Message to the Moderator

My blog shows all of the content that I have 

completed set by the brief, which clearly states

 to create a promotion package that consists of a 

music video and two ancillary texts including a 

digipak and magazine advert centered around 

a song/artist. All products must have the same 

style and collective brand identity in the way 

that they are laid out and presented.

For this project I choose the song Sea Fog by 

Keane, I thought this song was very interesting

 and had a meaning and storyline that I was keen 

to explore. Also the band and particularly that song 

fit in the alternative rock genre which I already had 

knowledge on, which was a positive in making 

sure my music style would be targeted at the 

right age group.

For this project I worked independently which allowed me to challenge and stretch myself in setting deadlines for the progression of the tasks throughout the year. Overall I believed I worked well and was able to complete the project to the best of my ability.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Rattigan

Final Advert Plan (Drawing)

Final Digipak plan (Drawing)

Ancillary Draft's

Digipak draft plan 

Advert draft plan

Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Question 2

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

Question 1

How does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction, research, planning and evaluation stages of the project?

Comparing the Advert

Comparing the Advert from g321markrattigan

Comparing the Digipak

Comparing the Digipak from g321markrattigan

Brand Identity

The brand Identity is one of the key elements of the project, as it requires the continuity of idea’s and themes across all of the different platforms of the music video I was creating. It was important that I show the same style across the digipak and the adverts as well as the music video as too make the items look professional and real. It was important to include the same sort of images in order to create the same effect and the same atmosphere in all projects. One of the main elements is the use of font and color/image, both have been looked at in great detail and experimented on too make sure they can fit the whole concept of the story and theme of the song and artists genre. The brand identity is centered around the music video as this was the first to be developed and the most time has been devoted too it. Obviously I needed the song and the genre first to develop the full project so that is why I started with the video. The whole brand is based around the main character for both the song and performance parts and the story and narrative sections. I have included the image of the main character in all of the projects, as a way of making sure that there is a similarity throughout. The idea of darkness is a constant in the music video as a way of expressing the storyline though the lighting and editing effects, camera shots. The darkness tone is apparent in the advert though the split scene including white and black, the digipak though the photo-shoot in the pool section. And the video though a number of methods including the difference between light and dark and the expression of different feelings using lighting and a mixture of editing and camera effects to add to the overall feel that links to the sad emotions and dark times in peoples lives. The production brand identity is part of the full project as the production logo is visible on all of the main production planning material. The logo was developed as a way of showing that the work is professional and also a way of advertising the content created. The logo was designed in a way that shows the same themes and styles that the project is about. And there was development and research that went into it as part of the planning section.         

Digipak format

Template for the Digipak

In the designing of the digipak it was important to know and understand the sizes and layout of the frames and the cd cover in general so you have a good understanding about the whole format of it. The planning process was mainly focused on what kind of picture would go in each section and how that picture would link and represent the interests of the song and the overall mood of the music video and other products such as the advert. The digipak template consisted of six boxes that are designed in a way that the top row are upside down from the bottom row so when it is printed out and folded in to the correct shape it has all of the images the right way up.   The top row has two blank boxes and a middle box where the CD would go and that is clearly marked, and the bottom row has the center and right boxes marked back and front as to indicate where them sections will be when paper is folded. The template was downloaded in PDF format, as it was then very simple to import it into the adobe Photoshop software to start adding content.

Construction Section (Blog posts)

Planning Section (Blog Posts)

Research Section (Blog posts)

Stages of ancillary texts

Lighting Elements

Font design

Photo Shoot - explanation and dates

Photo-Shoot Explanation

Away from the music video shoot, for the digipak and advert planning I started to think about when I could take the photos. Very early one I decided without much hesitation to setup a separate photo-shoot session so I could take top quality images on a specific photography camera, this I think will make the products look more professional and show that I have spent time thinking of ways to improve the products. I have laid out the times and dates that will hold the photo shoots, obviously one of the biggest issues to deal with when working with people not in the same group or class as you is finding a compromise with certain days and times when they are not busy or doing something related to there own work, so far I have had many issues relating to this in the music video alone but I am sure that I will produce high quality images that link and show a reflection of the music video, I achieved this by shooting the photos in the same locations as the video and under the same conditions eg smoke and lighting. The photos are designed in a way to fit in to the video and other products linking to my main theme and genre, the idea of water and the comparison and difference between hot and cold and light & light and dark. The storyline of the song is very important in the images and its something I have tried to capture and I think the images on the advert and digipak will show the idea of dark and light and the feeling that the main actor is in a dark place, that something bad has happened and that he is alone. I believe you can see from the pictures that jack is searching for this person he has lost and that he desperately wants her to come back and these feelings I think come across in the photos.

Advert – images of both of the actors face to face

Location – street scene with street lighting and led light. Camera angle is close up shot on all

Date of shooting – 11^th November 2014

Digipak – six images for the album cover

Location – pool area (link to video) showing jack sat on wall with smoke and same lighting as video.

