Website Complete (Ancillary)

Below is the link to our completed band website. This is part of our ancillary work, worth 10 marks. We designed the website using Wix.com.

http://callumhind95.wix.com/thekinksa2media

Evaluation: Question 3

Evaluation: Question 2

Digipack Album Work Complete (Ancilliary)

Below is a 'Vine' video presenting our completed ancillary work.

Made on the mobile Vine application 'https://vine.co/'

Evaluation: Question 4

Evaluation: Question 1

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

Codes and Conventions of the forms of media products are what the audience expects to see. Commonly used within genre's and subverted sub genre's, by demonstrating ideologies specific to the text. In terms of our own media production work; the music video to The Kinks- All Day and All of the Night and it's ancillary products (Website and Album front cover/ back cover and insert); our products challenge and also develop the forms and conventions of real media products, by showing links to content already in existence within the music industry.

Goodwin's Theory in Relation to our Music Video:

Genre Characteristics:

Previously, within 'All Day and All of The Night's' original era (1960's), the song would have been classed as 'pop' music, attracting a mass audience. Now however, this genre of music would be considered more of as indie/ rock genre, attracting a niche audience compared to its previous popularity. It is important to make note of the fact that we constructed our music video in a 'pop' style genre, rather than rock; in order to make reference to the 1960's era. For example, no instruments are shown within the music video; instead the band members are at times singing individually, also as a group; making similar links to a modern boy band, rather than a typical rock band.

A smart 'suited and booted' dress code is apparent for our clothing choice. The Kinks themselves and bands similar, such as The Beatles would have commonly been seen wearing similar attire, as this was what was considered popular within the 1960's era. We therefore attempted to mimic this style, reinforcing the old fashioned 'pop' genre, but with a modern twist.

As we were aware of the 1960's style throughout the planning process, we had predetermined ideas of the 1960's 'pop' image; so therefore we incorporated these ideologies into our media production to demonstrate homage to the 60's and in turn develop the conventions of this style into a more modern media piece. For example with Jem (main band member) using Usain Bolt's signature pose within one of the shots, it makes clear references to a modern idol. We have therefore used a pastiche style, by combining influences from different time period's, contributing to the fact we have challenged forms of 60's media productions.

Lyrics and Visuals:

The title, stated within the lyrical chorus, 'All Day and All of The Night' suggests that the band members are trying to win over this girl around the clock 24/7. This in turn strengthens the narrative. Illustrative links between the lyrics and visuals are made throughout as the visuals presented within the narrative suggest that the main band member wants to get this girls attention and be with her. The lyrics reinforce this with utterances such as, 'Girl I want to be with you all of the time' and 'I believe that you and me last forever' that are shown to be repeated, linking to Vernallis's theory of narrative.

Music and Visuals:

Jump cuts are used, edited in synchronized timing with instrumental beats to the song. This demonstrates a clear amplified link between music and visuals as the editing has been done precisely in time to the music phrases. This develops typical conventions of a rock music video as the camera editing cuts are usually fast paced and repetitive to the song; as demonstrated within our jump cuts.

Motifs (Visual Style), Demands of Record Label:

Close up's of all three band members faces are frequently used throughout. The close up, 'Selfie' style tracking shot at a high angle is a good example, presenting all three band members as they walk. This emphasis on each band member provides individual identification and band recognition, contributing to the marketing. This is a typical demand of a 'pop' band's record label, showing that we are challenging conventions of real media products by doing so within our iconography.

Notion of Looking:

The previous point referring to the 'selfie' close up of the band members, also makes links to the notion of looking. This is because the main band member is presented to be looking directly at the camera, in turn at the audience, creating a visual bond.

The low angle tracking, two person shot of the girl (Georgia) walking from her perspective in the foreground, and Jem watching her in the background against the wall, makes reference to the notion of looking and therefore linking to Laura Mulvey's 'Male Gaze' theory; through voyeuristic treatment of the female body. The camera purposely lingers on her legs, to increase her sexual appearance. We are developing ideologies of women's sexual appearance in music video's within this scene to gain male and also female attention, as Jem is shown to be watching her through an eye line match, reflecting a typically male audience off screen. Women are frequently shown to be presented in a sexual way in modern day 'pop' music videos, so therefore we thought it would have been appropriate to include this in a more subtly way, to demonstrate a post feminist view. And to reinforce the ideologies that 'sex sells' in modern marketing techniques.

