Music Video Final Draft

https://youtu.be/cwXdSFYdtH0

Digipak Final Draft

Magazine Advert Final Draft

Evaluation Question Four

Evaluation Question Four - How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

http://prezi.com/qbu1ouzfluxf/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Evaluation Question Three

Evaluation Question Three - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation Question Two

Evaluation Question Two - How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

In order to attract their target audience, artists and record labels will often present key themes and images across each piece of promotion, in order to create a sense of uniform for the artist's upcoming album or product. An example of this can be seen below in the promotional materials for the album 'Only By The Night' by Kings of Leon. As you can see, the same image has been used for both the digipak and magazine ad, creating a sense of synergy between the promotional pieces. 

This is something I tried to achieve within my own ancilliary texts, in order to make my range of promotional materials share a common theme or subject. However, upon completing my final drafts, I do not actually believe I have created such a strong sense of synergy. 

My texts:



However, my texts are not completely without some form of synergy, as I kept several themes present in each of my texts, such as the main 'character' and the continuous use of darkness in each text. I chose to include these shared themes in order to make the texts (somewhat) make a link to the audience, as they would be able to recognise the 'character' and the surrounding environments in each text. With regards to the character present in each text, I believe this would link to Dyer's theory of 'Star Image', as the texts utilise the paradox of extraordinary and relateable, which, when used in conjunction, help to create a perception of an artist the audience is drawn to.

As well as the main character, I also chose to keep the font used for the artist and track the same on each text, as this would also help to make each text link in some way, allowing the audience to easily recognise that each text was linked in some way. As mentioned in my font research post, the Mistral font used for the titles is also used for the film 'Drive' (2011), in which the track 'Nightcall' is also featured. By using the same font throughout each text, I believe I have created a strong link with which my potential audience would hopefully be able to identify accross each text.

Evaluation Question One

Evaluation Question One - In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Evaluation Draft Answers

Evaluation Draft Answers

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - Slideshare/Flipsnak

Use:
Other synthwave videos/digipaks/adverts

Develop:


 2) How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts? - YouTube Video

Image/ model/ costume/ make up/ hair/ body language/ backdrop/ layout/ font/ colour/ institutional elements/ references to the other texts


3) What have you learned from your audience feedback? - Blog


4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?- Prezi/Emaze

Research

•  Prezi/Emaze

Planning

•  

Video

• Adobe Premiere Pro 
• Canon 700D

Digipak

• Adobe Photoshop

Magazine Advert

• Adobe Photoshop

Evaluation

Magazine Advert Final Draft

Digipak Final Draft

NIghtcall Music Video Final Draft

NIghtcall Music Video Final Draft
https://youtu.be/cwXdSFYdtH0

 

Draft 2 Feedback

Draft 2 Feedback
https://soundcloud.com/user-333478892/final-draft-screening-feedback

Nightcall Music Video Draft 2

Nightcall Music Video Draft 2
https://youtu.be/GAOGaOpIkeg

 

Nightcall Draft 1.5

Nightcall Draft 1.5
Below is the second overall edit of my music video for Nightcall. I decided to name the draft 'Draft 1.5' as it is ultimately not dissimilar to my first draft. The main differences to this draft compared to my first are the removal of certain shots, the shortening of some scenes and the straightning of the phone booth scenes. I made all these changes due to the feedback I was given following my first draft, with some changes also being made as I personally thought they would improve the video overall.

I will likely be publishing an actual second draft soon, which will hopefully remove the gaps prevelant in my first drafts, as well as featuring a more apparent narrative and storyline.

https://youtu.be/K127oaIEgCY
 

Ancillary Texts Feedback

Ancillary Texts Feedback

Similarly to the feedback  gathered for my music video, I fistly asked my audience if they enjoyed the texts, as this is a clear indicator of how well my audience will respond to further drafts. Thankfully, the majority of my audiece said they did like the texts in general, meaning my initial concepts for the texts are well received so far.

Here I developed my previous question by asking my audience thought the texts suported and synergised with each other. Given that this was a convention I identified in my textual analyses, I thought I should make it a priority when constructing my own texts.
 


I asked this in order to ensure my texts completed their overall objective of attracting a potential consumer/listener. I am extremely pleased with these results as the majority of my audience said they would be attracted by texts, thereby increasing the likelihood of them purchasing the album, or at least investigation.

Similarly to the previous question, here I also aimed to idetify whether my audience could picture my texts being used commerically, and how effective they would be if that were to happen. The majority of the audience said that they would regard the texts as proffesional looking, if only with varying levels of certainty. This still pleases me as my texts would need to look proffessional in order to attract and engage a potential mainstream audience.

Digipak First Draft

Digipak First Draft

Magazine Advert First Draft

Magazine Advert First Draft
Below is the first draft of my magazine advert for the album 'Outrun' by Kavinsky. I will be giving more in-depth thoughts in a later post, however overall I am pleased with this first version.

First Draft Audience Feedback

Shortly after uploading the first draft of my music video for 'Nightcall', I asked several questions using an online survey, which I distributed via email in order to gain a large number of responses. At the time of posting, I have had 15 responses which I believe is enough to draw valid and accurate conclusions.

