#planningandresearch

[lane-neg-prac-blog]

29/11

Went to this talk!

Learnt lots of interesting facts about colour and careers that work with colour. It was great to get out and learn something new. None of my recent work has been particularly related to colour, but its something that is crucial in design so worth knowing about!

Notes:

[callumwaldockmedia]

Digipak Advert Analsyis #2

     “Day and age” is the third studio album by famous indie-rock band, The Killers. I have chosen to analyse an animated image emulating the effect of mosaics because it creates a very effectively bold and stimulating image to the viewer. This image itself is skillfully designed because it shows the engulfing flames at the bottom juxtaposing the elegant nature of hand-crafted mosaics and the moon above. The moon is more of a calming distant image that invokes a feeling both of romance and fantasy to the viewer. Conversely, flames are far more of a immediate, powerful and threatening image that could imply rage or pain and the combination of these symbols therefore creates an adverse image, which is reflective of indie music as a whole. The colour scheme is effective generally because it appeals to both a feminine and masculine audience, in that the purple and white combination in comparison with the flamed, black bottom-half means there is not a dominating gendered target audience to the band. The purple colour has connotations of being ostentatious, the night-time and adventure and the flames have connotations of passion and energy which combine to make a very inviting and bold image to a viewer. Also seen in the advert image is a silhouetted skyline image of palm trees which could help create a foreign atmosphere, which is inviting in a sense. The band have also chosen to promote themselves through the hugely dominating presence of their own name which fills the central image of the digipak advert. They are able to draw more presence to themselves as they are the boldest, main point of promotion, from the records point of view.        The font is entirely block capitals in white which contrasts a black background, which helps to make a clear sign to the viewer of the necessary information when promoting the album. At the bottom of the digipak advert is the logo of the record label, Vertigo Records, which presents to an audience that this band would appeal to an alternative fan-base, as the common genres on this label are alternative and hard rock bands. Interestingly, the producers have chosen to leave quite a bare lack of promotion in the design, in that there isn’t any specific information on the release date or critic reviews, they may have chosen to do this so that the attention does not stray from the bold image created in the advert. They have, however, chosen to make the title of the single very prominent as this is likely going to be the most commercially appealing aspect of the album which in turn would create the most commercial success for the album as a whole. Finally, the advert has made use of cross-promotion convergence by including the band’s website so that audiences are attracted to other material that is being sold, producers do this to improve the commercial success of a media product.     

[ruthemerymedia]

Digipak Analysis: R.E.M. Unplugged: 1991 & 2001

Conventions of a digipak:

Eye-catching - displays colour scheme, artist and title

Visuals related to the song/s on the album

sometimes includes pics of artist - not a requirement

Tracklist

More album art - no repetition

Record label

Title/artist’s name

Trademarks and credits

Barcode

CD holder - sometimes this is transparent plastic and shows another piece of album art underneath. Others have card compartments and even sleeves for the CD/s

Additional information - including song lyrics, personal messages from artist/s, background info on songs/artists etc. 

Booklet - this includes this additional info, along with more artwork

R.E.M. Unplugged was an album released in 2014 and consisted of recordings from two live appearences of the band on the TV music channel, MTV Unplugged. Initially released for Record Store day, with copies signed by guitarist Mike Mills available as promotion, the album was later transferred onto compact disc and digital download. It received high critical praise, with Rolling Stone’s reviewer Will Hermes likening it to Nirvana’s MTV set in 1993, citing that "no band but Nirvana made more breathtakingly transformative use of MTV Unplugged."

The purpose of the design of the digipak is to hearken back to media of the early 90s and 2000s, with the aesthetic mimicking the visuals of video tape footage, appealing to long-term fans that were perhaps alive when the session(s) were aired. The text is distorted with pixelated lines, creating a bridge between the name and the visuals and setting an electronic, nostalgic tone. The title itself is appealing - the decade-gap between the two performances sets the album up for obvious growth in the sound of the band. The front cover subverts Goodwin’s theory of the star image, as the text and distortion allows the title to take centre-stage and the band themselves a backseat. This shows a departure from many of their actual music videos, in which Goodwin’s theories are followed as front man Michael Stipe takes the limelight in both performance and conceptual videos. 

