Case Study 2 for Print Productions

Print Production Case Study from Hannah Wicks

Audience profile for the Arctic Monkeys

Link to my prezi

Question 1B of the Evaluation

Question 1B

In my media print productions, I have used the codes and conventions associated with the typical four panelled CD design, one conventions of CD design I have conformed to is have the artist name larger than the album’s title. Multiples artists have done this, see examples, this is done because it helps the artists promote their own name and it becomes more of an eye-catching design for the audience. When browsing for music, for example in a music shop such as HMV, you would be more likely to spot or recognize and artist name when it is bolder, therefore by making the font larger this is a marketing technique to make more people buy it. However typically the artists name is feature on the top of the CD cover, I have challenged this convention to make my front cover stand out more against a crowd of CD covers. Most CD covers feature the artist name, then below it is the albums name, this is a normalise convention, therefore I wanted to challenge it and make my own work stand out against others, I believe this concretes my brand identity and make it stronger by making it different. 

Another convention of CD cover productions I have conformed to is featuring the artist face on the album cover, this is an incredibly popular way of designing a cover and is deliberately done to market Cd covers. This is because an audience may know a face by not a name, by placing the artists portrait on the cover it enables the cover to become more recognisable for an audience and also helps with emphasising the brand identity. This is because a brand identity is stronger when an audience are able to recognise an artist face and their name together. This is a typical convention of CD covers, see the examples below that have also conformed to this. 

Another convention of CD print productions is the contrast between the main image and its background, I have conformed to this conventions with my own print production by using my main image, of my artist Finn as the main attraction. The black and white colour scheme is used throughout  my entire print production and correlates with my music video. I wanted Finns face to do stand out, therefore by using a contrasting background around the edges I have effectively achieved this as his face is attracting the audience correctly.

However, the font is something I chose not to conform to with the usual conventions of the indie genre, most popular fonts within the genre of indie music on CD cover are typeface fonts or scripted like fonts. These for me personally did not convey my artists identity when I explored them through my previous blog post 'Fonts Mood Board'. The fonts of which that stood out the most were the ones that appeared bolder against the more fluid fonts like the typeface/ script. Against the newspaper and black background such fonts would have not created a large enough impact to stand out, therefore to emphasises the text I choose a strong font. This was 'bebas neue' from www.dafont.com. It has a modern stylistic look that effectively stands out against


To conclude, I think I have produced a successful print production by the collection of several techniques

Final Music Video

The music video ends at precisley 2.49, youtube decided to add an extra minute.

Storyboard

Vampire Weekend Case Study

Printed texts case study one from Hannah Wicks

Question Three

Question three from Hannah Wicks

Question Four

Questuon four from Hannah Wicks

Evaluation of drafts

Evaluation of drafts from Hannah Wicks

Completed Print Productions

Front and Back Cover

My inside covers

                                                   Magazine Cover 

Question Two

Question 1A of the Evaluation

Question One- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 

My music video conforms to many conventions of its genre, through which I have all chosen deliberately to show my knowledge around the genre of indie music. I wanted to conform to such conventions to explore true indie music videos and what makes a good music video for this certain genre, by doing so I have reinforced such stereotyped conventions.  

Narrative Structure

My music video raises the theme of troubled young love, the audience sees the main characters’ constantly reflecting on her past romantic relationship that has subsequently left her feeling sad and isolated. The flashbacks I used reveal what their relationship used to be like, happy, idyllic and in love juxtaposes what I have shown to be the present day, a cold and lonely time for my main character. This juxtaposition of the two dynamics conveys the message that young love does not last forever, we see the characters being pictured in love and then later on showing feelings of hate towards each other. This oxymoron of youthful love and then anger illustrates the theme of troubled young love.

I have portrayed the theme of heartbreak and it is effectively shown in my music video as something we will all, consciously or not in the romantic form, experience in our youth. Leading on from the difficulty of recovering from heartbreak I have shown the other effects that are not usually explored in similar media texts, these include; isolation and questioning one’s own character. I have shown this isolation through wide shots of waking up alone in a coldly lit, grey room. This is the establishing shot of my music video; the grey and coldness of the bedroom represent the feelings she is experiencing from her recent heartbreak. Furthermore, I have extended this message through the use of showing my main character to be seemingly reflecting on the relationship and person she has lost.

