EVALUATION - Question 1

QUESTION 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


MUSIC VIDEO

To gain an understanding of the basic conventions used in music videos, I researched Andrew Goodwin’s Music Video Theory. A prominent feature is the notion of looking or watching something. In my music video, I have utilized this convention in two ways. The one used commonly in music videos is toward the camera. 

This adds a direct involvement from the character to the band’s audience. They are actively involved. 

The other method - more specific to my video - involves both the protagonist and antagonist gazing at each other. 

I used the same technique as Sergio Leone in his film The Good, The Bad and the Ugly:

This creates a conflict in the narrative I have presented in the music video, which is another common convention of music videos in general. Both of these methods tend to follow Goodwin’s idea of close-ups within music videos to better advertise the band. I attempted to do this whilst retaining the style of the video. Since the music video is taken from a subjective point of view, it made sense to have plenty of close-ups on the protagonist.

 I wanted there to be a relationship between the lyrics and the visuals in the video. However, I did not want to be limited in making creative decisions for a video illustrating the lyrics; neither did I want to contradict them either. It is common for music videos, particularly those of the Prog-Rock genre, to amplify the lyrics. This is what I have tried to do. I researched the sub-text of the song, which is about a former band member experiencing schizophrenia. So, I decided to make my video based on that knowledge. The lyrics themselves also dictate quite explicit images: ‘The Lunatic is on the grass’, 

‘The Lunatic is in the hall’, 

and ‘You lock the door and throw away the key’. 

One common convention I have challenged in my own music video is the objectification of women. I only have brief shots of a young woman, who tears apart the protagonist’s mindset. However, there is some complicated stereotyping involved. Once the Lunatic enters the Kitchen, he sees his enemy – The Laughing Man – washing up the dishes. 

Through voice-over, however, we know that it is really the Lunatic’s girlfriend – who he is delusional enough to think she is the Laughing Man. So, in terms of the narrative, it could be said that I have stereotyped women to give the audience quicker and easier understanding as to what is happening. Since women are commonly associated with washing up, I thought I would utilize this device. I also made her have a stupid American accent to display a lack of intelligence. This is to further display her innocence in the situation, which - in a peculiar way - fits with Laura Mulvey's theory of virgin/whore dichotomy.

The only objectification within the music video, if any, would be of the man. He walks around in the main narrative scenes topless – showing his muscular physique. This would appeal more to the heterosexual female audience. This is going against Laura Mulvey’s Male Gaze theory that media texts are created from the heterosexual man’s point of view. It can even be considered as a 'Female Gaze'. Mulvey's theory is often proven correct in many music videos but I wanted to divert from this convention to separate from the pack.  

To make my music video, I had to have knowledge of the conventions used in other videos of the same genre. I had chosen the song ‘Brain Damage’ by Pink Floyd, who are a part of Progressive Rock. Since Pink Floyd formed in the late 1960s, no professional music videos of their songs were made. So, I had to look at modern equivalent – often referred to as New-Prog, which includes bands like: 30 Seconds To Mars, Muse and Radiohead. All of them contained dark and surreal styles, which suits the style of the song. The videos often washed the low-key lighting with colours, which are quite vibrant. 

Since Prog-Rock is a movement pursuing more artistic methods, these techniques are most appropriate.

One unconventional method I used was making the music video as a short film. This is what 30 Seconds To Mars does with most of their videos because of the band leader’s, Jared Leto’s, popularity as a film actor. In their music video Hurricane, the video is split into narrative stages (Part One, Part Two etc) and contains short extracts from their other songs. The latter is used for when the main song is not playing, and a scene from the short film is playing. 

This is what I tried to do with my music video. I split my video into three parts, excluding the prologue, to make it seem more like a story than a advertisement for the song/album. 

I also used a widescreen format – 2.35:1, used quite effectively in the Coppola’s 1979 film Apocalypse Now. Music videos do not often use an aspect ratio this wide, which makes mine more memorable. 

On three of the shots used in "BRAIN DAAMGE", I did not apply this widescreen format. These shots appear consecutively and all contain the Lunatic screaming. This is almost a glimpse into his real self or selves before he enters a psychological - almost hallucinogenic - journey. This is not conventional at all in music videos, nor in many movies. Though it is used in Christopher Nolan's 'The Dark Knight' for majestic establishing shots.

DIGIPAK

I had researched tangible albums and their contents as well as digital editions on iTunes (LP) to formulate ideas for my Digipak. I mainly focused on albums by Pink Floyd, particularly The Wall and The Dark Side of the Moon. 

A common addition to these albums or digipaks is a booklet. This contains information about the band members’ contributions, lyric pages, abstract images and pictures of the band. I have included all of these conventional features but I did not want to do it in exactly the same way. Pink Floyd placed pictures of the band during live shows but I do not think this suits the band’s identity. I wanted them to completely immersed in the narrative of their music.

