THE EVERYTHING - LONELY BOY: FINAL MUSIC VIDEO

      ***** PLEASE WATCH IN 720p HD*****

Final Poster and Digipak Design

FINAL Evaluation Question 4

FINAL Evaluation Question 3

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FINAL Evaluation Question 2

(Click to enlarge the image and zoom in if necessary to read the text , there are two different pages) 

FINAL Evaluation Question 1

DRAFT Evaluation Question 4

DRAFT Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3

DRAFT Evaluation Question 2

Consistency and continuity was a priority when creating both my ancillary texts and my music video. To create a sense of branding throughout each of these products I included similar features into each product, where appropriate, to make all products recognisable as a collection of products.

There are very evident similarities between the digipak and the advertisement as I attempted to make both products simplistic and minimalistic whilst adhering to the same styling methods and colour scheme. The font and imagery also remained consistent for both products to create a sense of continuity through both products. The use of the flare lit festival image throughout will make both products easily recognisable as a brand of products as the image is unique and similar images are not seen on many digipaks in the Indie/Alternative genre. This image represents my artist, as the image represents the potential sight for any artist who would play at a festival, which my band certainly would as the type of music if fitting to a festival such as Reading & Leeds, Glastonbury or Isle of White Festival.  It is the image itself that most creates a sense of branding throughout the products as similar images would be rarely seen on other digipaks. 

My music video then follows similar trends to the poster and advertisement throughout maintaining the adherence to the simplistic and minimalistic nature of these products. The use of the plain white background is how we enforced simplicity into the video along with the plain, simple, coloured clothing. The shots we used were also stationary throughout with also reinforces simplicity in the video. We found that simple, plain clothing was a trend amongst our target audience, so not only would the inclusion of plain coloured clothing increase the simplicity of the video but also make the video further appeal to our target audience.

Through research we found that bands from the Indie/Alternative genre who adopted a simplistic video approach, generally tend to use of plain white studio room which is a trend we tried to replicate (on a much smaller budget) by using plain white walls to achieve a similar outcome. Therefore, after creating this minimalist look, the video would match the simplistic digipak and advertisement designs further reinforcing the sense of branding between the products. 

 [Plain white undecorated walls acting as our simplistic backdrop]

Furthermore, we chose to use a plain white, simplistic, backdrop for the video as this focuses the audience attention to the band performing rather than things happening in the background. This was our initial aim as we wanted to represent the band as artists who care more for the actual music oppose to their appearance making the band seem more down to earth which would allow the audience to form stronger connections with the band. In conjunction with this, to emphasise the performance, we dressed the band in plain clothing, which fortunately also appeals to the target audience.

The font also remained consistent through the advertisement, digipak and video as, in the modern age, it is highly likely that when someone sees an advert that catches their eye, they will look it straight up on the Internet and more specifically YouTube. After searching for our band on YouTube, they will be faced with many matching videos but not all will be from our band as “The Everything” is quite a broad term. Therefore, having the consistent font and style (almost forming a logo) as the thumbnail for the video and also at the start of the video, will enable the audience to instantly know that this video is directly linked to the advertisement they have seen.  

However, for the front panel of the digipak I decided against using “Bebas Neue” (the font from the advertisement and video) as I believe that a more ‘decorative’ and unique font was more appropriate for catching the potential audiences eye with the front panel. I therefore decided to use the font “Futura Heave Oblique” which is a font used for a famous street wear brand, Supreme. This font would be more suited as certain members of my target audience would recognise the font and make the link to Supreme (a brand that produces clothing that fits in with our genre) and would also appreciate the aesthetical element that the font brings to the digipak. Despite the text being capitalised on my digipak, the link to the brand Supreme is clearly still visible as the font has become some what iconic to people who are familiar with the brand and my target audience are very likely to have seen the logo and font before even if they do not own any Supreme produce. This will reinforce to the audience that the digipak is fitting within the Indie/Alternative genre.

Overall, it is clear to see that my digipak, advertisement and music video all follow the same conventions and adhere to the same style, typography and imagery. Through this, I can say that all of the products I have created therefore fit into the genre of Indie/Alternative and would be recognisable as a group of branded products.

