Music Video- Final Cut

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

YouTube/ Band Websites- YouTube was used highly in the research stages as it allowed me to analyse previous music videos. The analysis of music videos was very important in the early stages as it allowed me to review the codes and conventions of other music videos of the artists genre. Band websites were used in a similar but also helped for the planning of the digipacks and posters as i could see what other artists digipacks and posters looked like and included.

Prezi/Slideshare- Prezi and Slideshare were used in the research and planning stages as it allowed me to develop my ideas into a clear format. They also helped to be a location of which I could store my research. 

Photoshop/ Final Cut Pro- These two programmes were used in the construction stages of my video, digipack and posters. Final Cut was used in the construction of my video and helped to create the effects that I wanted to be featured. This includes the jittering text, 'color' correction and desaturation of the clips. It also allowed me to slow some clips down that were either not the correct length or that needed to be slowed down for effect.  Photoshop was used for the creation of the digipack and poster. Photoshop helped for this stage as it allowed me to erase areas of images that I did not want and also allowed me to add filters to the images.

Blog- my blog was used in the evaluation stages by helped me evaluate the production stages of the video, digipack and poster as I made them. It also helped to document the production of these.

Evaulation: What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Audience feedback helped greatly in the early stages of the development of my video. One of the key bits of feedback I got from showing my animatic was that the original performance element began to become predictable and boring around half way through the video. I was told that adding another performance element around ½ or 2/3 of the way through the song would help to prevent the forest performance becoming boring.

During the animatic stages I was also told that some of my shots were too long and needed to be cut down. This helped to make the video flow a lot more as the shots fit more with the music rather than the lyrics, which was how I had originally planned the video.

Something I learned from audience feedback was that it helps you to make the correct decision. I discovered this when I created an audience feedback sheet asking for a vote on the two drawn digipacks I had created. After receiving the feedback it was clear that more people wanted the more ‘natural’ looking digipack than the one that would be primarily shot inside. This taught me that my decision was not always the best as the digipack that I preferred did not receive any votes from my feedback with most people suggesting that the ‘natural’ one tied in more with my music video.

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

Iconography-

The iconography I picked for my artist and video features coherently throughout my music video, digipack and posters. The text features a hard-edged font called ‘Diamond D’ which I picked as I felt it represented the image I wanted to put across of my artist. The font represents my artist as it keeps in with the indie-rock genre that she fits with. It also gives the impression that she is ‘tough’ and strong willed.

I have also created a simple symbol for my artist, which can be used in place of the artist name on products such as digipack covers and posters.

Nature/forest-

The theme of nature is included in both my music video and digipack. When I listened to the song I knew that the video’s main location had to be outside in a forest. Although I did not use the same location for the digipack shoot I still wanted to do most of the shoot outside so that it had a connection with the music video. This was effective as it still kept with the overall ‘natural’ theme of the music video but still allowed it to be distant enough to still be the cover for the digipack which included songs which do not have the same ‘natural’ feel.

Record Label-

Deciding upon a record label for my artist was important because I had to pick the record label that was correct for the genre of artist I have created. To decide upon a label suitable for my artist I looked at artists similar to mine and decided which was most appropriate to my artist. The company I picked was Universal Island Def Jam of which the artist Florence + the Machine is signed to.

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

My music video uses conventions from real media products. To make sure my video kept to the conventions of other music videos of the genre I did research into those videos. I used this analysis to help me when developing the original storyboard. When developing my music video storyboard I would use the conventions discovered through my analysis to make sure that it fitted in with the genre. The conventions that I found through the analysis included close-ups of the artist, use of mirrors and the use of more natural locations.

The use of close-ups and mirrors also relates to Andrew Goodwin’s codes and conventions of a music video. One of Andrew Goodwin’s conventions includes the notion of looking. This could be anything from; television screens, mirrors, people looking at each other or at the audience. In my video I have used the artist looking into the mirror and also looking at the audience. Another of Andrew Goodwin’s conventions include record companies demands for exposure of the artist through the use of close ups. I have also used that for this reason.

