Advanced Portfolio Critical Evaluation

Our genre is Indie, and we generally stuck to indie conventions by using bright colours and fun themes. On  both our Cd cover and website we have displayed bright colours and polka dots to fit with The Pipettes personal theme of "The Polka Dot Girls". Our front cover of our Cd cover is cheeky with a hint of nudity and bright coloured polka dots. We used this to reflect the style of The Pipettes and their lyrical style. They talk about serious issues (e.g pressures of teenagers and things of a sexual nature) and put a fun twist on them.We have used conventional editing with lots of short shots to match the fast pace music. We have also used a conventional form for Indie, with a mixture of narrative and performance. We had more narrative than performance that tells a fun tale of the life of a school girl. This bright and youth orientated theme reflects the Indie style of the band. We have incorporated performance into the story by having guitars in the classroom (narrative). This does not necessarily correspond with the usual way of narrative in Indie videos. We felt however that this postmodern idea strengthened the "wild" unusual feel we wanted to put across. By having guitars in the scenes of a classroom we were contrasting the idea of normality and showing how odd this school girl is and in turn creating the obscure style we wished for.  

In editing we have used fast forward scenes which is a common editing style for Indie. It creates a light hearted feel to the video as allows us to show a lot in less time. The costumes are simple (school uniform) we wanted our main character to contrast against the extras in order to show how "whacky" she is. We therefore dressed our extras in normal uniform with simple hair and simple makeup whilst dressing our main character in bright pink socks, huge ponytails and bright orange and green makeup. Contrast is often used in mise-en-scene for Indie to create the out of the ordinary feel often presented within them. Overall the conventions we have used give our video the "wild child" feel we wanted with bright colours, crazy expressions and normal settings made unusual with such things as random musical instruments and bold makeup. 

Throughout our campaign we have kept a clear image and theme. Within all three sections; video, digipack and website the main themes have been school, sexuality and fun. We kept to the school theme in these 3 by in the video it is set within a school and everyone is wearing school uniform. We also see a school teacher and students in a classroom. In the digipack our CD is covered in school uniform items and the people on the front are all wearing ties which is seen throughout the video as well. On the website we kept a school theme by putting doodles all over the background which is child like and is on many school childrens books. 
Sexuality is maintained within the video as it’s clear that our main character likes both boys and girls which is also shown on the website as the some of the doodles show that she is bisexual. On the Cd sexuality is shown as there are both nude males and females on the front cover surrounding the main character. Fun is shown in the video by the main characters make-up, hair and acting. The acting and camera shots are very ‘slap-stick’ comedy keeping the video fun and light hearted. The website shows fun by the use of colours and images. The CD shows fun also by hair and make-up. We also see on the front cover everybody is smiling and happy. All of this also showing that our website, Cd and video are interrelated.

The target audience is teenagers as everything is very silly and funny which attracts the age group of 14-24, however the bisexuality within the video makes it attract to an older audience.


The audience feedback we gathered by doing a pitch and from people who watched the video whilst it was being edited and the final product and got their opinions on it. The issues that were raised during the pitch were that one of our scenes was in the toilets and was seen as to inappropriate for a video we therefore changed that idea to the main character by finding out the boy she likes is gay when he is playing rounders which is more childish and comical than the idea in the toilets. Another issue raised was that the song is too short. We sorted this issue by putting a narrative before the music starts. What we included was an old lady getting ready in the morning which was used to contrast the 'crazy' video. Another issue was that perhaps there was too many things happening, however we used didn't get rid of any ideas and used them all in the video as we felt that the more that was happening created a hyper/crazy feel to the video which is what we wanted. We managed to fit them all in by using fast cuts.
The feedback we got from when people were watching the video was that the narrative at the start was too long and slow. We changed this by cutting it down. Another feedback was that the lip syncing wasn't as strong as it could have been. Audiences enjoyed the video and liked the tongue and cheek humour that it had. They felt it was fun and had a good narrative.
The main problems were that the song was too short therefore we had to write a narrative for the start which we found made the beginning to the song very dull. However after shortening it down we found it made it better.

