Our final music video

Here is our final cut of our music video.

Our final magazine advert

This is our final magazine advert. The colours and lighting are quite calm and peaceful relating to most artists in our chosen genre as well as relating to the tempo of the song. We decided to go for a more artistic approach regarding the font used for the title rather than a large bold font as we thought it suited our chosen genre better. It was important to include the record label's logo on our magazine advert and as you can see it is included in the top left hand corner. Any relevant information is also included in an easily readable font at the bottom centre of the advert.




-Will Burnham

Our final Digipak

Below is our final digipak, labelled accordingly. The brown strips in-between each image are to allow for folds and the faded circles in the bottom middle image represent the disc holder. 

      Below is the inside cover.                  Below is the back cover.              Below is the front cover.

   
    Above is the left of the inside.           Above is the middle of the inside.     Above is the right of the inside.


Below is an example of how this would be folded together and explains why the front cover is in the top right.

As each individual image on our digipak is not clear, below I have presented each image on it's own in full.

This is the front cover of the digipak. The text is simple yet suitable for the genre. In the image we can see our artist with the instrument used in our music video. We can also see a gun to the left of the image. We did not want the weapon to stand out massively (as artist's in our chosen genre are quite passive) but instead to be a slightly more subtle connotation of war. 

This is the back cover of the digipak. Influenced by real media texts we chose to include the single's song lyrics for our audience as they can interact with the product better. The image behind the text is of ruins having connotations of war and therefore connecting to the title of the single. It was important to include the record label's logo somewhere on the digipak and as you can see it is placed in the top right hand corner.

This is the side of the digipak which is first seen when the front cover is opened. As our front cover is slightly dark we thought it would be good to include a clearer image of our artist. 

Influenced by real media texts we decide to use a panorama styled image to cover all 3 sections of the inside of our digipak. When spread open you can see the image as a whole.

-Will Burnham

Music video - rough cut 3

Here is our third rough cut of our music video. Influenced by other music videos from our chosen artist such as Josh Record's music video for 'Bones', we decided to try out a black and white style over our performance shots in order to see what reception we received.

Most of our feedback regarding the use of black and white was similar, saying that they "liked the idea however it looked odd with the performance shots black and white and the narrative in colour as it is stereotypically the other way around". By having the performance shots in black and white and the narrative in colour we challenged the typical conventions found in real media products, however it did not appeal to our audience and so we will almost certainly scrap the use of black and white.

Our audience did not like the shot used of the female character walking across the landing

Rough Cut 2

Feedback:

1-

"Lovely focus pull"

"Love the removal of the jump cuts, it's much better!"

"Get rid of the talking in the audio at the start"

"Lovely birds eye view on the bed"

"Is the table wonky in the dinner clips?"

"Lovely lyric to visual links with the whiskey"


2-

"Still need to remove the dark performance shot"

"Not too sure on the vignette effect"

"Nice framing"

"Good syncing work"


3-

"I like the effect with the black faded corners - this should be used in all interior shots"

"The reflection of the camera man is still visible"

"Well timed cuts"

"Absolutely fantastic focus pull"

"I like the shot where the male character lip syncs"


4-

"Good narrative and variety of shots"

"Some of the lip syncing is out, and the guitar playing is slightly out of sync"


5-

"Nice editing"

"Good song choice"

"The editing of shots could be a little quicker"

"The actor and the actress fit the song and the moods of the song"

"The lip syncing is good"

"The guitar goes a long well"

"Really good focus pull"

"Locations are good"

"Lighting in a few shots not brilliant"

"Reflection of the cameraman slightly visible"


6-

"The effect looks good"

"Doesn't look too different from rough cut 1"

"Stairs shot looks out of place"

"Cut the final shot so that you cannot see the artist smile"


7-

"Good focus pull"

"Doesn't look too different from rough cut 1"

"Some chords are not in the same time as the sound"


8-

"Effect looks good"

"Opening the letter takes too long"

"The stair shot doesn't fit the rest"

"Not much different from rough cut 1"

"Guitar is wrong in places"

"Smile at the end doesn't suit"


9-

"Love the new effects on the narrative clips"

"Possibly put the artist in a boat?..."


10-

"Good effect on the edges of the screen"

"Great focus pull"

"Good choice of whiskey"

"Perhaps have slightly shorter shot"


11-

"I like the black vignette"

"Put ashes in the letter?..."


12-

"The vignette looks good on story line shots"

"Good variety of shots"

"I'm not a fan of the straight on shots of the guitar"

"Pan up of Joe is a bit shaky, don't think it flows with the rest of the footage"

"Don't like the bit when Joe says the lyrics"

"The vignette is missing on the first few shots of Amy sitting on the sofa?"


13-

"I'm not sure about the effect round the edge of shots"

"The lip syncing is good"

"Nice variety of shots"

"The shot is a little bit wonky in the dinning room"




How We Will Improve:

The most common suggested things that need to be improved:

-Some of the shots do not have great lighting and are a little dark
-The guitar chords don't always match the sound (not in sync)
-The vignette is missing in some shots
-Some shots are too long

Since these points came up more than once, we will make them our priority.