DRAFT Evaluation Question 1

Twitter Feed Video

******COMPATIBILITY ISSUE******

After looking through the clips we had achieved yesterday, we tried to begin the editing process. When trying to import the clips into Final Cut Pro we found that the file type that the camera had converted the videos into was not compatible with Final Cut Pro which shocked us both as we initially thought that we would have to re-film everything. At first, we tried to get a solution from the IT technician who was too 'busy' at the time to help. However, we thought that there had to be a way around this issue and set about searching the internet for a solution. We found a video on YouTube which instructed us to download a third party application called "HandBrake" in order to convert the format of the clips from a ".MTS" to a ".MP4" for the clips to be compatible with Final Cut Pro. After downloading the software on a personal laptop and testing the effectiveness of how it converted the videos, we decided that the end quality was of a high enough standard to use in our final video which meant I had to individually convert each clip we did which was very time consuming and delayed the editing process. Even though there has been a slight decrease in video quality, which is very barely noticeable, we hope this issue does not have a detrimental impact on our final product. A positive we can draw from this experience would be how it highlights our resilience and shows how we handle unexpected issues under pressure to resolve them as quickly as possible in order to continue the project to meet the set deadline.

RE-FILMING PLAN OF ACTION: Thursday 21st November

THURSDAY 21st NOVEMBER 

We are planning to re-film our entire video on Thursday as the last 'attempt' was very poor resulting in a  much lower than standard final product. This time we are planning the shoot a lot more to ensure we have every shot that we need to fill the video. We have found a location with a mise en scene that is much more appropriate to our genre with blank white walls to give a much more simplistic and minimalistic feel to our video.

Previously, we had very limited shots which had to be re-used countless times which made the video monotonous, boring and repetitive. To overcome this, we our planning to follow the story board a lot more thoroughly which will means we will have a higher variation of shots which will make the entire video more interesting and will mean we will be able to main the audiences attention for longer.

The equipment will remain the same apart from the lighting as we have acquired several stand lights that will be used to make the band stand out and look more vibrant. This lighting combined with the new mise en scene should result in a overall more professional final video. 

THE EVERYTHING HOLDFAST ALBUM PROMOTION- TWITTER

Final Poster and Digipak Design

Alternative Poster Design

DIGIPAK: Back Cover and Inside Left Cover Improvements and Adjustments

After receiving feedback from my teacher I was made aware of the fact that my digipak needed various improvements including the back cover and the inside left panel. With the back cover, the legal information was far too big and consumed too much space on the panel making the digipak appear unrealistic and unprofessional. I went about editing this, making it smaller, and moving around the record label logo, barcode and website address to ensure they are all aligned and spaced equally apart. To do this, I took inspiration from the back cover of Holy Fire by Foals and saw the conventions adhered to by the cover and tried to recreate them on my back cover. I have aligned the barcode with the top of the website and the bottom of the legal information to give a professional and realistic look whilst the record label logo is centred between them both.

 Original 

Adjusted 

Another adjustment I made was to remove The Everything logo from the inside left cover making the panel fit in with the rest of the digipak and makes the entire digipak more simplistic and minimal. The logo did not fit in with other panels or images so i thought the digipak would benefit from the removal of the logo completely. 

Original 

Adjusted 

Final Adjusted Digipak 

A2 Media Draft Video

Due to very unfortunate unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to film the entirety of our video to the best quality achievable. The camera we were planning on using was sent in for repair and various other non academic commitments led to the band members being changed last minute resulting in filming being of worse quality than first expected. The location we were planning on using was otherwise engaged and we had to resort to a friends band practice room in order to produce some footage for the draft. This resulted in the miss en scene not corresponding to our chosen genre and therefore making the video look abysmal. We all now well informed that our location will be available for us to use to film the final edit of our music video along with our original camera and band members. Ultimately, this should lead to the video being of the standard we first expected.

DRAFT MUSIC VIDEO FINAL UPDATE

Due to very unfortunate unforeseen circumstances, we were unable to film the entirety of our video to the best quality achievable. The camera we were planning on using was sent in for repair and various other non academic commitments led to the band members being changed last minute resulting in filming being of worse quality than first expected. The location we were planning on using was otherwise engaged and we had to resort to a friends band practice room in order to produce some footage for the draft. We all now well informed that our location will be available for us to use to film the final edit of our music video along with our original camera and band members. Ultimately, this should lead to the video being of the standard we first expected.

