Final Front Inlay

We also changed the front inlay to ensure the CD cover looked more cohesive and formal.

Final Poster

We have changed our poster again because I did not feel it made the brand of Sublime cohesive as a 'package'. However changing the colour and adding a CD cover image has made it clear to audiences what Sublime has produced, and hopefully should make her more popular.

Final Evaluation of our Coursework

Uploaded Music Video

This is my uploaded music video completed. I uploaded the video onto blogger converting the video into an Mp4 file using the 'Zamzar' website. I then uploaded it onto Blogger.com using the 'add video' tag.

Podcast: EVALUATION

As a group, to make a final evaluation, we decided to complete a recording of all our thoughts of our coursework using software (on the I Mac computers), called 'Garage Band'. Although as a concept this seems a fairly straightforward idea, we have found it difficult over the last few weeks due to the problems we have had with the I Mac computers; sometimes they will freeze and not save our work, other times they will be extremely slow if we want to add an image in relation to what we have recorded on the podcast. To improve the quality of our evaluation, we wanted to use examples of music videos of the dance/hardcore genre which used similar codes and conventions to our music video. However, we had to import these files into an Mp4 so they would work, which as a result made the files corrupt. Using software, we had to uncorrupt these files so they could finally be used during our podcast. This took a lot of time and was very frustrating, but as a result we have now learnt how to import videos onto the 'Garage band' software. Making small changes to the movie we had created alongside the podcast meant we had to reload the movie which also caused us problems. Reloading the video usually took about 10 minutes, and for a small change where the movie was only a few seconds out was also very frustrating, however we wanted the podcast to be perfect. Sometimes reloading the movie would not work at all, so overall, a project which should have taken us only a few days, took a few weeks to complete. We could have taken the easy option and only used the recording of our voice as the podcast evaluation, but we wanted to showcase the skills we have learnt over the last couple of months during our coursework, and also aim for the highest grade achievable. Overall I am extremely pleased with the end result, because the hard work we have out into it really shows and hopefully will be obvious to the examiners as well.

Script: EVALUATION

Alice Bunting and Elizabeth Millar

Final Evaluation of Products.

1. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Lilly: A major new technology that we used for our research was the internet. The internet enabled us to research music videos of a similar music genre so that we could identity the generic codes and conventions of the dance/hardcore genre, which were Fast paced editing, a strong narrative structure and a leading female vocalist which we filmed using close up shots and tracking camera movements so the audience could connect with her.

Alice: Some specific videos that we looked at were ‘ Pretty Green Eyes’ by Ultrabeat and ‘ Now Your Gone’ by Basshunter. Some other new technologies that we used were ‘Imovies’ 09, ‘blogger.com’ and the mac computer. The new digital technologies such as the Mac computer were a key structure within our portfolio units. This Contrasted from foundation portfolio, where we were not able to develop our media products to a high standard due to lack of knowledge and experience with the Mac. Imovies was an essential new technology that we used within both units. As a group we used ‘imovies 09’ which was much more advanced software than Imovies 08’ due to better software.

Lilly: For example due to the genre of our music video the tempo is very fast and the conventions of the genre in the music videos to match the tempo of the song with very fast paced editing, so that it goes with the tempo, similar to the video Styles and Breeze’ Amigos’, which we wanted to reflect with our editing. Therefore the ‘Imovies 09’ enabled us to speed up the dance scene for our artist which meant we were able to be more creative and helped fit within the tempo of our song choice ‘Walking in the rain’, by Sublime.

Alice: Another creative feature from ‘Imovies 09’ was adding Filters , such as Sepia onto a specific scene onto the flashbacks, which helped us to break up the footage. This allowed us to apply the theoretic concepts ‘Uses and Gratifications’ in practice for our music video. The filter Sepia helped to engage our target audience as the effect helped them to understand the narrative as the filter Sepia connoted the flashback effectively, helping to achieve a more personal relationship between the artist and the demographic audience.

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

Lilly: During research, we found a lot of the models on the CD covers and posters video’s analyzed were in skimpy outfits which had high sexual connotations to the demographic audience, this was intensified through things like the models pose and expression. Therefore whilst creating our CD cover we reflected this through the choice of our original image, whereby the models pose and costume was had high sexual connotations and the setting reflected the stock setting of a club with neon lighting.

Alice: We also followed codes and conventions whilst producing our music video where we found through research was a strong narratives a typical convention of the dance/hardcore genre. We found we could apply todorovs narrative theory of Equilibrium, Disruption, Recognition, Seeking to reestablish equilibrium and finally Equilibrium to our music video. Breaking down the narrative structure of the video we can prove that we had conformed to the conventions of a typical Todorovian narrative structure.

Lilly: The equilibrium was where the artist is upset an alone.

The Disruption: was where the artist sends a text message to her boyfriend of the breakup.

Recognition was where the arist seeks to overcome the breakup and begins to get ready for a night out.

Seeking to reestablish was where the artist dances down the road.

New Equilibrium is where the artist winks at the camera which lets the demographic audience know she is Ok.

Alice: ‘Walking in the rain’ which meant it had a strong structure and the demographic audience would easily be able to make sense of the narrative. We also used a stock setting of a bedroom which helped the demographic audience connect with the artist as they were able to relate to such a personal setting and this also helped the audience to connect with the artist on a more personal level.

Lilly: One code and convention we have decided to follow is the colorful nature of the music genre; during research we found that CD covers and adverts were extremely bright and eye catching, which connotes the playful aspect of the dance/ hardcore genre to audience members. This made it more engaging in contrast to adverts from the rock genre, which used mainly black and dark colors. Following these certain codes and conventions will mean that the audience will be easily able to identify the dance/hardcore genre and will make it stand out from different genres.

2. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Alice: We thought our music video and print products were all very effective because the codes and conventions we followed which we identified during research gave the demographic an instantly identifiable product. This was reflected through using emphasized certain neon colors on the cover, which we also reflected in the poster, which gave our texts a more congruent feel.

Lilly: We also used the artist in out poster advertisement and music video which helped to build the brand of the artist and allowed the audience to identify with the artist more than just through the one form of our coursework.

What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Feedback from audience:

Alex Cockell said...

I really like your poster. I like the colours and the image you've used. Maybe have a different colour instead of white as your background to make it stand out more.

Anna... said...

This print ad is really good and has all the necessary information but you don't say whether it follows the codes and conventions of the print ads you analyzed or if you challenged the genre conventions.

We took this feedback into consideration and changed some of our print products accordingly, namely our CD cover whereby we changed the color scheme to make it look more professional and cohesive.

Draft script: EVALUATION

Final Evaluation of Products.

1. How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Some new technologies that we used were ‘Imovies’ 09, ‘You tube’, ‘myspace’, ‘blogger.com’, ‘zamzar’ and the mac computer. The new ‘I movies’ program helped enable us to use special effects, such as speeding up the dancing scene and used filters on some scenes, where we added a Sepia and Romantic effects to scenes of just the main protagonist, which emphasises the ambiance of the scene. ‘You tube’ allowed us to upload the music video from the mac, which meant we could publish our video to a wider demographic audience. ‘Myspace’ enabled us to create a profile for our artist, which we found was popular connecting artists to their audiences through research. ‘Blogger.com’ was a way of documenting our progress throughout the coursework process and therefore acted as a diary, whereby we published all our work onto it. ‘Zamzar’ is software, which converts files into different formants to suit your purpose. In our case we used the website ‘zamzar’ so we upload images of our coursework onto our blog.

2. In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

During research, we found a lot of the models on the CD covers and video’s analyzed were in skimpy outfits which had high sexual connotations to the demographic audience, this was intensified through things like the models pose and expression. Although we wanted to give our artist a sexual identity because it would mean her music was more likely to be popular, we didn’t want to make her costume to risqué, bearing in mind the young demographic audience and the innocent nature of the song. Therefore as a group we challenged conventions of the music genre in this way. We also found the dance/hardcore genre was dominated by male artists and DJs, and using a female solo artist was another way in which we challenged typical male dominant ideology in the hardcore industry. One code and convention we have decided to follow is the colorful nature of the music genre; during research we found that CD covers and adverts were extremely bright and eye catching, which connotes the playful aspect of the dance/ hardcore genre to audience members. This made it more engaging in contrast to adverts from the rock genre, which used mainly black and dark colors. Following these certain codes and conventions will mean that the audience will be easily able to identify the dance/hardcore genre and will make it stand out from different genres.

3. How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

We thought our CD cover was effective because we emphasized certain colors on the cover, which related to our research where we found colors on CD covers were usually emphasized to give them more of a 'neon' glow. This worked effectively with our music video and poster because throughout our products we ensured the genre of hardcore was clear to the audience and therefore they worked effectively.

4. What have you learnt from your audience feedback?

Feedback from audience:

Alex Cockell said...

I really like your poster. I like the colours and the image you've used. Maybe have a different colour instead of white as your background to make it stand out more.

Anna... said...

This print ad is really good and has all the necessary information but you don't say whether it follows the codes and conventions of the print ads you analyzed or if you challenged the genre conventions.

We took this feedback into consideration and changed some of our print products accordingly, namely our CD cover whereby we changed the color scheme to make it look more professional and cohesive.

Final Video Completed

After reading comments which some members of the group gave, we realised we had to make a few adjustments on our music video and CD covers to improve the quality. For the music video, we edited some dance scenes so that they were slightly jumpy, which worked effectively with our chosen song. For the CD covers, we edited the colour scheme to mainly black and a few neon colours, which although followed codes and conventions of the dance/hardcore genre, also looked more professional and high quality. A link for our new and final music video can be seen here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdVZ70UQ_C0

FINAL CD Cover Completed: Original images

FINAL Front Cover/ FINAL Back Cover

FINAL Front Inlay/ FINAL Back Inaly

These original images are our final copy of the CD covers, which we have improved today. We managed to improve the images by setting a black background to all covers, so that the text appeared more congruent and did not stand out as much. We also added a bar code and copyright infringements to the back cover, which I found was a common convention of CD covers during my research. Therefore I felt this greatly improved our CD cover, making it appear higher quality and more professional. Overall I was really pleased with the results we achieved today as it makes us have strengthens our brand for our artist 'Sublime', and therefore is more likely to appeal to a wider demographic audience.

CD covers and music video improvement

After observing comments made on our CD cover and video from other members of the group, we have used this week to make some improvements and today we focused on the CD cover. The general changes we made was to use black instead of a vibrant colour scheme on the front, inside and back cover. This has changed the CD covers appearance in that the quality is improved and the overall process has made it seem more congruent. I will have uploaded my new music video link and an example of the CD cover by the end of this week.

Review of filming process:

Two weeks ago we managed to get all the filming completed for our music video. Filming ran smoothly because we had a thorough and detailed storyboard and film script. The process of filming become at lot easier due to the experiance we had in our AS preliminary task last year, where as a group we had to create a 2 minute opening of a film. This gave us a chance to learn how to film and edit properly and therefore we felt we have improved from last years task. We learnt from any mistakes made last year which allowed our music video to be filmed to a high and cohesive standard.

Things we had to remember whilst Filming:
We had to make sure we kept the continuity of the scenes, i.e keeping everything the same, which means nothing will be out of place and means the video will flow better:

Lighting.
Position of protagonist.

Keep the camera steady.
Make sure the protagonist knows her lines when miming the words.
Follow the storyboard.
Keep referring to codes and conventions of a typical 'Dance/Hardcore' music video.

