Evaluation : Part One

 

Question 1 - How has your media product conformed or contrasted conventional media products? (Written by Cary Banks - 3215)

 

The idea that I would argue is that there are never set genres and the conventions will continue to change so this could be more related to the idea of all music videos collectively. Not just conventions of one. There were many factors that contributed to the overall production of the music video which we created. This includes mise en scene, camera, editing and sounds.Mise en scene

Location: 

Nature is a largely used convention within music videos of the Indie genre as it reflect a natural and raw feel that tends to accompany the natural lighting and the clothing. The artist is also featured in a confined area, yet has freedom, they have the woods to themselves which could create a sense of isolation by at the same time shows the idea that they are almost at one with nature. One idea that is used in music videos of this genre is the use of rooms such as The Lumineers 'Ho Hey' music video. We had an idea to take a room and cover it in the colour of magazines whilst having the artist in black and white. As the music video progresses and she realises that true beauty is within, she become colour and tears down the images - making them reveal the black and white newspapers. 

 

this was set in the woods and forest which reflects the natural and raw sound that Amanda Rogers music is all about. Keeley made a good point that her genre is not confined to a typical genre as she has so many influences, but it was suggested that the natural language and themes that are used within her music could be her own genre of 'nature'.

The natural imagery shows the idea that real beauty is found in nature and this is the idea that the song This Beauty is trying to convey - perfection is not within magazines - we should find beauty within ourselves and within nature. There are several shots which depict this idea, especially as the shots begin to change in time to the drum beat, this shows the predominance of the theme behind the music and lyrics, furthering the meaning of beauty and colour in relation to nature.

 

The location further takes away from the star image, as she tends to represent nature but the clothing which she wears does not overshadow the fact that nature is the largest part of the music video and the lyrics. This is also the way in which Amanda Roger's appears too, in many of her images and the singular video featured for one of her songs, she is place within a woods and tends to walk within the confines of this.

Lighting: 

A largely used convention of Indie music videos is the idea that raw and natural lighting is used to keep the natural and almost DIY convention to the music video. This is one of the reasons why we tended to have me shakicam, because it reflects the idea that she is creating it herself and the journey is being followed by the audience in a real fashion because it appears as though they are taking the journey with her. The lighting used is typically very dark in the first verse, representing the opening to the song which talks about the façade that accompanies magazines through the 'thinly to peel' the idea that people can see through the typical media representations and she can reveal the real beauty within herself. The second verse begins to take on a lighter role in which she sings to the audience in a close up and the colours and lighting were much brighter. And finally, as the song comes to an end, the lighting takes on more prominent role through the shots that are in time with the drum of the song and we represent nature's role within beauty and finding yourself. The final shot leaves the audience with a bright and clear image of the heart.

Colour: 

Colour is used to represent the innocence and natural portrayals if the artist. For example, the clothes that the artist wears are very neutral whites and nude colours. This could reinforce her role as an individual who is virtuous and pure - also similar to the demographic within audience research - perhaps they want to see more women who are portrayed in a less sexual light through the male gaze as Laura Mulvey suggested. The innocent female representation is unconventional of a music video, as teens are seen partying and getting drunk which sets our music video apart from others. 

As I mentioned in the previous section of Colour, the idea that the light gets brighter as the song progresses also applies to the colour as the colours become more brighter and striking. Especially so within the nature shots with the red thread being featured towards the end. The final shot is of a bright red heart being held and this represents the passion that she feels towards true beauty. 

Costume: 

The way in which we represented Rogers was in a very feminine manner, as opposed to the 'gender neutral' way in which women can be portrayed in Indie music videos. In many music videos of this genre, women are shown to wear flowing and natural style dresses which connote the idea of being within nature and like the wind, this is similar to the final dress that is used in the music video when she runs and lets her arms out to the wind.

The costume is a remind of the natural and elemental features of the song. We also didn't want the outfits to overshadow the nature featured because that is a key element of the lyrics to the song.

Sound:

 

Typically within music videos of the Indie genre, they tend to use diegetic on-screen sounds which create the idea that the Audience is there with the artist and following their journey. It creates a real effect to the music video. This creates a stronger connection between the audience and the artist.

Furthermore, we had to match the visuals to the sound as opposed to last year in which we had to apply the right sounds to the product. This means that there will be more lyrical links to the video. One example of this is the lyric "silver lining" in which there is a shot featured of the camera in a high angle shot pointing to the silver lining of the clouds that were featured. The idea of "tear[ing] the pages of the magazines" is reinforced later on in the music video in the sequence where the performer tears down the images of 'perfection' from the trees. This is iconic because it creates the idea that she will no longer be dominated by the media and she can look to herself and nature for true beauty. Matching lyrics to visuals is a key convention of any music video. Further to this, there are many other areas in this project that we link the visuals and lyrics together to create the sense of intertwining narratives and ideas between the song and the video.

