EVALUATION QUESTION 1‘In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media context’

“`The highly talented Jungle Doctors are this week’s artists of the week, delivering us some great indie sounds that may have been left behind by many rock ‘n’ roll bands.” – Gary Crowley, Amazing Radio

• Formed in 2011 in Teddington, London, they’ve changed their sound since the birth of the band from a 3-piece banjo playing folk band to the rather special sound they’re making as a group of 5. They’ve received recent promotion by The Kooks as a band to “look out for”.

WAIT, Who are the

• The development of our media products was focused around the indie-rock genre derived from our use of the song ‘Late’ by ‘The Jungle Doctors’. Indie-rock genre is that of generally recent recognition and creation having broken onto the global music scene in the 1980’s, it depicts a feeling of small, independent and individual bands. Such bands as ‘The 1975’ and ‘Arctic Monkeys’ are examples of successful mainstream indie-rock bands.

•The Jungle Doctors’ various influences meant that their sound is rather unique with distinct sounds familiar to ‘Catfish and the bottlemen’ and ‘Circa Waves’. The band itself is not well-known but clearly established around the area where they originated (Kingston Upon Thames); with an already formed target audience we had a general focus furthermore influenced by traditional conventions of the genre to follow from, whilst adding our own distinct creative contributions we were able to create a media products which valued the conventions of the genre and complimented our interpretations allowing it to stand-out.

The 1975 Catfish and the Bottlemen Arctic Monkeys Circa Waves

• With the Indie-rock genre comes a wide range of traditional conventions associated. The most notable re-occurring element of any music video of the genre is their predominant focus on the image of the band and posters. Audiences expect the genre to revolve around the performance element of the band usually depicting the artists doing performance for themselves and their love of music rather than industrial ambitions such as self promotion and greed.

• Another key element is the videos’ focus on the instruments used because once again it revolves around the fact that they produce authentic music to emphasis their passion. Although most bands of the genre contain a narrative sequence it is unusual for a music video of the genre to NOT show a connection to the attitudes and live musical ability of the artist; keeping this in mind, we followed this generic convention of combining both a simple narrative sequence with predominant shots of the band playing which both conveys their passion for the music but doesn’t focus entirely on them leaving an equal balance between the two.

Conventions of the Indie – Rock Genre

• SETTING – In most indie music videos, they portray themselves to be ‘low budget’ videos which brings connotations of their authenticity and their raw talents; because of this main settings usually consist of studios, home settings, their live gigs and most notably their urban locations from where they’re from.

Mise-en-scene• Indie artists are dominant in the style of the retro/vintage look of their music videos primarily to draw

parallels with their style of music. They’re able to do this through typically wearing two types of clothes (both polar opposites to one another):

• 1) Is the common indie look of flannel shirts, dark clothing, skinny jeans, vans and rings. This costume gave the band members a ‘laid back’ persona which regularly mirrors their attitudes towards the music industry.

• 2) The second type of clothing is the Suit and Tie look which can also reflect their music and highlights connotations that they can take their music seriously.

• PERFORMANCE SHOTS – These is a device commonly seen by indie-bands as it gives them a chance to sell themselves to the audience and it allows the audience to familiarise themselves with the generic conventions associated with the genre. Ideally there is an equal balance between performance shots incorporated with narrative sequences.

Camera – A key convention in indie-rock music videos is that each frame doesn’t stay on screen for a long period, as the songs are usually fast pace, then so must the shots of the narrative sequences and performance shots. Camera works consists of various close-ups focusing on the band members to highlight the passion in their faces towards the music they play and their instruments to represent the authenticity and rawness of their sound.

Real media texts VS Final Product• The Neighbourhood – Sweater Weather• The early sequence for Sweater Weather inspired me in the opening shot of our music video,

I particularly admired the panning movement of the car with the scenic background and this in turn was similar to the introduction of our band at Winter Wonderland followed by the band name and song title Late. Only difference is that The Neighbourhood music video was in black and white to mirror the vibe of their music whilst ours was in a pastoral filter.

• Instead of making the location dominant in the pan, I felt that a pan of the bands movement was more relevant to the music video and allowed the audience to familiarise themselves with members. The band depicts themselves jumping on each other which brings connotations of an edgy attitude and upbeat vibe of the song throughout.

• Other factors of our music video which drew similarities with The Neighbourhoods music video was the narrative sequences, because both our song and theirs touched upon non-fixed and tangible concepts; whilst ours portrays the idea of not growing up, their song preaches about untouchable love so therefore we were limited to showing scenes which had to relate to the song in a metaphorical sense. The main concern for us though was the promotion of the band throughout.

