MUSIC VIDEO

07. Hasan Mahmood, Syeda Sabrina Ali, Miran Mohtashami from 283goswell on Vimeo.

FINISHED

Finally done with the blogging!!!

Q4

What have you learnt from audience feedback?
Here is a little animation answering that question.
PART 1

Q4 by candimediaset 2 on GoAnimate

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PART 2
Q4 PART 2 by candimediaset 2 on GoAnimate

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And here is a video of the feedback

And here is a GIF showing feedback from facebook and vimeo

pictures to animation

Q3

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

Here is a timeline of the technologies we used briefly outlining what they do.


And here is a video made on Camtasia on how Final Cut was used.

And here is a slideshow on how I used Photoshop

Q2

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

The purpose of creating a music video, digipak and an advert is to sell the album, another purpose is to establish the artist, and creating visual links between each of the products increases the exposure of the artist. The music video adds an extra dimension to the song, which would boost interest levels in the material the artist produces, and the ancillary products help to get the name + image across.

In my opinion, I think the combination of the music video and my ancillary products are very effective because there is a clear visual link between the two.
The artist is featured on all the products which shows that they are all linked together. It also makes the artist one of the key selling points of this album because his image is everywhere and that would help put him over with the target audience.

One of the factors that helps establish a visual link is the camera work, the most dominant shot type in our music video is the medium close up, and the images I chose to use on both the advert and the digipak feature a medium close up of our artist, this helps to establish a clear link between the two products and it would make the image of the artist more memorable. However I adjusted the contrast of the photo for the digipak which gives it a different effect to the shot in the video.

Here is one of the medium close ups of the artist in the music video.

Here is the shot of the artist on the digipak

Another factor which helped to make a link between the video and the ancillary products was the costume and hair, our artist has a unique style as he wears brightly coloured shirts,usually wears a coat, wears glasses and he has a hi-top hair cut. This uniqueness means that our artist will leave an impression so we used his style in the music video and we carried it onto the ancillary products, thus effectively killing two birds with one stone as it helped to establish a visual link and the costume and hair will leave an impression on who ever is viewing the products.

The locations in both products also show a visual link between the video and ancillary products as in the music video, one of the key locations is a forest, and in the background of the digipak also features a forest, This establishes a link between the two because the digipak emphasises the importance of the forest in the music video. This means the audience will see the visible connection between the two products.

Here are a few shots in the forest.

the digipak

In both ancillary products, I kept the fonts the same because in real products, they keep the fonts consistent between two products, as well as that, keeping the fonts consistent between the two products ensures that the two can be visually related to one another. I also kept the colour scheme of the fonts the same.

All these factors combined help create an effective brand image for our artist, which would help attract our target audience. Our target audience are 17-25 year old of all genders who like alternative styles of music , the music video would appeal to our target audience because there are many features of the music video that go against the conventions of a mainstream video and that combined with the unique sound of our artist would attract our target audience. The ancillary products would help attract our target audience because it includes free content and it also has a QR code which our target audience is likely to use because they are likely to own smartphones that enable them to scan those codes. The magazine advert is likely attract a bigger audience than our target audience because the advert features quotes from a well known mainstream producer, Pharrell Williams, the bigger audience would see his comment and that would help gather interest in the artist and the album because Pharrell Williams is quite a big figure in the music industry.

Our target audience is likely to encounter our product on social networking sites such as Facebook and tumblr because our target audience uses those sites frequently and the song could be shared on the sites.The advert would be featured in magazines that would usually focus on independent music.

Here is a prezi that contains a bit more info about visual links.

Q1

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

For our music video, we followed Carol Vernallis theory of having non-continuous edits and going against the standard edit usually seen in film and TV. We did this because we wanted to maintain the audiences interest in the music video. We also added light special effects to our music video following another one of Vernallis points, to make it more visually appealing however we didn't use over the top effects you would usually see in a hip hop video because our song is alternative.  Our music video follows the sub genre of hip hop known as alternative hip hop, where the focus is usually based on intellect and culture rather than wealth and material objects.

For example in this video, there is abundance of lens flares, super fast cuts and the use of a shaking filter every time the bass drops to represent the live fast style most hip hop artists follow, and the use of lens flares, particularly in the shops and in the Las Vegas type area emphasises on the wealth, they use effects to emphasise on their material objects.

