Evaluation: Question 2

Evaluation: Question 1

We created a music video for Dave Anqii, a Swedish house DJ/Producer. The song is a conventional house electro song with themes of romance, dancing and party's, we decided to follow a conventional narrative to create a successful music video, we researched and found forms of videos that were appealing to our audience and focused upon those styles. Our storyboards and shot list outlined a linear narrative of a boy meets girl at a remote location where a party is being held, we wanted to include mulit-clipping, various angles and some small visual effects.

The genre and audience we created our video for demonstrates quite linear conventions, videos follow similar style and have almost a common 'recipe' for success. We didn't want to have to many conceptual elements as we wanted to keep to a narrative to re-enforce the songs lyrics and meaning. A performance was out of the question as our song was produced by a DJ, the only way a performance was possible was by using a large venue and using a large crowd which with no budget was nearly impossible, plus this would not re-enforce the songs meaning it would almost be a trailer to the DJ's tour instead of the single 'Never be Alone'.

After shooting and editing we put our video out for feedback, it was clear our narrative was easy to follow and appealing to our target audience. We added heavy themes of party'ing and dancing to keep the video interesting and cut to the best to make it visually pleasing. We were worried about the video becoming repetitive so we made sure to not use repetitive cuts or shots. We made sure to focus in on our main characters to highlight their roles, suing them both as male & female gazes to appeal to both genders of audience. We wanted to almost make it struggle for them to get to one another which help drive the narrative and push conventions of 'Love & Romance'. We wanted to add hidden messages, for example fighting for what you believe in or love, as both characters had to push through a crowd to get to one another, they fought to get to one another which was an idea we felt suited the song. We done this to try and add depth to the video, as although it fits in to a mainstream genre we wanted it to appeal to a wider audience so by adding various conventions it helps make the video more appealing.

Screen Capture 1

This Angle of our main character Danny was intentional to shoot at the start of the music video. This is because it shows that he is the main character in the video, that it is from his perspective. We also shot it as a mid close up to emphasis the darkness around him.

Screen Capture 2

This shot is a conventional Goodwin shot, we have used our female lead to present a gaze to our audience, the upwards pan helps enforce the gaze idea and draws in audience attention. We wanted to establish our female lead early on in the video, not only for a gaze element but to construct a narrative in the video. We followed genre characteristics to emphases this shot, as you can see there is background lasers and party elements to keep form of a house electro video. We wanted our audience to connect and relate to our characters and buy presenting our female lead in costume and a scenario that is somewhat relatable it helps the audience connect and buy into our video. We presented a relationship between our music and visuals in this shot as the male lead did not want to be alone and therefore he must reach the female lead, it helps drive the story. Although we were not working with a record label we featured a lot of close ups like seen in this shot, we used this technique to establish characters and to push our narrative, it helps brand our music video as-well. This shot is place between multi-clips of the party and clips of our male lead looking at our female lead, but cutting this shot between the male leads gaze we can build a narrative and construct conventions within our video. To keep audience interested we cut party shots around the narrative elements, this overall makes the video more appealing. We colour corrected this shot to really emphase her hair and eyes, overall drawing in the audiences attention and making the shot more visually pleasing.

Screen Capture 3

This shot relates to screenshot 2 heavily, it is the shot that follows the pan of our female lead. It is a tracking shot of our main male character, in the shot he is attempting to walk over  to our female lead to make first contact. It is later shown that she is distracted by another male character, this dampens his spirit which leads to build up of the narrative which follows. We wanted to construct a shot that would act as a gaze for females, this helps widen our audience and applies successful forms to our video. We chose a slow smooth tracking shot of our main lead walking towards the camera, we made our main male look directly into the camera with a straight face, almost a 'sexy look'. This shot is very powerful as it builds a connection between character and audience, a powerful technique within a narrative. Shots like this were inspired by such music videos like 'One, Swedish House Mafia' and Films like 'Cocktail - Bar Scenes'.  We made sure to include genre characteristics, much like the previous shot we included lights and a heavy mis en scene of a party, although int his shot we added extras to make the room feel more full and to show how our lead character must push his way and fight to get to the girl. This always plays on the convention of looking as we are following the male leads gaze at this point in the narrative.

Screen Capture 4

This shot is our only lip syncing shot, this shot fits into a few conventions. The first being hyper-reality, this girl is not seen in any of the other shots thus making her mysterious, we linked this shot around the one of our main lead 'finding his confidence' so we left subtle clues that she may be somewhat of a guardian to him. This re-enforces hyper-real conventions and again like other shots links lyrics and visuals to one another which in turn promotes the song. We again used her as a ale gaze, focusing in on her lips and eyes and trying to make the shot as powerful as possible, we were aiming to try and capture to males audiences attention with this shot. We lip synced the shot perfectly which builds a strong connection between music and visuals, by making sure there are clear links between our song and video we can brand our track and artist easier which make our ancillary products more effective. We added a slight effect to distort her face through colour waves, this was to really push the idea of a guardian and how he is the only one to see her, it is almost like he is 'tripping' when this shot is played which in turn makes the shot overall and lot more powerful and interesting.

