Friday 7 May 2010
Final Music Video
Final Music Video
Due to the technical issues we experienced when using FCP and Compressor to convert our music video, we had intended to use Screen Toaster to capture the video but the quality of the .mov file was not acceptable. The next best solution was to film our screen using the DV camera, capture the footage into FCP and compress it down into a suitable format for Blogger.
PLEASE NOTE: Due to the video being a film of the screen some colours are distorted and a lot darker in places. However, considering the circumstances I believe the video accurately reflects out music video to a standard I am happy with.
Evaluation of our Promotional Package
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Like many pop promos we have used a narrative and our pop promo tells a story, this is used in many pop promos to attract the audiences attention and then keep hold of that attention of they watch the whole music video. We challenged mainstream pop promos, who chose to show of the artist by using close up shots and revolving the whole music video on them to construct a star image, by choosing to not include our artist in our pop promo, we created a mysterious star image. Although some bands similar to ours don't always show their artists explicitly they usually have a cameo role like Fat boy Slim does in some of his videos whereas we chose to not represent an artist at all, This was critiqued by out lecturer and classmates as they felt it would have been nice include maybe a DJ set or even the artists name on an iPod or CD cover just to break up the narrative a little bit.
Our narrative broke the conventions of typical pop promos because in stead of using a heterosexual couple we decided to use a homosexual couple this helped to break down common boundaries and prejudice in the media.
How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary texts?
Our Promo, Digipack and Print Ad are all linked by common themes,.
In all three the idea of rushing traffic is present with the time lapse footage in pop promo, and the blurred rushing traffic photos in the inside cover of the digipack and the print ad. Our Print Ad and Digipack are also linked with the type of font we used, the computer style font runs through both texts this helps to link them together giving the maximum marketing potential. We also used saturated bright colours in our Print Ad and Digipack this is also apparent in the pop promo with the use of bright costumes and scenery especially the coloured cushions in the bar scene. The Digipack design contrast nature and urban moods with the use of sunset versus traffic and our pop promo also does this with the rushing traffic contrasting against and ambient song.
Our artist is a mystery across all three of our texts, as he is not in the print had or the pop promo, although he does appear in the inside cover of the digipack, his face is blurred so there fore he is still cloaked in mystery, we chose to do this create suspicion and rumour about who the artist is and we thought it would be a nice homage to other bands of the same genre.
We decided to use a homosexual relationship in our pop promo but we strayed away from using the stereotypes of lesbians, we used normal girls to portray them this helped to create the representation that homosexuality is normal and everywhere you look, you just have to notice it.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The typical audience for our pop promo would be 18-25 year olds as our music has quite a niche audience although younger people may finding it appealing as well, the average age of the participants of our questionnaire was 19, I don't believe that there is any gender preference for our genre of music and in our research we found that 45% of females and 55% of males like electronic ambient music, although there is a slight increase towards males its not significant enough, I feel our audience would be more middle class because of the genre of music and the settings in the pop promo I.e. the university and the modern bar.
When we viewed our pop promo in class we good both good and bad feedback, everybody understood the message we were trying to put across with the idea of both characters being in same place and the randomness of being in the same bar but they all said they wished there had of been more “almost meetings” with the characters. People also commented on the amount of time lapse this worked for some people and other people said their was too much of it.
The class also said that it was easy to follow the characters and it was the narrative was clear throughout, everybody said that they understood what was happening and the relationship between the two characters was clear.
We got good feedback on our experimental use of cinematography in particular the use of the camera as a mirror, the time lapsed traffic scenes and the use of a good variety of shots.
In regards to mise en scene, the feedback showed that the audience liked the use of colour in Jessica's characters clothing and in the bar scene they said that it worked well with the song and the bright colours really helped to make the scene stand out but I feel that Nicola's character could have been wearing more colours in the everyday scene as her costume didn't stand out as well as Jessica's character.
Our final edit works well with the music and the pace of the song, the edits change with the beat of the music and the action is timed to the beat of the music for example when Nicola's character taps her fingers on her leg when she is in the bar. I feel that the locations in our pop promo are good as they reflect a modern life, the university building is new and the bar is vibrant and fits in well with the song, the bar was a more suitable chose that a club as we felt we were creating a representation of more middle class people and they would be more likely to hang out in a wine bar than go to club and this also helps appeal to a slightly older audience.
I particularly like the shots we used in the bedroom scenes of the characters putting on the belts and the graphic match we used from on character to the other and this is the same for the make up shots we did where the camera acts as the mirror and I feel that the shots are framed well. Although if I could go back I would have lit the bedroom scenes with Nicola's character better as they were slightly too dark.
