Lost Prophets - Shinobi VS. Dragon Analysis.

Lostprophets - Shinobi VS. Dragon Ninja - Music Video -

Similarly to my other analysis of Judith - A Perfect Circle is that I am going to analyse only a few key shots in detail. However rather than a spray of the first few shots I have selected a wide range which have influenced my media production, along with analysing the similarities for the choice of location.

The first 2 shots which interested me were the above. The left is a medium shot of the entire band playing which is a key dependency for any music video. By showing the entire band you thereby create a type of label for it as well as allow the audience to recognise each member for their instrument. The right image goes on further by having the conventional low angle close up of the lead singer. The constant close ups and larger viewing time of the singer connotes his overall importance. The more you see the singer the more you relate him to the name of the band; thereby creating a visual link or label in your head.

Another great aspect of the Lost Prophets video is the Urban location of the top of a car park. As you can see from the 2 images there is a great expanse of blue sky connoting the freedom of the city landscape. While there are large buildings around the blue dominates the imagery far more. This freedom would fit into our Indie - New wave genre of the Blighters music perfectly, so expect imitations of this in our own video.

Another great example of a close up shot of the lead singer is shown above. By showing the concentration of the singer you create an intense sense of intimacy as though he is in his own world and we just happen to be near by. This adds to the feeling of the band having a great talent which we can only aspire to gain.

As you can see the majority of the skateboarding shots are taken from a low angle enabling you to gain a better view of the skateboard itself. We plan to use this shot type within our own video. Likewise by recording the skater performing a large trick you can attract aspirers or other skateboarders enlarging the audience attraction. Furthermore the location is used to great affect in the right image connoting a form of escape, as though the skateboard is free from the grasps of the urban city landscape and jumping to the sky.

The location plays a large part in the visual elements of a music video. The Lost Prophets while using a traditional urban location also has a large amount of the advantages and connotations which a rural location bring such as the large sense of freedom and space. Along with the large dominating sky shots with a pure blue colour rather than a grungy city scape connoting a purity. However the location does not provide the quirkiness or uniqueness of a true rural location.

Overall this video has been a strong starting point for our music video, especially the superb synchronisation of the music to the beat of the song. The faster the beat the quicker the shot transition. A very good performance video.

There For Tomorrow 'Pages' Album Analysis

There For Tomorrow album covers were quite a large influence on my ancillary media products from their text affects to their dominating background colours. I particularly liked the repeating of the text on the Page's Album (Right top image) and therefore employed it into one of my own album booklet pages.

However to concentrate on the 'Pages' album (right) I would say it suits the name very well. The cover has a repeating text affect of the name of the band on top of an image of pages being thrown in the air in a chaotic fashion suiting the Indie / Rock music. The blankness of the sheets equal just that, a page, which can contain anything but without reading it you do not know what.

I think this kind of artwork would appeal to their target audience as it is different from the norm and via it's striking green colour it will stand out against the more darker traditional rock album covers. The target audience would be mainly male based with the age range of 16-25 similar to that of Blighters. This is due to the fact quite a bit of the music is slightly 'screamo' with a strained voice singing.

The lettering of the band while being very straight forward also relates to that of the name of the Album. The majority of pages you pick up from books to magazines are made in very basic fonts such as Arial or Times New Roman such as the above.

I do feel that this CD connotes a confused mind, similar to that of the bands music, while also showing the uniqueness and artistic values of theirs. Overall I found this cover to be extremely inspirational in my own work, and when comparing it to my work you can see some large similarities employed.

Audience Profile

This post aims to provide a simple audience profile of the target audience for my Main and ancillary texts. As mentioned in my Audience Research I look at the age group of around 16-25 because from my own taste in music and experience in attending Indie music gigs I know that this will be the age group most likely to enjoy the Blighters type of music.

The demographic would be only slightly heavier on the male side than females but otherwise gender equal. The indie scene is made out of many individuals but can also attract Aspirers who are attracted by the musicians’ skills or even mainstreamers can be attracted depending how popular the Indie band becomes.

Age: 16-25
Gender: 60%-40% (Male-Female)
Social class: Working to Middle Class
Occupation: Student
Media Interests: Mainstreamers with a slight art house interest (Mellow sound)

Consumption of Media
They would most likely consume media in numerous ways from a live gig to watching a music video on their laptop or IPod / mobile phone. I would say they prefer owning a CD Album rather than downloading it via Spotify or Itunes along with this I would say they'd purchase merchandise from the band such as shirts.