Draft Plan

Filming Date: 31/10/13

Filming Expectations: we are expecting to get all of the shots on our storyboard completed for our draft deadline on Friday. We have a total of 79 shots on our storyboard, which we will replicate to our best abilities in such a short amount of time.

Filming Time Schedule: We are expecting to be able to get all of the shots done in around 4 hours. This should give us enough time to complete editing on the Friday. Thankfully Reece and myself have only two lessons on Friday; therefore we can use our study periods and focus on completing the editing.

Filming Locations: Because our filming will take place after school, in the draft we wont be able to include all of the locations we want to use, this is because it will get to dark, thus a Saturday would be a more suited day to film on while we can use the natural light to full potential. One of our band members Dad’s has a small room, which he has all the equipment and props that we need to film in, therefore we will be able to use this room.

Location Problems: The issue we are facing with the room we our using for the draft is quite small and with a camera/tripod set up it would be a struggle fitting in all of the band and a relevant mise en scene. This is something we will have to work around on the date. Furthermore the mise en scene on the room doesn’t real suite the genre of our band, this is because it has heavy-rock genre posters around the room, therefore we will allow ourselves time before filming to clear out some of the posters and other elements of the room that don’t suit our genre and make it more conventional/suited. There is also a possibility that we will use a lot more narrative in the draft in contrast to our final piece due to the location issue. 

Draft Filming Update

We are hoping to start filming tomorrow for our draft. However there has been a twist in our filing preparation; unfortunately the camera we are supposed to be borrowing of our friend for the filming has broken, and is currently being fixed. The camera will still be available for the filming of our final video but we need to find an alternative camera for tomorrow and thursday, which is showing to be a bit of a struggle. If worst comes to worst, an iPhone 5s will have to be used to film the draft. (which actually shoots in 1080p HD)

Draft Digipak & Poster

After extensive research into minimalist digipak and album cover designs, I have decided to adopt a similar design for my digipak using one image on the front cover as the main focus then linking the other panels to this using various different methods. The image on the front cover of the digipak is an photograph I took whilst at Leeds Festival whilst a flare was illuminating part of the crowd I was in. I believe this photograph is effective for use on an album cover as it quite striking, original and will catch the target audiences eye amongst other albums. Also, the majority of the photo is blank which allows room for the band and album name to be placed onto the photograph, transforming it into an simplistic album cover (after editing). I have then tried to design the other 3 panels of the digipak to flow on from this to give a sense of continuity throughout. On the inside left panel I incorporated a zoomed in (and edited) image of the red smoke from the flare therefore creating a sense of continuity by adhering to the colour scheme. The back cover/track list is very conventional containing all the necessary information such as legal wording, barcode and record label logo. The layout of the back panel is extremely simple, maintaining a minimalist look, whilst also adhering to the colour scheme once again.

In the creation of this poster I have tried to maintain the style I used throughout the digipak of simplistic and minimal in order to achieve an effective design that stands out. Using the same image from the front album cover allows the CD to be easily recognised for those who have seen the poster and will stand out (even subconsciously) as they have seen the image somewhere before. I have again adhered to the colour scheme of my digipak to create a uniform feel between the products as this is a very common convention where a product range maintains the same colour scheme throughout all its products created. 

Draft Digipak

After extensive research into minimalist digipak and album cover designs, I have decided to adopt a similar design for my digipak using one image on the front cover as the main focus then linking the other panels to this using various different methods. The image on the front cover of the digipak is an photograph I took whilst at Leeds Festival whilst a flare was illuminating part of the crowd I was in. I believe this photograph is effective for use on an album cover as it quite striking, original and will catch the target audiences eye amongst other albums. Also, the majority of the photo is blank which allows room for the band and album name to be placed onto the photograph, transforming it into an simplistic album cover (after editing). I have then tried to design the other 3 panels of the digipak to flow on from this to give a sense of continuity throughout. On the inside left panel I incorporated a zoomed in (and edited) image of the red smoke from the flare therefore creating a sense of continuity by adhering to the colour scheme. The back cover/track list is very conventional containing all the necessary information such as legal wording, barcode and record label logo. The layout of the back panel is extremely simple, maintaining a minimalist look, whilst also adhering to the colour scheme once again.