The audience reacted well to the print ad and digipack designs, the feedback we got (which can be seen in previous entry) shows that they felt that they linked well with the use of the same font and the idea of nature and traffic, they like the fact that the rushing traffic theme flowed from the digipack through to the print as and they felt that this connected the two texts rather than them being two separate texts. The layout of the text was well received by the audience and the word arrangement of the album name and artist name was particularly well received although some felt that the text didn't stand out enough. The use of colour was also liked by the audience and the saturation of the colours in the digipack helped the picture to stand out. As a whole the audience feedback suggests that our promotional package works well together because of the linking themes in all three elements, the rushing traffic, urban feel to the setting in bother the digipack print ad and pop promo and the use of bright colour. If we were to be advertising this album in real life I would probably use the internet and forums to display the advert as this is what other bands of the genre have done, as their audiences use the internet a lot. I feel the 3 elements of our promotional package would appeal to the target audience as it uses abstract ideas and concepts and is a bit intriguing. I feel our target audience would react well to the digipack and print as design because they make the ordinary look extraordinary.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During the research stages of my project I used the internet to help find out about similar bands, the history of pop promos and in finding out which Lawrence King song to use. I found that bands how are similar to Lawrence use the internet to promote their music and albums therefore the internet was a very valuable tool in helping my research, websites such as You tube helped me to find the music videos I need to research pop promo. Lawrence King also uses a site called “last FM” where he posts songs he has made for the public to listen to this was really helpful when it came to choosing a song for our promo.
In the planning stages I used blogger to publish all my research and planning this helped to keep track of all the work I had done and made it easy to reference the research in my planning, on here we also posted out storyboards which were scanned into the computer, I also used photoshop to create a mood board for our project, this helped me to create a visual representation of what I wanted to tone of our promo to be and it also helped to highlight which types of costumes and props I wanted to use,
In production we used a Canon HV30 DV Camcorder to film all the footage we needed, using this camera I have learnt how to manually focus to create effect. We also used a Velbon DV-700 tri-pod to keep the camera steady while filming. To gain the photos I need for the digipack and print ad I used an SLR camera and I decreased the shutter speed to allow more light in creating the traffic blurs in those texts. We then captured our footage into Final Cut pro editing software were we edited our captured footage to create our pop promo, during the edit we increased the speed of the footage to create the rushing traffic time lapse effect we also reversed some of the footage and sped it up to create the effect of going back in time. Photoshop was used to enhance the picture I took on the SLR camera to create the print ad and digipack, after enhancing the colour I cropped the pictures to the size I wanted, I also added the correct text need to make it look like a digipack and a print ad.
Like many pop promos we have used a narrative and our pop promo tells a story, this is used in many pop promos to attract the audiences attention and then keep hold of that attention of they watch the whole music video. We challenged mainstream pop promos, who chose to show of the artist by using close up shots and revolving the whole music video on them to construct a star image, by choosing to not include our artist in our pop promo, we created a mysterious star image. Although some bands similar to ours don't always show their artists explicitly they usually have a cameo role like Fat boy Slim does in some of his videos whereas we chose to not represent an artist at all, This was critiqued by out lecturer and classmates as they felt it would have been nice include maybe a DJ set or even the artists name on an iPod or CD cover just to break up the narrative a little bit.
Our narrative broke the conventions of typical pop promos because in stead of using a heterosexual couple we decided to use a homosexual couple this helped to break down common boundaries and prejudice in the media.
How effective is the combination of your main product and your ancillary texts?
Our Promo, Digipack and Print Ad are all linked by common themes,.
In all three the idea of rushing traffic is present with the time lapse footage in pop promo, and the blurred rushing traffic photos in the inside cover of the digipack and the print ad. Our Print Ad and Digipack are also linked with the type of font we used, the computer style font runs through both texts this helps to link them together giving the maximum marketing potential. We also used saturated bright colours in our Print Ad and Digipack this is also apparent in the pop promo with the use of bright costumes and scenery especially the coloured cushions in the bar scene. The Digipack design contrast nature and urban moods with the use of sunset versus traffic and our pop promo also does this with the rushing traffic contrasting against and ambient song.
Our artist is a mystery across all three of our texts, as he is not in the print had or the pop promo, although he does appear in the inside cover of the digipack, his face is blurred so there fore he is still cloaked in mystery, we chose to do this create suspicion and rumour about who the artist is and we thought it would be a nice homage to other bands of the same genre.