Overall we captured some great scenes and used a variety of camera shots and movements, and are happy with what we have produced.

Editing
We uploaded our camera scenes onto the 'Mac' computer, and through a software called 'I movies',.We managed to start editing, trimming clips and addding the music and certain special effects. We need to make sure our target audience doesn't get disoriented and will easily recognize that this video holds typical codes and conventions of a 'dance/ hardcore' music video and consequently have to reflect this through the editing process.

Casting:

Sublime: (Katie Chivers)
We felt extremely happy with our actors performance and Katie Chivers did an excellent job miming the words along to the song. We chose her because she has strong feminine features which were effective in front of the camera, because she has typically conventional pretty features which would appeal to the audience. Her age was also important as she needed to be a similar age to our demographic audience '17-21'.

Tom: (Adam Proudman)
For our music video, we could apply Propps characters functions, therefore we wanted to create a 'hero' who would be represented as the boyfriend in the music video, who was also very effective within the narrative.

Costume:
In the beginning scene 'sublime' is in causal clothing with neutral and dull colours. Her make up is natural and her hair is tied back. The overall effect we wanted to connote to the audience was that the character was upset and this was effectively relayed through the costume we chose.

Outfit 2:
Her second outfit is very vibrant and exciting, which contrasts greatly with the first costume. She is wearing a modern stripy dress which gives the music video a more contemporary feel. From doing individual textual analysis on music videos and CD covers, the common theme we discovered whilst researching in the genre 'Hardcore/Dance' was the costumes were very bright and engaging, also slightly provacative with low cut tops and skimpy clothing. Given our target audience, it was important we made sure her costume wasn't too revealing, but still vibrant enough to attract the audience, which will help engage the audience.

The characters make up is a lot heavier than previous scenes at the beginning of the video with bright red lipstick and fake eyelashes, which help to enhance her features and in essence, help to attract the opposite gender.

Final Product: CD Cover

Although we had completed the CD cover, we improved it using the software 'Photoshop', making it of a higher quality which gives the artist a more professional image. We emphasised certain colours on the cover which related to our research where we found colours on CD covers were usually emphasised to give them more of a 'neon' glow.

Final product: DRAFT of Advert

We took several photos of our artist 'Sublime' which we could use in our final advert. These are a few examples of some photos that we took. We wanted lots of variation and therefore used lots of different poses so that we had lots to choose from.

This is the final image we chose for our advert.

After deciding on the original image we used for our advert, we uploaded it on to the Mac computers and used software called 'Pages' to use different colour schemes and a background which related to the image.

Here is our final DRAFT advert which we completed:

First copy of our music Video

After spending the previous two weeks filming and editing, we have finally created a piece which we have both worked really hard on. Now we will concentrate on our CD covers and advert for the deadline which is next Wednesday.

Our url for the music video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29cBvHgQol4

This allows our music video to reach a wider audience, which should result in the video becoming more popular.

This music video is the first edit of our final music video and through watching it and comparing it with the final video, you can see which parts are improved.

Here is a photograph of me and the film crew together:

First copy of CD covers

These CD covers are a first draft of our final CD covers. Comparing them with our final CD covers, you can observe the changes we have made and how they have worked effectively.

In order to create a brand of our artist as a group we needed to get some mock up shots of a CD cover/advert. After researching the dance/hardcore genre CD covers I found this really easy to do and had lots of ideas including colour schemes, designs, logos and images we could use.

After analysis, we found there was usually a model on the front cover, which was used to attract the target audience and also to represent the genre of music, giving the genre a specific identity. Therefore we also decided to use a model and not the artist, as we would be adding the artist’s songs to a compilation CD which would give the artist more kudos to the target audience. Therefore we both decided to use an original image of a girl which we knew, who gave us permission to be used in the CD cover, who was very suited to being on the cover:

She was in a stock setting of the genre; a club, was looking straight into the camera and can connect to the audience in some way. She was also in stereotypical club wear which was colorful which would also help to represent the genre on our CD cover. Using our photo editing skills we created some drafts of the CD cover using different images and colour schemes. However we finally decided on a suitable image and continued to edit this so it worked well with the brand of the artist 'Sublime' and her song 'Walking in the Rain'. We finally finished it and I am happy with the results as I think it works well as a CD cover to represent our artist.

Research Into CD covers

This image is from the 'Clubland x-treme hardcore 3' inlay. This lets the audience know what CDs are available in the clubland series, as well as generally keeping the audience updated.



This flyer comes from an hardcore event night 'HTID 31'. It shows the audience upcoming event nights within the dance/hardcore genre that HTID promote and organise.
Whilst completing textual analysis on the genre 'Hardcore/Dance', I discovered that inside a lot of the albums series 'Clubland' and 'X-treme hardcore clubland', there was a frequent use club event promotions, including promotion for its website and previous albums which they had created. The research that we discovered is as follows:

This gave us an effective idea in how we can help promote 'Addicted2 hardcore', using previous albums and by having them featured behind the disc, so when the consumer opens the CD they will notice the promotion behind it.
Using 'Raver Baby' as a record label means that we can feature their upcoming events and club nights within the CD inlay. This will be an effective way to target the consumer, as well as promoting the Club night and album.

Inlay Ideas

Event which we could advertise within the inlay of the CD cover:

Saturday 5th December 2009 – 8pm – 6am *EXTRA HOUR*
Air Superclub, Heathmill Lane, Digbeth, Birmingham B9 4AL

"On Saturday 5th December, Raver Baby are proud to present 8 Years of Raver Baby - the past, present and future of arguably the most popular hardcore label of all time! Air will play host to a selection of your favourite artists giving you a night to remember across all 3 arenas whilst outside the ever popular free fairground ride will be in operation all night!"