The technologies we used in the video was green screen and effects on Imovie. The green screen was used to create a dream-like effect with girls clothing coming off on each line of the song. The effects used in the video were; speeding up shots to create a 'slap stick' comedy effect to the chase scenes and a red glow to our main characters to show that she is angry.
Other technology used for the website and CD cover is photoshop which was used for the doodles and merchandise on the website to give it a childish effect and also so that the merchandise looked real. We also used photoshop on the Cd cover to put the front cover picture on a polka dot background so that it relates to the image of 'the Pipettes'.

We used technology to research our production by looking at 'the Pipettes' on google and learning that they are often seen with polka dots which we then incorporated into the video on the green screen and we also included this on our CD cover. We also used 'Youtube' to look for classical songs that we could put to the start of our video.
Online media such as the blog has allowed us to distribute the project to a wide audience as people can log on and look at our work.

today we did the green screen scene, and finished off a lot of the video.
We realised that we hadn't got enough footage for one section so will be re-shooting that soon, also that we didn't light the green screen particularly well so it's slightly blurry however it is still usable.
We've also shot more things for the opening clip of our film such as people smoking, walking, doing school work and shots of around school. We will use these shots to make the opening scene more exciting.

Website Nearly Finished

This is our most up to date website, we have created the background from scratch either from drawing them ourselves or compiling internet images.  We need to make the writing bigger and add something to make the middle bit bolder. 

We realized there was too much on our page, so we have taken inspiration from our song and decided to have a classic classroom table as our background. We will insert the cartoon images on the background, however have struggled to position them correctly on photoshop. We have also inputted colourful paper as backgrounds for our text.

Day 3 of filming

Today we shot the start of our music video with the old lady and anna getting out of bed. One thing we struggled with was lighting as after 4 it began to get dark. After we uploaded the footage we realised that is was unusable so are going to re-shoot the outside footage again.

In this photo we see anna (main character) and cheryl (old lady). We were really pleased with how we made cheryl look older, which we did by putting talcum powder in her hair and using black eyeliner to go over her wrinkles and smudge it in to make them deeper and more visible. 

Day 2 of filming

For day 2 we are using the green screen so that we can put a polka dot background on the frame, linking it to the pipettes. For this we used 2 girls playing guitars who will be used in anna's (main character) fantasy.

During the filming we decided to do the front cover of our digipack. This is one of the potential photo's we will use.












By Hannah Cockerton

day 1 of filming

Here are some of the pictures taken whilst on our first day of filming.

Here we are shooting the scene where Micheal (centre) touches the guys next to him implying that he is gay. 

This is the scene where anna (main character) finds out that the boy she likes is gay and stampedes down the corridor. For this scene we used a dolly to zoom into her face from down the corridor.

Another school classroom scene.














By Hannah Cockerton

potential covers

working on our movie

This week we have finally got footage, and we have started to edit. We have started to paste to black laying down the beginnings of our music video.

Progress with the website

This is the website so far, we have added the background image of the collage. We have also added cartoon images of the band members to the top of the page. A navigation bar has been put into place at the top of the page. We have also added information for a blog, tour dates, merchandise and photos. At the bottom of the page I have added a social network bar, which would be linked to all their extra 

pages. 

planning

Collage & Front page for website

We have started to create the main layout for our website. We have made images which will be used on the website. For example a collage image will be used as the background. This represents the band as being colourful and different, also links with the cartoon/art theme. This image was made my Hannah and scanned in and edited on photoshop. We feel this would look good as it will contrast the white page background.

Also we have made photos for links, for example the merchandise T-shirt. A T-shirt was taken from Google and edited in Photoshop, the logo was then placed onto the T-shirt and by using the clone tool we were able to merge the logo and T-shirt together. We think it looks good and would be suitable for the website. 

 

We took a photo of Anna and by using photoshop changed the contrast, brightness etc in order to make the colours change. We separately changed the background colour, and linked them all together to make a pop art type image. We may use this as apart of our CD cover. 

