Development- Digipak

We created many different drafts for our digipak, because first we used existing images in order to experiment with the style we wanted. From our preliminary research from our first focus group we learned that the audiences liked minimalism, and a black background with elements of white.

From this we then went onto use images from our shoot day, but the quality was too low and it was just our music video laid out in digipak form.

We used images captured by a drone to create our third draft and this resulted in much higher resolution images but it wasn't in the same style or aesthetic of the genre- house.

In our 4th draft we went very minimal with a mostly black image but reverting to keeping the artist synthetic with the presence of the artist on the digipak, but the design was too bland and not instantly recognisable.

We then decided that we would get another focus group together and they produced us with some invaluable feedback.

From the feedback we developed the design so that it was more minimalistic and adhered more to the genre, and attracted our target audience.

1st draft

2nd draft

3rd draft

4th Draft

Feedback 

to digipak

5th and final draft

Development- website

Our first design is fairly similar to our second but from our audience feedback.

Audience feedback

 From the feedback we changed the font in order to attrat our target audience.

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Creating the website

  To create our website we used the online website creator 'Wix'. Wix allowed us to create a professional looking website using simple drag and drop commands instead of using complex code.
We created the images for the website using the application Adobe Photoshop cc and imported them using the simple interface which allows you to customise each part of the website in order to fulfill our idea visually.

Comparing the website of the same genera to a a website of another genera

CALVIN HARRIS

This artist is in the same genre as our music campaign (electronic house) 

Fonts
The website utilises a helvetia style font which is very clear and easy to read and connotes a modern movement.

//
This motif is common within website that focuses upon modern graphical design.

USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS
The repeated use of capital letters makes it clear what each function does and allows the audience to quickly navigate the site. 

Social media links
These links are easily viewable in the top right and although it is not instantly visible (top left) it is very easily found if the auspice are interested in finding these and this will help the artist adheres to Dyers Star Theory in the sense that the artist is visible and can connect with the audience.

Focus upon merchandise
Merchandise brings artists a large amount of profit and this tells me that in the electronic house genre artists are largely focused upon squeezing money out of there fans, thorough the use of its image.

No image of artist
The artist has decided to obscure himself from the website connoting that he is organic and not synthetic and adhering to Dyers theory of both being visible and not visible.

Ed Sheeran

This artist is in not in the same genre as our music campaign and will be used to compare and contrast. 

Fonts

The website utilises a type writer style font which is different from our genre and would adhere to a different audience. 

Plain and simple layout
The artist has opted to go for a simple almost like writing on paper appearance to reinforce the artists natural and 'nice' image.

Social media links
social media links are at the top directly under the artists name making it very easy for the audience to connect with the artist and the artist puts a emphasis on these links with custom logos for the social media sites.

Differences and similarities

Differences
- Fonts used
- Background
- Layout of navigational features

Similarities

- Social media is used
- Artists names are visible at the top and are prioritised
- navigational menu takes the audices to the same type of pages (tours, merch, contact)

How and why are websites used?

Websites are a very effective platform to advertise their music campaign and they directly link into Richard Dyer's star theory because it connects with the audience.
Fan bases are essential to an artist because they rely on these people to pass on the word and to purchase their music campaign. A website offers a place for the artist to connect with its audience and to create a fan base.
Concerts bring huge amounts of revenue to the artist and it is essential that they can fully book these events, the website is used as a form of online booking in which money is collected from the audience before the actual event.
The album will be available to purchase from the website and this is important because if they are selling it directly (B2C) they get higher profit margins bringing in more money for the artist.

A website offers a channel for artists and fans to communicate with one another and to develop their name as an artist.
An artist can use its website in order to construct and develop their image.

A website provides the audience with up to date updated with their events and sometimes a fabricated view of the artist's day to day life.
The internet is an ever-changing platform which can be changed in order to adhere with the conventions of the new music campaign.

Digipak feedback

We pitched our Digipak to the focus group that we had selected and then collected feedback. We learned the following key things that we are changing in the final copy; Style of digipak is different to the website and music video, doesn't have a lot of features and is a bit too simple, font doesn't go well with the electronic house genre, also the copy write is different on the website and the digipak.    

Feedback to data from Digipak rough edit.

-most prefer white on black
-most like the font few don't change slightly.
-opinion on design is split (make better and move elements around)
-opinion on fitting the genre is split (add more dance elements)

Digipak 2nd rough edit

Above is our draft digipak, we will present it to a focus group and collect feedback. 
From the feedback that we collect, I will amend and change the parts that suit best so that it suits and adheres to the target audience.

2nd draft Digipak

This is the 2nd draft of my digipak. I will soon collect feedback and change it to suit the audiences preferences.

Feedback to data from music video rough cut.

- most of feedback is female (not target audience)
- most of feedback is from 16 year olds (not target audience)
- Majority of people could see who the artist was (possibly make simpler)
- Keep slow motion everyone likes
- some have seen similar music video (try to find and differentiate them)
- most people said that we should remove elements and make simpler.