Firstly, I asked my viewers if they actually enjoyed the video as this is a clear indicator of the overall quality of my music video. Eighty percent of my respondees enjoyed the video, which I would personally define as an overall success. This has showed me that the overall style and feel of the video is responded well by the audience, meaning I should be able to construct my video as planned.

 

I then asked my viewers if they felt the main dynamic of the video, the split between day and night scenes, was effective for the video. I asked this as I believed it to be crucial for my video to be 'succesful', given I had planned to include this dynamic since I began planning my video.

Similarly to the previous question, I believed the protagonist of the video was highly important, as if the audience felt the character was 'weak' or miscast then I would likely have to reshoot the video. As you can see however, this will not be necessary as each of my viewers thought the character suited the video, with no one responding with the character being incorrect for the video.

 
The main objective of music videos is to overall sell the artist's music/promoted album. I asked this question in order to ensure my video actually enticed and provoked the viewer(s) to discover more about the artist. As you can see, the majority of my viewers were intriuged enought to look into the artist further, meaning so far I am pleased that my video is completing its actual objective.
 

First Draft Thoughts and Summary

First Draft Thoughts and Summary
Below are two soundcloud audio clips featuring myself discussing the strengths and weaknesses of my first draft for 'Nightcall', also expressing how I will attempt to improve on my first draft in order to make a complete, competent music video which fits within the Synthwave genre. I will soon be conducting some research with my target audience in order to gain external feedback regarding my first draft.

https://soundcloud.com/user-333478892/first-draft-summary-strengths-and-weaknesses 

https://soundcloud.com/user-333478892/first-draft-thou 

Nightcall First Draft

Nightcall First Draft
Below is an embedded YouTube video featuring my first draft of my music video for Nightcall by Kavinsky. In a later post I will be analysing the strengths and weaknesses of this first draft, but for now this is the draft itself. 

https://youtu.be/97f3PryResA

 

Image and Video Clarification

Image and Video Clarification 
After recently reviewing my progress alongside the brief, I noticed that one of the pieces of criteria states  "ALL images must be taken by you". Whilst all my shots have been taken by me so far, I feel it is necassary to clarify how this has been made possible. While filming my music video, I have regularly used a remote control for the camera I have been using - a Canon 700D. This has given me the ability to angle and construct my desired shot(s), before I step into shot, with the remote often being concelaed in my pocket or hand etc. 

However, I also wish to clarify that I have had some assistance with carrying equipment and similar tasks. Whilst I am grateful for my friends helping me, I would just like to make clear that all footage and images were constructed, planned and taken by me.

I just felt the need to address this, as I did not want to compromise any marks I could gain later in the coursework.

Props List - N

Props List
For my video, I will not require many props, as the majority of the story will be told visually through the use of the shots and the actors involved. However, there are still several items I will require, each of which I have included below. I have attached a picture of each prop, as well as notes on how each one will be part of the narrative.

Watch - The watch used will be similar to the one featured to the left. The overall style of the watch is not important, as it is the actual presence of the watch that be more interesting to the viewer.

The watch will serve as a clue to the main character, hinting that the missing person has been in the location recently. The lead character will discover the watch in one of the 'daytime' scenes, with the watch giving further suggestion as to what the lead character is searching for. The character will pick up and examine the watch, before continuing in the direction he was previously walking, as the watch will inform him that he is clearly walking in the right direction. As I mentioned, the watch itself is mostly unimportant for the narrative, meaning I will likely just use my own for the required scenes.

Smartphone - Similarly to the watch, the smartphone will also act as a plot device for the narrative. I had the idea of the lead character discovering the phone, proceeding to turn the phone on to check its image background. The background image would be of the lead and missing characters, thereby establishing that they have some form of relationship to the audience. Like the watch, the particular type of phone will not be crucial to the plot, the only requirement being that it can display personal images on its 'home' or 'lock' screen. Therefore, I will likely use my own smartphone, as I know it has these requirements.

'Missing Posters' - This prop would also be used as a plot device, as (when completed) it would show pictures of the missing character. This would be featured later in the video, as otherwise it would ruin the viewer's suspicions of what the lead character is looking for. Below is a quick 'mock-up' of a missing poster I made in roughly five minutes. I did some brief research in order to see what real-life missing posters look like, in terms of composition and layout. The poster used for the video would not require much detail, as the emphasis would be placed on the title and images featured on the sheet. As you can notice, the mock poster below does not feature any images of the missing person - this is becuase I have not yet cast an actor to play this role, however I will add images in once the role has been cast.


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Original Images Before Manipulation - O

Original Images Before Manipulation
I will be using this image for my magazine advert as I believe the use of light and colour to silhouette the 'artist' is very effective and eye-catching. 

I will be using this image for the front cover of my digipak, as I believe the use of an interesting location in juxtaposition with the artist being present is highly effective, as well as being conventional of other digipaks.








I will be using this picture as the background for the 'disk holder' panel of the digipak, as I believe the subtleness of the photo will entice but not distract the consumer from the actual disk.









