Evaluation Question 3- Final.

Evaluation Question 4- Final

Evaluation question 4

More presentations from Ben Wakeford

Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Video
When we where in the research stage,  watching established music video we discovered a few trends (conventions), that generally are followed by most videos. The most common of these conventions is the disjuncture, amplification, performance and narrative styles of video. This convention is very rarely broken.
We have carried this convention into our final video as we have used the narrative style of video. This is due to the fact that the original video for our song heavily features instruments and is a performance based video, this combined with the fact that throughout our extensive research we found that narrative based 'cinematic' style videos are some of the most successful.

Our video also followed conventions based on the clothing and framing we used throughout our video, the mise en scene fitted with the image pre-associated with the genre of music (indie) we also used framing that is consistent with that used in real media products, these include close up shots and mid shots of the main singer, this is used in order to create a bond between fans and the lead singer.

The primary area that our video breaks conventions is in that most videos for songs of our genre (indie) are performance based. Another aspect of convention that our video breaks is that typically real media products used advanced camera equipment, by contrast, for our video we used the camera on the iPhone 6s Plus, this records in 4K resolution and features OIS so along with a professional camera application (in this case FiLMiC Pro) in order to allow manual control over aspects such as focus and exposure, it can produce results equal to a mid to high end DSLR.

Overall our video both embraces certain conventions of established music videos and rejects other conventions that are perhaps now outdated.

Ancillary 

Digipak
For my digipak, as with the video I heavily researched existing texts such as the xx, AM by Arctic Monkeys, Blue Monday by New Order and The Dark side of the Moon by Pink Floyd (pictured below) and analysed their features and what made them successful (or not). This gave me a real sense of the elements of digipaks that are carried throughout most examples, these conventions where plentiful, an example of a convention in digipaks is that typically they feature artwork in the center and then text above and below, typically the band name above and the album name below. I followed this convention in my digipak (and my advert) as I felt it carried an air of sophistication. Another convention that I embraced is the order of items on the spine (Band,Title,Catalog Number).
During my research I found that the very best digipkas where minimalist in their design language, this is a form of convention that is used more and more frequently now.

Advert
For my magazine advert, like with the digipak and video I researched various existing products and analysed their features and their success as a result of these aspects. looking at these examples gave me an idea of the conventions that are used throughout most magazine adverts of this type, I found there to be many conventions, an example of a convention in adverts is that they typically have the artwork in the center of the magazine advert and then title text above and below, typically the information about the album below. I followed this convention closely in my advert as the convention creates a sense of simplicity. Another convention that I used is the use of a record label logo towards the bottom of the advert. This allows viewers to quickly realize who is behind the album.
The real products I looked at for ideas and to evaluate the conventions used in the adverts where mostly the magazine adverts for the digipaks above, as they fitted best with the style I wanted to follow. However There were a few more that I liked and took inspiration from, like the Kasabian poster.
Another convention I followed for my magazine advert is the idea of a link between the digipak and to an extent the video, this is widely used in the industry and creates an identity that links the elements to each other.

Overall our media products both follow an challenged various different forms of conventions, following the best aspects and differing in the worst.

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Firstly, my ancillary tasks, the digipak and advert, I made a  purposeful effort to consider both when planning for the design of my digipak, this allowed me to create a brand image that would be present across all of the elements of the band. The idea for the branding of the band came form the brief I initially set of 'simple but memorable'.

I believe that the designs with true coherence, are created with the development of the materials, shapes, colour caried out simultaneously, as this allows each element to accent and complement each other, this allows for a meaningful design that allows for a level of consistency through the elements and infact the products themselves. This aided me in creating a consistent brand that makes the band recognizable. 

My digiapk is a 6 panel design, with the main part being the three circles on the cover, this sets the tone for the design of both the digipak and the advert, with the circles design caring on to the inside panels with a circle for each member, which clarifies the branding of the three circles each representing a band member. The circles theme is further applied to the back cover where they are used a s bullet points to list the songs.

The magazine advert also embraces this theme in order to maintain the brand image and make it easily recognizable, consisting of the cover image from my digipak and some text to let the audience know what they are looking at.

When we where creating our video it was important to take into account the genre of the music, in this case indie. As this ultimately impacts on the viewers and therefore it is extremely important to conform to a style they like. The style of this video is very much influenced by the style of my digipak with blurs being used to link to semi transparent glass like elements of my digipak and advert. 

