Wednesday 4 May 2011
Navigating the blog
Please look through our different pieces of work by clicking on the labels in the toolbar on the right side of the blog. These are divided up into the various sections of the project.
Saturday 2 April 2011
Advertisement evaluation
The advertisement meets the idea of a conventional design, as it includes the artists name, an eye-catching design to help the artist be recognisable to the target audience. I have included large, bold fonts with vibrant colours to help attract more people into considering to purchase the product being advertised. I have attempted to give the poster an interesting twist compared the the current advertisements on the market today. I used vector images of amphibians to hide the identity of the artist, and to also give a playful naive feel towards the design.
I kept the poster simple as I wanted to keep it minimal, but interesting. I used the original design which was a basic black background with the 'Slimist' logo on the front. The original design looked unappealing to the eye, so I added the elements I had previously designed before and added extra elements to make the design more attractive to the audience.
The combination of our Main product and ancillary texts fit well together. The maon product has a playful, naïve feel, which fits well with the designs. The colours, and the upbeat song and the experimental main product really links to the techno pop culture.
I kept the poster simple as I wanted to keep it minimal, but interesting. I used the original design which was a basic black background with the 'Slimist' logo on the front. The original design looked unappealing to the eye, so I added the elements I had previously designed before and added extra elements to make the design more attractive to the audience.
The combination of our Main product and ancillary texts fit well together. The maon product has a playful, naïve feel, which fits well with the designs. The colours, and the upbeat song and the experimental main product really links to the techno pop culture.
Advertisement analysis
The black background represent the night. This gives a connotation of the artist being mysterious as well as the cartoon lizard who represents the artist.This suggest that the artist has a hidden identity, and cares more about his career instead of the superficial side of fame. The birds are placed freely on the top half of the poster. The free flying birds shaped in the artist's logo suggests that the artist could have an open minded view in music, is experimental, and/ or possibly the artist has potential pursue a higher level of success. The Volkswagen van could portray that the artist is on a journey in his career, and making the most of what he can get. I used vivid in the design, to draw attention to the advertisement, and also, to the name. I placed the name, in the center of the poster in a large eye catching font so that the audience would easily remember the name even if they briefly looked at the poster.
Audience Theory- Advertisement.
For the advertisement, using audience theory is vital when considering who your target audience is. The main theory I considered while planning the advertisement was Hartley’s theory which groups social audiences. These include; self, gender, age group, class and nation and ethnicity. When trying to find a target audience, I think that age group plays the biggest part in designing an advertisement. When directing to a certain age group. In this case, teenagers, and adults around the age of 25 to 30, the design must not be too naive, and not too mature. For the advertisement, I have decided to design my own graphics to be placed on to the advertisement, and the CD cover. With this initial idea, I think that the graphics will be still kept within the electro pop genre, and still kept to the target age group of 15-25.
Friday 1 April 2011
Thursday 31 March 2011
Wednesday 30 March 2011
Evaluation of Album Cover
I feel that the front cover of the album looks professional and fulfils the expectations I had of myself at the start of the project. However I have several issues with the rear cover and I believe that given more time I could improve it to the same standard as the front cover.
The main issue that I have with the rear cover is that the names of the songs featured look very out of place and would do better to be stylised into the background in the same way the artist name is done on the front. This would help continue the house style presented on the front to the back thus making the entire album appear more professional.
I am happy with the appearance of the front cover. I feel that the way the artists name is combined with the Volkswagen van creates the illusion that the van is travelling at high speeds down a tunnel or a dark street. This is the impression that I was going for and this style is also featured in our main production (the music video), this creates an overall style for the artist Slimist and helps make his name into a brand. This means that our target audience will become more selected as the artist will have specific features that are attractive to our target audience. Also the house style is relatively continuous throughout, with the same sort of styles of fonts and images. This is very important to making it look professional.
I am happy with the level of technical proficiency that I and the other people in my group have shown in creating our products. This is because I have had to spend a long time working on Adobe Photoshop and throughout that time I have picked up on the many different ways you can use Photoshop. This has been shown in the advancement of my productions and planning, as I am using features such as clipart in my original ideas and now I am producing my own high quality images such as the Volkswagen camper van.
