Evaluation

It is very typical for bands to try and stick out of the social norm and stand out with a different music video. By using the close-ups of the audience in the jazz club to show that they were not enjoying this genre of music shows that this music genre is not for an upper/middle class audience and for more of a working-class audience. Which is portrayed in the transition to the garage scene when the whole set changes from romantic mood lighting to a more playful vibrant lighting to help show that these guys in the band represent the youth in society and it also helps to show the rebellious nature of the band that is so easy for the audience to connect with them. This is because we wanted to create a star persona of the band to look like they were a close group of friends that are aspiring to be successful. They are inspired by other bands like them that came before and who want to be unconventional but when we did our research, we found that it is becoming conventional to be unconventional. Although this is confusing it is becoming increasingly conventional for indie bands to be unconventional. 

For our band we created a brand that showed off their playful and juvenile personalities by having Joel (who was the lead singer) drinking beer halfway through through the music video and especially in our social media to try and get them to connect more to our audience. When in our music video they appear to be more focused on the job and want it to be done to a professional standard because our music genre of alternative/indie rock generally being a group of relaxed people able to create music to a professional standard with some seamless ease throughout the whole process whilst making it all look easy. Because in our social media we made it look like the band was always either having fun/relaxing or acting professional to get the job done like the social media where we have pictures of the band in a recording studio to show their technical skills but, in every picture, we always tried to show Joel as the face of the band so that he could be the main selling point of the brand. Part of the brand is the fact that all they do is mess around, while they are also being technical and professional. With one of the main selling points of the brand being their cheeky and mischievous yet calm mannerisms that all the band members seem to have throughout all the media and performances that they have produced like in the social media you can see the band messing around with each other and having a good time. While also rebelling against the genres of music that seem to dominate the upper class's preference, like jazz and swing music and in the music video when they are in the jazz club this shows that they don't care what people think of their music and just want to get their music out to an audience. 

The fact that we shot in the jazz club should engage the audience by showing that the band was in an alternative/indie niche which was an area that was outside of the normal which would appeal to a younger audience that don't exactly want to fit in with everyone else and be a sheep. Because the jazz club was an out of the box idea for the genre of music that our band plays it would draw attention of a younger audience around 12 - 25 years old that have come from a working-class background and don't exactly fit in with everyone else. So, our band creates a way for people to be able to connect and relate to the band on a more personal level. One way that we were able to engage the audience was because we set the second half of the song in a garage which had been converted into the bands practice room which helps audience members connect and relate to the band by realising that they are just ordinary people not these big important stars who are nothing like the public. Another way that we are able to engage the audience was the use of interacting with the audience directly on social media because audiences are constantly changing, and a theorist called Clay Shirky believes that the introduction of social media has changed how audiences interact and behave towards certain online personalities, for example music artists. Because of this it makes the band more likeable for an audience if they can think that they are just like those people in our band. Also, because the digipak uses vibrant blue colours, because of the contrast it makes the band seem more mischievous and cheekier but with the picture of them just leaning on the fence on the inside of the digipak makes them seem more rebellious as they are just loitering in an unknown place for no apparent reason gives them an edgy persona as well as the cheeky, calm and mischievous persona that the audience already know the band has. 

For our music video our genre was alternative rock which has the conventions of having a large performance value which we created in our video. The use of the blue light in the garage scene when they break away from the old original style of music in the jazz club emphasises the contrast between the two different styles of music with the jazz club being a romantic red and the garage scene being a vibrant blue. We also showed people in the jazz club as older and upper-class people to show that our band was for a younger demographic. Because our band would be more relatable t younger/working class people, especially if they are starting a band of their own as it is easier for them to relate to the band if they are able to connect with each other. Another way for the audience to connect to the band is their rebellious nature which audiences like to see as it is always interesting for people to watch how the band develops and it creates greater and greater anticipation for the audience on trying to think what the bands next rebellious move would be. The use of the jazz club scene was an unconventional idea for the alternative reck genre that our band is in and because of this it would gain the attention of a wide range of audiences as it is an interesting concept that we have used in our music video for our genre. 

The Final Social Media Page

We have finished the social media page and have used the instagram page to help create a star persona for the band and each of the band members that are in it. We have made Joel the frontman of the social media because he is the main singer and we wanted to create the star persona that he is the lead of the band which is common for the singer to be the lead of a band anyway. 

here is a link to the social media page:

https://www.instagram.com/metan0ia_music/

Final Digipak

 

Final Music Video - I've Had Enough

 This is the final product for our music video:

Developing the DigiPak

As we have been developing the digipak we have changed a few things about it compared to the last time that we looked at it but I feel like the digipak does fit in with the style of the band and helps the bands mood be portrayed as a a boy band that is trying to show that they were born in the wrong generation and that they want to break away from what they grew up listening to. 

This is the development process that James went through when he was creating this digipak:

Editing our Social Media

We have finished planning our social media page and have started to create the actual posts on the instagram page and I feel like the posts we have chosen suit the personalities of each of the band members and the colour scheme matches the mood and style of the music that we have chosen.  The Big Push were a band who helped influence our choices for our social media page and helped us to create a better instagram page. 

Editing the DigiPak

We have been using the template that I drafted up for the main reference of what we are trying to get the DigiPak to look like but it all depends on the photos we are able to get on the photoshoots that we do with the band but that is taking longer than we initially expected. With all of that to the side the digipak itself is starting to really take shape and look appropriate for the type of band that we have created. 