A further consideration throughout the process were the fonts as these would be used in every product, therefore they had to be flexible and fit not only in a logo but also a digipka, advert and music video. However given that the fonts work, they successful link the elements together.

Overall I believe that a successful and purposeful link has been created between all of the products, and that the brand image that has resulted portrays the band well.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Very early on into the process of creating both the video and the ancillary tasks, we established the importance of relevant feedback, from our target audience as they were the ones that would have to like it. We used this throughout the creative and development processes in order to make our products the best we could do. 

The pitch

This was the first point at which we received feedback, as this was our idea and what would ultimately influence our final products. Responses to the pitch we found where crucial to the success of bot the video and the ancillary tasks. The feedback was largely positive for the pitch and people really warmed to the name of the band and the creative ideas behind the video, the feedback we received expressed positive reactions towards the style of video we planned to create and how it matched the genre of the song well, a further positive comment was the monochrome/colour contrast as it was said that this would create an interesting visual effect for the viewer. Concerns that where raised included, where it was going to be set, this was the most prolific concern, along with wether it was going to be performance or narrative based.

The result of the feedback was that we really narrowed down the choices for locations and looked into different options and what they offered. We learned that it is hugely important to know the location as without that not much can be planned as it becomes location dependant, this lesson came form the feedback we received, highlighting its importance in our creative process. We also researched the meaning of our song and came to a decision on the narrative of the video.

Separate from the group the feedback highlighted, the successfulness of the brand image we had priced together, given that the most common positive comment was based around it, this gave me the idea to make that a key consideration in the design of my digipak and magazine advert, as I felt that if the audience liked it in the pitch that same success could be represented in those print elements.

Digipak

Given that we had now learned the value in obtaining feedback throughout the process, it was a primary concern form me in that I knew I needed feedback every step of the way form the people that matter (my target audience), this was an idea that helped me create a successful digipak and advert. Early comments on the very first drafts I made were that I needed to de clutter the front panel of my digipak down even further, something that I had not thought of given that I was already conforming to a minimalistic look and feel for the product. The second stage at which I obtained feedback, and the first formal feedback collection was on my first published draft. Feedback on this was very positive and gave me confidence in my idea. People liked the brand consistency throughout the panels on the digipak. Another area that people praised was the cover design, people commented that it represented the band successfully and matched with the design brief we presented in the pitch of 'simple but memorable'. Some areas for improvement were the addition of a record label logo, a catalog number and some other small tweaks. The feedback I received at this stage was invaluable in making my final version as good as it could be. 

Comments on that final version were nearly all completely positive with many people commenting on the professionalism of the design and how all the aspects fit together in a linked manner.

Advert

For this part of the task, which I started after the digipak feedback for the early drafts had been received. I used a similar philosophy in that I took on board the criticise that had been given to me by my target audience and implemented a range of changes that I had carried out on my digipak, this meant that the feedback for the first published draft of my advert was largely positive with similar comments being made as those for the digipak. a new issue did however arise, due to the fact that the advert is bigger than the digipak the level of text separation and font size was commented on in much of the feedback I received. I then resolved this, meaning that the feedback on my final version was largely good.

Video

As with the other aspects, we relied on feedback from the beginning of the process. This feedback was largely collected via face to face conversations with our target audience, finding out what they liked and disliked about our video every step of the way, the feedback we were receiving was based around the fact that they liked the framing and miss en scene as well as the shot styles, they also commented on the fact that some shots were to long. We worked to resolve this and gradually moved closer to what the audience were wanting from our product, by the time that the 1st draft was ready to be shown, we had already built up an idea of what people were likely to say. Some of the predictions proved true, and were subsequently worked on others weren't expected and gave us new ideas on how to go about improving the video. 

Overall, I have learned a lot form the feedback I have received, it has enabled me to make the best products I can and gave us an insight into what people want for our video. However, perhaps the biggest thing you learn from feedback is that when it is positive it gives confidence in you product and has allowed me to carry that forward onto the next one, meaning that I started each product from a position where I had an idea what worked and what didn't 

Evaluation Question 4

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Research and Planning.

