Final cut of our music video

Final Cut from WGSB on Vimeo.

Final Ancillary Products

Evaluation Question 4

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

When we began our media project, we had to do in depth research to ensure that we made products that would fit in with today's existing products. We used the platform youtube to find existing music videos, to analyse and look at for inspiration. We also used the internet to do research into existing digipak's, magazine adverts and other information

The equipment we needed for filming was; a camcorder, a camera, a tripod and a tape. We took our footage and then using an apple computer and the software Final Cut we edited the footage, and put the audio track with it to create a music video. Below I have shown how we used Final Cut to create our music video.

Link: Editing

I have identified and evaluated the ways in which I created products, but other software was used by other members of my group, for example Hennie used Photoshop to complete the digipak, and Kelsey used Dreamweaver to create the website.

Evaluation Question 3

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

When we set out to create this music video, we obviously wanted it to be as professional looking as possible, we wanted people to look at our product and be impressed with it, and respond to it like they would a real music video. So throughout the process of creating the music video we had helpful feedback from our teacher in ways to improve the product, which resulted in our final cut. I have documented our teachers opinions on our music video throughout this project, which has helped us developing and changing it, her opinion on our rough cuts, and her opinion on our storyline. Her knowledge and understanding of the media industry has helped us to create a successful product which our group can be proud of.

We posted our final cut of our music video on a social networking site to gain comments from teenagers within our target market of 17-30, there were female comments as well as male comments, giving our group a wide spectrum of viewers reactions to the video.


Below I have typed out some of the comments into quotes:

Hannah Hills: ( aged 17) 'verrrry good and professional my dear, and the strobe lighting was really good' Kristina Wu:(aged 18) 'The clowns pretty scary and I love hennie's reaction lol' Conor Keappock: (aged 17) 'It's wicked, although I don't really like the blink effect on some of the shots . I really like the idea and the stop start style shots when the clown make-up is going on. It fits really well with the song title and the style of the song, as it too is very sudden and stop starty. Very good.' Matthew Moore: (aged 17) 'Pretty amazing, and i liked the sitting in the chair bits.Clown was a bit scary, really good' Aimee Durham:( aged 17) 'That clown was scary!I think the story line was good, very well shot and i thought the strobe lighted bit was awesome' Hennie's reaction wins though' Tom Martin: (aged 19) 'Its well edited, lighting and composition of shots are good, has good continuity though out, the random shot of you in London didn't really make sense. The narrative is fairly easy to understand, it would probably be better with more shots and different locations just to split it between the constant narrative (maybe some establishing or performance shots) as it seems that you reused a lot of the same material u had, but overall a good video.' Nicola Kinnear: (aged 17) 'I really love the opening strobe section, very cleverly done' Jack Osman: (aged 17) 'Very good. The editing is sublime, particularly in the introduction. Additionally i think the casting works particularly well' Elle Kitchener: (aged 18) 'So much better than your rough cut. It's more exciting now and gripping. Very clever some of the camera work, shows skill. well done'

I think the reaction was incredibly positive, and shows that it was definitely a good decision to develop the introduction of the video from the first rough cut to the final video, the strobe lighted shots have high impact, and open the video with exciting, fast paced gripping shots, sure to captivate an audience, and secure their interest in the video and the music. Obviously there are always improvements to be made which has been highlighted by our feedback, some more locations could be used, the blink effect perhaps did not work as well as we thought, and some performance material could have been used perhaps lip syncing.

"It reminds me a bit of Vlad the Impaler, think its because of the dark story and the camera shots"

- This is a key quote as the music video Vlad the Impaler was a huge inspiration for our video.

Evaluation Question 2

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

Evaluation Question 1

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

Below are nine key shots from our music video, which have been annotated, and compared with existing media products to show how we have used, developed and challenged forms and conventions of real mediai products :

Video Links: CSS - Alala, Prodigy- Breathe, Delphic - Doubt, Two Door Cinema Club - I Can Talk, Kasabian - Vlad the Impaler, Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down

Video Links: Sin City, Armand Van Helden - Signs

Video Links: Requiem for a Dream, Matrix

Bellow I have portrayed how we have used, challenges and developed forms and conventions of existing media products when we created our ancillary products:

Final Digipak

We kept the design of the digipak very minimalistic to mirror our minimalistic approach to both the video and the website. We kept the colours in black and white, again mirroring the desaturated video, and creating a striking contrast between the pale skin and white flower with the jet black hair, makeup and eyes, it is a very artistic approach which we think our target audience would find appealing. We kept the font simple using only two types, we used a simple list format on the back of the cover for the track list, and copyright detail at the bottom alongside a bar code which again creates a sense or realism to the product.

The inside of the digipak is again in black and white linking to the video and the website. The photograph on the left hand side is taken from the woods, linking with the video, and is the image used for the background of the website. The same font is used on the disc as the front cover creating consistency throughout the product.

