Evaluation Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

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

After conducting research into electro-alternative artists and their brand identities, we compiled a list of conventions that we aimed to retain during the construction of our music video and ancillary texts. We recognised the conventions by analysing real media products from artists such as The 1975, PVRIS, CHVRCHES and Charli XCX. These influences helped us construct our own music video, website and digipak. We also disputed some conventions such as the sexualisation of women (Charli XCX) in contemporary music videos and a blend of colour scheme (black and white and full colour).

I have used YouTube and Photobucket to present the music video and ancillary texts.

Music Video

Genre conventions:

The 1975 and PVRIS both market themselves with a black and white band image - they are both rarely ever seen in full colour. CHVRCHES are seen in silhouette during their 'Lies' music video and Charli XCX oozes a fashionable nature in her videos. We were inspired by all of these elements and tried to incorporate them into our own image and video. However, we twisted our band image by marketing ourselves in black and white but then subverting to full colour during the chorus sequences of our first music video to reflect the energetic and bright nature of the music. We like the idea of Alleyways presenting themselves with a dark visual aesthetic that juxtaposes the upbeat genre of music. This idea is similar to the concept for The 1975's 'Girls' video. The band were criticised with conforming to a major label for their prior video as it was in full colour which contrasts their slick black and white image. In response, The 1975 released their 'Girls' video in bright colour. We did the same except instead of making a statement, we reverted into full colour to surprise the fans. 

Style of Music Video:

After all listening to 'Fast In My Car', we agreed that we wanted to create a fun, energetic music video that fit the song's tempo and title. The song is very modern and so we all said that we would emit a 'trendy' style in our choice of dress. This style also corresponds with the current interests of our target audience and fits the stylish conventions of several examples of artists' of the electro-alternative genre. In our music video, we kept to a strict 'trendy' dress code and incorporated fairy lights into some some selected performance shots to conform to the electronic genre's classic sensibilities. 

We also created a steal-o-matic of our music video influences and certain shots that inspired us in videos of the alternative genre.

Music Video Narrative:

Music videos are conventionally edited between performance and narrative sequences. However, after investigating videos of the electro-alternative genre, we found out that the artists tend to perform throughout the music video - even during the narrative sections. We decided to mix this up a bit and feature narrative shots that included performance and others that did not.

Top left: PVRIS - 'My House', Top right: The 1975 - 'Girls'

Bottom right: CHVRCHES - 'The Mother We Share, Bottom right: Charli XCX - 'Breaking Up'

The above examples all include performance during their video however CHVRCHES' performance is intercut with narrative shots instead. We combined both of these elements together in our video so that we have performance during some narrative shots and shots of us performing in the drama studio spliced with the narrative.

Above: Performance

Below: Narrative

Andrew Goodwin's Music Video Theory (Dancing in the Distraction Factory, 1992)

Goodwin stated that there are five key characteristics of a modern music video in his 1992 study. We supported some of these conventions and challenged others.

Digipak

We analysed the conventions of digipaks in the alternative genre and applied some of them to our own Alleyways product. We also challenged some conventions such as displaying the artist on front of their EP/album cover. We aimed to stay mysterious and cause intrigue which would hopefully gain positive attention.

We were inspired by album covers that featured a simple image on the front. We felt that it would be more appropriate to display a photograph of the band on the front cover of a debut album rather than an EP. We managed to retain our brand image through the repetition of the font and colours used. The front cover of the digipak also relates to the 'Fast In My Car' music video through the fairy lights imagery and backdrop.

Website

Branding, Interactivity and Purchasing Opportunities

After more research, we found out that the three most important elements of an artist website are purchasing opportunities, interactive capabilities and consistent branding. Therefore, I have compared Charli XCX's official website with our own to see who's is more equipped in the aforementioned three fields. 

