Promotional video Analysis

This is the section of our blog which we will analyse our music promo video for our album promotion package. We heavily based our inspiration for this video on the promo video the band "Winger" produced for their album "Karma". This video can be found in our research section of our blog. As part of the analysis we need to answer 4 questions these are:

• In what ways does your media product use, challenge and develop real forms and conventions of real media products?
• How effective is the combination of your main and ancillary texts?
• What have you learned from your audience feedback?
• How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Below is the promo video we produced as a promotional package for the band Stentorian.

The first question was "How does your media product use, challenge and develop real forms and conventions of media products?". We would like to start by saying that producing a text like this has proved more challenging than we originally thought. Neither of us had experience producin a text like this, so this was a very experimental part of our product, and we are happy with our results. We followed a lot of codes and conventions in the production of this video, although, the audio we were given permission to use by the band Stentorian doesn't go with the footage we filmed of them. This does produce a product which isn't as good as it could have been,but we are still proud of it, and we know where to improve in the future. The first edit on the shot is one of the bands logo's which they allowed us to use. We decided to use this at the start of the video as it establishes the name of the band strait away which is important as it is a big task to address your audience directly, as soon as possible. We felt having the logo is a good way to do this as, people who already know of the band will recognise the logo strait away as being Stentorians logo, and members of the audience who don't already know the band will then establish that that is the bands logo. We also started the music as soon as the logo appears. This is to get full advantage of that sudden shock that music has started so it draws attention to it right away. This is a code and convention of promo music videos as the whole point of them is to grab the attention of the audience, or an R&R department, so having the music and logo suddenly come in like that works really well. We decided to have the logo fade in from black as it is another code and convention of promo video's. It helps the logo ease itself into the video at a quick pace, rather than just appearing. We also chose to have it fading out to black as it links the next edit up nicely. The music at the start of the video is a song called "Not Forgotten" by Stentorian. The next edit after this is an image of the band all together outside their practise studio. We felt this is the best image of the band together as it was taken when they didn't realise it was being taken, so it looked a lot more natural and easy. We feel it suited the tranquillity of the song which is being played as well, as it is a very tranquil song. We were lucky enough to have a reasonable amount of snowfall a few days before we took the pictures and we feel this gave a really nice winter feel the image, a cool winter feel which helps make the video feel very relaxed at the start, which is a representation of the band we feel as at their practise they seemed like a very laid back, relaxed group who enjoyed playing music in each others company. Having an image like this in the promo video is a code and convention of promo videos for a band as it creates a human link to the band, I.E. you can see what the band look like, see what image they have, whether (if your a record label) it's the kind of image you want to put out, and who they feel doesn't suit their image as a record label. There is no iconography in this image as we felt it best that we just have the band by themselves without their instruments, this was because we didn't want to over load the video with instruments when they aren't necessary for the image. This image then fades out to white. We felt that this would be the best way as it symbolises the end of that section of the video, so links nicely into the light colours and tones in the next shot. The next edit is of the lead singer, Adam Campbell, introducing the band. This shot has been constructed in one of the bedrooms of the practise rooms they were at that day. We used this room as it had the most room, and it wasn't too big that we had too much in the shot. The shot starts out with Adam sat on a bed with a bass guitar behind him leant up against a wall with a magazine out of the bed. This is a very simple shot for a reason. We wanted the main focus of these shots to be on the lead singer and what he had to in the interview as it is vital for the video. We decided to put the bass in the background as it creates an iconographic reaction from the audience, as they will recognise the bass, as a bass, and therefore make the link that his is a music promotional DVD. The magazine on the bed is also a Rhythm magazine, but due to the lack on details from the camera, it is difficult to see this. We used a high angle on this shot to make the lead singer feel more human, so he didn't seem like he was dominant, but so he looked like he was on eqaul terms with the people who are watching the video. This is so it doesn't seem as if we are trying to intimidate people. The lighting in the room is fantastic as it really light up one side of the face, and casts a shadow on the other side which makes the video, and Adam seen at more of a personal level. On the next edit, we used a simple cut edit, strait to the bass player, Dan