Album Cover First Draft: The EVERYTHING- Holdfast

This cover was constructed using a photograph I took at Leeds Festival 2013 on a disposable camera and then scanned onto my computer. Prior to scanning, the photography looked very blurred and fuzzy with lots of vertical lines running through the picture (bottom photograph) which gave the picture a vintage/retro look that is a feature used in some modern day album covers. I thought this was quite effective and worked well with the text to form a professional album cover. However, I then decided to edit the photo to remove the 'vintage look' and form a more conventional looking photograph. Equally, this cover works just as well but with a different effect. 

Poster Inspiration

After research into album posters I have discovered that it is quite difficult to find high resolution images of the posters on the internet hence the reason for lack of images included in this post. However, through this research I was still able to find common conventions throughout the posters which combine to form a conventional album promoting poster. The band and album name are almost always placed on the poster along with the date of release which is a little more uncommon and is not featured on some posters that strive for a very minimalist look. Particularly, the lines above, in between and below the names on the Foals poster have caught my eye as give the poster a defined professional look and this is something I would like to replicate on my poster. I have also noticed that some posters include ratings from magazines etc. which is something that I would also like to replicate on my own poster. 

Foals Digipak Analysis

CHVRCHES: The Bones of What You Believe Digipak Analysis

Locations for the Final Music Video

The setting of any music video is of the upmost importance as a wrong location choice can ruin the entire video despite any other visuals in the video. In conjunctive videos, the location must match and correspond with both the other visuals displayed and also the lyrics in order for the video to flow professionally. In disjunctive videos, the circumstances are of course different but this does not apply to our video as we are planning to visualise the lyrics using both the setting and the artists performing the narrative elements of the video. Therefore, as we are trying to visualise the lyrics, the location will need to be perfect else we will portray the wrong image across to the audience which will lead to the visuals not matching the lyrics which is not what we intend.

After much contemplation on the subject, we have decided upon our locations for the video. We have decided to implement a wide variety of locations throughout the video that connote isolation and loneliness as this will be fitting with the lyrics of our chosen song: "Lonely Boy". We wanted to include multiple different locations as we this is common convention we have seen in videos across all genres and believe this will make our video more interesting oppose to only a few locations being used. However, finding multiple suitable locations is a arduous task considering the importance of the locations for the video but we believe it is necessary to allow the video to convey the message that we have planned. 

Firstly, the predominant location for the performance elements of the video will be in a grassy field with little/no infrastructure within the shots used. Also, we plan to film in a slightly forested pathway again with very little infrastructure.  This will ensure the focus is on the band and the instruments. This is a common convention used in videos within our genre where the band are located in a natural environment such as Olympic Airways- Foals. This will also benefit us as there as less variables that will have to consider as there will be very few members of the public passing through the area and we will be legally allowed to film. We will only have to be concerned with weather and lighting.

For the majority of the narrative shots we will be using deprived, derelict run down areas of Leicester's city centre to again connote isolation and loneliness to illustrate the lyrics. The decision to use a city centre for some of our shots was made as it will be juxtaposed with the natural nature shots for the performance part of the video and will lead to a fitting mix of both locations. Within the city location, we plan to film the leading band member (in the narrative shots) alone in what appear to be locations that would usually be deserted such as small back streets and alleys and we also plan to show the band member alone in places that would usually be thriving and very busy. Both clearly illustrating the lyrics of our chosen song.

Dependant upon access issues, we also plan to film some narrative shots in a abandoned engineering site in a village near to we live. We believe this would be a very effective location to connote loneliness and would also be intuiting for the audience as it is a rather unusual setting to use for a music video. It would also set our video apart from other music videos from similar genres.

Forested walkway

Old, Run Down street- Leicester 

Busy Highstreet- Leicester 

Derelict Building- Whetstone 

Jamie XX and Gil Scott-Heron: We're New Here Digipak Analysis

Simplistic Album Cover Ideas

Here are some examples of some simplistic album cover ideas. These album covers are realistically very easy to create; however they are extremely effective. For example the XX’s artwork for their album is simply a white ‘X’ placed on a plain black background. This binary opposite is very effective in gaining attention, and it represents the band too. Similarly Arctic Monkey’s album cover (first photo) uses the same colours, however includes sound waves in white in contrast to the X, yet again the simplistic/minimal look is very effective. The majority of these artworks are also from an indie or alternative genre, this can show that certain conventions seem to be followed throughout the genre, which is something to consider when designing our own cover.