Evaluation question 2 draft

My part to question 2...

I feel that with my digipak, the simplistic and quite different style of the band combines and links the two together. Rather than doing a simple band shot, I think that the image of the band would be to be quite cool and stand out. A similar band like The Arctic Monkey’s also used a very simple digipak for their latest L.P., “Suck It And See”. I do feel that I maybe should have looked at incorporating a band photo or just a picture of the frontman, as with my digipak you would not know about the bands “cool” image and may feel the record would be of a different genre.

The same can be said about my poster, which however does advertise the band name and due to the repetition of “We Are Black Wax”, it creates mystery and would be likely to gain interest. This also fits in with the bands quite mysterious style.

Evaluation question 3

For our music video, we received many pieces of audience feedback at many stages of the campaign. 

When we first pitched the idea to teachers and peers the idea was quite different. Initially we intended to create a video in numerous locations with a large amount of people. The main feedback we received was positive and although the overriding theme was that having the two locations of a field and city was a good idea, one of our peers highlighted the fact that it may be hard to link in the contrast and we decided to take this into account, as we wanted our music video to look professional. Also, in our original idea, we intended on having more of a fun feel to the music video, with many people being in it dancing. This idea was also successful in our pitch but during the making process of the video, we decided that it was probably unrealistic and changed the way we anted the audience to perceive our band.

When we displayed our draft music video, again the feedback we received was very good. I would, at the time, preferred more negative feedback, so that we could make more changes and have a greater idea of what to do. We received some things that we needed to change from Mr Ford & Mrs Hammond. Initially, we had included a firework that went off, as in the song there is the sound of a firework exploding. Although we had some good shots, the actual explosion was disappointing and we were told to omit this from the video which we agreed with. 

Also, feedback we received told us to scrap some of the long-shots as the focus was not brilliant and the air looked foggy. We also tried to make the video look more serious, with less dancing and more different angled shots, as this would fit in more with the bands image.

For my digipak, the feedback I received was again quite positive. A lot of people felt it was quite different copared with the typical digipak and fit in well with the band quirky image. After my draft, I did change minuscule details such as adding a full stop on one of the pages and changing the font on the back panel, to the one used on the front. This was also similar with my CD poster draft, I just changed the font and added the bands facebook/twitter.

Evaluation question 1

For our music video, we decided in the end to create a straightforward illustration video as we felt that this would be the best way for us to make our video look professional and realistic. When we were researching for our music, we spent a night browsing through numerous music videos, both old and new, taking bits of inspiration from certain scenes from many videos.

One thing we looked at in detail was the Brit-pop era, with bands such as Blur, Oasis and The Stone Roses influencing our decisions on the styling of our band in the video. In the band, we decided to give the lead singer freedom in what he wanted to wear, as his own personal style is heavily influenced by people such as Damon Albarn, of Blur, Liam Fray, of The Courteneers and Faris Badwin, lead singer of The Horrors. This style also reflected on the band. We decided to change the band halfway through due to the time they could offer us and the fact that we wanted to have people that could play guitar, as we tried to learn from the mistakes of others.

When I looked at inspiration from other music videos for our music video, The Drums - “Let’s Go Surfing” came to mind. We were always keen on filming the video outside, as we feel it fit in with the alternative genre we were looking at and was a bit different than the typical performance video. This then inspired us to shoot the video in night-time which then made us look at other videos both night & day, based in rural landscape. Videos such as Coldplay’s “The Scientist”, Foals “Spanish Sahara” both have outdoor countryside settings but we felt that the shots in these video were too slow for a song like us, due to it being fast paced.

This then led us to look at videos by bands such as The Vaccines and The Maccabees, especially songs off “Colour It In”, as this is more of a faster paced album. We took inspiration from The Horror’s infamous video “Sheena Is A Parasite” as although the mise en scene and storyline is not at all similar to our music video, the fast paced shots work due to the short and snappy length of the song.

We also tried to emulate some dancing shots on a handheld camera, like those seen in The Drums “Lets Go Surfing”, where the band are dancing, with charismatic frontman Jonathon Pierce hogging the limelight, this being replicated by our frontman in our video.

For my digipak, I wanted to create something quite simple and abstract, without it looking bare. When researching and planning my digipak, I looked at a different genre of music to inspire me. One person who had a huge effect on my digipak was Jamie xx and I looked at his releases, “Far Nearer” and “I’m New Here”, with Gil Scott-Heron. I tried to take his idea by using a bold colour, with a slight gradient and a small rectangle. In an ideal world, on the front cover on my digipak I had it alligned so that the rectangle would have been visible on the 3rd panel, with the hole on the front, this replicating Jamie xx. I also looked and took inspiration from other electronic artists such as Totally Enourmous Extinct Dinosaurs and Neon Indian.

