Ancillary Task Feedback

Elle posted on the social media site 'Facebook' in order to gather feedback on our ancillary tasks. The screenshots below show the amount of 'likes' the post received and the comments that the audience have posted;

The results of the feedback are extremely positive. Some repeating comments are about the effective use of selective colour, the black and white filter, the typography used and how all of these elements create a unique selling point that displays the style of the artist well. The feedback shows a very positive reaction and indicates that our ancillary tasks have strong visual synergy with one another.

Development of Magazine Advert Designs

Design #1

Design #2

Design #3

Final Design

The results from our 'Poll Everywhere' poll showed poster 'A' to be the preferred design for our magazine advert.

Ancillary Photos

Photos used on our digipak and magazine advert:

 

 

 

Both of the above photos were taken at our first location, the Victorian era house. We used the first photo on our magazine advert and the second photo on the front of our digipak. We made sure that the photos were all of good quality and we used a Cannon DSLR to assure this. We chose these photos because they suit the atmosphere and mood of our video because the actress is melancholy and has a wistful look. This links strongly to our influencing artist Lana Del Rey who's style is very similar and she often writes songs about lost loves and her look/style displays this. We used the same costume and makeup as in our video and decided that red lips would be a central focus throughout all the products. We will edit the photo to be black and white however keep the red colour of her lips to emphasise this theme. The black and white effect will emphasise our 50s era theme and the antiques used in the video while the pop of colour represents the more modern look of the actress at the beach.  

 

The photo below is used on the back of our digipak and nicely links the ancillary product to our music video because it uses our second location and the actress wearing the second costume:

 

The four photos below were used on the four remaining panels of our digipak. They are all extreme close ups of objects used in our music video and links with the vintage themes in the video. Using these images creates a strong link between the digipak and our video and the images were also made black and white with subtle hints of colour, linking the magazine advert.

Photos we chose not to use:

 We chose to use only one photo of our actress on the beach and this was a long shot of her looking out to sea. We felt that this represented the wistful atmosphere of the video rather than a close up of the actresses face. We also decided to only use a close up of her face on the front of the digipak which is rather conventional of indie-pop album covers. Our group decided that using many extreme close ups of antiques from the video on our digipak, was more effective than long shots of locations. This is because these were very important factors in our music video which created interesting and unique shots inbetween our shots of the actress miming or location shots. Therefore the rest of the photos taken at the beach, which are below, were rejected from our final digipak design. Although the photo of the vintage chair suited our theme, it was not an object used in our music video and also did not suit our theme of extreme close ups on the rest of the panels.

 

Gem Digipak- Final Version

Development of Digipak Designs

Design #1

This was a basic design for our digipak. The shots were varied with extreme close ups to long shots. We decided that the outside of the digipak should have shots of the beach while the inside was the shots inside the house. We will be using the same typography on our digipak and advert as the one on our music video to create synergetic links. We were unsure of the long shot of the beach on the front cover of the digipak because although our chosen artist is an indie artist, she has a style similar to Lana Del Rey who is an indie-pop artist. Lana Del Rey commonly has an image of herself on her album covers in a similar way to pop artists. 

Design #2

 

We chose to have the front of the digipak as a close up of our artists face because alhough this is not common for indie artists, it suited her style. The image is of the actress at the beach, while the back of the digipak is of the back of our actresses head. This creates an artistic image of a 360 degree movement around her head. The inside of the digipak has been changed to the beach and is one continous shot of the beach landscape. This has two sides of empty beach with our actress in the background on the third side. We also included an image of a ring which is significant in our video and the song is also called 'Gem' which provides illustrative links.

Design #3

This design progresses to make all the images have a filter of black and white and this links to our music video idea. Most of our shots are of antique items and the actress has makeup relating to the 50s era and so the black and white filter relates to the theme of an older time period. We have used mostly close ups or extreme close ups which also relate to the shots used in our video while some sections still contain beach shots to keep a link with our second location.

Final Design

This design is very similar to Design #3 however we have just perfected the images used. We chose to only include one image of the beach as this is an important location in the video because it represents the actress escaping her situation of an abusive boyfriend and all of the gifts of jewellery he gave her however the beach is not the most important image from our video. This led us to include extreme close ups of antique objects on the rest of the digipak because these items are key shots in our video while jewellery is also extremely important. We decided to keep the image of the actress on the front of the digipak to keep with the idea that although the music is indie based, she still has elements of other genres in a similar way to Lana Del Rey and this suggests that the artist would be a key focus of the products created to showcase their look and style. The typography will be kept the same throughout the digipak and is the same font used on our music video and the magazine advert to create synergy. The black and white filter is still used because as stated for design #3, it represents the antique objects and older time period look throughout our video however we will give the digipak a pop of colour by keeping the red lips on our actress on the front cover. The red lips are a common theme throughout our music video, with extreme close ups of them miming and our actress also removes the lipstick in one shot to represent her removing the things she wore for her boyfriend. We decided that they also represent how the actress escaped to the beach wearing more modern clothing and so creates a contrast between the black and white vintage side of the music video and the more modern colourful side.

