Final Post

With the completion of my evaluations, ancillary texts, final product and research planning stages - this blog is now closed.

Evaluation- Q4

Evaluation Q3

Evaluation Q2

Evaluation Q1

Our Final Music Video

Ancillary Task - Magazine Advertisement

I decided to use the same scene shot from our music video in both the digipak and the magazine advertisement. I wanted to create consistency between the digipak and the advert in order to create a feeling of branding. I used this particular image for both ancillary tasks as I believe it not only includes the four of us clearly in shot but also incorporates the feeling of our music video, with the layering of the kalediascope.
My magazine advertisement reflects the traditional conventions of existing advertisements I looked at during my research. The largest text is the band name "IDACOR" which acts as a branding logo as itself due to the capitalisation, the large release date is an important element to the advert as it informs the audience of the upcoming albums release date, which is ultimately the purpose of the advert to promote and advertise. The bands website link at the bottom of the advert 'www.idacor.co.uk/energy' promotes the band and the bands record company "Checkmate Music Productions INC" is included in the left hand corner of the advertisement, both of these elements create authenticity to the magazine advert, an aspect that was highlighted to me during my researchof  existing advertisements.

Ancillary Task- Magazine Advert RESEARCH

Conventions of a magazine advert:

- Image (of the artist or a recognisable logo)

- Logo

- Release Date

- Artist and Single Name - The largest text should be the artist name, the second largest will be the name of the album/single

- Record Label

- Website of Band and Record Label

Its important to conduct magazine research before creating my own magazine advertisement as I want to reflect the traditional conventions of existing music promotion adverts.
It was with this in mind that I decided to conduct existing research to ensure authenticity in my own. Throughout this research, it was important to focus on the artists album advertisement, rather than that of a magazine cover of the artist promoting an interview.

Rihanna's magazine advertisement promoting her new album 'Loud' reflects the typical conventions of a magazine advert where the image correlates with the album, hence the front shot of Rihanna in her music video 'Only Girl In the World' that is included on the album. The artist and single name is seen clearly in large font that is easily identified by the audience. The release date is an important fixture of a magazine advert as it promotes the album release date to the audience, interestingly neither a website or the record label is included on this advertisement, creating a simple and direct advertisement for the audience.

On the right hand side of this image is the promotion advertisement for 'Jay Z- Blueprint'. I wanted to include a variety of artists in my magazine research as I believe it provides an insight into the promotion of albums and variety of presentation and structure. The advert is very simple but has a clear connection to the CD cover using the same image to create consistency. In terms of conventions this magazine advert conforms to most of the general conventions, such as; it displays the name of the artists clearly, name of the album is displayed, release date '09.11.09' also displayed clearly. As well as this the website is presented clearly to the audience "www.jayz.com' unlike Rihanna's advertisement Jay Z includes record label branding in his advert 'Roc Nation' there are no photos of the artist however the relevant imagery creates consistency, this is aspect that I will consider when producing my own magazine advertisement. 

More Lip Syncing

We're out filming, again...

Having looked through our final footage we felt that the lip syncing shots of us were still very static frames. Despite the deadline being just a week away, we felt we needed to re-film the lip syncing of us in order for the shots to blend well with the existing upbeat footage. The pictures show our attempt to ensure that there is movement whilst were singing, hence the jumping and over enthusiasm. Currently we're uploading this footage to the Macs where we hope that this filming will finalise our music video and eliminate the problem of the static shots and lack of movement.

Ancillary Task - Update

A vlog update about the ancillary tasks and where I am with that right now.
In this vlog I discuss my progress, as well as the realization that my previous digipak is unusable due to copyright issues as well as particular requirements regarding the consistency of our groups individual digipaks

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Editing

With the final deadline getting closer, our group are currently editing our footage continually in order to make sure we produce the highest standard for our final music video. 

These images demonstrate the different effects we have added to our footage

Layering

                                                              Layering and Symmetry

We applied the effect 'Day & Night' to enhance the colours in this shot

Lip Syncing - Take 2

Having hoped the last filming day was in half term, we soon realized that we perhaps were a little too hopeful of the quality of our lip syncing shots. With this, we introduce 'lip syncing take 2'. These images show us in the same filming location of the school grounds as we commence what should officially be the final filming. 

