Commentary of our pop promo

My evaluation of our pop promo

At the beginning of this year we were asked to make a pop promo and also to make a digipack and magazine advert of our chosen song and artist. My group and I choose the Noah and the Whale - 5 years time.

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

I think that my media product uses a lot of other pop promos, because our synopsis is very much a romantic genre which most pop promos of an indie music genre tend to use for example, earlier this year I analysed the pop promo Katy Perry – Hot “n” Cold, this is similar to ours as our storyline is of a couple that have broken up according to the audience, which is the same as Katy Perry’s pop promo. Also, another way that we tried to do the same as other pop promos is that we tried to make the visual go in time with the music, for instance, in our pop promo goes in time with the music when the girl runs down through the trees. I think that our group also has challenged pop promos in some ways because our main idea for the synopsis is that the girl is dead, and that it is different because normally in other indie genre normally it is a simple storyline of a girl and a boy break up nothing more. All together I think that our pop promo is the same as other pop promo’s we tried to do this because we wanted to make audiences recognise the narrative of the our pop promo.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

The song we choose is a sad song if you listening to the lyrics but without them the tune of the song sounds like

a happy song, therefore our whole package of our pop promo is supposed to be happy colours. So that is the reason why we came up with bright still images as an example the picture of the tennis courts. For our font we only choose red because it stands out from the still images, and I wanted to use yellow but because you could not see what words where on the digipack, also, we thought that red is a darker colour so the digipack is a sombre tone same as the pop promo. I think that our promotional package goes well because we were aiming for the pop promo to have sombre but happy moments and we tried to show this in the digipack as the still images slowly get darker showing that the couple’s relationship gets worse. As art director, I choose certain places, for example, the local park, because I thought this is typical places in which a couple would be so this is the reason why I choose these places. I wanted to have different colour clothes for the actors to show that it is being different seasons but in the end we decided not to do that because we thought that it did not matter what type of weather it was, but the couple are getting angry at each other. We were trying to show the same as the lyrics that not everything lasts forever so that is why in our pop promo the couple break up the same as the lyrics.

3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We were trying to market our pop promo at teenagers (ages 15 to 20) because of the type of indie music, it could also be aimed at adults for instance 25 + but I do not think that not every adult would prefer this music. As we showed in the questionnaire that I did with my class earlier this year, they prefer to listen to this genre of music. The narrative of the pop promo is something that teenagers can relate to because of the break up adolescents know what it is like to be in a relationship and then break up, while adults are in marriages and they will not break up so they have not experienced this in a long time, but I don’t think our original idea that the girl is dead can be related to teenagers because not many have experienced the death of someone, this way in some way it can relate to adults because they have and they know that not everything lasts forever. We tried to attract audiences by making the audiences wonder during the pop promo why have these two people have broken up, so that at the end people are still confused because they are not sure what happened. We used M-E-S to try and attract teenagers because what the actors are wearing is very teenager clothing and also the places for example, the park, is a place where younger people can relate to. The audience related to the pop promo with contempt, because it is a simple story and they said that they understand it, apart

from the end because they were not sure that the girl is dead because they just thought that they broken up, and the glow when the girl is going backwards they thought it was just a representation that she was out of his life forever. Audiences thought that our digipack and print advert were ok, but again with the digipack they did not get the message that the pictures get darker because the couple’s relationship gets worse, they thought that it was just different colours to show different aspects of nature. With our print advert they thought that it was simple but got straight to the point, for instance, when it came out they said that it was not anything different than anything else they have seen before, they said that it did not attract their eye at all and that it just looked like a photograph nothing more. I think that our pop promo did attract our typical audience because of the pictures we used in the digipack and magazine advert it shows teenagers which will attract teenagers. But, the digipack the front package did attract our intended audience but the middle and back did not because they are not interested in nature. All of our audience feedback said the same thing that they were did not understand the end they just thought that she was out of his life and not dead, this was not our original message but if the audience understand and they were not confused it is fine.

4. How did you use media technologies in the research and planning, construction, and evaluation stages? (Significance of using these technologies)

During the researching and planning, I used the internet a lot for instance, YouTube and Google images. As our song is from a band who have promoted themselves we where able to find other albums and pop promos which they have made which really helped us because it gave us the intention of their pop promos narratives and style for instance, most of them our old fashioned and it shows a narrative, not just random places

like some pop promos, for instance, The prodigy – omen is just random flashing light nothing more. Trying to make the digipack and the magazine advert we used the application on our apple Macs which is called Photoshop that really helped us because we were able to use still images onto our digipack template. Also another thing that helped us was final cut pro because it managed to get still images from our pop promo and make them as a still image, this software also helped us add special effects to our pop promo, for instance, when Chris is walking along the bridge and he goes from one place to another in a blink of an eye.

All together I think that we did well in our pop promo video, because we tried to be the same as other pop promos for instance, the narrative but there were some faults, for instance how the audience did not recognise that the girl is dead at the end. But with our digipack and magazine advert I think that our group could have done better, because some of the still images were quite plain and simple and does not attract audience’s eyes. I think that if we had done a cartoon one like the original Noah and the whale had done it would have worked, but we did not choose this because we were not sure what to use as the middle image of the digipack. I think in the end that I have learnt more from last year when we did our film noir’s but I still think I have a lot to improve on.

