QUESTION 4

QUESTION 3

QUESTION 2

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QUESTION 1 (PART B)

Discussing the conventions I have included or not included in my music video:



SCRIPT:

•To begin the video I have used title slides to introduce the video which appears very professional due to the simple design. The font used is the same as the one used throughout my digipak and poster creating fluency between all three media products.
•The extreme close up shots help to introduce the of the main characters and identify their features. This is a popular camera shot used amongst indie music videos. (THE CROPPING OF MY PERFORMER'S FACE IS INITIAL, TO FRAME THE KEY FEATURES OF HIS EYES AND LIPS)
•The close-up shots of the character performing is a convention I have confirmed to as this shot type helps to emphasise the lip-syching and the emotions presented as well as enhancing the performance aspect of the video.
•I have intertwined the narrative and performance clips by using jump cuts to show the change of one scene to the other. This is a common convention used in music videos where there are  performance and narrative aspects as it helps to combine them into one video.
•Another convention I have confirmed is the use of special effects as seen in indie music video. Here I have mirrored imaged my actor to increase the power and control he has over the victim during the chorus where the majority of the vocals are performed by the band.
•Another special editing technique of a split screen combines the two sections the video in addition to creating a closer relationship between the actors.
•The use of stark lighting helps to set the mood and atmosphere of the video, a key aspect of the mise en scene. As well as the dark location a convention used in indie genres, connotes a gloomy, intimidating a mysterious atmosphere
•Here I have layered two clips by decreasing the opacity to illustrate the power my male character has over the girl. This editing technique is very visually appealing to my audience and interesting as they are able to see more clearly the role of the dominating man.
•The use of the strobe light accentuates the destructive and depressive emotions of my character as well as making her appear more victimised. The use of the strobe mimics the atmosphere created a indie gigs to create an energetic vibe during the performance making the type of lighting and mise en scene a confirmed convention.
•Another convention of music videos I have confirmed to is the use of symbolic meaning, by constructing a meaning behind the media text. I have done this through my projection footage by using abstract hallucination images causing illusions and confusion. This engages the audience to understand  the feeling expressed by the character as indie audience members being familiar and being interested in the artistic patterns and shapes by appreciating it.
•Throughout the whole performance the actor lip-syncing creates eye contact making the video seem more personal and direct to the audience in addition to the victim.
•Most indie music video are based on social realism subjects which I have confirmed to be telling the narrative of a typical troubled teenage girl, dominated by her devilish male conscious to be overcome by her regret.
•The way the video cuts to the beat of the music is another convention I have included which mimics the pace of the song and creates a more dramatic impact upon the audience.
•I have subverted the stereotype of performance based videos by not including musical instruments being played as I wanted to concentrate more on the lip-synching of the performer and their facial expressions shown through the close-up shots revealing more about the character.

QUESTION 1 (PART A)

Question 1 from VictoriaCowburn

MUSIC VIDEO FEEDBACK

FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

EDITING #4

Adjusting the errors in lighting as it appeared too bright in certain shots by decreasing the gamma correction and exposure levels.

Creating a split after taking the advice from my third edit feedback. Inserted two separate clips of still shots of Millie and Nick then cropped each shot allowing both to be seen in one frame, separating the screen.

Encoding and Exporting fourth and possibly final edit of music video:

EDITING #3 FEEDBACK

As I have almost now finished editing my music video I wanted to gain feedback on what I had produced so far. I sent the link to the third edit of the video on YouTube as asked what was successful, what could be improved/added and why, here are the responses:

 
 

DIGIPAK AND POSTER FEEDBACK

 

EDITING #3

Adding title slides to introduce the record label, name of the artist and song. Using the same font style 'Orator STD' as used throughout digipak and poster design to create fluency between all 3 products.

Adding title slide at the end of video when audio gradually finishes. Copyright disclaimer protecting the rights of the video to the record label.

Editing original footage to make the colours more vibrant and quirky by adjusting the 'Basic Levels'.

THIRD EDIT // ADDING TEXT AND MORE FOOTAGE

 

FINAL DIGIPAK AND POSTER PRODUCTS

EDITING #2

When creating the persona of the male devlish, intimidating character apart of the music video, I was inspired by the daunting evil laugh near the end of the song 'ha ha ha ha ha'. Therefore I had to make sure it was obvious to my audience that it is my performer who is creates the evil laugh by having him dramatically lip-synch to it whilst tilting his head back in almost laughter or accomplishment.