This is what we have so far:

We have these two different colour schemes because we are still unsure which one we should use. 

Evaluating shoot day

The day before our shoot we got into the studio so we could start setting up the set to look like a garage band practice space so that we had the set ready for the next day so we could start shooting straight away in the morning but we weren't able to finish setting up the set in time and had to finish setting up the set in the morning just before our shoot and so we just did what we could. 

When I woke up the next day I was slightly concerned about starting the shoot on time seeing that we have to still set up some of the set seeing that we didn't finish the night before, but apart from that I was feeling pretty confident that everything should fall into place and go quite well. 

When we all got to the set we didn't have much to do seeing that all we had left was putting up a few posters and a few more decorations to go around the set in order to complete the aesthetic we were after for our garage band scene and in my opinion it was worth it but I also feel like the only reason that it took so long was because we had to change our initial idea for our garage band set to have the room as a corner instead of an end on practice space. 

As we started to shoot our music video I felt like the set looked really good and I was quite proud of it seeing that we were able to create a very believable set that looked like it could actually be a space where a garage band would practice. To create the space I helped to stick all of the sound proofing onto the back wall and the egg boxes as well as the posters that covered the walls to help create that idea of a group of boys that are really into their type of music. 

During the shoot day we divided all of the roles out by who wanted to do what and so Max wanted to be the director and so he was. Fin wanted to be the camera man and operate the camera the whole day and James was on playback so he sorted out all the stuff to do with the clapperboard and the music. And I was in charge of the photography and lighting so I was there helping out and understanding what was going on with the lights and taking photos of what was going on, on set. 

I think throughout the shoot day I was good at keeping everyone happy and doing some of the small things on the set like making sure that there were continuity throughout all the shots and every time the sound proofing fell of the back (which was a lot) I had to make sure that everything went back into the right place and this was easier for me to do because I did have all the photos of how the set looked when we started the shoot and when it came to the Jazz club scene it was my job to look after all the extras who we had come and sit down to be the audience. 

During our shoot day nothing really went too bad apart from at the beginning when we had to re-think our whole set plan because we worried about it looking too similar to another one so instead of using the idea that we had for our set we had to improvise what we were going to do but in a way this could of made the set look better than it would of if we used our plan because it was more improvised and rough that it looked like a proper den or man cave. And with the Jazz club scene we had to let go of one of our extras for the scene half way through and so we had to try and shoot the rest of our shots without her and trying to make it so we don't see her table anymore. 

Personally I think that the most successful part of our shoot day was getting the tracking shot done which will be at the beginning of our music video and set the scene of the Jazz club especially because we had to do the tracking shot so many times in order to get what we wanted and also because the idea of our tracking shot changed from what we wanted to do initially compared to what we actually ended up doing on the day because it would have not looked as good as we wanted it to and that the tracks we had would not allow us to pan up from the floor to an audience member to the band. 

I wish the beginning of the shoot went a bit better because the band were still warming up to the song and so the performance wasn't as strong as I think it could have been gone a lot smoother and also the drummer and lead guitarist didn't properly know what was going on and so they were out of time with the music as well as not playing the right stuff and so it would look off if we tried to sync the music with what we shot because the guitarist would strum multiple times instead of just once and the drummer would most likely be behind in the song or hitting the wrong drum. The singer was fine throughout the shoot and the bass guitarist took a while to warm up to the camera but after a while got used to it. 

The part of the shoot that I enjoyed the most was the Jazz club scene because this was the part of the song that I focused on the most and it also had the continuous shot that I wanted in the music video as well. But because we were able to change the set so quickly we were able to continue shooting within an hour of finishing with the first set and because the set looked like it could be a proper jazz club I was very happy with the outcome of this scene/set. 

What I am looking forward to seeing the most in the edit is the continuous shot at the beginning of the song because this is one of the most complex shots that we did in our shoot day seeing that we got the tracks out and had a lot of background movement going on as the camera movements were setting the scene for the people watching the video.

I think that overall the group worked well together throughout the whole shoot day and the fact that there were no major disagreements or arguments and that no one ever contradicted what the other had said behind their back (or so I think). And when ever one of us had an idea that we wanted to try out we would all let that person try it out and then give them our feedback on how we think it works with the scene or the shot depending what it was about. 

I remember that shot composition is a bog part of what makes a shot either look great or bad. I learnt this when we were shooting into the audience at the Jazz club scene and one of the big stage lights was in the shot but it was only the pole holding it up and so we tried to move the camera so it wouldn't look too bad but instead we tried lowering the light so it fitted into the shot and in the end it added an extra layer to the shot creating something more interesting for people to watch. 

What we had to do over Half Term

Over half term we all had different things that we needed to get for the sets in our music video like the table clothes for the Jazz club scene which I was getting because my parents are in events and were able to source some good table clothes but I was slightly stressed out because the table clothes are very big and circular which I was too sure about originally but I now think that they will work if we just fold them up a bit to fit the tables. Then Max was sorting out the glasses and beer bottles for the garage scene and was able to source a good amount of them for the shoot. Fin was trying to get us the posters for both the garage scene and the Jazz club scene which came to be a little bit of a problem because of ordering some posters that were actually decent and also getting them to school on time, but we were eventually able to sort something out with just printing of the posters.