Intertextual References:

The Universal TV leader (Countdown at the beginning, alongside radio 'crackling' effect) is used at the beginning to make reference to the old fashioned style we were going for linking to the 1960's era. This effect was used typically at the beginning of black and white movies, when film began to take off within the media industry. We reinforced the ideologies of black and white film by following onto the next scene as the girl presented is listening to the radio. This develops older conventions of media, by incorporating it into our modern take of a music video.

Clipped tones of a 1960's style radio presenter are used within the dialogue at the beginning, to introduce the song. Linking back to my 3^rd music video textual analysis of The Beatles- Words of love, a similar effect is used within that modern music video take of an old song. We decided to therefore include this within our own media piece, as although it makes reference to 1960's representations, it also challenges modern forms of media conventions.

Vernallis's Theory in Relation to our Music Video:

Linking to Vernallis's theory of music video editing, she states that the editing breaks all rules of continuity. Our music video therefore agrees to a certain extent with this theory, as although continuity is presented at certain points in conjunction with the narrative, we break the continuity by including jump cuts within the instrumental demonstrating extreme changes in pace, also cutting to the lyrics, therefore disrupting the conventions of continuity editing. This style of editing is typical for music videos in the rock and 'pop' genres, showing that we are developing these conventions through our own editing techniques.

However we contradict/ challenge part of her theory as she states narrative doesn't usually have a clear ending or resolution to the narrative. In our music video we do however have a clear ending to the story line, as it's simplistically shows that the girl, that our main band member had been trying so hard to attract, had in fact another lover; which is demonstrated by the tracking shot of the couple walking away from them at the very end. This ideologies of our narrative had been constructed for the audience to clearly understand what was going on. Many music videos follow this 'filmic form' as we did, showing that we elaborated from an existing form of media product. Linking this to Chandler's narrative theory. the fact we included a structure with a simple plot, consisting of conflicts within the narrative between two characters elaborates the fact that this music video is of a 'pop' genre.

Our Album Work (Ancilliary Products):

Our album front/ back cover and insert work all adhere to forms and conventions of real album products by including typical features that are expected for industry standard. The typography demonstrates a clear sizing hierarchy within the album; as the Band logo and album title are presented significantly larger than any other text. Along with the contributing factor that all three band members are shown to be enlarged on the album front cover, it emphasizes that they're the centre of attention and most important, contributing to the band identification. 

The insert includes individual photo's of each band member to increase promotion and marketing. Along with the personal message included from the band, this is done to attract to their fan base by appealing to them with a well natured approach. This is a typical feature within album products, as it allows 'pop' artists to reach their fans on a more direct and personal level, usually in order to thank them. Our back cover and insert also follows typical conventions as we've included standard industry features such as track list, record label, bar code, QR code to the website (Creating synergy), external industry logos such as Spotify and Itunes; as well as essential information such as piracy terms, copyright and record label information for legal requirements. 

I think it's important to make note of the pragmatic links between the front and back cover imagery; as the girl is shown to be looking back at the band members, contributing to the mise-en-scene. This is because although it is apparent to the band members she is ignoring them within the music video, or doesn't in fact know they're there; the back cover suggests she's fully aware that they're interested in her, as the photography demonstrates an over the shoulder shot from the girls perspective looking back at the band members. These indirect links contribute to the technicality of the text.
 

Our Website:

The website, created on the flash generator website maker Wix.com, does also challenge conventions of real media products. This is because although only a front cover is a necessary requirement for the ancillary product, we decided to include additional pages appropriate, such as an 'enter site', 'video', 'gallery', 'store' and 'sign up' page; demonstrating Web 2.0's interactivity. As social networking is key to real life music marketing, it was essential we included links to external sites such as Twitter and Facebook, in order to promote greater accessibility for fan communication.

Like on our album products we also included links to sites such as Spotify, Itunes and Amazon on our 'enter site' page. This is a good example of challenging real life conventions as this would be done to encourage sales and increase profitability. To demonstrate the websites multi-modality we included a slide show of our album images alternating, linking to the text below stating 'The new single PARODY out now'. 