Having watched and edited the lip syncing shots we had filmed in half term, we felt we were all a little stiff in the shots and realized that the upbeat sound of our song, as well the existing footage did not blend well with the stiff looking shots we had taken.

This time, we made sure that each of us had a little more movement when lip syncing the song, as well adding laughter, just to ensure that this footage would sit easily with the existing feel of our song.

The images just show the luck of the weather of that day and our group preparing to film my section of the song, as well as reminding each other to smile!

Showcase Evening

With the completion and final deadline of our music video looming, our group began discussing an image to represent our product at our showcase evening. We decided to use this edited shot as it includes the four of us as well presenting continuity with the over laying of trees, which is seen throughout our final footage.

Above is a short structured questionnaire that we asked our audience once they had seen our music video for the first time. By recording structured audience feedback we are able to identify positive and negative aspects of our music video, as well identify how the music video's tone and atmopshere is  received.

Snippet of footage

This is just a short clip of the shots we filmed during half term. The snippet shows the four of us lip syncing to the song, which is an element our final footage had lacked. With the lip syncing shots as well the narrative and long shots we have, we now feel our music video has more of an equal balance than it had previously.

Filming Group Vlog

During half term we decided to begin what hopefully is our final filming day. In this vlog, we're in the school grounds, where we decided we'd film with the backdrop of the trees. The main influence for filming in school was based on the ease of filming without the interruption of the public, which so often occurred during filming days at Grovelands Park and Alexandra Palace. As well as this, by filming outside of the school, we were able to access the macs and our existing footage throughout the day which enabled us to remind ourselves of the particular shots we needed. We therefore focused on lip syncing, filming each of us singing certain areas of the song. This location vlog is just a quick summary of the filming day.

My Final Digipak

This is my final digipak, I edited each image with online software picmonkey, where I followed the standard digipak template. To create consistency in our group, myself and Anna both used the band name 'IDACOR' as we felt it was a strong title for a band. With this title being unusual it added a quirky vibe that is further reflected in our music video. I decided to include an image of us as a band on the front cover as I felt this was a good way to promote the band members. The image includes the overlaid kaleidoscope which not only distorts the band members faces, adding mystery, but also creates consistency with the digipak and the music video, where the kaleidoscope is seen throughout. I recognise that this is an appropriate digipak template and when printed is folded to the conventional template of an existing digipak. A digipak vlog is included in my evaluation question one prezi presentation.

Digipak Track List

I decided to use a random quotation website to get some inspiration for a track list

1. Movement

2. Red Moon

3. A Hero

4. Joyful Spirit

5. Luxuries of life

6. Delightful

7. Charm 

8. Energy

9. Darker and Rougher 

10. Suspicion

Digipak

I'm currently continuing to work on my Ancillary Task Digipak, with this I definitely prefer the look of screen shots from our final footage, hence the possible use of this image taken at the top of Alexandra Palace in front of the sunrise. Currently I think I may use this image as the back cover of the digipak, as the positioning of the photo easily allows room for a track list on the left hand side.

This is another possible screen shot of our footage that I may use as part of the Digipak is this sunrise shot. However the strong colours in this shot often appear too bright and may be difficult to include a text overlay. I feel using images and screen shots from our final music video footage creates a consistency to the digipak and the music video, I therefore found that random images didn't appeal to me and instead plan to only use shots taken from our footage. During my research planning of digipaks I found that indie rock digipaks often included images of the band members that are obscure, creating a mystery element to their image. I think the top image of us at Alexandra Palace reflects this trend as the image is clearly the four of us, but yet we are not clearly identified, creating a shadow effect.

I edited the track list over this shot of us at Alexandra Palace in order to get a feel for the possible back cover of my Digipak 

I plan to continue to work on editing this image, making it more of a square shape and work on the font colour and size, however this first example allows me to see whether this image may work or not 

Beginnings of my Digipak

Having now completed my existing digipak research, I began to think of the image and sense of theme I wanted for my own. With this in mind I took a screen shot from our final footage of this split screen of the four of us.
I then edited it using PicMonkey online software in order to get a feel for the image and see whether it would work for a digipak, changing the saturation and shadowing in order to give us more of a presence in the image. I particularly like this image because of the use of sunlight in the background, which reflects our music video as well as that the four of us being in the image in a subtle way, which is a convention of indie rock digipaks that I found during previous research.
I aslo feel that this image is reflective of our indie rock genre as it presents a simplicity and ambiguity, often themes that are presented in an indie band.

