First Draft of Digipak Design: The first draft of the digipak design was inspired by the concept of iconography, which can be evidenced in our RMA products. This involves using a recurring motif throughout the entire promotional package, which in this case is the Polaroid featured within the music promo. This creates synergy between the music promo and the promotional material.
Front Panel of Design:
Audience Feedback: However, upon receiving audience feedback from our teacher, she stated that "The design is supposed to represent the whole album rather than the sole single." as otherwise it appears more like an EP or single rather than an album cover. We then received similar feedback from our focus group, with members such as Zach stating "It doesn't look like an album cover because the colours are too dark which doesn't make it very eye-catching". Therefore, we decided this design wasn't lucrative, which led us to brainstorm other ideas.
Our Ancillary Advertisement was chosen by our focus group in the earlier stages of ancillary development, therefore we utilised their feedback when beginning to create the first draft of our product, in order to ensure that our advertisement would attract our chosen target audience.
We knew from our feedback and RMA Research that, reviews from various magazine critics or acclaimed/well establish companies, would entice our target audience, thus fulfilling the purpose of an advertisement: to promote and therefore maximise profits on album sales, whilst promoting the individual artist on their various social media platforms.
We also realised that our product needed to clearly reflect our genre and therefore be relatively minimalistic in design, but also 'eye-catching'.
Advertisement First Draft:
An exemplary piece of focus group feedback from Abdullah, states that the yellow colour scheme is too bright which doesn't signify the genre.
Below explains the process of creating the First Draft of our Advertisement on Photoshop and some of the tools that we used:
Ancillary Tasks - Magazine Poster Photoshoot: In order to create our Magazine Poster, we utilised another Adobe Software, Adobe Photoshop CC 2017. Our previous design was critiqued for its yellow colour scheme being "too bright" and therefore not representative of the stereotypical colour scheme of the indie genre. We decided therefore to create a colour-scheme chart of the colours that reflect the indie genre, and from this chose the most appropriate hue of yellow to use throughout our poster and digipak.
Magazine Photoshoot:
In our initial ideas, we decided to stray from the convention that band's typically use a picture of themselves on their promotional material, as it is notable that indie bands tend to use infographics, logos and recurring motifs instead on centralising on themselves; this is typically due to the passion for the music which is deemed more important than the artists themselves. We wanted to ensure synchrony between our music video and our promotional ancillaries, therefore the pictures we took were of our male protagonist's hand holding the polaroid that is a reoccurring motif throughout our music video.
We purposefully took the photos on a plain white background to prevent any colour contrasts which would appear distracting. Similarly, the plain white background will allow us to superimpose the yellow text onto the poster, as a yellow is a colour that is difficult to make visible if surrounded by other colours. We decided to try out natural lighting within our photography, as we particularly liked the 'indie' and natural, homemade vibe that was provided by the reflection of the sunlight through Amy's shutters. We felt that the dimensions of this specific image worked the best out of our shortlisted images, as the text written on the polaroid is clearly visible.
Editing Log and Editing Research: In order to maximise the quality of our final product, I wanted to ensure that the editing was as professional as possible. Myself and my partner Amy already had existing intermediate knowledge of Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2018, which was invaluable when beginning our online editing phase to assemble the footage in sync with the music. However, in order to expand our knowledge further we purposefully chose to utilise a variety of handmade or plugin transitions to ensure the end product was of high quality. In order to create these transitions and overlays we used YouTube to find tutorials of our desired 'effects' as well as experimenting on the software. Similarly, I also utilised Adobe After Effects in order to create title layers for the beginning of our music video, (a convention often used in indie RMA's to establish the artist and song) which I then imported into Premiere.
An Exemplary Folder
Our first step involved assembling the 'rough' first offline edit of our music video. However, beforehand we reviewed the footage, removing the shots that we didn't wish to include, and we then categorised the footage into folders dependant on the scene. This meant our footage was organised prior to editing, and made the editing phase much easier. We then placed all of our footage onto the timeline and began to edit it in sync with the music track.
After we had completed the offline edit/basic assembly, we began to research transitions. As the Director I had envisaged most of the edit using quick cuts between shots to make specific elements (including the flashback scene) of the music video appear as if it had been recorded on an old camcorder in a moment of spontaneity. However, I also wanted to utilise 'Smooth Zoom' transitions which can be evidenced in a variety of modern music videos. In particular, I was inspired by the work of Sam Kolder, a YouTuber who has had a massive influence on current pop/electronic music videos. The above GIF is an example of the 'Smooth Zoom' transition he famously uses throughout his work. In order to recreate this transition in our work, I found an online tutorial that had a downloadable plugin effect for this transition and explained how to use the plugin to create the effect. (See below Youtube video by Orange93) I purposely chose this plugin because you had to create the effect yourself using the plugin; this meant it was more challenging and beneficial than using a pre-made transition. It also allowed me to alter the timings of the transition to adhere to the timings of the music video. After downloading this plugin and placing it into the software, I dragged the effect from the effects panel. Below is my own example of the transition.
Smooth Transition Tutorial:
My Recreation of the Transition:
Creation of Overlays: In order to adhere to genre conventions, we also made sure to use glitch/scratch/light leak overlays that we had evidenced in our RMA research, particularly in music videos such as The Hunna's 'Bonfire' and Catfish and the Bottlemen 'Homesick'. In order to create this effect we downloaded overlay footage from YouTube and placed it into a file, as evidenced below:
In Premiere Pro, I added the overlays onto the timeline on the layer above our footage at relevant moments. I then reduced the opacity of the layer or used the screen tool allowing them to appear only just about visible, which looked highly effective. An example of when this looked most effective was during the momentary flashback our male protagonist has of taking the polaroid with the girl. A bright yellow light leak can be seen which is a metaphorically representation for both the flash of the polaroid camera as it took the photo and as a physical representation (transition) for the change in time between the two shots.
