Music Promo

Digipack

Magazine Advert

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Our task for our A2 Media was to produce three main texts that would help promote an unsigned band. The three tasks consisted of a music video, a digipak for a single or album release and a magazine advert. Each task has its own individual purpose but at the same time linking together as a complete promotional package which is something that is expected of a successful band today.

Kings of Leon digipack

Kings of Leon magazine advert

A music promo video consists of different elements that also depend on the genre of the music. The band or artist conventionally performs the song during the video, showcasing their talent and experience with the instruments and vocals. For a conventional pop video the location would be somewhere exotic or a place of luxury with the band or artist performing the song. This is because it shows that they are successful and can afford to go to exotic places and have a good time.  A good example of a pop music video is ‘Glad You Came’ by The Wanted. The video takes place in Ibiza and it shows the band enjoying themselves in the sun and also partying in a club at night. Throughout the video the band perform the song through vocals whilst acting in the different locations. However our genre of music that we filmed was ‘metalcore’ which is a mix of metal and hardcore music. The conventions of this genre are a lot darker and have a more negative feel than a pop video. The location is normally quite dark and dingy, for example an abandoned warehouse or an old church. Also the cuts are very quick when the performance is edited; this is because of the pace of the music in this genre; the quick cuts carry the flow and match the tempo of the songs. The camera work often features a lot close ups of the band members and their instruments, showcasing their ability and importance of the band. As well the camera work is often handheld and there aren’t many still shots as the camera is always moving. The movement of the camera adds to the intensity of the song and makes it more exciting. The narrative also features negative connotations, which often link to death and destruction; this is due to lyrics in the metalcore genre addressing darker themes such as death and betrayal.

The narrative also often fails to tell a full story in a music promo which keeps the audience guessing and also makes the video more memorable as they can make up in their own mind what happens and makes the replay value of the video more prominent. Having a narrative that is memorable and abstract creates a sense of mystery that creates repeatability of the promo. If a video does have repeatability value, this means that fans will continue watching it whilst also creating more fans as they can view it too.

A memorable video that breaks conventions in the metalcore genre is Parkway Drive ‘Karma.’ The location of the video is notably very different from conventional metalcore videos as the band is performing the song on a sunny beach. The band are all from Australia and grew up surfing so to film a video on a beach means something to them personally.

The video breaks the conventions of a normal metalcore video by taking place on a beach

As a group we were all heavily influenced by metalcore promos by bands such as Architects, Bury Tomorrow and While She Sleeps. They are all incredibly talented bands and the videos feature very memorable performance and narrative footage.

Architects ‘Follow the Water’ features performance throughout the whole video in the promo and takes place in a live element. It highlights their ability and the energy of how they play a live gig. The promo shows the bands credibility and technique as when people view the video, they realise how good the band are, creating a larger fan base and a demand for tickets for a live show.

Another video that influenced us was Bury Tomorrow ‘Lionheart.’ We were really impressed by the range of performance shots in the video and the shaky camera effects which really emphasised the heaviness of the music.

Mid shot of the front man, in the centre of the frame, shows
his dominace and importance to the band

Mid shot of the drummer playing, shows his ability and technique.
The shot also includes some of the cymbals

Shaky camera work matches the tempo and aggressiveness of the song

whilst showing the bass player going crazy

Lastly, While She Sleeps ‘Believe’ is another very influential metalcore video that we were impressed by and felt like incorporating certain elements into our video. The camera is constantly moving in the video and is also very up close and personal with the band members. Having close ups of band members focuses on their ability to play their instruments and their importance to the band. With the constant use of camera movement it keeps the promo interesting and energetic, a popular convention in metalcore promos. The quick cuts of the performance add to the power and energy of the band and song which is very effective.

• Here are some analysed screenshots of our music promo and While She Sleeps 'Beleive'

This shot is of Zak Pinchin, the frontman. The close up focuses on his importance
in the band and shots of him feature most throughout the promo. The photo below is the frontman
from While She Sleeps, again lots of close ups and extreme close ups feature in the promo, showing his importance

This screenshot is a close up of Phil, the guitar player, it focuses on his
technique and ability and also shows off his convetional clothing and tatoos of
the metalcore genre. The mid shot below shows the guitarist and the some of the
equipment behind as well as convetional metalcore clothing. 

