Below I have inserted my version of an audience interaction with a social media page. This consisted of a screen castify of my analysis of the band, The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. I have analysed how I believe the audience interacts and engages with them and their star image. It has references to many media conventions and technical terms such as integrated advertising, star image etc. By doing this I am able to identify what a successful indie rock artists SMP looks like and how their conventions attract consumers.
PHOTOSHOOT / DESIGN PRODUCTION MEETING & RISK ASSESSMENT
To execute the production phase of my digipak, it was essential for me to plan where I will be photographing my background, carry out a risk assessment, create a mini shot list, and to understand the status’ of props, equipment and transport. With this, I decided a date of when this will happen and to also identify risks that could occur whilst out shooting. I had to pass by all of this information to my teacher prior to the shoot in order to make sure everything was efficient and up to standard.
DIGIPAK MOCKUP
A digipak mockup is essential for the preparation of creating my own digipak. With this design, it allows me to represent my genre well within my album. My final design has been decided through carrying out extensive research, for example, Pinterest boards, indie artist album covers and further inspiration. This research has helped me because I will be encoding (the process of turning thoughts into communication), and decoding (how an audience member is able to understand, and interpret the message), my digipak through incorporating a repertoire of elements (Altman’s Theory), preferred readings (Hall’s Theory), representing my narrative accurately whilst enabling it to be the same but different. Developing my ideas using conventions will significantly impact my album in a positive and successful way.
THE LOOK BOOK – THE PACKAGE
A Look Book requires research to help discover inspirations to aid the designing process when it comes to creating my own digipak and the package to include my social media page. From this inspirational mood board it provides me with knowledge on style, branding, integrated advertising, genre, repertoire of elements (the most important elements that I will need include to make my digipak & social media page successful – e.g. cheeky, playful and rebellious images), blueprint (the roadmap to follow to create a generically conventional look/brand for the artist), and the audience. This has now allowed me to broaden my knowledge on what makes a successful and professional digipak using all the components which make it work. I will integrate all of these factors into my work when I come to construct my own.
MISSION STATEMENT & MARKETING STRATEGY
In order to complete my digipak, it was vital for me to carry out extensive research which will enable me to create something of my best abilities, incorporating all of the conventions which make a digipak successful; some of these conventions include types of promotion, a call to action, how I would like my star image to be represented, integrated advertising, my mission statement, a unique selling point and importantly thinking of my audiences when using all of the techniques. When I combine all of the repertoire of elements needed to my digipak, whilst referring back to my previous research, I hope to design a piece of work that works suitably well with my genre but also works for my target audience.
DIGIPAK CONVENTIONS ANALYSIS
In order to complete a successful digipak / album cover, it is essential to forward-think and complete tasks in preparation for the final design. From completing this task, it has broadened my knowledge into what makes a conventional digipak by analysing and exploring what makes it the best it can be. I am able to identify how the band have been represented through the digipak, for example quirky, cool, edgy integrating a classical British feel. I have used a selection of technical terms that interpret these factors in the most professional ways. I will refer back to this type of preparation when it comes to completing my own digipak / album cover as it will aid me to complete it to the highest standard.
MUSIC VIDEO DRAFT 4
The draft 4 of my music video is the second to last process before it is finalised and put on my home page of my blog. I have inserted a clip below which represents my draft 4. Although there are many positive things about music video, there are also a collection of key points that need improving and for me to understand and apply myself to the factors of which need improving, my teacher & fellow peers kindly provided me with a screencastify of feedback regarding my music video.
Improvements (feedback from Miss Cobb & my fellow peers)
- Slow down the clip of the feet walking in.
- Scale and Offset Performance clips of Max.
- Play with colours, curves and contrast performance clips with the black & white gambling scenes.
- Minimise the amount of black screens.
- Slow down the gambling track scene.
- Organise the clips – drink, lay the table, drink, lay the table.
- Reduce the amount of performance slips.
- Understand the pace in the narrative.
- Cut the letter opening scene and integrate in a POV shot.
- Include some more gambling scenes.
- Scale in on the letter ripping.
- Make the clips of Max more dynamic.