While the visuals of the album are intended to induce nostalgia for the consumer, the colour scheme throughout helps to make it more stimulating and give it a hallucinogenic vibe. The blues, purples, blacks and reds that make up the majority of panels help to blur the identity of artists and create a spacey atmosphere that matches the music itself. It also contrasts with the sepia yellow of selected photographs, which are used to present the only clear headshots of the primary members of R.E.M., they being the aforementioned Mike Mills and Michael Stipe. Though the intention of these select photographs was to show the artists themselves, their faces are still interupted by the ‘video tape distortion’ seen throughout the digipak. This is possibly a design technique that many mainstream artists have fallen short on which suggests that it’s not the band that is the selling point, but the music itself.

The CDs themselves are kept in two separate card compartments, printed with a coordinating blue pixelated title and tracklist against a black background. The accompanying booklet, perhaps the least impressive part of the package, serves its purpose in giving us another tracklist on the back and all the necessary credits, including the involved members of R.E.M., including Bill Berry, who left the band in 1997 after suffering with a brain aneurysm which caused him to collapse onstage two years prior to his departure. Both the booklet and back panel of the digipak mark the performances that didn’t involve Berry with **. On the second album, the performance in 2001, there is a total of 7 out of 16 songs that are marked as separate from Berry.

This digipak is well made because it has a clear target audience and appeals to them through its design and layout. For my own digipak, I intend to mirror this, having a design that mimics the style of the music video and appeals to a similar audience, that being the restless, politically minded, frustrated youth.  

[callumwaldockmedia]

The Beatles “A Day In The Life” - Music Video Analysis #3

    The few modern music videos used by The Beatles are frequently quite bizarre yet at the same time incredibly well-considered and unearthly because of the psychedelic, intense nature of the band’s music and their image. “A day in the life’s” music video is cross performance and narrative which is helpful to us in that respect because we also plan to use this model for our own music video. It is also worth mentioning the lack of protagonist in this video which would subvert Goodwin’s theory of music videos which further shows the unconventional nature of this music video. Ultimately however, the main difference and by extension potential-influence to us as a group here is the elaborateness of the video. The Beatles use fully restored, cleaned and digitally enhanced footage of  an orchestra preparing to perform during the early 1967 recording sessions for the track, which therefore appears more powerful an image to the viewer, which could influence their vision of the music (thus relating to the Marxist Hypodermic Needle Theory which describes how audiences are effected in their thinking by the media products that they bare witness to), because they may see the Beatles as more of a huge and dominating band rather than a smaller group. As well as in the performance, some of the shots are far more outlandish in the intensity of light and colour that is presented to an audience, which therefore presents a larger sense of experimentation within the band. The final thing that I will discuss within the video is the interesting use of intertextuality (essentially paying homage in one media product to another by referencing it in some form) as famous members of The Rolling Stones “Mick Jagger” and “Keith Richards” are seen, for reasons I will discuss.

     The clip originally opens in a very allusive manor in that a selection of faded colours seems to dance across a black screen. The audience is unaware of any distinguishable images until the camera cuts to a rapid tracking mid-shot of an orchestra, which as mentioned, appears in their 1967 recording sessions of the track. These transitions between the faded colours and the orchestra continue until at 0:15 a silhouetted Point Of View shot (as seen above) is used to emulate the view of a member of the orchestra looking at the conductor. It is hugely successful as a shot, largely because of the simple artistic beauty of transitioning from indistinguishable patterns to a clear performance-style image. It is framed such that the instruments from the orchestra are illuminated in the shot which juxtaposes the darkness of the music-video up until this point. The camera slightly zooms in on the shot then quickly transitions to an extreme high-angle on the orchestra from above at a bird’s-eye view down on the band. This suits the video largely because at this point there is a soft, melodic atmosphere so calm images like these amplify the nature of this music.

   Following this, the video takes on a far more rapid nature as the camera begins cutting between a variety of mid-shots and close ups on various famous individuals faces, including a mid-shot of Mick Jagger (front-man of The hugely famous Rolling Stones). This is therefore a use of intertextuality and this is used perhaps as a simple nod to Rolling Stones as a fellow respected band within pop-culture at the time. Normally intertextuality in media, a theory first noted by Julia Kristeva, is used to stop the isolation of one media product from others. In presenting Mick Jagger, an audience would perhaps take pleasure in their recognition of this artist as fans of rock as a genre at the time as prior knowledge is required of the audience to recognize the reference. The following high intensity transitions maintain the faded-nature of the video because the audience is unable to properly absorb each image before the next transition takes place. 