Interactivity:

- Charli XCX's site provides the viewer with a flashy 'enter' button positioned on a lollipop that cracks when clicked and directs them to the home page. When the lollies are hovered over by the mouse, they bump about in response. The site displays social media links throughout and allows fans to view all of Charli's music videos to date. A 'Sign Up' page allows the fans to keep up to date through regular e-mails.

- Our site gives the opportunity for the viewer to stream the debut single for free on the home page via a music player. Social media links are provided throughout. Our site has a merch store on its own domain as opposed to Charli's site. A 'Bio' page is supplied too to give the site a personal touch - something that Charli's also does not have. Video content has not only music videos but teaser trailers too to keep fans up to date. There is also the opportunity to sign up to the official monthly mailing list.

Purchasing Capabilities: 

- Charli's site links viewers to purchase her discography through iTunes, Amazon and Spotify links found on her 'Music' page. Her 'Live' page lists all upcoming tour dates of hers and their respective ticket links. However, her 'Store' link, found on the home page and header, redirects the viewer to an external site which lets her image down slightly.

- Alleyways' site supplies the viewer with iTunes links to pre-order the debut EP. It also provides GigsandTours, Ticketmaster and SeeTickets links to buy tickets to all upcoming tour dates. The 'Store' page allows fans to internally purchase official merchandise and in some cases even customise the colour of the chosen item. We felt that by establishing our merchandise store through the official site gave the situation a more personal touch.

Brand Consistency:

- Charli's site follows a strict pink colour scheme which relates to her latest studio album's design and its campaign. The repetition of lollipops further establishes this. These two elements also appeal to her target audience's interests. The use of overwhelming colour is featured in Charli's music videos too.

- Our site maintains a black and white colour scheme which is synchronous to the digipak and music video. There is synergy between all Alleyways media products aesthetically thanks to the colour scheme and choice of font used.

In summary, we used, developed and challenged the conventions of alternative music videos, websites and digipaks whilst also building our own brand image that fits the genre's target audience. We used and developed the traditional ideals of alternative music videos but also challenged them through changing colour scheme. We dismissed the idea that the artist should be displayed on the front cover of their album/EP and used the conventions of an alternative website in order to make it seem as legitimate as possible. 

Evaluation Question 2: How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary text?

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

 

After completing our final music video our focus was then driven towards making a Digipak to the best of our ability as well as one which accurately fits in with the style and motifs of our finished music video we also aimed to create suitable advertisement for our newly formed band accompanied with an active social media presence. We accomplished this in several different ways such as the use of iconography, magazine articles and interviews among others.

The main goal of our marketing campaign throughout the run-up to the release of our music video was to utilize the closeness and intimacy the band shared as not only a group of musicians but as affectionate friends. I believed that we displayed this effectively throughout our digipak, website and music video as no individualis left out or kept out of frame. A clear motif in our music video is the togetherness of the band something everyone can relate to as we all share a deep connection with either friends or familes that replicates what is show throughout our campaign.

Iconography

                                                     
New artists usually apply iconography to their media campaigns to help them stand out and be noticed by their target market. In this case our target audience was young adults between 16-21 who were interested in pop rock and alternative rock. By anaylsing and exploring other bands digipaks of this genre we came up with ideas that we could place in our own digipak and music video that will appeal to our designated audience. We chose to use silhoutes throughout our digipak, marketing and music video as it had in the past been used extremly succesfully to attract a selcted audience as shown in the Whites Stripes digipak 'Under Great White Northern Lights.
Another reason for why we used silhoutes was due to the fact that nobody would be overshadowed in our band as no one can still the limelight as we all are blank spaces so stright away our audience understands how close together and intimate the band is which cycles back to the main goal of our marketing campign. Evidence of this can be seen in our digipak (above), screen shots of of final music video and photos from our bands offical website.

