative. The narrative of the song is generally non-linear as cross cutting is used to switch to parts of the movie which were shown previously. These and cutaways are used to break-up takes of The Clash at Demonhead, the band in the movie. The editing escalates up to about 2 minutes in and then the pace slows down again using fades and slower cuts. From this analysis, I intend to taken on board the ideas on pacing to have the video start off slower paced and quicken the speed later and return to a slower pace to end on, rather than a sudden end. I also like the idea of the comic print text being shown like the characters are living in a comic or game. ~ Jack ~

Update!

I Fight Dragons replied to my e-mail request to use their music! They also agreed to let me use official logos if I needed them! Here's proof and a video of the song for anyone who's interested! ~ Jack ~

EDIT: This would probably be a good time to let you all know vague ideas of what I'm going to include (feel free to comment with any constructive criticism!) First of all, as the song is all about Geek's, I wanted the narrative to be orientated around games, similar to the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World concept (see right)
This would mean a heavy usage of post-production and superimposition to achieve this look. I also intend to use guitar hero and/or rock band controllers rather than genuine instruments as it fits the genre better in my opinion. Other mise-en-scene would include glasses (using 3D glasses with no lenses, to exaggerate the stereotypical look of a geek) and games systems as it is synonymous with the genre.
From 0.26 - 0.35 of the song, playing on the idea of time, I thought it would be good to use fades and a direct link to the narrative.
Also as a framing device, I would use a similar shot of the protagonist of the narrative at the beginning and the end.
All comments will be taken onboard
~ Jack ~

EDIT: Here's a screenshot of I Fight Dragon's website with proof that the music is free to download also so that it will be the best possible quality.

Research into Technical Aspects...

I Fight Dragons (IFD) are generally a very niche band, assigned to independent label: Photo-finish Records. As the artist is THAT niche, I had to a) use a music video of the artist and b) a music video of another very niche artist of as similar a genre as possible. for these reasons, I will be analysing Save World Get Girl by IFD and Burn it Down by Awolnation.
The video begins with an establishing shot of a very simplistic spaceship, which is obviously a puppet - and loosely resembles the ship from Red Dwarf, this is intertextuality. This establishes that the artist is independent or is not serious in creating their video professionally, this suggests that the video is made for personal reasons rather than promotion as the single most important aspect, the set throughout is simplistic compared to mainstream artists. Most importantly, there is continued use of star image of all of the band, the shots and angles are varied however as the most important characters, such as the Captain/Lead singer is shown from a high angle almost all of the time which other characters are not shot from as close or even facing the person. This, coupled with the fact that the video is framed by showing the captain first and last, emphasises that he is most significant in the liner-narrative and the band. Despite being very niche, they still use voyeurism, conforming to all 6 of Andrew Goodwin's points on conformity. The most obvious is the 1970's style sets for Sci-fi dramas, this is a very large use of intertextuality.
Like IFD, Awolnation are a niche artist and so there is less emphasis on mise-en-scene, using relatively cheap sets or preexisting locations, such as the court and venue shown. Because of this, more emphasis is put on the representation of the people through costume, proxemics and camera shots. Key shots include... :

• The wide shot of Awol in court represents the irresponsibility of singing in the court
• the master shot of the taser conveys the idea of importance, although this is subverted. The following two shots reveals the official becoming the astronaut and the special effects lightning coming from Awol's hands. The lightning is used as a bridge between the two and represents the distant relationship.
• Synchronised editing is used between a mid close up of the singer and an establishing shot of the court, this reestablishes what is happening and what should not be happening: Awol singing in court.
• Like with Save World Get Girl, the performance and narrative is combined together and is later separated from the narrative. Furthermore, the last shot focuses on Awol.

 ~

 From this, I am going to take on board the using of a minimalistic set and focusing more on the Lead singer for star image but not to completely ignore the other band members. It is also clear to me that voyeurism and a blend between narrative and performance is used for even the independent artists so I will try to use this in my own music video, but only if relevant. I believe relevance is more important than conforming to everything.

~Jack~

Introduction!

Hi!
I'm Jack; this is my project, to create a music video centered around Chicago based chip-tune band: I Fight Dragons, specifically their song, The Geeks Will Inherit the Earth. The band is rather niche as they use Nintendo SNES and Game boy systems as their USP. I hope to replicate this idea of individuality through my music video...