This is what we have done so far for the website. We have created the right hand side column, which includes CD's, tour dates, merchandise and photos. We have put the inputted the background image and a range of other images including the logo. 

We have also made a small social network bar at the bottom, which would be used as links to their other sites. 

Written by Jessica Holdsworth and Hannah Cockerton

Cartoon Images for Website

Website Background

We've come up with the idea that we want our website to be 60's style with a lot of pop art on it because the pipettes music is 60's sounding. We have made several different photo's of our lead actress and turned it into pop art. We are still not sure whether we are going to use this as it may look basic and tacky. 

Also we have made some pop art comic strip images to also put on the background.

by Hannah and Jade

Previous Student Websites

These are previous websites that we liked elements of. The first with the crinkled paper goes with our school theme and we liked its informal look.  We also liked the scribbled drawings as they again evoke the light-hearted and child like approach that the song we are using portrays. We like the image of the tree as it is very delicate and girly, the artists are girls and we want something pretty and elegant as well as something light hearted to remind the audience that the artists are women. 

Written By Hannah and Jade

The start of our website

What we really like about the start of our website is the name of the of the pipettes which we did on photoshop. We did it by fluke as when we lassoed the name and dragged it away it left this.
We like the childish theme as it links with the school theme in our video. Also showing they are a light-hearted band.

Written By Hannah and Jade

Website Analysis

Images and Logo

The images are presented in an old fashioned style giving and authentic feel to the artist, it makes her seem original and almost vintage. So in turn makes her seem classier. The imagery of the lungs make the website feel exposed , we are seeing something odd but it makes it feel natural for this band as an indie artist. This again making her seem more original. The butterfly and rose bring in the element of nature, a convention of indie and the curly font creates a fun a creative feel.

Genre
Conventions of nature are used on the webpage, with the rose, lungs and butterfly. They make the music seem more sincere with the lungs, making everything more mature but quirky. The use of curly font is common in indie bands as it gives a more light hearted feel to everything. The colours aren't very generic as they are not bold and bright which again makes the artist seem more original as she is happy to break past conventions. The odd quirky convention is definetly evident with the pictures of the album artwork and the general lay out of the page.

New technology and Links
The artist has used video technology so audiences can see a music video, this helps promote the artist further as more people will want to see the video, so are more likely to visit the site and therefore buy the music. There are also links to further information on albums, news and other areas of media and links to how to buy the albums. There is also a search bar so people can eaisly find what they are looking for on the webpage. This gets the artist out there more and promoted by different levels of media so are seen more by the public eye. There are also special effects with the lungs and butterfly as the lungs expand and deflate and the butterflies wings move, this makes everything much more real and therefore makes the audience feel even more connected to the artist. There is also a track available to play at the top of the screen.

Colour and Style
The colours are not conventional, they are not bright or bold. The red has shading making it look darker and more effective. The fact the colours do not fit the indie convention makes the artist appear more extravagant and daring, and makes them appear new and exciting as she doesnt fit in perfectly to indie. The colours give a vintage feel to everything, with cold colours that looks like parch paper and loopy writing like from the circus. These little things makes everything seem more elegant and old.


Written Content
There is little written content on the home page which reinforces the artists image as too much written information would crowd the page over complicating it and this wouldn't fit with the indie convention of simplicity. The written content is enough for the home page to portray the artist and promote her without there being too much. It keeps the natural easy going feel of the artist as everything is easy to access through links on the written information.


Font and Layout
The swirly writing emphasises the authentic feel given by everything else such as colour, it also makes the artist seem more light hearted and free because the writing isn't perfect. The layout is like a scrapbook, bits overlapping and linking together, it again plays on the authenticity and gives it what feels like a personal touch from the artist herself.


Target Audience 
The use of technology targets a younger audience of late teens and young adults. The use of the moving heart and butterfly helps target the same age range and these things are impressive and are what people what talk about and want to look at. The images show a young women (the artist) which targets males as she is attractive however the general authentic style of the website targets females as it is very feminine with pretty touches such as the role or image of the artist in a satan black dress.


