Ancillary Task - Discussion

My Group and I discussed last week what our ancillary tasks involves, and what would be the most suitable choices to go together with our final production. Earlier in my blog, I showed the brief for this product, which contained these three possible options (to go together with the main music video production):

• A website homepage for the band;
• A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD);
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

Our group had no trouble in deciding which two of the three choices we should proceed to create, those being; 'A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD)' and 'A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).



Why we chose ''A cover for its release as part of a digipak' and ''A magazine advertisement for the digipak' over the task 'A website homepage for the band;'



There are many factors for our group to decide against the website task and choose the other two tasks over it. The most important of the factors, we all have a previous experience in either creating a magazine advert/CD/DVD in one form or another. This means we shouldn't have any problems when we come around to creating the Cover and Magazine ancillary tasks. The website, however, is a different matter. We do not have experience in this field, and simply attempting it will cause problems and waste valuble time that could be used in the creation of the other two. The chosen two will not be a learning process but a development and collaboration of our groups previous work, skills and talents. Personally, I think a website (unless done professionally) could look slighty tacky and not up to the standard we hope to achieve. The final group decision was undisputed.

Questionaire

We have decided to gain an insight into our audience's thoughts and preferences on music videos by means of a questionaire, available to all to fill out. Aiden created the first draft of the questionaire which was later discussed over with George and myself, eventually concluding with a finalised version (displayed below). This is for the benefit of our production, as the decisions that are made may affect and determine any features or ideas we may want to include. Please fill out as well as you can, it would be much appreciated:


1. Which of the following age brackets applies to you?


[ ] Under 16 [ ] 16-19 [ ] 20-25 [ ] 26-30
[ ] 31-40 [ ] 41+


2. What is your gender?


[ ] Male [ ] Female


3. How much do you spend on music per year?


[ ] £0-£5 [ ] £6-£10 [ ] £11-£20 [ ] £21-£40 [ ] £41+


4. Do you find music more accessible when it has a supplementary video?


[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] No Preference


5. Do music videos help you feel more involved in the music?


[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] No Preference


6. How frequently do you watch music videos?


[ ] Daily [ ] Weekly [ ] Fortnightly [ ] Monthly
[ ] Rarely [ ] Never


7. Via which means of media do you watch music videos? (Tick all that apply)


[ ] Music channels (TV) [ ] Internet [ ] Portable Media Player
[ ] Games console [ ] Other (please state):

___________________________________________________________________



8. What is your preferred genre of music? (Tick all that apply)



[ ] Rock [ ] Rhythm and Blues [ ] Hip-Hop [ ] Blues [ ] Jazz
[ ] Folk [ ] Indie [ ] Hardcore [ ] Punk [ ] Pop
[ ] Pop-Punk [ ] Drum and Bass [ ] Electronic [ ] Other (please state):


___________________________________________________________________



9. Do you prefer music videos which have a more direct involvement of the band? (E.g. live shots of the band, members of the band acting, etc.)



[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] No preference



10. Which features of music videos most appeal to you? (Tick all that apply)



[ ] Special Effects [ ] Animation [ ] Realism
[ ] Expressionism [ ] Fantasy [ ] Other (please state)


___________________________________________________________________



11. Do you prefer music videos to have a story line?



[ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] No Preference



12. What is your favourite music video, and which feature(s) of it most appeals to you?


___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________



13. How do you prefer males to be represented in music videos?


___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________



14. How do you prefer females to be represented in music videos?


__________________________________________________________________

Research into music videos

Today, My group have been researching into music video to help us decide what we want to do in our own music video for this project. Our preferred choice of genre of the band and music we have decided to be one or more of the following: Acoustic, Indie, Folk, Rock.

Out of the videos which we have searched through, we have found a few that really stand out. They have also given us a few ideas or shown us techniques, in which we may include and utilise into our own music promo video.







First of all, we decided on the type of venue we wanted to film it in. 'Little Lion Man' by Mumford and Sons was filmed in a venue that appeals to us the most. The warm and comforting atmosphere that is produced by the lighting and setting was a feature we would like to reproduce.







'Balloons' by Foals really distinquishs itself as a style of music video we would like to do. The shots of the band playing together as a whole are something we are very content on having, as well as the set the video is filmed, a room that is rather compact.



Animation is a popular feature found in various music videos. It was recurring theme in many of the videos we researched, even with those videos being of different genres. It is a possible idea for us to include within our video, whether it be, stop-motion animation to computer-generated animation.







'Jet - Are You Gonna Be My Girl?' and 'Heartless - The Fray' are popular videos that have used animation, which gives them a unique touch to the song (usually because the animation is related to the lyrics in some form). This type of animation we believe is possible for us to achieve ourselves.

'Crazy - Gnarls Barkley' is another very popular song with computer designed/generated animation, but seems a bit far out of league to be acheivable.








'Airplanes - Local Natives', a personal favourite, was a video that gave us lots of ideas. From 0:23 in the video, there are pictures of the band members that are made transparent so that you can see their 'skulls'. This transparency technique is something we are very much considering for our video, as we all like the idea of it and could so how it may draft into our video. However, we are still in the research stages of the production.







Stop-motion photography was another concept we saw a lot of, and the band, The Maccabees, used this technique throughtout various of their own videos. 'Precious Time' used a combination of photographs, drawings and the movements of a human. We all agreed it was an appealing style and a possibility for our own production. 'Latchmere', another Maccabees song, includes stop motion. At 0:27, we see the paper run up the wall. That effect is something we would like to be able to include.

Advanced Media Studies Portfolio

Media Production Brief

Welcome to the start of my A2 Media Studies blog, a factor of my A2 Media Production that will show the progression of my groups thoughts, processes, production and ideas throughout this project. Our group consists of myself and two other members of my class, them being, Aiden Booth and George White. I have chosen these two partners because of not only our friendship on a personal level, in and out of school time, but they both possess helpful and worthwhile skills for our project that are necessary to creating the production. George and myself are also part of the same band, Belingo, which we hope will be useful later on in the product, if necessary.

This following brief is what I have decided to do for my A2 Media Production. This blog will be a record and prove as evidence for my and my groups work throughout the creation of this production. The brief states:

A promotional package for the release of an album, to include a music promo video, together with two of the following three options:

• A website homepage for the band;
• A cover for its release as part of a digipak (CD/DVD);
• A magazine advertisement for the digipak (CD/DVD package).

We have chosen the underlined choices to do with the music promo video. We have an idea in mind and willing band to participate and allow us to use there music.