Technology was heavily used during this stage, and in many ways was one of the most used tools. I used a MacBook Pro with Retina Display and a Windows PC (Lenovo X1 Carbon and generic desktop) to carry out most of the secondary research on areas such as clothing, video techniques, existing media products amongst many others. The way I got to the answers I was looking for varied and usually included Google (used to search for results about the topic that I was researching, including the images platform), Tumblr (for finding images and posts relating to various topics), Wikipedia (For looking up aspects of my research usually filming techniques or narrative theorists and such like), UK Tribes (This was essential in determining our target market), YouTube (another essential piece of software for looking into existing media products). I then used Keynote/Pages and PowerPoint/Word (to present the research). Blogger was also used to publish my research on the internet so that it could be assessed and to make it easier to look through. The web browsers I used were Google Chrome, Safari and Firefox

Ancillary Tasks production
Photoshop CC (and CS6 at school) was used primarily to create my digipak and magazine advert as this software makes it easy to move items and create visuals. I used disk wizards to download a template so that I find need to add all the measurements in. I also used an online barcode generator to make a custom barcode so that my digipak was more professional. All of this software was run on a MacBook Pro Retina, Windows PC (Lenovo X1 Carbon and generic desktop) and iMac and when a web browser was required Safari, Google Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge was used. Other software such as Keynote, PowerPoint, Word, Pages, Preview and few others were used in passing. As with the R&P section Blogger was used throughout this section.

Construction
Pre-production
For the pre production element of the video we used a range of iPhones (5,5s,6s Plus) to develop the storyboard and test the shots, we also used the phones to create images of the storyboards we created in oder to post them on Blogger so that they could easily be found and referred back to. In addition to this the iPhone 6s Plus was used to create an 'animatic' for both the storyboards in order to give a closer representation of what the video would look like. To edit these videos, we used Final Cut Pro X and Adobe Premiere Pro CC as well as iMove, the software was run on a range of computers, MacBook Pro Retina, Windows PC (Lenovo X1 Carbon) and iMac. These 'animatic' videos were then uploaded to youtube and embedded into a blogger post.

Production
During the production phase, we used a variety of technologies the most important of which was the iPhone 6s Plus we used for filming, our entire video was shot on this device using a mix of the standard Apple camera application, and FiLMiC Pro (a professional camera application allowing manual controls for aspects such as focus and exposure), this application allowed us to create the fade in shots and lock the exposure so that it wouldn't auto just in the video. The application makes the video form the iPhone 6s Plus DSLR quality. I then used a Microsoft Surface, an Apple iPad or a MacBook Pro Retina to review the footage and ensure the quality of what we were taking. We also used a battery operated LED light in order to better the lighting (a tool that was crucial, given that we were filming during the dark). A further technology we used was Apple Music (or Spotify) to stream the song so that the actors could sing to they music (this also made it easier to edit as I was able to match the music to the sound on the editing software in post production). We used an iPhone 4 and 5 for this part, in some cases paired to a speaker. Blogger was also used

Post Production
This phase required a high amount of technology, due to the nature of what it entails, firstly we used Final Cut Pro X in combination with Adobe Premiere Pro CC (for some effects) to edit the video, using iMovie to import the raw footage (or directly into Adobe Premiere Pro CC on PC) from the iPhone 6s Plus it was taken on. The editing software was run on a MacBook Pro Retina, Windows PC (Lenovo X1 Carbon), iMac and Mac Pro. These machines were chosen due to the fact that they could provide enough performance to edit efficiently. We used the combination of the software with the hardware we chose in order to make our video visually exciting, and make it as close to established media products as we could. Other technologies we used during post production was Apple iTunes, this was essential as we needed to purchase the song in order to use it in our video. I also made use of Bang & Olufsen BeoPlay H8 headphones to tune the audio of the video.

Support Technologies And Evaluation
We also used other technologies that supported the categories above such as Twitter, this was used to Tweet as the band in order to create a more authentic feel, Vimeo, a video platform that we aloud posted our video to, bing (in order to search for some items), Adobe Lightroom CC (in order to edit photos for the blog and twitter) and Squarespace for the logo.
For my evaluation I used a range of different presentation services and products, such as Adobe Photoshop, Infogram, Word/Scribd and PowerPoint/Slideshare.

Evaluation question 1- Draft

Music video:

We wanted to make a narrative music video where the main story of the song is shown in an easy way for the audience to understand. We didn’t want to have instruments because we thought that the song would be better staged as a narrative than a performance. We are developing the conventional forms of media and what is perceived to be ‘normal’ in the music industry.

Traditionally the genre of music we are doing normally have a performance style video with the examples of the Oasis, Wonderwall where they are performing the video as a band. Other videos such as the Verve, Bitter Sweet Symphony is a video we looked at and likes the idea of having the lead singer walk down the street, but instead of having people around him have it just the band member.  