For the inlay of the CD cover, one of the things which we thought would be effective was to advertise a 'Raver Baby' event, which relates to the record label promoting the artist; 'Raverbaby'. This is 'Raver Baby's' next event; consequently we will feature it within the CD cover, which will be an effective way to target our demographic audience, as well as promoting the record label and artist efficiently.

Storyboard: PLANNING

As a group we wanted to ensure that we finished the storyboard, before beginning filming, so that we could follow the storyboard, and consequently save valuable time throughout the filming process. We ensured that the storyboard was coloured in and detailed with structured borders, which resulted in the storyboard looking high quality and made the storyboard easier to follow. During production of the storyboard, we decided to use medium close up camera shots frequently of the main female artist 'Sublime', because it gives a direct mode of address to the audience and allows them to forge a connection with her. Consequently this allows the audience to relate to the artist more and means that she will be more likely to be successful. We will apply 'Use and Gratifications' theory to our music video, which will give the artist a strong personal identity; through the usage of various different camera shots. This will help the audience forge a relationship with the recording artist, which helps represent the artist and allows us to create the artist into a stronger 'brand'.

Storyboard

As a group we wanted to ensure that we finiShed the storyboard before beginning filming so that we could follow the storyboard and consequently save valuble time throughout filming. We ensured that the storyboard was coloured in and detailed with structured borders, which resulted in the storyboard looking high quality

During production of the storyboard, we decided to use medium close up camera shots of the main Female artist 'Sublime', because it gives a direct mode of address to the audience and allows them to forge a connection with her. Consequently, this allows the audience to relate to the artist more, meaning that she will be more likely to be successful. We will apply 'Use and Gratifications' theory to our music video, which will give the Artist a strong personal identity; through the usage of various different camera shots.

Location: PLANNING

Location for our video:

1st Location: Bedroom

During my research, I found this location was a stock setting to music videos, especially to those with ones of a younger demographic audience, which relates to my groups demographic audience, ages ranging from 17-25 years old. During listening to the song itself and the lyrics, as a group we found that a bedroom setting would really assist our plot line. The plot line we decided to include within the video was one of a young heartbroken female who had observed her boyfriend walking in the rain with another woman, and she suspected him of having an affair. Therefore the female could use the bedroom as a setting recalling several flashbacks, contemplating her failed relationship and, in an attempt to forget about her boyfriend, get ready to leave and go out. We found the bedroom setting was a setting which a lot of our younger demographic audience could relate to, because, especially to this particular audience, a bedroom is often seen as an escape from other members of the household and therefore connotes a sense of freedom to the audience. This message we particularly wanted to portray to the audience and in doing so the audience would be able to relate to the main female and male characters, who reside in the bedroom at the beginning of the music video. Being able to relate to the characters within the music video is important because it allows the audience to be able to connect with the characters and consequently helps to build a bond with them. Whether this bond is legitimate or not, it helps to sell records of the song because audience members enjoy the sense of escapism they feel whilst viewing the video. In order to make a successful video, audience members must be able to connect with the artist or the characters and using a setting such as a bedroom is one way to do this.

2nd Location: Club

The club setting was another location which I discovered during research was a popular stock setting, particularly within the dance/hardcore genre. Because this setting is a significant, especially to the music genre we are following, we felt it was important to include this setting within our music video, which will help make it more exciting for audience members. The club setting gives audience members a ‘fast-track’ way in discovering the genre, which, in turn, allows the audience to focus entirely on the music video and the song. Although attempting to portray a club scene will be difficult because we do not have the big budget of the videos which I analysed previously, we will attempt to create the same effect by using extreme close ups of the characters and not many shots of the club scene itself. If effective, this will help to give our music video a good atmosphere, which, in turn, should leave audience members feeling happy after watching the video.

3rd and Final Location: Street

We decided to include the street location merely to help relate to our narrative storyline, which overall would make the video seem more congruent, especially because it relates to the song chosen. It was not a stock setting which I found was common of the dance/hardcore genre and therefore in a subtle way, as a group we are challenging certain codes and conventions. In doing so, it gives the demographic audience members variation within the settings and, for them, makes it seem more exciting. Overall I am pleased with the locations we have chosen as they help us to apply our narrative structure of the plot line to the video effectively and hopefully this will make it more exciting for the audience members consuming this media.


After attempting to film some small scenes in a 'club' location, we decided not to use them because we wanted to focus more on the narrative which the location did not fit in with. Although a club scene is a typical convention of the dance/hardcore genre, because we did not have a big enough budget, we could not have pulled it off effectively and generally this would have effected the quality of our video.

Institutions: RESEARCH

Research into Institutions:

Music Magazines

I found this part of the research most difficult and this is mainly due to the lack of dance/hardcore magazines distributed to audiences commercially. The ones which I found were not extremely commercial and were not produced for profit; meaning the magazines which I found was not sold directly to the public. The magazines I discovered were instead distributed to the public freely, usually outside events which were ran by the music record label ‘Raverbaby’ or similar events which were involved within the dance/hardcore musical genre. Music Magazines are significant as they supply an outlet from the artist to the public, whereby the artist can be advertised by the music institutions directly towards the demographic audience. Therefore I realised I must include the music magazines within my research, as they will directly relate to the music adverts we will have to create alongside the music CD cover and video. The main magazine which I found that was directly for the dance/hardcore genre was ‘Ravin’ eye’, which, akin to the record label Raverbaby, began in 2001 when the hardcore scene experienced a huge revival.

