Evaluation Question 1

Will Jones

• For our music video, we first got our ideas from a couple of videos by the bands ‘Oasis’, ‘Arctic Monkeys’, ‘The Vaccines’ and ‘The Courteeners’. By looking at the music video ‘Cigarettes and Alcohol’ by the notorious and well known artists Oasis we found that we enjoyed the indie and old fashioned style of the video. Many other bands have used this type of music video before showing that we have slightly followed the conventions of a ‘indie’ genre music video in what we have made. We decided to use the black and white effect that is used in the Oasis video and also by using similar shots, such as looking down the guitar and mainly focusing on the singing. One way in which we have not followed conventions is by making the whole music video a performance video and not including any type of story or location. This is down to cost budget and not having the accessibility to other locations, however it also gave us a chance to try something that is not ofter used for this type of genre. When looking at the video ‘If You Wanna’ by The Vaccines we noticed that their song was very upbeat and therefore needed to provide quicker and more shots in order for the music video to mach the song. Seeing as the song we have used ‘How Good It was’ is also a quick song we decided that we would need quick shots in order for for the beat to match the video. This shows that we followed the conventions of fast paced music videos. We did however challenge the conventions of music videos by using very little lighting or any form of backdrop. This is again down to budget and not having access to any of these effects. The official Courteeners video ‘How Good It was’ was also massive inspiration to us and it showed us how quick the video needs to be, and points out which moments we must slow down or focus on a certain instrument. We also used flashing, spinning and subway effects on our music video, these are all effects from the editing program Final Cut Pro. This is a result of having a lack of shots and other locations. By adding the effects it makes the video speed up at the points in the song that need to be quicker and follows the forms and conventions of other ‘indie’ music videos by doing this. I believe that the video that inspired us the most was ‘I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor’ by the Arctic Monkeys. We really admired the way in which the whole music video is just a live performance, which doesn't feature an audience. The video is just lots of quick shots of the whole band playing the track and shows of all the instruments, it also uses little lighting or effects because they want to focus mainly on the band. As a result of this we decide to use an all performance video for our music video as we loved and respected the style that the Arctic Monkeys used for their video.

• In relation to Goodwin’s theory, the music video all of the 5 key aspects of the theory. This is including thought through beat, as the music video did not tell a story, however the tempo of the song did match the pace of the music video very nicely. There was also no relationship between the song and visuals because the music video was a disjuncture style, meaning that the meaning of the song is completely ignored in the music video. This also meant that there was no relation between the music and visuals. We did however have a main performer to make the song look more realistic and to focus the most of the shots on Derry, the main singer. We also use technical aspects such as special effects and editing to make the music video look more entertaining.

• There are many different sources and research that I used in order to create my digipak and advert. I started by looking at various different album covers by other ‘indie’ bands that I enjoy. These bands include ‘The Vaccines’, ‘The Clash’, ‘Palma Violets’ and many more. What I found from this was that I wanted to use a simplistic design in order for the digipak to follow the forms and convention of other indie albums. I also didn’t want my digipak and advert to look too clustered and over the top. The digipak’s that stood out to me the most when researching were ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines’ ‘Unknown Pleasures’. This is because they both use a plain black background and a image in the centre of the panel which draws your attention to the image and is aesthetically pleasing on the eyes. In a way, using this type of style does follow some conventions of a digipak of this genre however it also doesn’t as most indie digipaks and CD’s are all different yet use little similarities. From this I then started to look at what sort of image I would use for my digipak cover so I decided to look at art work from artist that I know and that incorporate an indie style into it. I looked at various artists such as Peter Blake, who although had very dramatic and polished work, it was not the style in which I was looking for. After looking at these artists, I came across Piet Mondrian, a Dutch artist from the early 1900’s. I admired the squares in which Piet used within his work as they stood out and where bold. It also made the art look very neat immaculate. From this, I knew that I wanted to incorporate the square style of imagery into my digipak some way or another. I went on to look at as many album covers that used a square design as I could. The results I found, although few, were very pleasing for me. The albums included ‘Chat And Business’ by ‘Ikara Colt’, ‘More Songs About Buildings And Food’ by the ‘Talking Heads’ and ‘Atlas’ by ‘Real Estate’. These albums all have in common that they use squares in some way into their design. By observing all of these albums I decided that the one that is best fitted to my style would be ‘Chat And Business’ so took upon myself to use the same style of pattern for my digipak. The image that I decided to use for my digipak and advert of a couple of the band members came from one of ‘The Clash’s’ albums which featured a few of the band on in with a black and white effect on it. This also made me comprehend that I should use this effect for my product as it follows a lot of the conventions and forms of indie digipaks and adverts and made it appear more sophisticated. For a while I conceived the idea of using no title for the album cover until I looked back at The Vaccines’s album ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?’ again and found that it looks more up market and identifiable. I decided to use a similar type of font as the album also as it easy on the eye and stands out.

• Overall I think that the media products in which we have produce mostly follow the conventions and forms of real indie media products, with some factors which would say that we haven’t. The reason for this is because we did not want to do something too different that would distract us away from the actual product in hand and the style of genre that we were going to use. However we did, in some cases, not follow the conventions of real media products by taking some risks and trying out different and more uncommon methods and ideas.