Final video

Now that the project is finished, here is my final music video.

 

‘How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?’

In the early stage in the development of my media project, I relied primarily on online media, viz. Google and YouTube, for gathering research on music videos. I used Google to look into the conventions of music videos and to learn about things such as three-point lighting. It was invaluable when I moved on to research the ancillary texts as Google Images was incredibly useful in displaying a vast selection of existing media products from which I could take inspiration and note the technical methods used.

YouTube was hugely useful in the research stage of the project as it allowed me to view an extensive library of actual music videos. This afforded me the opportunity to look for videos of the same genre as my chosen track and note the conventions of that particular genre. I was able to look at the camera techniques, the pace of editing, the choice of colour palette and the mise-en-scene in videos in order to gain awareness of the requirements of an authentic music video.

When moving on to planning the music video, I used Facebook in order to communicate with those involved in the project. I used the site to inform my actor about what we would be doing each day of filming. It was a valuable tool of communication that helped me co-ordinate the production schedule and keep to my timetable. When, fairly late into the development process, I was dealt with the bad luck of my actor no longer being available, it proved an indispensable technology, giving me the ability to sort myself out with a replacement performer. Had I been without Facebook, finding a back-up actor, and, by extension, completing my video, would have been a much more uncertain prospect.

A vital technology in the production of the video was the camera. Having already used the cameras at AS and GCSE, I was competent in the use of the technology and I felt that, in this project, what I was able to get on film was much closer to what I had imagined than in either of those projects. In the previous projects, my lack of complete competence with the technology hindered the realization of what I had envisioned. This time, however, I felt much more comfortable using the camera and saw it as a tool to create something good rather than a complex machine to be managed. Skill with the technology was demanded in this project due to the fact that I was working on my own and did not have someone else to rely on for competence in this area. In the scenes in which I was lip-synching, I had to manage simultaneously filming and performing.

The other piece of filming equipment I utilized was the tripod, which I also became confident in the use of. I remained conscious of the need to vary the height of angles and it became second nature to repeat shots experimenting with different angles. I think that this year I have become much more skilled with the camera equipment, having used a greater variety of angles, as well as becoming more conscious of shot composition, something that I think I’ve done especially well. I will admit that what I’ve not done well at all is camera movement. I have none in the video and it suffers as a result. This was mainly due to simply forgetting to do it, which happened because so much of my shots were spontaneously filmed. If I had stuck to my storyboards I would have movement but since I almost completely ignored them (not out of laziness or other reasons like that, but because I found it more productive to film the way I did) all of the video’s shots are stationary.

A technology that was central to the production of the video was the Apple Mac that I worked on. Being used to Microsoft PCs, working on a Mac was, even after doing so since Year 11, not completely natural to me and unfamiliarity with programs and tools provided me with obstacles in the development process. Nevertheless, I was able to manage and I definitely think that this year I have become a great deal more competent with the Mac, ostensibly due to the solo nature of my work, which called for a high degree of confidence in using the system.

The principal program I used to produce my work was Final Cut Express. Having used the program to make my AS and GCSE pieces, I had a good level of experience with which I could confidently create my A2 work. Even so, over the course of the project, I have learnt a good deal more about the program and have been far more adventurous in making the video. Having complete directive and creative control over the project lead to me experimenting with different tools, the colour corrector especially.

Due in equal parts to a greater amount of time spent on working on the video, a higher level of competence, and the desire to make the video more authentic, I have created a video with far more edits than my GCSE piece. Spending more time on the video gave me time to meticulously adjust the pacing once I had the basic video completed. At GCSE, because I spent less time making the video, I was left with a video with a very rudimentary level of editing. My improved competence with the program meant that my editing was of a much higher standard. This was also partly caused by my conscious attempt to make my video as authentic as it could be, as a genuine video has much pacier editing than can be seen in my GCSE video.

For the production of my ancillary texts, I used Photoshop. This was the first time I had used the program but I feel that I became confident with using it and was able to learn how to use all of the features in order to create a good set of supporting materials. I was initially frustrated with using the program as I had no idea how to import images. After I got past this, I was then confronted with the problem of adding other images and text on top. I found myself annoyed with how the added layers would disappear, not move or generally act strangely. In time, however, I learnt how to use the program effectively and was ultimately not held back by my early incompetence.

While I was using Photoshop to create the ancillary texts, I used Google to find necessary images, namely a barcode, some record company logos and an iTunes logo. I had also used the site when researching existing CD covers and print adverts. I also used Photoshop to add text to the images. I spent time trying out various fonts and seeing how it looked with different filters and effects. I found a text type that suited the style I was looking for and used the available effects to make it a little blurry, to fit with the images.

When it came to the evaluation stage of the project, the first media technology I used was Microsoft Excel, which I used to process the information from my audience feedback. I organized the information and used it to make graphs, which helped me visualize how successful I had been in making my video. I used the graphs in my evaluation to help illustrate where I had and had not been successful.

One of my many graphs

For part of my evaluation, I used my YouCam webcam to film myself talking about my audience feedback. This was not the first time I had used the technology and I felt that using it would help make my evaluation less text heavy and add some variety to the forms of media I used. I recorded my seven-minute video and uploaded it directly onto YouTube, posting it to my channel.