"Some of the shots do not have great lighting and are a little dark".
To fix this we will see if we have any other shots which can replace these ones. If we do not then we will attempt to lighten the shot with editing tools. As a final resort we will reshoot any shots that need better lighting.

"The guitar chords don't always match the sound (not in sync)".
Our first way to approach this issue is to try and sync it up better in the editing software, if this is not possible then we will reshoot the necessary shots ensuring we get the chords spot on.

"The vignette is missing in some shots".
Something we noticed from our feedback is that a couple of people weren't too sure or keen on the effect, and so this will affect our decision to either carry on adding the effect to all clips, or scrap it completely and try out different effects and colour corrections. Unfortunately it seems like the amount of people that did like the effect is evenly split with those that don't.

"Some shots are too long".
This is an easy fix as all we have to do is shorten a few clips that seem too long. Our feedback tells us that the shot of the female character opening the letter is one of the clips which will need cutting.

Research into music videos by our artist

Although Josh Record has released several songs, the only video he has released is the one for his song 'The War', which is the song that we have chosen to make a video for.

As Josh Record is a singer/songwriter, his songs tend to be quite slow and relaxing, rather than upbeat. Because his songs are like this, the video that he has must also be like this in order for it to link to the song.

The music video is a more artistic approach than what we are aiming to do.

Rough Cut 1

Feedback

1-

"The narrative is clear although the continuity of the piece could be improved regarding the shots switching between the female character being in and out of bed."

"Lovely vocal matching with the male character when he's hugging the female on the sofa."

"Nice time span playing guitar - love the sunset in the background."

"The cameraman can be seen in the reflection of the guitar."

"Nice framing."

"The jump cuts of the female walking do not work quite so well - add transitions."

"Lovely focus pull."

"Don't like the jump cuts when the female is going to pick up the letter."

"Appropriate material for the song."

"The meaning is apparent for the viewer."

"Good lip syncing."


2-

"Nice lighting  on the performance shots."

"Focus pull is effective on the shot with the whiskey bottle and the performance shot with the grass."

"One of the close ups of the artist is too dark."

"The lip syncing is good overall however a couple of shots were a tad off."


3-

"Really good overall, it looked professional."

"The lip syncing was off in a few shots."

"A few shots were a little dark, perhaps try to brighten them up a little bit."

"The reflection of the camera man is visible on a few performance shots."

"The storyline is clear, the audience knows what is going on."


4-

"Really well filmed."

"Good lip syncing."

"Good link between the lyrics and visuals."

"The shot of the stairs is too short."


5-

"Good framing."

"Interesting shots."

"Good lip syncing."

"Well thought out locations."

"Clear storyline."


6-

"Focus pull at 3minutes - so cool."

"Performance shots are really nice."

"Storyline shots need some effect or transitions as they are slightly dull."

"Some lip syncing shots need work regarding timing."

"Camera man can be seen in one of the artist shots."


7-

"Good focus pull."

"Good framing."

"Steady shots."

"Good lip syncing."


8-

"Good variety of shots."

"Good/fitting storyline."

"Costumes are well thought out and work well."

"Reflection of the cameraman can be seen."

"Lip syncing can be better."


9-

"The sunset looks good in the performance shots."

"Clear narrative."

"Good use of focus pull."

"Appropriate transitions."


10-

"Not too sure about the shot of the female walking out on the front drive however all the other shots are amazing."

"The focus pull was beautiful."

"Too dark on some shots at the beginning."

"Cut the shot before the camera moves."

"Reflection of the cameraman on the guitar needs to be removed."


11-

"Content and shots relevant to the music."

"Cuts work well with the music."

"Nice steady camera work."

"Nice focus pull."


12-

"The lip syncing was a little out sometimes as well as the guitar."

"The focus pull was really good."

"The narrative is really clear."

"I can see the reflection of the cameraman in the guitar."

"Narrative links well with the video."

"Good range of shots."

"Good lip syncing however it was slightly off at some points."


How we will improve:

One comment that came up several times was about the lip syncing and that it was out of time during some points; therefore we will have to adjust this for our second rough cut, if not that, then definitely our final cut, as it looks unprofessional. We will do this by adding or taking away small shots to make sure the lips are in time with the lyrics, or if this does not work, we will take out the shots that are necessary and replace them with a different performance shot or a narrative shot.

Another criticism that was used frequently was that the reflection/shadow of the camera man is visible on the guitar at one point. To improve this we will have to use another shot instead of the one we have at the moment as if we used the shot we have now, we would probably lose marks because of it.

Another piece of advice that was often mentioned was that the jump cut we have used in the scene where the female picks up the letter does not look very good. We will change this by adding in a transition; for example a cross fade, to make it run smoother and to fit in with the tune of the song.

The continuity of our piece was often brought up as many people thought that the order of some of the shots were confusing and didn't make much sense; for example the shots of the female on the sofa and when she walks out of the door. To change this, we will take out these two shots and replace them with shots that fit in with the narrative and that have relevance to the storyline and the song, as the ones we have at the moment do not link to the song that much.