Camera: 

Camera is a key part of any music video - what music video doesn't use a camera in some way to portray their ideas? The shots which were used were shakicam, as I said before this is due to the DIY effect that is used within music videos of the genre because it makes it more relatable to the audience and they can feel as though they are there with the artist. 

The high angle shots represent empowerment of women and trying to connote positive ideas with beauty inside and nature. This reinforces the idea that true beauty inside an individual leads to empowerment and perhaps more confidence, as you stop comparing yourself to others and find that you are enough. 

 

Initially, we did not have many close ups as we began to edit and this posed a problem because this is key to creating a music video and a connection between the audience and the artist. So we went out and filmed more sequences, in which she sings directly to the audience, in a tracking shot, to convey the idea that she is trying to represent telling them directly to find beauty inside of themselves. This also create the idea that they are following her journey. This could be linked to the ancillary task as the shot of Amanda looking backwards to the camera connotes the idea that she is asking the audience to come with her on the journey that is ahead of her, connoted by the path the precedes her. 

The long shots towards the climax of the song create a distance between her and the audience as she runs away from the conventional idea of beauty and tries to find it herself.

Editing:

This was a crucial part of trying to get the idea of the music video across to an audience. The pace within the first verse of the music video is very simple and calm, suggesting that Rogers is trying to cope with being dominated by the media, however, as the chorus begins to take place, the pace speeds up and the drum beat become extremely predominant, this creates the idea that she is trying to run away and immerse herself in nature. The idea that it is an extreme close up creates the idea that the audience is following her walking in time to the beat, again, creating a journey.

 

The pace is relatively fast for the second verse and chorus. As the bridge brings to take place it is slowed down and the singular shot almost gives time for the audience to calm down and contrast the rest of the music video before the sudden tempo picks up. This is the only point in the music video where Amanda Rogers' song slows down, so we decided that it would be one of the perfect opportunities to slow it down, as it gives the audience time to think over the previous themes  conveyed and then ready to pick up the pace once more. The idea of pace slowing down during the bridge is a typical convention of any music video, as it slows down the pace - a whole music video set at a really fast pace would be exhausting and tiring, so this could be the reason why they are used as a prime moment to slow the song and pace down. It contrasts the rest of the song significantly and this is the reason why we chose to use this convention.

 

The shots after this feature her running and tearing the images down eventually, these shots of the images were edited in order to match the beat of the drum because we thought that it would create a sudden and almost angry effect that the song suggests about beauty within the media. 

 

One other thing that we were told about was the use of pace in relation to the music at the end of the sequence, due to the fact that the music slows down before we finish reversing the video to follow the journey of beauty to the Heartwood tree. This was kept the same throughout because we cleansed the idea of the pace to end at the point in which she says "to me" where it suddenly changes the song to a personal level and create a the idea that she is talking about beauty and the ways in which it is important to her. This pace, we thought, was ideal because the music doesn't officially finish until she sings the "to me" line. 

Conventionally, the shots would be around the 40-60 marks for an Indie music video, due to the idea of the songs being calmer, but the fact that our genre crossed over into the pop category meant that we had more shots than that of a typical Indie genre music video. I think it was around 130 or more, this meant that we contradicted the typical genre conventions due to the idea that we have had too many shots than typical. This also meant that we had to do a lot more editing due to the fact that there were more shot than that of our previous project and other Indie products. This meant that our skills developed in terms of editing because of this very fact. The idea that we have also edited some areas more suddenly, meant that we had to look more in depth the shots and depict the areas in which we had a quick transition.

 

Question 2-  How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks? By Keeley

The first thing we considered when beginning our ancillary product production was the examples of existing products. In this case, we looked at album covers and their cases, and the promotional posters and magazine adverts that went with them to first define the typical conventions of the formats. We quickly noticed that they all had to be intrinsically linked in order for the identity of the artist and the music to be displayed to prospective listeners. In particular, took a great deal of inspiration from Indie artist Gabrielle Aplin first full length album, "English Rain", as we believed it provided as with an excellent genre based example to gives us some idea of what we could do.

When first drafting our initial ideas, everyone in the group became highly concerned with the representation of our artist and, in particular, our music video. The music video, for us as well as the industry as a general rule, is a crucial part of the representation of our artist. It accompanies the lead single from the album, the one song that is meant to give a taster for the rest of the album and present the best of what is to come. Therefore, we knew we had to tie this into the major themes of our video and specifically, it's narrative of finding inner beauty.