A 'News & Updates' information column and 'UK Tour List' column has also been included additionally to develop forms of media products with a sole purpose to keep the audience informed on key information. This is demonstrated on every band website I’ve seen within my research, reinforcing that our media product is challenging modern forms of real products, by containing key industry features throughout.

Callum Hind.

Why we included an external actor

We decided to include an external actor on our third attempt filming, simply to strengthen our narrative. We asked a friend of ours, Tom Parkinson to help us out with the acting. Tom's role consisted of playing an antagonist role, from the main character/band members Jem's perspective; as he is considered the protagonist. Although Jem is portrayed as the archetypal character initially to sweep the girl of her feet; the girl however in this instance isn't interested in Jem and instead has eyes for another person, Tom. Tom has been included for overall dramatic effect, taunting Jem throughout the music video. This strengthened our narrative by making it more exciting for the viewer.

Album Artwork

Music Video Completed

Below is our completed music video production of the song 'All Day and All of the Night' by The Kinks.

Work on the Website (Ancillary)

The print screen below shows our initial work to the website ancillary task. We have decided to use the website creator http://editor.wix.com as we did last year for our AS thriller coursework.

Although only a 'Home' page is necessary for the Ancillary task, we've decided to develop a 'Photos', 'Videos' and 'News' page additionally, to include more content.

Note: This image was taken a week ago, so drastic developments/ improvements have been made. The point we're at now are that we have almost completed the website and will putting images of the finished product, along with the website link on the blog as soon as it's ready.

Textual Analysis: The Kinks Website Homepage (Ancillary)

This is the official band website for The Kinks (http://www.thekinks.info/) created by 'Copyright © 2011 Universal Music Strategic Marketing. All Rights Reserved.'

In context, at the time The Kinks were producing music websites were not used by bands and artists; as online digital marketing did not yet exist. This is a very up to date, modern style of marketing for The Kinks with a purpose of 'celebrating 32 years of greatness' as stated underneath the band logo. Not with the sole intention of advertising the band for recognition, as the band broke up in 1996 due to commercial failures.

Theory
Aspects of  'Pull' media marketing is demonstrated through links to external social networking sites. Fans have the choice whether to click on these links and personally contribute to the marketing of the band, simply by pulling information towards them. Facebook option to 'like', and 'sign up' for twitter is an example of this demonstrated on the website.

The previous point links to Uses and Gratifications theory (McQuail), as fans will voluntarily enter the website for 'informative' purposes to satisfy their curiosity and general interest. For social reasons they may want to identify with others around them and gain a sense of belonging by visiting the website and joining fan pages and following them on twitter for 'integration and social interaction'. Or it could be purely for 'entertainment' purposes. Incorporating this into our own ancillary website it is important to design it in a way to attract and intrigue audience interest.

Graphology 
The Graphology of this website shows that it is a multi-modal text containing photos/ images and text. It has been designed to be 'user-friendly' whereby everything is done to stand out bold, without containing heaps of information. This has been done to immediately attract viewers.

The images used on the website are all suitable for the genre characteristics of The Kinks, demonstrating a rock band genre. Images such as the band logo's, Gibson guitar, album/ single covers and the use of individual band member photos show direct links between the genre and visuals.

Bold and larger fonts are used for the band name and other text that suggest importance, such as the band member 'Ray Davies' and the song name 'Waterloo Sunset'. A hierarchy of importance is therefore used, which should be considered carefully with the text in our own ancillary website.

Marketing
All the band members are shown together above The Kinks logo. This to create band recognition and identification. Close ups are used of each individual band members face, to reinforce audience awareness. In turn showing direct links between visuals and text. Synergy is created here with the website and various album covers, as the band are mainly shown together on the front covers, accompanied with band logo/ name to provide additional promotion.

Music industry features are shown frequently. Direct links to external social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. As previously stated, this provides fans opportunity to get involved and keep up to date with updates and general information regarding the band. Links to media playing websites such as YouTube to provide visual marketing.

Advertising albums and merchandise to persuade audience to purchase such items. All with a purpose to advertise the band.

