Oh wait, we have to do an Ancillary task!

So, I recently was reminded that aside from the video itself we also have to produce an Ancillary piece in the form of a CD Digipak. But what is a Digipak?

In basic terms, a Digipak is a paper version of traditional plastic jewel case that most CDs are sold in. Here are a few examples:

The music industry is now split between digipak and jewel cases. Many prefer digipaks due the the jewel cases tendency to break.

What exactly is it that makes a sucessful album cover design? This is a selection of some of the best covers of all time: http://www.wired.com/underwire/2010/06/gallery-album-covers/

Looking through them, it seems that there isn't one unifying theme that links them. They vary drastically in complexity and subject matter. Mostly, it seems that a successful cover has to continue the feel of the music itself. A lot of what the cover looks like seems to be dictated by the style or genre of the album. This is something I will have to think about when I am creating my design. It needs to work with the song, not against it.

Focus Group

As promised, here's my focus group! I conducted it to find out which of my possible song choices people responded best to. Overall, I think you'll agree, most people seemed to enjoy the Outasight video the best and thought it would work best for my video. I'm going to go with that song. It's the one I liked the most as well!


Media Research from Sam Paterson on Vimeo.

I've been reading...

Recently, I read 'The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy' by the god of animation that is Tim Burton. Whilst I don't plan to use any of the stories exactly, I really enjoyed the way that Tim created this world of tiny fantastic characters, and presented them in a slightly darker way than the norm. It was interesting to see Tim Burton's creative output right there on a page infront of you. The drawings he did were highly stylised and took a simular form to that of his stop-motion animated features.

My Idea So Far...

Even though it's still early days in terms of production, and my research is not yet complete, I'd still like to do a quick post telling you what my idea is thus far...

Obviously, this is a stop motion film.  I already know the song I'm planning to use (I have footage of my focus group to upload once it is edited) and have established a central feel. The action I'm thinking of currently is a late teen male, rising out of bed in the morning, but as he does, several clay characters come alive. They become animated and set about completing his morning chores; making his breakfast, cleaning his shoes, ironing his clothes. Throughout the course of the video the male is gradually prepared for the day ahead and as he walks out the door, the animated characters wave goodbye and go back to sleep.

I realise there are some fairly complex actions to animate there. I think, however, that it will be possible to interweave animated footage of the characters, and filmed footage of the male to bulk out the material. I worked out that if I wanted all three minutes of my videos to be stop-motion animated, I would need to take over two thousand images! I don't think I have the time for that...

Questions questions...

It's audience research time! I need to come up with some questions to ask before I head out so that I make sure that I'm getting all the information I need. But first of all, what do I actually want to find out...?

• What people typically expect from a music video.
• What people respond positively and negatively to in a music video.
• Whether people still utilise music videos as a format.
• How they view them.
• What each music genre implies in terms of the moving image.
• Any particularly significant examples.
• What makes a music video memorable.
• What people think of stop-motion (do they even know what it is?) 

So that's what I need to find out. Questions need to let me know what I need to know, without boring people.

1. When I say 'music video', what's the first example that comes to mind? What do you think makes it memorable to you?
2. Do you have any other favourite videos?
3. Do you watch music videos often? Would you prefer to watch music television or on an online streaming site like YouTube.
4. What music genre are you most interested in? What would you expect from a music video of that genre?
5. What would you expect of a conventional Hip-Hop video?
6. Any thoughts on stop-motion animations?

I've already done a post on my target audience. Ideally I should try to interview somebody fitting that description. Alongside that, however, I hope to interview a large variety of people on film.

But which song will I use...?

So my idea is moving forward.

I do, however, need to choose a song to use for my video.  It will help develop my ideas further. I've come up with three options and I'm going to choose from those.

Outasight - Good Evening (Dream Big)



Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - Find The Time



Joshua Radin - Closer



I'm going to play a focus group these songs tomorrow and listen to their thoughts on them. Hopefully I'll then be able to make a decision...

Video Notes

Today, we watched a short documentary detailing the rise and evolution of the music video. I've made some quick notes under each section covered...

History

• First combination of music and film came with MGM music videos which were based around performances of popular songs.
• The 60s saw a rise in popularity of Rock 'n' Roll films staring artists like Elvis and the Beatles.
• Later that decade, the popularity of TV variety shows was increasing. They often featured musical segments where a band would do a live performance of whatever song they were promoting at the time.
• Often, artists were unable to appear live due to other commitments. In their place, they often created a visual piece or recorded performance to play in their absence.
• The Beatles saw an opportunity in these short films and began creating films themselves so their singles could receive TV airtime. A popular example is their video for 'Strawberry Fields.'
• Possibly the first music video as we would recognise it was the famous video for Queen - 'Bohemian Rhapsody.' It was too complex for live performance and the band wanted a way to bring their album cover to life, so a film was made on a tight budget in a short amount of time. Since then, the video has become iconic receiving a great deal of coverage and perhaps adding to the success of the song itself.

MTV

• MTV was launched in August 1981.
• In its beginning, it was only able to play 200 of the same videos which was hardly suitable to supply an entire channel, leading to its nickname 'Empty-TV.'
• British bands responded to the popularity of the channel by producing a greater quantity of videos in order to supply the ever more demanding audience.
• They made videos with a simplicity at heart. Budgets were limited, and complicated ideas often had to be replicated by cheaper means.
• MTV faced issues with funding. Whilst videos were a nice addition to the single, they needed to prove that they were viable as a business.
• By finding a small record shop in Oklahoma which has seen an increase of particular albums following their airtime on MTV, they showed that videos were a effective method of marketing a track. Aside from being an interesting arty production; they also sold records.

Big Spends to Anti-Video

• Following the MTV success story, videos saw escalating costs for ever more extravagant productions.
• The most popular artists, such as Michael Jackson and Will Smith, commonly spent more than 2 million dollars on one music video.
• Whilst this did make for a more 'glossy' final product, this did not necessarily reflect in a huge increase in profits.
• Artist sought to bring the art back into their videos by decreasing the budget, in some cases to bellow 500 dollars, in order to inspire a more creative output, far removed from the world of mainstream Pop music.
• Moby, Bjork and Fatboy Slim all made attempts at creating videos with a focus on low production costs, interesting concepts and simple creations. Often, these resulted in an individual and visually interesting outcome

What to do next...

I REALLY need to do some audience research. I've summarised my target audience in a post below. Bearing that in mind I should interview a variety of subjects. All different ages, tastes and backgrounds.

I also should make a final decision on my song. I have a few in mind; probably something hip-hop.