This is why I have created quite a strong set of Ancillary texts with a strong colour base enabling easy applications to posters or 'Print T-Shirts'.

Demographics Attraction to Blighters
The reasoning behind the above demographic finding Blighters attractive is relatively simple. Firstly the band consists of younger musicians enabling the audience above to relate to them through that medium while also enabling them to aspire to the skill of being able to play a musical instrument and being in a successful band.

Furthermore the mellow sound offers a respite to the usual rock or dance music which many of the age group within the demographic listen to. From my own experience I know a change in pace is nice every so often. Plus the indie factor and uniquness adds a final touch. The demographic age range may be nearing the end of the 'teen years' yet many will still have the wish to be rebellious and their own person, meaning the look of the ancillary texts suit perfectly.

CD Case Original Images.

The 3 above images were used throughout my CD Case design. The image to the left was used as the front of my Album booklet after removing the background via cropping using the magic wand and eraser tools. I then used an overlay affect to change it to black and white to gain the final version.

The centre image I used for the 3rd inner page within the booklet. I used minimal editing on this image apart from adding a layer beneath it to add more depth via an Overlay / lower opacity value. Similarly the right image was used on the 1st inner page within the booklet and has minimal editing.

But as you can see from the 3 final products above there are numerous other layers used on top of the original pictures including textures as well as gradients. The most difficult affect I created was the 'Rays of light' using the Pen Tool in photoshop. By using the Pen Tool to create a single beam of light I then went on to duplicate the layer and use the transform tool to rotate it 20 degrees. I then repeated this step until I had 5 rays, merged the layers, duplicated and then rotated 100 degrees. Then by using this 'Ray of light' as an overlay over a gradient I was able to create the affect you see in the left image above.

The beautiful thing about the rays I created above is that I could stretch them to huge lengths to gain different thickness of rays from the same original image. However as previously mentioned I also used numerous images as back layers to add depth via a mix of gradients and changing the opacity setting.

Magazine Advert

The magazine advert I designed is quite an in depth image with multiple layers used to enhance the entire image. I first designed the advert below which is only half the size of A4. This was done because it would enable me to use the front of my Album Cover straight away with only minimal editing of the backgrounds.

The initial advert consisted of over 15 individual text layers and 30 image layers. Rather than using the Photoshop transform tool to attempt to curve the text I simply created individual text layers for each letter I wished to change. While this sounds like a lengthy process it was relatively easy. The bulk of the image layers are the individual 'rays'. The process I used to create the rays is explained [ HERE ]

Realising that most adverts consist of a Full A4 page within a magazine I decided to then move onto creating a larger image. Along with this I wanted to add in more reviews to entice the audience into buying the Album / Tickets. Along with this I decided to add a more darkened effect to the background of the image.

The final image is the advert to the right promoting the Album of the band.

CD Designs

The 2 images below consist of the Back of the CD Case and the Front.

The images below consist of the booklet within the CD Case itself. As you can see the Front of the case is also the front of the booklet. Each song has it's own page with select lyrics of the song and finally the back of the Booklet lists the tracks as well as the website of the Band.

The Music Industry & Piracy -- What is the Extent of Impact?

Introduction

Why Choose Piracy?
I choose piracy for 3 simple reasons. Firstly it interests me because technology is ever evolving; something at the top of the technological tree one year can be near the bottom the next. Secondly technology is growing at a faster rate now than ever before and finally I am in 2 minds about piracy myself whether it’s truly evil or if the media industry over charges for their products.

Furthermore I have chosen to research piracy because it relates to my course via the research I will have to perform as well as the effect it may or may not have on my production. Plus I am curious to see if anything they plan to implement whether being the Music Industry or Government could actually work.

What is Piracy?
First to understand this investigation we need to understand what Piracy is, and what it means for the music industry.

“Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the unauthorised use of material that is covered by copyright law, in a manner that violates one of the copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piracy_(media)

To put it simply ‘Piracy’ is viewed as theft. Downloading music, videos, games or any other form of copyrighted material online is classified as piracy and therefore is against the Law.


Research

How to become a Pirate
Now you know in a sense what piracy is but you don’t know the methods used to complete it. Via looking through the Internet and reading a few key forums I came across a huge range of ways to download that latest single from ‘Take that’ for free. The beauty of many of these applications is that regardless of your technical ability there is one somewhere that you can use for your nefarious deeds.