The media technology that I used constantly from the beginning of the research stage until the end of the evaluation was WordPress. I had maintained a blog at AS but it was not until this year that I began to take a pride in keeping my blog up to date and at a high standard. I admit that my AS blog was quite lacklustre and did not fully document the development process of the film opening. I was determined this year to keep my blog frequently updated and to write much more about the research I had done and the production process. I think that I have achieved that as I have posted far more posts this year compared to last year and they have been of a higher standard, being longer, more in-depth, and not being all text.

During the research stage, I used WordPress to talk about what I had been looking at and what it had taught me. I made posts about music videos that I had seen and discussed the techniques they used and what I could apply to my video. I made posts talking about the ancillary texts and showed examples, thinking about what I could learn from them. In the development stage, I used the site to post about how I had progressed, talking about how the video was coming along. I also posted my progress on the supporting materials, with screenshots showing how much I had done.

I really feel that my A2 blog is a major improvement on last year’s blog. I have maintained it to a better standard, keeping an extensive media library full of images and organizing my posts into easily identifiable categories.

In the final stage of the project, I used WordPress to post my evaluation. Using the site for this was helpful as I could look back on my previous posts and be reminded of things that had influenced me that I could mention in the evaluation. I could also use my media library to post images of these influences, as well as examples of real media products.

I think that this year I have used a great deal more media technologies than at AS. Throughout all stages of development, I have referred to many different technologies in order to better research, plan, develop and evaluate. In addition to the technologies I relied on last year, namely Google, YouTube, WordPress and Final Cut, I have used new technologies to create a far better piece of work.

‘What have you learnt from your audience feedback?’

Thankfully, the response to the quality of the video was largely praiseful

My handling of the narrative was not as well received.

Most of the main themes in the video could be detected.

The feedback confirmed what I thought about the video’s target audience.

‘How effective is the combination of your main media product and ancillary texts?’

When creating my ancillary texts, I considered it to be of great importance to make sure that their style was consistent with that of my primary media piece. I had to consider the text that I used, the colour palette and the composition and content of the images themselves.

In fitting with the dark and dispirited tone of the video, I decided to use a limited colour palette consisting mainly dark, cold colours. This also fit with the visual tone of the video, which featured a lot of dark shots and had been colour-corrected in order to homogenize the bleak tone. While researching, I saw that most CDs and adverts carry the same visual tone as the video(s) they promote, an example being Pink’s Blow Me (One Last Kiss) (2012), the single cover for which fits with the classical cinema style of the track’s video, with the colour and text style reflecting the style of the video.

CD cover

In order to best keep with the look of the video, I took stills from the video to use as both the CD and advert images. I think that this, while it was easy to do, was not the lazy way out and in my research I noticed that many CD covers use images that have either been taken from the video or that have been taken separately but made to look like something from the video. One such example would be Katy Perry’s album Teenage Dream (2010), which uses an image recognizable from the video for California Gurls (2010). I also noticed how very often the advert would use the same, or similar, image as the CD cover. This is why I used the same image for both the advert and the CD back cover. This is often done for commercial reasons, as people will recognize the CD from the advert. Again, Perry’s album is proof of this, as the advert for Teenage Dream uses the same image as the CD cover.

CD cover

Advert

When choosing which image to use as the front cover, I wanted one without the character in my video in it. This was because he only appears in the video for that particular song and, as I had made an E.P., I didn’t think that having him on the front cover would be a realistic thing to do as the cover should reflect the entire E.P., not just that one song. I chose instead to use a still showing a phone box at night. It had some of the glowing effect that I had been looking for. The other tracks on the E.P. are fairly similar in tone to Lonely Soul and, had they had music videos, I imagine they would be similar in visual tone as well, so as long as the CD packaging reflected the tone of the video, I felt that I had done a good job of making CD art that worked as a package for all of the tracks. I knew that this was important because all good music releases have package art that reflect the tone of the tracks. For instance, the artwork for M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (2011) fits with the feel of each song, with both the text style and the colour complementing the spacey, surreal feel of the tracks. There are no tracks on the album with which the artwork does not fit.

When working on the ancillary texts, I felt it important that they convey the themes of the video. As I believed that the E.P. as a whole would carry the themes of my particular track, the art for the E.P. should make those themes, if only subtly, visible. The album art for Green Day’s American Idiot(2004), for example, is visually reminiscent of propaganda art, subtly referencing the album’s themes of disillusionment with society and the state.

Art designer Chris Bilheimer took inspiration from communist propaganda in order to convey the album’s themes.

For my E.P., I needed to reference the themes of loneliness and isolation, as well as bringing across the urban imagery that I used heavily in the video. I thought that the phone box shot was ideal as it shows the subject, here an inanimate construction, glowing alone in darkness, which I thought worked especially well to convey the sense of loneliness in the song. Also, of course, it shows an urban location, fulfilling the need for urban imagery to be present.

Inside the CD booklet, I used stills of birds, which I thought worked well to convey the theme of escapism, as birds are very free creatures. The images I used in the booklet are each very simple and minimalist, which I meant to show the themes of isolation and loneliness. By having images with very little in frame, they present visually the isolation of the video’s protagonist, which, as I have said, is a theme I planned to be present throughout the E.P.

I thought the lone bird could help convey both the themes of loneliness and escapism.

The simple composition of the booklet shots I think assisted in the conveyance of the theme of isolation.

