[AUDIENCE] Audience Feedback Questionnaire

[AUDIENCE/RESEARCH] Institution Research

For this product, my fictional artist is "signed" to Island Records, which was founded in 1959 and exists as a division of Universal Music Group (UMG). As a well-established institution in the music industry, the mere label of the corporation is enough to provide an artist with credibility and the assurance that they will deliver impressive music. This was the image I wanted to provide my artist with - reliable and, ultimately, talented.

Some notable names included in the label's UK roster includes those of a similar genre to my fictional artist, "Sydney Stone", such as:

• Aquilo
• Ben Howard
• Hozier
• Laura Aquilina
• Mumford & Sons
• Of Monster and Me

The aforementioned artists are all typically of an acoustic indie/alternative indie genre, which is the direction in which my artist's music and music video is geared towards.

Upon further inspection of the record label's website, it is implied that their intended demographic is young adults aged 16-24. This is, firstly, evident from the types of artists they have listed which are signed to them but also from the graphic design of the website. The layout is grid-like, making it easy to navigate, and vibrant, reflecting their youthful audience.

Moreover, there is a banner across the top of the screen which depicts a shelf of vinyl records. The notion of vinyl records correlates with the indie genre and reflects "reformer" youth in the 20th Century, which mirrors the retro aesthetic of my artist's music video in terms of the filters and styling used.

Overall, from the research I conducted, Island Records was the most suitable label to have my artist partnered with.

[PRODUCT] Ancillary Product - Progress of Production (Music Magazine Album Advert)

Applying background image - used for both advert and front cover of digipak

Title of the album - same font as on the album cover

"The brand new album" - connoting a comeback, rather than a debut.

"Sydney Stone" - same font used throughout all the products (advert, digipak and music video) - establishing a sense of brand identity.

Inserting the titles of the singles included on the album - a convention of album adverts.

A quote from a review of the album from Pitchfork (an online music magazine owned by Condé Nast - "the most trusted voice in music").

Institution logos pasted in bottom left-hand corner

Link to artist's website - "www.sydneystonemusic.co.uk" 

Logo for "Available on iTunes" in bottom left-hand corner

ALTERATIONS MADE:

This version of the music magazine advert uses a different background image to the versions I previously posted. The reason behind this change is that I created the inside of the digipak using a different filter on Prisma ("Dreams") which resulted in this effect. 

The image I used for the other versions did not suit with the effect of these images so I used the same filter for the front image in order to match with the house style.

[PRODUCT] Ancillary Product - Music Magazine Album Advert (FIRST EDITS)

For my music magazine album advert, I initially produced a mock-up of it and planned on simply cutting out the artist and placing her where the orange square would be:

I was particularly fond of the background image and the colour scheme of the overall product went well with the genre of my artist's music. However, as the image was found on the Internet, there were issues of copyright and plagiarism. Therefore, I had set about creating my own background using Illustrator CC which had a similar aesthetic to the original background image. But I found the process far too exhaustive and the program was difficult to navigate around.

I was browsing on Apple's App Store when I came across the app, "Prisma".

The application essentially takes photos of your own and turns them into works of art by creating a filter with the work of existing famous artists, such as Hokusai's "The Great Wave off Kanagawa". 



ORIGINAL IMAGE 

VERSION 1

For this version, I used the "Dallas" filter.  When the filter is first applied, the image looked like this:

I increased the saturation on the image to make the colours more vibrant and altered the hue towards the cyan end to enhance the red and pinks in the image. The overall appearance is suitable for the genre I am aiming for (acoustic indie).

However, an issue with this filter is the lines it creates on the artist's face. The appearance is odd and detracts from the rest of the image.

VERSION 2

For this version, the "Illegal Beauty" filter was used which is based on the work of artist Natalie Ratkovski. 

I particularly liked the way the pinks and oranges were emphasised. However, once again, the lines that were created on the artist's face as a result of the filter was distracting and not suitable for a magazine advert. 

VERSION 3

This version makes use of the "Femme" filter, which gives the effect of a "smoothly painted over portrait" (Aussie Network New's Cat Suclo).

The original image was harsher and not suitable for the genre of music I was aiming for. However, once I edited the image (by decreasing the saturation and vibrance), it looked much smoother and much more satisfactory.

FOCUS GROUP FEEDBACK:

I asked my focus group what they thought of these first edits and all of them pointed out they preferred the third version because the lines on the artist's face on the other versions were distracting and off-putting. 

One member of my focus group pointed out that the effect on the third edit looked much "smoother" and ultimately, more aesthetically pleasing.

However, another member suggested that the "Sydney Stone" blends in with the artist's jacket in the background image and therefore, I will be editing it to provide a more striking appearance.

Moreover, I have forgotten to include the institutional logos for the artist's record label and website details so I will need to include those in my final edit.