Editing Log:
15th November:
After finishing Production, we used our first lesson (one
hour) to look over our rushes and footage and select what shots we would use in
the final product. We then categorised the shots into folders.
17th November:
Within our second lesson we began the basic assembly of our
footage, working collaboratively on Amy’s laptop.
20th November:
Three hours – Edited the first thirty seconds of the video,
which included the first draft of our introduction that began with a fade from
black transition into our main protagonist Will walking down the street and the
first verse of the song.
21st November:
The collaborative file was then sent to me. I spent one hour
assembling the first offline draft of the couple montage which is featured in
the song’s second verse.
22nd November:
In two hours of lesson time we edited from 0:30-0:57.
This cut together couple montage with band shots.
24th November:
In two hours of lesson time we edited 2:20-3:13.
27th November:
In one hour of lesson time we received pivotal feedback from
our teacher that stated that we needed to increase the speed of the train shot,
therefore we adapted this segment of the video and received further feedback
stating that it was “much better” and “less tiresome”.
29th November:
In one hour of lesson time we edited from 0:58-1:19, cutting
between performance and narrative shots in time with the beat (cutting on the
beat is a convention of indie music videos).
1st December:
In two hours, I edited the flashback cuts together and began
online editing to create the camcorder effect formulating a first draft. I then
asked our focus group for feedback utilising social media and received feedback
that I should remove the ‘noise’.
6th December:
In one hour of lesson time we edited from 1:36-1:41. In
doing this we tested a variety of methods of transitioning between the
flashback footage and the ‘present’ narrative shots. I then decided to edit at
home a light flicker transition that cut on the beat, back to the normal narrative.
8th December:
In three hours, we edited from 1:36-2:19, but left some
gaps.
11th December:
In one hour of lesson time we filled in the gaps 1:30-2:20 with
band performance shots and matched up lip syncing shots.
15th December:
In two hours of lesson time we received feedback on our
first draft and planned to fix any issues over the holidays.
18th December:
I edited the first draft of the ending but left a couple of
gaps, I decided on using a mid-shot of the entire band performing the last line
of the song, however, I was uncertain as to whether it was an effective final
shot.
19th December:
I created the opening credits on Adobe After Effects and
exported them into our Premiere Pro file. I also went through and added
overlays to the relevant footage through the adjustment of the individual clip’s
opacity. Finally, I completed the final draft of flashback montage, deciding on
an RGB colour glitch and a TV style line gradient, along with 4:3 resolution.
After messaging members of my focus group, they approved of the change.
27th December:
Amy and I met up in person and adapted the ending of the
music video, in particular deciding on a finale close-up shot of Ben (our lead
singer) winking at the camera as he cheekily delivered the last line. We felt
this was a much more authentic ending with the slight humour also allowing our
target audience to relate to the lead singer and feel included in the music
video, as if they were part of an inside joke. This is highly representative of
the indie genre, as artists of this genre strive to have an informal
relationship with their audience which allows the listener to wholeheartedly
focus on their music, rather than the artist selling their personality and
music as a package. We also fixed a few minor feedback suggestions.
29th December:
In one hour Amy colour corrected the video.
3rd January:
Our focus group reviewed our changes along with our teacher.
We then received feedback which was very positive and rendered exported and
presented final draft to focus group. Completion of our music video.
After editing the first draft of the music video we used social media to receive verbal and oral feedback from our focus group. We also decided to ask our teacher for feedback, which provided us with a valuable and more critical perspective of our music video.
Teacher Feedback:
Positive:
1) I really like the overall concept of the video,
and you have some very nice shots throughout including the shots of the female
protagonist leaving the bedroom down the stairs (a shot which has a nice depth
of field), and the shot of the couple sitting on the bench is nicely framed.
2)The editing to shorten the shot of the train going past was effective as prior the shot was too long, which decreased the pace of the music video.
Below is a 'tutorial style' explanation and justification of how and why we edited the shot using Adobe Premiere Pro CC 2018, in order to make it appear more effective:
Improvements: 1)I really like the cross-cut editing technique you have used throughout between the performance and narrative. However, there needs to be more cutaways to the band when the male protagonist is walking down the street, as this shot is uninteresting for the viewer. Therefore this shot should be broken up to make this section of the music video more dynamic. Similarly, shot isn’t very stable, making it appear unprofessional.
2)The shot of the male protagonist walking into the frame within the exposition of the music video needs to be cut at the beginning, as it looks too 'stop-starty'.
3)The lighting within the band shots is too low-key and therefore makes it difficult to see what is within the mise-en-scene of the frame. To rectify this, try to adapt the colouration of individual shots through colour grading in the online stage of editing.
4)Begin colour grading your footage whilst adding scratch overlays to make your music video more dynamic and exciting for the viewer, because at the moment the video is very 2D and flat. Overlay scratches are representative of the RMA music video you have been inspired by. (The Hunna – ‘Bonfire’.)
5)Consider whether or not the flashback couple scene is light enough within its mise-en-scene for the overlaid film grain and noise; could this end up looking as if the shots have been poorly filmed?
6)Taking inspiration from the RMA’s you have deconstructed, their performance sections contain a variety of shots that track round their performers utilising canted and interesting angles and foci. I would highly recommend that you re-shoot your performance section as many of the shoots are too static and therefore do not adhere to your music genre conventions.