One thing that I did to link my primary work with the ancillary texts was to include the artistic references of the video. I had used references to both Edward Hopper and J.M.W. Turner in the video to help bring across the themes of loneliness etc. and to show effect that the music-writing has, respectively. Having decided that the themes of isolation, loneliness and urban entrapment were more central to the E.P. as whole, with the escapism theme being specific to Lonely Soul, I chose to run with the Hopper references in the E.P. artwork. This can be seen on the front cover, which I selected partly because of the glowing effect of the light in darkness, a common aesthetic feature in Hopper’s works, as can be seen in Drug Store (1927), for example.

Drug Store (1927)

I still included limited reference to Turner, however, by using one of my sky shots in the booklet. It was not one of the vividly coloured ones that I had because I had to maintain a harmonized colour palette throughout the E.P. art but the reference exists in the subject of the sky, a prominent feature in Turner’s works.

Rocky Bay with Figures (c.1830)

Ultimately, I feel that my main media product and ancillary texts work well in combination, as both the CD cover and advert bear visual similarities to the video and the themes of the video are visibly, if only subtly, present. Visual consistency between the two is a measure of success and, as they do aesthetically complement one another, I think that I have created two sets of media that work well in unison as commercial products.

‘In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?’

When developing my video, I was conscious of ensuring to adhere to the conventions of the genre of my track. I decided that I could play with the conventions of some elements of my video but, for the sake of creating something that was still identifiable as an authentic piece of media, I should be mindful of the need to fulfil certain requirements of a music video. These conventions ranged from very basic technical things such as the style of editing to more complex details such as artistic references and the control of the product’s colour palette.

Given the nature of the track I chose to work with, the conventions of its genre are more unclear compared to a more mainstream song whose genre is plainly visible. Lonely Soul (1998) falls under several categories in terms of its genre so when considering my obligations towards fulfilling the conventions of the genre, there was much room for interpretation. The track, specifically categorized, would be labelled as Trip Hop. This genre is primarily a mix of electronica and downtempo with elements of hip hop (manifested in this particular track in its looped drum rhythm), but given the experimental character of the genre, individual trip hop tracks can be vastly dissimilar from each other and when approaching this task, there was no clearly defined set of requisites that I had to fulfil.

Having said this, the song carries a very strong tone and feel so I felt it a necessity to construct a video that complemented this. The track has a very dark and eerie tone so obviously there were confines as to what tone I could compose in the video. I felt that there were themes within the lyrics that I should present in the video. When researching existing videos, I saw that there were some videos in which the narrative was very closely linked with the song’s lyrics, with the video telling the same story as the lyrics, only visually. I also saw videos in which the narrative was completely detached from the narrative of the lyrics. Another significant portion of the videos I researched included a video narrative that, while not a direct translation from that of the lyrics, does carry the mood that the lyrics create. One such video would be Accidentally in Love (2004) by Counting Crows.

The video presents a different narrative to that of the lyrics but still retains the feel of the song. Something similar to this that many videos use is a narrative that has been constructed from the lyrics that do not tell a full story. The lyrics will not have a narrative that one could extract and are rather simply the basis for a narrative that is shown visually in the video. I would give Lana Del Rey’s Born to Die (2011) as an example. The song’s lyrics do not, in themselves, fully present a narrative. The video takes the lyrics and constructs a narrative from them.

This convention was one that I chose to adhere to. In my video, the narrative I constructed centred around my protagonist, who is a lonely and isolated individual, and involved him experiencing music, specifically the listening to and writing of it, as a means of escapism. This is not what is told through the lyrics. They merely gave me a base on which to build a narrative. Some of the lyrics reflect parts of the narrative I created, helping to hold the two together as a cohesive whole. For instance, the words ‘let your mind drift and get out of this place’ fit with the theme of escapism in the narrative and obviously ‘God knows you’re lonely souls’, ‘I’m a lonely soul’ etc. fit with the themes of loneliness and isolation.

During the production and development of my video, there were many conventions in regard to the technical side of the process that it was necessary I use. Through my research, I gathered knowledge on what these were, paying attention to established ways of using camera angles, lighting and editing. Though these may seem to be very fundamental elements within a music video, the nuances of their implementation reflect numerous things about the genre. A more sentimental love song would likely use a slower pace of editing, as can be seen in Gabrielle Aplin’s Home (2012), which has a slow, steady editing pace that complements the serene tone of the song.

Rap or dance music, on the other hand, generally use a much more energetic and pacing style of editing. One example of this would be Headlines (2011) by Drake, a very briskly edited video. The video’s fast editing fits both with the pace of the song and with what one would expect from that genre of music.

The editing therefore falls under both the categories of technical requirement and convention. Making sure that I had used it to a good standard was simply a technical aspect of the production process and controlling it and keeping it consistent (until the climax, where I purposely quickened the editing) was just part of making a good video. My control over the editing could also let me fulfil the conventions of the genre, helping me adhere to the conventions of real media products.

The same was true with the camerawork. While storyboarding and filming, I was aware of the need to keep the cinematography to a high standard while simultaneously thinking about how I could use it for the purpose of reflecting the feel of the video. Real music videos have certain conventions in regards to camera angles and shot composition. If the video is for a mainstream pop artist, there will almost certainly be a lot of focus on the artist, including many close-ups. Looking at videos for some tracks that were more like my song, I saw no examples of this and the focus was usually more on the narrative rather than the performers. This could be attributed to the fact that my genre is mainly practised by DJs/solo producers who are not frontman material and therefore do not feature as prominently in their videos. For example, the artist of my chosen track, Unkle, is a two-man outfit and neither of them perform vocally in their music. Instead, they often employ guest vocalists. These guests may be focused on in a similar way to an artist starring in their own video. Another note about performers is that, generally, the more famous and popular they are, the more they will be focused on, as video directors realize the value of the artists themselves as a selling point. An artist such as Rihanna will feature extensively in videos of her songs, evident here in the video for Diamonds (2012), in which she appears in almost every shot.