Main Cover

 

The first thing we decided to include in our front cover was the most iconic image of our entire video. The red heart held in the hands of our Amanda was the closing shoot of the video and, according to our audience research, the one shot that left the biggest impression on those watching the video. It remained one of the key images that symbolised both the video and it's ideals (inner beauty, nature)

and came to represent that to us. It was for this reason that we decided to use this as our main cover, along with it's connection to the title and theme of Amanda Rogers album. Heartwood, meaning the very core of a tree, was a metaphor in our music video for looking inside yourself and finding your own true beauty. In finding this heart, our star finds her own confidence and beauty, the "Heartwood" of herself. Another key decision we made in terms of having our ancillary products reflect our music video was the choice of clothing and setting. For the front cover, this meant that we had Amanda dressed in the same white dress featured in the music video in the heartwood tree location, so that a connection could once again be made by the audience between music video and album artwork. The white dress also provided a natural, non-distracting background for the image's focus of the red heart being held in our stars hands, something we knew was important through looking at the typical conventions of other album covers, which are often bold yet quite simple to make sure that the viewer is drawn to the central image or album title. To keep with this simpler theme, we also changed the original font we had designed, based on the red thread we used throughout the video, as it looked far to chaotic when placed with the rest of the front cover. Instead we kept to one font, which looks natural, as though carved into wood, yet still easy to read and quite bold, to keep the cover natural looking but also eye catching.

The final key feature of our cover that was a conscious decision on our part was the lack of visual representation of the artist. We chose to instead focus simply on the hands and heart with the title instead of picturing the artist Amanda, reinforcing the themes from the music video in which nature and the narrative behind our performance based video take the most important role, leaving Amanda to be the one enforcing those ideas, rather than having the location and story back her up. We thought this was a key feature of Amanda Rogers as an artist, who tends to focus solely on the music and the message it leaves and therefore felt we had to reflect this in the way we presented her in the album.

Inside Pages

 

Along with just creating the front and back cover, we also designed both inside covers too, one the be found underneath the CD insert and one to be on the back of what would be, especially in Amanda's case, the lyrics book. Initially we had planned to create a cd design to match the back inside cover, fitting into the rest of the design, but ultimately changed this idea. We had planned to use a close up shot of a flower, with soft subtle colours to try and match with the overall colour palette of the album and music video. This would have worked well due to its circular shape and natural connotations, however, we couldn't find a flower that would have matched well enough with the album to use. Therefore, in a slight spontaneous move, we used a shot of the headband worn by the artist in our music video as the image underneath the CD. This worked well due to the similar idea of it's circular shape being pleasing with the shape of the CD and also as it allowed for another subtle link to be made towards the music video for the audience to pick up on. The colours were also quite bright and attractive, yet fit with everything we had done so far.

 



The side of the cover was where we decided to solely feature our for the first time, as we knew we had to have a good representation of her on the album in a way that she could be recognised. To keep this as similar to the music video as possible, we once again used the same dress and headband, and tried to shoot in a place that reflected our main heartwood tree location in the video. One key difference to this location was the addition of the path in the distance. We felt this reflected the way in which our Amanda goes on a journey throughout our music video, following the red string towards true beauty. It's almost as if in standing at the beginning of this path, she's on the precipice of that journey, the perspective of the shot making the path long and winding like the string. Amanda is stood looking back as if waiting for you to join her as she embarks on this journey, in the same way that you are about the join her on a journey through the music in her album. You are at the beginning and hopefully the themes in the songs and particularly This Beauty and it's music video will lead you to a new place. The shot is also highly empowering towards our star, with it's gentle low angle, something that is common and crucial in representing artists.

Back Cover

 

The shot for the back cover was once again quite unplanned and based of the location we were in, something that also happened when we were filming for the music video. Nature and it's beauty constantly influenced us in our creative decisions and I think this is very evident in the ancillary tasks and the video for the lead single. The image of the bird box left a lot of space for the track list to be displayed appropriately whilst also giving of a homely feel to the whole album, inviting and natural. We also felt that it reflected not just the themes in the music video well, but also the sounds of the rest of the tracks on the album. The album opens with a track entitled I'm Awake, opening with the gentle calling of birds in the morning. In this sense, having this image really reinforced the sound of Amanda's music and her connection with nature, something very important towards prospective buyers of the album. The colours also reflect key shots in our music video, such as the panning shot on the line "And those greens and those blues" in which the sweeping blue sky is the main feature, as in this image.

