Ancillery task

Me and my group have decided to create a digipak and a magazine for our ancillery task, as we think this gives us lots of opportunities to be creative with our advertisement skills, and to give out the appropriate message to our audience.

To start with we brainstormed our ideas into a spider diagram, and picked out the key features to include in our digipack.

Analysis of Original Florence and the Machine Digipack - Lungs

The front cover of the album has a definite romantic feel to it, and is typical of the genre. The lead singer, Florence Welch is placed firmly in the middle of the shot, posing in a sultry manner surrounded by nature, (birds, flowers, trees etc.) which indicated to the audience automatically which artist the cd is by, followed by the understated title above in the bands' signature font.

Florence Welch is wearing a pair of leather hand made lungs attatched by a string around her neck, and placed underneath her dress. I think this is done on purpose to firstly make the name of the album more prominent, but to also make it look more personal to her as if they are her lungs on show. I think that the name of the album ''Lungs'' is placed on top of the photograph of the lungs on purpose as well, and the fact that it is in a different font makes it stand out. Although the colour of the font is white, and it is difficult to see straight away on top of her lightly coloured dress, the way the leather lungs are placed around her neck makes you look at them first, which then makes you see the Album title - i think this is a necessary point to make.

Also, the record label stickers are placed right where you can see them, but are able to be peeled off by the owner once they have bought the Album if desired.

When you open the digipack this is what you see. The actual Compact Disc has been printed on with an image taken from a painting which is part of the romantics movement - which all has relevance to the theme and genre of Florence Welch's style. Again, with the title of the album placed on top in an almost collage format.

The cd booklet image is of Florence Welch performing live, which i think is a very relevant piece of imagery to put in thier album.

I think the colour scheme of inside the album works very well together with the Amber tones from the compact disc and the light flairs from the live performance image.

The back of the digipack is a plain black colour which contrasts the rest of the album case. The diagram of the anatomy of a set of lungs is a very clever way for the digipack designer to send thier message across. The way they have labelled each part of the lungs a number and the number indicates a track number and title is a very creative idea which i think adds some character to the Album.

Websites and a barcode are placed right at the bottom out of the way, as they are something that need to be on show but more discreetly.

The inside of the booklet on each page has a song lyric from each song in chronological order of the tracklist, with one image of Florence welch on the right hand page. I prefer this idea of including a favourite lyric of each song in big font, instead of trying to fit in every single word in tiny font - which is sometimes not visible. I also think it gives the album more mystery, and makes people want to listen to the song so that they can match the lyrics to a tune.

Feedback of final cut

I have chosen to interview 3 people from my target audience on what they think of our final cut, here are their comments....

1. Agnes Nilsson, 23- Swedish music student

"I really liked the flow of the video. I love the song and i think that the shots used complimented the genre and worked very well. There were a few parts that could of been thought about in more depth to make the video more complexed, but all in all i really enjoyed watching it and got a good vibe from it"

2. Lewis Thomas, 21 - Music student from London

"I am not a Florence and the Machine fan myself, but for people who like that kind of thing i think this video shows a good representation of her type of music. In terms of the flow of shots i can tell that a lot of time has been spent on the editing - and it is done really well. Excellent!"

3. Harlie Hosmer, 18 - Fashion Student from Hertfordshire

"This video is brilliant. I LOVE Florence and the Machine and i can relate the song to the imagery perfectly. I was unsure on the story that was being told, but other than that i think this is a decent video that could be released to the public!"

First and Last shot

This is our first shot, which is only 2 seconds long, but is part of a series of small shots. I think this automatically sets the scene that the video is located outside in a woodland area, and also that there is a girl character as you can see the feminine dress and hand.

This is the start of our last shot, which as you can see is set by a church in the darkness. This shows the progression of the video and how it has run through the whole sequence of a day, starting with the light and ending with the dark. The idea of her holding a lantern coincides with the genre of the video and i think it works well with the setting also.

The second part of the last shot, our character is walking up to the camera to an extreme close up, then the shot fades to black. I found this an effective way to end the video, as it still seems mysterious, and leaves the viewer wondering what could be the outcome - whether she has found what she is looking for, or she is still searching. I also sense an element of spookiness in this part of the video, as her face is lit up by the candlelight and there is a church behind her.

Final Cut

This is our final cut after all re-edits and tweaking. I am happy with the outcome and pleased that we met our deadline to complete it. There are a few shots and edits that i would change if i had more time and if our actress was available.

Here i have chosen the four shots that really work for me in our production.
Firstly, the slow motion effect that we chose to use on this particular sequence works really well as it is a slow part of the song. The looking back on each syllable of the word "track" in the song really places emphasis on the line, and i think has a powerful effect on the viewer.

The first look back is an extreme close up, which even misses out some of the face. I like the fact that the wind is blowing in her hair as she is running which shows the desperation in her eyes also.

The second look back is a close up, which is done deliberately to show a change in the shot. I think the way she looks back again is powerful and almost seems like it is the same shot but taken at different angles.