Linehan. This is a shot of him putting his bass guitar on ready to start playing at practise. This shot it built up of iconography, something which is a common form of videos in media, and uses a lot of mise-en-scene which is also a common form in the media. The subject of this shit is Dan and his bass. He is putting the bass on and is getting ready to play. The bass guitar moving draws attention to it and this helps to user distinguish that they are watching a rock promo video. The bass amp in the bottom of the shot, and the guitar case on the sofa at the back of the shot also create a good amount of iconography as they show what other equipment the band use and need to create music to a high standard. Again a short cut edit, a basic convention in media when quickly flicking through clips, is used to get to the next edit. This edit is of the rhythm guitarist Mike Gaines. This shot is halfway through a pan and zoom. We kept the camera level so as not to suggest we are more dominant and powerful than the audience viewing this video. We decided to use this shit as it isn't a standard shot and we feel it makes the user, in a way, panic and has to quickly see Mike. This type of shot is especially effective in a video like this as it has quite fast edits, so this creates a feeling of rush and panic after the tranquillity of the start of the video. We keep the music going to counter act the effects of our edits, which creates this weird feeling of being rushed but relaxed at the same time, which is something we are proud of in our video. In the shot Mike is playing his guitar, this builds up iconography as it shows it is a music video, in particular a rock music video, which is definately something that we tried to put across in our production. The next edit is a quite cut edit, strait to the lead guitarist Ben Harris. This shot is focusses on his guitar, which creates a very powerful section of mise-en-scene. The shot is a high angle shot as it allows us to focus a greater amount of attention of the actual guitar, which now confirms that the video is for a rock music as Ben is playing quite a heavy riff on the guitar (although you cannot hear it). The Iron Maiden T-shirt Ben is wearing also attracts a large part of our target audience as they are quite likely to enjoy that genre of music, if not that very band, so having Ben showing he is inspired by them by wearing a T-shirt with them on it creates a link between the members of our audience and Stentorian. The next shot is a quick cut edit to the bass player Dan, playing bass. This shot is low angle and suggests that Dan is playing a heavy and powerful riff, although the music is different. Dan is in a iconic rock stance, playing his bass low down on his waist and is strumming his bass. The bass guitar again creates the iconography needed in this shot to create the rock image, as well as the red t-shirt with a skeleton warrior on it. The next shot leads on from a quick edit to Ben playing guitar. This is a flat shot, medium to long of Ben playing his guitar with his amp on the ground. This creates the iconography that is needed to attract our target audience using our music video, and again Ben has the Iron Maiden top on to attract more of our audience. The next edit after this is a medium close up of Mike playing guitar. This shot is good as Mike is looking down at his guitar, showing he is really concentrating on playing, and making sure everything is 100% right when he playing. Again the guitar creates iconography for the audience to respond to and get attracted to the video. A lot of our shot are very similar to this. We swapped between different types of shots, but kept them in the same ball park. This was to create a recurring theme. (To save reading the same sentances said in a slightly different way, I will only comment on iconography individual to the shot, as now we can establish that guitars and amps are iconographic of rock music videos.) The next clip is predecessing a quick cut edit. This is a clip of the 3 string instrument's playing together as a group. This is a first time for this type of shot in the video and one which requires more breaking down than the others. They have the basic iconography of the instruments, but they also have a deeper meaning in this shot. Seeing them all stood together, playing their music makes the a united front, a closely packed organised group, and together they can write any music they want. You can also see the passion they put into the music by the body language of the bass player. This can be seen when he leans back and exhails heavily. This shows their passionate about music and when it goes right, it can affect the producers behaviour when it does. This then uses a quick cut edit to go to a shot of Dan and Ben playing their guitars together. This shows their bond, as they have known each other for a long time, and shows their friendship as well as their parts to play in the production of this promo video. This shot also has the basic codes and conventions used in promo videos. This then uses a quick cut edit to Mike playing rhythm guitar. After that clip a quick cut edit is used to cut to a clip of a zoom in on Dans bass guitar head and neck. In this shot you can clearly see the Warwick bass guitars logo, something which a lot of musicians would recognise as really good qaulity bass guitars, something which all bass players aspire to have, a good qaulity bas guitar that is, not nesasarily a Warwick. This then cuts to a long shot of Dan playing bass and pulling his band band like he has just played the string really hard. This then cuts to a shot of Ben playing guitar. All these quick cuts, similar iconography are the basic codes and convention of producing a video like