Ravin’ Eye Magazine:

During research, I found this explanation of the history of the magazine from the magazine executive, who explains why and how he started ‘Ravin’ eye’:

Website: http://www.fantazia.org.uk/Scene/magazines/ravineye.htm
How it all began:
”The idea of Ravin’ Eye began driving back from a rave in Salisbury in 2001. We had all loved Hardcore for years and had been raving week-in-week-out for a long time. One of our crew had been thinking about putting a hardcore newsletter together and suggested that we all got involved. Although there was information on Hardcore out there it was only available on the internet and we knew there were a lot of ravers who didn’t necessarily get to see it, plus there was also a lot of negativity about the scene on the net which we were sick of reading. We wanted a hard copy of something that you could hold in your hand and read, so the initial idea was just a sheet of A4 paper, photocopied. We also decided from day one that if we put a free newsletter together we would always focus on the positives of our scene.”
Where did the name come from?
”Not sure really, we all came up with ideas and that was the one that stuck.”
What gave you that initial push?
”We just wanted to do something for the dance/hardcore scene that we loved. We talked about our ideas and decided we’d try to do an A5, 6 page newsletter. We approached DJ Sy for our first interview, never actually believing that he would get back to us… but he did. And to be honest, it was getting that reply from Sy that made us go ahead with the first issue – Thank you to DJ Sy!
(DJ Sy renowned in the dance/hardcore scene)
What is your main ethos with the magazine?
”To provide ravers with a free, publication focusing on the positive aspects of the current Hardcore scene.”

This magazine is an example of a non profitable organization produced by the demographic audience, for the demographic audience. Therefore if I was able to advertise our artist in it our even arrange an interview this would allow our artist a wider demographic audience, which could result in more exposure and profit for the music institution.

Music Television: RESEARCH

Music Television:

After we have produced our music video, we need to focus on distributing it and therefore I need to decide which music television program would be most suited to this, because music television is one media outlet which effectively broadcasts this type of media to an audience, usually resulting in an increase in sales for the music institution.

Music Channel: ‘Clubland TV’

http://www.clublandtv.com/

The history of Clubland TV is that it is a music channel broadcasting on Sky Digital 383 in the United Kingdom. It features dance music videos and is which was based from the Clubland compilation albums. The Clubland compilation albums feature mostly the dance/hardcore of music and is a successful brand within this genre of music. However, the channel also features the R&B and Bassline genre of music. The channel was first launched on 28 January 2008, and was broadcast on Sky Channel 378, until 4 August 2008, when it had to be moved as part of Sky's EPG Re-shuffle. Consequently, the Clubland TV can now be found on Channel 383. As of March 2008, the channel had five times the viewing ratings than its main competition MTV Dance. The demographic audience of this channel varies from the ages of 13-27 which is similar to the demographic audience of our artist, which is 17-25.

Schedule:

• Wake Up - Dance music to start the day.
• Am2Pm - Non-stop house and R&B music.
• Clubland - A chance for viewers to request club music.
• Mania - A selection of commercial dance music.
• Classix - Classic Clubland tracks.
• Blue Zone - Brand new house sounds from Clubland.

The schedule is important as it will impact when and how the demographic audience will be targeted, therefore I need to choose the schedule wisely, and otherwise it could be for the wrong type of demographic audience, or at the wrong time where the audience will not be as receptive. After researching the most receptive times of the demographic audience, I discovered it was in early evening, usually at about 5-7pm, where music channels are frequently consumed so that the demographic audience can relax and escape from their normal, everyday, monotonous lives. The time frame 5-7pmwhich fitted in to the schedule was the Mania - A selection of commercial dance music- which relates to our artist and song because the genre is dance/hardcore. In general, I believe this channel would be best to broadcast our song because it has an audience which is 5 times larger then its main competitor MTV Dance. To have such a larger success in contrast to the TV channels main competitor denotes its success to the audience, meaning if our music video was broadcast on this channel we would have a much wider audience than any other competitors and this could result in an increase in sales and popularity for the artist and music Institution. Consequently I have chosen to use this channel to broadcast our music video, as it is highly successful, has little competition and is the same music genre as our chosen artist, which would result in a similar demographic audience.


I edited the music channel work I had previously done in order to produce more detailed, better quality courswork.

Music institutions: RESEARCH

Music Institutions

Record Label: ‘Raverbaby’.

http://www.raverbabyrecords.co.uk/

The record label Raverbaby was first created in 2001 by Ian Hicks -better known as Hixxy or DJ Hixxy- who is a British Happy Hardcore DJ and musician from Portsmouth, England. Hixxy is well known for his own performances on the Bonkers compilation series. Due to these previous successful releases within the UK dance/hardcore scene, Ian Hicks found he was the perfect person to create a record label, which has been described as “the UK's number one UK Hardcore Label”, on the Raverbaby website. This record label has over 50 releases and has many significant artists signed up to it, who are prevalent within the dance/hardcore scene. Raverbaby itself was portrayed to be a renewal of the dance/hardcore scene, when Ian Hicks made the decision to continue with a scene into which he had invested so much energy, time and money. In previous years, particularly 1999, the hardcore scene had become tired with the absence of earlier creativity, and Hicks became disillusioned. By 2001, however, the hardcore scene experienced a considerable revival, with an influx of new events, tracks, DJs and most importantly Raverbaby, which gave the scene a much needed influence, increasing the scenes popularity exponentially. Consequently, within the dance/hardcore scene, Raverbaby has an extremely good reputation and is known for creating well produced, high quality tracks. The successful artists signed up to the record label Raverbaby include DJ Hixxy himself, Darren Styles and Ultrabeat. Darren Styles and Ultrabeat have enjoyed much success, not just in the hardcore scene, but have recently noticed an influx of interest outside the dance/hardcore genre which enabled both artists to recently release solo albums; which before would have been virtually unheard of within the competitive hardcore scene. Not only does the music record label Raverbaby produce and release successful products, it also runs events –aptly named Raverbaby- and these are ran all over the country, in far away places, such as Plymouth, and much closer to home, Birmingham. These events have proved extremely successful for the record label, with its 14th event anticipated to be run within Birmingham in a couple of week’s time. The events themselves feature successful artists, such as Darren Styles and Ultrabeat, who usually play to a vivacious crowd of 1000’s, frequently until 6 in the morning. These late night ‘raves’ allow the record label to earn a lot of much needed capital, which they can plough back into the business, to help release more successful artists and songs. Due to the record label also running events, the record label is globally renowned and also extremely financially stable, a rarity for a record label in such an ‘underground’ music genre. Overall, this means the brand of Raverbaby has been established successfully for over 7 years, which is promising for artists signed up in the future.
The success which Raverbaby has encountered is significant as it is one of the reasons why it would be perfect for my groups’ artist, ‘Sublime’. The artist ‘Sublime’ and the song ‘Walking in the rain’ is already of the dance/hardcore genre which means the record label would know exactly how to promote the artist effectively, who to target the brand of ‘Sublime’ to, and how to publicise the artist within the dance/hardcore scene. As Raverbaby has already released successful artists, such as Ultrabeat, this means the institution already has a good reputation from the demographic audience, for producing high quality music. Raverbaby has also already proved to be financially stable because it continues to run events which only increase in popularity, meaning if our own artist was successful enough, ‘Sublime’ could perform at these events alongside the other successful artists and DJs, giving her another media outlet which could provide more money for the artist and record label. Overall, I think this record label is perfectly suited to our artist because it is successful, has a good reputation from consumers and is renowned for its events which run all over the United Kingdom. Due to these factors, I think to sign ‘Sublime’ up to this record company has the chance to result in flourishing success, which in turn would earn money for both the record company, and the artist herself.