Magazine Advert/Poster

 

As this was one of the only big marketing tools we could use for our video aside from new media technologies such as the internet, we knew it was important to really get across who Amanda Rogers was and what her music was about. Therefore, we decided to use the same artist shoot from the inside cover to be our main focus of the poster, for many of the reasons I mentioned above. It was empowering and connoted that sense of the journey you will go on through listening to her music. Along with this, we decided to use to self designed red thread font from our first designs of the album cover to bring the theme of This Beauty and the music video we created for it into the poster design and the albums promotion. It reiterates that idea of journey and also leads towards the heart in the music video, symbolising that the red thread on the poster could lead you to the red heart on the albums front cover. Hopefully, in making these small connections, both designs seamlessly come together.

We also included a small image of the album cover in order to allow that link to be more easily established. The overall colours we used for the poster took directly from the main colour themes of the album and the music video, with the dark browns of the forest locations our main background, pale creams reflecting the innocence of the two main costumes our star wears and of course, the bright red of the thread and the heart standing out over the top of it all.

 

Overall, I believe that the combination of our main product and ancillary tasks is quite successful, making obvious and detailed links whilst also allowing subtle themes to shine through and create connections between video and more traditional product. Each backs up the other, reinforcing themes and ideas and all staying within the same colour palettes and style ideas. Whilst there are things I definitely believed could have been made clearer, particularly in the music video when looking at the feedback from our audience, we linked all three products well and hopefully presented our artist in a way that makes her music something that people would love to get involved with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation: Part Two

 

 

Candidates from left: Lorna Edwards (3248), Keeley Burridge (3223), Cary Banks (3215), Victoria Paul-Pestovskaya (3331)

 

Question 3 - What have you learnt from your audience feedback? (Written by Lorna Edwards - 3248)

Feedback

Comment No 1.
Positives: Setting and location was appropriate, good shot of camera coming round the tree, good lip syncing.
Negatives: Shaky camera work

Comment No 2.
Positives: Good use of red string, nice setting, good costumes
Negatives: Wobbly camera focus, not a clear narrative, reverse goes too fast towards the end, too slow during bridge

Comment No 3.
Positives: Good setting, aesthetically pleasing costumes, good lighting- reflects appropriate mood, appropriate casting
Negatives: Bad camera quality, too shaky at times, unclear use of red string, unclear narrative, too fast furing rewind, inappropriate use of jump cuts and pacing too quick at times.

Comment No 4.
Positives: Structured well, movement in camera work appropriate for song, clear message, satisfying ending
Negatives: Bad lip syncing, too repetitive, locations too different, quite boring- no build-up.

Comment No 5.
Positives: Good setting, good narrative, good lyrics, realistic, good build up towards the end, warm and natural, flowed with the lyrics
Negatives: Scene does not suit music, different range of settings, camera is too unsteady, bad lip syncing, message wasn't clear

Comment No. 6
Positives: Clear narrative, great use of magazines- complimented the lyrics
Negatives: Unclear metaphor behind string, camera was bad quality, message unclear

We felt that one of the most talked about points from our audience feed back was the middle section that we like to call the bridge of the song and the pacing of the visuals. Many people thought that this section should have a faster pace to match the tempo of the song. We chose to put a long slow motion clip of our protagonist walking through the forest. At that point in the music, everything sort of slowed down in terms of the instruments and all the singing and notes were held on for longer. We wanted to reflect this in the visuals and so chose that certain clip to portray that section. However people still disagreed saying that it was too slow and the clip was too long compared to the rest of the song.

We thought that the combination of the two was nice and they complemented each other. Occasionally in the music video conventions the contrast in pacing of visuals and sounds deliberately because it is aesthetically pleasing. This is something we also felt, even though we had the opportunity to change it we wanted to keep it the same because it felt right to us and it just worked. Unfortunately the audience did not see from our point of view and we now fell that if we could have edited again, that is the main section that we would have chosen to improve in terms of audience feedback.

The next section that we felt was talked about quite a lot was the reverse sequence. Many people didn't think that the reverse sequence fit the genre, or didn't look right in that certain place, or didn't match the sound of the song. I think the issue was that as the song slowed down after the massive climax at the end, the reversing should have stopped. We wanted to carry it on so that it would stop on the phrase "to me" to act as a rounding off point, and to convey that the protagonist is reversing her journey back to the beginning to start again and to show the true meaning of beauty was inside herself all along. We wanted this change of journey and direction to be seen though the visuals, and that is why we chose to have the reversing sequence. We felt that this challenged our conventions slightly but helped us get our message across to the audience.