After including the projection footage during the instrumental of the song I was able to insert the rest of the footage of Millie also lip-sycnhing to the lyrics in addition to Nick. This creates a tighter relationship between the two characters, as if Millie has also been endorsed into the evil world of regret.

For the second chorus I wanted to experiment with another effect to make the original footage more interesting and engaging. I wanted to combine the footage of Nick and Millie into one clip via layering. I trailed different techniques such as using a 'Linear Wipe' which unsuccessfully only layered half of the screen, which is not what I envisioned. 

Instead, I decreased both the individual clips' opacity to 50% making both visuals equally clear.This has created a very  intense effect by having the flashing strobe light creating a sense of drama in addition to the contrast of vivid blue and duller shades.

In my last updated music video ('VIDEO #1) I had not yet worked out how to remove the sound of the footage resulting in a mixture of audio's playing at the same time. I have now resolved this issue so that only the track plays which I did by turning down the unwanted audio to 0 in the 'Audio Clip Mixer'. 

The song ends very suddenly and dramatically, therefore I wanted to accentuate this also by having a very bold ending. I used the same short snippet of footage twice to accentuate the end result of my character who has acted depressed and sorrowful throughout the footage. I cropped each segment to the hard drum beat of the music leaving a black screen in between which I feel looks frightening and vigorous. 

SECOND EDIT // ADDED FOOTAGE FOR INSTRUMENTAL AND ENDING

EDITING #1

I have began to edit my music video. I firstly inserted the audio of the soundtrack by using a YouTube converter website to convert the video to mp3. I then began to construct the opening sequence consisting of the close-up shots of my actor broken up by title slides according to the beats of the music, introducing the record label, artist and song title. I have not yet figured out how to add text to my music video therefore I will have to do more research and ask my peers and teachers. I then began to insert the short performance clips broken up by the intense strobe light footage. I think the first verse of editing looks professional by the why I have combined the performance and narrative clips, already building a relationship between the two characters.

For the chorus which only features my male actor I decided I wanted to mirror the side profile of his face to create two faces. I did this by inserting the mirror video effect onto the clip and then re-aligning the reflection centre to make the two faces equal. I chose to do this to increase the dominance and power of the character, giving him an extra voice in the video. I have found lip-synching my actor to the backing track not too difficult, particularly the 'regret, regret' as I am only using short clips at time.

FIRST EDIT // BEGINNING VERSE AND CHORUS

UPDATE?

I have currently completed the first drafts of my album front cover, back cover, inside cover, poster, CD design and CD tray. I now need to create the spine for the album in order to complete my digipak task. I have also begun to edit my music video after being happy with all the footage I have recorded. Printscreens of me editing the video are to follow this post in addition to the construction of the spine.

CD TRAY CONSTRUCTION

Despite creating a CD tray was not apart of my ancillary task, I thought it was still important to present the important conventions that I had not included elsewhere. This CD will lye underneath the plastic which clasps onto the disk, so when the CD is lifted out the design below is revealed. Because for my inside cover I chose to present another photograph rather than an informative spread I have placed the other conventions discovered through my research here. This includes disclaimers of who wrote, published and recorded the contents of the digipak for copyright reasoning's. In addition to the listing the singers and players, informing new listeners of Ctrl Z as well as personal messages such as thank you's from the band to the supporters. 

I originally positioned the record label underneath the text but realised it was not relevant for this section of the digipak. I instead to decided to insert the signatures of the singers and players which I did by using www.dafont.com and searching for handwritten fonts. I then copied and pasted the desired fonts individually, inverted and removed the backgrounds using the 'Magic Wand Tool' to make it actually look like each member had signed that particular page. I feel this looks effective in making the product more personal from the band and that they had a lot of input in the design and production,  

Below is the first draft of my CD tray:

INSIDE COVER CONSTRUCTION

As previously seen in my sketches of the inside cover, I wanted to keep it very simplistic but also effective and related to the rest of my products. I used another photograph from the ancillary task photo shoot which includes the actress smearing her make-up, also seen during the music video. I cropped the image into a standard square size (the same as front and back cover) then created a new layer for the text. Using the lyric 'did you imagine it in a different way?' I layered this completely over the main image but decreased the opacity to still allow the image to be clearly seen. I chose this lyric in particular as it is taken from the main single 'Regret' advertised on my poster and music video. I also thought this lyric was particularly powerful and intense as it is a direct question to the viewer making them feel possibly similar emotions to the distressed character presented in my music video.