We decided to use a homosexual relationship in our pop promo but we strayed away from using the stereotypes of lesbians, we used normal girls to portray them this helped to create the representation that homosexuality is normal and everywhere you look, you just have to notice it.
What have you learned from your audience feedback?
The typical audience for our pop promo would be 18-25 year olds as our music has quite a niche audience although younger people may finding it appealing as well, the average age of the participants of our questionnaire was 19, I don't believe that there is any gender preference for our genre of music and in our research we found that 45% of females and 55% of males like electronic ambient music, although there is a slight increase towards males its not significant enough, I feel our audience would be more middle class because of the genre of music and the settings in the pop promo I.e. the university and the modern bar.
When we viewed our pop promo in class we good both good and bad feedback, everybody understood the message we were trying to put across with the idea of both characters being in same place and the randomness of being in the same bar but they all said they wished there had of been more “almost meetings” with the characters. People also commented on the amount of time lapse this worked for some people and other people said their was too much of it.
The class also said that it was easy to follow the characters and it was the narrative was clear throughout, everybody said that they understood what was happening and the relationship between the two characters was clear.
We got good feedback on our experimental use of cinematography in particular the use of the camera as a mirror, the time lapsed traffic scenes and the use of a good variety of shots.
In regards to mise en scene, the feedback showed that the audience liked the use of colour in Jessica's characters clothing and in the bar scene they said that it worked well with the song and the bright colours really helped to make the scene stand out but I feel that Nicola's character could have been wearing more colours in the everyday scene as her costume didn't stand out as well as Jessica's character.
Our final edit works well with the music and the pace of the song, the edits change with the beat of the music and the action is timed to the beat of the music for example when Nicola's character taps her fingers on her leg when she is in the bar. I feel that the locations in our pop promo are good as they reflect a modern life, the university building is new and the bar is vibrant and fits in well with the song, the bar was a more suitable chose that a club as we felt we were creating a representation of more middle class people and they would be more likely to hang out in a wine bar than go to club and this also helps appeal to a slightly older audience.
I particularly like the shots we used in the bedroom scenes of the characters putting on the belts and the graphic match we used from on character to the other and this is the same for the make up shots we did where the camera acts as the mirror and I feel that the shots are framed well. Although if I could go back I would have lit the bedroom scenes with Nicola's character better as they were slightly too dark.
The audience reacted well to the print ad and digipack designs, the feedback we got (which can be seen in previous entry) shows that they felt that they linked well with the use of the same font and the idea of nature and traffic, they like the fact that the rushing traffic theme flowed from the digipack through to the print as and they felt that this connected the two texts rather than them being two separate texts. The layout of the text was well received by the audience and the word arrangement of the album name and artist name was particularly well received although some felt that the text didn't stand out enough. The use of colour was also liked by the audience and the saturation of the colours in the digipack helped the picture to stand out. As a whole the audience feedback suggests that our promotional package works well together because of the linking themes in all three elements, the rushing traffic, urban feel to the setting in bother the digipack print ad and pop promo and the use of bright colour. If we were to be advertising this album in real life I would probably use the internet and forums to display the advert as this is what other bands of the genre have done, as their audiences use the internet a lot. I feel the 3 elements of our promotional package would appeal to the target audience as it uses abstract ideas and concepts and is a bit intriguing. I feel our target audience would react well to the digipack and print as design because they make the ordinary look extraordinary.
How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?
During the research stages of my project I used the internet to help find out about similar bands, the history of pop promos and in finding out which Lawrence King song to use. I found that bands how are similar to Lawrence use the internet to promote their music and albums therefore the internet was a very valuable tool in helping my research, websites such as You tube helped me to find the music videos I need to research pop promo. Lawrence King also uses a site called “last FM” where he posts songs he has made for the public to listen to this was really helpful when it came to choosing a song for our promo.
In the planning stages I used blogger to publish all my research and planning this helped to keep track of all the work I had done and made it easy to reference the research in my planning, on here we also posted out storyboards which were scanned into the computer, I also used photoshop to create a mood board for our project, this helped me to create a visual representation of what I wanted to tone of our promo to be and it also helped to highlight which types of costumes and props I wanted to use,
In production we used a Canon HV30 DV Camcorder to film all the footage we needed, using this camera I have learnt how to manually focus to create effect. We also used a Velbon DV-700 tri-pod to keep the camera steady while filming. To gain the photos I need for the digipack and print ad I used an SLR camera and I decreased the shutter speed to allow more light in creating the traffic blurs in those texts. We then captured our footage into Final Cut pro editing software were we edited our captured footage to create our pop promo, during the edit we increased the speed of the footage to create the rushing traffic time lapse effect we also reversed some of the footage and sped it up to create the effect of going back in time. Photoshop was used to enhance the picture I took on the SLR camera to create the print ad and digipack, after enhancing the colour I cropped the pictures to the size I wanted, I also added the correct text need to make it look like a digipack and a print ad.