Most of our feedback from the year nine class consisted of the narrative not being easy to follow. We understand that it is not easy to follow, but our demographic was actually supposed to be the age of sixteen and over,and the fact that the ear nines didn't get it, shows us that we had a more selective demographic than we originally thought. Because they didn't understand our easy to follow narrative made us feel that they actually didn't take the lyrics into account when watching the music video. This means that thy were just looking at the visuals and sounds, which proves that this generation is more visual based, and that they would rather view a video than read an article. We feel that if they had listened to the lyrics they would have had more of a connection with the video. Adding to this point, Amanda Rogers writes all her own songs so the lyrics are so important and is something that we strongly had to take into account when producing our music video.
Staying on this point of narrative, when I posted the video onto the social networking site Facebook, we had more positive comments and all the people that commented were in our age demographic. This made us feel that this video had a more personal response on them than it did to the year nine's. Because this audience is older, they have had a chance to go though this journey that almost every teenage girl would have gone through; the feeling of not fitting in, wanting to be like the airbrushed models in magazines and the pressure of beauty as a whole. We felt that being a younger age such as fourteen, they wouldn't of had the chance, and because they are a younger generation they probably look at media in a different way and think that an air brushed perfect model is normal and being yourself isn't.

A few point were made about the lighting of the music video and the unsteady use of the camera. Some of these points such as lighting we could not help due to the location and the conditions in which we chose to shoot in. The lighting when shooting was very temperamental and we could never get the same exact lighting in every single shot. And due to the time of year we were shooting, we did not get a lot of time in the day to get what we wanted before it got too dark. We felt that shooting on two different days meant that the lighting on the two days were completely different, and if we could redo it all, we would start earlier and try to get everything done in one whole day to reduce the risk of different lighting. However, the use of natural lighting can not be predicted. Furthermore, the fact that the end shots are done at the end of the day when the sun is setting gives off the effect that the video is coming to an end just like the end of the day. We also did a lot of colour grading in a programme called colour to even out the lighting in our shots better. Instead of just putting a filter on our video like we did for the film opening, we went through and edited every single clip to make sure it was the best that we could have got it.
Most of the year audience feedback commented saying that the camera wasn't very steady. This was due to the fact that we were low on time, so we didn't get to shoot every single shot 5000 times to get it perfect. Most of the shaky shots were tracking shots, and we wanted to give a realistic feel that the audience is actually tracking her in real life. We wanted our protagonist to seem attainable unlike the air-brushed models in media, we felt that the use of shaky-cam helped with the realism of the music video, and to create a real role model that people can aspire to be like.

Overall we leant a lot from the different types of feedback that we got (positive and negative.) We learnt that the key things such as pacing, lyrics, sound, instruments etc... that are going on at the time in the music, will be what the visuals will have to follow.

Question 4 - How have you used new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?  (Written by Victoria Paul-Pestovskaya - 3331)

New media technologies have played a major role throughout the production and distribution of our music video as we have employed them throughout each stage of this project. The research, being the initial step in the creation of our video was conducted almost entirely using social networking. The variety of music video genres available on the internet allowed us to get a broader understanding of conventions of music video, which we chose and applied suitably. The niche genre of our chosen song naturally meant the music videos we would mostly be researching would be smaller-budget, less institutionalised music videos. Had it not been for the accessibility of the internet, it wouldn't have been possible to conduct our research thoroughly. As we mentioned in the video, Amanda Rogers herself is a niche artist who mainly uses social networking websites to market her music, therefore meaning that nearly all the information acquired about our chosen artist was conducted through new media technologies. Likewise, the distribution of our music video would not have been possible without the platform of social networks. This not only enabled our audience and artist to watch our video but also respond to it instantaneously through the comments on YouTube. 

Finally, new media technologies played an absolutely crucial role in the production and post production of our music video. Having used a camcorder for our preliminary task last year, we were able to appreciate the possibilities that came with using a DSLR  for our next project; the most obvious and important difference being the quality of the image. As mentioned in the evaluation above our low light conditions meant the camera would pick up on less detail in the frame. However, the DSLR made this possible, with the varied ISO settings. The high quality of the image also meant a more professional looking music video, which allows viewers to become more immersed in the music video. In addition to this, the high quality allowed us to produce a music video of the same professional level as our chosen artist, resulting in a more believable representation. The adjustable frame rate was also crucial in the production of this project as it gave us the opportunity to use slow motion. We established early on in our research, that slow motion is arguably the most important convention in music videos that is not specific to necessarily one genre. We used the adjustable frame rate to ensure that when we applied the slow motion to our rushes, the viewing experience wouldn't be worsened by the jolting of images. Instead, the FPS meant a smoother and more professional viewing experience. Close up shots were another convention we established through our research, allowing a closer relationship between the musical artist and the viewers. The variety of lenses that came with the cameras allowed us to include a variety of shots in our music video, especially close up shots which would not be possible on an non-adjustable camcorder. 