Clips from Fast In My Car'

Screenshots from WeAreAlleyways.wix.com 

Synergy 

Font and Logo

As shown in the screencast above we have successfully used our logo which is the self titled 'Alleyways' across all of our ancillary text as demonstrated by the tabs show it with our website and digipak as well as linking it with our main music video. We did this to so a sense of familiarity is shown throughout our marketing campaign the motif of a large white font allows our audience to instantly recognize our logo as well as the fact we use our own band name as a emblem means that more individuals can recognize us and get acquainted with our name.

Evaluation Question 3. What have you learned from your audience feedback?

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

We have devised a range of different methods for audience feedback, aimed mostly at our primary target audience, but also our secondary and tertiary audiences and people that aren't even in these classes. below are audience profiles for the three types of audience.

Audience Profiles

below is a prezi designed to be the desk of a member of our primary audience. the playlist on their screen shows the sort of music that they would listen to: charli xcx, tonight alive, paramore, chvrches etc. the post-it note shows that they are in a band and play guitar, as does the guitar plectrum. the sketchbook and pencils scattered around (plus the doodle) show that the audience member is arty. these are the people were are specifically aiming for.

firstly, at the beginning of december, we got feedback from all other groups on the first draft of our music video. as it wasn't finished and needed a lot of tweaking, there were lots of things that people thought we could improve upon. the most feedback we got was questioning the box that zahra (our drummer) was playing. this was due to school rules which caused restrictions during filming - we explained afterwards that this was the only way we could think to make up for the lack of real drums! a lot of feedback was also given on the colour of the video. the whole first draft was in black and white. a few people liked the black and white whereas some people wanted some colour.

Hakiu Deck Presentation- http://shar.es/1bAlIs

we took all of the feedback into consideration when editing it to make our final piece. we altered the colour so that all of the verses were in black and white and choruses were in colour. we also inserted more individual shots of zahra playing real drums to try and detract from the box in other shots. this seemed to work - less feedback was given about the colour and people rarely commented on the box.

Survey

these are pictures of the online survey (all audiences) i created for people to take part in. it asks questions such as 'what is your age' as well as opinions on the music video. this is to see what our audience as a whole enjoyed or disliked about the video and whether they thought alleyways as a band were relatable and current.

this survey was not targeted to a specific audience such as our primary, secondary or tertiary audience but instead to anyone that watched the video to get general opinions.

Ellie's mum very kindly put the links to our music video and feedback survey on her facebook with a request that all of her friends answer the questions and my sister asked some of her friends to do the same. this is where the majority of our feedback came from which is good because it gave us a wider audience - different genders and ages of people with different interests, rather than just asking other groups and friends to answer the survey which could have been biased.



we got over 25 responses and the feedback we got was mostly positive with the positives and negatives/constructive criticisms shown in padlets below:

a lot of the positive feedback stated that we were fun and unique which is the image we were going for - different from everyone else and like we really wanted to make music.

Relatable/Current/Realistic

everyone who completed the survey said 'yes' to the question 'do alleyways appear to be a relevant/current/relatable band?' and most gave answers as to why. we learnt that people think we are realistic and current as our image is fun, unique and quirky; we have good chemistry as a band and we gel well; we have an 'indie' aesthetic that is quite popular nowadays, as well as other points, seen below:

we have conducted a screening session for people to watch our music video and give feedback via a questionnaire which rates things from 1-5 such as costumes, performance, narrative etc. the general response was very positive with a lot of 4 and 5 star ratings.

above are some pictures of some of the responses we got. from this we can deduce that our costumes were overall well-received with lots of 4 stars and one response of 3 stars. our location got a similar response and we got 5/5 all round for how well the video fit with the song. we had a very average/below average response to how easy it was to follow, meaning we could possibly have made it a bit clearer and easier to understand. overall the video was very well-received and we got lots of 5s and a 4.5!

below is a video of some audience feedback that i filmed with some members of our audience asking general questions about positives and negatives of the video. again, the video seemed very well-received. we were told that everyone enjoyed the video and one person wouldn't even change anything if they were to direct the video themselves!

overall, feedback has been very positive for our music video. things we could have improved on include changing the colour of some shots and replacing the box that zahra (our drummer) played on into actual drums which was impossible due to circumstance.

