The video below was our main inspiration. It shows entropy with the use of stop motion and props rather than people, but the redundancy as it is what you would expect from this band and this genre.
The video fits the song really well and I liked the use of including the lyrics into the video. We used a number of ideas from this in our video.
We really liked the stop-motion in this video and use of 'Lego' as it gives it a child-like feel, also it is a similar genre to ours so would fit with our song.
We used lego in our video as it looks really effective in stop-motion:
The print work for 'indie' style bands follows the same sort of alternative style as the videos do. The element of disjuncture that a lot of them include is a successful way of both portraying the genre and catching the eye of the target audience.
The cartoon style of this album cover/ magazine advert I really liked for these reasons so wanted to include the contrast of bright colours on a white background in mine.
I didn't include this album cover in my original research but found it later on and thought it was a perfect example of the kind of conventional disjuncture that attracts the target audience.
My research into CD covers and magazine adverts made me aware of the conventions that must be followed as to produce a professional, finshed looking piece. For example in most adverts there is an image of the CD cover somewhere on it so the audience are aware of what they're looking for if they want to buy it.
Also general conventions like a barcode, copyright information, images/logos that need to be incorporated onto the CD cover I had to research and include in mine.
Doing research into a number of styles of music has helped me find out what exists in the music industry and what is new and original, or conventional and a rework of old ideas. For example we looked into a number of R&B/Hip hop style videos, CD covers and magazine adverts which almost all have the same house style - flash cars, jewellery, attractive women and men and an obvious massive budget. This kind of house-style attracts a massive mainstream audience so taking this genre into the music industry would mean you'd have to stick to these conventions as to be successful.
This is obviously the complete opposite of what we were aiming for but just shows how genres, generally, have to stick to conventions to be successful.
Challenging forms and conventions can potentially be dangerous in the music industry as if it is too different then the target audience may find it difficult to recognise or relate to, resulting in them not listening to or buying the music. However if conventions are followed too strictly withour deviation then there is a risk of it becoming too generic therefore not remembered or not seen as anything different- just the same as anybody else.
E.G:
- White lies 
- Muse TOO GENERIC??
We did some inital audience research on our target audience to see what was thought of our plans for the video. The responses that we got were that the ideas were what they expected from this genre and would work in the music industry. There was nothing they would really change, this confirmed that our ideas fitted with the genre and attracted the audience we wanted. Due to this we followed our plans - trying not to change anything.
Our initial research came out of an interview with a friend, which we videoed and is included in my blog, but also we set up a group on 'Facebook' explaining our project and we loaded up the storyboard as another strategy in getting initial views.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=174461543734
Good,synoptic work Emily.
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