Screen Capture 5

This shot demonstrates themes and conventions of hyper reality, it is visual effect shot of the shot effects hitting our character. It plays a huge part in out narrative and shows how our character finds his courage, even if it is 'Dutch Courage'. The switch of personality before and after the shot shows how the alcohol has empowered him with confidence, this form and idea relates to genre characterises but in a more subtle context. A lot of videos in the genre of house and electro feature largely around drug use, they usually have a character stuck in a boring routine and once they take certain substances they whole ego and personality changes, their life becomes more vivid and wild, which appeals to a young audience. We used an intertextual reference from Aviciis Superlove which portrays a similar change in personality and an almost immediate boost.

Screen Capture 6

This low angle shot demonstrates genre characteristics, we wanted to empower our characters to make seem more confident and to act as if they are having a great time, by using a low angle we made them seem a lot more powerful which is of course common within this genre, it is also common in hip hop and rap videos. A lot of the time this will be a demand of the label, to make the artist seem a lot more powerful and important than the rest of the cast and characters but we used this technique to overall empower the crowd. This shot really does conform to the conventions and forms of a modern music video and the techniques and stylistic ideas would be commonly found within todays industry. This shot helps build up a stronger image and also it emphasises the music by putting it a ground level you can get a feel of the dancing and due to the un-usual angle makes it all a lot more dramatic. Very powerful when creating a video for an unsigned or unknown artists, which was our case.

Screen Capture 7

This shot is very similar to our second screen capture, the convention is almost identical to the previous shot but it takes a different form. The whole shot is composed differently, although we still use the 'visual gaze' technique we have changed it from a slow upwards pan to a more fast paced dramatic shot, the female empowerment is still very much present but it almost shifts from our female lead being a gaze to more powerful character. After this show she walks briskly to main male. Again we followed genre characteristics to emphases this shot, as you can see there is background lasers and party elements to keep form of a house electro video. We wanted our audience to connect and relate to our characters and buy presenting our female lead in costume and a scenario that is somewhat relatable it helps the audience connect and buy into our video. We composed to shot to drive a cut to the next scene of the two leads coming together, this helps build up to grand finale found in all videos of this genre, we kept to all conventions and form of a mixed gender hyper real music video in this scene.

Screen Capture 8

Screen Capture 9

• Editing reflects the pace/structural changes of the track (Music > Visuals)
• Variety of angles and shot types
• Can be performance, narrative and/or conceptual
• Relationship between the Visuals and the music/lyrics 
• Dominance of CUs
• Location & costume changes/ not following continuity
• Beat edits to the tempo of the song
• Features the artist within the music video as a performer, cameo or character
• Convincing performance shot from multiple angles and shot types
• Performance has direct address to the camera
• Performance synching (Lip, Instrument) - Simulacrum (simulation of the 'real' performance, 'real' performer)

Evaluation: Media Technologies Question 4

Youtube Stats

Youtube Stats

To focus on our target audience we wanted to research the source and styles of viewings of our music video. We went into the youtube video stats page, from there we were able to view demographics, geographical maps and general stats of the video. We found out that the majority of the views where form the UK, this is probably down to the social media promotion. 

Survey Monkey : Gaining Feedback

Survey Monkey : Gaining Feedback

Promoting the Survey Via Social Media:
We decided the best way to promote our video and to gain feedback was social media. We created a post that was shared, it explained how to fill out the survey and where to find the video. We posted it on Facebook  making sure people where liking and sharing it so it then was viewable on their timeline. We repeated the process for Twitter, we also hast-tagged to gain global feedback.

Collecting Result:

After a few hours we started to gain some really good feedback on our video, the majority of people found the music video enjoyable and were able to follow the story. We are still promoting the survey via social media's. Overall we have gained very positive feedback, people enjoyed the music and thought the genre suited the video. 

Survey Monkey, Final Video Feedback

Creating the Survey

This is our poll on the blog. We have so far received 6 votes, of which have all been 100% positive. Everyone enjoyed the music video.

Evaluation Questions

4 QUESTIONS

1. HOW DOES THE PRODUCTION USE/CHALLENGE/DEVELOP FORMS & CONVENTIONS - 9 frame selection/analysis of your main examples of conventions - use Goodwin as a model but make sure you cover form & genre - video directors commentary with excerpts from videos as cutways/ green screen?
2. COMBINATION OF ANCILLARY PRODUCTS - HOW EFFECTIVE? - directors commentary or prezi with voiceover with discussion with the video, digipack, website with examples embedded?
3. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM AUDIENCE FEEDBACK - prezi with embedded images and video files accompanied by a voiceover?
4. NEW MEDIA IN YOUR R&P, PRODUCTION & EVALUATION - blog post or prezi with embedded videos and screen captures, logos, photos of you using the software?