Inspiring Digipaks

Arcade Fire

We chose this as an example of an indie artist digipak because it has typical illustrative artwork which is representative of the indie genre. The disjunctive art adds interest and depth to the digipak and the colours are very typical of indie-folk artist album covers.

The 1975

We chose this as an example of an indie artist digipak because the minimalist art and colours is controversial of the indie artist who commonly strip back the look the look of their merchandise and promotion in order to let the music express the band's style. Our group liked their disk design because the plain colour and synchronous typography makes it simple but memorable.

Foals

We chose this as an example of an indie artist digipak because the images are representing the artist's style and are illustrative of their music's lyrics. They also use a lot of artists close up shots of things linking to their music videos which our group liked because they add a lot of interest and synergy throughout the artist's promotional pieces.

Artists belonging to the indie genre are very varied as the indie genre is for 'independent' artists, usually because their style is so unique that they do not fit into any niche categories. With this in mind, we decided to explore some artists from other genres that had some similarities with out own chosen artist, Natalie Lungley.

Rihanna

Although Rihanna is not an indie artist, our group really liked the design of her digipak because it had a similar style to our video. Our artist Natalie Lungley, although an indie artist, has strong links to Lana Del Rey who is an indie-pop artist. This made out group want to explore some pop artists and we found Rihanna's 'Loud' album. She has red lips with matching hair, and red lips is a feature throughout our own music video. We liked the link to our strong use of make up and have decided to use close up images of our actress to create a similar style.

Gem Magazine

Gem Digipak - Version 1

Re Filming Shot List

Style of Our Promo

What will your video include?

Our video will include both performance and narrative. The performance in our video will have no band, but it will be close ups of our actress Georgia miming to the lyrics. We will include many extreme close ups of objects such as jewellery and antique items to create interest and there will also be extreme close ups of the singers mouth while miming and her other features. There will be many long shots of both locations because these suit the style and time period look we are aiming for. 

Example of extreme close up of eyes

There will be only one actress through out the video and this means that her emotions will need to be intense to create a narrative while it also creates an enigma for the audience to guess whether she is singing about an ex-boyfriend or someone else. We will try our best to make sure all the shots have excellent lighting and are as clear as possible however some shots may have a filter to make them look dream-like which is a technique we admire from some of Lana Del Rey's videos. The editing will match the pace of the song which is quite slow however we may include a montage of faster paced shots to maintain audience interest. Our video will also use slow motion in some shots such as when the actress drops the ring on the floor and this is inspired by some of Lana Del Rey's slow motion shots in her videos.

Lana Del Rey- Ride, example of a strong filter

What style will your video be and did any artists/videos inspire you?

The sound of our song choice is very melancholic and the way the artist sings sounds as though she is very hurt by her boyfriend which made our group feel as though our music videos mood and atmosphere should reflect the singers emotions. The two locations we are filming our video in are Sutton on Sea beach and Georgia Allman's house. These locations have a lot of natural lighting and as we are filming in October the dull weather will reflect the melancholic mood of the lyrics.
Lana Del Rey was a huge inspiration to us while we thought of ideas. The style of our song is very similar to Lana Del Rey's music and so we explored her music videos to find out that she uses very wistful themes and her videos contain a lot of her 50s/60s style. We loved her editing techniques which were a homemade video style and also the filters she uses which makes the video look like an old polaroid. We decided to research 50s icons and realised that Lana got a lot of inspiration for her style from Marilyn Monroe and we also liked the style of the 50s pin up Veronica Lake who was famous for how she styled her hair.
One video which inspired us was Gabrielle Aplin's video for 'Home'. Aplin is an indie-folk artist who uses rural areas in her videos with a lot of close ups and extreme close ups of her face while she mimes. We liked the idea that when the actress ran away in our video, it would be to a more natural place than her stylised house full of antiques and expensive furnishings. This is when we began to look at more videos and found the music video 'Flood' by Cheryl Cole. In the video, Cole is singing about the pain she is going through during problems with her lover and the setting is on a beach. We liked the interpretation that Cole had escaped to the beach to be free from her lover and the location is also natural. A beach setting would be a contrast to the Edwardian house and we decided that our actresses look and style would also become more natural and less glamorous. This signifies escapism and the artist leaving behind her boyfriend and the things she associates with him.

Below is a moodboard with images of artists and icons which inspired us: 

Will you subvert/adhere to any theories?

