Goodwin's Theories: Our Video

After carrying out research into Andrew Goodwin's theories at the beginning of this process, we kept them in mind throughout the completion of our music video. We thought that it would be valuable to reflect on the ways that our video does/does not conform to Goodwin's theories post the completion of the final draft of our video. Unfortunately, Caitlin was unable to attend on this day to contribute to the discussion. 

In our music video, we used Goodwin's concepts of illustration and amplification, and we did not touch upon the concept of disjuncture.

After filming this video, I realised that we had only touched upon one area of Goodwin's theory; whether the lyrics of the song matched the visuals of our music video. We had, in fact, not discussed genre conventions, the visuals matching the music, star representation and voyeurism/'the notion of looking'.

Genre conventions: I believe our video conformed to Goodwin's theory of genre conventions partly, as there are many indie/alternative music videos that are narrative music videos. An example of this is the music video for "If They Only Knew" by Alfie Arcuri:

However, we did not include lip syncing in our video, which are common features in music videos of the indie genre. We decided that we did not want to include lip syncing, as we wanted to focus more heavily on the narrative of our piece. Due to us tackling the topical issue of LGBT+ relationships in our narrative, we wanted the video to solely focus on this, to highlight its importance. We felt that including lip syncing would be including it when it was not necessary, and we felt as though it would not add any value to our video.

Visuals matching the music: I believe our video did conform to this element of Goodwin's theory, as I believe that the visuals of our music video did match the music. Particularly towards the end of the piece, beginning most prominently during the argument scene, the shots in our music video are fitting to the chosen song. In the argument scene, Hannah intentionally lined up the footage where her arms rise, to coincide with the lyric "maybe". Additionally, in the montage of the shots of Jade and Hannah, it was closely edited to make sure that the shots transitioned on the beat of the song. We also managed to subtly line up movements of the characters heads and eyes to comply with the beat/rhythm of the song. We focused more on this in the second half of the video, as it helped with the build up of the narrative, as it added more of an impact to the section due to it being more pleasing to the senses of the viewer.

Star representation: We did not conform to Goodwin's theory of star representation, as we did not have a celebrity/well-known individual in our music video. It was not featured in our video in any way; not through costume, movements or appearances.

Voyeurism/'The notion of looking": I do not believe our music video includes any voyeuristic treatment/objectification of women, so it does not conform to this aspect. Voyeurism would have had no contribution to the narrative of our video, and therefore, it was unnecessary for us to use this. Additionally, as it was a piece created for school, we did not feel voyeuristic features would be appropriate. 

However, our piece does conform to "the notion of looking", as we include multiple shots of Hannah looking at herself in the mirror. The mirrors, and filming the protagonists in them, are representative of the notion of looking.

Changes to Our Plans

Throughout the production process, there were a number of our original plans that we had to change, for a variety of reasons. In this post, I will outline the changes that were made, with justification as to why. I will also make comments in reference to our contingency plan.

The Boyfriend

At the beginning of the production process, it was planned that Rhys Jones would play the role of the boyfriend of the protagonist in our music video. However, before we started filming, Rhys broke his leg, which meant he was no longer able to be featured. As a result, we had to find another person suitable for the role, and we picked Josh East. Thankfully, this incident happened before we had begun filming, as this meant that we had not wasted time collecting footage that we would be unable to use. Instead, the whole process would start as it was meant to, but just with Josh taking Rhys' place in our cast.

The Song

During the editing process, we discovered that the footage we had filmed was not very suiting to the song that we had initially chosen, which was 'W.D.Y.W.F.M?' by The Neighbourhood. Due to a lack of resources, equipment and budget, we were unable to create the correct aesthetic that we wanted to achieve for the piece, to fit with that song. This forced us to go back to the drawing board, as we knew that if we stuck with our original song, then our final piece would not be of a good standard, and our group would feel unsatisfied. We needed to find a new song that fitted with our original narrative, was of the 'alternative' genre, and that would go with the footage that we had already collected. After consideration and exploration, we identified that 'Sorry' by Nothing But Thieves would be perfect, as it did all of those things.