The close ups of the singers show the importance to the band and their ability to sing.
The camera is focused on the singers and so the background is out of focus, showing that
the band member is the stand out image on the screen.

The midshot of the drummers shows the drum kit as well as the majority of the drummer.
Having some of the drum kit in the shot shoes the what the individuals role is in the band
and also emphasises what they are playing. Also when syncing the track to the drum hits, it looks very proffesional

Screenshot from Architects 'Buried at Sea'
narrative

When planning our narrative we wanted it to memorable whilst being bizarre and abstract; we researched many narratives from the metalcore genre and we found that they often didn’t make sense and also featured strange props and characters. We took inspiration from Architects ‘Buried at Sea’ as the narrative features a man waking up in a coffin on a beach, having no memory of where he is but finding a key that obviously unlocks something. He only has a certain amount of time to find what he has to unlock and when he doesn’t, he reawakens in the same coffin and again has to find where the key belongs. We found this to be very interesting and bizarre and based our narrative on the same idea of having to find something but not fully knowing what the object is. When our narrative begins the actor is blindfolded for an unknown reason and stumbles across the mirror; he rips the blindfold off but when he looks into the mirror, his reflection is still blindfolded and has a mind of its own. The reflection begins reading a book and looks to his right, showing that the actor must search for a book to solve this mysterious behaviour. The actor searches through a lone bookcase until he finds a certain book that has ‘You’ve only done this to yourself’ scrawled onto the pages. When he looks back at the mirror the reflection walks away and the narrative ends. We included the blindfold as an intertextual reference from In Archives’ EP ‘Traitors; the artwork contains two men back to back with blindfolds on.

We took inspiration from the artwork to
include a blindfold in our narrative

For the location of the narrative we used one of the group member’s office in his garage. We again had access to power which was needed for the use of the halogen lights and because it was our group member’s office it was easy to get to and didn’t cost money. The size of the office was manageable as it fitted the two main props in and provided space for the whole group to fit in with one member acting with the others filming and directing.

Morton Village Hall

where we filmed the performance

We used two of these industrial
lights and two floor lights to
light our performance

We chose to rent out Morton Village Hall for the performance side of filming as the band have often played live gigs there and we felt that there was enough floor space to set up the drum kit and band positions to capture footage without getting much of the wall design and radiators in the frame. We achieved this by putting stands in front of the radiators with industrial lights aiming down at the space where the band will perform. We also placed the speakers in front of the stands to show that the band are playing their instruments live, adding to the live performance element of the promo.  Another reason we chose to rent out the hall was because of the easy access to electricity. We had two large halogen industrial lights at our disposal as well as three smaller ones we could use. For our thriller opening at AS Level, as a group we did not organise and plan the lighting for filming efficiently enough and therefore the footage we came out with was very dark and ultimately made our final piece poorer than it should have been. So for our music promo we made sure we had the resources to make the lighting work which leads to much better footage. The location is conventional to the metalcore genre with enough space for the band’s performance but there isn’t any notable design or significance to the décor as with many metalcore promos, the location tends to be dingy and run down, an old church or an abandoned factory for example. Old churches have connotations of death and decay as well as the obvious religious aspects which many metalcore bands address in their lyrics. However the location we used doesn’t have any notable features but the use of lighting for the video makes the performance stand out and memorable rather than a more extravagant location.

Feed the Rhino video has an unknown location with really effective lighting so the only
thing that can be seen is the band and bright lights in the background. In our video, the location is quite plain
but we made it look a lot more interesting with two halogen lights in the background and two floor lights lighting
the band from the front.

The band wore conventional clothing from the metalcore genre for the performance side of the music promo. The drummer, two guitarists and bassist wore skinny jeans with a white tee shirt whilst the frontman wore a burgundy tee shirt and skinny jeans. The idea of this was to have the frontman stand out from the other band members whilst the individuals behind him looked formidable and intimidating. Members of other metalcore bands wear skinny jeans and tee shirts and this is how In Archives as a band dress normally so we felt no need to change the dress code and break conventions.