Rapidshare and Youtube are both online websites offering 2 unique services. Rapidshare offers an online file hosting service where you can allow other people to download files you upload. For instance if you wanted to share a piece of art you had completed with your friend in Taiwan as well as your friend in Alaska but did not want to have to upload it to both of them separately you could just upload it to Rapidshare, pop them a link, and let them download it from there. However as easily as it is to share legal content on Rapidshare it is to share illegal content.

Youtube offers a streaming video service allowing you to watch the latest Music Videos or other people’s random recordings they’ve uploaded onto their accounts. While Youtube has some security to stop downloading of their music videos it can’t stop a user simply recording incoming sound from the website and then saving it as a .MP4 and adding it to their IPod.

Although both websites offer brilliant services and others like them such as Megaupload or Vinemo, they both offer very easy methods of gathering illegal content for free.

On the other side of the spectrum you have Peer-to-Peer programs where you allow other people to download files straight from your computer. Similarly to Rapidshare it enables people to share copyrighted content for free but at a slower pace.

Spotify and We7.com

Spotify and We7.com offer alternative ways to buying music. Spotify is a fully functioning application with advertises around the program as well as an advertising single or album every couple of music songs played. Similarly We7.com is an online radio station where you have a 10second ad played every so often.

What this enables you to do is choose your favourite songs from anyone and anywhere to create your ultimate playlist for free. Both options offer the benefits of listening to a radio station you control yourself with far fewer ads. Spotify also has a pay-monthly plan of £8.99 where you pay to remove all of the advertisements and get to listen to any of the musical tracks you want unlimited for free.

However while both projects are superb and offer people more reasons to not to use pirated singles they also help pirates gain an ever larger and better quality music. They both suffer from the same problem as Youtube, where a user can simply record their incoming sound.


While doing some more research I came across a BBC News post about how the British government plan to deal with Piracy, over a couple of weeks a few artists also felt they needed to voice their opinions on the matter. I feel that both opinions are correct to some degree however I lean more towards Ed O’Brien’s point of view.

The British Government released plans on how they were aiming to deal with the piracy problems at large. A key statement released was that:

‘Persistent File-shares could have their internet accounts suspended in an attempt to crack down on piracy’.

It is about time that the government stepped in to deal with the problem, but like the FAC (Featured Artists' Coalition), British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and the Music Producers Guild I feel this action would be an overreaction. Ed O’Brien’s comment below sums up what I feel about the matter.

"It's going to start a war which they'll never win." - Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien

Regardless of how the government try to punish people for downloading files illegally it won’t stop them, even if ISPs (Internet Service Providers e.g. BT) stepped into help, I’d find it hard to believe that catching and recording illegal downloading will be possible. Simply because how will they manage to tell the difference between legal downloads and illegal downloads without going against people’s privacy rights?

However, 11 days after this statement Lily Allen stepped forward to rally stars against piracy. Taio Cruz, James Blunt and Tim Rice-Oxley all put forward their support to Lily as well as congratulating her for stepping up.

"File-sharing has had a very, very negative effect on my career, as it has on many others" - Taio Cruz

Taio Cruz is a prime example of how music piracy can be damaging, by having his debut album being leaked almost 3 months before the scheduled release date he and his music label were not sure whether to continue. The amount of money lost for both was most likely huge with many people downloading the album or songs before they were released.

So while some artists are strongly against punishing people for piracy others would like to see nothing but punishment after so much stress and anguish caused.

Questionnaire

Design & Subjects
My research questionnaire was designed to enable me to find out about 4 simple questions. Firstly how people acquire their music whether legally or not. If they knew how and if so what method of pirating they used and finally whether or not they felt that the current anti-piracy laws were enough.

Above you can see a graph showing you the percentage of varying ages who answered my questionnaire. I decided to keep those answering my question at an age range around the target of my Media Productions demopgrahic elsewhere in the course. This enabled me to create a larger questionnaire to send out in one sweep rather than 2 separate smaller pieces.

‘Acquiring’ Music
The graph on the next page shows you the answers I gained from the question on “How they ‘acquire’ their music normally” which aimed to find out if the highstreet is truly dying out like the Media Industry fears. From the graph it appears that the highstreet has lost popularity with just being tied first with 5 out of the 12 participants in the questionnaire. This shows us that ~58% now prefer other alternatives to going to highstreet and buying their music. This step can be explained however by the fact it is far more convenient to use the internet to get your music whether illegal or by using programs such as Spotify.