Contrarily, a musical group where the performers/musicians themselves are not as focal will be focused on less, with more attention paid towards the narrative, an example being Crystal Ball (2006) by Keane, which is a very narrative-driven video with less focus on the band. I felt that my guest vocalist would not suit being as focal as Rihanna is and decided that I wanted a strong element of performance in my piece to reflect this.

One convention of high-standard music videos is the use of lighting and colour in such a way that they assist in the construction of the videos’ themes. When planning the use of lighting in my video, I wanted to ensure that it helped me present the themes that I wanted to be in the video. I thought that having the character poorly lit would help show his invisibility in the world. Something similar was done in the film One Hour Photo (2002, dir. Mark Romanek), in which the protagonist’s clothing has been carefully selected to make him blend in to the surroundings, for the purpose of presenting the very same thing that I was trying to.

I also thought that having him well lit would help highlight him in the shots where he is on his own, thereby highlighting the matter of his isolation. My finished video has many examples of both techniques, as well-lit locations were more ideal for having him poorly lit and darker locations provided an excellent opportunity to light him well.

I felt that shots like this reflected the character’s invisibility in the world.

While researching other videos, it was evident that the colour palette is controlled both for the sake of visual consistency and in order to support the tone of the videos. Conscious control over my video’s colour palette allowed me to amplify the tone I created in the video. Through both a careful consideration in the locations I used and post-production visual correction, I tried my best to harmonize the colour palette for aesthetic consistency. I also attempted to weaken the colour in a number of shots because I thought they looked too vibrant for the overall tone of the video, which I thought obliged a bleaker visual tone. The song clearly has a dark, dispirited tone that would best be accompanied by a colour palette consisting of greys, blues and other cold, sombre hues. A controlled colour palette can be seen in Unkle’s Be There (1999), which has a strong green tint to its colour palette, used to augment the slightly strange feel of the video and add to the sense of uneasiness.

I strove to maintain a minimalist colour palette to reflect the tone of the song.

Such dolorously coloured shots I think help sustain the video’s tone.

A convention that is used in many, but not all, music videos is the use of references towards other works. A video may reference a certain painting, film, book etc., for a wealth of different reasons. In the particular case of my video, I made the decision to reference the works of American painter Edward Hopper. His paintings generally present lonely figures in urban environments, something that clearly fits perfectly with what I was hoping to show in my video. Referencing his works helps the themes of those works show in the video. By creating shots reminiscent of particular paintings, a visual comparison is drawn between those scenes and mine and the video calls to mind the Hopper paintings along with all of the reactions they evoke. I attempted to mirror the tone of these paintings through shot composition and lighting. While filming, I was looking to compose shots so as to draw a visual comparison with them and I positioned my actor in such a way that he was isolated in a similar fashion to their subjects. Many of Hopper’s works, Nighthawks (1942) and Automat (1927) to name but two, feature a strong use of light, with numerous works displaying the glowing effect of light amid darkness. Again, re-creating the aesthetics of such works links my video the mood evoked in those works.

Nighthawks (1942)

Automat (1927)

Drug Store (1927)

The stark composition of Hopper’s paintings can be seen replicated in other media works. The film Collateral (2004, dir. Michael Mann) in one scene shows the principal characters by themselves at a petrol station. The shot’s composition and lighting are both reminiscent of such paintings. Mann may have been consciously imitating these works for the purpose of showing that, like the subjects of Hooper’s paintings, the two characters are alone and insignificant. Indeed, late in the film, Vincent remarks upon this, saying ‘millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars, and a speck on one in a blink. That’s us, lost in space…who notices?’.

Recurring subjects of Hopper’s works are urban locations. Almost always presented as grim and comfortless, I decided to reference the paintings in order to reinforce the idea in my video of urban locations being melancholy and restrictive. I included myriad shots showing hard, grey urban locations in order to show this and composed certain shots similarly to certain paintings in order to conjure the same mood that they create.

Manhattan Bridge Loop (1928)

Approaching a City (1946)

I also referenced, to a lesser extent, the works of J.M.W. Turner. I thought that the vivid colours of paintings such as The Slave Ship (1940) and The Fighting Temeraire (1838) would act well to contrast with the bleakness in the rest of the video. I felt that the colours could demonstrate visually the significance of the protagonist’s progression into writing music as as a form of escapism. The intensely coloured shots are to the rest of the shots as the song-writing is to the protagonist’s life. I tried to obtain shots aesthetically reminiscent of Turner paintings, primarily through filming skies at the time of day when they are most vividly coloured.

The Fighting Temeraire (1838)

The Slave Ship (1840)

References to art can be found easily in other media products. In the video for Nick Cave’s Where the Wild Roses Grow (1995), Kylie Minogue is presented in a way very visually evocative of Millais’s Ophelia (1852). In this particular case, the reference may have been included to foreshadow the ending of the video, because, as the painting shows Ophelia in her last moments before drowning, it hints at the death of Minogue’s character at the end of the video.