this. The next shot is an interview style shot with the lead singer Adam. This again has the basic iconography on the bass guitar and the magazine. We used a high angle shot, so it wasn't like he was talking down to the audience so as to not create a hostile feel to the video. He states "We all met at parties". This is a really good example of how audience's are affected by dialogue. Meeting at a party is considered a cool thing, as cool people are invited to parties, so if you meet musicians there it's even cooler, cos people who play an instrument are generally regarded as being cool. This attracts our audience as they are they coolest they can be in their eyes, whether they are a Mod or Rocker, a Skin Head or a Casual dresser. The dialogue "Close knit group" means that the band have formed together really well and they fuse well, and have band chemistry. We then cut to a black screen so we could seperate the different sections of the video. A quick cut is used to jump into the new section. The song "The Unseen" is playing in the background of this video. These next images are all in the recording studio which they used to record some demo tracks to put on a CD, which we used on our products too (with their permission). Stentorian were kind enough to allow us to record parts of their recording session for our project. All these shots have masses of amounts of iconography within then, although it is similar iconography, so I shall analyse this iconography now. The iconography is in the studio. This includes guitars, Mic's, Drum kit's, piano, music stands, the studio booth. All of these are codes and conventions of promo videos as quite simply, they are part of the iconography and mise-en-scene of the shot. Quite a few of these things appear in lots of shits, so I shall analyse from now on, the bits which are important within the video. The first shot is of Mike and Ben sat down facing each other playing acoustic guitars. Basic iconogrpahy which has been covered is in this scene. The next shot is a cut edit to Ben playing guitar is a finger picking style way. This shot is directly down the neck of the guitar and really shows the true beauty of the guitar, and the style of playing and the sound it makes. This then cuts to a similar shot of mike who is strumming the guitar, This shot has a similar effect to the shot Ben was featured in, so no expansion is needed on that. A quick cut is then used to cut back to Ben on a similar shot again, apart from Ben is strumming his guitar. Then a shot of both Ben an Mike again, but from a different angle, so they basic iconography is there again. These double shots are used to shows how well the two guitarists play well together, this then cuts to a clip where Mike and Ben have swapped seats and the angle has changed. This then cuts to a clip of the bass play, who is giving the drummer something to play to, which comes it handy for a drummer. This is also a good shot of Dan the bass player. This then cuts to an edit of Mike guitar, and zooms in on the Fender logo at the top. Fender is a worldwide know company who many people love. One more shot of Ben and Mike and another shot of Dan are used up until 1:18 when a new song kicks in, and the visual changes. This then goes to the black screen, then the lead singer states "My favourite song is called Eclipse". This automatically makes people to want listen to the song and see if it is as good as they say it is. The basic iconography and set up doesn't change througout the interview, just the dialogue within the interview. After this clip, we return back to the clips of the band at a practise studio playing together as a group. Again the iconography is the same as before. Several shots are scanned through which feature the lead guitarist, rhythm guitarist and bass guitarist seperately and together to create an illusion that this is a constantly flowing song, and the footage used is constantly flowing too. The next clip is the lead singer explaining influences to their music as a band. Many artists are mention such as Led Zeppelin, Mastodon and Jose Gonzales. These inspirations make people want to buy their music and merchandise as they may like their inspirational artists, so they might assume that they might sound a bit like them. The lead singer says "That era when rock was really outrageous". This is a representation of the band and their audience as they are quite likely to be into that type of music from that period of time. After this interview we go back to the shots in the recording studio of the band recording electric songs. The first clip is of Mike playing guitar with the cajon next to his foot, something which is an icon of acoustic rock. Ben is then cut to playing an electric song to warm up before he records. He is using his Epiphone LTD Edition SG. This is a very famous guitar and many rock greats used it. He also has the rest of the basic iconography needed to build up the shot. Then the video cuts to footage of the bass player warming up before he records. After this a shot of Ben's guitar up close at the top of the guitar neck is used to show off the make of the guitar, then we cut to Mike playing guitar. After this the final interview shot is used and it is the lead singer stating how each song has to be 100% perfect before they publish it. This is a representation of rock music as it is suppost to be dynamic and take time to product, so this shows that they are being good musicians. The final thing on the video in the image of a poster advertising their up and coming U.K tour. This is done in black and white to provide connotatoions of rock music. The poster features the logo and website address. It fades out to white at the end of the picture to show it is ending.