We developed this shot in the Verve video by doing a long walking shot of the main individual and developing it slightly as we decided to put shots in between it so it isn’t just one big continuous walk through of a large part of the song. We did many different types of shots which developed and challenged the forms and conventions of real media products, for example using the close ups, mid shots and long shots. This was so the audience could get a feel for the band and who the stars of the video are. Also having more shots of one of the artists will get the audience to recognise which of the artists is the most important to the band and the video.  

Digipak and advert:

When I researched what to put on my digipak and the ideas for it I struggled to find something that I would really like to use for my digipak. In the end I found something, it was the simplistic idea of the pet shop boys, actually. I really like this album cover because it is simplistic and easy to look at on the eye. If it is this then it is then better for the audience who are the people that are going to buy it. I feel like this idea challenges the conventions of real media products because normally bands have more going on within their CD covers but because mine is very bare and not very busy this means that there is more chance that people will like it. People will like it because there isn’t much of it to take in therefore it won’t make them think too much about it because there isn’t much too it, this simplistic idea gives my digipak an advantage against others because people who have used complex idea will have lots going on within their digipak, this means that the people who are going to purchase this digipak or album might not enjoy being bombarded with lots of different colours and designs. A good example of a simple digipak that fits in with the style of mine is the digipak for the Mumford and Sons album, Sigh No More.  There is a simplistic design to this but there is also a bit of writing on the back, where I have put my most writing.

While researching for the magazine advert I found lots of adverts for bands such as Kings of Leon, Kasabian and the Foo Fighters. They all are similar because they all have the same picture on the front as the album cover does when the album actually comes out. For example the Foo Fighters have the FF on the front surrounded by a red circle and in front of a metal sheet. In this case I think I have used the ideas from existing media products because for my magazine advert I decided to use the front cover picture of my digipak as my magazine advert a long with having ‘OUT NOW’ below this. This gives the image of the digipak and album in the heads of readers of the magazines which means that if they see it In a shop then they will recognise it and pick it up to look at it. This is why lots of famous bands and artists use the same image from the album cover on the magazine advert to make it look like the album and make it look recognisable for potential buyers and fans.

Overall I feel that I developed different media products in the music video, using different ideas and shot types in order to gain a better grade and make a better video. This is different to the Digipak where I challenged but also used different ideas from already made digipaks in order to get the ideas and develop my own digipak. For the magazine advert I used the ideas from a few different magazine adverts that have excisted for a long time in order to get the best mark and to gain experience needed for the making of my own magazine advert which will show the band in the best and most individual way. 

Evaluation Question 2- Draft

How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

For my main product, our task was to make a music video which represented a type of music and the kind of artists that play this kind of music. The ancillary texts we had to make to go along side this main product was a Digipak and a magazine advert for the made up band and the new music they are bringing out.

We are doing the Indie style of music. The indie style of music should reflect the latest bands and trends in the music business and the bands around at the time. It also must reflect the people who listen to the music and buy the tracks and the albums as these are the people who buy the albums.

When designing my advert and digipak I hadn’t got a very clear idea of what I was going to do. So when my first draft wasn’t very good I had to do a total revamp of the whole thing.

When I came across the Pet shop boys, Actually cover I thought this would be a good cover to use as an example because the cover is quite basic but looks very good and quite affective. I wanted to get this kind of band style into the digipak and magazine advert because the band that we are doing the music video from is this indie style.

This research I have done into this Digipak along with magazine adverts made me believe that I had found many different form of media convention that Indie genre’s use with magazine adverts or album covers. My digipak was a four panel with the front, back covers and the inside left and right. I have a picture of the band on the front which is very isolated so that the audience can focus on them while they are looking at my digipak. The centre image is the picture of the band which is organised so they are all wearing white shirts so they look like they are a ‘unit’ or a group of individuals who are friends and can work together to make good music.

Indie style is not the easiest thing to relate to a digipak and to relay this information to the audience and buyers was the most crucial thing in order to get the people to want to listen to the music and purchase the digipak. When I was making my Digipak I didn’t think much how it would fit into my video because our video is quite unique but also my Digipak is quite unique but in different ways. The way that both the video and the digipak are unique means that my work links in to also being unique, this unique style also links into the ‘indie’ genre of music that we have with both the style of music and the style of my digipak and music video both being quite individual. If i had to complete the Digipak section of the coursework then I would find more individual and Indie bands album covers in order to copy some sort of styling from these which would take my grade higher than it is. I feel like my research for the magazine advert was very minimal and just used the front cover of my digipak in order to make it look the way that I wanted it too.   