1. Narrative Theory - Narrative is rarely complete and often fragmentary"..."therefore complete meanings/narratives don't exist"

Our promotional music video will adhere to this theory as there will not be a complete narrative throughout the whole video. Instead there will be fragments which suggest a narrative, helped by the lyrics. For example the narrative we have decided on for our video is about a girl who has an abusive boyfriend and she has just broken up with him or has decided to leave him. This is represented by her removing her jewellery (which could have been gifted by him) or by removing her glamorous makeup which she wore for her boyfriend. She will also escape to the beach away from her troubles so the narrative is hinted upon however the audience does not find out what happened between her and her boyfriend or what will happen when she returns home from the beach or whether she returns at all.


2. Binary Opposition


This theory by Strauss is adhered to in our music video because there are obvious contrasts during the  video. This includes the actresses makeup/costume and the location. In the beginning of the video everything is very stylised, for example the makeup and hair are very glamorous and the costume is dressed up. The location of an Edwardian house is also stylised with antiques and expensive furniture. However towards the end of the video the actresses hair and makeup are more subtle and natural while the location of a beach is also more natural and contrasts the house. This opposition is meant to highlight how the girls boyfriend changed her or how she had to act like a different person while she was with him.


3. Laura Mulvey's Theory


The male gaze theory suggests that we are viewing the video through a mans eyes and the shots of female characters are there to please men. It also states that women are portrayed as either a "virgin or a whore". Our music video will subvert this theory as the video is about the girl escaping her boyfriend and her situation and becoming empowered, finally being who she wants to be without him. She is not presented as a sexual object or something for men to look at because she is upset during the beginning of the video and despite being styled to be glamorous, she is not purposely portrayed as being a 'virgin' or a 'whore'. However, there will be shots panning up and down her body and of an extreme close up of her mouth which could be thought of as sexualising the character and this could relate to the way her boyfriend thought of her.

PAPA Productions Pitch

Script for the Pitch

Pitch

Permissions

Location Scouting

Risk Assessment

Filming Schedule

Mise-en-scene

Setting and Lighting

We are filming in two locations. The first location is at Georgia's house and we decided to film here as part of our music video production because the style of rooms goes well with the 1950's theme we decided on. This includes the antique furniture and antiques we can use as props and it is also an Edwardian house which makes it a more interesting location than a modern home. It is also consistent with our theme of having a less modern look through out the video until the girls style change. There are specific rooms which we want film in and these include the living room, the hallway, conservatory and possibly the dining room which all are well lit for our filming.

The second location where we will be filming at will be Sutton on Sea beach and this is where the girl's costume changes. Her style evolves and she breaks free from the end of a troubled relationship. We think here will be an ideal area to film in because it represents her moving away from her troubles and also is a location with older style building which suits our theme. This location suits the genre of our promo because it's a relatable location for the audience and somewhere where they can visualise themselves.
 

Costume & Hair

We decided on a 50's theme for our music video and this is because our chosen song by Natalie Lungley sounds very similar to Lana Del Rey. Lana Del Rey is an indie/alternative artist who has created her unique style of modern clothing combined with hair and makeup from the 50s/60s eras. We were inspired by Lana's style which is mostly inspired by 1950s icons. In terms of the costume we will use the 50's style and the first outfit idea is for our actress to be wearing a white dress and black heeled shoes. Her hair and makeup will be styled in a very glamorous way suiting the Marilyn Monroe and Veronica Lake iconic looks from the 50s. We will curl Georgia's hair in a similar style and she will apply her makeup to look heavy and 'done up' similar to Marilyn Monroe's look.

Our second costume will change to make her style look more modern; we found an image of Lana Del Rey which inspired this look and it shows a slightly more rebellious look compared to the pure white dress before. She will be wearing black jeans, a leather jacket and her makeup will be a more modern style. It will represent our interpretation of the lyrics which is that she has an abusive boyfriend and she begins to remove her jewellery and heavy makeup which she wore for him to be more natural and modern.

Props

A lot of the main props we will use are already in Georgia's house and this includes the antique ornaments and furniture. We are also planning on using items of jewellery and a jewellery box where she will remove the jewellery and put it all away like she is closing a chapter of her life with an ex partner and moving on. We thought this would link effectively to the song since the song is called 'Gem' it has a clear reference. We may also be using the idea of 'a diamond in the rough' suggesting that the girl is escaping her boyfriend to be the person she wanted to be and who she really is. The furniture and ornaments match our theme of less modern styles even though they are not 50's. Props are not a huge part of our video as the video is more focussed on the actresses two different looks and the change of location. The actress will not be actively using any of the props accept from maybe applying red lipstick or using the mirror or props which are part of our chosen locations already. The images below are images of rooms and ornaments around Georgia's house that we will include in our music video