The main issue that I have with the rear cover is that the names of the songs featured look very out of place and would do better to be stylised into the background in the same way the artist name is done on the front. This would help continue the house style presented on the front to the back thus making the entire album appear more professional.
I am happy with the appearance of the front cover. I feel that the way the artists name is combined with the Volkswagen van creates the illusion that the van is travelling at high speeds down a tunnel or a dark street. This is the impression that I was going for and this style is also featured in our main production (the music video), this creates an overall style for the artist Slimist and helps make his name into a brand. This means that our target audience will become more selected as the artist will have specific features that are attractive to our target audience. Also the house style is relatively continuous throughout, with the same sort of styles of fonts and images. This is very important to making it look professional.
I am happy with the level of technical proficiency that I and the other people in my group have shown in creating our products. This is because I have had to spend a long time working on Adobe Photoshop and throughout that time I have picked up on the many different ways you can use Photoshop. This has been shown in the advancement of my productions and planning, as I am using features such as clipart in my original ideas and now I am producing my own high quality images such as the Volkswagen camper van.
Saturday 12 February 2011
Link to final presentation on Youtube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7msZuLLW0Q - Final Production
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9UUQlzOMHI - test video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9UUQlzOMHI - test video
Wednesday 5 January 2011
Thursday 16 December 2010
Advertisement Mock ups.
These 4 are the initial ideas of the advertisement I will be producing. I have taken into consideration with the colours. I have tried to keep the colours vibrant, but still compliment eachother. I have used vibrant colours in all of the designs as the music genre is based on electro-pop. The genre screams out energy and in our group discussions, we always mentioned the use of bright colours to represent the loudness of the genre. The use of bright colour has also been used to help attract attention. This has been achived with a bright energetic design that includes playful images and keeping the page simple instead of having a complicated, confusing design.
Monday 13 December 2010
Using Photoshop
The print work is heavily influenced within digital art. The designs have been produced from scratch using photo shop. The development of each product has been very time consuming. However, it has created an original outcome that attracts attention.
The most used tool in photoshop that was used was the pen tool. The digital peices have been produced with just that tool. Other tools such as airbrush and the lasso tool has also been used.
I have produced a Frog, a lizard and a camper van by using the 3 main tools i have mentioned. Here are the finished results of the images I have produced
The most used tool in photoshop that was used was the pen tool. The digital peices have been produced with just that tool. Other tools such as airbrush and the lasso tool has also been used.
I have produced a Frog, a lizard and a camper van by using the 3 main tools i have mentioned. Here are the finished results of the images I have produced
Sunday 14 November 2010
Monday 11 October 2010
Wednesday 22 September 2010
Benn's planning for Music Video
After discussing with my group, we have made our final decision that ‘techno pop’ is the genre that we are choosing to work with in this product. To save hassle with copy right laws and trying to get permission from record companies and right owners, we have chosen to use a member of our groups own track (Slimist – 64 bar funk remix). This song fits with our choice of genre, ‘techno pop’ and will give us more time to work on the video itself as we will not have to wait for permission from right owners.
We have looked into many other ‘techno pop’ music videos to gain inspiration and an idea for what makes a successful ‘techno pop’ video. We have also looked into non ‘techno pop’ music videos to gain ideas as we want to make a video which stands out and is unique for a low budget music video. We have narrowed our ideas down to just two possible ideas. One is a complicated shoot where the model walks backwards in a crowded place, such a high street or park. Once all of the shots are taken, the footage is then put in reverse to make the model look like he’s walking forward and everybody else is walking backwards. This idea was inspired by 'The pharcyde – Drop'.
Our second idea that we have come across is to stand again in a crowded place and dance dramatically to the song we have chosen for our music video. This is easily done with little editing skills, but adds humour to the video which grabs the audience attention and makes them want to watch on. This was inspired by 'Crystal fighters – I love LDN'.
After considering both of our options and discussing as a group what we would like to do for our final product, we have decided to go with option 1, inspired by ‘The pharcyde – Drop’.
The song we have chosen to for our music video is an up-beat, techno pop track from a young British musician. Keeping to the basis that the artist himself is British, the Mise-en-scene will also be strictly British, with plans to film on typical high streets, common roads, council estates and other stereotypes relating to British culture. The musician is also a teenager and talks about everyday teenage life for a British student. In his lyrics he mentions things such as ‘break the habit like cigarettes’ and ‘eyes still glued to the telly vents’. He also speaks about life for a working class culture mentioning working hard for little money when saying ‘work full pace for a rate that is minimum’. When filming our music video we should take this into account and try and show these different cultures and lifestyles through our footage.