Lawrence's View on the Promotional Package
We sent Lawrence the a copy of the music video (albeit the one with technical errors) and a copy of the digipack and print ad design. We conducted the following interview over Facebook to get some feedback.
Hi Lawrence, We sent you a rough draft of the video, what do you think about it?
I think its very good! I know you said there were some issues with this version of the video but Igot the general feel of it.
What in particular do you like about the video?
I enjoyed the fast motion [time lapse] scenes, I think its suits the pace of the track well. I'm also glad you decided to uphold my anonymity. Also the concept of crossed paths and a relationship forming. Most electronic artist I follow also do something different in their videos, not just a band playing in a pub or girls dancing in aclub like you find in most pop videos.
What would you change about the video?
Probably would have put a few more of those fast motion scenes in there, maybe at a nightclub? And I'd like to have seen the track at its complete length, but I know you had restrictions and all that.
Moving on to the album design and magazine advert, how do you think we did?
REALLY really good, the cover has a nature feel to it but kinda enhanced nature- which i like. In the inside cover and on the ad I like the feeling of speed or moving that you captured. Looks kinda urban aswell. The bloke standing across the road is a nice touch, like its ment to be me, but its not clear enough to really know.
Thanks for your time Lawrence!
Final Pop Promo Edit
Due to technical issues beyond our control the music video we created for 'Gravity and Habit' (Lawrence King) cannot be uploaded to blogger. Issues within either Final Cut Pro or the Compressor software are causing substantial errors to our final edit. These errors are so substantial that we cannot post the video that has been compressed as it does not reflect our final edit to an acceptable standard.
Thursday 6 May 2010
Production Meeting 8
The promotional package has been finishes and presented to the class. We gained valuable feedback (see previous entries) and we will all now individually begin to concentrate on our evaluation. Jess has made some last minute edits to the the music video based upon feedback to improve the video further. Unfortunately we have hit some technical errors when trying to compress the video from Final Cut Pro into a Quicktime .Mov file. Our lecturer is looking into these problems and we hope to have a final version of our video up on the blog asap.
Wednesday 5 May 2010
Final Digipack and Print Ad Designs
These are the final designs for the digipack and print ad.
We decided to use this dusky sunset picture to help connect to Lawrence's influences, I then contrasted the colours the help exaggerate the silhouettes of the trees and bushes, we chose the picture on the sunset to tie in with the album name which is night. We decided to use a computer style font to tie in with the electronic style of music that Lawrence produces, originally the album title was in black but we decided to change this to white for two reasons, the first was to help it stand out in the crossword style arrangement we went for and the second was to help it tie in with the text on the back cover.
To obtain this picture I used an SLR camera, I then increased the length of time the shutter was open for, this in turn lets more light in creating the blurred traffic effect, i wanted to create this effect to help tie in with the time lapse footage in the pop promo and by doing so linking the promotional package together. I used a male actor for the inside cover but kept him at a distance so the audience can not see his face this helps create the illusion of the artist but still keeps him anonymous, this idea came from the fact that Lawrence wanted to remain anonymous and that in this genre of music the artist is generally faceless and mysterious. A suburban street was used because as a group we decided this would be more suitable than a busy city as Lawrence's much has a ambient feel. We also used the same font for the thank yous at the bottom of the inside cover, we felt we should include thank you;s as this is Lawrence's first album and by using the same font the digipack ties together nicely.
I used the same technique with the SLR camera to achieve this photo for the print ad, we felt that using another traffic image would really help to tie the promotional package together and give it excellent marketing power. We used that same font to also aid this,. We then placed to quotes on the slant in conjunction with the blurred traffic to help capture the audiences eye, we originally wanted the text to be in white but this didn't stand out as well as the black text. We also included a web address on the print ad so that fan or interested consumers could contact Lawrence or preview his work.
We decided to use this dusky sunset picture to help connect to Lawrence's influences, I then contrasted the colours the help exaggerate the silhouettes of the trees and bushes, we chose the picture on the sunset to tie in with the album name which is night. We decided to use a computer style font to tie in with the electronic style of music that Lawrence produces, originally the album title was in black but we decided to change this to white for two reasons, the first was to help it stand out in the crossword style arrangement we went for and the second was to help it tie in with the text on the back cover.