These shots also incredibly professionally present the emotive themes of the music itself; as Lennon sings “And though the news was rather sad, I just had to laugh.” The camera uses juxtaposition as it cuts between Lennon, in a blue (typically depressive themed) coat at a high-angle (whilst at very low lighting) which has connotations of depletion and defeat. Then it transitions to a smiling and young girl who is boldly illuminated by a bright yellow light in the background of the shot, which contrasts the previous image as this has a joyous, absorbing nature to it. Portraying emotions in media in this manner is a very effective technique at influencing a viewers own reaction to a video and we can learn from these techniques and perhaps develop them from typical happiness and sadness to other emotive gestures like empathy, sympathy and anxiety within our own project.

The final technique I noticed was the various, random cuts to the powerful image of an eye, almost bearing witness to the strange themes within the music video. The shot opens with an extreme close-up on an eye after cutting from some saturated, illuminated shots which could present a dream-like state, because the surreal lighting suggests the influence of imagination. This shot type could also be used as an extended metaphor for an onlooker, or God like figure, to the scenes of the music video, who can only pass judgement passively. This is ironic in that all the viewers to the music video are in a sense these eyes as they only absorb images and develop various opinions through it. This relates to the Marxist Hypodermic Needle Theory, as earlier described, because the makers of the music video are, in a sense, subliminally describing the notion that they control the viewers perception to their video and are free to include strange unconventional images. 60′s society also played a huge role in influencing an audiences opinions to this video, and it is due to the experimental, free-thinking movements of the period that this was accepted and understood by viewers where perhaps in other time periods it would have received more criticism. 

[callumwaldockmedia]

Digipak Advert Analysis #1

 Digipak adverts are primarily used to promote an artist and their upcoming release of new material such as an album or single. It is used across a range of multimedia and is not exclusive to the music industry. They are often eye-catching and bold, whilst also being representative of the genre and target audience to the music.

     I have chosen to explore this album advert from Aerosmith because they were a similar rock band to the Kinks (despite being American-Boston based) from the same period, so a vintage style advert like this may be well suited for “Lola.” The first feature is the band name and logo of the famous double- pronged wings which helps give them a sense of image as it is a recurring symbol seen by their audience across their work. This follows the uses and gratification theory because the audiences are aware of the prior achievement of the band and so would be attracted to the symbol of them because they realise their skill (from previous material).     Also included here is quotes from famous music critics complimenting the work which is an effective way of appealing to their audience, because the music has already received very positive critical-acclaim from famous individuals. The phrases are also very catchy and sell the product commercially; phrases such as “give yourself a treat”  convince an audience into purchase because it acts as a lure to tempt themselves into the freedom of purchasing the record. Including the record label (Geffen) at the bottom of the advert is also useful because an audience is aware of the hugely talented and famous artists under that label so people would be aware that this record was extremely professional and skillfully produced .    Overall the advert is quite simplistic and period-specific. What I mean by this is that although by the time of release in the 1990′s a more modern style would have been achievable, they instead choose to maintain a vintage-style black and white theme because Aerosmith made their fame as an early classic rock band from the 1970′s, and they wish to maintain their early image. This is very effective therefore as a design because it appears less commercialized whilst still commercially advertising the product. The final details of note here is the image of the band at a low angle standing powerfully to almost comically present themselves as a larger-than-life, rock’n’roll image as well as stereotypical doodle-like sketches of cards, scantily-clad woman and guitars which have connotations of risk, romance and rock-music which are some of the main themes behind Aerosmith’s image. Therefore this advert is hugely effective at selling a product to the correct yet widest audience that the band could reach.

[callumwaldockmedia]

Risk Assesment

The risk assessment table was created to familiarize ourselves with the potential dangers throughout this process so that we reduced the chance of accident to our equipment and to ourselves.  Whilst we are in Stokes Croft we decided the traffic would be mostly unavoidable so we need to always be aware of this when getting engrossed in the filming. On a less dangerous level we also concluded that warm clothes would be essential for the entire crew in between shots, even if they have a separate outfit during the filming because it will most likely be bitterly cold at that time of year making the filming impossible. This would also protect the equipment if we had sufficient cover for that amongst bad weather systems.    Secondly, when we are at ‘Ned’s room’ when filming at Ruth’s house one of the genuinely important issues we noted was the decking was hugely slippy, and just beyond the decking was a deep stream which was a blatant hazard. With this in mind we created a make’shift fence on the side of the decking because it was so unused the pre-existing fence had broken down. In connection with the slippy decking we realised some sort of mat for the drum kit especially when shooting the band would be necessary because otherwise there was a strong slip hazard. We also mentioned moving the cat who may ruin some shots which would be quite irritating!    Finally, we concluded in Weston that whilst on a beach we had to be aware of the change of environment to our other locations. The first issue involved would be the tide as well as sand with our equipment so that it obviously was not destroyed. We also concluded that generally the beach should be totally avoided at low tide as it would be a slippy muddy place to film for all the crew. It was also decided that we should probably avoid eating any food whilst doing the actual filming as it might attract some unwanted wildlife-attention in that scenario!