We are going to use only a few actors whilst making our music video, as we will be relying on the public largely. As the idea of the video is to do a bunch of random things whilst walking backwards in a crowded area, we are relying on the public around the actor/ actress to be continuing with their regular routine. This way, once the footage is edited and put in reverse the actor/ actress looks normal and the public looks abnormal.
We have thought about a number of different interesting ideas to experiment whilst filming. Some of the props we have spoken about using are pedal-bikes, roller-skates and skateboards at a local skate park so we can experiment with the footage when putting it in reverse. We have also spoken as a group about using water and many other props that could look strange and interesting when its use is put in reverse.
We have looked into many other ‘techno pop’ music videos to gain inspiration and an idea for what makes a successful ‘techno pop’ video. We have also looked into non ‘techno pop’ music videos to gain ideas as we want to make a video which stands out and is unique for a low budget music video. We have narrowed our ideas down to just two possible ideas. One is a complicated shoot where the model walks backwards in a crowded place, such a high street or park. Once all of the shots are taken, the footage is then put in reverse to make the model look like he’s walking forward and everybody else is walking backwards. This idea was inspired by 'The pharcyde – Drop'.
Our second idea that we have come across is to stand again in a crowded place and dance dramatically to the song we have chosen for our music video. This is easily done with little editing skills, but adds humour to the video which grabs the audience attention and makes them want to watch on. This was inspired by 'Crystal fighters – I love LDN'.
After considering both of our options and discussing as a group what we would like to do for our final product, we have decided to go with option 1, inspired by ‘The pharcyde – Drop’.
The song we have chosen to for our music video is an up-beat, techno pop track from a young British musician. Keeping to the basis that the artist himself is British, the Mise-en-scene will also be strictly British, with plans to film on typical high streets, common roads, council estates and other stereotypes relating to British culture. The musician is also a teenager and talks about everyday teenage life for a British student. In his lyrics he mentions things such as ‘break the habit like cigarettes’ and ‘eyes still glued to the telly vents’. He also speaks about life for a working class culture mentioning working hard for little money when saying ‘work full pace for a rate that is minimum’. When filming our music video we should take this into account and try and show these different cultures and lifestyles through our footage.
We are going to use only a few actors whilst making our music video, as we will be relying on the public largely. As the idea of the video is to do a bunch of random things whilst walking backwards in a crowded area, we are relying on the public around the actor/ actress to be continuing with their regular routine. This way, once the footage is edited and put in reverse the actor/ actress looks normal and the public looks abnormal.
We have thought about a number of different interesting ideas to experiment whilst filming. Some of the props we have spoken about using are pedal-bikes, roller-skates and skateboards at a local skate park so we can experiment with the footage when putting it in reverse. We have also spoken as a group about using water and many other props that could look strange and interesting when its use is put in reverse.
Wednesday 15 September 2010
Wednesday 21 July 2010
History of Music videos
Music videos are created in parallel with the artist’s music to help to stylise the music further and to help provide more information about the artist and their song. Music videos where first used in 1894. An electrician helped a musician to create a presentation to go along with their song by taking lots of still pictures and showing them with a live performance of the band. These developed over time, popularising in France of the 1950’s.
The Beatles then created the first popular and well-known music feature film; A Hard Day’s Night. This helped create a new market for music videos and they did not become a rare occurrence. The most famous of these videos inspired by a Hard Days Night was ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. It featured a 14 minute dramatic presentation featuring zombies dancing to the song ‘Thriller’ as sung diagetically by Jackson. This was the first video that became synonymous with the song.
Nowadays music videos are commonly viewed with all popular songs. Recently Lady Gaga and Beyonce set the record for the most viewed video on www.youtube.com over a short period of time. This shows that music videos are being watched and absorbed by the audience more than ever.
The Beatles then created the first popular and well-known music feature film; A Hard Day’s Night. This helped create a new market for music videos and they did not become a rare occurrence. The most famous of these videos inspired by a Hard Days Night was ‘Thriller’ by Michael Jackson. It featured a 14 minute dramatic presentation featuring zombies dancing to the song ‘Thriller’ as sung diagetically by Jackson. This was the first video that became synonymous with the song.
