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.

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.

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.

Audience Feedback on our Music Video from Catriona Morgan on Vimeo.

 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.

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.

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.  

Inside Digipack

Inside the Digi-Pack

This will be the inside left cover of our Digi-Pack and the picture below will be the right hand cover of the inside of our Digi-Pack, the moon fitting perfectly with the circle of where the CD will go as well as linking with the 'La Lune' record company/label. 

Audienece Review (music video) - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

                           

We played our music video to 5 people in our target audience range.
We asked constructive questions, where we wanted any ideas they had that might fit our music video and whether or not the video fitted the genre of drum and bass. The responses we got were good, and we have already started to add in some of their ideas, such as more projections.

Ancillary Product Discussions

Cd Design from catmorgan

Ancillary product discussions - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

Magazine Advert Design Idea

This is my drawing of my idea for our album advert. I thought we could have an action shot of Izzy flipping her hair (as she does this in the video) from the shoulders up placed at the bottom centre of the advert. We could have the original photo at the front and then two layers in the background to appear like a 3D image when you don't wear the glasses. (One layer blue, one layer red.) The yellow titling of 'Etherwood' could cover her face, with her eyes still visible, as drum and bass artists are never the sole focus of their album covers/adverts. 'Etherwood' will also be repeated underneath in the same font but in white.  The background colour could either be bright pink to contrast with the yellow titling as well as to conform to the conventions of the drum and bass genre, or black to allow the titles to be the main focus and link with the black and white in our video. The title of the album ('Natural') will be at the bottom of the advert written in the same font as 'Etherwood', however more spaced out. As well as this, 'La Lune' (the record company) will be at the bottom with the symbol of the half moon and the website www.etherwood.com.

Magazine Advert Research

I printed Coldplay's 'Mylo Xyloto' album advert and analysed it. I found the use of colour interesting as it reflects the music in the album, as well as the fact that there is no image of the band, suggesting they want the focus to be on the music rather than the artist.

Recreating Album Covers- Catriona Morgan and Martha Ellison

Individual CD Design Idea- Catriona Morgan

Possible CD Cover Designs from catmorgan

Album Ideas Wordle - Anna Hester, Izzy Kelly, Catriona Morgan, Martha Ellison

These are titles we brain stormed for our album:
1) Natural Escape

2) Urban Concept

3) Reaching Simplicity

Font Analysis: Magazine Advert- Catriona

CD Analysis- Catriona Morgan

I Googled the top 15 Drum and Bass Albums of 2015 and took screenshots of 5 randomly selected album covers which I will analyse below.

The first one I will be analysing is Tantrum Desire's 'Diversified' which came second in the top 15 Drum and Bass albums of 2015. The cover is very minimalistic, with clear titling for the artist, as well as contrasting fonts used between the name of the artist and the name of the album. As you can see, no bold colours were used, however the lilac sky subtly contrasts with the grey of the mountain. There is obviously no picture of the artist, which is common theme throughout Drum and Bass album covers. I think this cover has quite a futuristic feel to it, which is appropriate as the type of music the artist creates is quite manipulated. Additionally, there is a suggestion of a record label's logo at the bottom.

The second album cover I will be analysing is The Prototypes' 'City of Gold' (which came third.)It is quite similar to the cover of 'Diversified' in that the main focus is the name of the artist, as the audience's attention is drawn straight to the top of the cover. Again, the font used between the artist and album name is different, which helps the audience to differentiate between the two. The colours used are quite dark in comparison to my previous evaluation, which I like as I feel it draws more attention to the name of the artist, as a way of the audience to focus on it without there necessarily having to be a picture of them, as it isn't typical of the genre.

This is Bensley's 'Next Generation' album cover which came fourth in the top 15 Drum and Bass albums of 2015. I find it interesting as it uses similar colours as 'Diversified', with grey being the main focus, however there is a suggestion of colour towards the top, which could suggest that's what the type of music is like. For example, the songs could be meaningful, represented through the grey, but made interesting through the use of Drum and Bass, represented through the use of colour. Interestingly, the fonts used between the artist and the title aren't drastically different, however the size is obviously bigger for the artist, as the artist is being sold just as much as the music. There is also a suggestion of a record label's logo at the bottom.

This is Xanadu's 'Through the Oort Clouds' (which came eleventh.)  I find it interesting as it is completely contradictory to my previous research in terms of colour used. It also links with the title of 'Clouds' as it appears to be a seriously manipulated picture of clouds. Following closely to my previous research, the name of the artist is bigger than the title of the album. Again, there also appears to be a suggestion of a record label at the bottom.

Finally, this is Fred V & Grafix's 'Unrecognisable' (which was number 14.) I find this cover interesting as it has obviously been manipulated so much that it is 'unrecognisable', which fits nicely with the titling. I like the use of colours as it makes it interesting to look at and similar to 'Next Generation', the font of both the artist and the titling is the same, however the difference in colour helps the audience to distinguish which is the artist's name and which is the name of the album.  

I have found this research very beneficial as it has enabled me to discover common themes among Drum and Bass album covers, those being:

• No visuals of the artist
• (Mostly) different fonts between the artist's name and the album title. However this wasn't always the case, which is something we could consider when it comes to creating ours.
• The use of colour was mostly grey/neutral/ dark colours, however not always the case.
• Often there was a suggestion of a record label at the bottom.

As a majority of our video is black and white, I think we should stick to the common convention of using grey colours for our album cover.

We could then contrast this with bright colours for the titling, as this is common among the research I have done.

I think the change between fonts of the titling can be optional depending on the image we use, as it does not necessarily have to be different (however I feel it could be more effective to, to allow the audience to easily differentiate between the two.)

Finally, as unanimously there were no images of the artists for the covers, I think we should follow that convention and not include an image of the artist for the cover, as it is not typical of the genre.



Facebook Page- Update

This is just a quick update to show how beneficial having a Facebook Page has been as we are able to upload anything from a link, to a video, to pictures etc. and it's immediately accessible to everyone that wishes to view it. 

To begin with, we were able to pin our Survey Monkey Questionnaire to the top of our page, so that as soon as anyone viewed our page, the top thing they would see would be the questionnaire. This was done in an attempt to get as many results as possible to help us in the planning process of what would be appropriate for our genre etc. I think the page was very helpful as we manged to get a lot of feedback from the survey through the promotion/influence of Facebook. 

We managed to upload the first minute of the first draft of our music video which was beneficial as it reached 22 people, which is a lot more than we could have got just by simply asking our friends.

Finally, we uploaded the video of us practicing the projections. Again, this was beneficial as it reached 51 people (which is obviously a lot more than just showing friends/family.) We even got some feedback which was good as it enabled us to know that it was liked among our target audience, and we were able to then make the plans necessary to film some more projections footage. 

Overall the creation of the Facebook page has achieved everything we set out for it to, which was initially just to promote our work and get some feedback along the way.  

Audience Feedback from our 'Projections Practice' Video- Catriona Morgan

Projections Practice and Audience Feedback

This is a video condensing all of the clips we got whilst practicing to see what having videos projected onto Izzy would look like. This was time well spent as firstly, we were able to see that the projections not only worked, but also that we liked the effect they had. We then got excited about how we could incorporate this into our music video. However, we need some potential audience member's feedback, which we got, and has been analysed below: 

Projections Peer-Audience Evaluation