Sam Muller's Media Blog: April 2016

My use of technologies greatly improved during my A2 year in comparison to at AS due to learning and developing more skills. When creating my media products, these technologies were used substantially. I used YouTube to research the videos of artists similar to my artist, Jay Harper, and use them as inspiration for Jay’s music video. The genre of these artists, such as Hozier, Tom Odell and George Ezra, is indie and so helped to gain an understanding of what indie music videos should include and present. I identified that some of their music videos involve or take place in natural environments, with any performances in studio sections or within the narrative not too extravagant. We thought about locations for the music video that would conform to this idea, deciding on a forest where there would not be many people to distract from the shots, while also emphasising him as organic, like in Tom Odell’s music video for ‘I Know’. Looking at these music videos also helped us with the narrative as it enabled us to see that we didn’t have to come up with an idea that was too complicated as all of the videos were quite simple which indicates that they are indie. In addition, we used Google and Google Maps to help find a suitable forest location and other outside settings that were near enough to be feasible, while still being big enough and nice enough to get a large range of shots. We found Bentley Priory, a big forest, which is close enough to a lake and Harrow Viewpoint to all be filmed on the same day, and so the internet made planning a lot easier. I also saw that similar artists’ videos had many shots where they are playing musical instruments, and so we filmed our artist in a studio with his guitar, with lots of close-up shots of the guitar. This allowed the video to establish Jay as a multi-talented singer-songwriter who can play the guitar, connoting that he is an organic artist and conforming to the conventions of typical videos from other organic artists. In addition, I noticed that the clothing that similar artists wear in their videos is very casual and laid-back, indicating that they care more about the music than image and are also relatable as they seem like normal people. Therefore we used this idea in our music video to help give Jay a star image that allows audiences to connect with him and see him as an organic indie artist who’s main focus is the music. Therefore, it is clear that I used the internet as a research tool into location, genre and star image which aided our narrative ideas and allowed us to plan and develop.

The ability to use mobile phones allowed us to easily interview prospective target audiences to gain an insight into what they look for in an artist. We used an iPhone 5S to record focus groups and interviews made up of people with the expected demographics of Jay’s fans and asked them questions concerning our music video idea before, during, and after completion of the video. The feedback from our idea showed us that it was a good idea that targeted Jay’s fanbase as people in that demographic and VAL liked the idea. The feedback we received during the filming and editing process showed us that we had to make the video even more simple as on screen the narrative was confusing for the target audience which might have stopped them from watching it again if we didn’t change it. The feedback from after we finished the music video showed us that Jay’s target audience would watch it again, and guided us towards creating a digipak and a website for the artist since they liked how his star image was presented in the video, and so we understood that we had to continue with this brand that we had created for Jay onto the digipak and website to help form a unified organic brand across the three products. The iPhone 5S, which we filmed with, is light and can store a lot of data which meant that we were able to record these interviews for longer than if it was a phone with lower storage capabilities and so we could collect a lot of information and opinions from the target audience. We used a USB cable to connect the phone to a computer and transferred the footage, which we then uploaded to YouTube after editing it. This all demonstrates how mobile phones helped with the development of our products.

We used the same phone (the iPhone 5S) to film our animatic, which helped to give us a rough idea of what we would be filming when it came to the shoot day. This was more advanced than at AS as at AS we didn’t have a song that we needed to cut in time with, while at A2 we did have to cut to the beat to match the fast-paced music. This meant that I needed to think of shots for the music video that would allow us to cut back and forth between them and still let people understand the narrative, and the animatic enabled us to picture these shots. By doing the animatic, I was able to work out the right quantity of narrative and studio shots, whereas if we didn’t make an animatic, the proportion of narrative to studio in the music video might have been off and we might have ended up with a boring video that people wouldn’t want to watch again.

To film the music video we used a Sony FS100. This camera was more advanced than the camera we used at AS since this camera had different features which allowed the final music video look more professional due to the more detailed quality and cinematic effect it created. This camera had prime lenses for different shots such as 18mm for a very wide shot to establish the setting which is primarily a forest. This allowed the organic location to help connote the organic nature of Jay, the artist. In addition, we used a wide backwards tracking shot with the 18mm lens as Jay is singing and walking forward which although isn’t too complicated, is more complex than at AS and signifies that Jay is all about the music rather than the complicated camerawork which might have taken the focus away from the artist and the song, and so symbolises that he is an organic artist. We also had a 50mm lens which we used for close-ups as it’s the most flattering to show Jay’s star image with close-ups of his face to show his glasses which demonstrate that he is a laid-back indie artist who isn’t manufactured. For the close-up shots of Jay playing the guitar, we used the 50mm lens again which shows him to be a gifted musician, and as the video serves as a debut for the artist, the shot helps introduce him into the industry as an organic artist who plays his own instrument. Therefore, the more advanced camerawork that we used at A2 compared to AS was because we wanted to connote Jay as an indie organic artist in as many ways as possible.