Nowadays music videos are commonly viewed with all popular songs. Recently Lady Gaga and Beyonce set the record for the most viewed video on www.youtube.com over a short period of time. This shows that music videos are being watched and absorbed by the audience more than ever.
Tuesday 20 July 2010
First lesson of planning
We (Alex, Susan, Rhy's and Ben) had a discussion in the group. In this we decided what kind of music we should use. Because Ben has created his own songs we had decided that a smart copyright-free way to obtain music would be to use his as it would be easily accessible and already well-known to the group. Another song that we strongly considered was 'I love London' by The Crystal Fighters. This is because London is close to us and it would not be hard to produce in a unique sort of way. We also decided that we would not be able to meet up to work on the video in the first two weeks of the holiday. This is because some of us are on holiday and are unable to meet up. We are going to work out a date later on as we have ways of contacting each other.
Thursday 15 July 2010
Introduction to Audience Research
We are looking at different music videos, album covers and magazine adverts and seeing how our target audience receives them. Our target audience is teenagers. This is because they are the group of people that are most attracted to the genre of techno pop. This is because its style is undefined and constantly changing much like different teenage styles today. We will interview audiences of our target audiences to receive and in depth view of everything that is techno pop from a teenage perspective. We will video record these interviews as proof that teenagers believe that and to help express fully how they would make the music video if it was up to them.
We will also hand out questionnaires for teenagers to answer about techno pop and music as a whole. We are doing this to get a large amount of primary data that has not been altered since spoken. Also this will help us have more quantitive data meaning we will be able to draw up statistical conclusions in comparison to the interviews, where we will have a large amount of primary qualitative information. This is beneficial because we will have more of the target audience's opinions to use and benefit from.
We will also hand out questionnaires for teenagers to answer about techno pop and music as a whole. We are doing this to get a large amount of primary data that has not been altered since spoken. Also this will help us have more quantitive data meaning we will be able to draw up statistical conclusions in comparison to the interviews, where we will have a large amount of primary qualitative information. This is beneficial because we will have more of the target audience's opinions to use and benefit from.
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Questionnaire results
View more documents from alexnorton1.
Conclusions from questionnaire results
Techno pop is not a very famous genre. Only two people said that pop/techno was their favourite genre of music. Also when asked to say what they though of techno pop there was a wide variety of answers. This shows that people are unsure of what techno pop actually is. People are shown to prefer a darker advert that reveals less about the artist and is just more artistic.
The price will be featured somewhere on the album and the best price to make it will be about £3.50 as the majority of people were willing to pay slightly more for the album.
The main part of the album, however, is the image. This is shown in the majority of people preferring the all night cinema advert to Glory Days. This will be reflected by our large image on our album cover. Also the image will need to be colourful as this is shown to be very popular as well.
Tuesday 6 July 2010
Thursday 1 July 2010
Tuesday 29 June 2010
Justice -D.A.N.C.E Music video analysis
This video by Justice is in black and white film. At the beginning of the video, a young man in a plain t-shirt,jeans and high-tops turns a radio on when the music starts. His face is not seen. Subtle animations are sneaked in such as lightning bolts coming out on the radio to give the image of a powerful sound. The camera then zooms in to an analogue radio with a vibrant green line that glows. This creates attention on the line and makes the eye follow it as it moves freely. As the camera zooms in, the shot fades in to a cartoon image with small animation that gradually adds images to the animation. As the animation zooms in to in between the cartoon girls legs, it goes through a series of girls. The fonts and colours and naive animation hints that the images are based on school girls to give a cheeky vibe to the video. After the camera comes out of the school girls legs, the animation continues into a black and white drawing of a crowd. This could represent a party or concert. This could insinuate that the song is a fast paced song that is suitable for parties.
As the camera moves, a persons wearing a t-shirt appears. The face is still not shown. As the person walks forward, the man in met with his friend that was sitting at the counter at the beginning of the video. As they walk, their t-shirts change in with different animations that change to the lyrics. This could suggest that the director is creating an image for the audience to see and to tell them what to imagine while watching the video and listening to the song.