Hennie used her photo shop skills to make the digipak 3D, to portray how the digipack would like if it was actually constructed properly, this give our final digipak design a sense of realism

Individual responsabilities

When we first got into a group Rakhee, Hennie, Kelsey and I all decided that we wanted to contribute to our music video and ancillary task, we all wnated to be part of the creative decisions as well as the practical decisions. We all did our individual research and conducted our own experiments to show each other, but no decision was made without it beign run through every member of the group. However as we all had so much work to do we naturally had to take on individually responsabilities, the table below states the responsabilities we all took on, and why we did.

Final Magazine Advert

This is the final advert for our digipak, you can see how itl inks directly to the digipak, the font and images used all correlate well, creating identification and a set house style between our products. You can also see how it has developed from the first magazine advert I created, I have added hmv and bridge nine record labels to the bottom ot the poster to give the magazine advertisement a authentic edge. I have also added the bands website address, and name of their leading record label 'Kitsune' to the bottom of the page. Furthermore I have made the banners slightly transparent, which gives the poster a more sophisticated and stylised look, used to entice our target market to buy the album. The critics opinions are also used as a marketing tool to persuade the target market to purchase the album.

I have personally decided to hand this in as my final peice rather than the website, as our group did all three ancillary tasks we all have the freedom to choose which ones we would like to hand in.

Magazine Adverts

These are a few images of magazine adverts that I have researched. They are are quite simplistic, with a main image which usually corresponds directly to the digipak they are advertising, more often than not the image used is the same image used on the digipak. The name of the artist is in the largest font, to capture their audience, and the font of the text is usually the bands trademark font, or logo. There is then limited information in smaller font simply stating the name of the album, the singles included, the date it is released, sometimes there are critics opinion or tour dates at the bottom. The artists website is usually placed in the bottom corner of the poster in small text, with logos of the albums representation.

Overall Shooting Schedule

Final Website

Link to Live Website

You can see above how the website that Kelsey has made corresponds to the conventions of an existing band website beside it. The formating is very similar, with the boxes in the centre of the page breaking up the information, making it easy to read and asses the page.

Kelseys website has the conventional links associted with band websites 'Home', 'News', 'Blog' and'Video'. There is also a log in bar for people who are members of the fan club, which is a convention used on many websites to increase identification between the band and their fans.

Our music video also features on the page, the viewer is able to stop, forward, rewing, play and enlarge the video, making it incredibly easy for viewers to rewatch the video, or watch it whilst doing other tings online.

The website kelsey has created is incredibly proffessional looking and links in well with the black and white colour scheme that is used throughout all our products. The text also links to the digipak, creating an identifiable house style.

Second Website Idea

So from the first website idea of the black and white theme we changed the background to grey and the font a simplistic black and white. In addition I have changed the layout of the website, now it is more central. At the top there is a mock up of what I thought about having to show the link between the video and the website, but this image my change as it need to be more powerful. Also we made button to link to other pages. We thought that rollover button would look good on the web page as when the user moved over the button it will turn white and whatever page they are on the button will be white. To create the rollover button we made two images in Photoshop.

Second Rough Cut

Untitled from Jack Osman on Vimeo.

The second rough cut got a lot more praise, especially for the introduction, which gives the video a powerful and exciting introduction sure to grab the viewers attention. However our teacher though that by having all the video in black and white we were detracting from the horror of the clown. She liked how at the end the mask changes from black and white to colour as though the fantasy of the video has finally been realised, but she said it would be a more effective video if more shots of the clown where in colour, especially the closeups of the clowns face. She also thought that the introduction was slightly out of time so needs to be tightened up.

The general reaction from pupils in our media class was that the introduction has definitley improved the video, and made it more exciting.

Magazine Adverts

The image above is from an issue of NME, a well known music magazine which our band Two Door Cinema Club is heavily associated with. I really liked the design of this advertisement, I thought it was really eye catching, and interesting, not only does it detail the realease of a debut single, but it also details a few tour dates. Below I have made a response to his magazine adertisement.

Below is another magazine advertisment I created individualy, without inspiration from another magazine advertisement.

Despite us only having to two ancillary tasks, our group decided to expand our skills onto all three of them in draft, as to make an informed decision once we have finished our project. These are two rough magazine advertisements for Two Door Cinema Club's album 'Tourist History'. We have used the photographs from the mock up digipak covers to create a clear link. Again the structure and colours are simplistic and sophisticated, playing off the stunning contrast of black and white.

Website

This is the first rough draft of our website, it links in well with the website research, as most band websites have a dark background and simplistic pale writing.