I was initially excited by the idea of not having any text on the front cover, like the cover for Dark Side of the Moon. However, this can be proved challenging because of the difficulty in marketing that product. It also does not fit in with the New-Prog style of album design, which always has text and logos present. I looked in particular at album designs by Muse:

To fit in with this convention, I too placed all the text in the top right-hand corner. The band name will be enlarged and treated more as a logo, and the album name will be positioned below it.

POSTER

With the Digipak poster, I took inspiration mainly from the advert for 30 Seconds To Mars's upcoming album, Love Lust Faith + Dreams:

In this poster, it seems that the image takes precedence. We can recognise the band just from their picture. I attempted to do this with my own poster:

Even though my image is more centred than the 30 Seconds To Mars one, it still dominates the poster. It is the first object the consumer sees. However, I have made darkened and almost impossible to see. This is why I thought that the band name required great visibility, unlike the poster for Love Lust Faith + Dreams. "GOOD VS EVIL" is easily the brightest text on the poster, which the consumer will see and understand. It is a convention to use the band name at the top of the poster, with uppercase lettering and large size, to increase visibility. I realised this from seeing other posters unrelated to this genre of music:

A noticeable difference between these somewhat conventional posters and my own is the differing fonts. Even the 30 Seconds TO Mars posters, despite varying between plain and bold, has essentially the same font. I wanted my poster to be multi-layered, as if each item of text has its own special significance. I have continued the same black-and-white colour scheme as in the Digipak. This is to preserve that idea of ying and yang. I had initially thought that the poster would look good with multiple colours but my teacher thought a varying colour scheme would be irrelevant. Like the Digipak's album cover, I have also stretched the image to preserve the band's surreal identity. I also made the release date larger and used numbers instead of letters. This links to their intellectual identity because of mathematical associations with philosophy.

I included the distributor's logo to advertise their company. This is done in the Kings of Leon poster above. I also placed links to both the company's and the band's websites. Previously, I had placed Facebook and Twitter links on the poster but this seemed to be taking up considerable space - so I removed them. 

Digipak Advert Poster - first draft

Hello all!

I have finished doing the first draft of my Digipak album poster. I created it using Logoist:

Starting off with the image, I was inspired by the painting 'madness' by Alfred Kubin:

I thought this could be easily relatable to the nature of the band. This painting clearly focuses on madness and the problem of good and evil, which are major elements in the band's identity. The evil is hammering away at the good, making him become mad. In my image, I set the location by a piano - alluding to the band's music - inside a house with the evil side (THE LAUGHING MAN) attempting to hammer the good side's (the Lunatic's) head. Unlike Kubin's painting, the Lunatic is darkened beyond recognition. This is to provide an enigma for the audience to solve but it also represents the Lunatic's falling into darkness. The band identity is associated with characters and role-play, so I thought this particular representation was appropriate.

Like the album cover, I used an archaic font for 'GOOD vs EVIL' to serve as a logo for the band. It is the largest piece of text on the poster, so that it is the first thing people see when they look at it.  For 'METAPHYSICAL MAYHEM', I retained the same Ancient Greece-like font but I changed the colour to red. I thought this was a striking colour to use and it really shouts at the reader. I also used it for the 'OUT NOW' text for the same effect.

For the text 'INCLUDES THE NEW SINGLE BRAIN DAMAGE', I wanted a font that looked like an old-fashioned horror film. This can be associated with the trailer for George A. Romero's 1968 zombie film 'Night of the Living Dead' and certain posters from the 1960s:

This is for keeping to the band's identity, which is heavily associated with film and cinema history - particularly that of horror. 

The text for 'OUT NOW' is coloured in red, like "METAPHYSICAL MAYHEM"'s font. This colour is used for the consumer to recognise the importance of these two texts. They must now the name of the album in order to buy it and they must know it is OUT NOW. It is made larger than the text on the lower third to draw further attention to it, as well as strongly encouraging the consumer to buy it (preferably NOW). 

To further market the product as well as the band, I have included links to websites on the poster. Blue is another attractive colour, which suits the differing colour scheme. It also reflects the usual colour of hyperlinks to websites on the internet in general. I used the social networks Facebook and Twitter because they are the most popular. I also retracted the 'http://www.' before each website title to make it look cleaner and appeal more to the younger generation, who are more experienced in technology. 

Digipak - pretty much done!

ALBUM COVER (AND BOOKLET COVER):

To improve the front cover, I decided to place the text in the corner of the image. This is what Muse does on the cover for 'Black Holes and Revelations'. I thought it would direct more attention to the image whilst also standing-out. I have improved the text for the "GOOD vs EVIL" text to have it glow more, making it stand out. The old colour seemed too grey and was difficult to see. Presenting it in this colour also gives it an almost religious element, alluding to the battle between Heaven and Hell.