At A2, my use of editing was much more developed than at AS. As we were making a music video, it meant that we didn’t have to follow continuity rules and be linear and so we used discontinuity editing. Due to this, we had a lot more freedom at A2 to put different shots in different places, cross-cutting between multiple scenes in the narrative and between studio shots. We did this editing using Adobe Premiere Pro, and found that the editing was also more complicated as we had to cut to the beat to reinforce the rhythm of the song and carefully lip-sync the video to the audio so that they matched each other. In addition, I used the Fast Colour Corrector and the Three-Way Colour Corrector to give the video more of a green/yellow tint which enhanced the look of the forest shots and makes Jay seem even more organic and so makes his indie genre more apparent which can appeal to his target audience. I then increased the contrast of the video using Brightness & Contrast and added a PNG letterbox to make the video look more professional in order to compete with other artists to attract Jay’s target audience. Increasing the contrast also helped cancel out some of the grain in the darker shots which I reduced even more in Adobe After Effects by using the Remove Noise effect. Furthermore, in Adobe Photoshop we created a logo for BMS productions as a PNG image which we added to the beginning of the music video to make it seem even more professional and also connotes that Jay is an indie artist as it is not a well-known production company. Although my editing skills have clearly improved from AS to A2, my editing work at AS helped me develop these skills to make a better production for A2.

Using Google, I researched the digipaks of artists similar to Jay. These were the same artists whose videos I looked at earlier for inspiration. Like in their videos, their digipaks clearly displayed their star images to help promote them all as indie organic. I therefore took inspiration from this when creating Jay’s digipak. Using Adobe Photoshop we imported images of Jay wearing casual clothing and with his guitar for the images on his digipak to demonstrate that he is a relatable, organic, singer-songwriter with a lot of musical talent. I downloaded a font onto the computer which connotes his authenticity as it is quite a relaxed font and we used it for Jay’s name on the album. We used a white colour for his name as it stands out on top of the photo and helps establish his name in the industry. I also saw this on the digipaks of similar artists such as George Ezra, and so conforms to the conventions of an indie artist. We didn’t use Adobe Photoshop at AS and so we were much more creative at A2 as we had to manipulate our images and arrange them in the format of a digipak.

Again I used Google to look up websites of artists similar to Jay which I took inspiration from for Jay’s own website. Their websites were all quite simple and easy to navigate as it demonstrates their indie genre and so I wanted to do the same thing with Jay, like for both his music video and his digipak. Also like the other products, their websites show off their star images by placing photos of them in casual clothing and/or with their musical instrument around the website, and so we conformed to these indie conventions by doing the same thing with Jay. We created the website on Wix which was a completely new technology that we didn’t use at A2 and so was more advanced than at A2. For the main background image, we used a photo from a similar photo to that of the digipak that shows Jay’s organic star image with his guitar, and so creates an organic brand across the products that can be recognised. In addition, we added photos from the same photoshoot as the digipak to the Gallery page of the website to reinforce this brand.

We wanted to make sure that Jay’s website linked with other online technologies in order to spread the message of our artist. I created social media links for Jay on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and added them onto the website so fans of Jay would be able to follow his activity and share his posts. This means that Jay’s fans would be able to connect with Jay on a variety of media platforms and promote him via word of mouth to more people in his target audience. We also posted Jay’s video for ‘Best Fake Smile’ on YouTube and put the video on the website, encouraging fans to share the video which can act as an introduction to Jay’s music and organic star image and so may attract more people from his target audience as they can appreciate his authenticity and indie genre.

On SurveyMonkey, I created a questionnaire to gather feedback online from as many people as possible which would help me make changes to the products. In addition to giving the link of the questionnaire to some people, I also used Google Mail to send the link to other people in order to get more feedback. SurveyMonkey also allowed me to compare and contrast the answers of different people which was much easier for quantitative questions, but I could still read the qualitative answers so as to gain different opinions which we could then analyse to help us develop our products. There were qualitative answers that pointed out little things in our products that could be changed to help us improve, like some stretched images on our website which we fixed. However, there were also many qualitative and quantitative answers that helped reassure us that we had formed a good indie organic brand in Jay over three products, with a video that people in his target audience would want to watch again.