Ophelia (1852)

In the video for Madonna’s Vogue (1990), a number of references are made towards golden-era cinema, chiefly through the replication of the lighting and composition of iconic Hollywood images. Here, references are being used mainly as a homage to other media but could arguably be to create a comparison between Madonna and iconic Hollywood actresses.

I think that ultimately, my video adheres to set conventions much more than it challenges them. During all stages of production I was more concerned with creating a media piece that was authentic and looked like a genuine music video than challenging the conventions of music videos. I was perhaps a little worried that if I disregarded certain conventions, it would harm the authenticity of my video. I feel that what I have done is produce a music video that effectively fulfils the conventions of both music videos in general and of its specific genre. While my video may thus be a little conventional, not pushing any boundaries, it works well as an independent music video, something that I can be pleased with.

Final ancillary texts

CD front cover

CD back cover

Booklet page 1

Booklet page 2

Booklet page 3

Booklet page 4

Print advert

Progress on supporting materials

Today I’ve been making some changes to the CD material and have made a reasonable amount of progress with the print advert. I wasn’t happy with some of what I’d done for the CD booklet so I spent some time changing it. For page 1, the page for track 1, Unreal, I didn’t like the colour in the image because I didn’t think that it fit with the other images in the CD. I replaced it with something quite similar but with a bleaker tone, with less colour. While doing this, I also changed the text to Arial, which is the font that I’m using for the track information on each page. I am using two different fonts to distinguish between the lyrics, which are very much central to the E.P. and reflect its themes, and the track information, which is little more than small print giving credit to the creators and performers of each track. This is why I’ve used a special font for the lyrics, Letter Gothic Std, chosen because it fits well with the imagery I have used, as well as using a default font for the track information, which exists only to provide technical information and is not part of the narrative that exists within the E.P. and thus does not need to fit with the style of the E.P.

This is the shot I had before. While it is a very nice shot, it doesn’t go with the rest of the E.P. It stands out a little among all of the other images in respect to its colour palette.

This image, I feel, has a much better visual tone to it and sits more comfortably with the other images in the E.P. There is a hint of urban imagery which also helps it fit with the rest.

The second thing I did was changing page 3, Chaos, to move the track info. text to below the lyrics. This made it look a lot better because I think the info. text should be out of the way and not intrude upon the lyrics or image of each page.

This was page 3 before I changed it. I didn’t think that the track info. text worked well being at the top.

As the info. text is meant to simply be a note on who made the track, it shouldn’t take up a large part of the page but should, rather, be tucked away at the bottom.

Before I finalized the back cover, I tried moving stuff around to make sure I was happy with how it is looking. I think that I have the logos and such sorted out with suitable proportions and the text at the bottom displaying the copyright information etc. looks authentic. I’m very pleased with the back cover and am confident in saying that I now have it completed.

The barcode and logos

The text at the bottom of the back cover

I’ve also been putting in time for the print advert. I had decided to go for an A4-sized advert so I cropped the image accordingly. I have used the same image that I used for the E.P.’s back cover but I don’t think that this is a problem as many of the adverts I’ve looked at for research have used either identical or very similar images to their respective CDs. I’ve consciously tried to keep the advert quite simple; I don’t want it looking cluttered as this is not what I’ve gone for in my supporting materials. I’ve attempted to keep all my materials’ images somewhat minimalistic, both in terms of colour palette and in their composition. I added an ‘available on iTunes’ image onto it as I noticed this on a few CD adverts. I also played around with the positioning of the text and decided on keeping it central,as I felt that this, somehow, made it look more like an advert.

The print advert at the moment. I’m happy with the look of it and don’t think there’s much left to do to it.

At this moment in time I have the supporting materials very near to c0mpletion. All of the booklet pages have been finalized and the front and back covers are how I want them to be. After maybe just a little more playing around with the print advert, I will have that finished as well. Judging the ancillary texts as a whole, I think I’ve been successful in making sure that they both match the tone of the video and hold together in themselves as a package for promoting a CD.

Another CD cover update

Today I spent quite a bit of time working on both supporting materials. The back cover has now been finished, with the barcode and record labels sorted out. I’ve also completed, but would like to spend some more time on, the booklet pages. After working on the print advert, I’ve got a very basic prototype set up. The image I have used is likely to be replaced but I now have a general idea of what the advert’s going to look like. I’m going to try to keep it uncluttered as I think a more minimalist style will complement the underlying themes of the video.

This is what I have so far for the print advert. I’m planning on adding the release date under the ‘lonely soul’ text and putting some logos, perhaps an iTunes one, along the bottom of the image.

When it came to deciding which record companies to use, I initially went for a major label, along with division of that label that specialized in the genre of music that my track belongs to.  I chose Sony Music Entertainment for the first logo. Obviously, Sony is a big name but this doesn’t mean that they they don’t invest in non-mainstream media. I chose one of their subdivisions, Ultra Music, to appear alongside Sony‘s logo. Ultra Music much more suited to my E.P. than Sony‘s other labels, such as Sony Masterworks, which specializes in classical music, or Sony Music Nashville, which specializes in country music. After some consideration, I decided to change the labels to one’s that have been used on genuine releases by Unkle. Having logos that fit style and genre of the track is important so I thought that using the label Surrender All, which has been used on several of Unkle’s albums, would be a safe choice. For a distributor, I selected RED Distribution, which is a Sony-owned company that focuses on providing distribution for independent record labels, Surrender All being one of them.

