Talent shots.

Lymington

PROGRESS: Branding

In order to maintain branding within my ancillary products, I decided to include the same cherry symbol within the digipak and magazine advert. The results were as follows:

Additionally, I altered the inner cover drastically, removing the monochrome filter. Initially, I photoshopped two missing members who did not attend last Saturday's photoshoot for the ancillary products (Elliot and Leo, who are both present on the album cover and in various cutaways in the music video). This plan seemed to work well, even with blending Leo and Elliot in the picture, until I realised that they looked out of place because they had no realistic shadows behind them. Therefore, I removed them entirely, along with the black and white filter, due to the strong pink overwhelming the background. In place of the scrapped elements I added the cherry motif (same symbol) to establish their brand identity.

PLANNING: Storyboards for Vodka and Cherryade (first draft).

Here is the hand-drawn storyboard for Lymington's Vodka and Cherryade (terribly drawn but it does provide cohesion into what would be outlined in the narrative). This was created at the time I composed my music video. Shots in the storyboard were clips I decided to include in the music video as they are fitting for what I wanted in Vodka and Cherryade.

Also included are shot ideas for my LEGO stop-motion cutaways of the band since I had no additional footage befitting the guitar emphasis shown in typical indie/alternative rock music videos. It was planned for conventional uses.

How research has informed my practice: Other music videos.

Before editing my final draft of Vodka and Cherryade, I undertook research into indie music videos. Such instances like Sundara Karma's "Vivienne" and The Hunna's "Bonfire" have made me realise that different music videos have different codes and conventions in order to stick to their chosen genre. You can see how these conventions have crossed over to their ancillary products.

Sundara Karma logo and sun motif below (click the first image for logo above the sun):

Other codes e.g. band name and song title in the music video have helped me to choose which ones to incorporate into my own indie music video. There are wide performance shots present in each of the videos I have researched into, yet the narrative is often fragmented or doesn't fall under the indie rock label. The artist lip-syncs with the song itself, which is a convention I have added in my final draft (which required reconstruction to do so). Much of my narrative consists of a couple in a relationship, which is also present in Sundara Karma's music video for "Vivienne". Both videos fall under the indie genre.

There are a few wide performance shots in my music video, though much of the footage shows band members at separate times of the day.

Carol Vernallis' music video theory based on narrative indicates that music videos have a partially completed or incomplete narrative with the video being disjointed, disconnected or fragmented in a way or two. There is a driving factor but it's not necessarily the narrative; either it's the music (its pace) or other elements of the video. However when the video is incomplete it can lead to many questions being asked about what the narrative actually is.

The music video for "Vodka and Cherryade" is presented throughout a montage of band footage and various gig and party scenarios, rather than just one clear focus, making it complicated to figure out its centre point.

Contact sheet (progress)

Three examples of a large compilation of footage that was filmed and chosen (some) for the final cut of my music video for Lymington's "Vodka and Cherryade".

I compiled these clips into iMovie, where I edited most of the professional shots and cutaways into my final music video.

NOTE: The first two screenshots are taken from an earlier draft of Vodka and Cherryade, where most footage did work for a narrative, yet it was left unfinished.

The next two screenshots, however, are taken from a better version of the final draft where Freddy properly lip-syncs to the song and there are footage of each of Lymington's band members, making it seem more professional.

LOG PROGRESS: Brand identity, typography and colour scheme

In order to secure Lymington's iconography I decided to implement the cherry motif into each of the digipak/jewel case elements. Front cover, back, gatefold, inner cover and CD artwork.
This reinforces a sense of branding for the artist, which will attract more music fans to recognise them as a unique band.

I kept the typography of the band logo the same throughout all of their products. This establishes a clear brand identity compared to their cherry motif present. Despite the font colour often changing (as seen on the spine) its typography still remains the same, anchoring Lymington's identity since it repeats throughout their ancillary products. Even in their magazine advert the font never changes.

Chosen colour fits into their house style: light blue. It is clearly shown on the album cover and magazine advertisement, anchoring their brand identity. This blue colour is also present on the album spines and inner CD cover, anchoring their chosen house style.

PRODUCTION PROGRESS: Magazine advert

This is the original image I started off with, only a little bit brighter courtesy of the "Vibrance" option under the Layers tab. The top half consists of existing screenshots of the brick wall, only duplicated a few times to emulate a landscape shot that would fit a music magazine advert. Same with the bottom, yet the result would end up becoming a distorted repeating effect, a glitch-like perception.

I kept the font for Lymington's masthead the same as it promotes branding of the indie rock band throughout all of their ancillary products: their album cover, this magazine advert promoting their debut album and their gig advertisement.

Here is the music magazine advert with added promotional text. "Vodka and Cherryade" is stylized in the same font as its counterpart on Lymington's album cover much like its band name. By adhering to the codes and conventions of magazine adverts, the following text was added: "The debut album out January 14".

The functions of music magazine adverts are:

• To sell the song/album
• To promote the artist
• To be eye-catching to the viewers.

Codes and conventions:

• Release date
• Album title
• Song name(s)
• Image of album cover
• Artist name (in this case, Lymington)
• Album information e.g. "Includes (Track 1), (Track 2) and so on"
• Where it is available to purchase
• Record label logo

However, as soon as I found out that one convention was to stick to the image of the album cover, I changed the overall background of the magazine advert so as to keep in line with existing codes and conventions.