                                    

A nonlinear narrative is employed in my music video that is seen from just the main characters point of view. I took inspiration for this chosen structure from the 1994 hit film ‘Pulp Fiction’ in which this narrative structure is also employed. Non-linear narrative is effective at helping the audience understand the emotions of the characters through techniques such as flashbacks. These show the causes and reasons for the characters emotions and also insight into their memories and experiences. For example when the main character is pictured standing in the kitchen, a shot of follows this showing her and her ex boy-friend standing together looking happy and laughing over a cup of tea. This juxtaposes the previous shots of our main character standing alone with her body language expressing that of a sad feeling. The narrative of my music video conforms to the conventions of ‘indie’ music videos due to the narrative telling a story, an example of other music videos employing this story telling technique is James TW ‘When You Love Someone’ music video. This story telling technique is an example of Goodwin’s theory of the relationship between lyrics and imagery in which we have employed in our music video to create a successful media product.

A single perspective has become popular in the field of indie media texts, for example I took inspiration from the Channel 4 television show ‘Skins’ which features episodes that focus on one characters’ perspective per episode. I chose to employ this technique in my music video to showcase how the audience can gain a greater understanding of the characters personality and their emotions. My music video effectively does this by showing exactly how the main character reacts to certain things creating a connection between them and the audience when only their perspective is shown.

Continuously throughout my music video I have employed the technique of a repeating motif, this are the shots of my main character staring into mirrors. This technique is effective in representing how the main character is self-reflecting and also reflecting on a relationship she has lost. For example I have featured our main character looking into a large hall way mirror, then following this shot there is a flashback of our the couple looking into the same mirror with facial expressions of happiness. Again, this juxtaposition represents her emotional state at the present time of how she feels alone and sad. To further emphasise her emotions I have used the motif of the mirror towards the end of the video also, she stares into the mirror whilst in a fit of anger after arguing with her ex. She has a questioning facial expression while she considers what who heartbreak has led her to become and where it all went wrong. But also her self-reflection is also on her youth as it is a time of changing as a person, it is often said in popular media culture that difficult emotional times such as heartbreak will change you as a person.

Mise-en-scene/Locations

The mise-en-scene and locations of my music video conforms to ‘indie’ genre conventions through the Urban Landscapes and minimalistic modern home décor. The mise-en-scene of an ‘indie’ music video is very important, traditionally they keep the mise-en-scene clean and normal to real life. This clean cut style allows the attention to be solely on the narrative and performance aspect of the music video. Also, ‘indie’ music videos are known to be quite low budget, unlike pop music videos that are expensive to produce, extravagant and glamorous. Often it is popular for indie artist to portray a retro look to their music videos, however I decided to challenge this convention to make our music video more appealing to my target audience of 17 to 20 year olds as this aesthetic would be one of which they could resonate with. The significance of the mise-en-scene reflects how the main character is truly feeling. They grey and dull white tones of the house suggest to the audience that she is consumed by her feelings of loneliness and sadness so much so to the extent that everything around is appearing gloomy.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Costume

In the indie world of music the costumes in music videos can often appear mundane compared to pop videos, this could be due to the low budget factor or the fact that indie artist typically like to go for a minimalistic approach to their style. In my music video the costume has conformed to this convention as our main characters are placed in what could be perceived as basic or mundane clothes however I have chosen the costume to significantly represent their emotional state. Each character is shown to be in dark colours such as a grey and blacks. I took inspiration from Sam Smiths ‘Stay with Me’ music video where he is shown to be wearing all monochrome clothing signifying his emotional state at this time. This colour symbolism is typical of the indie genre especially when the song has negative or sad connotations and effectively communicates the genre to the audience.

Character

Indie artists typically feature younger actors in their music videos, this is because indie artists are often independent from a large corporate label company. Thus their music videos are low budget and cannot afford older and more experienced/skilled actors. As well as this, indie artist are often young themselves and write their songs based around their own experiences in their youth, therefore this means they use younger actors to represent their own age and appeal to their desired target audience.

It could be said that the characters in my music video use some of the conventional body language that would be seen in an indie music video. For example, my characters seem down and lonely through the use of lethargic body language. This conforms to the genre as already mentioned, indie music is often based around sad situations therefore the acting seems gloomy. The body language of my characters in my music video accentuates their emotional state and helps the audience to understand them further, this reinforces the meaning behind the song. Perhaps the behaviour could also be considered a genre convention as I have demonstrated a heartbreak, this is a typical indie genre convention because many artists connote a theme of losing a loved or heartbreak at young age through their songs and music videos. Through exploring Vladimir Propps’s, a literary critic and scholar, theory on character types, we included a ‘princess’ which is a stereotype of a female character in media texts. In my music video the princess is featured as the heartbroken girl after being in a toxic relationship and needs to be saved from feeling down and depressed. The only other character in my music video could be considered to be the villain as he is only presented in a negative light. The audience is only introduced to him when he is shouting at the protagonist, here it is clear he could be seen as the antagonist also. Our character types do not challenge stereotypical character type in a music video. This is because I have made our female character a stereotype to conform to indie genre conventions; she is shown to be heartbroken over a boy whilst feeling sad and isolated because of the breakup. The male character in my music video is presented as a stereotypical angry and aggressive young man through his instigation of their argument and his hostile behaviour.

