edited:QUESTION 4

Question 4 from Katy Arundell

PRELIMINARY IDEAS

EVALUATION OF 2 IDEAS

When it came to deciding which album cover I wanted to use for my print productions, I created 4 ideas and in the end I was left with my 2 favourite, and in my opinion, most professional looking images.

Idea 1 is an image of a mask suspended in water and idea 2 is a picture of a koi fish in dark murky water. Both album covers feature images of water and they both have the name of the band featured, although this is bigger in the image that features the mask.

PROS OF IMAGE ONE

-       -Idea and image one related much more to my music video. This is because I used an image of a mask, which was the same mask that I had used in my video. Similarly, I chose to suspend my mask in water which to me, made reference to the title track, Tidal Wave, but also the title of the album I had created which was waves.

-       -The colour pallet of this album cover was much more de statured, which again linked to my music video as in this, I had chosen to de saturated some of the more challenging parts of my music video.

-       -I had spent a very long time researching typefaces to use in my productions and when I found the one I have used (Aliens And Cows) I decided that this would make this image seem professional but at the same time make it a bit more playful in the sense that it wasn’t just a simple type face like Bebas Nueue which I had experimented with on the inside panels of this image.

-       -The name waves for me is a pro of this idea as it allowed me to think of ideas for song names that were surrounded by the idea of water, much like Tidal Wave.

-       -By using the images I had taken of the mask suspended in water, I had taken a lot of rough images I could use on the panels of the CD cover, for example, I had images of the water that the mask had been suspended in before the mask was placed in which meant I had more images to manipulated and use of the left, right and back panels of the CD cover.

-       -Created a strong focal point by only having one element present in the image which meant I could make links between the video and the album much more strongly. This was also genre specific as research had shown me that many indie album covers only featured one element in cover art.

CONS OF IMAGE ONE

-       Although having one image is genre specific, I thought this was quite boring and not very eye catching which I felt was the opposite of my music video which contained more than just one element throughout.

-       The placing of waves isn’t quite right as it doesn’t sit directly between the letters where Tempesst is placed.

-       I don’t think using black and white type on a grey/blue background is entirely effective. I think it would have looked better if it was all white as it would have stood out more against the de saturated background.

-       The ‘eyes’ on the mask have been distorted by bubbles in the water which makes the mask look deformed or like I have edited the image badly.

-       The colour of the cheeks of the mask could have been changed to match the colour of the lips as they look a bit weak in colour, this could made the red more prominent in the album cover and could have been used other panels on the album.

PROS OF IMAGE TWO

-       Image 2 has generic links to water and the flow/movement of water.

-       It shows an image of fish would could have intertexutal references. Could also be linked to the idea of a tidal wave as there are fish in the sea.

-       Nothing is to say that this image was taken in the sea which could make an even stronger link to tidal wave as the fish could have been washed into shallow waters by a wave.

-       You can make out my reflection in the water which makes a reference to the music video as I play the female character.

-       Could use the idea of there being one big fish in the centre of the image as a focal point and the smaller fish following as a signifier of the character’s relationship with each other.

-       The picture also shows other fish swimming in the opposite which could signify the people that surround the couple’s relationship as other people may not approve of it STRONG LINKS TO THE MUSIC VIDEO.

CONS OF IMAGE TWO

-      - The image isn’t really in focus, there is no focus on one main element e.g. The fish, the bridge or the greenery that surrounds the image.

-      - The colour pallet doesn’t really match the video as it is quite bright in terms of the fish in the image.

-      - The name of the album isn’t on the picture as the negative space is hard to interpret.

-       Name of the band is far too small and almost impossible to read.

-    -   The font doesn’t particularly suit the image itself- perhaps should be more simple.

-     -  No extra corresponding images that could be used in the CD cover panels so would have to use the same image throughout which could be a bit boring as the colour of the water is an off brown and there is no focus on the fish so they wouldn’t be easy to manipulate.

-     -  Bottom left corner of the image has a weird pattern that would need to be removed if it was going to be used.

-       Low quality image that has been taken quite badly made it hard to edit on Photoshop. 

NARRATIVE STRUCTURE: TIDAL WAVE

When it came to planning our music video, we wanted to create a video that had a story line that could be interpreted in multiple ways. We looked at the idea of a linear narrative. This is essentially where the story line follows events chronologically and there is a climax and a resolution. We also looked at using a circular narrative. This is where the story essentially starts and ends in the same place. For example, if we were to start our video in a bedroom with a drink being spiked, the video would end in the same place with the same events occurring. In the end we c hose to use a linear style of narrative which would allow us to unfurl events in a way that would be leading towards the audience but also allow audience members to identify with the story line and understand it as it occurs.

