Practice Editing

I have used Premier Pro, the program I plan to use to edit my product. By editing together Simpsons clips I have come to terms with the basic editing tools, such as the sequence line and the clip inventory. I also used Youtube.com to find tutorials on how to add effects to my clip. 

My Simpsons Clip

I am happy with how my sound and the construction of my video went. It gave me practice on Premier Pro which is the program I will use to do edit my product. However the quality of the video is very poor due to the size of the clips I used, therefore I will avoid this when putting together my product. 

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Applying Post Modernism to my Product

My product will use some elements of intertextuality, as I plan to use shots such of branded items such as an iPhone. Also, I plan to have shots of my character walking down city streets, so shops such as McDonalds or Next may be in the background. I hope to use intertextuality to demonstrate how society is present in my characters life and also to offer gratification to my audience as they can associate with these popular brands.
     The genre of my product is supernatural, however this is not obvious to the audience until the end of the video. Also, the style and tone of my video is predominantly indie, for reasons I mentioned into my pitch. Also, as my music video follows a narrative, it has some elements of shot film to it.
     It will mix elements of high and low culture. As for low culture, I will feature things such as branches such as takeaway shops or McDonalds. Also the use of an iPhone (which is popular culture) would be classed as low culture. However for high culture, I will feature The Times, which is a highbrow newspaper.
     My use of colour filters as obscure camera shots will draw attention to the fact that this is a media product that has been constructed. I will use fragmentation of location, as my character will jump from place to place with little sense of journey. This will hint to the fact that she is detached from reality. Also, I will use shots that display the characters point of view rather than the audiences, detaching them from the product and preventing them from becoming completely emerged in it.
     My product does take quite a light view of the serious issues within the video such as death and tragedy. The fact that my character actually died in a house fire is set against a backdrop of attractive shots and soft indie music, rather than being extremely dramatic. Whilst my product does provoke emotion it does take a serious event and 'softens' it.
     My product is of the indie genre ad therefore a lot of emphasis will be put on the aesthetics of the video. However, as my video follows a narrative that is relatively serious I will need to construct it in a way that can be followed and understood, therefore giving it substance.

Ancillary Task Photoshoot

I plan to use my friend Gemma as the character in my music video. She also modeled for me last year at AS, so I know she is reliable.

For my photoshoot I wanted to see how natural lighting would work in order to create the emotion and style I wanted. I also wanted to test out what conditions were like on my location, so I choose the beach as it will be where I film the opening of my music video.

I like this shot as it fits with one of my flat plans for my ancillary task. It portrays the mystery that I want my music video to have, and it also gives my character a very ghostly look. As this was just a practice, I used my iPhone to take the pictures, however for my actual photoshoot I plan on using college equipment to get a better quality.

I like this shot as it has good composition. Also, I played around with a pink tinged filter which I hope to use on my product. This gives the photo a very old, indie style that I was going for and also enhances the photo.

 For these two shots I experemented with a statue that is found at seaburn beach. I like how the statue frames the lighthouse as it looks very artistic, however I dont feel it would work for my ancillary task as it is not a strong enough image to stand on its own. I may, however, use is within my product with a mantage of other shots to give a feeling of location.

This shot is quite grainy as it was very zoomed in, however I could take it with better quality with college equipment. However I feel the composition of the shot is bad as there is a lot going on, and whilst it may be a powerful shot for my music video I cant see it working on my ancillary task.

This photo does not work as I used my flash, which lit up the figure in the foreground and made the background indistinguishable. It does not look professional and would not appeal to my audience.  

I feel that this shot has good composition and is balanced. The vast expanse of sky conveys the feeling of empty space and lonliness that I want to be present in my product, so this could work for my ancillary task. Also, the large section of sky is very dramatic. I also like the colour in this photograph as it has varying soft shades and looks artistic.

Research Into the Indie Genre

What is the Indie Genre?

"Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include indie pop, jangle pop, C86, and lo-fi, among others. Originally used to describe record labels, the term became associated with the music they produced and was initially used interchangeably with alternative rock."

Source: Wikipedia

Indie rock differs from the mainstream. It targets a neche market that prefer unique and artistic music to more generic, big budget music like that of Lady Gaga or Rihanna.