Overall I feel that I use the individuality of my digipak and Advert and mixed that with the ideas we had for the video and I feel like the two mix well to show a good idea of an indie band and music video. 

Evaluation Question 3- Draft

What have you learned from you audience feedback?





For my digipak I got lots of feedback after I had done my very first digipak. This was without doing much research into digipaks and the way that they should look and how well they are set out. For example some feedback I got from my peers in my class including Milo who said that my digipak ‘needed more consistency throughout the whole thing.’ This is exactly the same as what Charlotte said about my digipak. Some positive things that were said were that the song names are very creative and fit the indie genre that I am doing well. These feedbacks made me feel like I needed to do more research into a better target area and maybe find a digipak or album cover to replicate. This is what I did for my digipak after this and got better feedback from Nathan Beard who said ‘It looks better now that you have done more delicate research into good examples that you can replicate’ This feedback was good for me because it meant that I had more confidence in the Digipak.  

I got other feedback that I got from other people in my class. For example charlotte also said that my font wasn’t the best throughout the whole digipak so the idea was from this was to change the fonts in order to make it look better and more professional on the top of the rest of the digipak. This is why I have changed the font on my new digipak in order to get a better grade.

Other feedback that I got from Rebecca, she said that I had put the logo of the band on the digipak too many times, it was a good idea to use it but I used it too much. This feedback was good because it made me see that I did use it too much. On my new digipak I didn’t think that it fit in with the new simplistic style so I decided not to use the logo at all.

Evaluation Question 4- Draft

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

For the planning stages of the video, I used some different methods in order to get the best ideas possible for the music video. For example to get ideas for the timings of the video I used YouTube on the internet in order to find the video we are doing, Undercover Martyn by two door cinema club, in order to get the right timing of the shots and the right kind of shots we need to do in order to make a certain successful and accurate video. We also did a storyboard in so we could order the shots and make a different kind of video to the original one. The story board was important for us because we needed to set out a basic plan of shot ideas and camera angles. To get the story across in a more animated style we have done an animatic which shows the story but into a digital format which will show a better interpretation of the video without having to actually see the way that the video is going to be shot and the way that it is ordered. Also I used the twitter and Facebook app in order to gain different inspiration from different sources.

I used blogger in order to keep up to date with progress that I had made in the research and planning stage of the video. Blogger allowed me to post different ideas, and to keep up with the information that I am getting from different media products. I found that blogger was an excellent way in order for me to keep organised in the process of going through the research and planning of my music video and digipak. I found that blogger was also a great way of me getting feedback, not just from the teacher but from my peers and classmates that wanted to comment on any work or any research that I have done.

For the construction stage of the music video, while we were filming we used the camera from an iPhone 6s Plus which shoots at 4k resolution also we used an app called FiLMiC Pro which gave us manual control for exposure and focus and other aspects of effects. This made the process of filming and editing more simplistic for us because it was easier to get the footage from the Phone onto the laptop, which is where we were doing the editing.  Also for the filming stage of the music video, we used a LED light which helped us because we did our filming in the dark; the light helped us to light up the area that we were using. The light also helped to show better facial expressions and change the atmosphere of the video and how the performers were reacting to the music. For the editing stage of constructing the music video, we used Final Cut Pro X which helped us to edit the video and get the best finish for the video.

For the planning stages of my digipak I used Google and Google images in order to get pictures and ideas of the different digipaks that are out there. The ideas I got are from the internet with research from Google and from different ideas I got from displays in the media classroom.

For the construction of my digipak and my advert I used a windows PC which featured the Photoshop software. This software allowed me to create a good and authentic digipak and magazine advert. There are professional tools and effects that can be used on the pictures. For my digipak I used the cut tools in order to cut out a photo of the three band members which then was my front cover and the main image on the magazine advert. I also used the rectangle tools In order to create white backgrounds which I then made completely white so that the digipak all looked professional. I also used the text tools which allowed my too write on the digipak.

Overall I believe that technology was vital for creating the music video and the digipak and magazine advert. Without these key pieces of technology then I wouldn’t have been able to create the kind of work that I did.

Inspiration For New Digipak

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4

As a group, we frequented on YouTube in order to find the common conventions in existing indie music videos. It was also helpful in all aspects in giving us ideas for set locations, shot lengths, shot ideas and the type if video we wished to try and create. Our main source if inspiration was "Undercover Martyn" by Two Door Cinema Club.  After collecting ideas we made a storyboard which enabled to to see visually the direction we wished to take our video. It was also useful in letting us find out what equipment we were going take need and if our video was feesable. An animatic was also created in order to help the group be able to visualise the final video and see the development of what we had already created.