Location – back cover picture of down the street (link to video)

Camera angle is a mid shot for shots of jack and establishing shot for street section

Date of shooting – 14^th November 2014

all of this information was sent to the actors and I communicated with the actors about the dates though the project and construction process

Advert ideas and draft plan

Lyrics breakdown - timings

Keane - Secondary research

Inspirational music videos

These are some of the music videos that I have researched and looked at I detail. I have tried to look at videos and bands that have a similar style and genre to my theme and genre because that means that I can see how other professional bands have done similar songs allowing to analysis there common or unique effects and camera shots and editing technique’s.

These videos are not just videos that I have chosen to look up for the matter of this project and the research section but videos that I have a keen interest in and music that I listen to often, which means that I am committed to the song and the style of the video and that the music interests me, I believe that this means that I have more of an understanding of this genre and this song as it is a band that is on of my best bands.

Though the research section I have been looking for the song that I am most wanting to do and this task means that I haven able to analysis my chosen genre in depth and look for certain elements in a music video and song that has relevance to me and allows me to create my own video to that song.

The songs that I have looked into so far fit into my chosen genre and are in reach of something that I can create or create around by finding a different way of interpreting the song meaning to shape my own story and effects and choice of location and people involved.

The videos below include, cold play fix you, snow patrol chasing cars, linkin park living things, mc fly obviously, oasis wonder wall and stop crying your heart out.

All of these songs have a deep meaning and all follow a similar story and timeline and I believe it is good to have chosen a narrative though other videos because that allows me to start the ideas and the thoughts about my own music video and what might be in it and what is possible from this genre.      

The videos that I have had a look at and are noted in this documents are embedded below as I wanted to show and document the videos to show others the types of songs I have looked at and there respective official music videos.

Digipak Analysis - Oasis Standing on the shoulder of giants

Digikak analysis - Keane Strangeland

Effects In The Music Video

Effects used in the music video and a description of scenes

Pool – Midshot / camera pans and tilts up towards the window

(Blue effect from H2O led effect) – effect is centred in the middle of the image and goes off towards the end of scene.

Bedroom – mid-shot / camera is static and looks from a low position at the main actor sat at the window – camera in position to show gearing sun and the beams created as the sun comes though the window- effect created from smoke added.

Shed section – this shot shows a side/front shot of jack in one of the main performances areas- stage lighting in this scene shoes a spotlight illuminating jacks face and making him stand out from the water effect background. There is a par in the scene as well on the colour blue to further emphasize the scene.

Shed section – shows a ken burn’s effect showing jack from the front lip syncing to the song, there is two par can lights that appear as the camera pans from left to right the lights will be on blue and will have smoke added to create a beam wash.

Field section – fast faded cuts that show a quick downward tilt/pan left. Then a sweep of the ground going left behind jack looking out over the field and then a zoom out shot with a static camera.

Shed section – this effect shows part of the chorus and all of the stage lighting effects which show the blue beams and the multiple red spinning beams and another ken burns effect showing the effect from right to left.

Street section – this part of the video features a number of clips from different angles showing jack riding a bike along a road passing a street where he hears a voice from what the viewer knows is this person he cares about, he does not know what or who it is but it sounds familiar to him, most of the shots are mid- long shots looking straight at the bike from a side or straight on view and there is a shot of the girl and a quick pan left as jack goes past the camera up the hill. Lighting effects for this where the street lights, I picked the street as it has the new led street lights and it’s a more cool white than the normal halogen fittings so it fit the lighting design and theme better. There is also a led wash light I was using to light up the actor faces because they was not sufficient lighting to do that. 

Beach – this shot was a basic scene and had no real technical elements to it, I was basing the scene on a overcast mostly cloudy day with quite calm weather and sea conditions in order to project a sense of peace and calm but this could also be seen as been alone and isolation which is also a reason for the choice of location. There is also cut shots to show the water coming into the beach in order to break the scene up and get an understanding on the conditions.

Pool area – this side shot shows jack behind the piano while lip-syncing to the song, there is a lighting system set up at the back for the pool, these are cool white led spots and they worked perfect and fit with the theme well. I decided to add lots of smoke in the air around the pool to bring out the lighting and make it look foggy and misty which it’s the whole meaning of the song, about sea fog. This scene is something that I spent a lot of time planning because I wanted it to look the best I could and I think the introduction of smoke really helped the look of the finished scene. There is a couple of cuts to the shed section where there is a mid shot behind jack looking at the piano and spot lighting shining on jack. This cut happens twice.

There is a fade after these shots with extreme close up of jack singing in the study section over the top of the extreme long shot of the pool shot with a dome shining into the air in a very good aerial effect.

To finish there I a final shot of jack in the shed performance section, mid shot of the side of him playing the piano and of the back of him with an overlay with a h20 water effect and close up of his hands playing the piano.