An example

In our music video, the effects are used to put more attention on our artist for example we put a saturation filter on to make our artist stand out in dull areas and we used another filter to blur out the background in one part to make the artist stand out. We also applied the saturation filter throughout the video so the background isn’t constantly dull, and it makes the colours more vibrant.  It also shows that our video goes against the mainstream production values of a normal hip hop video because the editing isn't focused on material objects.We also added slow motion to some parts of the video because we wanted the video to have moments that would leave an impact and doing it in slow motion ensures that the viewer would have a good look at that moment. 

Here is a part where slow motion is used. 

                                     

We also edited to the beat so the video can be as fluid as possible and so the audience does not lose interest in the video because they are more likely to be put off by a video that consists of an edit every 5 beats than a video that has an edit every 2 beats. We also followed the point Vernallis made about eye contact, that the artist maintains eye contact with the camera throughout the video, this makes the audience feel more close to the artist because its like the artist is addressing the audience directly.

Our video follows Andrew Goodwin’s theory too because we used the point about disjuncture for our video because our video isn’t a narrative so we don’t follow the illustration point, and our video doesn’t have a deeper meaning so it isn’t amplification, our video just consists of our artist performing and occasionally doing random stuff such as jumping on a post box. We did this because with disjuncture, it’s easier to create a sense of movement so we could maintain the interest of the audience. However, we did use very minor illustration on some parts of the music video in order to add a little emphasis to the lyrics, for example there is a part where he points to his teeth while saying cavity, and another part where he points to his head while saying psychoanalysis. 

This is an example of some of the illustration we used.

Our video doesn't really touch on Laura Mulveys theory because there isn't one female in the video and all the shots are basically him rapping. Another point is that our target audience is a wide range of males and females, so if we featured dismembered images of our artist, males probably would've been put off and if we featured dismembered images of a female, females probably would've been put off and also slightly offended.

Our video is based on 2 music videos, the first one is Lecs Luther, Fish and Chips, this helped influence our video because it helped us choose part of our location and it helped with the performance aspect of our video because in Lecs video, he maintains eye contact with the audience throughout and that helps him connect with the audience. We also looked at the use of camera work in the Fish and Chips video and the camera work really helped Lecs address his audience as he was looking at the camera for most of the video so we thought we'd like to try and use that feature, we were also going to use a similar fish eye filter as Lecs does in his video but unfortunately we were unable to do that. (More details in evaluation q3)

We also looked at Baths - Lovely blood-flow because the video gave us the idea to film in a forest because it gave a cool effect, it also goes against the conventions of a normal hip hop video because they would be usually filmed in an urban type area, we did this because our video was made to compliment the alternative style of the song and it also makes it stand out.  However some parts of our video stick to convention as we film in places with graffiti.

Hannibal Lecter Mask

The costume of our artist also compliments the style of the song and it also goes against the conventions of hip hop video because usually in a hip hop video, the artist would wear clothing that would emphasise on his/her wealth such as designer brand, we made sure our artist wore clothes that matches the unique style of the song. Many artists also tend to wear hi-top trainers and caps, but our artist doesn't. We also added a Hannibal Lector mask to our artist’s attire because we wanted to reference the style of another artist, MF DOOM who and we also used the mask as a motif. It also references the conventions of horror/thriller because in alternative hip-hop songs, they usually contain cultural references and references to other peoples work.

MF DOOM

A digipak is a particular style of packaging that consists of 4 or more panels, and it usually contains bonus content.
Our digipak follows some conventions of a usual hip hop cover, as it features a parental advisory logo, something very common. The font used for the title is also quite similar to many other hip hop covers, many covers of the hip hop genre tend to use bold and thick fonts on there covers. Our digipak also follows the style of many types of genres by having a mid-shot of the artist near to the middle. However our digipak challenges mainstream hip hop album covers by having a forest in the background instead of a city which are usually featured in hip hop album covers.

THE ANCILLARY PRODUCTS

make a gif picture

Skills audit

Now that we have finished the process of making the ancillary products, I feel that my Photoshop skills have improved quite a bit and it reflects in the content I have produced, for example the design I am sticking with now looks a lot better than the original cover I created. I also have been blogging more about the creation of the digipak and advert.

Here is a picture of the digipak I am using now.

Here is the front cover of the digipak I was orignially going to go with. 

Final Ancillary Products

Here is the final versions of my digipak and magazine advert.

Magazine advert

digipak inside

digipak outside

Photoshop Do's and Donts

Before we began the making of our ancillary products, we received a list telling us what to avoid and I followed this list to avoid making a product that looked rubbish. One of the things on the list which was heavily emphasised was not to use filters, because using filters ruined the image and made it look over the top if the filters were not used correctly, another thing not to do was place text across the artists face, because it would be harder to establish the artist if the face is covered.