Here the frontman stands out from the rest of the band with his red tee shirt on. The other
four band members wore white band tee shirts or vests which is conventional to the metalcore
genre. The lighting also captures the colours well on the white and black.

When editing our video we wanted to make the promo fast paced and exciting for the audience. The song is fast paced and very heavy and we emphasised this with a lot of quick cuts and hand held camera footage. By making the cuts quick and short, it goes along with pace and beat of the song. The quick cuts would often be of one band member which cuts to another angle of them and then cuts to a different band member. To emphasise the heaviness of certain parts of the song we put footage of the frontman stomping or the guitarist swinging his instrument to the beat which is conventional to the genre. We also used a dolly for panning shots which slows down the performance in certain parts of the song. We filmed the band playing the song twice with the dolly going left to right and then twice forward and backwards to add movement to the camera. The whole band feature in these shots and the slow movement of the camera moving forwards or to the side is an efficient change in pace to the quick cuts.

When we researched music promos we found that the majority of them feature band performance as well as narrative. We wanted to continue this structure by filming a performance side and a narrative that would break up the performance. We found that with metalcore promos the performance side is more prominent than the narrative but the narrative still features a lot to break up the performance and keep the promo interesting and memorable. The main idea for our narrative was for it to be mysterious and abstract whilst not becoming a full story. We used Steve Archers music video theory when planning our music promo, he states that ‘there needs to be a strong and coherent relationship between narrative and performance in music promos.’ We wanted the performance side to be the more prominent part of the promo but when the narrative comes in we wanted it to be memorable as well with both parts complimenting each other. He also said that there may be an ‘extra aspect of the video designed to aid visualisation and the ‘repeatability’ factor.’ We felt that having an energetic performance and an abstract narrative that work together helps gain the repeatability factor.

When designing our digipack we were heavily influenced by other metalcore digipacks. The layout of a metalcore digipack often features gatefolds that fold out to show the album CD as well as two other panels that could contain a bonus CD or a booklet containing lyrics to the songs. The design often features artwork that continues as a theme throughout the digipack, bleeding into each panel to show that it is all the same. The colours of a metalcore digipack are conventionally quite dark, with a lot of black and grey being used, to follow on with dark connotations of the bands lyrics for example. One that we took inspiration from was Architects album cover ‘Hollow Crown.’ We wanted our digipack to be simple but also contain something that was eye catching and different to other digipacks. From the ‘Hollow Crown’ digipack the cover features the Architects ‘A’ logo. We felt that this simple design in fact made the digipack better as it didn’t try to be anything special and the logo clearly showed who it was by. This influenced the band to design a new logo which was then put on the cover of the digipack.

We were influenced by Enter Shikari's digipack as this contiued theme throughout the digipack
looks really effective and eyecatching whilst making the three panels appear as one.

We added certain effects to it to make the digipack look old and dirty as well as having a continued theme of live shots on the inside covers which we were influenced by Enter Shikari’s digipack ‘A Flash Flood of Cover.’ Inside their digipack, the gatefold contains one photo of an open field but with Enter Shikari’s triangle symbol in the background. We wanted a theme that continued throughout the digipack so having five live shots of each band member on the gatefold added continuity as well as originality. Having the live shots in the gatefolds almost makes the fold outs seem one, adding to the visual element of the digipack We also added the dirt effect to the edges of the inside gatefold which again carried on the theme throughout the whole digipack. As well as having the dirt element to the edges of the cover and foldouts, we also added an old fashioned wallpaper pattern to the background of the foldouts. This also continues as a theme throughout the digipack, with connotations of the ruined and decaying, which links to the metalcore genre. The wallpaper pattern links to the videos narrative as the mirror’s frame features a very significant pattern. Having this on our digipack links the music promo together, showing that it all has meaning and significance. The dirt on the digipack also has meaning, with archives meaning a collection of historical records; we wanted to link this with the bands name with old records that are stored in archives are often worn and ruined with age. Therefore the dirt on the digipack is reference to what the condition of the documents would be in, showing that the digipack could be an old document that has come out of an archive.

