EVAL: Q2 Branding

Q2: How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of 'BRANDING'?
Branding was always a huge part of our choices and why we did them. After researching how other artists brand their new singles or albums we figured out a way to do it ourselves with many influences from other artists and a mix of our own. Below are some posts highlighting this research.

• GENERAL CONVENTIONS 8: Distribution, Social
• GENERAL CONVENTIONS 9: Branding/Promo Package
• INDUSTRY: Welshly Arms Record Label
• WEBSITE: General Research
• DIGIPAK: Research

(CS) Why we chose digipak to be the way it is

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This is a brief showcase of the digipak explaining what everything is and why we have put it there. 

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(CS) Brand Deal Advert
A small ad created to further emphasize the point of a brand deal and branding throughout the video. The advert can also be seen on the website.
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There was no inspiration for this video as we thought it would be a good idea to have it to brand the Hoptimist.
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Script:

Are there some days where you feel down?

Like you need a friend?

With no one to reach out to or talk to?

The only purpose of our creation is to just bring joy to the world

Let the little figure bounce and see the happiness it spreads

Let it be your own unique friend, with a single purpose to make you happy

Let it be your hopimist

The advert is above and below is the Instagram post from the band advertising the figures as well. Branding their deal and showing the latest advert they have created. With a hashtag of the brand name.

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(CS) Linking Social Media + Website + Digipak + Music Video together
Below is a video where there is a quick tour on all of the promo package being linked together with brief points on each
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(CS + SS) Branding Of Promo Package

This video is also about the branding across all three but in a more creative approach with a few updates and explanations going into further detail.
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(CS) Additional points on branding and influences
A power point presentation made to further explain our research into branding and promo package which can also be found on our General Conventions post about it. 
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Branding from ChristianStricks

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PODCAST 10: Evaluation Questions

Podcast:
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Script:
Will make a power point/ prezi for each eval q to fill in the gaps
Link in theory to each of the Q's as well

Eval Q4: question on uses of technology

started with q4 as we feel it can be updated as we finalise the digipak and rough cut

• Whats in my bag video
• Description on how luts work
• Brief description of how equipment works
• Sony A58 review 
• Description on how we used social media and other softwares
• Going to add a power point and each do an individual whats in my bag video 
• Add a quick review on final cut or premiere pro

Eval Q3b: question on distribution

• Made a who wants to be a millionaire quiz show style with questions relating to distribution and other aspects
• Make a video explaining convergence with smartphone, desktop, newspaper, camera etc.

This is what has been done so far, what we also need to do is

Eval Q1a +b which is conventions and representations
for q1a:

• Influences video on digipak and website, in a top ten countdown style video
• also conventions that have ben challenged (leaving out male gaze) 
• Strange quirky green guy is more dance/pop than indie style  
• The alt vids is a way to challenge conventions 
• Have an interview with auteur, MTV interview. (maybe mtv cribs but combine it with interview) 

for q1b:

• How Indie is a subculture, hebdige, style and mood
• walk around with hebdige start with mods and rockers and in th end go to welshly arms and how is there even geographical sub culture with web 2.0 etc
• Why we chose to represent each character and band member the way we chose to

Eval q2: question on branding

• tour of the website
• Add a deezer, spotify, apple music icon to listen page
• with greenscreen and person showing around
• showing digipak as a design company and why we chose it to be this way
• put on screenshots and cut away from presenter etc. 
• Brand deal as an advert with the green toys in video 
• Star in a reasonably priced car chat show about branding 
• Video showing similarities between music video, digipak, social media and website
• evidence link between social media, website and digipak, how it has been promoted

Eval q3a: question about audience engagement

• tik tok competition results
• Unpacking of digipak from a fan
• radioshow interview
• List all audience feedback and how we did it

GENRE CONVENTIONS: Genre Specifics

Possible Influences:

• Black and white in some of the shots
• Low key lighting/ naturalistic lighting
• Follow the typical Indie costume for the band 
• Have the performance reflect the Indie attitude with some members
• The narrative to be non linear/ abstract 

Performance

Playlist we put together with Indie/Alt Rock
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The performance of a music video in the Indie genre is quite unique. Above is a playlist with all the music videos we have analysed. The most common is to have performance with the whole band and sometimes split up the band. 

