Author: mec1g15

Birch

To enforce the idea of stereotypes within a film, the appropriate typefaces should be used to subconsciously insinuate an idea to the audience. The font ‘Birch’ was made famous by its use within the western culture in wanted posters and in western style films. It is this culture that is often associated with country music, therefore creating imagery and design styles which then become synonymous with the genre of music.

The Birch typeface was created taking inspiration from a range of different styles from the 20th Century, and is modelled from a wood type. Although not suitable for main text, the typeface is suited to large and bold headlines and titles, due to the distinctive narrow lettering.

The use of stereotypes is presented when the audience can begin to understand type and design, when visual connections are displayed to other pieces of design that they may have seen before. This is how stereotypes can be used to the advantage of designers, by ensuring that their audience will make assumptions about the design displayed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-gspA6xcPg

BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend Mashup uses a selection of clips from artists performing over the weekend, to produce a medley of music, with clips only lasting a matter of seconds. This approach gives the audience an insight into a large range of musical styles and artists that featured over the weekend, without dragging out the video to cover larger sections of performances. I found that this piece uses recognisable clips from songs pushed together to create a new sound piece, without sounding glitchy or unintentional.

The musical tone in the video is somewhat consistent throughout, due to the running theme of a similar genre, which ties each short sound clip together. I found by watching this that it is important to select a theme that can define the structure, so by only selecting one bands music, the sound is consistent and more uniform.

The video itself uses live performances matched to the music, to display to the viewer the style and presentation of performance at the festival, and give an indication of the weekend itself. This approach could be used within my own promotional video, as the Country to Country festival should be promoted honestly within an insight into the event itself.

In the Dictionary of Music by Theodore Karp, a musical medley is described as “a work made by stringing together a group of well-known tunes, either used in their entirety or in part.” By collecting well-known clips from Zac Brown Band songs, I could collate a piece that would be recognisable to people informed in the music, as well as enticing people who were unfamiliar to the band.

http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/juno/#

Having started my research into the promotion of country music, I wanted to look at how visual themes could portray the idea of being homely and friendly with a rustic appearance. While looking at various title sequences and promotional pieces, I found that the title sequence for Juno particularly resembled these themes through rough hand drawn imagery, with inserts of edited photography.

The handcrafted appearance of the piece seems genuine and friendly, as it is apparent from the onset that a lot of time and care had gone into the creation, which is an idea that I would like to portray in my own piece. It was important for the creators of the title sequence (Smith & Lee Design) that the opening sequence portrayed the continuing themes of the film, indicating the idea of romance and love. By giving this indication so early on in the film, the audience begins to make assumptions about the themes in the rest of the film, which is an idea that I would like to play on. Smith and Lee Design purposely created the piece to be at 8fps, to be slightly jerky and raw, giving another dimension to hand drawn approach. This idea adds to the idea that the title sequence is rustic and hand crafted, therefore giving the intentional impression that time and care has gone into the piece, and its imperfections give the piece personality and character.