My video works in a linear way as it starts at the beginning. This sounds ironic but essentially means the video starts where the story starts, in the case of my video, this is in a bedroom with the male character asleep and the female character acting in an abnormal way as she is about to cause a form of disequilibrium. This disequilibrium is the next part of the story chronologically. This is where we meet the male character in the Market and the chase begins. This can be considered a disequilibrium as the two characters are kept apart from each other. It could also be considered a disequilibrium as it shows an element of inequality in the two characters and their gender. This part of the video shows a female character holding power over the male character. This makes the two characters unequal and reinforces the idea of a disequilibrium. This continues throughout my video until we reach the scene at the top of the car park. This is where the equilibrium is approached. Chronologically, this is the last even in the video as it is where my two characters meet and the mask is left behind, this creates an equilibrium in terms of gender roles and themselves as characters as they are ‘at one’ with each other. 
Below, i have included a list of narrative techniques i have used in my music video and how i have used them. 

Narrative techniques from Katy Arundell

edited:QUESTION 3

When collecting my audience feedback, I chose to use the form of a questionnaire. Using a questionnaire allowed me to ask a variety of questions to my target audience about a number of elements to do with my work, rather than having to try to have a conversation with someone and potentially getting answers that weren’t helpful, asking people who weren’t in my target demographics or asking irrelevant questions in conversation. I chose to post my questionnaire online rather than physically handing it to people which allowed me to send my questionnaire to a large group of people at one time and also eliminated the potential for the Hawthorne effect which essentially means a person may change what they say about your opinion because they know that it could offend you etc.

When it came to choosing questions to ask, I wanted to choose questions that would allow me to gain information about the people answering the questions, where they were from, and their personal preferences in media and music videos. I then wanted to gain an understanding of how people felt about my work and whether it was made to a professional standard.

I aimed to gain around 15 responses to my survey which I achieved but found that my results were hard to display some were bias to one answer. For example, in the question that asked for a person’s gender, many of the people who took the survey were male, making this hard to display in a way that looked effective. Similarly, in some questions, like asking if my products were promoting the same band, the answer was unanimous which meant it was difficult to display and draw conclusions from.  As a ‘producer’ of media, some of my results were less helpful than others, especially when all of the answers to one question are the same. As helpful as that is when it comes to knowing that my work in understandable etc, it doesn’t give me any constructive criticism on how to make my work better or where I could have done something differently.

The below powerpoint shows my results that were collected from my online survey that gained around 15 replies. 

The first section of my survey concerned the demographics of the people answering my survey. My first question asked the gender of the person taking part. I felt this was important as it allowed me to gain a wider understanding of my demographic and their preferences is music depending on their gender and allowed me to draw conclusions from this. This question was answered mainly by people who identified as male. This altered my results in the sense that it did not give a subjective opinion from people who identified as either gender which meant I could have gained a more bias result at the end of the survey. Personally, I don’t think this highlights any strengths nor weaknesses of my work as this is the most basic question of the survey that doesn’t particularly relate to my productions.

Questions 2 and 3 were similar in the sense that they were both created in order to find out more about the person answering my survey. Question 2 asks about the person’s age and question 3 asks about how often they listen to music. These questions again gave me more of an insight into the person who was answering my survey but also their listening habits when it comes to music. The majority of people answering my survey were in the age bracket 12-17. This, to me, gave an indication that people of a younger age, who may have more free time, were more likely to answer my survey, similarly, the results that followed from this demographic were much more positive than that of older aged answerers as the younger demographics may be much more likely to like the genre of my music but also my productions as they may be more difficult for someone of an older age bracket to interpret and understand for themselves. Question 3 was asking how often the people answering the survey listened to music. No one who participated answered with ‘none of the time’ which could draw a conclusion that music is extremely prominent in society. The majority of people who answered the question chose the option of ‘All of the time.’ When looking into this, I saw that this again was answered by people in the 12-17 demographic, reiterating my point that music is something that is extremely prominent in society. Again it highlights that younger people have more time to do activities of leisure, such as taking time to listen to music. Again, these 2 questions don’t particularly show any positives or negatives of my productions but allow me to understand more about my demographics.