Advertisements
The advertisements are appropriate for the audience as they are all linked to other pages so are easy to find. The advertisement consists of the artists albums or information about the audience and it is simplistic targeting a young adult audience who do not want anything over complicated.

Written By Jade Shepherd

Our Digipak

Based on the research we have done we have created a plan of our own digipak, we decided we wanted to incorporate the ideas of bright colours and bold  fun writing often see linked to indie artwork. We decided to use the theme of school and have children's writing for our  font and have pictures of school uniform on the cd itself with a bold background colour. We want everything to be very straight forward and bold to fit the indie convention. We wanted the front cover to be cheeky and fun like the band The Pipettes are themselves so we decided to have people with a banner reading The Pipettes covering their body parts but so the image suggests slight nudity behind the banner. We thought this would be a good way of portraying the Pipettes song style as they often take something serious and make it silly or rude, so in this case we are taking teenagers and making it rude and silly to fit. The ideas are appropriate as they link to the song and to the artist themselves.  The images will help sell the artist as fun and lighthearted which is exactly what them and their music is so we feel our ideas are very appropriate.

Written by Jade Shepherd

CD Research - Digipak

These four photos are of The Pigeon Detectives album Wait For Me.

The image theme of the album is dears. They are present within every image on the digipak, this animal imagery is very common within indie music. Indie tends to relate to nature. They don't play on materialistic elements like in pop and r n b. Indie tends to portray working class, average lifestyles in their music and this is closer to nature. This is why it is appropriate to have a dear on the front of the album because it makes sense for the genre. The two dear on the front are locking horns, it looks gentle and loving which could evoke the love side of the songs, however locking horns is usually an action of aggression so this could be the pain of loss of love shown in the songs. The black and red makes the album look dramatic and strong. However the white on the front cover reminds us its an indie genre. The font is simplistic which goes with the way of their music. Which is simple but creative, it makes the band seem more sophisticated because there is no childishness to the font. However it is bold and simple which is an indie convention. The image sells the artist as a mature band with meaning to their music however elegance and natural beauty is also shown through the use of a dear. The animal imagery creates a light hearted feel reminding the audience once again of the genre. 

These four images are of The Maccabees Album Colour It In. 

The digipak is very appropriate for the genre. They have chosen odd characters to be represented on the front and different colours. They have however challenged a convention of bright colours in indie imagery by choosing mint green and brown. This however works in making the imagery more obscure and is therefore very inviting to an audience of this genre. The images of the characters makes the audience think how society may be portrayed to the band. How everyone is odd in their own way. Indie conventionally plays on oddness. The mise-en-scene gives the impression that the band are funa nd lighthearted in their music. They want to make people laugh rather than necessarily be taken 100% seriously. It also makes the audience feel as though people are lost in society and that this album is based on people and their lives. The back photo at the top is black and the images seem imposing, this possibly portrays the darker side of society. The inside cover is like someone standing in a street with a walking advertisement and the front is a crowd. The mise-en-scene suggests the everything to do with society and people as individuals. This gives the effect of the audience being a part of the album because it is about themselves. The images sells the artist as a meaningful but fun band. As a band that breaks slightly away from the conventions of indie to be their own. The curly font creates a childish and friendly feel to the cd making it more evident as an indie album.

These four images are of The Magic Numbers album. The are a rock indie band.

The digipak is extremely appropriate for this type of genre, they have the serious element of rock with the photo of the four band members all dressed in black, a conventional colour for rock. However they keep the indie conventions with the photos of the blocks on the back page and the cartoon people on the cd. The digipak images are very simplistic giving a mature feel to the whole album and this is strengthened more by the birds eye view photo of the band. The whole album gives the feel of an older indie rock band who take a serious approach to the genre. The shapes used are straight forward and neutral again giving the same impression. The image sells the band to those who are looking for something a little more serious than traditional indie. The font is basic in either black or white and in what looks like times new roman. This once again gives the audience the idea that this band is more mature and take a less light hearted feel. 

Written By Jade Shepherd