Saturday, 6 February 2016

The Final Music Video - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison


Final Digipack design (update) - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

Here is our finalised Digipack design that we think best suits the genre of music and fits the criteria best. 

The front, back and spine were designed by Anna and Izzy on Fotor :  
Front
We decided to go with this design for the front of the case because we believe that it really captures what drum and bass is all about. The bright and bold title 'URBAN CONCEPT' shouts the upbeat loud music especially on top of the black and white urban background. Whereas the name of the drum and bass group is featured below the title of the album in a more low key font and colour. We did this to create a contrast.
Back
For the back of the case we wanted to keep the same theme as the front, creating an aesthetic flow. We kept the same colour schemes and font, we also added the record label and a bar-code to help make it look more professional.
Side
For the spine of the case we have kept the same theme as the front and back. The name of the group is written in the same font as the front, but is in white to stand out from the darker background. At the bottom is the logo for the record label.


The insides have been designed by Martha and Catriona using Fotor : 
We chose to use the boom box as it is a common association with the Drum and Bass genre. The speaker on the right also (almost) creates the perfect place for the CD to sit when you open the Digi-pack. Fotor was beneficial as we were able to edit it to be black and white, matching the front, and making the inside link more to the outside (which is feedback we received from some audience members.) We also continued the theme of yellow font from the front to the inside (when writing the thank you's) to create a continuity. I think the updated CD Design and Mag Ad are good as they fit the genre much better than what we had previously created.

Final magazine design (update) - Anna Hester




Here is our new magazine ad design. We think that the advertisement best suits the genre of music, we also linked it to the Digipack. This helps to create a flow between the product and advertisement, giving the group an image which can be identified by the target audience.  
The AD features the name of the album and the artists names in the biggest and boldest font, and smaller information like were you can purchase the album is less visible. The record label logo is also featured.There is also a review of 3 stars from both Itunes and the Guardian.

Friday, 5 February 2016

Final Interim Evaluation

Overall I am very happy with the outcome of our ancillary products and music video. We changed and edit, and followed audience feedback to create our end result, which not only challenges, but acknowledges the genre, and is influenced by other music videos also in its genre. Our ancillary products work well, linking to our music video and making the artist's identity easily recognizable.  The effects and colours used in fonts and shot types displays our music video is influenced by others in the drum and bass genre, yet creates a unique style which is carried out among our products. Although at the start of the project we had a clear idea of what we were aiming for, the changes made along the way have helped us to keep improving our end project, with ideas incorporated from the whole group, and feedback from the audience taken on board, and distributed into our final pieces.
I am happy with the end aesthetics of all three products. Our music video represents our genre well, whilst creating our own identity, and linking to our ancillary products, making it identifiable to audiences who have seen our music video, are interested in drum and bass or who like the style.



Thursday, 14 January 2016

Audience Feedback from Twitter- Catriona Morgan

In order to gain some more audience feedback, I uploaded our final music video to Twitter (as our potential target audience members tend to use Twitter.)
This is some of the feedback I received:
 As well as:

And finally:
These were very nice comments to receive as they were all positive and our audience members became active (following Bulmer and Katz's theory) by liking the conventions we purposefully added. For example the changing from fast to slow motion in time with the music and the varying locations.   

How Effective our Ideas Were

When storyboarding, we decided to use a studio with a white background so that the focus was on the artist and the lip-syncing. I think this was effective as not only does it contrast well with the other shots in our video (of Paris and the beach) but is also typical of the Drum and Bass genre when there are featuring artists on the track. I discovered this convention after doing some research into music videos of the Drum and Bass genre, finding that the focus in the videos was on the featuring artist, rather than the Drum and Bass artists themselves. (E.g. Zedd ft. Haley Williams- Stay the Night.) This could be considered as being successful as from receiving some audience feedback, it was said that they liked the focus on the artist, as you were able to concentrate on the meaning of the lyrics.
(Studio shot)
We also decided before doing much research that the video will be edited to be black and white, which we became more confident in doing after finding videos in our genre, also in black and white. However, there are some bursts of colour throughout, particularly when the beat drops and the chorus picks up, as well as when the clips of projections are used. I feel this is effective as the editing then matches the pace of the music, which is what is expected amongst our target audience. Additionally, the length of shots vary, from long length shots at the beginning when the music is slower, to shorter length shots when the beat picks up.
(Long length shot at the beginning- black and white)
(Shorter length shot- colour)
(Shorter length shot- colour)
I think the fact it's edited to be black and white is also effective because as the lyrics are: 'One day I'll bring you something more,' suggests the singer is reminiscing and thinking of the past, which could be why it's in black and white as she's thinking of memories from the past.

Even though we had initially planned to film in London, I believe the shots of Paris were effective as we were able to edit the visuals to match the lyrics. For example, when 'busy streets' is sung, the audience see a time-lapse of the busy streets of Paris, as well as 'never need the signs', with varying shots of different signs. 
















Obviously we could have got these shots from anywhere, and to begin with we did record signs near and around our school as that is all that was available to us at the time. However, I feel that the shots of the city help to match the genre as it's an urban area and helps increase the quality of our video. (As well as the fact that it relates to our album title 'Urban Concepts'.) 

I additionally feel like the projections were very successful as, to begin with, we were very excited to use them, however struggled to find a way to get them to match what we'd already created. That's when we came up with the idea of using Anna's footage from Paris to project onto Izzy, as a way of making the projections link with the rest of the video, creating a continuity and incorporating everyone's ideas.