Reasearch data

From the collected feedback we created the following graphical visual representation to illustrate clearly the data collected and so that we as a production team could act upon the data.
From responding to this data we can connect with the audience and ensure that the final media products are all to the audiences liking. 

Questionare for focus group.

We created this questionnaire to give to our focus group so that we could collect feedback and find out if our target audience liked our music campaign.

1st Draft Digipak

This is our first draft digipac, it was created to collect feedback from a informal focus group so that we could get a few pointers in which direction we should go from here.

What is Qualitative and Quantitive Reasearch

There are two key types of data that a researcher can collect; qualitative and quantitive data. 

Qualitative data is in the form of wordy answers, something that can't be sorted organised through the use of graphs or number crunching. This data can be invaluable so that media institutions can find out exactly what the audience wants, but it can be very time consuming to sort through because the data is not sortable. In our case we will use qualitative data in order to find out exactly how our audience feels and there opinions and to get detailed responses to our feedback, from which we could change both the digital and the music video to suit our target audiences needs. Quantitative data is not always good for example when answering questions a audience will often result in tactful or indirect answers and responders can go off track due to the 'chatty' nature of this type of data collection.

Qualitative data is data that consists of 'tick box' answers and can be sorted numerically by number crunching computers. This type of data is easily sorted and allows you to quickly see the results due to the simplicity of the data. In the industry this type of research is conducted in order to go though large amounts of responses seeing what percent chose which option and so that they can find out if there audience likes the media product. Considering large amounts of people see a media product it is essential to get opinions from outside of the production team considering that they could be sentimental towards the idea. In our case we can work out the percentages from our focus group and look at this data at a glance. Quantitative data can not always be relied solely upon due to its 'tick box' nature, it can have underlying causes that cannot be noticed without looking more in depth and this can be done by utilising qualitative data. People can often be annoyed by having to answer questionnaires and because of this they can answer with random answers or negative ones that are greatly inaccurate.

Rough cut 1st Of December

Evaluation Of Shoot Day

On the day before the shoot we make up a checklist and checked that we had all of the props, equipment, and other items we needed in the shoot.

On the morning of the shoot I felt exited but also anxious about the day we were about to face, especially with all of the variables in a music video.

On the morning of the shoot we setup the first set and and then got the makeup done for each of the actors one at a time, doing makeup while the other dancer is dancing and rotating as so, this required careful and precision planning and enabled us to finish in time. We felt that our prior preparation paid off and we felt that we were very prepared for the shoot.

We accurately replicated our set design, but on the television setup we had extra time so we decided to experiment and use some extra setups and orientations. It was essential that we recreated the setup accurately so that we were able to follow our storyboard accurately and so that it all came together in the edit.

On the shoot day we adhered to our rolls, my own being playback device operator, and producer. Although at the end of the day when we were fully satisfied that we were running on time we switched roles so that we all had the experience of all of the roles.

Personally I believe that I did well in both of my roles. In my role as playback operator I was able to play the device at the right time and put the device in pronto of the camera so that in the editing process we were able to find the point both via sound and also via visual, this is actually surprisingly important because the speakers are ceiling mounted and there would be a minuscule delay in audio as sound takes significantly longer to travel than light.

As the producer I was efficient in making the changeover of performers and keeping to time schedules. I found the role as producer to be stressful but also highly rewarding.

On the shoot day we had very few problems, although we did find out that there was both banding and rolling shutter, to fix the rolling shutter on the televisions we had to change the shutter angle on the camera and this stopped this effect. To fix the banding we had to gauge the angle of the televisions so that the pixels on the screen and on the sensor lined up.

I personally think that the most successful part of our shoot day was the element that included the televisions, the reason that I think that it was the most successful part of the shoot was that we got some breathtaking shots that were in my opinion very original. The setup for this was not easy because we had to have two sets in the same studio space, one for the actor and another for the television setup. Also included in this scene was wiring for power for all five cameras and 5 connections from the cameras to the televisions and five power supplies for the televisions, that is fifteen wires all across the floor. What I found phenomenal was that every connection worked and that the image displayed clearly on every television, but this was thanks to our prior testing and planning.

The only thing that I wished went better was the one shot with the dolly on the track shot where the rubber tubing was in shot and obscures some of the televisions in shot meaning that this section is essentially unusable in post.

We effectively managed our talent and set a schedule of who would be needed and when, and when wee needed to makeup and shooting times.

Usually in a shoot you would record the artist first but unfortunately our artist was external meaning that she had to travel several hours to get to the school studio meaning that she could not arrive at the 8:30AM start time and had to  arrive at 10:00AM, this meant that we subsequently were forced to shoot the performers first and this meant that we could not do the makeup costume and hair homogeneously which made the shoot day longer.
In the edit I am most looking forward to seeing the television shot and finding out how we can manipulate the colors and add effects to the footage. I am also very curious as to how we can edit the colors and make the backdrop the correct color as on the cameras built in screen it was showing the background to be a tone of grayish brown.

As a team I felt that we cooperated well and worked effectively as a team working on our set roles and tasks. I felt before that delegation may prove difficult but on the shoot day we managed to keep our minds open and worked together effectively on the shoot day.