Narrative

Changing the song that we were going to use for our music video meant that we would need to alter the way in which we would portray the narrative, and also alter the narrative very slightly. Our original plan was that Hannah's character, the protagonist, would not actually get into a relationship with her best friend (the one she falls in love with). However, with the change of the song, such a heavy focus on the protagonist's emotional trauma did not feel fitting. As a result, we decided that we would change the ending of our piece to include the build up of the two female characters actually getting into a relationship. We thought that this more positive ending fitted better with our new song, and we wanted the narrative to follow similar to that of Todorov's narrative theory; equilibrium, disequilibrium, then return to equilibrium. We also thought that this would give a more optimistic message for the LGBT+ community, as it demonstrates that self-acceptance and embracing who you are is a positive thing. It also provides important representation of the LGBT+ community, which is important considering there remains a societal taboo, and prejudices, around this. It highlights how someone can be negatively affected by feeling that they have to hide who they, and feeling scared to express themselves, because of these remaining societal issues.

Changing the narrative, though only slightly, meant that it was necessary for us to think of new filming locations for the shots that we wanted to achieve. We decided that in order to effectively portray the contrast of the unhappiness that Hannah's character felt with her boyfriend, compared to the happiness that she experiences with Jade's character, that we needed to show a direct comparison. In order to do this we mostly chose locations to film that were the same, or similar to those that we filmed with Josh. This would allow us to replicate shots, but with Hannah looking happier with Jade, allowing the audience to draw a direct comparison. Here is an outline of some of the filming that we needed to complete after making this change:

Props

After we changed the song for our music video, we did have to alter some plans in terms of the narrative. This had an affect on the props that we would be using. With our initial song choice, we had the need to use cigarettes and fake drugs as props, to emphasise the mental trauma. However, we did not feel that the tempo of the new song we had chosen called for these props to be used anymore. We decided that shots of alcohol and drinking could reflect themes of emotional trauma and declining mental health due to self-conflict efficiently.

Filming Schedule

We were unable to adhere to our initial filming schedule for a variety of reasons, meaning our contingency plan had to come into place here. With rota's for our group members jobs being released sometimes only days before their shifts, we were forced to have to reschedule a lot of our filming sessions. This meant that the date we would complete filming got pushed further back than we would have liked.

One of the members of our group moved house during our production process, which meant they were largely unavailable for filming for a period of time. As this individual played the protagonist in our piece, we could not film without them, which added a further delay to our filming. This was unable to be fixed with a method similar to one in our contingency plan, as there was no solution. We could not film without Hannah, and therefore, we had to try our very best to make ourselves free whenever she had a little period of availability, to try and get us back on schedule.

Though we did not finish filming for our piece until a later date than we had initially planned, we were still able to start our edit with the footage we had already obtained. This meant that we did not fall behind that much in terms of our project timeline.

The weather did have an affect on our filming, mostly having an impact on filming that we needed to complete at the beach. When considering weather, we had not considered that high levels of coastal wind would make filming difficult. However, when we made the first trip to the beach to attempt to film with Jade and Hannah, the wind was so strong that we were unable to film certain shots that we had planned, due to their hair blowing in the wrong directions. To try to combat this, we filmed all the footage we could on this occasion, and scheduled to return to the beach on a less blustery day. We returned to the beach a few days later, as there did not seem to be much of a breeze that day. However, the wind was strong when we had reached the coast, so we were faced with the same issue. This meant that we had to improvise in terms of shot ideas, and how we could create the same affect, by using different shots. In my role as director, I instructed these changes, and attempted to find ways that we could still gather shots to shape our narrative, that did not show how windy the weather conditions were, as this would have looked unprofessional.

Editing Software

As I have outlined in my posts based on editing, we were forced to switch editing software after we had begun editing, due to regulation problems stopping us fro being able to attend the location in which we were using their facilities. We had to switch from Adobe Premier Pro, to iMovie, which although meant regressing in terms of the complexity of the software, it meant that we were able to use it more easily. Subsequently, we believe that having to alter the editing software we were using was very beneficial to us as a group, as it allowed us to make full use of the features available to us on software that was easier to navigate.