I was able, today, to position the barcode and these labels on the back cover. After, I added some text along the bottom of the image, which included copyright information. I have seen this on every single CD I’ve looked at for research so it was definitely something I needed to include. I had also taken time to sort out the track list. I now have only four tracks on the E.P., a much more appropriate number, I think.

The back cover is now just about complete. All I have left to do is finalizing the text because I am not 100 per cent happy with it.

The front cover has, unfortunately, remained undeveloped since I last posted. I am still meaning to replace the image with something of higher quality. I think it’s wise, however, to leave it as it is at the moment while I get the rest of the CD package constructed. Once I have the whole thing more or less fleshed out, I can return to the front cover to perfect it.

I’ve been very pleased with what I’ve got done so far for the booklet. I only need five pages; there should be a page for each of the four tracks and an extra side for the back of the booklet (the front of the booklet is of course also the front cover). I’ve taken an image for each one and added the tracks details (writers, producers, vocalist etc.). The images I’ve used have been screenshots from the video but I’ve been careful to use ones that don’t exactly look like something taken from the video. For a couple, I’ve added some visual effects to stylize them. Below is page one, for the track Unreal.

There is colour on this image that I’m not sure fits with the other images. I may experiment with visual effects.

The second track is Lonely Soul. For this page, I took a screenshot of footage of birds that I had near the end of the video. To avoid it looking like a screenshot, I only used a very small part of the image, giving me a nice blurry still of a bird. I really like this because of its simplicity; the image is simply a bird frozen against a blank, colourless sky. I added the necessary track information and then filled the image with the song’s lyrics. The finished page, I think, looks very much like something from a genuine album insert and I doubt that I’ll be changing it.

I am very pleased with this shot. There is not too much going on visually, which is a good thing. It is the simplicity of the image that I think works particularly well.

The third song on the E.P. is Chaos, another lyric track. For this image, I took a screenshot of one of the places that I performed. A bit of visual tweaking left me with a very dark image with a single, strong source of light. I added some mild posterization, which is what has added the strange colour effect. I am a little divided as to whether the image works well. I like the obscure look of it but it may look a little messy to some.

Perhaps some further visual adjustment would make the image more obscure. What I want is a bright light shining, surrounded by darkness.

The final track, Be There, also has lyrics, which I overlaid onto an image of two birds. This was the same footage as that from which I sourced the image for Lonely Soul. It was from a different part of the footage and I inverted the colour and reversed the image so it doesn’t look too much like that image. Having two pages with the same visual subjects helps hold the booklet together, I think.

This image complements the one I have used for Lonely Soul. I think the colour inversion has worked well.

Video feedback

Today the A2 music videos were shown during assembly. I received 36 feedback sheets and have been processing them to learn from what people have thought of my video. Overall, the video was quite well received; I received no severely negative responses and most of the feedback indicates that I’ve made a solid piece of work. I apologize in advance for the plethora of graphs but they can explain things much better than words.

Out of all respondents, there were 14 males and 22 females, which isn’t too unbalanced. This divide looked like this.

Percentage of males and females

As all but one of those who filled in the sheets were students, there is a negligent age range and almost all of the respondents would be likely be considered teenagers. This is what the age make-up of the feedback looked like.

Age of respondents

My first question was ‘did you enjoy watching the video?’ As the below graph illustrates, most people seemed to like the video, which is reassuring. Most answered yes but as can be seen, some didn’t like it a great deal but thankfully no one hated it.

‘Did you enjoy watching the video?’

My second question asked people to say what genre they thought the song was. I included this question because the succeeding question asked if they thought the video fit the genre. I didn’t want responses to this question from people who couldn’t identify the genre correctly so question two was a filter to keep the feedback valid. In regards to the track fitting the genre, most people thought that it did. Nobody said that it didn’t and there was a handful who thought that my video adhered to the conventions of the genre particularly well. So far, so good.

‘Do you think the video fits the genre?’

The third question on the sheet asked people who they thought the video’s target audience is.  As the below chart shows, male teenagers were considered the main audience that the video would either attract or entertain. There is a very visible majority who felt that teenagers rather than adults would enjoy the video, going hand-in-hand with the recognition of teenage angst as one of the themes. Also, almost two thirds thought that the video was suited towards a male audience rather than a female one.

‘Whom, in your view, is the video aimed at, or, in other words, who is the target audience?’

Supporting this, it is also clear that out of all the respondents, the percentage of males who liked the video is higher than that of females who liked it. This shows that my video, as I had already known, has more appeal to the male audience.

Male

Female

Moving on, the fourth question asked people is they could sense some kind of narrative, even if only a vague, simple one. The response to this was a little less positive. A significant number thought that the narrative was only somewhat discernible. I had thought that this might be the case because I had been careful not to make the narrative too obvious as I planned it to function as a subtle force in the video to add a sense of progression to it. Clearly, I perhaps went a little too far and made it slightly obscured.

‘Could you discern a sense of narrative, even if it was a simple one?’

I received a similar response to question five, which asked whether the performance element of the video is clearly separate to the narrative. Again, most said that it was, but many appear to have been a little confused by this and didn’t think that the two were clearly separate. This had been a major concern for quite a while but I think it would have been worse if I hadn’t filmed several loads of performance footage, considering what I’ve explained before about the performance being tied to the world of the narrative.