[ruthemerymedia]

Risk Assessment

This risk assessment outlines the possible problems we could run into in each of our locations and precautions we will take to avoid them. The main problem at Stokes Croft is the traffic, which will be extremely busy on a Saturday afternoon. We will therefore film away from the the main road and exercise proper caution when near heavy traffic.

There is a small stream behind my house that is dangerously easy to slip in to, especially if you’re not paying attention. It also gets relatively full and fast-flowing after heavy rainfall. Therefore, I have put up a make-shift fence made of old discarded wooden panels to separate the decking from the slope leading to the river. I’ve also tied a rope to the ceiling by the door leading to the decking as a hold for people going on to the  slippery decking and we will lay a rug down for the band to give them a bit more grip.

Weston poses a whole new set of issues as we need to work in time with the tides. If the tide is too far in, we won’t have enough beach to work with and we run the risk of damaging the equipment with water or lots of loose, dry sand. However, if the tide is too far out, the beach at Weston becomes notoriously muddy which is a risk to both our safety, our actor’s safety and the integrity of the equipment. Because of this factor, we need to stay up-to-date with the tide report through tidetimes.org.uk and arrive at the beach at the opportune time so that we have all the beach we need and enough time to film in daylight. It’s going to be a tricky one...

[callumwaldockmedia]

(6-panel) Digipak Analysis#3 - The Dry Spells “Too Soon For Flowers”.

Front Cover The Dry Spells are famous as a folk rock group and this digipak, typically, is used to present the image of both the band and music in a physical form. The image used on the front here is quite stark and unconventional of the rock/folk scene. The image presents enclosement as a flower is trapped amongst a rubber band presenting its inability to flourish. The font looks quite elegant or perhaps poncey  which would be perhaps more conventional of a classical or indie style band as opposed to rock and subverting the viewer's expectations of the band’s portrayal may make it more interesting to the viewer, in a way. 

Inside Sleeve Side #1 As seen here on the first side of the inside sleeve is the band’s complete line-up and role description as well as the featured musicians. This follows the conventions of digipaks because it is common to give credit to those who helped complete the process. In CD’s this is sometimes presented in the form of an included booklet. Also seen here,is an image of the band against a yellow background sat in unison which in also a common feature of Digipak’s as it presents the viewer with an image of the people they are listening to. The yellow background is quite effective here as it has obvious connotations of happiness and contentment which is typical of the theme of folk music being upbeat and positive, (thus contrasting the front cover to an extent).Also included here worthy of note is the Legal requirements at the bottom outlining the label and legal owner of the music which is an important requirement in Digipaks.

Inside sleeve side #2 On the second side of the digipak is the song lyrics in a white font against a black background. This is quite common in Digipaks and is used to provide the viewer with a visual piece of writing to gaze at perhaps whilst listening to the music. The black background looks impressive with the front cover as it continues the theme of blackness against yellow which generally looks quite atmospheric

Inside Sleeve Side #3 The second side simply continues providing the viewer with the written lyrics to the songs.

Inside Sleeve Side #4 On the fourth side of the digipaks is a simplistic yellow design giving thanks to any of the people involved in the digipak. This is not uncommon in digipaks albeit normally it would not take an entire sleeve. The words have been arranged in a pattern which looks quite interesting to a viewer and ends in yellow which further pushes the theme of happiness in the digipak. Thanking those involved in producing an album is a common feature for bands because there is always more people involved in the making than an audience might otherwise be aware of. 

Back Cover The back cover is very conventional of digipaks because it provides the tracklist and maintains the established font in the front cover. There is however no song duration included which is typical of digipaks. At the bottom of the back cover here is the record label and their logo which would be used for licensing rights and to promote the label to audiences who enjoyed this genre of music. Also seen is a bar-code which is a requirement of digipaks so that they can be commercially sold to the public in high-street stores.