Black and White
This was a widely used convention when Indie was an emerging genre. As Indie is seen as quite sinister and dark at times black and white or monochrome footage would fit perfectly with the theme these bands where trying to create for the audience to interpret. Below are a few examples:
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Joy Division - Atmosphere 

Oasis - Wonderwall

The Cranberries -  Zombie

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The black and white footage is also an easy trick with low key lighting. Low key lighting is also commonly used as it brings out a more naturalistic look to the performers and doesn't glamorize the band in any way. This is the opposite of high key lighting used to glamorize in pop music videos.  The music videos aren't always black and white as seen with a couple of examples below:

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BUZZCOCKS - Ever Fallen in Love

PIXIES - Bagboy

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It could also be argued that the monochrome footage is to reflect upon the silent cinema era of the early 20's where it was only black and white. Indie stands for independent and this means there can be quite a lot of abstract meanings and reflecting on what once used to be modern. This is also seen with the record player in Oasis - Wonderwall. The record player was out of date and seen as old fashioned when this music video was made in 1995. This could link into the Stuart Hall's Preferred Reading where everyone has their own readings of a text and some will understand the intertextuality or the themes being produced whereas someone else will understand the text in another way. Nowadays, the record player seems to be the new 'hip' way to listen to music as it has made a huge comeback!

Oasis - Wonderwall (Record Player) 

Costume

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Moodboard made by JC

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As seen with this moodboard created by James, the Indie costume is quite distinctive.

The Verve - Bitter Sweet Symphony

 Here the costume is quite clearly:

• Dark
• Conservative
• Messy Hair 
• Leather Jacket
• Black trousers
• Dark Blue shirt (connotes seriousness)
• Black heavy boots

Another example of this is:

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Just Like Honey

 The costume here is:

• Dark
• Conservative
• All of the band members have messy hair
• Black t - shirt on lead singer
• Leather jacket on bass guitarist 
• All have black trousers/jeans 
• Black boots/ black sneakers

There is a noticeable trend in the costume for Indie. Generally quite dark clothing and more conservative than other genres such as Pop. The lead singer is also predominately a tall white skinny male.

Attitude:
There is an emphasis on the performance and how the instruments are played in Indie music videos. This is due to the audience wanting to see if the band can actually play these instruments as that is what can separate the good from the greats.
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The Jesus and the Mary Chain - April Skies

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• Shoegazing common for the guitarist
• where he looks at the floor
• Singer and guitarist are the more energetic part of the band 
• Show their meaning and emotion through expressing the lyrics
• Drummer also expresses beats 
• Generally the attitude used to be more moody and gothic/punk
• Has moved more towards a pop like attitude in recent years with band members showing more enthusiasm and emotion. 

Narrative
Even though most of the music videos contain most performance footage there is still some narrative in Indie/ Alt Rock music videos. 
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Clothing: 

The clothing is similar to the performance but can be a bit more quirky. There is not much focus on glamour as this genre comes from punk and the lyrics have quite deep meanings. One of  Goodwin's theories of the lyrics and narrative linking also have an aspect in this. As seen with the example of Pixies - Bagboy the proppian archetype of the central protagonist is a teenage boy who has no glamour with a messy haircut and is wearing generally dull/dark clothes. 

Location/Setting:

Same as performance. In a rundown area or an area that is seen as more gloomy than others so and abandoned house, graveyard, underground carpark etc. It is also important that there is low key lighting as this helped generating the sinister mood as well as avoids glamorizing the characters. 

This is Arctic Monkeys When The Sun Goes Down. Notice how the area looks quite run down and again just in general not a very glamorous setting. Note how the costume is also quite conservative and dark in general. 

