EVALUATION

45

It began to irk both Jorjah and I that our CD still looked relatively modern and seemed insufficient to our entire piece, regardless of the fact our video burned onto it was the main product.
As we progressed on with our ancillary tasks, we had the idea of printing imagery onto our CD in order to 'date' it somehow, printing the image of an old sixties vinyl onto the CD, in keeping with our retro style.

We're both pleased with how this turned out and how perfect it looks on our tangible product also. We managed to fit conventions of a typical vinyl, with artist names, dates and our record name of 'Spiretown records' (paradoxical of 'Motown').

Ancillary #4

Our final ancillary task was to construct an advertisement, showing many tour dates with photographs of The Marvelettes in action. We stylised our piece using conventions we utilised throughout the ancillary task, particularly enjoying minimalism, linking with the sixties in a sense that 'less is more'.

 

 

'Please Mr Postman' by The Marvelettes... Almost.

 

Our completed music video, at long last.

Ancillary construction

 In order to episodically show our ancillary creation in quick-time, we shot multiple scenes of the process from the printed documents, to placing them altogether to complete our booklet.

It also meant we gained more experience using different media platforms, finding vine to be incredibly simple to use and effective in showing our completed ancillary without lengthy videos and voiceovers which can become monotonous at this stage.

Ancillary #3

Here are some stills of our completed Digipak insert, we have attempted to follow certain conventions to assure we adhere to the balance between sixties minimalism/ introduction to Warhol's 'pop art' (below left) but also colourful and aesthetic youthfulness using a bokeh effect (below right) to soften the colours, introducing the project as contemporary, but gracing it with a nod toward Motown and the minimalistic nature of the sixties.

 

Please Note: Some pages look translucent on Blogger, we can confirm these will be white and fully accessible/ readable on our tangible product. Thank you!

Ancillary Task #2

 For the 'Digipak' aspect of our ancillary task, we strayed from our original idea of a record dust sleeve and thought we'd break more boundaries by taking influence from 'The Rolling Stones' album box, I blogged hitherto (See Other posts under 'Ancillary' label)

To in keep with our 'glamorous' theme, we opted for silver cardboard, constructing a base and lid to a thin presentation box.

Dimensions: Length: 33cm x 33cm

Width:33cm x 33cm

 

We intend to print 'The Marvelettes' in minimalistic font on the front, in keeping with the minimalism of the sixties.

 

However, upon opening the box, we decided to give the box a contemporary twist, as we did in our video, making our insert bright and aesthetic.

Here are some shots during the construction process.

The Semi-complete article

Retrospectivity

 

Location # Richard Smith Hall - Tupton Hall School

Camera Model # Nikon ______

Date # 20/2/14

 

QR Codes

Continuing with our planning, we looked at conventions utilised in magazine advertisements in order to promote a band/ artist.
Contemporarily, there are many sub-advertisements lined along the bottom of the advertisement, including: the record company (Spiretown records), tour dates, album release dates etc.
One thing which interested us was the usage of QR codes and how they are so accessible to a contemporary consumer, as the quick scanning available in most smart phones enables consumers to reach extra storage quickly and efficiently.
"QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional barcode) first designed for the automotive industry in Japan. A barcode is a machine-readable optical label that contains information about the item to which it is attached. A QR code uses four standardized encoding modes to efficiently store data; extensions may also be used" -Wikipedia

To utilise this, we decided we'd create links between our ancillary pieces (CD insert and advertisement) by posting QR codes linking to our blog websites. We've created these in advance and intend to use them at a later date!

Being exploratory

When scouting for our location, we selected our school's 'Richard Smith' hall.. simply for its spacious nature and the incredible floor-length curtains we could use for a back-drop -considering mise-en-scene carefully as we wanted to give the impression of a performance space of staging, not a school.

Here are some test shots we took in the filming space, to ensure we knew where the girls would be placed, but also how they'd look prior to filming in case something wasn't quite correct.

We moved the chairs and tables from the space, adding stage blocks and lighting to add to the performance 'aura', placing the girls on the stage blocks, giving them 'height' and differentiating their proxemity from the camera.

Experimenting with ancillary

We decided to look at different vinyl sleeves in order to gain a greater understanding of how they looked cosmetically and constructively, but also gain inspiration for our own.

Mr Hudson had possession of a variety of vinyl sleeves for us to look at which provided useful information as we then decided to stick with the black and white theme to integrate with our music video, but also create an insert which gives it more of a modern twist.
We plan to feature a shot of the whole band on the front of the Vinyl and then feature shots of Zaylie (protagonist) as well as some still captures from the music video for versatility.

 











After experimenting with the works of Microsoft Publisher and Paint, we decided using Adobe Photoshop CS4, we would merge two images of our protagonist, Zaylie with our 'boyfriend' figure Jack's arm reaching for her face.
Firstly we began by cropping down Jack's arm in order to make the picture seem more realistic when merged to the other pictured of Zaylie's face.
We changed the opacity of Jack's arm to be more faded, as if depicting an 'afterlife' -which syncs with our video, as we intended to construct our narrative around the protagonists partner dying in war.



When merging this, I realised that the arm seemed really 'bolted-on' as opposed to seeing realistic, this was partially due to the lack of shadow that occurred around Zaylie, so in order to create this verisimilitude, I constructed a shadow-like 'Black and white' formation under Jack's arm to suggest direction of light and his presence.




Our finished article which will feature on our 'insert' to the vinyl sleeve to incorporate some narrative into the ancillary. As well as this, we intend to capture some stills from throughout the video in order to create some synergy between both products. However, we are still in debate over whether to keep the insert in colour, to appeal to a contemporary audience (which is our intention), or whether to in keep with our black and white theme, utilised throughout.

#1 Colour

#2 Greyscale

Regulation

In the past decade over sexualised content has become a popular way to advertise and promote music video's. This has led to a debate whether these music videos are appropriate whilst younger children are able to view them. Artists such as Miley Cyrus and Rihanna have made a career out of their sexualised image and music video's. But with fans who are of a younger age group, parents are worried that the actions of the pop stars will rub off on there children. Are these artists a bad role model for the young of today?

Ofcom states that it tries to protect younger children from viewing inappropriate content. Whether that be Preventing children from watching a music video that contains explicit sex, drug use and offensive language; Or protecting children from other unsuitable content such as violence. Music videos will often bleep out any bad language if it is broadcast before the watershed. However it is worth noting that what is viewed as inappropriate now wouldn't of been inappropriate in the 60's (which is when our music video was made). This is due to social attitudes changing which can be recognised with the way that women are presented in music video's there and now.

 

We can see above how the representation of women in the music industry has changed as social attitudes change. It wouldn't of been acceptable in the 60's to dress provocatively and use abusive language within music video's however in the present day it is deemed as 'normal'.

DigiPak #1

Our first attempt at a DigiPak design follows conventions needed for a sixties record sleeve.
The cover is mostly black and white, creating synergy with our video, which we intend to be fully black and white, with vintage grain effect, to integrate with the demands of a tangible product from the sixties era.
The font sporting the name of the band 'The Marvelettes' will be in colour, reminding our audience that despite the record sleeve being intended as a temporal piece, the colour shows our versatility and intention of bringing a contemporary audience an aspect of sixties soul.
The deceiving 'white circle' in the centre will be hollow, filled with polythene in our final product, fitting the record sleeve conventions further. This will be the print on the respective interior sleeve.
Our plans for a larger 12" vinyl exterior sleeve are under way.