Our Music Video

Sweater Weather

• The Strokes – Reptilia• Although The Strokes aren’t considered as an indie-rock band, they were still proven

influential in the production of our music video. As I had the job of editing, I wanted to embody the personality of the band and their style of play through the performance shots, I wanted to go for a quirky tone that mirrored the lyrics of the song and still following the generic conventions of the genre.

Close-ups – When watching their Reptilia music video, I was particularly interested in how they were portrayed to be ‘laid back’ artists through their style of instrument play and the abrupt cuts between frames that didn’t always cut on beat but somewhat worked. I admired how Julian Casablanca (lead singer) sang the song in a passionate and almost aggravated yet moody and effortless manner which emphasises the authenticity and uniqueness of himself. Our lead singer sang in a similar manner so that the audience is convinced at his passion for the song.

• Performance shots – Reptilia was a music video which was all about performance shots. Therefore they were able to experiment with a variety of shots and angles of the band and their instruments that were not only engaging, but captivating for the audience. The song itself was made up of unique guitar riffs so the close up of such instruments whilst its playing were called for to highlight the bands individual style of play.

DIGIPAKS

• From research into digipaks into the genre, we’ve noticed that the front cover has to be considerably simple and plain and used for one purpose: to sell the band and contain the basic necessities included in digipaks. All the digipkas I’ve looked into all had the same in common which were that they were bold and eyecatching, the images tend to centre the band members usually in a casual setting and stance with straight faces. The title of the band is situated above or aside of them in bold.

Our DigipakFor our digipak front cover, we looked at a variety of stills taken throughout the production process and after receiving audience feedback we’ve decided to use an image that would be most eye catching and clearly presented each band member and catch a glimpse of each of their personalities.

We were conflicted between using the location of either the urban background of Central London or a recording studio as the front cover but later realised that using the studio background would seem too stages and upfront in comparison to the urban background which seemed more natural and revealed more about the band.

Taking various shots in this location and found that this one was the best as it was a natural depiction of the band; no extreme posing and doesn’t seem stages, its just the band themselves which reflect their music.

When choosing the font for the bands name and the title of the album, we were influenced by the album titles of Foster the People, The 1975 and Bombay Bicycle Club as all their texts were simplistic and authentically pleasing.

The Jungle Doctors already have a type of font used in their existing EP covers and we tried to incorporate this into our front cover to keep the synergy with the real band. A notable thing that the band uses is changing the ‘O’s in their name into a degree symbol, in return this stands out and separates them from existing bands.

Features inside the digipak

• We’ve specifically chosen certain stills of both rural and urban lifestyles ranging from the paved streets of Central London to close-ups of tree branches to a peaceful silhouette of trees. We’ve stuck to the same theme as the front cover, our magazine cover and ultimately the peaceful, pastoral vibe of our music video. These simplistic and vibrant stills allowed full focus to be on the lyrics placed over the stills, colour pallets in the digipak were faded so it was soft on the eyes and gives a sense of tranquility.

What made our digipak more on a personal level was the personal thank you message from the band showing their appreciation to their fans. As indie-bands are usually unheard makes them more appreciated and providing the audience with a thank you note highlights the authenticity of the band.

Magazine AdvertsFrom researching into existing indie-rock adverts in magazines NME, Kerrang and Rolling Stones. We’ve noticed a common occurrence of features: BOLD texts, minimal colours and important information relevant for the audience such as release dates, a picture relating to the digipak, ways of contacting the band and sometimes reviews.

• Our goal for the magazine cover was to create a sense of synergy between the digipak and our music video and we’ve done this by using the same colour pallets throughout and depicting the band in a similar manner; as in the digipak we’ve got the band in a ‘laid back’ and natural manner on the bridge, similarly with the band sitting on the bench in our magazine cover.

• Bold and simplistic cover depicting what’s relevant

• Stills of the band • Mentions of important dates

• A simplistic design and relative colour scheme

We’ve kept the font similar as the digipak cover so its familiar to the audience and keeps synergy.

Positive reviews are present to up coming bands to help with publicity and promotion.

With mise-en-scene, we’re able to conform with conventions of the indie-genre depicted in most music videos. You can see both light and dark clothing along with the familiar Vans shoes

The image here is a similar layout to the digipak cover and still keeps the same relaxed and edgy vibe by the boys seeming unaware of the camera.

We’ve included information of the band where the fans can get in touch with them and keep up on their latest news and events.

BOLD RELEASE SIGN

Adding the cover of the digipak makes it clear to the audience their selling point and what they should look out for.

We’ve struggles choosing a font for the album name as we wanted to distinguish it form the bands name as they were ideally going to be placed side by side. After audience feedback we found that the chalky font was both unique and stood out.