All members of our group found that Blogger was a useful tool in acquiring feedback from our audience. It also meant we were able to post the continued progress of creative journey. At any point we were able to go back and change or develop our blog posts if we had altered or thought of something new. Our audience were able to post any concerns or feedback they had thought of from viewing our post about the development of our product. As previously discussed this feedback was vital in creating a successful finished video.
For the filming we used the camera from an iPhone 6s Plus which shoots at 4k resolution also we used an app called FiLMiC Pro which gave us manual control for exposure and focus and other aspects of effects. Then few tools the app posed were no match for some of the cameras the other groups were using but we thought that this may actually give our video an edge over others. Other groups may be tempted to use all of the features at their disposal which could lead to them over complicating their video and end up with a confusing or clustered music video. From the reap search, these are very much things you want to avoid when trying to appeal to music audiences especially those in the indie genre. Whilst filling in the dark the LED light we were using was very helpful in lighting the set and allowing us to create the right mind and vibe for each shit that we desired. The additional lighting was also good when filming close-ups, the fact that the audience can clearly see the band members facial expressions is vital in creating the sense of intimacy between them and the band which can help emote certain feelings in the viewer.  Final Cut Pro X helped us to edit the video and get the best finish for the video and create the look we were attempting to re-create in other videos we had seen. Spotify was used to stream the song whilst we were filming so that those performing were able to hear it and sing in time. it also proved useful when getting an idea of shot lengths for each part of our video. Nathan was then able to match the music to our footage whilst editing the video which made the post-production phase slightly easier.


The photoshop software on the Windows PC I was using was the only tool I used whilst creating both my digipaks and magazine advert. This software possessed all elements I needed during this process. Most notably the cut tool, which enabled me to edit images I had taken or found to my desired effect. The colour wheel was useful whilst searching for the colour i was going to use on my digipak. It offered me countless variation of all colours to use; this was an important decision because I had to consider my bands representation. using the wrong colour could mislead audiences that my band is something that it isn't and may deter certain people from listening/viewing/purchasing the album. Both the vertical and horizontal text boxes were also very useful when creating the layout of my album cover. It was especially important to my product as the text is the centrepiece of the product and is the main attraction to audiences/passers by. The macbooks were also useful to me during my evaluation process so that i was able to write up my questions. I used other presentation formats available to me on the computer in order to bring my evaluation together. These formats included: Prezi, Youtube and Scribd. The aim was to provide and original and differing way of presenting my work to not only make it interesting to read, but to also show-off my media skills.
Overall, I feel that the technology I used during this creative process were central to the finished products. Without these pieces of software or programmes I wouldn't have been able to develop my ideas in the way I did and to create these products without these technologies would have been virtually impossible. 

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 1

Updated Storyboard

Storyboard:

Animatic:

*UPDATE: ANIMATIC RE-UPLOADED DUE TO COPYRIGHT ISSUES*

Original Video:

Update - Story Board

Today we have been refining our new story board as we changed our idea quite significantly form the original plan. This has been a lengthily process as it requires a lot of ideas and creativity as well as focus in order to get a good story board, in the next could of days it will be posted on the blog and we will complete an 'animatic' version of it.

Picture: Shot ideas we were coming up with

Creative Journey

1)      The idea I started with was having a picture of a Small Ruin in a forest.

2)      Then I had an idea of having just a picture of a forest or the idea of having the front cover based on nature.

3)      Having a trippy image on the front cover was one of my ideas.

4)      I decided to not do a nature or trippy image and copy a very simplistic idea of having the band members on the front of the magazine. I have taken Ideas from the Album cover of mystery by Brent McCollough with the black and white colour scheme and the simplicity of just having the artist with the name of the album and the name of the artist on it.

5)      For my digipak I was going to use the three pictures of band members on it. This is important because it gives the band members so kind of identity.

6)      Where some of my ideas came from was the album cover to the Pet shop boys, please. The simplicity and the gap between the picture and the writing of the name of the band and album.

7)      Another of my main helpers and tips came from the Pet Shop Boys album, actually. This is because of the simplistic nature of the piece and the way that the two members of the band have been cut out and placed against a white background.

8)      Jay-z’s ‘the black album’ was something I used for the font types and the idea of having the album name below the name of the group or artist.

9)      The two Weezer album covers have been very influential because of the simplicity of the two pieces. The idea of having just the band members on the cover is one I took and I was also interested in the way that they had the same kind of font for both the albums and that they use it in a good way.

