EVALUATION TASK 2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Richard Dyer claims that a band or performer's star image is constructed from a range of promotional tools and materials which are designed to attract a specific target audiences. These must have a continuity in design and connotation to produce a strong brand. furthermore the conventions and iconography used must signal some specific qualities or meanings of the star to the audience. We constructed a music promo, digipack art work (CD artwork of Front, back, and leaf pages) and a print poster. We aimed to create a continuity to express the bands:
Youthfulness
Sensitivity and emotion

Originality
Creativity/Talent being Organic - Keith Negus, Producing Pop.
Success against the odds

All of these qualities are portrayed within the Bells at Midnight Video. The lighting was an important element of conveying the sensitivity and emotion of the band's song writer. the use of strip lighting and chiarascuro was the dominating element in our mode of address and thus we needed to show this in the album cover as well. So the image we used manage to also convey a sense of darkness or twilight as well as light. The emotional aspect of the band was important but it had to be balanced with the organic representation of the them as young adventurous and on the road - highlighting their ability to play live so our poster had to show this.

For the marketing of our band and star image we created an album cover and a tour poster using Photoshop. We used a band image which makes the band look more ordinary, which will help people to relate to and to follow the band. This is relevant to Richard Dyers first paradox:

The star must be simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary for the consumer.
Live performance for this band is essential to their star image, this is why we have made our video on a performance based theme. This is the bands unique selling point. We also used this live aspect in the band poster where they are portrayed as ordinary people. We did not want to commercialize their image by over-doing/ manufacturing the poster, so we kept them simple and emphesize their organic image. (Keith Negus, Producing Pop)

Here are the Front, inside and back images of the Flashguns album we designed in photoshop. We wanted the images to look empty, intregueing and mysterious so that people would be more inclined to find out more about the album and band. We wanted to make sure that this theme was apparent in all the images, and this theme originated from the video that we produced which is also dark and mysterious.

The band have their own web page and myspace this is our institutional context.www.myspace.com/flashguns
www.flashguns.com

EVALUATION TASK 1- In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

FLASHGUNS-
TV BARDS
Function of Direct Address: To make a connection with the audience and invite them into the star's world.

How does it work for the audience? The song may emotionally relate to the audience, therefore drawing them in.
What is our audience?- Teenagers/young adults- The song is relevent to the standard teenage angst which most young adults experience. Confusion, not knowing your place, and general fear and uncertainty of the unknown.
Our band is very organic, so the Video is too. There is no narrative, just performance, because we wanted to reinforce the raw and genuine feel of the band through there chemisty when they play together and the performence they put on.

LADY GAGA-
COMMERCIAL EXHIBITIONIST:
The video is all about her sexuality, inviting people into her world for a sexual connection, making an audience lust for her. She wears very little clothing throughout and there are themes of money, corrupt, sex, violence and even a hints of rape. The video is very manufactured and malipulated by the record companies, heavy themes of fation throughout, it is a very hight budget commercial video.
WHAT IS YOUR AUDIENCE- Gay men/clubbing scene, young teenage girls/boys middle aged men.

CHEMICAL BROS.
ELECTRONIC SHAMEN-
The video is being sung and preformed by computer generated fish in a tank, with very bright and colourful parts (subtly reffering to drug use and hullucination) ELECTRONICS OF MUSIC TRANSPORT AUDIENCE TO ANOTHER DIMENSION- The mode of address is from the fish, not the band, Enhancing the trippy non conventional way the video connects with the audience. The audience mostly are younger adults on the dance/rave scene.

MISE EN SCENE: USE OF LIGHTING-
Mysterious, disjointed, dark and light flashing, all of which create a theme of confusion, dissillutionment and uncertainty. It is as if the band has problems which they are sharing with the audience but they are being positive about it and making things better through the peformence of the song. "Light at the end of the tunnel" This is quite ironic, that the dark/flashing environment can still produce something positive.

The many lightbulbs hanging are flashing greens, blues and white, but when they are not lit the space is dark and mysterious. It could even be leading the audience into the mind of the band, inviting to share the space with the preformers. There is a black backdrop with the colourful hanging bulbs, strip LED's at the back shinging out mellow blues and then the band who are brightly dressed with no particular colour scheme. The space has Inquisative but dark feel to it, but with the brighter colourded band in the middle there is a sense of aspiring positivity balancing out the negative vibes of the space.

Camera shots and Movement

We used some very fast moving camera shots to create a sense of disorientation and rush. Such shots are not conventional in normal cinema, which adds to the band's organic/rebelling and youthful image. The images are also unclear, dark and distorted to further this sense of bewilderment.


Symbolic Material

Lots of different light bulbs were used, possibly to suggest that this dark, interesting and flashing place represents someone's mind. The lightbulbs could refer to many themes- ideas, fading in fading out of reality, different emotions, thaught, depression, positivity, hope. A light bulb hanging in the middle of a black dark space. It is a pretty powerful image that can represent many things, and the song enhanses these themes, giving it a very inquisitive and questioning feel to the video.

Use of Narrative

This video does not intercut a narrative, it is just performence based. A narrative could have given a wider insight to what the band is about, but at the same time without it promotes the raw style of the band. "Preforming is what we do" It is truthful and pure as there is no missleading plot to glorify or commercialize the band.


Coincept and Performance sections

normally Pop promo's cut between a concept section with a location or event which highlights the start image of the band. This would normally show them as extra-special humanbeings and be designed to provide the audience with a world they can join the artist in through the direct address. It might also highlight a theme or social issue that the band want to be linked with or interest potential fans that they worry about the same ideas. However we have not made the cut between concept and performance obvious and the band 's performance is within a concept area. this way we want to emphasis the organic aspect of the band and that they can play well and that what they write about is liked to a close emotional concept of difficult or inner emotions.

Our Finished Music Video

Early Versions of Questionare

Here are the links to two parts of a prototype survey we later used on a group of students:

Click here to take survey

Click here to take survey

We used a site called Survey Monkey to help us construct our questionare.

Digipack inside sleeve images

Here are the Front, inside and back images of the Flashguns album we designed in photoshop. We wanted the images to look empty, intregueing and mysterious so that people would be more inclined to find out more about the album and band. We wanted to make sure that this theme was apparent in all the images, and this theme originated from the video that we produced which is also dark and mysterious.