"Indie rock, derived from "independent", describes the small and relatively low-budget labels on which it is released and the do-it-yourself attitude of the bands and artists involved. Although distribution deals are often struck with major corporate companies, these labels and the bands they host have attempted to retain their autonomy, leaving them free to explore sounds, emotions and subjects of limited appeal to large, mainstream audiences"

Source: Wikipedia

A main factor in producing Indie music is allowing the artists themselves to have a large imput. This is what makes the genre so diverse as every product aims to be as unique as possible, which is something I hope to show in my own product.

I have used social media to connect with my target audience. I wanted to get a vague idea of what my tager audience expected from the Indie Genre.

Applying Marxisim & Feminisim Theories to my Product

Marxisim

When looking at my product in terms of Marxism, I need to think if I (as a media company) am responding to my audiences demand, or if I am projecting onto them an idea of what they need to demand. For example, have I designed my video with the audiences preferences for indie videos in mind, or have I constructed a media product that will tell my audience 'this is what an indie video is, and therefore this is what you need to be watching'. My questionnaire results show that my audience has a particular idea of what an indie video should be, and Marxism suggests that this idea is not their own preference but had been projected onto them by media corporations.
      My audience expected an indie video to my stylised, unique, and have a narrative. The fact that these conventions are seen commonly within the indie genre suggests that my audience ask for them because this is all they have seen, not because this is their preference.

Feminism

In regards to Feminism, the fact that I will use only one character that is female could have different connotations in terms of feminism. She will appeal to my female audience as they can relate to her and identify with her. For my male audience she will appeal to them as she is a member of the opposite sex and therefore may generate an attraction, or it could be endearing to them to see it from a females point of view.
       The high emotion in the video could be attributed to the fact that the character is female, as in the Jamie T video for 'Emily's Heart' (which I am basing my own video on), features only one character that is male, and the emotion in the video inst particularity high. This could have feminist connotations as hysteria or high emotion is often associated with women, especially in the media.

Applying Media Theories To My Product

Narrative Structure

I can apply Todorov's theory of narrative structure to my music video as I plan for my product to go from equilibrium -> disequilibrium -> new equilibrium. The story of my video introduces a young girl, who wakes up and takes  train out of town. Her spending her day wandering the streets and enjoying herself is the equilibrium, then she finds a newspaper who's headline describes a horrific house fire and death of a family. This is the disequilibrium. She takes the train back, to discover her family home is destroyed, and amongst the flowers is a picture of he and we realise that she is dead. On releasing this, she walks out to the ocean and fades out, showing she has moved on and giving the music video its new equilibrium.
       This use of narrative structure will give my video meaning and relevance, as well as provoking an emotional response from the audience.

Hermeneutic Code

As my character is actually a ghost though out the video, there will be clues, such as other no interaction with other characters, having no reflection in mirrors, and some shots showing her as faded and out of focus. There clues will keep my audience guessing, leading up the the revealing of her true identity, when we see her photograph is pinned to the fence with sympathy flowers.

Structuralism

Relying on my audiences experience, my video will hopefully make an impact. We understand death because we understand what it is to be living, and i a  way I will be blurring this line as we believe she is alive (walking around, reading a book, looking at the sea), yet we find out she is actually dead and can not stay at earth any longer.

Semiotics

When doing semiotics in class we looked at colour and how colour portrays signs to the audience. I am hoping to use colour filters for my shots when I edit them and so I can apply this to my own product. From my research I know that I need to focus my product at a female audience, therefore I hope to use colours that effectively connotate messages to women. After a class discussion we came up with positive connotations for certain colours and these are the ones I hope to use in my own product.

Blue | Cool, depression, cold, loneliness
Brown | Nature, age, life
White | Angelic, heavenly, pure, innocence
Black | Darkness, death, depression
Pink | Femininity, youth, life

When signs, words and actions work together to convey a message to the audience they become codes. I plan to use codes in my own product. Unbeknown to the audience, my character is a ghost through out the video and is very iscolated. I could show the audience she is iscolated by this shot:

The sign - My character on an icolated beach.
The Words - I plan for this shot to go at 0:23 seconds of the song, just as the artist sings the words 'Our minds are torubled by the emptiness'. These lyrics would work with the empty beach to depict the character as being alone and apart from society.
The Action - The next shot on my story board is of the characters feet running, followed by another extreme long shot showing her running from the beach, suggesting she wants to get away from the empiness.