The back panel with the song titles and record label information are inspired by SBTRKT’s eponymous album artwork, made by Go De Jong. I found that the simpicity of it helped to fit in with the layout of my digipak.

I tried to abstractly link the music video and digipak together by using colour to represent the video. The green in my digipak front heps to replicate the background of the trees and grass in the video and the splash of bright orange replicated the band, standing out from the darker shade. this was something I thought about during the creative process as I did not want to reference the video heavily, as I was creating a digipak for an album, not a single for the song I did.

For the poster, I again looked at how Jamie xx and the xx had advertised their albums and I tried to emulate something similar. I decided to create a panel which fit with the poster, like jamie, by repeating the bands twitter name, which would again help to market the product as it shows continuity. I feel that both my digipak and poster challenge the stereotypical image of a a midshot of the band and I feel this adds a bit more of an edge to the band.

Final Music Video - Editing

Last night, we edited our draft video, turning it into our final product. As we felt that we had enough footage, we decided it would be best not to re-film any scenes, as it would damage the continuity of the video, which is something we feel needs to kept.

While editing, we tried to make the scenes shorter, fitting in with the fast paced song, as we felt that in some cases, our scenes were too long. Also, we tried to make the scenes change, with the drum beat of the song, as we feel this makes it look professional.

As previously mentioned, we decided to omit the scenes which involve the lighting and explosion of the firework, as the feedback which we received suggested that it was not in keeping with the style of the music video. Also, we cut down the long shots, as they do not look as high quality as the other shots due to the fact that as the night went on, it became fairly misty in the field.

Overal we feel that editing wise the video was a success. We managed to complete everything in reasonable time. We did try to change the adjustments on some but felt that it just ruined the look of the video, so decided that the affect it would have would not be desired.

Digipak

When I created my final digipak, my initial idea was too cut out a whole on the front cover, so on the second panel, you could see the band logo but through this small hole. However, due to the fact that the digipak was made from thing paper, this would not have worked as well. It was positioned precisely so that there would be no overlap and this was something that was taken into account. Also, when putting together the final digipak, the fold lines were not as precise as I would like again due to the paper that used.

Draft Music Video Feedback

The feedback we recieved fromboth teachers and peers was fairly positive. People were very impressed the proffesionalsim of the band, especially the lead singer, who perfectly displayed the charisma and appeal we wanted our band to have.

Some people had negative opinions on only having one location. However I feel that this is something we are unlikely to change. We feel that as it is a straight forward illustration video, of the band performing, the location works really well, fitting in with the bands cutting edge image. We do feel that the location worked really well and the issue of lighing was solved perfectly by using cars in the field.

One problem we had was with the weather. In our shot schedule, we decided to film the long shots last and we had 2 problems with this. One was that as the night went on, it became more foggyin the field and this became quite noticable on the camera. Also, due to the poor light in the field, the actors look quite far away and does not work as well as we like, so this may be something we cut out/refilm.

The editing process we feel went well, in the little space of time we had to do it. We have decided however that we are going to re-edit the film, getting rid of some of the "cringey" dance moves replacing them with more shots of the charismatic frontman. We are also going to sort the sync of the frontman at 1:20, as it is ever so slightly out of sync.

Editing update

After receiving feedback from both teachers and peers we have decided that due to having around 28 minutes of film we are just going to re-edit the video, putting only the best shots into the video. We are going to try to cut out some of the dancing which makes the video look less serious, as we want the band to have quite a "cool" image, like The Stone Roses or Oasis in the 90's.

Also, we plan to smooth out some of the faming, making sure the shots look crisp and neat. However, we do want to keep a certain raggedy edge to fit in with the edgy style we are pushing for.

Magazine Advert Final

Digipak Final

Digipak and Magazine Advert

For my digipak and magazine advert I have made the amendments recommended to me from my teachers, which was only little things. Overall I am fairly happy with my final digipak and poster, as I feel there is continuity between the two. I also feel that I have used a range of skills on photoshop, being very harsh on getting the perfect positioning and creating the perfect gradient for the backgrounds. As I have had a bit of spare time, I am going to create a CD, which will fit in with design of the magazine advert and digipak.

Digipak/magazine advert feedback

Digipak
The feedback I received from my teachers on my digipak was fairly positive. The digipak overall they said was highly effective, with an excellent theme running through the whole thing. One thing they have picked out is that I have a typo on the left cover and to consider using a full stop on one of the panels. They have also said about considering changing the back cover layout. They also said that I should remove The Black Wax, change font and positioning.