Direct links to additional pages on the website to provide a greater depth of information i.e. 'News', 'Photos' & 'About The Kinks' to allow viewers to be more interactive. These all demonstrating aspects of web '2.0 interactivity'. Whereas the home page gives little information, there are other pages that give viewers the option to seek out information further specifically to their liking.

Textual Analysis: The Kinks- 'Lola' Single Cover (Ancillary)

Typography:
The typography of the band and song name are both the same font size and style; however they both contradict each other in colour in order to establish a clear difference between the band name and song title. Comparing this to some other of The Kinks single/ album covers, there are clear alterations made with the font styles in each. This represents their 'indie' band image, within pop culture in the 1960's. No band logo is apparent in this single cover, which is something we would like to incorporate within our own single cover, to create synergy.


Synergy:
Synergy is created to a certain extent in the graphology (Images) of The Kinks single covers as they all consist of all band members featuring as the center of attention within the image. However, as previously stated the font and style of the text in the band name and title changed frequently from CD covers and magazine advertisements etc (Demonstrated within the 'Day's' single cover). The Kinks band logo had also changed throughout their career (although one isn't included here, two additional examples are shown), to be more fitting to the the style of their music/ albums at that time.

Theme:
Image and record label shown in black and white, representing an old fashioned theme, and linking to an alternative/ rock band genre (dark in it's style). The band name and song title are the only things presented in colour, to contradict the black and white background and show links to an additional pop genre.

Design:
All band members are stood in line facing the opposite direction to the camera. Creates an element of mystery as to what they're looking at, contributing to the mise en scene. Additionally to this, they all appear to be wearing suits, suggesting that this was a popular style for men in the 1960's, linking again to the pop genre. We intend to be wearing suits within our media production, to resemble a similar style and genre to The Kinks in the 1960's. The design of the cover itself appears to have a screwed paper texture, again contributing to it's old fashioned style.

Industry features/ logos:
Record label PYE is included. Taking into account that technology was limited within the 1960's and not as developed as present day; therefore online marketing techniques have not been included. This single cover is very basic in terms of industry features compared to artists/ bands in this era, as digital marketing didn't exist. As we intend to incorporate a modern twist into our ancillary products, we intend to include some of the following into our single cover:
-QR code
-Website link
-ITunes logo
-Spotify logo
-Online Review (NME)

Sizing Hierarchy:
The sizing hierarchy defines clear importance within a single cover. In this case the band members are the center of attention, covering majority of the cover to create band recognition. As this is a multi-modal text, the font size is the second largest item to appear on the cover to link the band members to the name of the band. This is in order to create band identification, contributing to it's marketing.

Filming Photos

Shooting Schedules

Risk Assessment

Audience Feedback

In order to gain an insight into our target audiences initial opinions of our music video, we showed them a first draft of our production so far. They then gave us a list of strengths and weaknesses in order to help us improve our production editing:


Areas of Success:

- Good attention to the pace/tempo of the music in the cuts at the very beginning (editing techniques).

- Good choice of location and proxemics due to the idea wanting to represent a 1960's era but with a modern twist, (represented in the mise-en-scene).

- Good range of camera shots/angles.

- Extremely enjoyable so far.


Areas of Improvement:

- Ensure the song is in the highest quality of recording.

- Some footage is slightly over exposed which needs to be edited by adjusting the brightness.

- Continue to build on the narrative which plays to the actors' strengths.


Consideration of Comments:

As a group we will take on all the comments that our target audience have given us. We are aware of the amount of editing that needs to be done, especially adjusting the lighting in a few of the shots. The audience feedback has been extremely beneficial because as a group we now know what we are doing right and what needs improving in order to gain marks for achieving level 4.

Editing Issues & General Information: Updated

As previously mentioned on my previous 'Editing Issues' blog post, I stated that in an attempt to edit our footage using 'Adobe Premier Pro' we were going to transfer the footage from 'Windows Movie Maker' into a full video format and then try uploading that onto Adobe; with the hopes that Windows will have self-corrected our footage from being corrupt. This has proven successful and we are now able to edit using the more advanced Adobe editing software again.