- Make the clips correlate with the pace of edit.
- Cut the song.
- Edit to the beat.
With this feedback, I am going to use as much of my spare time as possible to ensure that all of these factors for improvement are completed and also integrated into my music video. This sort of feedback will enhance my knowledge regarding what makes a music video successful and also a range of skills will be used when editing my draft 4 further.
DRAFT 3 MUSIC VIDEO & PEER FEEDBACK
Below, I have inserted a google drive clip of my draft 3 for my music video. With this, I emailed a group of other students studying media, to evaluate and provide feedback in order for me to complete my draft 4. By completing this task, it allows me to understand what other pupils see when watching my video and how I need to improve to make this music video the best it can be. With each students ideas and visual representations being interpreted differently it opens an opportunity to take all feedback and use it effectively.
My Peer Feedback was as follows:
Positives:
. Lighting is good throughout the video
. Wide variety of different shots and angles
. The storyline is clear and easy to understand
Negatives:
. There could be more shots of the gambling scene
. Some of the clips of the performance are a bit long
. There could be a variation of a mix of transitions
Feedback from Erin Vaudin
Positives:
- Great use of mise-en-scene throughout the video, especially the poker table
- Good variety of shots, including both different angles and distances
- Brilliant shots of Barn in the bunker, with good mise-en-scene.
- The roulette wheel clip at the start is a nice feature, especially how you have left the sound of the original clip.
Negatives:
- You could potentially use colour correction, for example a black and white filter on some shots so they can be told apart.
- Some clips are slightly too long but it is not a massive issue
- Make sure to finish the ending, as it is currently unfinished I assume
Feedback from Leon Simon
SPECSAVERS FEEDBACK
Above, I have inserted our music video draft 2. With this, the Specsavers team visited our school in order to advance our knowledge and skills using premiere pro. We identified, as a group, the pros and cons to our music video, listening to Elliot’s advice. This sort of interaction was very beneficial as we are now able to include all of our feedback in our future drafts using both performance & narrative. Elliot’s experience and professional ideas will most definitely aid us when it comes to finalising our music video – interpreting all editing and skill techniques successfully.
Summary of feedback & Targets:
- Add a B&W filter/grain into the narrative scenes of gambling to create a specific feel.
- Make sure to finalise the ending – beginning, middle, end is essential for a successful music video which connotes the story successfully.
- Use a collection of shots which relate back to one another through narrative and performance. This portrays the story in a collective way.
- Create a board / visual shot list to refer back to when completing the music video as having inspiration leads to more successful videos.
- When finalising, we should use adjustment layers and colour scheme our video accordingly within both the narrative & performance.
Technical / Creative ideas:
SCREEN CASTIFY (TEACHER FEEDBACK) – DRAFT 2
This post is dedicated to reflecting our draft 2 music video. From receiving this feedback, we, as a group, are now able to enhance and improve our music video ensuring it’s the best it can be using varied skills, such as editing skills to familiarise and develop what we have already completed into something even better. With this, we will take the feedback and integrate it into the next step (draft 3) of our music video.
Summary Feedback:
- Great shot of the ‘whisky’.
- The filters and colourings have a substantial effect, which represent our genre well – setting the scene and atmosphere.
- Black & White filters are great, we shall integrate them into more of the gambling shots using grain and vignette to create effect.
- We have a strong selection of clips which we are able to use to create our music video.
- With help from Specsavers, we were able to establish a transition which works fantastically using tools on Premiere Pro we didn’t know, but have learnt how to use.
Targets for Development:
- Introduce the music video with a general shot – this will allow our audience to engage well and understand what is happening in the video.
- With our performance shots, we need to ensure that each clip is scaled and positioned correctly using offset.
- We need to add the most suitable filters and effects to certain clips.
- Retake both letter and pick-up shots.
- Using the clips we have, we now need to use them effectively to build the tension within the music video using the gambling scenes, prison scenes and performance shots.
- Use an establishing shot to introduce the ‘prison’ scenes.
- Ensure each clip is sequenced correctly.
- We need to finalise our decision as to how our music video will end and which clips we are going to chose in order to do so.