‘Is it clear that the performance part is separate from the narrative (i.e. the performer is not a character within the narrative)?’

Encouragingly, the response to question six was very positive. When asked whether the people in the video looked right for the video, an overwhelming majority thought that they did. A substantial number said strongly agreed that they did, which implies that I cast the actors well and was successful in terms of costume. I felt that both of these considerations were important and would contribute to the authenticity of the video.

‘Do you think that the people in the video look right for the genre/feel/tone of the song (in terms of clothing and appearance)?’

The seventh question asked the respondents to tick the boxes for the themes they could see in the video. All of the themes I listed are things that I have, to varying degrees, tried to make visible in my video. Some are evidently more detectable than others. Most people listed loneliness and isolation as these were the most obvious, but many also ticked urban entrapment and teenage angst, which shows that a lot of what I’ve tried to present is visible in the video. Minor themes such as paranoia received fewer ticks, but this isn’t a problem as not everything I was putting into the video was a major part of it. I did, however, feel a little disappointed that there weren’t more people who could detect escapism as a theme. I had thought that this was quite tightly woven in with narrative but, as it appears, it was not an obvious theme.

‘Please tick the boxes for any themes you could see presented in the video.’

When asked whether they thought it looked like a real video, the response was very similar to the other questions. Most agreed that it did, with some thinking less so and some more so etc. I was pleased with the response to this as it’s obviously important that my video looks genuine.

‘Do you think the video looked like a real music video?’

For the questions on the quality of parts of the video, the responses were largely praiseful. In regard to the quality of the video as a whole, most people judged it to be good, with some others thinking it to be either excellent or average. Several people left comments saying how the lighting was especially well done, specifically on the parts with me performing at night. I had been very pleased myself with the footage and it’s nice to know that others like it. I also received comment on the opening shots, which I was told were very professional looking. The below are screenshots of the parts I suspect people were most impressed with.

Others commented on the locations used and how the video worked well with a strong urban presence. I think there may be a tendency for people in this part of the country to use rural locations a lot. I wanted to avoid this so I consciously strove to make sure my video had a clear urban setting. This definitely helped me construct a sense of entrapment, which was one of my major themes.

‘How would you regard the overall quality of the video?’

A question on the quality of the camerawork yielded positive responses, with most seeing the video as having very competent camerawork. The range of angles was specifically complimented, but I was conversely told that there was perhaps too little variety in terms of shots. Something that one person mentioned that I can’t disagree with is the lack of camera movement. I certainly feel that I should have implemented some, both for the sake of the final mark of the product and to add some life into the video. Someone believed that my video would have benefited aesthetically by higher-quality cameras. She said that the video had clearly been filmed with a school camera. I do agree but there was never a possibility of me having access to the kind of equipment used in major music videos.

‘How would you rate the quality of shots (in terms of shot composition and angle, range/variety, etc.)?’

Several comments were made on the night-time footage looking very nice. This shows that another decision I made paid off. I was wary of filming all of the footage during the day, as most students would probably find more practical, and instead made the decision to get lots of night-time filming, especially since darkness, both as a part of my intended colour palette and as an integral part of the tone of the video, would be so central to the finished product. Filming during darker hours additionally gave me the gift of very beautiful lighting, with me being especially happy with several dark shots with a glowing source of light, as I have mentioned before, akin to many Hopper paintings.

My editing was very well received, with a clear majority rating my work in this department as either good or excellent. The second half of the video is the part I’m particularly satisfied with. I believe that I rather skilfully controlled the pacing of the edits to complement the building intensity of the song.

‘How would you rate the quality of editing in the video?’

The quality of my lip-synching was not incredibly positive. A considerable number felt that it was only average and very few considered it excellent. This was admittedly quite disheartening as I had considered my lip-synching skills to be very competent. I knew that the standard of lip-synching would be appear to be lower when shown on a large screen but I honestly had been expecting a better reception in this respect.

‘How would you rate the standard of lip-synching in the video?’

Looking at some comments people left, it is clear that most of what I’ve talked about doing in the video has been noticed and appreciated. One respondent applauded the shots of the lyrics being written. I myself was very happy with these shots as not only did they supply the video with many close-ups but they also very much helped drive and conclude the narrative in the video. The writing of the song is the final stage in the character’s development within the video and the final line being written marks the end both of his personal progression and of the video itself. Another person singled out the ‘abstract shots’, which I take to refer to the shots of skies and the other shots of this nature. They were a feature I had planned to include since the very early stages of development so I am extremely glad they they have been appreciated. There was one person who thought that the shots of the character were well composed. This made me happy as the composition of the shots with Matt was one of the main things I was proud of doing well. I suspect that the shots also have appeal in the same way that the scenes in Hopper’s works do. I was trying to construct shots that would show the isolation of the character, much in the way that is done to the figures in said works.

Sunday (1926)

The feedback today has, ultimately, been very positive. I’ve been pleased with how much of what I’ve consciously put into the video has been picked up on and complimented. I’ve been given a great deal of reassurance in regard to the effectiveness of several parts of the video. My use of shots of skies and of other random things has proved worthwhile. I still believe that they work extremely well to make the video comprise more than solely narrative and performance. The lighting, the camerawork and the editing have all been highly rated by those who answered by questionnaire and this confirms what I had hoped; that I’ve made a very decent music video.