Props

I took inspiration from an intertextual link, an American TV drama named ‘Teen Wolf’, in which their female protagonist sweeps a desk of objects onto the floor in a fit of anger. I wanted to convey her emotional state significantly, thus the act of clears her study equipment off the desk after the argument scene seemed suitable as I wanted this to look out of character and to illustrate to the audience how she was truly feeling. A sudden emotional outburst is common in indie music videos as they are often incredibly emotional songs based around the artists own unhappy personal experiences and losses. By their very nature indie music artists often have quite low budgets for their own music videos, therefore I felt it would be appropriate to use objects from our own homes since it is likely that the artist themselves would also be using items freely available to them. Taking this into account, the location was prominently in my own home therefore the props that make up her bedroom are an accurate representation of a 17-year-old girl’s bedroom. This is an effective way to target our audience as the use of recognisable and familiar objects allow them to more easily relate to the scenes.

Lighting

 

Throughout most of my music video the lighting consists of non-diegetic lighting, provided through the use of a professional filming light lent to me by school. I used this to create a cold atmosphere by using a white lit light. Mostly the lighting was backlit and by using this technique I was also able to create a harsher light which represented my protagonist feelings throughout the video. A warmer tone of light would not have been appropriate as it would have suggested a happy atmosphere to the music video and that is not what I wanted to convey. Therefore, a cold light is an effective way of using lighting to portray the emotions of my characters. An example of this is at 00.25 when the audience is being introduced to my audience as she woke up alone in a cold, grey toned room.

 

The lighting shown above is a direct juxtaposition of the happy flashbacks I have featured in my music video, for example at 1.02 minutes in the lighting changes from cold, harsh lighting to a more sombre, amber toned lighting which emphasises the flashback. This is significant because I wanted to reinforce her sadness by showing how happy she was before the break-up. I have done this effectively through the non-diegetic backlight lighting as the warmer tones shown above are representative of the happy times and the cold are a portrayal of how alone she feels and the stark reality of the breakup. This lighting was created by again the same light lent to me by school but set to a much warmer light to create such happy tones, portraying rose tinted memories. This is typical of the indie genre as heartbreak is a thematic convention, many videos feature such flashbacks with these types of warm, amber tones to truly emphasise the loss of a relationship or a loved one.

Camerawork

I wanted to achieve the upmost professional look for my music video, therefore I needed to employ professional techniques that separated my work from that of most other students. To do this I chose the technique of a slider, in which I placed the DLSR camera on the slider and I was able to create smooth transitions that reflected professionalism. I used this technique three times in my video, at 0.34, 0.47 and 1.02. This technique is common of the genre as indie artists tend to go for smooth transitional touch to their music videos. Thus, this is therefore conforming to the genre conventions of indie music.

 

Composition

I think my standard of composition in my music video is that of a high one, this is because when filming our music video, I used rules such a shallow depth of field at 0.12 when filming my artist for example. This a common genre convention for composition of indie music videos as again indie artist seem to go for a smooth tone for their music videos. This focus pull that blurs the background out gives atmospheric tone to the shot, it almost appears more professional therefore making the brand of the artist seem more mature and professional through composition techniques like this. Another technique I have used to make my music video seem more confident and less novice is the use of the rule of thirds, this can be seen at 1.05. here you can see that her face falls in the middle third whilst her hair and neck fall into the bottom and top third. This is an effective well composed shot and looks deliberately framed, this establishes how I wanted my music video to look more professional.

Editing

A constant technique used throughout my music video was the cross fade, I used this between shots of my actors and shots of my artists performing. This created a smooth transition between performance and narrative and overall creating a smoother effect. This is conforming to genre conventions as indie artists tend to opt towards a smoother edit rather than perhaps a choppy effect. For example, I have this at 0.48, here you can see the performance shot slowly beginning to come into full screen from the right-hand side first. This also makes the performance shot of my artist flow rather than seeming abrupt in comparison to the narrative side of video, this is an effective way to edit in my performance.

As shown in the screenshot, I also have opted for to add black bars throughout the entirety of the music video. This has shown to be an effective way to make many media products such as other music videos appear more stylistic and add a touch of movie likeness to it.