My video also relates to the connection between lyrics, music and visuals. Some examples of when I use a relation between music and visuals appear around 2 minutes into the song. At this point in the song the word hunters is repeated in an almost chant like manner. Every time the word is repeated there will be a different shot of either the artist singing or running from the other ‘character’. An instance where I use a relation between lyrics and visuals is around 1:50 into the video. At this point the lyrics “starts so soft and sweet, and turns them to hunters” shows the two ‘lovers’ embracing before cutting to another shot of the artist running on the next line of “hunters”. This relates to the warning of “be careful of the curse, that falls on young lovers”.

First Showing + Feedback

Today we had the first showing of our music videos and received feedback from the rest of the group.

One of the biggest bits of feedback I received was to add another element nearer the beginning that would balance out the day-time and dark elements already in the video. 

I have not yet decided if this new element will be filmed on location or in my garage again but I have had an idea to have the artist filming herself sing into the camera in a hand-held style.

Editing: Narrative Element

This is a selection of shots that are included as the narrative element in my video.

These shots were filmed on the 17th and 18th of February along with the forest performance elements.

Upon editing these clips I found that many of them were not the length that I had originally planned for them to be in my storyboard and animatic. A way I have got around this is by using more shots from the two performance elements and also slowed the speed of some shots down.

Throughout the video I have added two filters to every shot.

One filter that I have added to the video is a desaturation filter. I did this to remove some of the colours within the video to make it more grey and look as though it was filmed on a 'grey day'. When you put the filter on the video the video appears as black and white but I did not want to remove all colour from the video. On this particular shot I changed the 'amount' from 100 to 44. I have changed the amount of each shot to between 40 and 50.

The other filter that I added to the video is the 'Color Corrector 3-way'. This gives you the option to change the 'Blacks', 'Mids' and 'Whites' in the video to another colour. I wanted to give my video a blue tint which would also help to make it seem like a 'grey day'. I only moved the circles slightly towards the blue/turquoise part of the colour wheel as anything more would have made the video overly blue. I changed the 'Blacks', 'Mids' and 'Whites' for every shot.

For the final shot I wanted to extend the shot into a dissolve but did not want to cut into the shot itself and have the shot dissolve before I wanted it to. To get around this I took a snapshot of the final frame of that shot and added it to the timeline. I then added the dissolve transition to that image.

Editing: First Performance element

          

                                    

                                    
This is a selection of shots that are included as the narrative element in my video.

These shots were filmed on the 17th and 18th of February along with the Narrative elements.

Throughout the video I have added two filters to every shot.

For the forest performance shots I added the same filters as the narrative shots. These being 'Desaturation' and 'Color Corrector 3-way'. On this particular shot however, I changed the desaturation amount to 26.

This was another shot that was not at the length originally planned in my storyboard and animatic. To overcome this I slowed the clip down which I feel adds to the shot as her hair which is part of her 'signature look' slowly goes past the screen.

Album poster [AMENDMENT- 20/03/13]

                         Portrait:

                   

                         Landscape:

This is the poster for my digipack. It features the main features of an album poster. These are; artist name, album name, featured singles, release date, album artwork, artist website, album availability, record label logo and the artist herself.

I have created two versions of the cover, one portrait and another landscape.

I decided to re-use the effect that I had originally planned to use for my digipack cover where the artist appears to be fragmenting. I decided to use the effect her as I felt it was a very good effect and I didn't want to leave it out. I have used a different image to the digipack cover but I have still featured the cover on the poster like the artist 'Marina and the Diamonds' had done for the single 'Shampain'.

I felt that the background was a little bland so I have put the tracks from the album tracklist onto the background which I feel adds a texture to the background that softens the foreground images of the artist.