Question 4 asked where the people who took part in my survey lived. This again was to help me understand my demographics and interpret the people who answered my survey’s answers. The people answering the questionnaire were given 3 options as to where they lived, they essentially asked if the person lived in the city centre or not. This gained a majority of answers that identified as people living outside of Norwich. This, along with the persons other answers allowed me to make assumptions on a person’s background. For example, one person who said they lived in the city were much more open to my music video and the genre of it, where as a person who said they did not live in the city may have lived somewhere where they’re not particularly open to the influences of music that isn’t say ‘Chart music’ which meant they could potentially object to my work which was clear in one person’s answers who said they like pop music, didn’t understand the story behind my music video, rated the video 7 out of 10 and that they wouldn’t buy the album based on the artwork and the video.

Question 5 asked about the person answering’s favourite genre of music. This question would allow me to draw conclusions about people’s opinions of my work before they had a chance to answer the questions about it. For example, the people who answered that their favourite genre of music was rap wouldn’t be drawn to my work and may answer more critically than a person whose favourite genre was indie. The majority of people who answered my survey said their favourite genre was rap which made me think the results of my genre would be a lot more negative as they would personally choose music of my genre or watch a video in that genre.

Question 6 asked whether the surveyors understood the story behind my music video, after having watched the video, looking at the CD cover and the advert for it.  The majority of people answered yes which to me, highlighted as positive point as it meant my work was readable. The other responses I received identified that the person either wasn’t sure or had no idea what the story behind my video was. This was a negative for me as it meant that my productions weren’t as readable as I thought they may be which allowed me to rethink my ideas. I thought that perhaps I should have made the story in my music video easier to understand and then use something, like a screenshot, from my video to link all 3 elements together. This would have eliminated the answer where people didn’t particularly understand what was going on.

Question 7 asked if my CD cover and advert were promotion the same product. This was a simple question that meant it was a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Luckily for me, everyone asked answered yes. This to me was an obvious answer as, I know it was my own work, but I had done it on purpose by including a pack shot, which is where the album cover can be seen on the promotion for the album as it makes it more identifiable for the consumer. This was something that was positive for me as I knew I had done this effectively and it could work if I was to market this album professionally, although it does not generically link to my music video.

Question 8 asked people to rate the ‘realness’ (how professional) of my music video. This gave the people answering my survey a chance to be honest about the music video they had seen. To my surprise, the lowest answer I received was 7. This was hugely positive for me as it meant that my video wasn’t as mediocre as I had first thought. The majority of people answered a score of 8 which again was positive for me as some of the people who has answered with an 8 were the people who were critical of my work in previous questions and didn’t like the indie genre. This gave me hope that my music video wasn’t too genre specific but could be watched by people who don’t particularly follow the indie genre.

Question 9 was another positive question for me. It asked whether they would buy the album based on how it looks. This was essentially to evaluate my CD cover and the standard it was made to. There were 3 options for the question which allowed people to be honest about this aspect, rather than the video. To my surprise, again, no one answered no. this was positive for me as it meant I had created an album cover that a person may pick up in a shop and think that that imagery was clever and that they would buy it purely based on that. Even though the main answer given was maybe, I wasn’t particularly offended by this as I saw the positive side of it as it meant that people could see my work in a shop and thought it was effective. I think this answer was also dependant on the person’s music preferences as you wouldn’t buy an indie album if you liked rap just because it looked cool.

Question 10 asked a similar question to 8. It was about whether my CD cover and advert were made to a professional standard. Out of 15 replies, one person answered no which again was positive for me as it meant it meant my advert and CD cover were effective for the use in which I had intended them to be. It also meant that it would make the poster identifiable if a person were to see it, they could go online or into a shop and find the album cover and know that it was the CD that was being promoted in the poster.

After I had asked questions that had more closed answers, I decided to verbally question the people involved. I asked questions like ‘why did you answer in this way’ for example, the question regarding whether people understood the narrative of my video. I asked one person who answered no to which their answer was ‘It was confusing and I didn’t get why she was wearing a mask’ this, to me highlighted a strong negative in my work. This meant that my music video wasn’t entirely readable and that if I could do it again, I would perhaps make the beginning of the story more obvious as to what is happening and why my character is wearing the mask. I also spoke to people who answered yes to that question, one of which said ‘I like the way you used the mask so the girl had something to hide behind’ this made me feel more confident about the narrative of my video and whether it was easy to understand. It also made me think that perhaps this person had just read further into the meaning of the video than the people who had answered ‘no.’

The unanimous answer for the question concerning whether all of my productions were promoting the same product felt like a huge positive to me. This meant that I had made strong links between my CD cover, advert and music video. This meant I had successfully learned how to use a pack shot and I could effectively take on image from my video and relate to other aspects of the promotion for my band.