Props:

There are no specific props which are used in narrative as a common theme throughout the genre. However it can be a quirky item such as a mask or a colourful aspect of some sort but again in a quirky and sometimes sinister/moody way.

Nothing But Thieves - Sorry

PIXIES - Bagboy

Makeup: 

As with the other aspects of the narrative, the genre is not about glamour. Makeup can be quite limiting and in some cases there is none. However some females can have makeup such as purple lipstick and dark eyeliner to refuse and block out the stereotyping and male gaze of red lipstick and glamorous make up. There are some cases where there is makeup which glamorizes the female however this is rarely the case with the Indie/ Alt rock genre. 

Conservative, Not much make up, no glamour

Male gaze, glamorous, red lipstick 

PODCAST 3: Pitch and Conventions Update

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·      Completed general convention research

o   Influences such as:

§  Importance of costume and styles

§  Theme of heartbreak

§  The dark tone in indie music videos

·      Decided our plot will be a mix of a relationship gone bad and the breakup that follows it

·      Pre - Pitch presentation

o   Made as outline for pitch video

·      Mood boarded outfits

o   Looked at multiple different bands and is linked on blog

o   Found genre specific conventions of style – oversized clothing with a range of styles within the band, mostly dark styles- blacks and brown

o   Know costumes and outfits for band from this

o   Ties to our genre specific research

·      Started Genre specific convention research

·      Finished casting

·      First shoot/sample scene to be completed today

GENERAL CONVENTIONS 1: Lyrics/Visuals; Narrative

Possible Influences

• Have lyrics link to whats happening (false paradise)
• Follow the narrative structure of Todorov to a certain extent (open narrative?)
• Lip syncing  during performance 
• Have certain proppian archetypes

VODCAST Summary:

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(JC) Bon Jovi - It's My Life:

The narrative of this video is that there is a teenager that is called by a girl at the beginning of the video and is so desperate to see Bon Jovi live he goes to extreme lengths just to get to the concert, such as jumping off bridges, through traffic and over police cars. Eventually he makes it to the concert. Along with this narrative there is also a live performance of the band. 

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Goodwin:

Andrew Goodwin created a definition of music video format which is not widely used, he identified 6 common characteristics, the first being how lyrics and visuals link. They don't have to directly link and can even be a complete opposites but having an opposition such as gloomy music with happy visuals creates a effect.  Its My Life has a fairly direct link from the visuals to the audio, the song is about living your life how you want and this is what is demonstrated in his attitude.

Propp:

As talked about in this post before in most videos that contain a narrative there is likely at-least 2 of the 2 archetypes for characters. This is displayed in this video with:

• The Hero (Protagonist) - The teenage boy trying to get to the concert
• The Princess - The girl the protagonist is trying to get too

The narrative to the video is not very complex however it does display many of the concepts and conventions we are researching for music videos.

Todorov's Narrative Structure:

Todorov's narrative structure can be seen to be demonstrated in the video but on a smaller scale, firstly, There is a state of equilibrium that can be seen, the teenager is shown sitting at his desk on the computer, everything is happening as it should be:

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Next, there is a disruption to the equilibrium, when the girl calls him it disrupts what he is doing
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The teen then recognises the disruption by leaving his house
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The majority of the video is the boy trying to get to the concert, this is the attempt to repair the disruption by getting to the concert the girl has told him about
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Lastly, there is a reinstatement of equilibrium, the boy reaches the concert and the problem is resolved.
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Lip-Synching:

In the video there are many examples of lip-synching, this is a very clear and obvious example of a link between the lyrics and the visuals.

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Narrative:

• Macklemore ft Ryan Lewis - Same Love
• Micheal Jackson - Thriller
• Arctic Monkeys - Why'd you only call me when you're high

(CS) - Guns N' Roses - Welcome to the Jungle

Possible Influences

• Have lyrics link to whats happening (false paradise)
• Follow the narrative structure of Todorov to a certain extent (open narrative?)
• Lip syncing  during performance 
• Have certain proppian archetypes

The music video I have analysed for this convention is Guns N Roses - Welcome To The Jungle
This video is mainly performance based but the little narrative there is expresses the theories of Propp and Todorov as well as Simon Frith.