10)   ACDC highway to hell I used as an example for the way the name of the band and album is set out. I was contemplating having the name of the album below the image and the name of the band above the image.

11)   The backstreet boys album cover is one I like because of the simplicity but also it has the band members and then the name of the band above it. I took the idea of the band members onto my digipak.

12)   The razorlight album cover is one of my main influences; this is because it is very simplistic. Having the band with the white background behind it was very appealing just like the Pet shop boys albums. I was contemplating having the band name in large like on the Razorlight album but that would have made it too close to it so I went against that idea. 

13)   The ‘Our Last Night’ album was going to be used as inspiration as I was contemplating using the black or white background but with then the band members on the strips with a different colour.

14)   This is the image I have used for the front cover of the band members. What I did was cut each member out one by one and added them to a white background.

15)   The white line which I am going to use as part of the album title, as a separator between the name of the band and the album.

16)   The different fonts I could have used for the name and title of the band and album respectively.

17)   The colour panel I used for the album. Very basic and simplistic as this is the kind of feel I wanted for my album.

18)   The finished Digipak. 

New Band Member Recruited

We have now been able to cast a replacement band member for Max (who is now permanently unavailable). And he will be introduced to the song and video ideas today ready for filming tomorrow.
We contacted a significant number of potential candidates, many candidates weren't available for briefing and filming on the three day we had chosen and therefore were unsuitable for the role.
In the end we narrowed it down to two candidates and chose Louis Grocott for the role.
We are happy with this decisions and see Louis to be a valuable addition to the team.

Creative journey // Nathan Beard

Band Member Permanently Unavailable

Due to a change in circumstances one of our band members is now unavailable to film anything by the deadline, and we are therefore having to re-cast that part which will be a challenge this close to the deadline (less than a week). However we are putting in every effort to make this possible and make the transition form one to another seamless.

Final Advert

FINAL DIGIPAK

Filming Dates

We have decided that we are going to film on the 26th and 27th of November, this will be at the location we plan to shoot in Leicester City Centre. The shots will be taken in places similar to those in the location mood bards of the urban environments, the lighting for our video is a mixture between sundown type lighting and darker more night like lighting. For this reason we are going to film from about 5PM until we finish with the shots we need on each day.
One of our band members is unavailable on one of the days so all of the shots relating to him will be done on the 27th.

The test shots taken on 20/11/15 were not of satisfactory quality and will only be used to demonstrate a vague representation of the ideas we have.

Filming Plan

Today we are planning to film for the draft music video, due to the fact that two of the band members are unavailable for filming today we are filming the lead singers parts. so that we can get some feedback on the style of video.

• The idea of the filming is to get a feel for the concepts that we are using and decide wether they are to be used in the final video.

2nd draft digipak

2nd draft digipak poster

Responding To feedback // Nathan Beard

This was my first draft for this style:

The feedback i received on my digipak was primarily focused around the positioning of some items. The items that needed repositioning where:

• The Logos of the band and record label on the left inside cover needed making smaller. 
• The record label logo on the back cover needed moving to the other side.
• The 'welcome' text on the inside left cover needs aligning better.

Other comments that where made:

• Could do with more songs.
• Needs a catalog number on the margin.
• legal information needs adding to the bottom of the back cover.
• Change the word 'digipak' to album and change 'The SmallRuin Team' to SmallRuin.

This was the resulting digipak with the changes made:

I changed most of the aspects that where commented on however I decided that I didn't need to change the amount of songs, as I think that it sits better with less songs, as the version I tried looked cluttered due to the blue blobs being to regular.

Original Poster

The feedback I received was that that the design was good, and that I should try some of the following versions:

• Move the 'SmallRuin' script above the album name.
• Try one with the record logo on.
• Correct the spelling error.

New poster 1:

New poster 2:

My personal preference out of the above options would be the 3rd so the 2nd new one (with  the record label logo) as this promotes the record label as well as the new album. 

Responding to Feedback- Ben Wakeford Digipak

Front cover, Picture was just of the lead singer and the text was slanted across the top of the singer’s head.  On my new front cover I changed the picture to accommodate the whole band. The band are cut out with the lasso tool on Photoshop.  I used the rectangle tool in order to get a white background on the front cover then used the colour overlay in order to make the background look the whitest it can be. I also changed the name of the album to make it sound better; I changed it from the Undercover Martyn to Expensive Sound. This is because Expensive sound is one of the names of the songs and I thought it sounded better to me. I changed the Font type to Calibri because this is a simpler font and it is easier to read than the slanted font over the artist.

