Moodboard

The images selected here on the mood board illustrate a variety of moods and demonstrate the feel that I want to achieve in my product packaging and advertising.
I particularly like the slightly blurry and impressionistic feel of the flower image and the girls in the rain.
The images can be interpreted to reflect both happy and sad moods and have a dreamlike quality.

Font Choices

Here are the fonts being used for the front, back, inside, CD and DVD of the digipak and magazine advert, and it will be explained why they were selected to be part of the composition:

Inside digipak, back

This has mainly been used across the front and back of the digipak, featured in headings of the band's name and to list the contents and titles, where the representation is intended to give a professional appearance, as the font appears modern.

"MoonFlowerBold"

Back, mag,

Used twice, once to give credit to the artists on the back and as the main font in the magazine advert, it's stylised and bold that means depending on the colour that's used, it can transmit any message.

StaticBold

Back

Only used once, for the copyright information on the back cover, it's not a particularly unique font but can be thought of as mixing MoonFlowerBold with a more standard font, therefore being useful as a back-up font, which was it's purpose.
"StaticBold" is a superb choice as it's different from the other fonts, in that it looks similar but there's something about the aesthetic that, from my point of view, makes it ideal to highlight certain information. The information that it's intended to be used for is likely technical.

FromStreetArt

The expressiveness this font gives makes it a natural choice for introducing the ideology of the digipak, as it's also a font that can transmit a range of feelings through it's mode of address, just by adjusting the colour. As a result it's been used for the titles on the front as well as back covers, tracks/video titles on the back, CD and DVD and in a screenshot of the front cover in the magazine advert. Within each text the feelings vary as the subject matter is different, but the ideology remains the same.

Codes and conventions of music videos

The main codes and conventions for a music video are:

Codes:

• Camera shots - Usually there's a mixture of long shots, close ups and extreme close-ups to place emphasis on the musicians and to ensure lip-synching is intact especially with extreme close ups on the lips.
• Movement - Whip pans, tracking shots that move at a pace on a dolly and crane shots keep the performers in the frame, along with vertical tilts and horizontal pans so there's enough variation and coverage
• Editing - Terms can range from jump cuts, to MTV or montage editing. Jump cuts symbolise the camera moving from performer to instrument to location and so forth without having any narrative continuity. MTV editing is where this moves at such a fast pace, it encourages repeatability to be able to catch up and montage editing follows the musicians as the video moves forward.
• Effects - Once the sequences that have been filmed are put together, digital effects are added including split-screen, CGI, colorisation and lots more.
• Lighting - This is one of the more important codes as it sets the atmosphere and mood for a music video. For instance if there's extreme high-key lighting, it can enhance the star image of a musician or if there's a change from colour to black-and-white, there can be a shift in the song.
• Mise-en-scene - The components of props, costume, location, body language and others all combine to also set the tone of the music video, as well as informing the story. It can be that a video is set in the 70s, and the costumes are exaggerated to create something that's a parody, for example or by staying true to convention and having the location be a concert hall or studio.

Conventions:

• Narrative - A series of events are unified within time and space and have the musician go on a journey or it follows their performance in a single location. To ensure repeatability generally the narrative is one of the components that has less focus, and is suggestive. 
• Band performance - There has to be authenticity in the performance of the band and this is why there are often close-ups of lips to show lip-synching, instruments being played, chorus shots are repeated and there are specific shots and angles that gives a view of events including audience reaction.
• Solo performance - Here conventions of a band performance are repeated, one of these being lots of extreme close-ups of lips. There can also be first-person views of the artist engaging the audience as this takes advantage of mode of address.
• Star image - Whenever someone is promoted by a record company most artists don't receive as much fame. Therefore it's a case of them being marketed to suit the image of the record label, stars being manipulated in the process and is why audiences relate to the metanarrative in music videos, as their image is manipulated where it appeals to a particular target audience along with others.   

Final Idea for my music video

The final idea for creating a music video, is to take the lyrics of "Mr Brightside" by The Killers, and turn it into an original narrative, meaning the diegesis will change as there's no attempt to stay true to the original but take elements.

Speaking about story, this is about a young man, originally played by Harry Bowers but now by Peter because of scheduling conflicts who's in love with a girl played by Megan Wainwright where she cheats on him, and the mode of address is intended to play with the verisimilitude as it cross-cuts between the events and a song about this being performed in a studio.

Ellipsis will be focused around non-linear editing technique that's makes sense because of how the video is structured. Enigma code plays into the end as Peter is taken away by a couple of bodyguards at the end, hired by Megan after he becomes violent and it's not seen what happens.

Target Audience research - questionnaire results

http://prezi.com/vszk_ikohxn8/questionnaire-results/

Target Audience research - video questionnaire

As part of research into demographics, five people were asked to look at the video of "Mr Brightside", all in the age category of seventeen to eighteen, meaning they're close to the targeted age range and appropriate answers to the questions were given:

What are the most appealing elements of this video?

William Chong: Interesting concept and editing.

Harriet Bragg: The costumes.

Samantha Clarke: The editing and use of colours.

Least appealing elements?

Use of special effects.

Special effects.

Special effects.

What do you think about the use of stars such as Eric Roberts, who is sitting in the red chair at the beginning, does it offer more incentive?

Appealing to anyone who is into such stars, but I don't really think it makes much of a difference.

I don't know who Eric Roberts is, so I can't really comment on that.

This isn't needed for the music video, because not everyone that watches the video will know who he is.

Does the video make you want to show it to others?

I might show the song to others but maybe not the video. 

I would show it to somebody who I knew liked the style of the band/video.

No not really, this is because I don't alway watch the music video's, and it's not really a genre that I listen to.

Who would you assume is the general audience of this video? Consider age range, gender and socio-economic groups?

Early 20 year olds who like indie music.

Late teens to early 20's. 

20 - 35 year olds, and maybe a bit more for the boys than girls.

Do you think this is generally faithful to the style of The Killers, where their main genre is alternative rock that rejects convention and covers a variety of social themes?

Yes, they do it in quite an artistic way. 

Yes, it seems to cover those aspects in an interesting way.

Yes, they have use an artist style to achieve it.

How would you expect the video to be marketed, whether through social networking, magazine adverts and other avenues?

As it is quite an indie song, I suspect that the video would be used through social networking and other viral marketing. 

I think it would be marketed through visual advertising, e.g album advert on tv,or through social networking.

Viral marketing would suit both the genre, an their use of bright colours at it would catch people's attention before they skip it, so they will be more likely to watch it.

Have you seen the video before and if so how?

I have not no. 

No.

No.

These responses indicate what appeals to the target age range and are also analytical, especially in regard to gender consumption. To give an example one of the responses to the one of the questions of how the video would be expected to have marketing handled, because the response explained viral marketing would suit both genres, as would the use of bright colours in the video to help catch attention. This is from a female so it's proof as to how this video has inspired analytical responses from both genres.

Target Audience research - Reaching out to The Killers community

As part of research into the culture of the fanbase of The Killers, messages were posted on the official Facebook page, and sent to the Killer's manager and the forum administrator of the official Killer's website.

Jade Skellington is the forum administrator of the Killer's website and her response below gave me some good information on the Killer's fanbase.