Together, all of these signs work together to create a code, which conveys to my audience that my character is icolated and alone. This is a technical code- something that I, as the creator of the product, can control. However, I must also concider Syntheitc codes that I may convey (codes that I have no control over). These codes rely on cultural context, such as my audiences behaviours, education etc. For example, a member of my audience may not pick up that my character is lonley and running away to gey away from the empty beach, but they may interpret that she is running away from a physical threat, which is not what I want to convey.

Research into Target Audience

To aid my audience research I conducted a questionnaire for 10 males and 10 females aged 17-24.

Example of my questionnaire. 

After taking back my questionnaire and analysing the data, I constructed these graphs to give myself a good idea of what my target audience want. 

These graphs show me that from my selection, girls listen to Indie Music more than boys do, therefore I plan to focus my product at a female audience. I will do this by using a female model and pastel colour filters over my shots to soften them. However, a lot of my male audience also listen to indie music as only 1% voted never, therefore my product will be more gender neutral than other feminine products on the market to include my male audience. 

According to my graphs, the most popular pass times for both male and female are socialising, parties, gigs and staying in. Considering this, each of these pass times can include music, therefore giving me a marketing tact of advertising my song towards shops, drinking establishments and music channels for those who stay in. 

The most popular for both male and female were music channels and iPods. This supports my choice to aim my product at this age range as music channels will be the perfect platform for my media product, reaching my target audience. Also, I now know that I should collaborate my product with iTunes as it reaches a vast majority of my target audience.

Interestingly, 60% of my female audience voted that a music video is essential, which makes my product more applicable to them than my male audience as only 1% voted that a music video is essential. This supports my decision to mainly aim my product at a female audience. 

Whilst 50% of my male audience voted that the focus of a music video should simply my imagery of the artist, over all the majority of my audience voted that a music video should feature some kind of narrative. Therefore, I plan to film my video around a loose narrative that will give the song more dramatic effect. 

With my product being in the indie genre I will need to aim it at a very specific group of people. It is not mainstream and so I am looking at a niche market. By researching into social forums and online blogging, I have created an image of my target customer. May they be male or female, I assume they will be fashion conscious due to their age range, and so the design and aesthetics of my Digi Pack will be very important. Also, my niche in the market is unique and quirky, and this will match my song as is has haunting vocals and a sweet acoustic melody, which will appeal to my audience as it has a soft and different sound to other music in the charts, fitting their demand for alternative music to match their alternative fashion sense and tastes.

Research into Production & Distribution

Insperational Company

http://www.indiepower.com are a Independent music record label that promotes indie music. They provide music video production for independent music and CD design, so they would be perfect to base my own production company on.

Quote from their website:

‘INDIEPOWER was started by major industry veterans, on the cutting edge of the music industry, to provide access to the best marketing, promotion & distribution services available today!  Combining over 100+ years of valuable experience, credits & connections, the INDIEPOWER team has the expertise to help artists, producers, writers & labels MAXIMIZE their potentials & impacts to the industry and fans.’

       This company targets my niche in the market and therefore has the connections and experience to impact my audience and get them to notice my product. Indie Power offer services such as distribution, promotional packaging, music video shoots, online advertising, press releases, manufacturing and TV exposure.

       In 2003,  IndiePower.com was created by Jay Warsinske to provide independent artists with the same services and resources used by the major music corporations.  The company has developed into an innovative marketing and distribution resource with reach into over 77 countries, and across multiple platforms. This would help my product massivley due to my chosen genre of indie music, as this company does for indie music what big name companies do for mainstream music, therefore by incorporating this service into my own company my product will gain publicity whilst keeping its indegrity and edgy artistic style.

My Own Company

I plan to call my company UniQ-Records, playing on the word 'unique'. It will produce and distribute music by upcoming Indie artists and deliver them to the demands of the genre who want music and music videos that differ from those on the charts made by conglomerates. It will ditribute music that has integrity and artistic flare. 

Inspiration for Logo Design:

 

This mix of mainstream and independent label logos have helped me to set out and design my own using Photoshop. 

 My logo is bold and gender neutral so it well appeal to both a male and female audience. The Record that holds the Q makes my logo memorable and the 'RECORDS' makes it obvious that my logo is for a music company.