I also spoke to people about their ratings of my music video and whether it looked professional or not. I spoke to one of the people who answered with a score of ‘7.’ This was a fellow media student who had watched my work progress which allowed him to be honest when he spoke about the outcomes of my work. He highlighted many negatives like the readability of my work and the fact that if you had never seen the story line you may not understand what was going on. This was something that I had already imagined would be an issue which, if I was to create my video again, I know I would try to make the story more obvious. He told me some positives of my work too including the colour palate of my music video and the way the final scenes were shot. These comments highlighted positive elements of my video that I may not have picked out myself.

I decided to find out why the person who answered my question about my Digipak not being made to a professional standard felt that way. Again, it was apparent that she was also a media student who wanted to provide me with constructive criticism rather than to just agree with the majority of answers. She said that she didn’t like my inside panels as she thought they both looked tacky. She also said that the use of different fonts was a bit ‘confusing.’ This highlighted a negative point for me and made me think that if I was to create the album cover again, I would aim to establish the identity of my band by keeping my fonts similar to almost create a theme. She also stated that the colour pallet of my album cover, advert and music video did not match. She said that the album seemed gloomier than the music video which conveyed opposing messages. This made me think that I should have de-saturated my music video more if I wanted to make a stronger connection between all of the elements of my digipak.

In conclusion, my survey allowed me to gain positive and negative feedback so, if I was to do this again, I would know the strengths and weaknesses of it. For example, I would make the story behind my video more easily interpretable but I wouldn’t change the images I used for my CD and advert as they received the most positive feedback in the way I wanted them to, for example, I wanted people to be able to see that they were promoting the same product and my feedback showed that they were. I felt that following up my survey with verbal explanations allowed me to gain a much deeper understanding of people’s opinions of my work and where the strengths and weaknesses were present. I also felt that my target audience were reached and answered the survey in a way that was expected which allowed me to draw the conclusions that I had been genre specific, sometimes too much so, but this allowed me to see that, for people that answered that indie was their favourite genre answered my survey in the way that I thought they would which mean t my work identified with the genre. Overall, I felt the main weaknesses were the readability of the storyline in the video and the fact that the colour pallets in my music video and CD promotions did not match. In terms of strengths, I think it was clear that all of my productions were promoting the same item and I think the use of the mask as a signifier and a way of creating a stronger brand identity was good as it allowed me to link all 3 elements.

INTERTEXUAL REFERENCES:TIDAL WAVE

Many texts have influenced our music video and the choices we have made for the video itself. Many of which have come from the research phases of our music videos which may not have been available to us previously. Having intertextual references allowed us to create a music video that had other indie videos in mind as well as including ideas we had found in films which allowed us to develop our own ideas further and include deeper messages rather than we just used a mask. it allowed us to put meaning behind that mask.

The film, The Purge, was one of the main reasons we chose to use masks in our video. This showed us that people can hide behind masks to cause damage to others as well as just a way to hide identity. I think this was a key theme in our video as we see the female antagonist hide behind her mask after causing harm to her partner and by wearing this, she is causing further harm to him. This is the most explicit reference for my music video.

We also watched a video by the band Bat For Lashes called What’s A Girl To Do. This was more of just a visual reference as the characters in the back of the video wear masks and follow the female character through the video. We chose to use this element as we had the female wear the mask followed by the male. Although this is different as it is the opposite characters wearing the masks, this is where we found the concept.

The film, Enter the Void is a film about a psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of a young drug dealer. This was something that we linked our video to in the sense that we insinuated the taking of drugs but we also tried to create a psychedelic point of view of the male character’s world.

I also chose to relate my music video to Foster The People’s video for Best Friend. The first shot in this video also insinuates drug taking but the video follows a more psychedelic pattern throughout. The song itself is about the relationship between two friends which isn’t identical to mine but the imagery and the video itself hold a much darker meaning which is something I felt correlated with mine as it warns the viewer of the dangers of getting heavily involved in things that you know are dangerous for example the use of drugs.  

 Many of these references are implicit which I think allowed us to create a video that help more than one meaning. It also allowed us to interpret our research into the video as we didn’t just stick to allowing one text to influence us. My explicit reference was important to me as it essentially the framework for the meaning of the video, apart from the drug taking. This intertextual reference allowed me to expand on the ideas of masks as something to hide behind but also as a means of causing harm.

MIND MAP OF INITIAL IDEAS: TIDAL WAVE ka