CD cover update

Having been working on the CD cover for the past few days, I’ve now got the front and back covers finished in terms of how they will look. I’ve decided on a font, Letter Gothic Std, and have decided to keep the back cover as it is and replace the front image with the same subject but taken as a still photograph.  It was the fact that the back image was a taken from moving footage that made it blurry and out of focus, which I like the look of. The front cover, however, benefits nothing from using the current screenshot as it of much lower quality than a photograph would be. I’m planning to take a camera out and replicate the image this weekend. While I do so, I’ll also see if I can get some more pictures that I can use for the booklet.

After I put the text ‘lonely soul’ onto the front cover (as I’ve decided to name the E.P. after the song that I used), I played around with the text size and tracking. I think the text looks much better if it is smaller than the text for the artist name.

The text in this example is the same size as the artist name and I don’t think it looks right.

Whereas this one looks a little too small. I think the artist name should be larger than the album name and this is what I’ve noticed when looking at other CD covers.

I settled on a size that is smaller than the artist name, a convention I’ve noticed in other CD covers and started experimenting with the tracking (spacing between characters). I think the text looked much better when spread out a little.

This was the size I decided to use.

I tried different degrees of tracking and this was the one that looked the best.

After a more work on the back cover, I’ve had quite a bit of progress. I still have to find a barcode and some logos and put them onto the image but as it stands, It is fairly complete. I’ve made the decision to keep the the image I am currently using as, to me, it works well and I think that it would be difficult to obtain something similar while simultaneously trying to keep image quality high. The blurred effect the image has is due to it being footage; I don’t think that I could get this with stationary photography. Also, in terms of colour and tone, it’s exactly what I’m looking for so I’m deciding to use it as the final image.

What I am presently thinking about is whether the tracks should be numbered. Of all the CDs I’ve looked at, I’ve seen quite an even divide between those that have a numbered list and those that don’t. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern in terms of musical genre so it seems like it is just done at the discretion of the artist and label. Personally, neither looks better than the other but I think that, given the simple, somewhat minimalist style I’m pursuing, I should use an unnumbered list for the sake of visual consistency. It will keep the image looking simple and uncluttered so is the more sensible choice.

The back image as it is at the moment. This is the numbered version.

This is the unnumbered version which I am fairly certain will be the one I use. The simplified presentation complements the aesthetic I am trying to achieve.

What I’ve decided to do for the inside booklet is pages with lyrics and track information. Lyrics are very common and I’ve looked at CDs that have details on each track such as whom it was written by, who performed it and copyright information. I’m planning to have images on each page with lyrics on top. Not all of the tracks on the E.P. I’m constructing have vocals so for them I’ll include only the track information. I need to make sure that the images that will have lyrics over them are suitable, i.e. they allow text to show up well on them. Going through my video and taking some screenshots has given me a few images that will do for now but will most likely be replaced with higher-quality ones when I get the chance.

This image will allow a lot of room for lyrics and I like it in itself. The colour and tone fit with the other imagery and I like the blur.

This is another image that is quite generous in terms of allowing text to be displayed clearly.

During filming for the video, I got a lot of nice shots like this. I want to avoid using too many sky shots, though.

What I would like to have within the booklet is an image such as this. Urban locations were a large part of my video so this should probably be followed through with the booklet images.

This is another shots from the video that I really like. There’s not a huge amount of room for lyrics so this might be one for a non-lyrical track.

I really like the images that I have at the moment but I’m conscious of re-using material and it does seem a little lazy to use stills from the video for the booklet images. Also, I don’t think it makes sense because the images would be reflective of the entire E.P., not just the eponymous track. Using screenshots from the track for the booklet doesn’t seem authentic. This shouldn’t mean that the images can’t be similar in tone and style to the video, though, as the track would carry the style of the E.P. What I am saying is that the images should be similar to the imagery of my track but shouldn’t be taken directly from it.

In relation to urban imagery, I’d like an image of somewhere urban, maybe shot from low down. In my mind, it’s similar to the cover image of Hammock’s Kenotic (2005).

Firstly, I really like the colour palette. There’s also a bit of a blurry thing going on which definitely goes with the tone. This is also what I envision when I talk about a low-down shot.

Ultimately, I want the imagery to be dissociated and possibly a little obscure. It is a little difficult to explain but what I want is a series of what might seem to be random images that visually bring to mind the video and carry some of its tone. They should all be disconnected from one another but conversely still fit together through a homogenized tone and style.

As a side note, I’m strongly considering reducing the track number to four as even after basic research, this seems to be the norm for an E.P. I’ll probably remove the ‘intro’ track as an E.P. wouldn’t be likely to have an intro track anyway, being a small grouping of tracks rather than the cohesive package an album can be. An album can have and intro and an outro track, as can be seen in Unkle’s Psyence Fiction (1997), the real album that my track is from, and can often have a running audial or narrative theme, such as in Green Day’s American Idiot (2004) which has a very strong cotinuing narrative throughout the album. An E.P., on the other hand, is just a small number of tracks with some semblance of a common style and tone.

The album is an example of a ‘rock opera’, with a narrative that develops through the album’s tracks.

Psyence Fiction has an ‘intro’ track and an ‘outro’ track, showing the self-contained, narrative-like characteristics of an album, which are not things I need to adhere to when constructing my E.P.