FINAL DIGI-PACK

HERE IS OUR FINAL DIGI-PACK

COVER & INSIDE CD DESIGN

HERE IS OUR FINAL WEBSITE

Final Outside Cover For Digi Pack

Final Digi-Pack Outside Design

How we made our final digi-pack design on Photoshop Cs6 software. 

We decided to keep to the same photo's from the my (Ellie's) draft as we agreed that it suited the theme more with a young male on a beach, looking through the male gaze like a reoccurring theme in our music video.

For the Front cover we decided to chose a different font that will suit the album cover theme more. We also used curves to adjust the lighting and contrast in the cover, but did not want to adjust it too much so reverted more so the the colours that were first edited.

We also changed the font in the Back cover to match the front, by doing this it shows consistancy.

After editing both sides we changed the size of the canvas and placed both sides on the canvas. By grouping the layers to move the images as a whole.

We carefully lined up the horizon of the sea when adding the background cover as this is important for the panoramic view. To give the effect of before and after the wave has hit.

By adding the line of separation it highlights the front and the back cover better, making the image flow. 

Inside Digi-pack Design

Final Digi-Pack Design

Here is how our final Digi-pack inside was created using Photoshop CS6.

I started off with a blank CD template found on Google.

We had previously created a 3D squares pattern in photoshop which we have since coloured. We uploaded and masked this into the CD template, adjust the size slightly.

We then increased the canvas size by 200% Width and moved the CD cover over to where the CD would be. We also added the text 'Never Be Alone' to the CD, adding a slight banner behind it but lowering the opacity.

We then again used the 3D Square design, this time the blue design to use a background for the inside. We made it blue to link to the beach photo that was going to be used for the cover.

Finally we added the custom logo that was designed for the website in, this again keeps branding consistent and enhances Dave Anqii's image. We added a small white spine to show the break between the images, finally adding Dave Anqii's name to the design.

Final Website

Here is our Final Website

Designing The Website

Title & Banner Design: We wanted to title of the page to be very eye catching so thats why we designed the '3D Square Background'. We were going for a simplistic graphic design style which seemed to be a very effective style in this genre, much like Steve Angello's & Swedish House Mafia's Websites.

We added the custom logo and created the banner to our specification, on the right sight we added all forms of social media and later we added a buy it on itunes button. These forms of buttons help create a network for dave anqii and works towards gaining a wider audience. As Dave anqii is a Swedish DJ we added welcome in english and swedish to portray him as a more european house producer, this image works well as we looked at artists like Avicii, Alesso etc..

We finally edited the text to 'Dave Anqii' and 'Never be alone, just to add a running theme and promote our artist.

Embedding our Video: We wanted our music video to be a key point and focus of the website, we embedded the video from youtube to be the centre tile of our Website. 

Embedding our Track: We wanted to track to start playing in the background when the site is loaded, we embedded the song 'Never Be Alone' off of sound-cloud. We then set it to auto-play.

Embedding our Track: We wanted to track to start playing in the background when the site is loaded, we embedded the song 'Never Be Alone' off of sound-cloud. We then set it to autoplay.

Filling the Website: After we'd linked all the icons and designed the look of the website we filled out the other pages with all information about Dave Anqii, we also created live tour dates as an empale. 

DA Logo Design for the Website

For our website we wanted to brand Dave Anqii with a small custom logo, something simplistic yet something that would work into the website.

 To off with I designed a white circle on top of a black background, making sure to drag rulers to guide where the exact middle is.

 I then Scaled and implemented text with 'DA', it was a custom text font that was edited to suit the genre and style of Dave Anqii.

 I then created a clipping mask and edited the text to give it a stoke.

 This gave me a logo that would let make the DA transparent, allowing our square design to show throw.

Designing The Background For The Website

Here are the initial sketches for the 3D square design, It was an experiment to see what it would look life. We both liked the idea and agreed that a mock-up in photoshop would help us visualise it digitally.

To create the Background of the website we made coloured squares that almost look 3D. The colour used in the squares reflect the lights and colours used in the music video from the party lights and props. I made these squares by using the 'polylasso tool' to create the shape and filling it with colour. If the shapes were slightly out of line with one another, I moved them slightly with the arrow keys to accurately place them next to one another.

After creating the initial three 3D squares we could then carry on merging and duplicating the layers and placing them next to each other forming eventually creating a full canvas of 3D squares.

Carrying the Design further, duplicating into groups and lining up carefully so that there are no gaps between the blocks.

Finally merging all layers into a group and duplicating the group twice to get rid of any gaps that were slightly visible.

By Keeping the groups we are then able to change the colours of the blocks easily without having to repeat the whole process.