When analysing products from the same genre [alternative rock], I found that they each have elements that are typical of these products. We took these into account and used them in our own product. I found that in all the alternative rock music videos as well as Muse videos I analysed they always seemed to follow a pattern of shots that included a live performance of the band as well as a storyline. The bands always had a typical image which was recognisable among its target audience and generally seemed to fall under the 'indie' label, this of which I noted previously. Noticing that these were very typical we encorperated them into our product, using people we felt that were suitable for our band and would represent the look we were going for. We used shots of a live performance and came up with a storyline which we filmed and used both these to make up our final video. The live performance was made energetic to fit in with the style of the song, as Muse do in the original video.
I noticed that Muse tend to stick to dark, mysterious storylines and their videos seemed to use a gloomy sort of colour scheme and general visuals, whereas in other alternative rock music videos it did not always follow this pattern. As we were doing muse we decided to use this element, choosing an 'odd' storyline and using certain props to give our location a certain feel and our main character a certain image. The storylines Muse use arent always entirely clear and you may have to watch them a few times as they tend to have hidden meanings. We also used these elements. We wanted to give our main character a sort of 'rough' look, making the bedroom scene look trashy with lots of empty alchohol bottles, ciggeratte packets etc. During the film we tried to make it so the character was almost going 'insane', when 'time is running out' appears on his arms and on the mirror. We also used lots of effects to show this, speeding things up and reversing things making it look mixed up, as if you were seeing from his point of view. We also used a black and white filter on the indoor scenes, as if showing his mindset in a dark, unclear way. I think with using the props and how the character seems to be acting in a strange way links together to show the sort of image we are trying to put across.
Even though Muse videos generally tend to include elements of space in their products, this was the only convention of a typical Muse video we did not use. As we came up with our storyline and filmed it, we decided that it wouldnt fit in at any point during the video. Instead we used this on our digipack so it would follow the Muse theme. We noticed that adverts and digipaks tend to link to songs, using images from the videos on their other products. This of which would be recognisable to fans, as I noted previously about Muse fans being extremely dedicated. We decided that the shot in the video when 'Time is running out' appears on his arms would be a memorable shot as it focuses on this alot at this point, and links to the feeling the video brings. It also gave the mysterious effect that alot of Muse products have. However, we decided make it a Muse 'Greatest Hits' album, and as we focused of 'time is running out' we used the image of the arms but lots of different muse songs were written instead of the one. As we also decided to follow the 'time is running out' theme, we used pictures of clocks on our digipak but used images of stars, planets and other elements of space to create this individual look, yet at the same time is typically Muse.
How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?
I think that the whole package is quite effective in promoting the album. This is because they all have similar elements and relate to each other in a way that would appeal to the target audience. By using the image arms from the video on both the digipak and advert it is both recognisable and noticiable and as is a main point in the video. A mentioned previously this is typical to use images from the video on both the advert and digipak also, not just from Muse but other alternative rock music bands that I have analysed. However I think that the fact we used images of space on our digipak is the thing in which makes this appeal mostly to Muse fans, as it is used in every single one of their products therefore it is clear that it is something associated with them. We encorperated this into the visual images from the song to give it more of an individual look, and at the same time would be expected of a Muse product.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
All together, we didn't get a huge amount of feedback dispite the different ways we presented our video. However, all feedback seemed positive. On youtube be recieved one comment which is shown on our video link. I also posted the video on facebook a number of times asking for feedback, from this it did recieve a number of 'likes' as well as comments. As well as getting feedback from the internet I also asked my friends and family in person to watch and tell me what they thought.
The feedback was mostly from fans of alternative rock and a couple were Muse fans also. I thought by asking these sorts of people they would know what a typical video would be like. It wasn't done purposly either as I also assumed that people that liked that sort of music would most likely watch the video rather than people who didn't listen to that music.
The main comments were on the storyline and the props that we used, saying that we made good use of them and it fitted in well with the song. Comments were also made on the acting and the band performance, even though i thought these could be improved the smallest bit, feedback said it was good and made the video look realistic.
Even though all the comments seemed mostly positive, the only thing that was said that needed to be improved was the use of the green screen in the band shots. I picked up on this as when editing we found that it was difficult to use, and we didn't stick to our original plan as it didn't turn out how we wanted. In the band shots we originally wanted 'Time is running out' to be written all over the walls but instead we just kept it black. I think the reason it didn't turn out as well as we thought is because none of us in the group were entirely sure how to use it or had never used it before. However, this feedback has shown us that we should have stuck to a more simpler idea and maybe should not have gone for something we weren't very sure on. In the end I do belive it looked okay, but definatley shows our weaker areas when we were shooting and editing our film.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
We used a huge range of technology to help us with our media project. Social networking sites such as facebook and youtube were used, not just to promote our video but we used facebook often to get into contact with each other, and created a group on it which included just our group, so we could discuss any ideas or such if we had any. We also created an account on a Muse forum so we could get into contact with any other Muse fans, such as sending us things for our audience research. However, this was unsucessful as no one got into contact with us on the forum. http://board.muse.mu/
Hardware was also used. This included computers to help us with our research and planning as well as getting into contact with each other, and all the filming equipment of which made our video possible. We also exchanged numbers at the start of the project so we could get into contact with each other quick and easy.
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