Below is the first draft of my inside cover:

CD CONSTRUCTION

As the design of my CD is inspired by Bridget Riley's work I searched on the internet for a simplistic circular spiral pattern. I then saved and opened the image as a Photoshop file then cropped into a circle using the 'Elliptical Marquee Tool'. By pressing 'layer via copy' on the circle I was able to leave behind a square template acting as the plastic CD tray that holds onto the disk. I coloured the space around the cropped circle into the same navy blue colour used on the back cover using the paint bucket tool.

I was originally going to stick with these black and white colours against the navy blue, however I decided to experiment with the different available filters which were previously successful for my front cover. I liked the 'Neon Glow' filter which created an invert effect and made the colours more neon and electric, resembling the music genre. 

I began to add all the standard conventions of a CD including artist name, album name and record label logo all coloured white so that they are obvious and project against the dark surface. I also added copyright credits at the bottom of the CD, which I curved to fit the shape by 'warping' the text. The text includes the date, record label, location of production and serial number. Using the 'Elliptical Marquee Tool' again, I cropped a smaller circle in the centre to make the design appear more realistic and fulfilling the standard look of a disk.

I lastly added the track listing in the same font used on the back cover and poster to continue the typography house style. I used numbers to separate the songs and listed them positioned centrally on the CD so that the listener can refer back to it when playing the music.

Below is the first draft of my CD:

BACK COVER CONSTRUCTION

For my back cover I wanted to create a more simplistic design as more text and information will be inserted, making the space more busy. Taken from the ancillary task photo shoot I chose my favourite picture, involving my actress Millie looking straight into the camera creating direct eye direct with the viewer. This will draw the viewer's attention onto the model where they will see her dramatically destroyed make-up and hair denoting stress and upset. I cropped the image into a standard square size after opening the document in Photoshop, then applied the 'Auto Tone', 'Auto Contrast' and 'Auto Colour' settings to balance out the lighting and colours. This increased the exposure of the image and made the colours more prominent as well as making the background navy blue alike the front cover.

I then inserted my artist logo and inverted it to white and placed in the top left hand corner by pressing Ctrl T and dragging it.  Taken from the internet I copied and pasted a barcode and rotated it into the bottom right hand corner as it fitted perfectly in this space without overlapping onto the main image. Thirdly I inserted text that would begin the track listing for the album using the font 'Orator Std'. I like this font as it reminds me of the letters found on a computer keyboard and a modern typewriting effect, fulfilling the electronic typography theme. For the track titles I gained inspiration from other indie artists, looking at their song names and copying the odd word and combining it with another. I wanted the names to represent depressive emotions similar to 'Regret', therefore I particularly looked at English folk rock musician, visual artist and poet Keaton Henson. Henson suffers from social anxiety and depression which inspires the contents of his music evoking feelings of despair and distraught. Example's oh song titles include 'Lying to You', 'Not That You'd Even Notice', and 'Judging Books By Their Covers'.

I lastly added the copyright notices at the bottom of the back cover in a small white font, the same as the track listing. I credited the record label, producer and distributor along with the date and copyright logo making it appear as legitimate and professional as possible.

Below is the first draft of my digipak back cover:

POSTER CONSTRUCTION

Using my favourite photograph taken from the shoot I did after filming the projection footage, I uploaded it to Photoshop as it will be the main image of my poster. This image advertises the album well as it is similar to the footage used in my music video and on the design of my CD, creating continuity throughout all of the products. I chose this image in particular due to the composition of the swirl on Millie's head which spirals outwards covering the whole area. I adjusted the exposure and gamma correction levels to make the colours more vibrant and the black swirl more dominant against my model.

I then began to add all the features of a poster including artist's logo, name of album and advertising slogan. To make the name of the album stand out increasingly more as this is what is being advertised on the poster, I duplicated the name and layered it underneath the original with a decreased opacity strength. This added extra depth to the name and gave an almost 3D effect which would look increasingly more effective when printed out large.

I then inserted VAC RECORDS logo which I inverted (holding down ctrl I) to white so that it stands out against the white background. Taken from google images, I also inserted an advertisement for iTunes making the album available for electronic download, a standard convention of modern music posters. Underneath the album name I added the text 'includes hit single regret' in order to promote my music video. The font used is the same as on the back cover of the album, which is electronic and quirky adding to modern technological feel of the band.

I lastly positioned everything perfectly in line at the bottom by adding a ruler to do so. I also decided to add the band's website address so fans and others interested in the band go and find out more information about the new music and band. Below is the first draft of my poster advertising the album 'Altered Visions'.