In the post-production stages of our project, we employed new media technologies throughout the editing of our video. The variety of professional editing techniques and equipment available on Final Cut Pro meant that, again, our project could be put on a par with existing media products. We were also able to add a logo and letter-boxing to complete the look of professionalism and make it as close as possible to existing media products. We also used the colour alteration software "Color" to address the problem of vastly varied lighting. One of the most important lessons learned through this experience was how drastically lighting can affect the final media product. Even having adjusted lighting and colour to the best potential in post-production, our audience feedback proved that it was still a noticeable issue. The low light conditions lessened the detail picked up by the camera in a shot, meaning that even when we adjusted the lighting in Color, the software couldn't fill in the missing detail in the frame. As a result I think a couple of our shots were a little grainy and blurred, however as Keeley mentions in our video it is a lesson only understood through experience. Were we to redo this music video again, we would perhaps employ the use of filler lights during the filming to ensure the scene would be as brightly lit as possible.

During the designing stages of our ancillary products, we used professional software programs such as Photoshop to achieve a more professional looking product. Specifically, this provided us with the opportunity to create our own font and import it into our final poster design. Whilst many would argue that software such as Photoshop, Final Cut Pro and Color has been available for a long time and therefore cannot be classified as "new," it's important to note that audience accessibility to these products is a recent occurrence. The rise in audience use of final cut pro and Photoshop and even use of DSLR's has developed the "prosumer" movement, of which our production group is a part of. As we were conscious of this, we made informed and specific choices of how we would use this professional software and took advantage of the possibilities now available to us. 
To conclude, the new media technologies we used ultimately allowed us to attain a professional level of production as well as meet many of the conventions of the genre. 

 

 



Ancillary Task: Final Products

1. Album Front Cover

Final Design

After much trouble, displayed above is our final front cover design for the album artwork of "Heartwood". We initially started editing the images, thinking we'd just tweak them and insert the other layers, but after maximizing the contrast we decided the photo looked the most professional. After the lighting, highlights, shadows and contrast were adjusted, we increased the temperature of the image on Windows Photo Gallery as this was the easiest and most efficient option, to reflect the warm hues portrayed in our music video. Once adjusted, the image was inserted into Publisher where it was cropped and grouped using the "Group" tool to combine the different layers into a single image. Initially, we planned on using our custom designed Amanda font, but after experimenting with the layout the cover seemed too busy since both the Heartwood and the Amanda font are attention grabbing. What our final design does that the initial design doesn't is it has a natural, central point of focus. Whereas with the previous design, the eye is drawn to the album title as well as the artist name.

Initial design

2. Album Back Cover

Once again, our initial plan was to use a different photo of Lorna displayed below. However we encountered the same problem- the image ended up being too busy once the text layers were added. As mentioned previously in our ancillary task research, often the front cover image is more busy than the back cover (excluding the typography), and having the planned photo of Lorna on the pathway wouldn't conform to this rule. Whilst looking through our photo shoot for the ancillary task, we came across the image above. The birdhouse seemed to fit in perfectly with the theme of nature, also reflecting the initial bird sounds on the first track of the album. The photograph also has a side-on focus, typical of the backs of album covers.In addition to this, we carefully selected the appropriate information an independent artist may have on the back of the album, whilst staying true to album conventions. 

3. Album Inside Right

As it is still winter, we had difficulty finding a flower appropriate for our CD slot, and so we went for something slightly different- but still better than the original idea. The head band is still in-keeping with the idea of nature and trees, whilst simultaneously making a link to the key location in our music video. It is also, needless to say, circular much like inside CD slot images.

4. Album Inside Left

This image reflects the key location of our music video for the leading single, and also is the only image of our artist represented in a long shot. We thought, since it's important for Amanda to be seen somewhere on the album, and this is an aesthetically pleasing photo we'd use it for the inside cover. The focal point also didn't lend itself to a typical front or back cover. When analysing the results of the photo shoot, we thought this photograph lent itself better to a poster image and an inside album image. This way, there would be a link to both the music video and the album.