Due to us having no other choice but to upload our entire footage onto 'Adobe Premier Pro', as a whole video format, we then incurred the process of cutting the video down into the individual shots needed to begin editing each shot in sync with the music. Once this was completed, we then had issues trying to shorten our jump cuts down, to be in time with the instrumental guitar beats at the beginning of the song. We eventually overcome this problem by slowing the footage, along with slowing down the song both by 60%, to therefore cut each jump cut precisely in time to the instrumental.

The stage we're currently at, is waiting for the next available day to complete our filming. This is proving difficult as we need to film on a day that everyone is free and the weather needs to be remotely the same as our first successful day filming... The weather hasn't been entirely on our side this last couple of weeks, which of course has put us further behind. We hope to complete our filming over the half term break, when we have more time available.

Callum, Georgia, Oli & Jem.

Filming!

As a group we filmed on the 2nd of January 2014 in the hope that we would get all the filming done. However, when we returned to school and looked over the footage we had captured we decided that the jump cuts were not a higher enough standard to what we wanted. Reasons for this would be that we did not come as fully prepared as we should have done for the day of filming.

Therefore on the 13th of January we decided to film again and this time filming was successful! We came fully prepared and organised and got all  the shots films that were a necessity.

We have planned to film on Wednesday 22nd of January due to an external actor needing to be used. Filming should be straight forward and done in under an hour, that is if the weather is suitable for filming. Further filming will be done on Friday 24th January of jump cuts of the girl in the music video and the beginning of the music video, due to the footage being filmed is at a different location. A time lapse is yet to be filmed but due to it being at the end of the music video for the moment it is not an urgent component of the music video.

 

Filming at locations

We found that filming in certain areas of Chesterfield were quite difficult and time consuming due to it being a busy town. However, majority of our filming was done near the Town Hall which was a much quieter part of the town which allowed us to work efficiently.

Filing additional jump cuts of the girl will not be a problem because they will be filmed at an old traditional phone box in a small village. Also the beginning of the music video which is yet to be filmed will be filmed in a house which creates no issues. Finally the time-lapse will be the easiest to film because its a case of letting a Go Pro take thousands of pictures and going back to it after 12 a day.

Georgia and Callum.

Editing issues

After we had completed our first filming attempt of our music video on the 2/01/14, we then began the editing process as soon as we went back to school from Christmas break. We initially faced editing problems when we uploaded our footage onto the editing software 'Adobe Premier Pro', as the shots began to freeze and crash the software. Although the cameras we used (9 & 10), were supposed to be compatible with 'Adobe Premier Pro' without having to transfer the footage onto 'Video Cam Suite' initially;  we attempted using 'Video Cam Suite' regardless, to see whether this corrected the problem. After more failed attempts after our second day filming and changing computers multiple times, the problem persistently continued to occur. We then concluded that certain files were corrupted as they were in a format not compatible with 'Adobe Premier Pro'. The problems we faced are best to be described as having similar characteristics to a computer virus. This is because after the footage was transferred onto the video timeline, it then would begin to cause problems such as crash, show a blank screen, certain shots would state they're corrupt, and would eventually cause the software to crash entirely. We tried rendering the footage after each attempt at editing but the rendering process would only last a little while before cancelling or crashing the software.

Due to the circumstances we have been forced to begin our editing using the free editing software 'Windows Movie Maker', firstly through converting the files to be compatible with 'QuickTime Player' and then uploading them onto 'Windows Movie Maker' on my home computer. So far this has been working perfectly fine, no problems like what we experienced with 'Adobe Premier Pro' have occurred. We hope to complete the first stage of editing on this software as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this editing software only has the very basic functions to cut and trim shots to fit in synchronisation with the song. It does not contain many professional transitions and fade effects which we initially hoped to include within our music video to make it appear as professional as possible. In order for us to include these effects, we will need to try using 'Adobe Premier Pro' again once we have transferred the finished product on 'Windows Movie Maker' into a video format. We will then transfer the footage onto 'Adobe Premier Pro' with the hope that Windows will have corrected the video format to one that is suitable for Adobe editing system. This way the shots shouldn't appear corrupt and crash the system.

Unfortunately the issues that myself and the group have faced have set us back two weeks; trying on multiple attempts to fix the problems with 'Adobe Premier Pro'. This is valuable time wasted which we could have spent perfecting the editing for our music video and beginning our ancillary products.

Callum and Georgia.