From the shoot day I learned that organisation is key and having everything ready prior so that the whole process goes smoothly is essential, I will use this knowledge in order to transfer it to my next shoot so that it can be even more successful, although our preparation was very thorough.

Our original proposition for the website and digipac was going to feature some bright and vibrant colors but our shoot showed that it mainly was composed of dark shots that were not very vibrant in color. This means that we will have to alter our design so that the design is composed of darker colors and also is less saturated than our original proposition. It is essential to make sure that the three media products are all similar in style and all have similar connotations so that a audience can instantly recognize that the media products are all linked to a single artist. Making everything similar is essential because it is intended to promote the artist.

Behind the scenes video shoot 1-London Cherry Duck Studios, male singer

We created the following annotated video to document the process of our first shoot day.

Behind the scenes shoot 2

We created the following annotated video to document the process of our second shoot day.

Behind the scenes video shoot 3 slow motion shoot- London

We created the following annotated video to document the process of our third shoot day.

First draft album digipac design.

I have put our artist on the front cover in the same style that Adele has done on her album cover, this is because it is a perfect way of promoting a artist, but one negative is that it connotes that the artist is synthetic. I also added a blue tint to the woman's face and exaggerated it in her eyes to connote mystery and to intrigue a audience. Our target audience is a young one and this level of intrigue would attract them.

I am going for a style that adheres to our music video with the black and white elements, and the paint on the inside of the digipac. The inside and outside subvert from one another and this powerful counterpoising adds a unique touch that is clean but creative and original.   

I am using contrasting colors in order to make the album artwork really stand out. I intended to make the inside and outside contrast to add surprise when the customer opens the case, this will make people talk and this will eventually cause word of mouth advertising.

My digipac adheres to Richard Dyers Star theory because the artist is shown to both have fear and to be strong, a common problem with our young target audience.

I have included the element of paint within this digipac because this motif appears in the whole of our music campaign and ties it all together so that the audience will instantly understand that it is all part of one package.

I have used mise-en-scene and technical edits in order to make my album artwork display the intended conventions. I have used a blue night club style peak in the highlights of the image to replicate a night club but also give some stylistic elements to the image.

Research into similar products -Album Artwork

Through my research I have found that three out of the four artists have two things things in common, both being organic, and also that there is only one element in the front cover on the digipac.
Two out of the four digipacs use a non standard font.
I have created a video evaluating my research into similar album artworks products. 

Shot list

We created the shot list so that on the shoot day we could have a really clear idea of what to shoot and in which order. Of course on the shoot day we will come up with additional ideas and these will only be done once the whole shot list is complete. As my role as producer it will be essential to have a schedule of what to shoot and in what order so that the sets can be created and changed over when required.

 

 

My role- Playback and producer.

In the music video during the shooting my role is both managing the audio playback device as well as being the producer.

As the audio playback device manager I will have to constantly be in contact with the team and to be able to restart music playback, as well as go to a specific time point and play from there. The audio playback device also works as a visual time sync device and a color board for the use in post production.
 
 The music playback device that we are using is a iPad running a video on the videos application, the iPad is then plugged into the surround sound speaker setup in the studio.

As the producer I will be in charge of keeping to time schedules and managing the performer and dancers in terms of making sure that they are in the right place at the right time and doing what they should be doing.
In the industry a producer is in charge of the visual presentation and representation of a artists music video, but for the actual shooting this role will be less powerful due to our groups delegationional rights. The role of being the producer will also involve adjusting equipment to connote and display the desired visual effects. 

A producer and a director will work close in hand to be able to ensure that both the script and the storyboard is adhered to. Essentially a producer is in charge of everyone and ensuring that they do the right this at the right time, this is essential in the industry because time is money and most shoots have to be completed within the day, this will mean that a producer will have to make executive decisions such as rushing certain parts and skipping others if they feel that it is necesary in order to complete the project both in time and in budget. 
 
In essence both roles together will mean that I will have to man the audio playback device as well as ensuring that there is a seamless and clean shooting day and that everything
goes to plan.

Creating the animatic

To create our animatic storyboard we used Adobe Premier Pro the same software we will use to edit our music video on. 
We treated the animatic storyboard as if it was the actual video because we used every frame as a clip for the video.

To use the software we had to import the image files individually.

Once all of the files were imported we were then able to position them on the timeline. 

Instead of using actual camera movements we used the effect which is known as the 'Ken Burns effect' named after the famous documentary maker Ken Burns. We found that this method worked well as a substitute for actual camera movements.

We also experimented with different transitions such as fade, and wipe.

We treated the timeline as a standard timeline for a video, first inserting the soundtrack and editing to the beat around that, just like in the lipsync which we did before.  

Props inspiration

 
We got our inspiration from broken and assorted electronics.
We were visualizing a hackers work space, but giving it a industrial twist that would give it a sense of surrealism. 
The technological aspect would really adhere to the target audiences age because they are aged in the ~23 age group and most are fixated with technology as it is embedded into there lifestyle.
The props also make the artist seem more organic because she is not directly shown to the audience. 
We felt that these aesthetics would relate to Dyers star theory because the audience can connect with the conventions that are being used.