However with the options Highstreet, Internet D/L (download) and Streaming all being legal it seems the majority still prefer paying and owning their own music over illegal downloading. Out of those options it seems that the majority still using legal methods prefer owning a physical Album over the music tracks floating around in the internet ether of iTunes or Spotify.

But with just under half of the votes illegal downloading clearly shows the change in perspectives. If anything this graph shows us that the majority of people no longer own huge album collections but rather store their music on their computers or laptops. This in itself makes sense because with my demographic being of the age range 16-25 I would be greatly surprised if even 1 out of the 12 does not own a mobile phone of IPod that they use to play their music.

Illegal Download – Can you?
Interestingly only 8 of 12 (75%) knew how to download music illegally; from the previous graph of how people 'acquire' their music we can see that 5 of those 8 use illegal downloading as their main source. So even though downloading music illegally no longer requires such skill, especially due to programs such as Limewire making it exceedingly quick and easy, it is very surprising that not everyone knows how to download and use it let alone use it as their main source of acquiring music.

The graph on the next page was designed to find out what method of piracy people would use if they could. There are quite few methods to how you can go about downloading music illegally. The 4 mentioned are considered the main 4 methods and alternatives are normally based on these products.

I was surprised on how many within the group I asked use torrents because of the technical ability needed is far higher for them than either of the Limewire or Rapidshare users. Likewise those using Youtube would need to have a specific ‘Ripping’ program or an Audio recorder which most cost money.

Anti-Piracy Laws – Do they Work?

I am a firm believer that Anti-Piracy laws will never be enough, or in reality work, so I was very surprised when just under half of those I asked felt that they were enough. I expected more comments along the lines of "piracy laws don’t stop anyone from downloading music" or "They still haven't managed to prevent it at all" where as I got comments as "There's enough advertising to put me off".

So from this questionnaire it would seem that anti-piracy laws are at current not working.

Conclusion

How bad is it for the Media Industry really?
This is quite a hard thing to pin down. There are obviously a lot of debates going on with how serious the problem with piracy is, how harsh the punishments need to be to stop people actively using it as a source of their media products as well as whether you government has a right to intervene in the situation etc.

As the questionnaire results showed the problem with piracy the moment isn’t the fact the punishments are too lenient or non-existent it is because ‘pirating’ itself is far too easy for any novice to accomplish with a computer and internet connection. The increase of technology and the constant ‘dumbing’ down of tasks that take technical knowledge will more than likely increase the amount of piracy. A clear sign of this progression is with the Media task of creating a Music Video. As little as 10years ago creating a video even to amateur standard would nigh impossible without huge amount of effort. But now it is relatively simple to do.

What I can tell from the copyright laws in place now and the few reported cases of piracy is that the Media Industry at present is fighting a losing battle. Until they offer a stronger deterrent or an incentive to not partake in piracy people will continue. Even in cases where the law has been involved such as in with the PirateBay legal case due to the different copyright laws in certain countries, or even being non-existent, those sites can continue to live promoting piracy all the more.

However is piracy really going to kill the media industry? From my research I can safely conclude no chance in hell or heaven. If anything it will promote more security and better products to bring people into the real experience other that of a cheap pirated copy. Recently 3D technology has hit the big screen and with films such as Avatar bringing in £100,000,000s in profit my point is proven all the stronger.

Affect on Production
When beginning this project I didn’t think piracy would have much effect on my media products either with my production or ancillary texts. This is because Piracy is something which affects profit margins most significantly. From a educational perspective it would be absurd for it to damage my work.

However it has provided me an insight into what my audience feel with piracy and provided me a good opportunity to gain thorough opinions on certain subject matter I could use within my audience research.

Evaluation

Research
I feel the research as a whole was quite productive. By using a mix of sources from the BBC, forums as well as my constructed questionnaire I was about to look at a range of views on the piracy issue.

However in answering the question I feel I didn’t collect enough information to truly give perspective to the piracy issue and everyone it affects from the Artists themselves to the men and women creating art work on album covers to those purchasing the music. Piracy is a chance affect; a little damage at the top is an avalanche to those at the bottom.

Project
The project itself I feel was a success that it enabled me an opportunity to find out more about the media industry. However I feel it was a failure similarly to the research in the fact it did not truly give a full perspective of the piracy issue.

Bibliography

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8247376.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8266287.stm

http://cnsmediamt2.blogspot.com/2009/09/media-questionnaire.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_infringement

http://www.webtvwire.com/why-the-pirate-bay-court-case-verdict-is-meaningless-file-sharing-will-soon-evolve/

http://courtblog.thepiratebay.org/