Gareth Bowen Evaluation

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

Our project was to create a music video and digi-pack for a band. We wanted to create something original and interesting to watch but at the same time remain aware that an important part of the exercise is to market and promote the band. This band is relatively little known and its music is not mainstream commercial. To target the right audience the supporting video needed to match the less poppy, more urban renegade nature of the sound this band makes.

In ensuring a close relationship between the music and the video, we focused on the fast pace, rocky, urban feel of the piece, and looked for ways of pushing these characteristics into the video. This is a band recognised as having an “underground” feel and the video would need to reflect it. The basic idea was that the product should look like a mix of live footage and animation in the same frame with an overall gritty and urban feel to it that was fast paced and in synch with the song.

We started our research with animated music videos in general and landed on Gorillaz in particular.... a unique band relevant to our project in both the way they exist only through their cartoons and the similarity of their music to our own band.

This screen shot from Gorillaz’ video for Dare illustrates well the theme that runs through their videos. The lighting throughout is dramatic, impactful and captures the imagination quickly. Stark shadows and colourful imagery give their work an energy that reflects the music. At the same time, the warmth and security of the pastel colours are in sharp contrasts with the exaggerated humanoid features and the dark gadgetry of some futuristic urban scene, giving the whole thing an antagonism and an edge…. just like the music

This contrast of secure familiar cartoon form and edgy realism is carried through the video in its setting, its costumes and, particularly, its lighting. The cinematography uses tracking shots extensively to capture the cartoon subject at obscure angles. Combined with the snappy fast-paced cuts, it holds the energy and intensity of both the music and the video.

From this research we developed the concept of a similar contrast of “doodled” animated characterization of familiar popular icons side by side with a gritty urban “black and white” environment

Translating the idea into the product required a focus on synchronising the music and the supporting images in a fast-moving sequence. Most important, the drawn and the actual filmed images have to be superimposed…the ordinary and the extraordinary in the same frame!

The mise-en-scene for the video shot footage was critical in two ways. First we used it to set the contrast with the cartoon images. The costumes were plain, dark and basic… grungey polos and jackets… whilst dominant, they needed to look commonplace in an everyday neighbourhood in an everyday urban setting. Without this familiarity and “ordinariness” the cartoon images would be less “extraordinary” in contrast. Hence, the video footage was as important as the animation effects. Second, the urban nature of the environment was in close step with the underground tones of the music.

In lighting the video we used the lighting in a way that created dark shadows and a stark feel, which generated a more intense and generally exciting image. In this shot, for example, we used angled lighting to contrast the top and bottom of the frame.

In the cinematography we tried to capture the artist from interesting angles to add to the overall quirky feel. We also tried to send up the more trad music videos by imitating some of the more “classic” shots typically used.

Mise-en-scene was critical in framing the message. We chose therefore to set this in a council estate with a suitable run-down feel. Why... because it provided a rough urban backcloth to contrast sharply with the surreal fantasy of the cartoons. Further, this urban/ fantasy contrast gave an overall feel that was truly gripping. In this example, we see the effect clearly. Dismal urban garage blocks and an exaggerated prime minister to create excitement and intrigue!

Capturing the band at interesting camera angles generated visual interest too. The fantasy theme was captured well through this use of the camera. As in this upward shot, the viewer is reminded of the kind of cinematography typically seen in the “western”. It continues the theme of popular culture through the reference to popular cinema.

How effective is the combination of the main product with the ancillary text? (Video and admag)

Our research into the magazine adverts showed a common convention in the representation of many groups and artists… a posed image of the artist with their title in large-type bold font text.

In this example… Bloc Party… we see the conventional bold title, band pic and album pic where the content is really clear…. What you see is what you get.

In “Death from Above”, we have modified the convention with more of a “guerrilla” approach where the band and the subject matter are less obvious and the potential viewer has to investigate. Less commercial and more subversive, this style of advertising is in step with both the style of music and the video... gritty, urban and surreal!

A simple construct of using a speech bubble to name the band continues the comic book style and feel, in keeping with the video… less obvious and more of an eye-catching intrigue.

The same construct was used for the ad magazine as the video itself. Both are in B&W, both has superimposed free-drawn cartoon characters, offering the same intrigue.

Not drawn as a frame from the video, we staged a still black and white shot of the band and then introduced the cartoons so as to give us the single image that would capture the look and feel of the video… urban, ordinary… extraordinary

On reflection, we felt that we could have extended the advertising impact through the use of some “teaser” images… a cartoon head on a single band member or on a popular image of a celebrity advert for example… to “pre-promote’ interest.

What have you learned from audience feedback?

In our case, interim verbal feedback suggested that the original idea (doodley, animated mix, underground, etc) had landed pretty well. There was good apparent association of the images with the soundtrack and we achieved our aim of creating intrigue for an underground sound.

However, some felt that the visuals were less frenetic and urgent than the song and we had to edit to try to bring the music and the images more in step. Shots were added and tracking and panning used to quicken the pace. We were able to close the gap, but feel as though the two did not connect as well as they might.

We learned quickly that getting valuable and substantial feedback in a timely, relevant and useable form is difficult. Unsolicited feedback is rarely forthcoming and when you search for it you have to filter out the superficial, the un-focused and the responses calculated to please.

We learned too that the feedback has to be taken in context… some things you change, some you don’t. When you are trying to break away you should not compromise for those who can only relate to the traditional… they are be looking for the very thing from which you are breaking away.

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

During our research, we used the Internet extensively, looking at band and fan web sites, You Tube and the like to get a perspective on the current practices and responses in the music video medium. Additionally we explored the use of animation in film and music. In both cases it struck us that the opinion of “expert commentators” has been replaced by the collective feedback of the “user” in forming views on reactions and trends. In this respect blogs and interactive sites were a critical new technology in developing our ideas and getting a feel for what people think.

To plan the work we drew a comprehensive storyboard detailing the key shots, settings, rate of flow and so on. The storyboard frames were photographed individually and set as stills in Final Cut to produce an animatic that could be synchronised with the music. This allowed us to identify and edit the pace, flow, gaps, repetitions and links that could be changed before real shooting and artwork began. The availability of such software applications brings the prototyping of pre-production pilots within easy reach and would have been possible only with expensive editing equipment only a few years ago.

In the construction phase we used a high quality video camera to capture the footage that made up our filmed storyboard. Once the film was cut and edited, the cartoon animation was drawn free hand. This painstaking task involved dozens of individual drawings of each character. Drawn in a “flick-book” format, it provided the images required for each movement of an individual character.

An editing application, “Photoshop Elements” was used to cut out the silhouette of each hand drawn image, which was then superimposed on individual “real picture band members” in half-second frames which finally build into a three minute action sequence.

In post-production, we used Final Cut Express for reversal and slow-mo. to create special effects such as a person running and leaping backwards onto a high wall… an effect which underlined the surreality of the video and the music.

For the magazine advert and CD cover, Photoshop was again used extensively to manipulate text and image to replicate our overall themes.

In all aspects of evaluation, the use of blogging enabled us to create a virtual “workroom” environment. The team could interact remotely by posting new output, thinking and ideas. We could also gauge reactions and capture feedback.

All in all, our product drew on a number of new media technologies, particularly in Internet research and sharing and a number of photo-editing applications. What was somewhat unusual was our inclusion of hand-drawn superimposed images…. which proved to be a highly labour and skill-intensive technology!