For our magazine advert we found that the main conventions were to showcase the band with a promotional photograph as the main feature on the page. Alongside the photo, the digipack album cover is present, showing fans the artwork of the digipack that will be available in stores. Text is also present with information about the release date as well as ratings given by magazines that are consistent with the genre. Some magazine adverts feature logos of where the album can be digitally downloaded as well as websites were it can be bought online from website such as iTunes, play.com and amazon.co.uk.



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

The music video promo enables the band’s fan base and other audiences to not only listen to the song but also view a video showcasing the bands talent as they perform the song as they would do live. A music promo features a lot of different camera shots and these can focus on each band member or individual artist. The release of a music video alongside the single or album helps promote the band through a different type of media as the video would be able to be viewed on the internet as well as music TV channels that fit with the genre of the song. Our music video would be played on music channels such as ‘Kerrang!’ and ‘Scuzz.’ This is because they are music channels specifically for metal songs and therefore our music video would be most suitably played on these channels. Having the video being played on TV channels gets the song and the band across to a wide range of audiences.

Scuzz Tv, another channel that would show our
promo

Kerrang TV, one of the tv channels
that would air our music promo

Meanwhile the internet is used by millions of people and having the video on websites such as youtube, facebook and vimeo increases the chances of it being viewed by a large number of people, therefore promoting the band. In Archives would post the video on their facebook wall for all their fans to see and view. This also helps with other people seeing the video as fans can then share the video with other people and have people that aren’t aware of their bands existence see the video and listen to their songs, therefore increasing the bands popularity. The digipack is the packaging of the CD of the album or single which is sold in stores for fans to buy. The artwork of the digipack often has meaning to the band or artist and it is subject to the genre of what the artwork consists of. In our case we used In Archive’s logo on the front of the digipack, with influences from other metalcore digipacks. Alongside the physical CD, the digipack also has the track list of each song on the album which is conventionally on the back. The digipack is also something of a collector’s item as music is mainly bought and listened to online so having the digipack in physical form is something which the fans can keep and cherish.

Kerrang! Magazine, associated
with Kerrang TV

The purpose of the magazine advert is to promote the band and the release of their album. The advert would be in a music magazine that is consistent with the genre which shows the band or artist as well as the image of the digipack artwork along with the release date and other possible information such as tour dates. Magazines are widely read and to have an advert in a popular music magazine is a very efficient way of promoting the release of the single or album as well as the band. For our magazine advert it would be printed in metal magazines such as ‘Kerrang!’ and Alternative Press. Kerrang! is a very popular rock and metal magazine in the UK and having the bands new album release increases the likelihood of currents fans buying the album but also people that haven’t of the band before to check out them out, listen to their music on their facebook page and then buy the new album.

I believe that these days’ music videos are mainly viewed on the internet due to websites such as youtube and facebook. For a band to take advantage of the popularity of facebook as a social networking site, making a band profile means that fans can ‘like’ them and keep up to date with the bands goings on. When a band releases a new single they post the video on facebook as well as a link for fans to purchase the song on iTunes for example. Promoting a band on the internet is the most effective way to gain popularity and become known to a large audience.

Releasing the three products at the same time helps promote the band as a ‘brand.’ Having the three products released to the public showcases that they all link and can be consumed by the audience in different ways. Together the music promo, digipack and magazine advert all link the band together and promote them as a brand to the public. Individually each product helps promote the band through different media forms and technologies; the music promo can be consumed on the internet as well as music channels. Whilst the digipack can purchased in stores such as HMV; the album would be located in the smaller ‘rock’ section of the store. The album can also be purchased digitally of iTunes, which is a very popular way to purchase music. It decreases the hassle of having to go out and buy the physically album as you can be sat at home and the album will download straight into your music library and onto a music playing device. It is a very easy and effective way of purchasing music; however you lose out on having the physical digipack to keep as a collector’s item. The magazine advert promotes the band and their album release to the public and fans of different music genres by being printed in genre relevant magazines. Having certain aspects that link each product together reinforces the idea that the band becomes a brand as they are all related and support each other as well as being effective individually. The mirrors frame design links the music promo, digipack and magazine advert together with the design appearing on the foldouts on the digipack and on the magazine advert. The dirt and grimy theme on the digipack also features on the magazine advert which references the band name of In Archives, with the condition of old documents from archives being similar to the dirt on the digipack. The book that is found in the narrative is also in very poor condition, much like old documents, this again links to the ancillary tasks.