This image will be used for the inside sleeve or 'booklet' sleeve in the digipak, as it is similar to the magazine advert photo, thereby creating a link between the two texts, which is also conventional of promotional packages.

Risk Assessment - L

Risk Assessment
Below is an embedded Google Docs sheet containing the risk assessment I will be using whenever filming my music video. As you can see, there are not many risks which I believe I will encounter when filming, however I will be sure to add to the assessment if any other risks become apparent.

https://docs.google.com/a/george-spencer.notts.sch.uk/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRLWeA84SwL_Gi2Gy378heUrM6ZHBdJQ2DjLmCpyUS6srxO8Fk16VEATh0oncf
FhCil_DVAYWf_soPl/pub

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Film Schedule - K

Film Schedule
Below is a film schedule I created in order to act as a guideline for how the filming of my video should take place. Whilst the phone booth and nighttime scenes actually occur at the opening of the video, I detail these scenes towards the end of the schedule, as they would be shot later in the day.

Also please note that I may not actually film each scene on one day, however the timings on the schedule will still apply.

https://docs.google.com/a/george-spencer.notts.sch.uk/document/d/e/2PACX-1vR2er1XUK6MTbROzEZq-POyBbX9iq4eyWtKRro4fGsiaLbRaZObjElr7gwAb9mcq95oMeu1lxeAEqUg/pub

Costume Shots - I

Costume Shots
Below is a YouTube video detailing my costume the lead character (most likely being played by myself) as well as my reasons for choosing each aspect. I realised upon editing that the first half of the video was shot in Manual Autofocus mode. I realise that this is an annoyance however I hope it does not ruin your enjoyment of the video.

https://youtu.be/YIb_oVfyHAE

Storyboard - H

Storyboard

This is a basic storyboard I hand drew in order to show the basic storyline and shots that will feature in my music video.

Whilst the sequence of shots may be changed in post production and future drafts, I believe this initial storyboard offers an accurate impression ofwhat my video will hopefully resemble upon completing filming and post production.

Font Research

Font Research
Below is a list of several fonts I thought may be appropriate for the title of the video, 'Nightcall'. Including the songs title is highly conventional of music videos, as it conveys a cinematic feel to the audience, while obviously clearly showing which song the video will be based around. Towards the end of this post, I have also included the results of a short questionnaire I conducted after my font reasearch to discover which font would be most preffered by my audience.

I researched my various fonts through the use of online websites such as http://www.1001fonts.com/ as well as software such as Microsoft Word, as this allowed me to easily browse and select fonts -  visualising how effective they would appear on the word 'Nightcall'.

Chapparal Pro - This serif font is highly simplistic in appearance, which could make this font ideal for my video, as it would not be overly distracting for the audience. However, given that this video will (hopefully) appear film-like in appearance, I believe a slightly more intruiging font could be chosen - although I will still include Chapparal Pro in a short questionnaire I will be conducting to decide on what font shall be used.

Agency FB - Secondly, I chose this sans-serif font, Agency FB, as I thought its straight, almost uniform appearance would suit the concrete, sterile scenes that would feature in the opening of the video. Personally, I think this font would be highly effective for the video, however I will wait until I have conducted my questionnaire before deciding on which font to use.

Mistral - I chose this font as it was highly reminiscent of the font used for the film 'Drive', in which Nightcall is used. I thought this would make a subtle reference to the film, without being explicit or derivative. Unlike, the previous two fonts, Mistral is very much like handwritting, meaning the audience could possibly interpret it as written by the protagonist, creating a personal connection to the audience. I persoanlly like this font the most, however I will still await my results before choosing a definitive font.

Franklin Gothic Heavy - This font is more similar in appearance to the first two, however it is more 'bold', making it stand out more. Whilst this font is highly simplistic, I believe that if it were to be used with a suitable background image, it could be highly effective and eye-catching for the audience.

After deciding on these four fonts, I created and conducted a small questionnaire which allowed me to see which font would be preferred by my target audience. Before asking my participants, I gave a brief description of the purpose of the fonts, as well as my reasons for including each font.

As you can see from my data, the most popular font was Mistral, with Agency FB being the second most popular amongst my target audience. Personally, I believe this is a very positive outcome for me, as I had already considered using Mistral for my video, however, with this support from my potential audience, it has been solidified that I should definitely use Mistral. As mentioned previously, Mistral was used for the titles present in the film Drive, in which Nightcall is also featured. I think that by using Mistral, I would create a subtle reference to the film, a feature common in other music videos (e.g. Blur mimmicking 'A Clockwork Orange' for 'The Universal'). 

Overall, I believe that this research has been highly beneficial to me, as it has given me a greater understanding of how my music video should appear aesthetically. This will thereby allow me to produce a video widely enjoyed by my target audience, as well as fufilling the criteria for my video to be given a good overall grade. 

Location Recce Shots - J

Location Recce Shots
Below is a Prezi presentation detailing the locations I will be using for my music video. In the presentation I have included where the location is in terms of distance, as well as how they will be incorporated into my music video.

*Please note that you can zoom in/out of the presentation with the icons shown towards the right of the screen.

http://prezi.com/3k_olapdsbe9/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share