The things that were good for the ancillary products were to use a clear font, a clear photo and it must be clear from a distance.

editing the advert using photoshop

free gif animator
Here are a few printscreens of the editing process of the advert. The pictures show me copying the digipak front cover onto a black background. Another one of the pictures show the pen feature being used to accurately cut the picture of the artist so I could place it on to the advert. In the end I used a different picture of the artist because the picture I was going to put into the advert came out all grainy. One of the pictures also show me reducing the opacity of the background of the poster so the main writing would be easier to read.

feedback

I posted the music video on to Facebook  the social networking site that our target audience, late teens- early twenties, use quite a lot, and the feedback I got from the target audience was very positive. They commented on the video a lot and the song also received a positive reaction. 

I wasn't able to embed the music video onto Facebook so I  had to post the link. 

more screenshots of editing digipak

gifs
The screenshots mainly show me placing the QR code inside the digipak, me adjusting the contrast of certain features of the digipak such as the artist so the picture looks better and using a feature called selective colour, where I could pick a certain colour and change it, I used that feature quite a lot to make the outside panels look consistent.

Advertisement mock up

For my final idea, I decided to use this one:

I am using this one because it'd give the artist and the album more exposure because the name is repeated alot in the back ground of the poster and the artist would be repeated on the foreground as his picture would be featured on the album cover and the poster. The layout of this idea is also more clear than the other one which would make it easier for the audience to remember.

Advertisement ideas

For the advertisement, using little features from other magazine adverts I have looked at, I used them to come up with a few ideas on how my advert will be laid out.

The first idea was to contain a little screenshot of the album cover below the title, with quotes from critics and a shot of the artist to get his image out there. The bottom of the poster contains details on how and where to get the digipak. Most magazine adverts follow this style of advertising.

The second idea was to  use the front cover of the album in one large image for the advert, with quotes from critics on both sides of the artist and details on where to get the digipak at the top. This style of advertising has also been used a lot too.

Digipak mock up

After receiving feedback regarding the initial idea I had, I decided to start again and I done my mock up for the inside and outside.

Here is the outside of the digipak, The background consists of forest,  and the clothes the artist  is wearing on the digipak is the same as the clothes he wears in the music video, I did this there is a clear link between the digipak and the music video. The font I am going to use for the title also references one of the locations of the music video because the letters contain a skyscraper template.
I also included a sticker stating that the album contains bonus content so more people would be attracted to it.
The back of the album consists of the track listing and another shot of our artist in the  forest.

This is the inside of the digipak, the CD will contain the same background as the  front cover of the digipak only without the artist on it. The background on the inside of the digipak is the name of the album, IVXX repeating , and there is also a track listing with a bit more detail. There is also a QR code on the inside that would allow the user to download a free copy of the music video. 

Photoshop screenshots

Here are some random screenshots of me producing my digipack.

My Digipack update

This is my initial idea, the feedback I got for it was that it was a very creative idea but it would suit a much more established artist. One of the criticisms was that it was hard to make out the artists face, and since this is the debut album that would be a bad thing because the artist needs to be instantly recognised.
I will need to fix my album cover idea to fix this and I need to keep in mind that the artist must be recognisable. 

More Photoshop experimenting

Because I want to cover my artists face in graffiti for the digipack, I thought it would be a good idea to experiment a bit more on photoshop as covering a face would be a difficult task. I used lots of different filters until I got the effect  I was looking for.
This was the result of my first attempt.

this was the original image.

this was the image after I went on photoshop, the paint on the face was too transparent. 

Here is the result of my second attempt.

Here is the original image.

Here is the image after manipulation, The paint looks more opaque than the first one.

After playing with Photoshop for a bit, I realised the effect would look better depending on the artwork I chose to cover the photos face in, so for my final product I am going to have to pick artwork which has lots of colour so it doesnt look translucent. 

album cover mock up

Here is the front and back of the cover I would like to design, because our genre is alternate hip hop I thought itd be best to do something different so I'm going to attempt to cover my artists face in graffiti. The cover also carries several references to the music video we produced such as the location and the artwork.
The feedback I got from Dan was to make sure the albums name stands out a bit more. 

The same theme carries on inside, with the same references to our music video, only there will be a different photo of our artist who will still be covered in graffiti. 

digipak Group Design Ideas

We have decided that all our individual designs should have a colour scheme of black, white ,green and colours that are dominant in the music video so we could establish a link between the video and the digipack. As a group we have decided to call the album IVXX. We have also decided to make a 4 panelled digipak.

The fonts we will be using are:

Urban Jungle

Bright young things