This is a review of the music institution which I recreated in order to make it more detailed in contrast to my previous first attempt. I have been using the half term as a time to go over my coursework before we start filming so that I have a thorough idea of how I want my final product to look like.

Work through half term

Although I have already completed my researching and planning, I will be using the half term to improve my coursework as ideally I would like to achieve the best grade possible. Therefore I have edited my audience profile so that it includes more research which will back it up and overall improve the quality. I have also changed the artist/band so that it contains more information on 'Sublime' and why we chose her.

Completed Audience Profile:
An audience profile is a set of data providing an example of a person who would consume the media you are deciding to produce. An audience profile is commonly used so that institutions have a better idea of who to target their media product at, which it helps the institution reach the biggest range of the target audience. For my particular media; a music video, CD cover and advert I chose my audience profile based on the research I have completed and following the target audiences of the dance/hardcore genre itself. During research I found that dance/ hardcore music usually appeals to a younger audience, ranging from the age of 17-25. This is because as an age group they are more likely to be going out to clubs and similar locations, where dance music is frequently played to produce a good atmosphere. Consequently, the dance/hardcore genre – particularly dance – appeals to this age group and most dance/hardcore music is marketed towards this age group. Therefore I decided to choose the age of 18 as part of my audience profile, because it is comparable to our target audience and will give us a clear idea of a profile of a person that would consume our media.
Another part of my audience profile which I had to decide on was gender, which was equally as important as the age because it has an effect of the storyline of the video, colour schemes of the CD covers and also deciding of the song itself. During research I found a lot of dance/hardcore tracks focus female vocals and consequently this leads to a bigger female following and interest than males. As I have an idea of the song I want to use, which ideally would focus a female vocalist; it would make more sense to pick a female in the audience profile, as this would be a more likely result in effect to the song which we will pick. Another part of the audience profile was favorite music genre and obviously the favorite genre of music of the audience profile would have to be dance/hardcore, because this will be the genre of music we will focus on throughout the production of our video and whilst deciding on choosing a song.
The final part of the audience profile I decided to include was way to consume media. Although this seems a little random, it relates to the production of our music video as it gives us a clear idea of the consuming habits of our audience, which will help us when deciding on an advert and how to produce it. For example, if an audience profiles was to consume media through the internet, during production we would have to ensure that the CD cover would still look as high-quality when displayed in smaller pixels, as often is the case on the internet. However, from the questionnaire, I found that the most common way to consume media (within our age group), is through an Mp3 player which made my job relatively easy. Therefore I chose to use this way of consuming media and include it in my audience profile. As a group, we will now know that the song needs to be marketed as if it would be consumed through a mp3 player, and I will bear this in mind during the advertisement of the CD cover, considering to add the ‘I-tunes’ label as if it could be brought from there. This would mean our song would be more popular with our target audience and would be able to be listened to in a variety of different ways, making it easier for the audience during consuming our media.


Audience Profile:

Sex: Female

Age: 18

Favorite music genre: Dance/Hardcore

Way to consume media: Mp3 player

Mock Ups: PLANNING

CD cover mock ups:

This is an example of some of the mock ups which we created during the drafting process of the CD Cover and Inlay.








This is an example of the use of different fonts to put on the front cover before we finally decided which one to choose.






Reflection of draft mock ups
We have created some draft mock ups of the CD cover, titled 'addicted2 hardcore', which will feauture our artist and song. This will enable Sublime to be 'created' as a well known hardcore artist. ‘Sublime’ will be placed alongside other prolific artists within the hardcore scene, such as 'Darren styles' and 'DJ Hixxy'. This will clearly convey the genre of music to the audience and in this way we will be following typical conventions of the dance/hardcore genre.

The drafts which so far have been created are aesthetically pleasing, but there are still small aspects which can be improved. We will now try out different colour themes and images to make these improvements. From our research, we discovered the use of different colour schemes is frequent of the hardcore genre and this is another way which we will follow the typical codes and conventions of the dance/hardcore genre.

Ideas
1.’Addicted2 hardcore 3' may have a blue/pink colour theme
2. Previous albums may use a green/purple colour scheme. These very bright colors were a typical convention of the dance/hardcore genre and this helps represent the dance/hardcore genre to the audience
• An event which could be advertised within the CD cover, ‘Addicted2 hardcore’ could be a ‘Raverbaby’ event, because of the record label 'Raverbaby'.