Digipack analysis 



Our digipack features a gatefold system. The bottom three panels are; the front cover on the right

the middle panel is the back with the tracklisting, barcode and contact details. The left hand panel is the inside flap which features a live photograph and the band name. We wanted to have something that grabs your attention straight away when you open the digipack and having this famous live shot is a good way to do it as you instantly recognise the band. The cover features the bands 'IA' logo which is a trademark image for the band as the have this logo on teeshirts and stickers. The overall design of the digipack is made to look quite dated and ruined with faded colour and lots of dirt effect around the edges. The old wallpaper design is reminscent to the mirrors frame in the music promo and we wanted to have this effect to link them together. The simple front cover also features the album name 'Simple Days.' Having this simple front cover design stands out more and having the bold band logo instantly stands out to fans. The top three panels are the inside panels. The top right is where the album CD would sit. The middle panel feautres text that was written by In Archives, personally thanking their families, friends and fans. The panel also features a slit in the top where a pull out with the lyrics to all the songs would go. The left panel is where the bonus DVD disk would sit which feautres the 'Step Down' music promo and behind the scenes documentary. Including the DVD in the digipack is something that is done by a lot of bands as a thank you to the fans and also to let them see an insight to what the band are like when they are not performing. The theme for the inside panels features live shots that are all in black and white, we found that many digipacks feautre a theme all the way through and we wanted to incoporate this into our design.

Magazine Advert analysis

We wanted to continue the same design from our digipack to the magazine advert to keep continuity and make it easier for fans to recognise the band. The magazine advert features all the elements from a conventional magazine advert. We wanted the most dominant image to be the digipack front cover so the fans will recognise what album it is and take notice. The overall design is simple as we didnt want to make the advert too overcrowded with information so we kept the text to a minimum. The release date can be clearly seen which is a very important part of the advert so fans will know when they can purchase it. We included a promotional photograph of the band to add colour which will draw the eye of viewers to the advert; it also promotes the band as their image will be seen by more people. We also included the amazon.com and iTunes logo onto the advert so it gives fan the information that the album will be avaliable for purchase from both the internet, iTunes and instore shops.