Tuesday, 12 January 2016

Audience Feedback from our Final Products

I showed our final music video to target audiences members and got some feedback of what their opinions were, attached below.

 This was nice feedback to receive because, as she said, she liked the fact it was in black and white as 'you could focus more on what the song was about', which is good because it means our audience members are following Blumler and Katz' theory and becoming active audience members as she may be able to personally identify with the lyrics.


Audience Feedback on our Music Video (2) from Catriona Morgan on Vimeo.

This was the second piece of feedback I received, which again was nice, as she liked the fact that we had varying locations. This shows that not only were we successful in meeting our audience's expectations, (which we received from our Survey Monkey, finding that there were more yes's than no for 'expecting a variety of locations' ) but that our audience acknowledged the convention that we added. This confirms the fact that a variety of locations is a typical convention of Drum and Bass music videos that we achieved, therefore meeting audience's expectations.
Additionally, both members liked the fact that it was edited to the beat of the music, again showing that we were not only able to meet audience's expectations, but also conform to another typical convention of the Drum and Bass genre.
I also asked an audience member their opinion on the ancillary products we created, attached below.


Audience Feedback on our Magazine Advert from Catriona Morgan on Vimeo.
The fact that she liked the way the colours contrast and that the yellow stands out was nice to hear as this is exactly what we were aiming to achieve.


Audience Feedback on our Digi-Pack from Catriona Morgan on Vimeo.
Again, she noticed/liked everything we were aiming to achieve with the Digi-pack, from the radio linking to the genre, to the use of contrasting colours between the image and the text and the continuity between the CD and the Mag Ad. Even though this is only the opinion of three audience members, I think it shows that our final products have the potential to be a success among our target audience.

Audience Feedback from our Music Video and Ancillary Products - Isobel Kelly





 
 

Audience feedback from our final products:

Once we completed all our ancillary products, i found 3 members of our target audience, teenagers and young adults. i then interviewed them on there opinions on our ancillary products. 2 members reviewed the music video, and the other one reviewed the other ancillary products, such as the CD Digi pack and the Magazine Advert.


Sunday, 10 January 2016

Interim Evaluation 10/1/16

I'm happy with the final outcome of our music video, as it has developed drastically from when we initially started editing the footage, to what it is now. I feel everyone is happier with what's been created as we have included everyone's ideas, as well as what audience members have suggested (which is helpful as it gets multiple people's opinions of what does and doesn't work.) Additionally, I am much happier about the final Digi-pack and Mag Ad  because I feel it fits the genre of Drum and Bass well.

Interim Evaluation 10/1/16

 I am really happy with the final outcome of the video, and ancillary products. i think that all products accurately reflect the genre of Drum and bass, i think that the video accurately reflects the genre and i also think that our use of unique ideas such as editing the video in colour but also in black and white depending on the pace of the music. i think our second unique idea to use projections was a great idea and helped us to place the artist in front of paris scenery, as we all couldnt go to paris in order to film the video.
in the end we managed to put all our ideas together and accurately work as a team which ultimatley allowed us to create all our ancillary products. the idea to let all of us complete one section of the Digi pack was again a good idea as it allowed all of us to have an input in designing the Digi pack. Cat and i designed the inside of the Digi pack, we decided to incorporate the boombox, which could be considered a symbol of the drum and bass genre.

Friday, 8 January 2016

Facebook feedback - Anna Hester

As well as posting our video up to YouTube I also published it onto my Facebook profile. On here we got a lot of exposure and comments about our video. Many being positive and others giving advice as to what we could have done differently. One comment that stood out the most was that they thought some footage was to obvious such as the lyrics signs showing signs, but we had to include this for the examiners criteria.  


Tuesday, 5 January 2016

Using our Audience's Feedback

We have received a lot of our audience's feedback in multiple forms throughout the process of creating our video. In the research stage, we gained a lot of feedback from our Survey Monkey. 
The most popular opinion for 'what to expect in a typical Drum and Bass music video' was dancing and performing. For this reason, we have added multiple shots of Izzy dancing, particularly towards the second half of the video when the beat picks up. 
For the question 'would you expect the editing to match the pace of the music', the answer was a unanimous yes. We bared this in mind when it came to editing our footage, and ensured we edited to the beat where it felt appropriate. It's particularly effective after the first verse when the speed picks up and the video changes from black and white to colour on the beat(s).


It was more popular than not for our audience to 'expect a variety of locations', which we'd originally planned to do anyway, so we were therefore more confident in doing so knowing it was expected among our audience. Throughout the video we have altered between the two locations we filmed in, being the studio and Paris. 



We have also included the shot of the beach during the bridge of the song, which we additionally edited to the beat to flash on and off of the screen appropriately. I also feel like it was appropriate to use this shot as it is when the pace of the music begins to slow before picking up again, so is therefore quite peaceful and contradictory to the busyness of Paris.
When our video was part way through construction, we got audience feedback from what we had created so far. 
They said they liked the projections and suggested we could use more shots of them to make it more creative, which we then added. 



Further feedback we received was to get more varying shot types, so we therefore got birds-eye shots of Izzy singing and dancing to add to the existing shots we already had. 
We then reflected the image to make it more creative, and again, edited it to change on the beat from the above picture to the one below. 
These shots then juxtapose effectively with the previous shots we edited of Izzy where she is sitting down, reflected to be 'facing herself' and then again to be 'back to back' with herself. The background colours also contradict each other nicely, with the grey background when she is standing to a white background when she is sitting.  

Overall, it has been very beneficial for us to receive feedback throughout constructing our video as we were then able to make the relevant alterations needed along the way.