Friday 30 April 2010

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


From the beginning I wanted for the ancillary to differ slightly in theme to the music video, yet to still have that connection that people would recognise. Within the music video, the set themes within are Greek mythology and Alice in Wonderland. These can be seen by costume, make-up and the action of the artist turning into gold. Looking at similar products, the digipak does not necessarily use the same images from the music video. I still, however wanted to view the connection of the advertisement and digipak to the music video. Therefore, I turned again to the title of the song for inspiration such as I had done for the lyrics for the music video. With the title 'Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up)' I turned to the idea of having the artist acting physically like a rabbit. Within the music video, the link was the artist's fear whereas for the digipak and the advertisement it would present the fear and physical form of a rabbit. When it came to colours, used for both the digipak and the advertisement, I looked again at the comparison of the house scenes and forest scenes of the music video. The life the artist lives in the video is surrounded in a dull grey, whereas in the forest scenes the new world is bold with colour. With reference of the colours and the trap of a boring life in the video, I wanted for the images used for the digipak and advertisement to reflect this. Therefore, I took images of the artist crouched in a rabbit position with scared expressions upon her face. When editing, the artist was highlighted in colour and the world around her blurred and grey.

Overall, the ancillary tasks differ from the main product, however keeping similar themes used within the music video, such as colour and the link to rabbits and fear.

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

Director Interview Script

(Medium shot - interviewer looking straight at the camera)

Tom: Hi, welcome to 'Wadlow and the Stars', I'm Tom Wadlow and today I'm joined with...

(Medium shot - Director)

Kerry Leeds, the director of the new Florence and the Machine video

(Medium shot - Interviewer)

Tom: Now I love your video, I want to ask, how did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

(Medium shot - Director)

Director: Throughout the planning, production and evaluation stages I had to rely heavily upon media technologies.

For research of music videos, I viewed the Smirnoff Advert 'Hatter's Summer Night Dream' on television and Imogen Heap's 'Goodnight & Go' music video which helped for me develop the theme -

(Medium shot - Interviewer)

- of the mix of ancient greece and alice in wonderland. With Imogen Heap's music video she had -

(Medium shot - Director)

- little dolls to represent her and her lover which are key in my music video. To document all my research I used a blog on which I also placed a Vox Pop. This helped to keep all research together to develop these into ideas for the final video. During the production of the music video, I used two cameras. This helped greatly for when the battery life expired in one camera so in the same day I could continue filming. For the band scenes, I used spot lights within a studio to highlight the artist and her band. With the lights I could show the connection between the two worlds, the forest world and the band. When the artist was turned into a golden doll, the lights in the studio allowed me to dim the scene of the band showing weakness in their new form. When editing the footage I used iMovie which allowed for me to alter colours in the shots. For the house scenes I altered the brightness, lowered the saturation and increased the contrast to create a grey like appearance to her depressing life. For the forest scenes I dramatically increased the saturation so the colours would appear brighter, a dramatic comparison to the artist's normal life. Using the iMovie helped me to give the band scenes the effect of a dream-like appearance. With the editing software I would not have been able to give the video a professional appearance. Also I would not have been able to create the glowing transition when the artist enters the new world. Throughout the process of the music video, all research, planning and evaluation have been placed on a blog. With this I have been able to keep track of ideas and the processes to form the music video.

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: Well thank you for you time

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Director: That's all right

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: And i look forward to seeing your next music video

(Medium shot - Director)

(Medium shot - interviewer)

Tom: That's all for this evening. Join me next week when I'll be joined by the creator of the short film 'BEEP'


Saturday 24 April 2010

Friday 9 April 2010

Magazine Advertisement

The same image used for the cover of the digipak I have chosen to place as the main image for the advertisement. With the artist's bold, blue jacket it will capture the eye of potential costumers of the digipak. Ratings have been placed upon the advertisement to give costumers the inclination that it is very much recommended and a music video that must be seen. Information about its release date has been made much larger, capturing the eye and implanting the date into their minds as to when they must purchase the digipak.

Thursday 8 April 2010

Digipak Cover

Here is a net of the digipak for my music video. I chose to have six sides in order to display the credits of those who hepled create the video. This makes the cover more proffessional. I also added copyright at the bottom of the back page like proffessional digipaks have.

Editing of Digipak Cover

Using an online image editor, 'picnik.com' I was able to alter the photographs that I had taken. To emphasise the artist trapped in a dull world, like that to the music video, I firstly made the image greyscale with the jacket and boots the only things in colour. I changed this to the artist entirely in colour as it is her that is a colour, a rabbit trapped in the colourless world, just her jacket and boots. I wanted to make the world around her seem somewhat distorted so I added a focus point so only the artist was clear. Using this effect allowed the the bushes and the net to seem like barbed wire, more menacing than before. Experimenting with effects, I decided to give the illusion that colour was being emitted from her. This was to represent how the character truely is. In the lyrics it says, 'look how the glamour fades', with the artist emitting colour it is to show the true woman in side, but not able to overpower this dull, modern world.