5. Album Poster

Sure enough, this photo works a lot better on the poster promotion of the album. We made sure that although we didn't have a large image of the album, all of the colours used for the background and the text were in-keeping with the colour scheme. There are various visual pointers to the album, such as the Heartwood font, the red, cream and brown colour scheme. We also included conventional album reviews from appropriate independent sources such as "Under The Radar magazine" as well as "Rolling Stone", which Amanda Rogers was reviewed in at some point in her meta-narrative. The links at the bottom of the poster were also chosen based upon the most common access points indicated on her website; Facebook, Amazon and her website. In the end we chose to use the custom font we created on the poster as we thought it was an important link to the music video and also represented Amanda's sound very well. 

Ancillary Task: Photoshoot

Some of the results of our Ancillary task photoshoot.

Interior Album Photo Ideas:

Front Cover Ideas:

Back Cover Ideas:

Interior Album Ideas:

Ancillary Task: Final Designs

The final front cover will feature the Amanda Rogers font designed from scratch by Keeley and will be positioned just below the image of the heart. This photograph will be taken from a high-angle perspective, with a shallow depth of field, the background being Lorna wearing the white dress featured in the music video. The font for the album title has been chosen and downloaded and will be saved as an image an in-putted into Photoshop on top of the other layers. 

These are the interiors of the album. We are planning on shooting in the woods in Black park where we filmed for this still, however due to logistic problems we may have to chose a more local area. The flower will be brought separately and again- this shot will be a close-up with a shallow depth of field.

Our initial idea was to print our poster on the back of our album artwork which is displayed above. However, after consideration, we decided that due to time constraints, the printing and construction of this album artwork will simply not be possible. So we have decided to focus on printing and constructing the exteriors and interiors of the album. The poster design will simply be the heart image enlarged with the title underneath and the release date.

This is the sketch for the back of the album cover. We plan on having a long shot of Lorna in a wooded area where we will be able to tie red string to either side, which will join the string from the front cover, reflecting the motif in our music video. The track-list will be printed above Lorna in the downloaded Heartwood font.

Marketing In Music Videos: Amanda Rogers

Marketing techniques today have changed a great deal since the peak of the music industry in the mid twentieth century. In the digital age, marketing is done in the easiest possible way since there are so many ways to reach the public and spread word quickly. In fact because of the variety of artists emerging onto the scene, we have more choice with whom we chose to listen to. The main marketing methods remain:

• Posters - Nowadays these tend to be distributed in magazines, on-line newspapers and websites rather than distributed physically round an area- although many still opt for this method.

• Promotional Gigs (now tend to be hosted on TV at special events) - Previously bands would tour areas, performing various songs from the album to be released and generate a hype up to and sometimes after the release date of their album. Nowadays, because of the large crowds and fan base sizes, these gigs tend to be at other live events- for example talk shows like The Ellen Show/David Letterman (US) or the Graham Norton Show, however independent gigs still do exist. Taylor Swift for example sent out an impromptu tweet advertising an un-planned performance on Hollywood Boulevard, New York to which thousands of fans turned up. She however has the fan base size to pull off such an event. 

• Radio - Many artists still get a significant amount of radio play before an album or single will be released to see how well the song plays

Other methods of marketing include:

• Social Networks- Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Soundcloud, Bandcamp, Myspace etc...
• Word of mouth/Viral
• Adverts- TV advertising tends to be used to promote

Amanda Rogers: Record Label & Marketing

Being an independent artist, Amanda has taken up a lot of the responsibility of constructing her image and marketing herself. She has been with various record companies and distribution companies, however when it come down to graphic design, she has mostly been the one behind its construction. Much like the system for distributing films, large institutions (such as Warner Bros) will have their own distribution companies under their belt and so they will receive most of the profits. Other, independent record companies and artists need to find independent music record distributors who will strike up deals and build relationships with stores and companies such as HMV or iTunes for example. The latter is the process Amanda Rogers has had to go through for the distribution of all her albums. Depending on how independent the artist is, the distributor will have to either strike up a contract with the actual artist or the record label.

(source of info: HowStuffWorks)

Below is an excerpt from a very useful article summarizing the different kinds of distribution available, from which this information was sourced.

Music distributors can be categorized in several ways:

• Major label vs. independent -- Consolidation has left only a handful of major music distributors affiliated with the big record labels: Capitol/EMI Distribution (Time Warner), Sony/BMG Distribution, UNI Distribution (Vivendi Universal) and WEA Distribution (Warner Music Group). Independents can be national or regional. Among the independents, the largest is Curb Distribution.

• Subdistributors -- These are the middlemen between large distributors and retailers. They could be one-stops, which sell from a number of different distributors, or rack-jobbers who actually own and run the record department within a larger department or multipurpose store.