Magazine Advert Functionality

Using Photoshop, I used a template of a magazine I found online, in order to assess the functionality of the magazine advert I created. Here is a mock-up version of how the magazine advert I created would look if it were actually to be featured in a magazine:

I searched for a simple online template, as I did when I was looking to asses the functionality of the digipak that I created for the album, so I could Photoshop the magazine advert I created over the top of it. Fitting with my creation of the mock-up piece for my digipak, to create this piece for my magazine advert I had to use the transformation tool to re-size and rotate the image so that it was the correct size and angle to fit onto the magazine template. I also had to use the warp tool again, so that the advert effectively fit onto the template, and gave the impression that it was part of the magazine. As I had experience in using the warp tool at this point, I found that I could carry out this technique more easily this time.

Overall, I am very pleased with my magazine advert and I believe that it is for purpose. I like way I have chosen to position the main image, so that it frames the information I have layered on top of the image to effectively draw attention to it. I particularly like my use of the black coloured header and footer, as I believe these help to make the information I have included on the advert more clear, and that they help to segment it appropriately so that it does not appear cluttered. I think that the magazine advert comes together with the digipak and the music video to create a sleek and effective promotional package for the album; the typography I have used in the digipak and the magazine advert is consistent, and the image I have used in the magazine advert is the same as that used on the front cover of digipak, and this is taken from the opening shot of the music video my group created.

Magazine Advert Final Draft

Here is the final draft of my magazine advert:

What has changed since the draft?

Once I had created the draft version of my magazine advert, I received feedback on it from my teacher and from my peers; I also critically reviewed the piece I had created myself. I took this information and altered the design to created my final draft, which is pictured above.

I decided that the album and artist name needed to be prominent, and therefore, I attempted to make them more bold. To do this, I duplicated the title layer, and moved the layer very slightly out of line with the original. This created a bold effect, which I think will help to draw more attention to this particular area of the advert.

A change that I made to a few areas of the magazine advert was suggested by my teacher; she thought I should make certain elements of the text bold, to help to signify their importance. I took this advice on board and I chose to bold the following words/phrases: "out now", "Sorry" and "Amsterdam". I chose to bold the phrase "out now", as this is key information for the target audience. They need to know that the album is available for them to purchase at the time they are reading the advertisement. I chose to put the name of the singles "Sorry" and "Amsterdam" in bold, too. I did this as, although I increased the font size of them, I thought that changing the font to bold would help to draw attention to them further. It is important to draw attention to these names for reasons I outlined in my post about the draft of my magazine advert. 

When reviewing my magazine advert draft, I felt that the small image of the album cover needed to stand out more. Therefore, when creating my final draft I attempted to make this happen. I created a white square that was just a little bigger than the album cover image size, which helped to differentiate it from the black cover of the footer. To make it stand out more, I went into the layer options, and selected multiple blending options; 'contour', 'outer shadow' and 'bevel and emboss'. I thought these tools were effective in helping the album cover image stand out even further off the white square that I had created, as they helped to create the effect that the image was raised from the other layers.

One of my peers mentioned how I should also include the social media handles of the band, as this will provide ease to the investigate the artist. This is a convention that is commonly featured in magazine advert promoting albums that I had previously overlooked, so I decided that I should include this in my draft. I decided to include the Twitter and Facebook handles of the artist on the advert, as these are two of the most used social media platforms.

Magazine Advert Draft

Here is the draft of my magazine advert that I created:

Much like my digipak did, my magazine advert both coincides with and differs from my original plan.

The image I have used is the one that I outlined in my plan for my magazine advert. I decided to use the image that is on the front cover of the digipak, as this links the two pieces together very well. It is also part of the opening shot of the promotional music video we created, which ties the promotional package together nicely. Instead of centring the image like on the digipak, I positioned the image so that Hannah was to the right-hand side of the frame. I did this so that I could add text in the 'empty' space of the image, so that it would not get lost over the top of Hannah. I thought that this positioning of the image also helped to draw attention to the text layered on top of the image because it acted as a frame.