The second quesiton is "How well do your ancillary texts work with your main text?". I feel that the music video could have worked better with the DVD cover and Website. I feel if we had the right audio for the right footage, we would have ahcieve much better results. We originally filmed the band Stentorian performing some electric songs of theirs, as well as a little bit of their acoustic set. Due to a lack of communication with the band, and them changing their plans of the music they wanted to record, we were given to permission to only use some of their acoustic music. This proved to be a small problem, as our video doesn't have the right footage for the right audio, still we feel that we still managed to produce a good product, we were particularly pleased with the interviews.

The third question was "What have you learned from your audience feedback?". The first question we asked our audience was "How does our promotional video compare to that of your favourite artist?". 80% of our feedback was positive for this question, and 20% of that stating that it was very good. This shows that our audience felt in general that we had produced a realistic and effective text, something which we are happy with. The second question we asked was "If you saw this music promo video, would you buy it?". 60% of the feedback was positive for this question, which indicates that we produced an effective text. It wasn't a massive majority, so this could also suggest that more work could be done to the video for it to be really effective in reaching our audience. The third question we asked was "What don't you like about our music video?". 40% said they felt that the video was a little rushed.We think that this could mean that the edits could have been made to be a bit cleaner, a bit sharper maybe, the audience weren't clear. 20% stated that the music didn't go with the music video, which is something we have already addressed. 30% said that the music didn't go with the genre, which again is something we couldn't control as we were given the music we were allowed to use by the band, although, if we had better communication with the band, we could have planned ahead for this and recorded mainly acoustic music, and altered our other texts to suit as well. 10% said that they didn't like the change of locations, which we could have also planned ahead for. The fourth question we asked was "What would you do to improve our music video?". 40% of our audience said better editing, I.E. slower edits, something which we will consider in any future projects. 60% said to use better audio, something we had little control over, 20% said staying with one location, and 20% also said they wouldn't change a thing. This shows us areas which we would need to improve on and consider when producing a text like this again. The 5th question we asked was "Do you feel our promotional music video delivered what you would expect from a rock music video?". We had a 50/50 split on this. We feel that this is a fair reflection of our text as it does have a lot of room for improvements and our results reflect this. The 6th question we asked was "What features of our promo video did you enjoy the most?". 40% said that it was visually appealing, 30% said, although the music didn't go with the video, it was good, 30% said they enjoyed the interviews with the lead singer, 20% said that they liked it not being too short. All these things show that the audience have picked up on things they like, so if we were to remake this, we know what we do well. The 7th question was "Do you feel we took your answers from the pre-production questionnaire into consideration?". This proved positive with 60% saying that we did. The final question we asked was "If this promo video were to be released as part of a promotional package, would you be effected in a positive way by it?. 50% said yes, showing that there is still room for improvement in our product.

The fourth question was "How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?". We used media technologies in the construction by using cameras and video camera's. We also used windows movie maker to edit the video footage. In the research stages we used Internet browsers and video websites such as youtube. In the planning stages we used word documents, and in the evaluation stages we used blogger.