And with the imminent image change came a font alteration as well; the font for each album title changed to Antipasto to make it look more professional.

The distortion effect was not affected by this change.

Same magazine advert (work-in-progress), but with added record labels:

• Rough Trade Records.
• End of the Trail Records, distributed by aforementioned record label above.

Both are independent record labels. End of the Trail Records is home to bands such as BLUSH, Family Jools, Coquin Migale, Keep Breathing, and SLTP. Artists like Warpain, Parquet Courts, SOAK and Palma Violets are signed to Rough Trade Records.

I chose both because they specialise in indie music, and by knowing which record labels Lymington are signed to, listeners would get an idea as to which kind of music to expect when purchasing their album.

Including End of the Trail Records promotes regional identity - BLUSH is signed to that label, and by signing Lymington under BLUSH's record label, they both make Southend-based indie powerhouses. Both BLUSH and Lymington have played separate live gigs around Southend, most commonly Chinnerys, home to various artists throughout the years.

Later, I added an album review (four out of five stars). This informs the audience that critics have praised the album before its actual market release, spreading positive word about the genre of music people expect to listen to. (Courtesy of NME, a music journalism magazine well-known to music fans alike).

The release date is important because it lets audiences know when to grab a physical/digital copy of Vodka and Cherryade. Song titles have been implemented so that consumers will know what the songs are called - they might even pick their favourite song out of the album and add it to their own personal playlists.

Located at the bottom left is an "Available on iTunes" icon so audiences will know where to purchase the album. Not only that, but the hmv.com motif at the bottom right reinforces this view as well.

It is common for artists to have their own websites, hence lymingtonmusic.com at the bottom of the music magazine advert. Here, people will find out more about Lymington's upcoming gigs, album releases, band information and photo gallery.

"Lymington" is kept in the same font and serves as a masthead for the majority of their ancillary products. The audience must know who they are, which will help promote the artist and help them gain more fame in the music industry (not to a really large extent where other record labels will exploit them for money and fame).

The image helps audience to know what the album artwork looks like in order to purchase "Vodka and Cherryade". Here, it shows all six members of Lymington, all involved in a wacky photoshoot. Promotion of the band using this moniker is imperative because it looks more interesting in that way - making the advert more eye-catching.

PROGRESS: Lymington digipak printouts

An example of my digipak printouts.

I used Microsoft Word to print out the album cover and back for Lymington's Vodka and Cherryade, and to my surprise, the images printed out were smaller than what the jewel case expects the measurements to be.

Unfortunately, there is no way to measure digipak measurements on Photoshop, and to overcome this problem, I have to measure the jewel case and its placeholder cover accurately using a ruler: a practical approach.

A pink colour palette seems to appear on both sides of the front and back covers, making it more vibrant - but the decreased quality of each printout makes the text and tracklist harder to read, requiring me to start again from scratch and increase the overall quality of the album cover and back cover.

Here are altered versions of the front and back cover, complete with a complementary inner cover. Here, the 3D effect applied to Lymington has been eliminated after a recommendation from one of my focus group members, who said that the quality of the album cover was blurry with the glitch effect - constructive criticism. In particular, Ms Casson said to use a repeating motif for a sense of brand identity in this digipak - which, in this case, was the cherry image. In order to show this, I copied and pasted the same image from the front cover which I rotated and resized to fit in better with the back cover and the spines.

One major difference from the initially printed back cover is the name change of three songs. "Little to Believe In", "Until the Dawn" and "D.I. Ded" have been changed to "Little Belief", "Curtains", and "Providence". This was implemented to better suit the indie feel of Lymington's debut album.

Also, another change I worked on was the band and album name on the spine. Initially it was white to fit in with the house style of the album, but when Joseph said the font was not visible enough for audiences to look at, I had to revert the font to black so that it would be easier to spot.

Stop-motion progress

A still from one of the newly-filmed stop-motion animation clips from Vodka and Cherryade.

(James Aris)

Dutch angles make an appearance during stop-motion clips which add tension and unease throughout the music video.

Stop Motion Studio

Developed by CATEATER, LLC.

Stop Motion Studio is a typical stop motion animation app on the iPhone which collects captured frames together into one source of footage. Just a few snaps, then you're good to go!

But this app also acts as a revolutionary software capable of producing hundreds of professional stop-motion animation projects.

Offers in-app purchases.

This app was apparently "seen on Apple's TV commercial "Life on iPad".

Create beautifully animated stop-motion movies instantly on your device. No computer needed. Powerful but simple to use with handy fingertips. Features include: titles, sound effects and themes.

Stop Motion Studio offers these additional features:

• Overlay mode - allows for precise frame control
• Grid mode - lets the animator position their subjects easily
• Integrated movie editor
• Cut/copy/paste/delete/insert any frame at any position
• Zoom in and out of the timeline preview in just one click... for easy navigation through hundreds of frames
• Fade in/fade out.
• Ultra High Definition uploads with 4x the quality of full HD
• Camera zoom
• Cinema mode
• Upload as an animated GIF
• Record audio and import media from other sources (in-app purchases only).

This software is installed on my phone. I used it to take trial stop-motion footage of a LEGO equivalent of the artist I am currently using (Lymington).