Because the video is full of animations that are moving on the t-shirts, the images are all drawings that are based on real images. This could imply that the images could be in an explicit nature but hidden in a naive form.
As the video goes on, the animations become more interactive with the two men in the video. The two men can start moving the animations. One example of this would be when the t-shirt turns in to a zip. The man pulls the zip up the hide away the precious animation.
When the words are said in the song, 'D.A.N.C.E, 1,2,3,4,5' the graphics on the shirt change to the letters and the numbers in time with the song. The shot changes in to a black screen with bright words in playful fonts then back to the two men again.
At the end of the video, the video goes back to the analogue radio. This video could represent repetition as the camera follows the two men walking as the animations change.
Susan
Monday 28 June 2010
Repetition Kills You- Black Ghosts (Video Analysis)
For the main duration of this video, the models are placed in front of a white background. The models wear bright coloured clothes and move around the screen. Each person wears a different item of clothing to be ironic to the song name; Repetition kills you. People from all shapes and sizes are put in front of the camera and made to show their personality in front of the white screen. The white background could represent a blank canvas and the people in front of it are the art. The white also helps bring out the personality and the eye focus’ on the person in front of the camera more than the background.
The music video has been added by lots of quick cuts. Photos or short clips have been used for a very minimal amount of time. This could imply that that the music video wants to show as many types of people from different cultures and groups to show that everyone is equal. The quick cuts also represent the variety of personalities in the world.
Different settings have been used such as an attic, park and night club/ party. Different props have been used such as a heart shaped lamp, hats with lyrics on and unworn colourful t-shirts. A number of people through out the video are with props such as inflatable guitars, sunglasses, toy guns and magnetic letters. This shows that the video has a playful, naïve element to it. As the video being playful, it gives a positive attitude towards the song and the video. Each person in the video is wearing a cap (usually black, but changes colour occasionally.) Parts of the lyrics are placed on the caps. The lyrics come up at the same time as the people in the music so the audience can read the main lyrics on the video. As everyone wears hats, it still keeps the subjects of repetition.
Susan
Wednesday 23 June 2010
3 Analyses of existing media covers
Analyses Of Cd Covers
View more presentations from alexnorton1.
Conclusions of CD covers
There are many similarities between all the techno-pop album covers. These will help us to establish what the generic conventions are. One thing that is immediately noticeable with two of the three products is that they are extremely colourful. These colours have many different meanings and help to emphasise another generic convention of the genre, hidden meanings within the album art. For example in Example’s album cover he is pictured in lots of different situations. This helps create the feel that he has many different personalities.
The title is positioned very near the top of the page helping to display the title against the rest of the page. This generic convention is going to be very clear on our album cover and will be defined very clearly and most likely centralised against the rest of the page.
The main generic convention of the album’s techno pop genre is that the album cover is extremely unusual and has a style that constantly varies. Just like in the Black Ghosts and Just Jack album covers. Therefore our album cover will be stylistically different from all three of the covers that I am gathering the generic conventions from.
Monday 21 June 2010
Genre
After a group meeting we discussed multiple genre's of music. Exploring the pop, indie, electronic and hip-hop culture we came to the conclusion to follow the pop and electronic route.
We then started looking into where to get our products for analysis' and decided to look at artists such as Example, Just Jack, Bloc Party , M.I.A, Crystal Castles Pendulum, Hadouken, The Streets and The Chemical Brothers.
We will also look at music magazines that feature this genre such as Q, NME and Rolling Stone.
We then started looking into where to get our products for analysis' and decided to look at artists such as Example, Just Jack, Bloc Party , M.I.A, Crystal Castles Pendulum, Hadouken, The Streets and The Chemical Brothers.
We will also look at music magazines that feature this genre such as Q, NME and Rolling Stone.
Tuesday 15 June 2010
Introduction
For our advanced media portfolio, we will be creating a music video. We have chosen to do a music video because we think that with music there's a wide range of subjects to focus on such as attitudes, lifestyle and culture. As well as the fact that there can also be many types of interesting techniques that can be done that involves editing and camera work; there's also the problem of representation to worry about.
Our group is formed of Susan Tyler, Alex Norton and Benn Garbutt.
Our group is formed of Susan Tyler, Alex Norton and Benn Garbutt.
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