[PLANNING] Music Magazine Album Advert Drafts

For the magazine advert, I am intending on taking a portrait photo of my talent in front of a flower bush and then have the text surrounding the subject. For instance: 

This aesthetic would match the genre of acoustic/acoustic indie I am aiming for. Moreover, the images have a rather wistful and romantic ambience to them which reflects the lyrics of the song used for the music video.

Another option of mine was to have a floral motif against a pastel background and have a photo of the artist pasted on top of it as though it is "stuck on", giving the illusion that it is similar to a clipping from a magazine.  

[PRODUCT] First Edit of Music Video

OFFBEAT MV [First Edit] from Katie Lam on Vimeo.

The first edit of the music video, "Offbeat".

As you can see, the music video is currently at a skeletal stage. There are many long gaps in between clips of the artist singing and cutaways, indicating that I have a lack of footage. I have made plans to film more cutaways when my artist is free.

Moreover, there are aspects of this edit which I am unsure whether or not they are effective. In particular, the part where the lyrics are "I wanna hit rewind, playback a hundred times" and the shots denote the artist walking backwards, then forwards and then backwards again. This was supposed to reflect the lyrics which describe rewinds and playbacks but I am worried that my editing did not convey my intended vision.

[PRODUCT] Progress of editing music video

When editing the music video, in order to make the process easier, I filmed the 'artist' lip-syncing to the whole song in one take.
Then I placed the entire clip onto iMovie, aligned it in time with the music and simply inserted other clips as cutaways.

[AUDIENCE] Focus Group

FOCUS GROUP

Name: Courtney Peacock
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Education/Employment: College student
Relationship status: In a relationship
Socio-economic classification: C1/C2
Favourite genre of music: Punk Pop, Pop Rock, Heavy Rock, Metal
Preferred method of listening to music: Streaming, purchasing CDs/Vinyl
Interests: Attending concerts and gigs, listening to music, photography, illustration and art, reading

Name: Madeleine Rigby
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Education/Employment: Sixth form student
Relationship status: Single
Socio-economic classification: B
Favourite genre of music: Pop, Classical, Musicals, Acoustic Pop
Preferred method of listening to music: Streaming, Radio
Interests: Drama and performing arts, musicals, playing the clarinet, being sociable

Name: Daniel Heywood
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Education/Employment: College student and working as an usher at a theatre
Relationship status: Single
Socio-economic classification: C1
Favourite genre of music: Pop, EDM, Rock
Preferred method of listening to music: Streaming (e.g. Spotify), Radio
Interests: Playing drums, reading, travelling

Name: Jess Boxall
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Education/Employment: Sixth form student and works at Waitrose
Relationship status: In a relationship
Socio-economic classification: B
Favourite genre of music: Pop, Acoustic Pop, EDM, RnB
Preferred method of listening to music: Spotify, YouTube, Online Radios
Interests: Socialising, fashion, makeup, reading

Evidently, three out of four individuals of my focus group are female. This is mainly because acoustic pop tends to be a genre geared towards a female audience and my final product is also aimed towards this demographic. Therefore, I aspired to make my focus group representative of my intended viewers.

[PLANNING] Music Video Storyboards

[PLANNING] Treatment

Song: Offbeat - Clara C

As the song is of an acoustic-pop genre, the music video's concept will also replicate the motifs and icons associated. For instance, the video takes place on the beach, a popular location for acoustic-pop videos.

The music video will begin with the artist's name and song title in the middle of the screen. In the background, the artist will be walking but her back will be facing the camera - she will be walking AWAY from the camera. Then, the text will fade and, in time with the song's rhythm, a sequence of shots depicting the artist walking along the beach will follow. This will establish the location of the music video, the genre and direction. Furthermore, the artist will not be walking towards anything specific or have a particular goal. This will reflect the nature of the music video and how it is simply an amalgamation of varying shots with different content.

Following on from this, when the artist begins to sing, there will be a succession of shots which mirror the lyrics. For example, the first line is "I want a library, full of our stories". As the artist sings these words, the camera will pan across a shelve of books and then cut to an open page of one particular book. The rest of the music video will be of a similar essence. In between each cutaway will be clips of the artist singing.

The video has no particular narrative, but the video focuses on the little details within the artist's life and how she is so in love that everything she encounters reminds her of her muse. Hopefully, my music video will reflect this idea.

[PLANNING] Permission to use song

This is an e-mail which shows I have sought permission to use the original artist's song for my music video.

[RESEARCH] Ancillary Product Analysis: Digipak - Noah & The Whale ("Last Night On Earth")

[RESEARCH] Ancillary Product Analysis: Digipak - Taylor Swift ("1989")

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[RESEARCH] Ancillary Product Analysis: Music Magazine Album Advert - Noah and The Whale (Last Night On Earth)

[RESEARCH] Ancillary Product Analysis: Music Magazine Advert - Mumford and Sons (Sigh No More)

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[RESEARCH] Music Video Analysis: Bastille - Send Them Off!

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[RESEARCH] Music Video Analysis: Sia - The Greatest

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