A key difference between my original plan and my draft, is that in the draft I have used two black shapes that act as a header and a footer to the poster. I took inspiration from the magazine adverts for Mumford & Sons album 'Sigh No More', of which most of which the image(s) were the focal point of the centre of the advert [featured to the left]. The album and artist names were featured in a black coloured strip/space above this, and other information was featured in the equivalent below the image(s). I thought this would be effective to use on my magazine advert, as I had found that the text had been disappearing into the image, which meant that it could not easily be read. 

I kept the album title and artist name the same as on the album cover, in order to make sure that the promotional material included all of the same typography to make the package sleek. However, the text needed to be visible on the black layer, so I had to change to colour of the font to white.

On the plan, I said that I would include the phrase "out now" layered on top of the main image, and that I would outline this with a box. When I was creating the draft of my digipak, I realised that simply saying the phrase "out now" would not be effective, as I had not specified what it was that was being released. Therefore, I chose to include the word "album" in this phrase to make this clear. I did out line the phrase with a box, as I thought that this was a useful tool to draw the eye to this piece of information.

I chose to include the phrase "12 new songs" as the purpose of this piece is to attract people to buy the album. This information is a tool used to draw interest of the target market by multiple artists in the existing magazine adverts that I have viewed. I did not include this in my original plan, as it was not something I had noted well as a convention of magazine adverts for albums at the point of creating the plan. However, once I discovered this was a common convention, I felt it was necessary to use this in my piece.

Fitting with what I outlined in my magazine advert plan, I said that I would include the information about the singles that were included on the album. This is a useful tool for promotion, as the target market (and possibly people outside of this, too) may have heard the most popular singles that were released prior to the album. If individuals liked these tracks, they would be inclined to purchase the album. However, if an individual has not previously heard the tracks, this provides them with the knowledge to research the songs if they so wish to, before deciding whether they will purchase the album. Also in-line with what I planned, I have made the text size for the names of the singles slightly larger than the rest of the sentence as this highlights them as the important information, and will increase the likelihood that people will focus on them.

I included the common conventions of a small image of the actual album cover, and of a web address, as I had outlined in my plan. The small image of the album cover allows it to be identifiable to the potential buyer, and the web address allows for individuals to find out more information on the band, and to find out their social media information, etc. I felt that both elements were getting lost in the main image, so when I added the footer, I felt that this allowed them to stand out more which was essential for them to be effective. 

I had originally planned to include information about how the album was available to be bought over the main image of the text. However, when creating the draft, I discovered that this information would have made the main image too cluttered. Therefore, I chose to still include the information, but I would do so on the footer of the advert.

Adding the footer also allowed me to include some extra information, without the advert appearing too cluttered. There was plenty of space for me to include some album reviews, which were a convention of magazine adverts that I discovered that I failed to include in my original plan. Positive album reviews by respected music magazines are important promotional techniques, as they reassure the target market that this is a good product, and that buying it will be beneficial to them. Using the star rating system also provides an easily interpreted review/rating of the album, without having to have to read any information. This is suitable for magazine adverts, as the star icons will draw the reader of the magazine to reviews, and when the ratings are high and are presented clearly, the reader will be more inclined to pay attention to the advert. Subsequently, the reader will be more likely to consider the album, and considered purchasing it.

Magazine Advert Planning

Below is a labelled drawing of the original plan I created for my magazine advert:

Functionality of Digipak

Using Photoshop, I used a template I found of a digipak online, in order to see what my digipak would look like if it were to be sold. Here is the version I created in order to assess the functionality of my digipak:

I found a template of a digipak online that I thought would be relatively simple to be able to use to manipulate my design over it to create a mock-up version of it. I used the selection tool to individually cut out each panel of the digipak that I needed to include, and then chose to duplicate the layer into the document with the image of the digipak template. I used the transformation tool to re-size and rotate the the panel to fit the size of the panels on the template. I then used the warp tool to manipulate the panel layers to fit onto the template. I found this to be a tricky task, and had to practice this technique multiple times on the first panel that I edited, until I found that I could perform this action effectively. 