Evaluation Question 4.How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research,planning and evaluation stages?

Final Digipack

Final Construction of Advertisment

 Final construction of campaign marketing

Here is the final construction of the advertisement of our band we will use these separate articles and ancillary texts to draw in prospective fans and individuals who appreciate our genre of music. By creating a varied array of advertisement our band has a more chance of saturating our target market and help create a larger fan base something that a new upcoming artist is in desperate need of.

Fast In My Car-Final Draft

Here is the final presentation of our media music video we are very pleased with it and and the final outcome is what we imagine when we thought it up in our research.

Alleyways EP Posters

Ellie with the hope of photoshop created these amazing posters for our band Alleyways for our upcoming EP by taking a screenshot of a segment of our music video and using a grey and black minimalist background it helps to highlight the video shot in the middle of the triangle which will get fans excited for a our upcoming debut single.

Ellie then went back and used a filter to modify the poster furhter in the chance to erase the grainy effect the previous poster had I think she succeeded and has made an even better poster than before.

Alleyways Audience

Alleyways Audience 

Ellie created a one minute 'powtoon' video which expertly and creativley demonstrates our target audience and the demographic our band should aim for when creating our social media and marketing campaign. 

Link to Powtoon- http://www.powtoon.com/show/dGofBUu39tK/audience/#

CHVRCHES cross-media consistency

Ellie constructed a beautiful cross-media consistency presentation of the band 'CHVRCHES' which helps to relate back to our band 'alleyways' as we can see the template to create a successful album cover and make quality merchandise. She discovered the relationship between the artists' media constructions for example; , EP covers, album covers, single covers and gig posters.

Radar interview

Jonathan helped to improve the 'alleyways' Radar interview and made it appear more like a magazine article.

First Draft Feedback

The feedback from our year group helps to highlight what went well in the first draft of our music video as well as what can be improved upon.
Strengths-

• Ellie's performance is excellent
• Keep the black and white
• Best video by far
• Splits mouths shot is good
• Very strong performance esp Ellie
• Dom's smiling in his own car
• Ellies performance
• Dom's pro driving

Weakness

• Why is Zahra playing a box?
• The box...why?
• Need a bit more convincing performance by Dom + Zahra
• Need to focus more on Ellie
• Zahra isn't playing drums at start
• Some shots to dark
• Black and white constant is questionable
• Focus more on Ellie
• Drunk kit is off

Overall it was clear what people thought went well which was Ellie's performing as the singer for or band. And what people thought needed to go better which was Zahra performance on a box set instead of a drum kit.

Final draft editing

Here is some evidence showing all the editing that went into making our first draft look as good as possible. This screengrab shows the effort and multiple shots and recordings that took to make up our first draft. We will get the feedback from this first draft and push on with more editing to improve on what our peers believe will make it even better.

Digipack feedback

What people thought went well-

• love it, it's mine! Done a really good job with the colour, text and the photos are really professional. No improvements needed :)
• The bottom left sqaure is the best picture out of any on the digipacks. I think the entire thing is very professional and the theme is clear and obvious.
• Alleyways digipack is my favourite by far. It looks so proessional from the lyrics page to the proffesional layout of the front covered image. There isnt much to improve and i am struggling for things to suggest.
• I really like Alleyways digipack, introduces the band and the genre at the same time
• Like the picture of the Group together a lot it is high quality.
• Alleyways is also one of the top digipaks and needs no words.
• The alleyways digipak have quite a few images on theirs that make it look over loaded. a lot of the pictures look professinal. You can see that the text works well with the black coloured background. 
• Good, strong imagery here; the font matches, everything looks great - apart from the images don't totally flow.
• Great pictures and really like the text. All looks very slick and proffesional and links to the genre. Nothing bad to say really!
• I think this is possibly the best as it has colour and sticks with the bands themes and has synergy with the other products. It has a lot of good pictures which have been nicely edited to fit the style of the band and the genre.
• I really cant think of anything to improve on for this i areally like the outcome of the digipack
• I like the theme and text
• Theme is good Text is easy to read. Great photographs, professional editing and layout.
• I love it all and i would improve nothing. perfect.
• Everything about this digipak is amazing - the colours, the text, the images, the genre AND the overall layout. Improvements: there aren't any, where can I buy it?