Shooting Schedule

Today we will be re-shooting some of the bath room scenes, this will consist of:
- Extreme closeups of me applying makeup.
- Extreme closeups of me applying clown makeup
- Closeup of my face with and without clown makeup
- A medium and a long shot of me turning to look at Hennie with clown makeup on
- A point of view shot from Hennie's position of me.
- An establishing shot of me and Hennie in the bathroom together

Hopefully once we have completed the bathroom scene we will have time to go to the woods location and shoot:
- A point of view shot from the bushes of me walking past
- A shot of the clown in the bushes
- A long shot of me walking through the woods and turning to see the clown (but the clown will be out of shot)

Mood Board

We wanted to portray a sense of fear, confusion and the concept of fantasy vs. reality through our moodboards. It links directly to our final idea, and shows the way in which we want our music video to go.

Website Research

The pictures above are screen grabs of four alternative/indie bands websites, Placebo, Bloc Party, Strokes and Chew Lips. From looking at these screen grabs you can see that all the websites are similarly designed. Like the CD covers, the design is simplistic and sophisticated, the background colours are all dark, with pale writing for a bold eye catching contrast. The content of the homepage is very basic, with either one main photograph and links to other pages, or small pictures of current albums and singles, and touring details. The links are text rather than buttons, keeping with the simplicity of the designs. The main links are at the top of the page in a horizontal line to the 'Tour' page, 'Photos', 'Videos' and 'Band Bio'.

Filming

These are a few pictures taken of us filming in our two locations, the woods and the school bathroom

Choosing the Font

From the research we did, we deciphered that font on album covers in the alternative/indie/rock genre are typically simplistic. I looked at a variety of fonts and found a few that I thought where particularly suitable and striking for our ancillary tasks.

This was the font that stood out the most for me, I think it has clear simplicity and sophistication, with a masculine edge that would apply well to our target audience of males.

Digipak back cover mock ups

I did not find many pictures of back's of digipak album's, but the ones that I did find where incredibly simplistic, with a simple list of track list, then very small copyright detail at the bottom. So I used two photographs, in grey scale and colour (to show the different effects) as the basic background of the back cover. I used the pictures with the flower in the mouth, as the pale flower is a large and pale platform to put dark text over, and the dark hair is perfect for putting pale text on top of. The last album back cover mockup was an experimental approach, I used a number of photographs together creating a collage effect, and then used slightly transparent banners across the photographs to make the track list, and copyright details easy to read, whilst maintaining the images beneath the text.

Digipak cover mock ups

I used my original images to mock up front covers for the digipak in both colour and black. I used the simplistic text that I found online called montepetrum. The text is discreetly in the corner, and sophisticatedly simple to appeal to my target market of mainly males between the ages of 17 and 30. It has the same Alternative, artistic look of the album covers that I researched. By mocking up a few covers it gives me and my group a chance to look at potential album cover ideas, and decide what we like about my ideas, and what we don't.

Pull In Emergency

This was my favourite album cover that I found, It is by Pull in Emergency. The album cover is very understated, absoloutly no text is present, just a very creative photographed portrait. The idea does relate to the kind of target market they are aiming themselves at, similar to our target market, teenage and young adults interested in alternative music, with a keen eye to style and design. I think that the cover is incredibly eye catching, and has a stylish coolness to it that would capture potential buyers attention, and I think this idea could relate very closely to our music video. I like the idea of a close up portrait in black and white with a creative eyecatching twist like the black tape over the mouth. However despite this cover having absoloutly no text I would like to feature some simplistic, descreet text simply stating the band name. I will use this cover as inspiration for our digipack cover, back and contents.

Illustrated digipak covers

When I was doing my research into digipack covers I cam across a few album covers with illustrated covers.

This made me consider maybe using illustrative work in our digipack osmehow purhaps on the back or on the inside. Below is a painting of a clown that I completed for my portfolio which could be applied to our digipack as it links to the clown theme in our music video. I put the picture in colour and grey scale to show the different effects.

Response to Digipak Cover Research

Inspired by my research into digipack covers I decided to do some self portrait photographs inspired mostly by pull in emergency's cover. I have kept most of the colours gray scale, especially the ones with the heavy makeup, but I keep the last line of photographs in colour because I quite like the black lips against the pale skin tone, and the flower against the skin tone. I wanted the pictures to be eye catching, and they correlate well with the content of the video, I think the pictures give a sense of vulnerability and fear that viewers witness in our music video. Furthermore the overall contrast of black against white links to the desaturated colour of our music video. Also by using the lead character of the music video as the face of the album it again ties a direct link between the music video and the digipack. Also as I have taken a variety of different shots, with different makeup and props as it is a digipak and we may require photographs on the inside and back as well as the front of the digipack, so there is a varied choice of which photographs could go where.

Digipak cover research

As our current task is to create a digipack, I reasearched some digipak covers for rock/indie music, to see what kind of covers are used by bands in similar genre brackets to ours. I created a moodboard of my favourite covers, and concluded from my research that the covers a re quite simplistic, yet artistic. Most do not include photographs of the artists, but stylised photographs of other people. The font is generaly small, descrete and simplistic, and the colour of the fonts are mostly black or white

Hennies' Digipak Back's