The pictures we have chosen are very suited to the dance/hardcore genre. They use the stock settings of dance/hardcore, which is a club. Within the CD cover, there is a strobe/neon light which conveys the feeling of night life to the audience. The position of the character and body language used is set a dance pose, which also relates to the dance/hardcore genre.

The costume used; a whistle and ‘rave’ gloves, which helps portray the genre of music to the audience and was part of the conventional costume we discovered was typical of the dance/hardcore genre.

Myspace Profile for our artist

I created a profile for our artist Sublime on the website myspace and the website is

http://www.myspace.com/xxxxxsublimexxxxx

I chose myspace because it is a popular networking site for young people which is our target audience. I tried to make the website friendly so that our target audience can relate to our artist and included lots of engaging language to help represent our artist in a positive way.

This profile will allow our artist to reach more people which will be benificial for the production company to make more money they can plough back into the 'brand' of the artist.

The other profile which we created was http://www.myspace.com/addicted2hardcore, which was were we put most of our information, including the song and an interview with our artist. On the website we created for the 'Addicted2Hardcore', the audience can discover information about 'Addicted2 hardcore''s upcoming events and exclusive interviews with the artist. The audience can also discover what music is also available, with their previous albums, and hear tracks which they have produced with the record label 'RaverBaby', which are also featured on the album as the record label. This was the main myspace page which we created, which contained the most information as we wanted our myspace page to reflect not only the artist but the brand of CD cover as well.

Script timeline: PLANNING

Script: With stage directions.

OPENING:

1st Location: in a teenage bedroom.

5 sec. We see a young girl sitting on her bed, obviously distressed and upset looking at her phone, sending a text message saying “ I saw you and her…walking in the rain!” to her boyfriend.

10 sec. Extreme close up of text message sent.

15 sec medium close up of girl contemplating her relationship on bed.

20 sec. Then you are immediately, focused on the boyfriend in another location (his bedroom), receiving the text message off the girl.

25 sec. He immediately walks off towards the window appearing distressed and confused.

30 sec. The girl recalls old memories, portrayed in a medium close up, high angle shot, looking at photographs on her bed of her boyfriend.

35 sec. A straight cut of the boyfriend is shown, who appears upset and is lying on his bed after receiving this text. This is portrayed using a high angle shot

40 sec. Male character is depicted in a medium long shot looking out through the window.

45 sec. An extreme close up of male characters face is shown.

50 sec. The female character steps up in the same position as her boyfriend, also looking outside the window.

55 sec. A flashback is depicted as the female character recalls seeing her boyfriend with another girl holding hands, walking together on the pavement. (Medium long shot).

60 sec. Female character begins to get ready for a night out in attempt to shake the memories. The female character is portrayed in a close up.

65 sec. The female character continues to put on her make up (extreme close up).

70 sec. The female character begins to change outfits and dances around her bedroom, along to the music of the song. She is depicted using a long shot.

80 sec. Female character sings the lyrics of the song into the mirror; ‘I saw you and her… walking in the rain… you were holding hands and I… will never be the same.’ This is depicted through a variety of different shots; extreme close up, medium long shot and extreme close up of female character again.
.
90 sec. Another flashback is portrayed to the audience, following the female characters boyfriend with another girl, holding hands walking together. This is depicted in a long shot.

2nd location: Club scene (drama room).

100 sec. A group shot of everyone dancing along with the music is depicted.

105 sec. Extreme close up of female character singing, directly to the camera.

110 sec. Extreme close up of characters various different body parts dancing in club.

125 sec. A close up of female singer’s face is depicted, who continues to sing lyrics to the camera.

130 sec. Group shot of characters dancing in club.

3rd Location: Road

140 sec. Female character storms out the house we previously filmed in determined not to cry. (Medium long shot)

145 sec. Another flashback is depicted of female character and her boyfriend laughing.

150 sec. Extreme close up of female characters face, singing directly towards the camera.

160 sec. Camera uses a tracking movement to follow the female character as she begins walking up the same road she saw her boyfriend with another girl.

170 sec. Camera movement follows female characters movements from behind, where audience can see her walking off in the rain all alone.

183 sec. FADE OUT

ENDING.


I re-edited the script timeline to make it more detailed because we are completing our storyboards and we need as much detail as possible so we know exactly what we are filming, in what shot, location and for how long for. This means when we film we wont be stuck for ideas and waste valuble filming skills.

Asessment

Looking at your print products and ideas for your promotional video, discuss how you constructed an identity for your artist. You should consider issues around gender and youth and discuss how you have challenged or subverted dominant ideology. This should be a discussion of all aspects of mise en scene.