BACK COVER:

As I have said before, this is cover is to mark a difference from the front cover. It produces a "now you see him, now you don't" effect - fitting with the theme of schizophrenia for the character.


DISC:

With the disc, I joined two images together of the Lunatic and the Laughing Man. Combining them both represents the split reality that the Lunatic is experiencing. This is a key element of GOOD vs EVIL's band identity. They want their audience to experience something different, something psychological, something spiritual. The surrealism of the image appeals to the dreamscape I tried to attempt. The two band members are characters in their own right and the tracks on the album are all about their conflict with one another. Conflict is a key dramatic effect which audiences enjoy in other media texts like film and television. GOOD vs EVIL try to mimic that in their performances.

I have made the track list in block capitals so they really stand out. I have made their colour white to suit the black-and-white scheme on the entire digipak. This is to represent the 'Ying and Yang' approach to Good and Evil, which many people would be familiar with.

BOOKLET - FIRST DOUBLE-PAGE

There is a great sense of death in this first double-page, which represents perfectly what the band represents. Since GOOD vs EVIL appeals mainly to the emo youth sub-culture, death is an appropriate topic to cover. The ticking, Dali-esque clock shrouded in darkness represents the limited duration of existence. Because this is also a complicated topic, it would also appeal to the middle-aged generation - who are more likely to be educated in existentialism. 

I've included a track list in the booklet as well. I have spaced the tracks at a considerable distance from on another to show that each song has its own individual merit. I didn't use a large font size because I wanted to feel that the darkness is overtaking the light. The whole album is shrouded in darkness with limited light, showing the identity the band is more attracted to. I also provided information about the band members and what they contributed to the album. This font is not in uppercase because this information is less important. GOOD vs EVIL care more about the music being played instead of recognition for who created it. 

BOOKLET - LYRIC PAGES (part 1)

With these pages of lyrics, I have kept to the 'Ying and Yang' style to represent the message of Good and Evil. The use of contrasting colours appeals to the reader's psychology. It provides a sense of difference. 

The font used is fairly similar to that used by Pink Floyd in their album 'The Wall'. They had an image of a clean white wall with graffiti-like writing over the top for the lyrics. These lyrics look like they have been written down and a fair amount of precision has contributed to it. This is to show the Lunatic's state of mind. The presentation of the lyrics in this way allows us to experience what is happening inside his head. This appeals to the target audience because of its intended minimalism, fearful intent and surreal presentation. 

BOOKLET PICTURE:

This image is taken to show the Lunatic's struggle against the Laughing Man. It also marks a transition between the two sets of songs, which have different styles from one another. I positioned the Lunatic right forward in the frame because this is who we empathise with the most. He has fallen and we wish for him to be able to stand up. The Laughing Man looms in the background, almost like a spectral floating head haunting the Lunatic. His falling over indicates that he has almost given up and submitted to the Laughing Man.

LYRIC PAGES (part 2):

In this lyric double-page, I've included a picture of the Lunatic lying on the bed with a light shining from the right. I thought that this was rather appropriate for the song. It also looks quite metaphysical because of the soul-like features in the image. This carries on the heavenly idea implied in the logo of GOOD vs EVIL on the album cover. There is a juxtaposition also between what is surrounding the Lunatic and what he really feels. White light is surrounding him from all sides and yet his expressions do not connote a sense of happiness or joy. I wanted it to look as if the Lunatic does not want to be in this environment, or he is questioning it. Since his face is far darker than the rest of the image, it could be suggested that he is wanting to move further into the dark side. 

The Lunatic's apathetic attitude would appeal to: teenagers because of their stereotypically lazy personality, which they can relate to; religionists because of this heavenly idea of a soul; and atheists (and, perhaps, satanists) because of this denial of Heaven or God being an omni-benevolent presence. Nevertheless, it is an appeal to the darker side of human nature. This would mostly appeal to the emo or goth youth sub-culture. 

I used a light behind the Lunatic's head in order to make his face look darker, whilst at the same time giving the illusion that the light wants to pass through. 

BOOKLET PICTURE:

This image presents the idea that the Lunatic is descending further and further into darkness until he becomes a silhouette of his 'good' self. As we can see, he is climbing down from the upstairs - which is brightly lit and white - to the downstairs, which is dark and unpredictable. The four lights on the ceiling above the actor were very useful in providing this image. The high-key lighting hit the actor's figure and immediately created this silhouette. This creates a spectral, unknowable character. 

LYRIC PAGES (part 3):

LAST PAGE:

BOOKLET: Back Cover