[AMENDMENT]

I have also had to make some amendments to my posters after receiving feedback. One of these amendments being to swap the digipack cover featured to the newly edited version that features a lowered opacity Hue/Saturation layer.

The other piece of feedback I received was to change the 'hit singles' on the portrait poster to being in line with eachother rather than going diagonally down to the right.

Journal: Shooting [19/02/13]

On the 17th and 18th of February I did the main part of the shooting for the video. This consisted of the narrative shooting and the first performance element.

Shooting on the 17th was not as successful as hoped. This was due to the battery on the camera running out after only filming a few shots. This was a major error as I had not charged the camera prior to shooting. This meant that there was a lot more filming to be done on the 18th.

There was another error made on the 18th as the camera's memory card did not have as much memory as needed. Luckily there was enough to get the narrative and performance done, except for a few mid shots of the artist for the performance element.

I like the shots that were shot on these two days although I feel that it was too bright on the day of shooting and does not have the look that I plan on creating with the video. I hope to fix this by using filters within Final Cut Pro.

Digipack Development: Complete Net [AMENDMENT- 20/03/13]

Here is my completed digipack as viewed as a net.
I have kept the idea of using the diamond logo on top of the artists face but adjusting the image to black and white. However, I have changed the diamond to be black and white and the original image to stay in colour. This was due to the bright colours of the artists hair that allows the cover to stand out. I used this image as I liked the effect that the wind blowing through her hair gave. I was lucky on the day of the shoot to get this image as it was a windy day and so was easier to achieve as originally planned. I have put the album title 'Howl' in the top right of the diamond. This is so that if I do add the planned sleeve idea the title will still be visible (along with the black and white section of the cover). The font is still the original 'Diamond D' font.
I have used the same image for both the DVD and CD slot  but flipped it so that the artist is facing the opposite direction. I used this image as it was against a plain background and showed no emotion on the artists face. I have also lowered the opacity of the image so that it became less apparent due to the DVD and CD covering this part of the digipack anyway.
I have made some adjustments to the back cover and added more tracks to the DVD tracklisting. The background image remains to be the three candles that appear at the beginning of the video. The font used is still 'Garamond'.
The bottom left image has not been edited as much as the front cover or DVD and CD slots. However, for this image and the other images I changed the hue of the image to +19 and the saturation to +55. This made the colours within the image  stand out more and appear much more vivid. This was especially effected on the orange and green colours within the image.
The final panel was the top right. Again, like the bottom left panel, this panel only had a Hue/Saturation  adjustment layer added with the same changes being made is the bottom left panel. However I also erased some of the adjustment layer on the skin as it brought out many blemishes in the skin and made it appear very pink.
The spines of the digipack continue from the image to the left. The left spine continues from the image by the tree but with the artist title and album title appearing. The right spine continues from the blank black background of the back cover, again with the artist name and album title in the 'Diamond D' font.

[AMENDMENT]

After receiving feedback on my Digipack I was told that it was unclear that the tracklisting on the back was divided between the CD and DVD so I have added the text for 'Disc 1' and 'Disc 2' to notify that the first seven tracks are from the CD and the last 5 are live performances and the 'Howl' music video.

Another point I was given was to rotate the spine on the left of the digipack. This is because the logo on the spine needs to be facing the same way when folded into it's shape.

I was also told that the hair was too bright on the cover, top right image and bottom left image and took away from the ginger hair being a trademark of the artist. This was an easy amendment to make as I only had to lower the opacity on the adjustment layers I had placed over those images.

Rihanna- Good Girl Gone Bad- Album Poster Analysis

Marina and the Diamonds- The Family Jewels- Album Poster

Feedback: Digipack

Today I created 3 audience feedback sheets to get feedback on the two digipack designs that I created yesterday.

The feedback received has decided upon digipack one. This was not my favourite during the drawing stages as I preferred the effect on the cover of Digipack two. I will however listen to the feedback as that is the more popular of the two designs.