Martin Noficzer

Secondary ResearchMartin Noficzer

Music Video Research Laying the FoundationsOne of the most common problems with student production work is that it often doesn’t look like what it is supposed to be. This is what I call the Ronseal Effect: your production should do exactly what it says on the tin!

-Film openings are there to star the film off, not tell the whole story; they include titles – which feature certain institutional details, such as names of the people doing particular jobs, certain companies which have particular roles. -Trailers work to give the audience a sense of the film and to entice us in – not give whole story away. -Music videos almost always feature lip-synched performance.

Yet very frequently, students’ videos end up looking more like something else – film openings resembling trailers, trailers looking like music videos – because the research hasn’t been carried through to the final product.

- Pete Fraser, A Level Media Studies Chief Examiner

Media Magazine issue #37

Reading through this article, I have understood how important it s to keep my work consistent throughout the project which will also help ensure that the final outcome is exactly what its supposed to be and as close to what I want it to be as possible.

Music Video Research Previous student videos should give you an idea not only of what works well but also what should be avoided. Ten things to avoid (though there will always be examples which disprove the rule!):

1. Well-known songs.2. Overdone effects – you shouldn’t use effects just to disguise poor footage.3. Aimless driving around.4. Scenes involving booze, fags or drugs (even simulated).5. Shots of people just walking around.6. Speeded up footage or footage run backwards to cover lack of material.7. Zooms.8. Found footage – it should be your own unless there’s an exceptionally good reason.9. Atmosphere-less stage footage.10. Over the top stories.-Pete Fraser (February 2004)

This list points out the things that previous projects have done that aren’t the best to include in my own, so I will keep these in mind both when planning my production and while working on the production in order try and avoid any pitfalls and therefore improve the final outcome of my project.

Music Video ResearchA Recording Musician’s Guide To Making A Music VideoTaking a further step away from the live video, a story video could feature no members of the band, or could feature them as actors or cameos. The story video is effectively a very short silent film, and really lets you go to town with creativity. Is the lead singer a bit of a dislikeable clown? In a story video, you could dress him up in neon overalls and have him chased by your neighbour’s dog, all the while lip-sync’ing to the song! Or, better still, think of a narrative that really reflects the feel or tale of the song. A lot of big-budget videos are a hybrid of story and performance, with the lead singer as a protagonist, perhaps wandering moodily around a city, lip-sync’ing, interspersed with cuts of the band performing and a separate storyline.

- SOS May 2010http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may10/articles/makingmovies.htm

I have found this article about a guide to produce a music video, and a part on the story of a music video is quite relevant to our case, as we cannot have the band members in our video as they are in another country and cannot possibly travel in order to star in our project. We will take the advice of looking at the lyrics of our song and having the story reflect the tale of the song.

Digipak Research

Deconstructing album cover artWho made it, why, how, for whom, and for what purpose?It’s important to think about not just who constructed this media text and why, but also who he audience is for any given text, and how they may respond to it. Of course album cover art is usually to promote an album, to make it eye-catching (it will usually be reproduced not just on CD covers but also posters) and to tell us something about the musician and the music behind it. While the immediate target audience is likely to be those who frequently buy music, and particularly those who favour the specific band or genre, the artwork may be designed to attract a wider audience. With this in mind, we an consider what is actually in the image. As the image is a construction, everything has been put there deliberately and for a reason. This includes all the text, graphics and logos.

-MediaMagazine September 2012

An example of self-referential cover art

This tells me that whatever the design of the album cover, it has been put there for a specific reason, whether it is to attract the attention of a specific audience or to reflect the artist’s image or feelings towards a certain topic. We also have to consider what different audiences will make of what is on the cover. An image could mean on thing to a person, and an entirely different thing to another.

Digipak ResearchThe best designed album covers not only look great and are eye-catching, but they do an amazing job representing the content: the band, the brand, the music. You’d be able to tell what the music, artist, and vibe is like just from looking at the cover.There are plenty of sweet-looking album covers that don’t relate to the band or music. Sure, it’s a nice piece of art, and that’s totally fine, but it’s not well designed. And that’s what we’re focusing on here. Your design should not only look impressive but represent whatever it is you’re designing for.

-spyrestudios.com

Reading through this article of 20 Best Designed Album Covers for Inspiration, I have found out that a nice looking album cover might not necessarily be a well designed cover. According to the article, the cover should represent the artist, their music and their style. The author talks a lot about each album cover giving the audience an idea of the type of music they will get from the album just by looking at the cover. When designing my album cover for my work, I will keep this in mind and try to produce a cover that is well designed and represent the artist in the best way possible.

Magazine Advert ResearchYour poster will need to have some kind of main image to grab people’s attention and get them to read it. There’s no limit to the images you could use, but some common types are:A person The most obvious image to use is one of the band, or the stars of the film. This will make people identify closely with the people in the poster, but can remove any sense of mystique. Straight photos of people would tend to be used for pop acts, or for quite fluffy films (like romantic comedies).Photomontages This is where several photographs are combined into one image that tells a story. It’s often used for action films, where by combining pictures of the main actors with some scenes from the film – a car chase, an explosion, a fight.Illustrations This could include a version of the band, performer or leading actors and actresses, usually in a stylized way – maybe as a stencil, or a cartoon caricature. But an illustration could be of something else entirely – maybe something that sums up the theme of the tours or film, or just an eye-catching image.Words It can work really well just to have words on your poster, to get across the message really quickly and effectively. To do this you’ll need to think about typography…

-Trashed Magazine, September 2010

There are several types of designs that could be used for adverts, however, taking the album design into account as well as the style and genre of the artist, the advert should reflect and relate to the rest of the album. The article gives several types of imagery that are conventionally use for posters (and adverts) and their effects on the audience.

Magazine Advert ResearchTypographyThis is the kind of type (letters) being used. A complete set of type is called a font. You’ll know about different fonts from using a word processor, but designers can choose from hundreds of thousands of different fonts. They can also design new fonts, or simply hand draw letters. The type you use will say a lot about your poster. So for example…• Swirly colourful type will suggest something trippy or hippie.• Cartoony type will suggest something fun,• Harsh capital letters will suggest a serious theme.• Type that looks like it is from a particular time in history will

suggest that era (like the ‘70s, or maybe Victorian England).• There are some key words that you’ll need to include in your

poster to make sure that once its caught people’s eye, it gives them the essential information.

Remember not to overload your poster with words – you need to keep the message punchy and immediate. Most people only look at a poster for 8 seconds – so you don’t have long to grab their attention!

For a music poster you’ll need:• The name of the artist or artists.• The name of the tour, album or single.• If it’s a gig, the venue or venues that they’re playing at, with dates.• For an album or single, you’ll need the release date.• A website is always good, so people have somewhere to go for

information.-Trashed Magazine,

September 2010

In the continuation of the article, the author talks about the typography and how it changes the mood and feel of the advert. Choosing the right font for the advert might be the very aspect that changes the way the audience sees the and or the album and whether the will buy the album or not. As a finish, it also gives a list of things that a poster or advert should have in order for it be professional as an advert should provide the audience of all the required information for them to e able to purchase the album advertised.

Proposal

I have looked into several different articles both online and in magazines