Music Promo analysis

We continued the theme of the dirt and ruined features from the digipack and magazine advert design. In the promos narrative an old ruined book is found. The overall condition of the book is very poor with ripped and burnt edges and also features 'You've only done this to yourself' scrawled onto some of the pages. The band's name In Archives, also inspired us to include the poor condition of the book and the design of the digipack and advert. Archives are where old books and documents have been stored over the years and the condition of these documents will deteriorate over time. So having a continued theme through all three products all links back to the bands name.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From our initial audience research we found that from a metalcore video they expected to see a lot of fast paced editing and a range of shots with close ups and midshots the most popular. Also they expected the narrative to be quite abstract and have a dark mis en scene whilst not telling a full story and be in a non-linear structure. We interviewed both male and female participants of different ages to get a larger demographic and more ideas to work with. We also presented our song and filming ideas to the class and got positive feedback with our performance and narrative ideas which was quite surprising as the metalcore genre is not as popular in our class. After our promo was edited and finalised we asked ten participants, both male and female and of different music tastes, to watch our music promo and answer a short questionnaire. The questions covered areas that participants liked as well as certain aspects that could have been improved. We received mostly positive feedback but with constructive criticism that we agreed with. Many of the participants enjoyed the promo, ‘Even though I’m not a fan of the genre I thought the video was exciting and upbeat.’ Many people found that the lighting was the highlight of the promo with responses such as ‘The lighting was really effective and made the whole thing seem more sinister.’ ‘The lights you have set up looks really cool and make the band performing in front of them look awesome.’ However some people felt that the location could have been improved, ‘Although the lighting looks good, the location is quite simple and doesn’t really fit the genre.’ Others thought that ‘there should have been more close ups on the instruments as there weren’t that many.’ The participants all thought that the ratio of the performance and narrative was equal, ‘the performance and narrative work together well and seem equal throughout the video’, ‘the narrative does well to break the performance up and keep it exciting.’ Some of the participants enjoyed the narrative, ‘it was original and didn’t really make sense which fits the metalcore genre.’ ‘The effects in the narrative worked really well and it is different from what I’ve seen in a metalcore promo before.’ On the other hand people thought ‘the narrative didn’t make sense and I couldn’t really understand what was going on,’ ‘the effects looked good but it didn’t really flow and didn’t have a good ending.’ For the final question, many of the participants thought that the promo had replay value, ‘I thought the video was really exciting and both the narrative and performance were well filmed.’ Some participants didn’t agree, ‘I am not a fan of the metalcore genre and watching this video hasn’t changed that.’ From this feedback we feel happy with the promo we created; the video fits in well with the metalcore genre and the lighting that we used seems to be very well received. The narrative also seems to be well liked which is something we are pleased with as we wanted to be original with the idea but also still fit in with the genre. The improvements that we were given are something that we agree with as well, the location could have been more sinister and conventional but this would have been hard to achieve as we needed electricity for the lighting. The metalcore genre isn’t very popular and we knew this when making the promo so obviously some people will not like it as they don’t listen to the music, but overall as a group we are extremely pleased with how our music promo was received.

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

We were lucky enough to have two members in the group already a part of a metalcore band, so when it came to deciding what band and music genre we wanted to film, In Archives were an obvious choice. Zak and Kelly Pinchin have been part of In Archives since they were formed in 2010 and were looking for a music video to release alongside their new track ‘Step Down.’ When it came to researching music promos we used the internet with websites such as Youtube and facebook to look at band’s music promos and study the different conventions and elements featured.

The two cameras we used, both
had manual focus

We used two high quality cameras for the filming stages of our music promo, we preferred to use our own cameras rather than the schools own equipment which we felt would have lost the quality and crispness of the footage. We used a Canon 550D and a Canon 500D whilst filming the performance; having two cameras gave us the advantage of getting the same footage from different angles and when using them for handheld shots two members could be filming whilst the band performed. We also had double the memory as the footage was such high quality it took a lot of space on the memory cards so we had more space to save the footage.

Once filming was completed we uploaded the footage to Adobe Premier Pro, a state of the art editing software, to Zak Pinchin’s MacBook Pro. We wanted to use Premier Pro instead of iMovie as the footage we had needed a more powerful and advanced software to edit on as although iMovie is very useful, it is also quite basic with the effects, transitions and cutting of the clips. Editing was quite a tedious affair as the footage was of such high quality, Premier Pro often became quite slow and this took time with editing. However putting clips in and then cutting them was very easy and we were also able to colour correct a lot of the footage where the lighting had made the footage slightly brighter. 



A screenshot of Premier Pro, the editing software we used.



For the narrative we edited some clips on After Effects to alter the footage and make the narrative more exciting and different. When filming the narrative we recorded the actor looking into the mirror with his blindfold off and then we filmed him shouting into the mirror with the blindfold still on. When in After Effects we were able to put both clips on top of each other and cut around the edge of the mirror so we had the actor looking into the mirror whilst his reflection was shouting back out to him. This technique makes it look like the reflection of the actor has a mind of its own, which is reminiscent of the horror movie, ‘Mirrors’, which we took influence from for part of our narrative. The use of special affects in metalcore promos is not very conventional as normally they stick to band performance and a narrative that is filmed and edited together for a simple storyline. 