Currently this is the beginnings of the creation of my digipak, I am yet to title the album and plan to document each stage. This image is an option that I shall continue to develop and perhaps may be included in my digipak, however I am yet to decide whether this image shall take the front cover or perhaps the inside/back. I am however, happy with the look and feel of this chosen image.

Indie Rock - Existing Digipaks

I thought it would be good to begin this process by researching into existing digipaks that fall within our 'Indie - Rock' genre. I began the research by searching indie rock bands and looking further into their digipaks and how they present themselves. I will then analyse them and identify potential similarities and differences

These are the three indie rock digipaks I looked into..

1) Indie American Folk band, Fleet Foxes digipak uses lots of colour in order to grab the audience, interestingly the band are not seen on the digipak cover, an element I will consider when planning and creating my own digipak. The image is busy and eye catching, the busy atmosphere may reflect the sound of their music being up beat, a typical convention of the indie- rock genre. Having noticed the only text on the album being 'Fleet Foxes' I researched and found that this debut album was titled after the band, rather than often choosing a separate album name. This research provides me with different media conventions of existing digipaks which I'm able to consider when creating my own.

  

2) Two Door Cinema Club is a Northern Irish Indie-Rock band, unlike Fleet Foxes this digipak includes an album title separate from the bands name 'Changing Of The Seasons'. The title layout of this digipak perhaps reflects a traditional written layout, with the title larger and a subheading written in a smaller font beneath it. The band uses a black and white image reflecting an older era, with closer inspection you are able to identify the band members within the image. This contrasts Fleet Foxes digipak where the band members are not presented, however Two Door Cinema Club perhaps subtly include themselves in the digipak. This research is highlighting the absence of Inide-Rock bands including themselves of the front of the digipak

3) My final 'Indie Rock' digipak I looked at was Arctic Monkeys, I decided to post this one as the digipak highlights the black and white saturation trend, seen also on Two Door Cinema Clubs digipak. Furthermore the digipak includes only a picture of the band, which is often not seen amongst indie rock genres. Through conducting this digipak research within our songs genre, I am able to create my own digipak with the knowledge of existing digipaks.

What is a Digipak?

Our Ancillary Task includes the creation and development of our own digipaks for our song, creating both an album and band title.

A digipak is a type of packaging for CDs or DVDs, typically made from cardboard with an internal plastic holder for one of more discs. 

This is an existing digipak of 'The Script' that I decided to document because the layout of a digipak can be clearly identified. These four images of the digipak are the four elements I will create.

This template of a digipak shows the four sections of a digipak, I will create the front cover, back credits, left inside cover as well as the design on the CD.

Sunrise - Opening Shot

This is our opening sunrise shot that we filmed in October at Alexandra Palace, were currently editing our final music video in detail. It was always our plan to use this sunrise shot at the beginning of our music video, this edited clip is longer, our final music video has the shot with increased speed. In order to create a softer lighting to the sunrise we adjusted the saturation during editing.

Our use of Kaleidoscope

As we have previously blogged, we included a kaleidoscope in our final film, having edited this section of our final music video, we wanted to share a short clip of it in order to document our progress. This kaleidoscope is seen throughout the chorus of our song, in order to create consistency, furthermore the connotations of the kaleidoscope suggest a laid back indie feel, which was an important atmosphere for us to create.
The kaleidoscope was created using existing footage from our Grovelands Park filming. We layered over the same clip four times, each time changing the rotation and opacity to create the kaleidoscope effect.

Progress

Recently we've been working hard on editing our final film, particularly with the deadline getting considerably nearer. We wanted to document our progress so we decided to edit this short clip of the four of us lip syncing "falling", this clip is seen during the chorus of the song, towards the end of our video, obviously accompanied by the song.