Final pop promo video

<---- This is our final pop promo video

Main Magazine advert

In the end our group decided that we would choose the still image design. For the magazine advert we were going to use the same design as Mika (which is the same design as the front cover of the digipack) so with ours we choose the tennis courts design, We choose blue font to try and make it stand out, that is why we only used red for the " 5 years time" to make the audience know what the album cover looks like when they want to look for it in the shop.

Our final digipack idea

In the end we decided that this would be our digipack layout:

Because the colours of the front cover is light we thought that when you open the digipack it would get darker to show that their relationship is broken. For the spine of the digipack we choose yellow to try and keep the same colour as the original Noah and the Whale five years time Cd cover. The font is red we decided this as it looked good on photoshop to try and make it stand out from the still image as it was very difficult to find a colour that would stand out.

Our still image digipack ideas

When we decided to do a still image digipack design we thought it would be a nice idea to use the following images:









We decided that Chris would go on the back cover and i would go on the front so it would show us apart and for the middle cover we were going to put a photograph of a heart. unfortunately but as we had no good in focus pictures that looked like we were together we decided not to go with that idea.

So in the end we decided to use these following still images for our still image digipack design:

The back cover is going to be the moon design to show that is the darkness between the two characters and that they have broken up. The front cover is the tennis courts to show them happy together. We were thinking that the font would be a cartoon type, like Noah and the Whale orginal design.

The final cartoon digipack design

This is the final cartoon digipack design.. we are not sure as a group to use this because we think that the middle picture is very different (as it is a still image) so it is total different from the whole cartoon digipack design. Therefore, that is the reason i decided to make another digipack design using Chris's front cover design.


Our final Cartoon digipack design --->















<--- Chris's Still image digipack design

My ideas and pictures of our cartoon Digipack design

This is the my first idea for my cartoon digipack idea, this is the front cover. I drew the "5" using photoshop, and the whale and the sea. I used photoshop for the font as well. I used the background colour as yellow as the original cover idea of Noah and the whale is yellow and it is a cartoon design, this is why i was trying to use the whole idea of a cartoon cover.

Also, the bright colours i feel attracted audiences to pick up the CD and look at it, and if audiences saw this in a magazine they will instantly recognize it on the shelf in a shop. Our group and i have decided to go with the same idea as Mika, which is using the same picture as the front cover design for the magazine advert, and adding a few ratings on the page, also to say when it is out and what is included in the digipack.

Digipack design

As art director, i started to come up with some ideas for the digipack and magazine advert we are meant to create for this project. We are using a software on the apple macs at college, which is Photoshop.

My orginal idea was a cartoon design, also our cinematographer, Chris, also came up with another design which was still images used from our pop promo.

This a template of the digipack design we are meant to use. ---->

Filming

In the last week of the Christmas term we filmed in two locations, Christchurch Park and the Ipswich Waterfront. We gathered all of the shots we were scheduled to get on those days but unfortunately on the friday when we were due to complete our filming heavy snow and staff absence prevented us from doing so. However we are endeavouring to work out an afternoon or two when we complete our filming. For the time being further heavy snowfall has made filming in our locations impossible so we are for the moment spending our time updating our blog and beginning to log, capture and edit our existing footage.

During the filming we have managed to execute we have been keen to produce a variety of camera shots and angles which serve to add both texture and characterisation to our video. For example we have played around with focus in some of our shots so that our main character (Chris K) is at first out of focus and then comes into it as the camera comes across him. We hope that this technique will produce the effect of portraying the character as someone who is not quite in tune with the world because he is in mourning. As well as that we have used several tracking and panning shots to show the character's journey, moreover his meandering struggle with his own existence.

Research into the Super 8mm Effect for use with Final Cut Pro

Although I am not Chief Editor, and Josh is, I might be working in cooperation with Josh as the Co-Editor. Therefore Chris has devoted some research into the "Super 8mm" Effect we have discussed about in Group Production Meetings and agreed to use if possible for the flashback elements of our Music Promotional Video for "5 Years Time" by Noah and the Whale.

Chris found the information below on:http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/918311, when someone had posted on this forum "Can anyone suggest the best way to emulate a super 8 or an aged film look in final cut pro?":

• There are many plug-ins (Nattress is one) that simulate the effect. But if you want something cheap and free. Export the clip out of FCP using "Quicktime Conversion" Then, under Option-Filter-Special Effects, you can add some a film hair/dirt effect that's not too bad. Combine that with color correction in FCP and possibly some speed adjustment (Old 8mm always seems sped-up a bit) it might just work for free. Ernie Santella Santella Film/Video Productionshttp://www.santellaproductions.com/.

Chris also found the following useful information on this website:http://www.nattress.com/Solutions/solutions.htm#6:

• I want to make my video look like film: The Film Effects package was designed for you! Whether you are using PAL, NTSC, or HDV (or HD or SD) Film Effects has settings which will make your video look much more filmic. Film Effects does 25p conversion for PAL frame rates and 24p conversion (with 3:2 pulldown added) for NTSC frame rates. It has over 20 presets and you can make your own. There are over 27 plugins, all designed for different aspects of making your video look filmic and can be used in combinations or separately. Film Effects also gives you immense control over the gamma and tone of your image, so it can be a great tool even when you're not trying to make your video look like film.
• I want to make my video look like old Super-8 film: Film Effects has a preset called "Old Projector". This might be exactly what you're looking for, or you can use it as a starting point.