Here we have used the masking tool on After Effects to cut around the mirror which then
enabled us to put another clip on top, so we have the reflection having
a mind of its own whilst the actor is stood still

This is the final finished narrative which shows the actor looking

into the mirror whilst the reflection screams lyrics back to him

This is a screenshot from the horror movie 'Mirrors'

The reflection has a mind of its own which we took inspiration from this as we wanted our narrative

to be abstract and different and we felt that having the reflection

have a mind of its own fitted in with the metalcore genre perfectly

I personally learnt from my mistakes of last years AS thriller opening and made sure that when using the camera the footage we captured was well lit and of efficient standard. When doing handheld shots we put the cameras on tripods and then held on to them whilst filming. The footage was very smooth seeing as we were walking in between the band members whilst they were performing, as without a tripod attached, the footage becomes very shaky. We also changed the saturation on the camera settings to make the lighting moody and professional as originally the lighting was quite harsh on the lenses. Also when filming we made sure that we got enough footage to work with as in the previous year we didn’t have enough decent footage to edit together, overall making our final piece worse. I also made sure that when filming I filled the frame; we didn’t want any unnecessary background in the frame so when using the camera only the band member and his instrument was in the frame, highlighting his skill and importance. During the filming of the performance the capacity of the memory cards became a problem. The cameras we used captured extremely high quality footage and because of this, it took up a lot of space on the memory cards we used; this meant having to stop every twenty minutes or so to put the footage onto our laptops and then delete the footage off the memory cards to continue filming. We had rented the village hall for six hours to make sure we could get all the filming done but having to stop every now and then put us under pressure to complete it all. Although this was a slight inconvenience it was something we were prepared to work with to guarantee top quality footage. Another problem that we faced was the battery life of the two cameras; as filming isn’t the cameras usual setting, filming for long periods of time really ran down the battery quickly. We were able to get a lot of footage on both cameras and thankfully the batteries died on both cameras as we were finishing. Whilst filming the narrative we found that filming the scenes with the bookcase was difficult due to the size of it; it was very slim and we only had enough books to fill the top three shelves. Therefore when the actor searches through the bookshelf, we often got the wall space in the frame, showing how thin the book case was when really we wanted to make it seem larger and more intimidating than it really was. If we had access to more money we would have been able to rent or purchase more impressive props but we used what we had available to us and I believe we did a good job.

Using blogger was a very useful way of keeping our work in one place and organised; blogging is a very popular method of social networking but it is also useful for noting down ideas and work. Using this website has greatly helped us plan and produce our music video, documenting each idea and seeing it from start to finish. The internet has been an invaluable asset whilst producing our music promo as we were able to research different music videos to see how they made them and what was effective and what wasn’t.

For the design and creation of our two ancillary tasks; the digipack and magazine advert, we used Adobe In Design. This is a software system that is used to design magazines and brochures and we found this gave us a professional advantage when designing the two supporting products. The band’s logo was initially designed on this programme which was then put on the cover of the digipack. In Design enabled us to create the digipack to exact measurements and create a grid of six to design each foldout panel individually. We imported photos which where then put on the three inside panels; the opacity was turned down so they appeared faded whilst still continuing the theme of the wallpaper and dirt. We then incorporated the same wallpaper and dirt into our magazine advert whilst having the digipack cover the most prominent feature on the advert. We felt having the cover stand out the most with the In Archives logo meant that fans would instantly recognise the band and what was being released. 

Performance Location

We have chosen to rent out morton village hall for the location of our promo. We are renting it for 6 hours from 4pm to 10pm. This gives us enough time to set up the lighting, drum kit and speakers so we can then film the band performing.

The village hall used to hold live gigs as it has enough space for bands to perform and a large number of people to watch. In Archives have previously played in morton village hall and they agree that this will be a good location for the promo.

The hall gives us access to electricity, which we need for the lighting system we will be using. We have bought 4 large halogen industrial lights; two of them will be on stands behind the band and the other two will be on the floor. These two positions of the lighting will look effective and professional as the band perform. Renting out the hall means we don’t have to worry about lighting if we were to perform outdoors as you cannot guarantee what the weather will be like.

The spacing on the floor is big enough to fit all the equipment and then have the band members perform. The floor is also smooth which is essential as we are using a dolly, supplied by the school, to film some of the band shots. 

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