The third shot is longer than the other two, and it is my favorite one out of them all. I think the reason why i like this shot is that it shows her running afterwards in slow motion, which in itself comes across to me as a powerful action. I think it goes well with the music and compliments the scene in a creative sense. The light flair also adds to the style of the shot and follows her running which i think works well.

(The third look behind)

(Slow motion run)

Record Label

The well known record label that Florence and the machine are signed to is Universal Island Records

Here is a snippet on the record label taken from Wikipedia.com:

"Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group. The label now operates as a division of The Island Def Jam Music Group in the United States (where it is now a largely rock-oriented label, much like in its heyday) and as a standalone label in the United Kingdom (also known as Island Records Group or Universal Island). Since 2007, there is also a frontline local artist and repertoire label in Australia known as Island Records Australia, run by Universal Music Australia."

The album was produced by James Ford, Paul Epworth, Steve Mackey and Charlie Hugall. Much of the material on the album was written as reaction to what turned out to be a temporary break-up with Welch's current boyfriend. Welch says "He prefers me not to talk about it. It's funny then singing about it."

Here are some other artists that are signed to Universal Island Records

The type of bands that are signed to this record label follow the same type of genre, and there are no totally different music styles.

Stylistic Features

Hair Colour
We thought that hair colour was a big stylsitic feature when it came to brainstorming our ideas, and we came up with the colour red.

Florence Welch has red hair and it is one of her most signature features in her look, so it is only fitting that ouractress has flame red hair which was perfect for the role.


Make up choices
The make up of our actress was kept to a minimal amount becuase looking natural is all part of showing your natural beauty. I think our actress was able to do this as she does have a natural look which is accompanied well by her red hair.




Outfit Ideas
The outfit that we have our actress in is much like these images here, a long flowery dress with a see-through shirt and military boots along with lots of accesories e.g. beads and necklaces.
These images depict exactly the type os style we are going for which is why we chose them for our moodboard.

Our Comparisons

Our video follows the same theme as that of the original Florence and the machine video. Here are some screenshots of our video compared to those of the original Dog Days video:

Iconography

There are many different influences and tributary factors that lead to the creation of Florence and the machine's look, sound and style. My personal opinion on the band is that they are very indie and have taken inspiration from older bands such as Siouxsie Sioux and the Banshees in the 80's, simply because of the sound of her voice - not particularly the punk style.

Here are some pictures that represent the iconography relating to the band:

Target Audience

When creating an indie music video it is important to consider the theme and target audience that it would appeal to because when advertising and promoting, it makes it easier to condense the audience types that you advertise to. The song we are using is by a well known UK indie band who's fan base ranges from young teenagers to mature adults. More commonly though, young people ranging from age 15-25 listen to this type of music, and are into the vintage and retro styles.

The type of look that we are trying to achieve in our video is 'Boho-Chic', which is a style drawing from various different hippie and bohemian influences.

From looking at 'Boho-Chic', we discovered Florence Welch's recognized style as 'Pre-Raphaelite' which is devised from a famous brotherhood from the 1800's who were a group of English Painters, Poets and Critics. The style comes from the imagery from the paintings, which are Romantic and Avant-Garde.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Proser

Getting Things Done

INCLUDE
- Are we happy with our final production?
- Are we on schedule?
- Include my own thoughts

Editing Our New Shots

INCLUDE
-Sreenshots of editing
- What we did to try and improve our overall production

Permission from the artist

During the planning stages before we started to film our production Megan sent a letter to Florence Welch who is the lead singer of Florence and the Machine asking for her permission to use the song.
This is what Megan sent her in October.

Wednesday 6th October 2010

Dear Florence Welch,
My name is Megan Saxton and i am a great fan of your music.
I am currently studying A Level Media and am writing on behalf of myself and two of my fellow students to ask for your permission to use your song 'The Dog Day Are Over' in a production we are currently working on. Our production includes finding a song, producing and making a music video for it.

I can ensure you the video will not be made public and we will not make any kind of profit from it. We will also not use any video material that you have originally created.

Many thanks in anticipation.
Yours sincerely,

Myself, Megan Saxton and my team mates Emily Thomas and Sam Walton.


We did not receive a reply.

Influences for our Music Video

After watching Pans Labrynth, a Spanish film Directed by Guillermo del Toro, I was inspired by the scenery and overall layout of the film. The theme of woodland fantasy runs throughout, giving it an exciting and interesting look.

Here i have picked lots of shots of the young girl's back view, looking at the extraordinary surroundings that encase her. These shots are deliberate in the film, to set the scene and to also put the point across of the young girl's vulnerability in the fantasy land, by making her the less dominant figure in the shot.

This particular image is what is used on the front cover of the DVD. I love the colors and the setting as i think they are mysterious and magical, with some dark tones underneath - which could indicate the dark tones to the film and it's storyline.

The fact that the film is mostly set in a forest reminded me of the original Florence and the Machine video for 'Dog Days'.

We decided we wanted to create a tense atmosphere in our music video, much like in the film. We wanted our video to be based around a young girl running away from her fears and thoughts, which is what we all agreed on.

In this image, you see the girl crawling in the mud and the dirt, but still not phased by her situation. Her determination and interest to discover what hides in the forest became inspiring to us for brainstorming ideas for our music video.