Propp
If there is a narrative there will most likely be at least two of  the seven proppian archetypes. For more detail see this post.

• The main hero/protagonist is Axl Rose who is the lead singer of the band as well 
• The villain/antagonist is the city "jungle" he has ended up in

The narrative is very short in comparison to the performance. The narrative consists of close up shots shown from TV's and Axl Rose's reaction to all the tragedies happening on these TV screens.

Todorov 
Todorov's narrative structure is not obvious in this music video as in others with the narrative. However there is some narrative structure. For more details on Todorov see this post.

The narrative starts with a man (Axl Rose) who has signifiers (straw in mouth) from the mise - en - scene that suggest he comes from a farm area and arrives to the city or "the jungle". This is the state of equilibrium.     

The disruption to equilibrium can be considered when Axl Rose sees the televisions for the first time and realises what he has got himself into.

The recognition seems to be at the end of the narrative as Axl Rose shakes his head and walks away from the televisions which at the same time also seems to be the attempt to repair the disruption. 

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Frith
This music video follows Frith's concept of how a music video is formed. The concept was written in his Music for Pleasure: Essays in the Sociology of Pop. With the 3 basic formats of music video being concept, performance and narrative. This video is mainly performance based but it also has a narrative. Which was a very common convention for rock and heavy metal videos alike when this was track was released.

Lyrics
Lip syncing is almost a must in music videos especially in the performance. The performance in this video is seen as "live footage" as it is played at a concert in a concert hall with fans in the audience. Again this could be setup and staged so lip syncing to the lyrics needs to be accurate. Some shots you can see he is lip syncing but very faintly as the shot and camera angle is not directly on the lead singers face. This helps create verisimilitude. There are often cut away shots so the lip syncing to breakup the potential tedium of constant lip syncing.

Another common convention is when something is said in the lyrics it happens on the screen. This however is not shown in this music video.

(SS) - Lonely Cities - Tigertown

This is the first and most basic convention used in music videos. All music videos should have at least one of these

In my first example of this I have chosen the music video for Tigertown's Lonely Cities:



In this video we follow the story of a recently broken up couple. the setup is pretty clear as we see the two sides of the story but also performance. The basic narrative is that these two people just broke up and then the woman moved and they miss each-other but they try not to show it. The longer the music video goes on the more aware they become they are in a music video. and towards the end they leave the scene into the black area around the actual scene.

• There are numerous narrative theories, one of these being Vladimir Propp's character theory (I have a more in depth post on the narrative theories here). 
• In this video I struggle to apply this theory as I only see the two main characters as the 'Hero' and their separation as the 'Villain'. 
• However, Todorov's narrative theory is more obvious in this music video and can be applied much easier. 
• The state of equilibrium in the beginning is them together and very early on in the video them leaving each other is the disruption of the original equilibrium. 
• Then, them being sad in the video is the recognition of the disruption, and the attempt to restore equilibrium is them searching for each other. 
• Then the new equilibrium is the fact that they simply can't be with each other.

Additional Examples:

Macklemore ft Ryan Lewis - Same Love:

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• This video has both a narrative but it also uses imagery to match the lyrics of the song

Summary:

• Goodwin stated that the visuals and lyrics commonly have a link
• It doesn't have to be a direct link and can be a direct opposite representation
• Propp said there are 7 archetypes of character types the: Villain, donor, helper, hero, false hero, princess and dispatcher
• Todorovs narrative structure is that there is a state of equilibrium, a disruption to the equilibrium, recognition of the disruption, attempt to repair disruption and lastly reinstatement of equilibrium
• Often seen that the band is featured performing their song, this can be for a number of reasons:
• Budget
• Cheaper to film then a narrative
• Record company request for band to be seen as it can assist marketing