Back, on my first draft the back cover was a black background which I did using the rectangle tool on the back cover. I then used text boxes in order to make the song names. On my new digipak I changed the back cover to not have the numbers down the side and just have the names of the songs; this makes it easier to read. I also took the ‘Small Ruin’ away from the top of the list because people would already know the band is called that. The back is now very simplistic like the rest of the digipak.

Tray disk, On the first tray disc I had one of the Small Ruin logo’s. I changed this from the disc because it was just a bit too much for the viewers to take so I changed it to a plain white background using the rectangle tool. On top of the white background I had the address to the Facebook, Twitter and online pages.

On the extra panel, I had that the it was the Small Ruin debut album. I also had a few reviews from people and magazines in music. On the new digipak I scrapped the extra panel and just had four panels.     

Inside left, On the inside left of my old digipak I had the name of the Band and the names of all the band members. Also I had a message from the band, I decided to take these off because the message was a bit ‘cringy’ and wasn’t needed. This is one of the sides that I took off because of the needlessness of the panel.

Inside Centre, On the inside centre of my old digipak there was a picture of the band. I decided to take this out on my new digipak because of the picture of the whole band being on the front cover. 

Plan of Action (02/11/15 - 08/11/15)

This week the emphasis is on reacting to feedback on our digipaks and adverts. We will also be filming more shots for our testing and planning, this will give us all chance to get used to our roles. There will also be a big push to learn all the lyrics for the song that we are doing and become familiar with the thinking behind our video in order to make the end product look better thought out.

This weeks tasks for the group members are:

Nathan Beard

• Get used to the equipment involved in the video
• learn the words to the song. 
• Gather an understanding of the video concepts.

Joe Ford

• Learn the words to the song.
• Plan the clothing that needs to be ready for the final shoot.
• Gather an understanding of the video concepts.

Ben Wakeford

• Learn the words to the song.
• Plan the clothing that needs to be ready for the final shoot.
• Gather an understanding of the video concepts.

There will be no more weekly updates or plans of action from this week onward, as the aims will be to get our video done and finalizing the research and planning. 

10 Music Videos That I Like

1. 'Still D.R.E.' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CL6n0FJZpk
2. 'Bad Blood' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo
3. 'These Days' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I43R3jIFE74
4. 'Hear You Me' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snyk8vQD3Vw
5. 'I Am Who Am' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLTOuvBTLxA
6. 'HYFR' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KCWqnldEag
7. 'Lucky Man' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH6TJU0qWoY
8. 'Banquet' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdkmhquF60o
9. 'Misread' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOxE7IRizjI
10. 'Alright' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-48u_uWMHY

Digipak Poster

Digipak Booklet

Digipak

Magazine Advert

Digipak

Album cover analysis

Plan of Action (19/10/15 - 25/10/15)

This week we will begin filming test shots for our video, this will allow us to evaluate wether the people we have are good enough to successfully be in the video, this will also give us an opportunity to see how the different shots we have planned work.
We will also be completing any changes that needed making for our final digipaks and magazine adverts along with any pull outs.

This weeks tasks for the group members are:

Nathan Beard

• Plan the test shoot (location, members, time, camera)
• Make the changes to the digipak.
• Make the changes to the magazine advert.
• Make the changes to the pull out for the digipak.
• Edit the footage from the test shoot.
• Upload the test footage on to YouTube.
• Write the evaluative post on the test footage.
• Write up the weekly update post.

Joe Ford

• Make the changes to the digipak.
• Make the changes to the magazine advert.
• Make the changes to the pull out for the digipak.
• Attend the test shoot

Ben Wakeford

• Make the changes to the digipak.
• Make the changes to the magazine advert.
• Make the changes to the pull out for the digipak.
• attend the test shoot

Pull Out For Digipak Draft 1 // Nathan Beard

Magazine Advert Draft 1 // Nathan Beard

Digipak Draft 1 // Nathan Beard

Organizing Props

In order to film our music video successfully we need to organise the props prior to filming.
The nature of our video means that we don't need to use many props, however there are a few items that we require:

• Guitars (we plan to get these from the music department and a group member that owns one)

• UV paint (we will buy this on Amazon)

• UV light (we plan to buy this on Amazon)

• Speaker for when we need to play the music in the street (a group member owns one)

Most of the props are either already owned or can be ordered for next day delivery.