Overall, I am very pleased with my digipak and I think that it is fit for purpose. I like the contrasting moods created on the outside and inside of the digipak, and I think that the contrasting use of colours makes its appearance very interesting to the eye. I think that I have demonstrated my ability to use Photoshop well, and I particularly like the layering and opacity I have used on the panel that focuses on Hannah and Josh, and I like the effect created by blurring out the background of the Winter Wonderland panels. I believe I have included all the essential conventions of a digipak, which means that my product would be functional.

Digipak Final Draft

Here is the final draft of my digipak:

However, if the digipak was to be printed to be functional, it would need to be presented like this:

What has changed since the draft?

After reviewing the draft myself, and receiving feedback, I altered it and created the final draft that can be seen above. 

When looking at the draft of my digipak, I thought that the images on the outside were not very defined, and I thought they looked quite washed out. To improve this, I increased the contrast across the whole digipak, which make the darker colours more defined, and gave the digipak a better look overall. Increasing the contrast, also made the colour in the Winter Wonderland images pop, and made them a lot more eye-catching. 

When comparing the digipak I had created to the existing, official digipak for this album, I saw that they had included a parental advisory label. This is an important convention of digipaks, and one that I had overlooked when planning and creating my draft. Therefore, I decided to include one in the bottom right-hand corner of the front cover of my final draft.

When I received feedback on the the first draft of my digipak, my classmates pointed out two things that I had not included on my first draft. The first thing that was brought to my attention, was that I had not included any sort of social media names/website links on the digipak anywhere. I decided that I would include this on the back cover, as this was where most of the detail was included. I thought that, as this was where people would expect most text, this would mean that the link would be most likely to be read. I decided to include the URL of a website on the back cover, rather than any social media links, as people would be able to access the social media of the band via the website. The other convention that I had not included in my first draft were the icons/logos of the record label. To find out this information, I reviewed the official digipak of the album, and then searched for the logos online so that I could include them.

On the spine of the digipak, I had included the the artist name and the album name. However, on review, I did not like the way I had presented this. Upon looking at already existing digipaks, I found that though they included the names of the album and artist, they did not include 'by' in between them. I chose to remove this, however, I needed to find a way to differentiate the album name and the artist name. I did not want to alter the font/typography used that is a common feature on digipaks, so I chose to use the technique I had used on the cover to do the same thing. I used a thin straight black line to separate them, which maintained the typography features throughout the cover, which made it a lot more sleek.

Feedback that I received from my teacher outlined how the relationship between Josh and Hannah's characters is not particularly obvious from the image that I have included. I agreed with what was said when I reviewed my piece, though I wanted to keep the image that I had initially included, so I decided I would use layering to add another image. To make the relationship more clear, I used the magic wand tool to cut out Josh and Hannah's arms and hands from the close up shot of them holding hands, as I thought this made the relationship obvious to anyone who was viewing the digipak. I positioned the layer in the 'empty' space of the image, and altered the opacity of the layer. This made sure that it did not take the focus of the piece entirely off the original image, and as it blended into the image quite well, it simply just enhanced the narrative. I thought the positioning and opacity of the layer I added, made this panel of the digipak very visually impressive, particularly because the colours of the layer I added, blended with those in the original image.

I kept both the left-hand and right-hand panels of the inside of the digipak the same as on the draft, as I thought these images were effective, which was confirmed to me with the feedback I received. I also kept the centre panel the same apart from one element. My teacher pointed out that I had not included any copyright information on the CD itself. Upon reviewing existing digipaks, I found that this is a common convention, and so I made sure to include it in my final draft. In order to make the copyright information fit well on the CD, I made sure to transform the text, so that it curved around in the shape of the CD.