To obtain this picture I used an SLR camera, I then increased the length of time the shutter was open for, this in turn lets more light in creating the blurred traffic effect, i wanted to create this effect to help tie in with the time lapse footage in the pop promo and by doing so linking the promotional package together. I used a male actor for the inside cover but kept him at a distance so the audience can not see his face this helps create the illusion of the artist but still keeps him anonymous, this idea came from the fact that Lawrence wanted to remain anonymous and that in this genre of music the artist is generally faceless and mysterious. A suburban street was used because as a group we decided this would be more suitable than a busy city as Lawrence's much has a ambient feel. We also used the same font for the thank yous at the bottom of the inside cover, we felt we should include thank you;s as this is Lawrence's first album and by using the same font the digipack ties together nicely.
I used the same technique with the SLR camera to achieve this photo for the print ad, we felt that using another traffic image would really help to tie the promotional package together and give it excellent marketing power. We used that same font to also aid this,. We then placed to quotes on the slant in conjunction with the blurred traffic to help capture the audiences eye, we originally wanted the text to be in white but this didn't stand out as well as the black text. We also included a web address on the print ad so that fan or interested consumers could contact Lawrence or preview his work.
Class Feedback of our Promotional Package
Having completed our music video and print ads, we screened them to our Media Studies class who gave us lots of valuable feedback and constructive criticism. This information was excellent for finding out what the strengths and weaknesses were of our production and will really help when we evaluate our work.
MUSIC VIDEO
Initial Impressions: Positive Feedback
- Video clearly focused on the main characters, easy to understand who it was we were ment to be watching.
- Time lapsed traffic was in time with the tempo of the music
- Liked the make up shots, giving the effect the camera was a mirror.
- Interesting narrative effect with the "rewind" through the day at the start.
- Not enough light in the bedroom scenes, too dark.
- Artist not included in the video.
- Too much time lapsed footage, got a bit boring.
- Could of used more shots to keep engaging the audiences interest.
- Liked the use of experimental use of cinematography, particularly the make up shots and the shots through the metal chair in the bar scene.
- Shots well framed and panning shots were smooth.
- Good variety of shot sizes.
- Bedroom shots could of been more detailed?
- Nice and colourful shots throughout.
- Bar environment looked sophisticated and classy.
- Good use of props - mobile phones etc.
- Characters dressed appropriately throughout.
- Lighting on Nicola in the bedroom scene could of been improved.
- Shots used worked well with the timing of the music.
- Looked professional, no amateur effects used etc.
- Could of included a few more shots in the bar scenes?
- Overall, worked well throughout.
- Could of included artist in the video, or perhaps shots of a DJ to make it more performance as well as narrative based.
- More reference needed to Lawrence King - too distanced.
- Effects used were good throughout.
- Some lighting issues, mostly in the bedroom scenes.
- Ambient music, not too stressful or too much action.
- Made everyday scenes look a bit different.
- Overall, was defiantly suitable to the genre.
- Representations in the video included - nature, movements, relationships, intellectual, perhaps quite middle class?
- No representation of Lawrence King in the video.
- Worked well at targeting our audience.
Initial Impressions: Positive Feedback
- Clever use of typography.
- Time & nature reflected well (which were strong elements in the music video aswell, helps to bring the 3 pieces together to create a promotional package).
- Suburbia and middle class represented (the house on the inside cover etc) - audience can relate.
- Suitable typefaces used.
- Photo used on inside cover very nice.
- Contrast between nature and urban environments apparent - worked well.
- Some of the writing on the magazine advert could of been in a different colour to make it a little clearer to read, but no major criticisms overall.
- Linked to music video, mysterious.
- Middle class suburbia.
- Piece's connected as well as contrasted.
- Inside image tinted slightly yellow, nice effect.
- Magazine advert image was abstract, looked very good.
- Good use of lighting, all the images well lit.
- Lawrence King dressed appropriately in the inside cover image - looked dark and mysterious.
- Clever use of "Night".
- Font used was sort of electronic/futuristic/like a typewriter font.
- All images nice and colourful
- Perhaps more of the writing could of been in white?
- Successfully created aesthetically pleasing print advert designs that worked effectively.
- Good technique
- Images used were of very high quality/high resolution.
- Demonstrated good photography skills (credit goes to Nicola for the images!) :)
- Lawrence King represented in the inside image of the CD Cover, shown as mysterious and anonymous.
- Targeted a young audience with an interest in ambient music well.
- Good overall promotional package, elements followed through (nature vs. urban, movement, time).
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