Things that we could improve on-

• Could include more writing on the CD.
• Not a fan of the bin on fire or CD. The bin picture quality isn't the best, if retaken it might look better. The CD is extremely basic so unless your going for minimalism I suggest soothing more interesting. I also hope that the microphone image isn't the front cover because its more suited to the inside of the CD holder. I personally do not like the silhouette shots maybe keep one and have another band photo in an interesting location.
• The overall layout is really good some of it is really over loaded but still looks amazing.
•  Maybe rearrange a few, swap them out to get a better balance! I'd make the font bigger on the front cover as well, apart from that, it's brilliant!
• A more interesting front cover just a picture of a microphone would not make me want to pick up the album if I saw it in a shop.
• Hard to tell which is the front and back covers
• Hard to distinguish between front and back covers etc

Kerrang! article

Jonathan improved Ellie's Kerrang! Article in order to make it look more legitimate. He consulted 'Introducing' articles that Kerrang! have published in the past to help me get the layout as correct as possible.
Jonathan took elements from original articles and edited them using Paint and Photoshop. He then overlaid the elements onto our new portrait photograph.

I am really pleased with how well this article turned out it looks really professional and looks as though it has come straight out of Kerrang! magazine. The attention to detail and aesthetic is really outstanding and makes for a well rounded and solid article.

Digipac analysis

1. At first glance, which digipak impresses you the most?

Cosmo

2. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on Grace Starr's digipak?

Clearly it is not quite finished yet so that obvious needs work. However I do like the front cover photo and the font used.

3. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on Encoded digipak?

As the band is are fresh on the music scene by using a negative effect on the artist faces means that they will not be easily recognizable. I do like the font and the background image they used.

4. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on Alex Echo's digipak?

I think that the photos used fit the digipak well and its provides useful background images. However it does seem to be unfinished as there is no bar code on the back or record label associated.

5. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on Nicholas Alexander's digipak?

I really like the color scheme used throughout the digipak and the iconography of the front cover as Nick looks good sitting on the bridge with the nice font used. However on the song list I don't like the white strip that goes down in contrast to the blue background

6. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on Alleyways digipak?

Nothing its perfect

7. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on Hybrid Beauty digipak?

I like the photos used and the black and white background of all the sections of the digipak. The compilation of all of the photos on one section is good as it seems like they have been a band for a long time. I don't really like the font that they use as it really blocky and doesn't suit the rest of the digipak

8. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on Cosmo's digipak?

I really love Cosmo's digipak as loads of time and effort has gone into making and its a beautifully colorful with great images and amazing backgrounds. There is not much that I don't like about this pac I suppose the 'happy' wording is unnecessary in one of the segments. 

9. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on James Couleur's digipak?

The colors that make up the digipak do not fit together very well and look odd together as it goes from rainbow to black and white. It also seems unfinished as things like the bar code and the record label are not present. 

10. Take the following into consideration - colour, text, image, genre and overall layout. What do you like about the digipak and what do you think could be improved on Jaya's digipak?

I really like Jaya's digipak as I think the images are really well taken I also think that the front pages font is really nice as it looks personalized as it seems like her signature. There are some things I would change as the song listed page looks stretched out and off center apart from that its a solid digipak.

Alleyways tour

On our website you can find out when Alleyways is on tour around the UK. We have also posted up links of where our tickets can be bought such as Ticketmaster.



We posted both the exact date of when were touring as well as our route around the country making it seem like a real bands tour line up.