Magazine Advert
The inclusion full stop on the repetition of We Are Black Wax and that I should have a look at the front of album title, taking inspiration from Santogold. I also need to create a record label logo for both and put this on.

For my digipak I recied a level 3 8/10 and for my magazine advert I received a level 3 8/10.

Filming

This evening we filmed in the field, for a draft music video. (Yes I am blogging at 02:42). We found that overall filming went well, the weather held out, fortunately and the lighting from cars worked perfectly. If we could pick out one thing that maybe went wrong it was that we maybe missed 2 shots but this is only a very minor issue. Below are a few pictures taken on my iPhone of the shoot.

Filming the music video - update

For the draft video, we will be filming using a canon 500d, which was kindly lent to us. One change we have made for the filming is that of the members of the band. As 2 of the band members are busy, we are going to replace them with Ed Price and Sam Burnham or Sam Hallam. For the final media shoot, we may use the original band members, depending on who we think suits the roll best.

Another problem we face ahead of filming is that of the weather. In an ideal world we would have filmed last week, when the weather as a bit brighter but I happened to be on work experience, without anytime in evenings to film. If rain does occur we will have to film at a later date, as everything is planned to be outside.

Prop List

Props that we will need for shooting our video:

Instruments:

• 2 x guitars
• 1 x bass guitar
• 1 x drum kit
• 2 x mic stand
• 1 x drum sticks
• 1 x maracas 

Other:

• 3x fireworks

Album name and tracks - update

For my digipak draft, I have chose to use Little Comets debut album title, "In Search Of Elusive Little Comets. I felt that as it has already being made, the title just works well with my digipak. I also used the same track-listings as on "In Search Of Elusive Comets", as there is a diverse range of track names.

Draft magazine advert

Below is the draft magazine advert, I tried to keep it simple taking inspiration from Radiohead's "In Rainbows"...

One thing I am going to take into consideration for the next time I draft is maybe using an image, and changing the font.

Digipak draft

For my draft version of the digipak, I tried to keep things very simple, taking inspiration from artists like Jamie xx and SBTRKT...

Magazine Advert Analysis 3

The 3rd magazine advert I have chose to analyse is The Chemical Brothers "Further". The image used in the magazine advert in very unique, with an eye-catching image of a woman breaking the surface of the water in a blue dress, almost looking like a mermaid. She is seen to be diving down into the see, thus fitting in with the album title "Further. Also, the colour is spread down the page and gets darker and darker, as if the woman is going further into darkness.

The layout is all based on the image, with the top two thirds consisting of the main image, with the bottom third having information about the album. The shot used is low angle under the sea to capture the moment the person breaks the surface and this is done to perfection.

The colour scheme is black, white and blue, all coming from the image. The typography, like most magazine adverts I'm simplistic but their is the trademark Chemical Brothers font used for their band name. Overall, I feel that this is the most eye-catching poster, due to the image used.

Magazine Advert analysis 2

For LCD Soundsystem's album "This Is Happening" it is all kept fairly simple. There is a basic image of James Murphy, the creator of LCD Soundsytem, in motion, as if he was dancing on stage. He is dressed in a trademark suit and the photo has been rotated. The shot will have been taken as a mid shot of Murphy , from a fairly long distance as his arms are spread.

The layout is simplistic, with a large image in the top two thirds with the information about the album in the bottom third. The colour scheme is quite understated, with a black and white photo/background with a blue font.

The typography is in italics and all in capitals. The font is basic and there is large spaces between letters. Overall The design is made to look a bit blurred and this fits in with their sort of electronic music. I do quite like the idea of using just one image on my band poster/digipak, as it looks quite effective.

Magazine Advert Analysis

The first magazine advert I have chosen to analyse is for The Stone Roses, "The Stone Roses - remastered". The background image is a birds-eye view of a map, with what looks like a paint-splat where the information about the album is. There is also some images of oranges, representing the letter 'o' and then red, white and blue. There are also badges with ratings from Q, Mojo and NME magazine.


The layout is fairly simple, with the band name top centre, with the information below this. The red, white and blue is again used, representing Great Britain. Also, the ratings are dotted about like badges, which makes the layout less structured.


The colour scheme contains mainly red, white, blue and yellow font. The Stone Roses looks like its meant to look like cardboard. The shot is a birds-eye view with "The Stone Roses" planted on top.


The typography is all fairly basic, all in capital letters, so it looks clear. Overall I feel the design looks simple and effective, although when I create mine I want it to have a clearer colour scheme and to try to make it look more simplistic.