Rough Cut & Feedback

The feedback we received for the rough cut of our video was generally positive. The people we showed our video to - members of our target audience: male and female teens and young adult fans of urban, dance and rock music, - really enjoyed it, and mentioned in particular the lighting and shot composition added something special to our video.

Our teacher's criticism was that the pace of the video could be increased in some places; we have decided to add some quicker cuts to match the beat of the track. Also, she said the narrative is not obvious enough, and so we have decided to add some shots we didn't think we'd need; intimate moments between the ex-couple to use as flashbacks. Also, more close ups are needed to enhance audience connection with the artist, as this is convention of music videos.

We had also left a piece of footage at the end of the video which we forgot to remove during the editing process; this is why the video is 6.23 minutes rather than the 3.16 of the track.

Digipak Artwork

We added some text to the inside sleeve. The information is conventional; sleeve notes such as 'Music by' and 'Produced by' to give our Digipak artwork a professional look.

More Digipak Artwork

These are the final images for the 2 inside panels on our digipak. The high contrast and vibrant colours are inspired by the powerful music. The photographs are also taken on the video shoot location in Leake Street tunnel and so link perfectly to the video, helping to create our brand. We also liked the way the images look like they could be mirrored; this looks stylish as a design.

This is an idea for the back cover that I created on Photoshop. The fonts don't really work, but we really like the photograph as the floor provides space to places the tracklisting.

Experimenting with Digipak Artwork

Experimenting

I experimented on Photoshop with some photographs I took during filming, and some screen shots from our video to mock up ideas for Digipak artwork...

A front cover idea

I cropped this photograph from Leake St tunnel in Waterloo into a square, and added a font from the ones we had chosen to go with the theme of our ancillary tasks. The first version I didn't think worked, so I moved the text closer together which looks bolder. I also cropped the photo further to remove some of the ground. It looks cleaner but I'm still not sure about this as a front cover - me and my group think it would work better on the back cover, or maybe on the inside opposite the CD tray with maybe a track listing over the ground area.

I thought by adding an overlay to the possible cover I could fill the empty space but I'm not sure this works. The black and white effect looks good but doesn't really work either. I tried the overlay in colour, reducing the opacity, but it still looks wrong.

Another cover idea

Final Digipak Magazine Advertisement!

Our final Digipak Magazine Advertisement...

We created it using Adobe InDesign, and used one of Grace's ideas from an earlier blog for the main image. We observed the conventions of existing magazine adverts and included review quotes, availability information, record label logo, websites and a HMV music store logo.

Our advert in progress...

At first we had the text either end of the image, but after deciding this looked less impactful, we moved it to the bottom of the image. We had more room for a larger image, and the advert looks cleaner and bolder.

Final day of filming

We filmed one more time in Grace's room, to show the love and initmacy our main actor had with his girlfriend before he lost her. Grace's bedroom will become our main actor Will's bedroom, for the sake of the narrative. The pink lighting symbolises the passion and closeness they have with each other. It's warm and comforting lighting and the pink fairy lights add to the vivid lighting we are featuring throughout our video.

These shots show kissing and intimacy; here we were inspired by Glassjaw's video for Ape Dos Mil, which I have analysed in this post. The blurred focus engages and involves the viewer, heightening impact.

Here we used the fish-eye lens to add some interest. The globe shape of the image conveys how she was his whole world.

Overlays show how he is remembering the girl he lost.

We again used the fish-eye, but this time to show disorientation and frustration, and how his world has been distorted by anger. These are point of view shots, as he bursts into his empty bedroom and loses his temper, punching wall and throwing things. This burst of emotion also links with the faster pace of the song, and we will incorperate fast cuts to match this.

The red/pink lighting here conveys anger, where before it illustrated love and passion.

Magazine Advertisements

One of our ancillary tasks is to create a magazine advert for the Digipak, and my group has done some research into existing magazine adverts to discover the conventions and gain some inspiration for our own adverts.

These magazine adverts are for artists albums, singles and digipaks. The CDs artwork or a promotional photograph is almost always featured in the advert, and the design is thematically linked to the CDs design to build a strong advertising campaign which is recognisable to the public and target audience. High quality photographs are always used to give a professional look. Striking fonts which are influenced by the artists genre of music are also used. Record company and music store logos, websites and quotes from music reviews are also features we have observed. Information such as release dates and tour dates are also included.

Blacks, white and greys are bold and attention grabbing. The photos for Bloc Party and Eight Legs also add intrigue as they are not very 'normal' photographs.

We really liked how effective a black background is; it is eye-catching and intensifies the colours of the image placed over the top. It looks professional and stylish. The dark background black gives could be used in our own magazine advert to link with the urban genre of music and grimey, gritty and dark mise en scene we are employing throughout our 'brand'. The fonts are all quite simplistic, yet very effect; they have to be easy to read and catch the target audiences eye as they flick through a magazine.

The above adverts for indie based bands are linked well to the genre of music. Indie is mostly cheerful and uplifting, and the bright, pastel, summery colours add to the mood and atmosphere of the adverts.

These adverts are more complex than the more simplistic ones shown previously. We really liked the boldness of these adverts, and the jazzy colours and fonts.

Almost all of these advertisements feature the artist - this is to encourage audience recognition and promote the brand of the artist, overall increasing sales and profit.

So, magagazine advertisements are conventionally... BOLD and eye-catching Easy to understand Include a picture/photograph/painting linked to artist/brand Include relase date information Include logos from record stores/sites
(All adverts are screenshots from The Fly's online version of its magazine by my group)