Constructing an identity for an artist is a significant part of the music production time line. A music promoter must ensure they have an artist constructed if selling music to an audience, so they can also sell the brand of the artist along with a song. This means an artist can continue to release other songs to the demographic audience and also an album if the constructed artist proves successful enough, therefore raising more profit for the music producer. Consequently whilst we have to produce a music video, we must also produce an entire brand of an artist, bearing in mind that they would release future songs because the music executives would not want to fund a ‘one hit wonder’.
Whilst choosing our genre, dance/hardcore, we found it difficult to choose a well produced song which was not already released and had not got a constructed artist behind it, but eventually we found one. The artist it was produced by was ‘Sublime’, who is virtually unknown to our target audience. Therefore this made it easy to construct Sublime and ensure ‘she’ fits in with what our demographic audience demand. We decided to feature ‘Sublime’ as a female because the song uses a female vocalist and this fitted in with our target audience, where there are a larger percentage of females in contrast to males who like the dance/hardcore genre. We also thought that using a female and promoting Sublime as a female would be empowering to women of the demographic audience, as the dance/hardcore genre is highly saturated with male vocalists, such as ‘Darren Styles’ and male DJs, such as DJ Hixxy. Also constructing our artist to be female would make our product unique in a highly competitive market, as there is not much female competition, meaning our product is more likely to succeed. Using a female in the largely male market of dance/ hardcore meant we were challenging subverted dominant ideology, meaning that our idea might be seen as risky by some music executives but gives it a unique feel which is uncommon in the music industry.
We wanted our artist to be of around the same age of our demographic audience – 17- 21 – which means that the young audience can relate to the artist and are more likely to buy and enjoy her music. Also ensuring she is young age connotes an edgy, trendy message to the audience which we struggle to achieve if she was older. Subsequent to choosing the gender and age of our artist, we had to decide on her costume to use in the video and mock ups of the CD cover. During research, I found a lot of the models on the CD covers analysed were in skimpy outfits which had high sexual connotations to the demographic audience, this was intensified through things like the models pose and expression. Although I wanted to give our artist a sexual identity because it would mean her music was more likely to be popular, I didn’t want to make her costume to risqué, bearing in mind the young demographic audience and the innocent nature of the song. Therefore as a group we decided to make the artist appealing, by making sure she is wearing make up but more covered up in contrast to models on the dance/hardcore CD covers. The artists costume would probably be a dress or top and we contemplated using only a shoulder shot on the CD cover to make the artist less sexually provocative. In the video the costume we would choose to dress the artist would be a dress and heels or possibly fashionable clothing to appeal to the young demographic audience.

Looking at your print products and ideas for your promotional video, discuss how you constructed an identity for your artist. You should consider issues around gender and youth and discuss how you have challenged or subverted dominant ideology. This should be a discussion of all aspects of mise en scene.


Constructing an identity for an artist is a significant part of the music production time line. A music promoter must ensure they have an artist constructed if selling music to an audience, so they can also sell the brand of the artist along with a song. This means an artist can continue to release other songs to the demographic audience and also an album if the constructed artist proves successful enough, therefore raising more profit for the music producer. Consequently whilst we have to produce a music video, we must also produce an entire brand of an artist, bearing in mind that they would release future songs because the music executives would not want to fund a ‘one hit wonder’.
Whilst choosing our genre, dance/hardcore, we found it difficult to choose a well produced song which was not already released and had not got a constructed artist behind it, but eventually we found one. The artist it was produced by was ‘Sublime’, who is virtually unknown to our target audience. Therefore this made it easy to construct Sublime and ensure ‘she’ fits in with what our demographic audience demand. We decided to feature ‘Sublime’ as a female because the song uses a female vocalist and this fitted in with our target audience, where there are a larger percentage of females in contrast to males who like the dance/hardcore genre. We also thought that using a female and promoting Sublime as a female would be empowering to women of the demographic audience, as the dance/hardcore genre is highly saturated with male vocalists, such as ‘Darren Styles’ and male DJs, such as DJ Hixxy. Constructing our artist to be female would make our product unique in a highly competitive market, as there is not much female competition, meaning our product is more likely to succeed. Using a female in the largely male market of dance/ hardcore meant we were challenging subverted dominant ideology, meaning that our idea might be seen as risky by some music executives but gives it a unique feel which is uncommon in the music industry.
We wanted our artist to be of around the same age of our demographic audience – 17- 21 – which means that the young audience can relate to the artist and are more likely to buy and enjoy her music. Also ensuring she is young age connotes an edgy, trendy message to the audience which we struggle to achieve if she was older. Subsequent to choosing the gender and age of our artist, we had to decide on her costume to use in the video and mock ups of the CD cover. During research, I found a lot of the models on the CD covers analyzed were in skimpy outfits which had high sexual connotations to the demographic audience; this was intensified through suggestive poses and expressions. Although I wanted to give our artist a sexual identity because it would mean her music was more likely to be popular, I didn’t want to make her costume too risqué, bearing in mind the young demographic audience and the innocent nature of the song. Therefore as a group we decided to make the artist appealing, by making sure she is wearing make up, but more covered up in contrast to models on the dance/hardcore CD covers. The artists costume would probably be a dress or top and we contemplated using only a shoulder shot on the CD cover to make the artist less sexually provocative. In the video the costume we would choose to dress the artist would be a dress and heels or possibly fashionable clothing which would appeal to the young demographic audience, and make our artist more relatable to the target market. Therefore by choosing to use less sexually provocative costumes and poses, we are also in avertedly challenging stereotypes typical of the dance/hardcore genre. This means we will have to ensure there are other attractions to the demographic audience, such as a good quality, well produced song/ video and an amiable constructed artist, who will appeal to our target audience.
As a group we decided to follow other codes and conventions of the dance/hardcore genre so we did not put off our target audience completely and they would be able to easily recognize the genre we aim to replicate. The codes and conventions we have decided to follow is the locations of the music video; although similar to other dance/hardcore genre videos, it means the audience are able to follow a particular storyline throughout the video, keeping them more engaged. It also means that following a storyline and using specific locations is obviously successful and hopefully this means our video is more likely to be popular too. Another code and convention we have decided to follow is the colorful nature of the music genre; during research we found that CD covers and adverts were extremely bright and eye catching, which connotes the playful aspect of the dance/ hardcore genre to audience members. This made it more engaging in contrast to adverts from the rock genre, which used mainly black and dark colours. Following these certain codes and conventions will mean that the audience will be easily able to identify the dance/hardcore genre and will make it stand out from different genres.
Overall I think we have chosen to keep the important aspects of the dance/ hardcore codes and conventions the same, such as the colour scheme, but have decided to change some negative aspects of the music genre such as the overly sexualized models in videos and CD covers. Hopefully this will be effective with our audience as they are younger in contrast to other music genres and therefore they will be more receptive and more willing to sample something unique and different.



I answered these questions in relation to my coursework as it helps me practise my essay writing skills and also helps to keep me up to date and on track.