• National, regional or international -- While the major distributors operate on a national basis, area distributors are smaller and focus on a specific region of the United States, perhaps even a single metropolitan area. International distributors handle one or more overseas markets.

• Online, Internet or digital distributors -- These distributors supply iTunes, YouTube.com, Rhapsody, Napster and other Web music stores with the tunes that they offer. These distributors may also offer physical CDs, or they may operate only in the cyber-sphere.

• Niche distributors -- Some distributors specialize in and can be categorized by the type of music they handle, such as classical, Christian, country or alternative music.

• Printed or sheet music distributors -- Although they only account for a small share of the market, some distributors are actually publishers or work for publishers to sell musical scores, band music, pop songs for guitarists and vocalists, and other "on paper" works.

In the specific case of Heartwood, the album was produced with D.I.T Records (Do It Together Records)- an independent record label and "boutique agency". According to the internet, boutique agencies "specialise in creative advertising", meaning they offer a completely tailored and unique advertising service. These companies tend to have small client lists and work with specific companies to achieve a particular "look or feel". The website contains an entire list of companies that work closely with the record label to distribute music and provide the graphic design. Amongst this list of familiar companies are two different record labels with which Amanda has worked for her latest album and the one preceding Heartwood- Make My Day Records "...is an independent record label based in Germany with a hand-picked selection of artists they believe in, not for politics or marketability" and 2nd Records "...is a record label specializing in indie-electronica music (Hamburg, Germany)."

The following is their "mission statement"-

"D.I.T. is a record label and boutique agency dedicated to promoting indie artists of all kinds. Many of our artists are self-reliant and have had much success on their own. D.I.T. is set up to provide its roster with a promotional team and a vast industry network that works together to facilitate bigger and better opportunities. 'For Artists, by Artists.'"

D.I.T. Records Website > http://www.ditrecords.com/

More artists from D.I.T Records

The following couple of artists share similar musical influences and (for the most part) belong to a similar genre to Amanda Rogers, despite the differences in "sound" between them. 

The Last Internationale 

Drift Division

Ancillary Task: Typography

According to the album artwork research we conducted as a group, there tends to be two main fonts present on the cover art, for the purpose of making it look structured and not too busy. As we thought the string was central to our music video and the most memorable, we thought it was absolutely important we make a reference to this on the cover artwork. Having searched through many font websites to gain ideas we couldn't find anything close to what we envisioned in our heads. During a creative session where we tried to draw out exactly what it was we were looking for, we decided that the closest we would get to achieving our ideal font is to simply draw it out and scan it in based upon a drawing our team member Keeley drew up (below).

The font would reflect the themes of the music video through being constructed in a thread-like style and intertwining into a heart shape much like in the music video and for added embellishment. The thread both fits in with our music video and represents the natural aspect of Amanda's star image.

Our primary concern was finding a font that would be the secondary out of the two. Our main idea was to find something rough and imperfect- perhaps something that even appears hand drawn to reflect the natural and imperfect themes of the music video and the album. Below are the different fonts we considered throughout our research for different reasons.

Points liked: Reflects a wooden  texture, looks carved and connotes to nature, not too artistic to draw attention away from the main font and title. Points disliked: A little too plain and unoriginal for the album, doesn't appear scruffy enough- hand written font is our preference

This was one of our favourite ideas, however the font style appeared too busy to work with our main font. The swirls and the general movement of the font across the page fits perfectly with what we were looking for though.

This font worked where it looked almost de-bossed into a texture and was our closest consideration for the album title- it also resembles the font for Amanda's album Hope From the Forgotten Woods.

This font worked really well and the style really connotes to "wood" but wasn't visually compatible enough with our primary font.  

This font was appealing but it resembled the primary font a little too much to work visually, although this was a step in the right direction.

This font connotes to everything that we were aiming for- innocence, trees and nature, but it seemed a little to perfect for the front cover. 

Our Final Font

We found this font on the website http://www.dafont.com/ called Stonehand Saul and thought it ticked all the necessary boxes. It reflected imperfection, and resembled an etching into wood which was what we were aiming for. The letters though were all separate which was also important to differentiate the primary and secondary fonts. 

The Amanda Font

These are the final typefaces that Keeley created ans scanned in. When designing these fonts, we were concerned as to how we were going to incorporate red thread into our font image. One of the solutions was to import an image of the red thread into Photoshop, but there was the risk of this looking unconvincing. The second was to simply fill the font with a single red colour. The latter is the result below. Surprisingly enough, the font ended up resembling thread in a more convincing way than expected. The first font below is our final image that will be used on the album artwork.