Final Digipak

Digipak for Palms

Final Music Video

Luna Music Video

If you cannot access the music video click this link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYkqiZ9Wtfs

Final Band Website Link

Band Website

http://cdeabr1.wixsite.com/palmsthebandofficial

Evaluation - Question 4

Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

What I said-

Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Process of research –

In terms of research, I used YouTube to watch music videos, so that I could learn the conventions of my chosen genre. I would also analyse each video, to see if there was anything I should mirror in my own work in order for it to fit the genre conventions. I found that YouTube was useful for my initial research. Alongside this I used the internet to further my research into the codes and conventions of the genre and also to research digipaks and websites. We used different softwares such as glogster and prezis to present our work on our blogs. Blogger enable me to use multi-media platforms to present my work; such as uploading Youtube videos I had watch, so I could apply multiple different theories to it.

Process of planning –

When planning I used the website surveymonkey to formulate different questions into a questionnaire which people will be able to fill out online. I saw this as easier and more convenient way to find out what the audience would like to see rather than having to film individuals at different times and put together a clip to later upload onto the blog. I initially intended to go to central London to film our video, however myself and my partner decided during this process that it would be better to stay local for reasons such as being able to meet the group quickly, not having to carry so much equipment and being able to re-film easily if something were to go wrong. This still fit the genre and so we decided to change this idea.

Process of running a shoot –

When filming the band shoot, we used a lot of hardware equipment. We used a dslr camera, a tripod and a lighting kit. As well as this we used musical instruments from the music department, in which we needed just for the band shoots. In terms of the schools cameras, neither me or my partner knew how to use, neither of us had ever used this camera before. During this process we had to again research on how to use the camera. We also used the tripod for close ups of the band, as it enabled us to get steady shots at the same height and position for all of the band members. This helped with creating star image within the band. For the majority of filming, we used the camera in the tripod, however there were times which we needed to use the camera handheld, this was so that we could capture movement and make the music video realistic. The lighting was easy to use, and helped us create the effects we wanted. We wanted to create an effect where the band were clearly lit against an extremely dark black background. With the lighting this was easily done. It was easy to assemble and adjust.

When filming the outside shoot we did not need as much equipment compared to the studio shoots. We only needed the camera and the tripod. We used the tripod and handheld camera because we wanted the video to look professional as well as having a realistic element to it. We knew our locations so it was about time keeping and making sure we filmed each scene correctly the first time round after having to re-shoot some of the studio clips. We set up the tripod and were easily able to carry it around as we were local and knew where we were going. When filming we also needed band photos for our ancillary products. I again took the cannon dslr camera which I also filmed in, to produce extremely good quality HD photos. It had the choice of an auto focus or a manual focus. For the majority of the time whilst taking photos I used the auto focus as it recognised faces quickly thus helping me create good quality images quickly to promote star image.

Process of editing-

We used adobe premiere pro to edit, which having used the last couple of years I have become recognised with. Therefore it made our editing process a lot easier. The adobe premiere pro software is easy to use. The footage was filmed locally, so to me, it lacked an interesting element to the overall clips. So using colouring techniques on adobe premiere pro we were able to brighten the images, change the contrast and saturation and even add a colour filter. This also helped me stick the genre conventions of an indie pop music video.  Alongside this, we wanted to add animation to some of the clips in the music video. However, myself and my partner faced problems as neither of us knew how to animate videoclips. For this we turned to youtube to watch a step-by-step guide on how to animate using both the programmes adobe premiere pro and adobe after effects. Without this tutorial we would have struggled and may have changed our minds on using animation. From previous experience I was sceptic about using the programme after effects as I thought it was difficult to use. The tutorial however showed me how easy it was to animate, and we ended up animating more clips that we anticipated.

Process of ancillary products-

For my digipak and to create the band log o I used Adobe photoshop. I was extremely familiar with this software. This gave me an advantage as I could be more creative with what I could do on the software. I was able to change colours on the images that I took and edit the quality, I was also able to edit the text and shapes to however I pleased. I used 4 colours as a guided which were blue, pinks, orange and green. I knew how to transform my pictures easily, thus I was constantly changing the design to however I liked as long as it was synergetic to my music video. The colours that I used a guide was significant as these were the main colours that I used to colour correct and grade all of my clips so I thought it would be fitting to transfer these colours over to the digipak. This would in turn help the audience recognise and link the products together. Again, I used both the colours black and white to make the 4 colours stand out. The reason behind this was because these 2 colours would help enhance the impact of these colours, just like I had done in the music video. I used 3 main fonts on my digipak for 3 different things – 1 was the band logo, the other being the album logo and the last font style was used for the track listing, and legal information. This seperates all the information on the digipak. This is typical for indie digipaks to do. I made the logo on adobe illustrator, as I wanted it to be particular and individualistic. I replace the L in ‘palms’ with a palm tree in order for it to be recognisable to fans and the public. In photoshop I used layering as I wanted to be specific as to what I wanted to do with different items on the digipak e.g. the images of the band, I wanted to move them and edit them individually.

Process of evaluation-

For my website I used WIX. WIX was incredibly easy to use. WIX already had several features in its tool box that I could apply to my website. It already had the desired social media links, which have become a necessity in the music industry. I was able to set up a twitter, Instagram and Spotify account then directly link them to my website. Wix also had link buttons that you could link to other websites. This was key for my tour page, I added a link to the festival – reading and leeds as my band was planning to perform on one of the days at the festival. I was able to upload my images that I made, edited and created on adobe photoshop and use them in my home page photo slideshow and for the bands gallery. I was able to upload videos directly from YouTube and vimeo, so I uploaded the music video from YouTube and the tours video from my vimeo I was also able to the link Spotify song that I used for my music video. The website was very easy to use thanks to the tools bar on the side. WIX also allowed me to create a store for my merchandise. Myself and my partner created different pieces of original merchandise items using different merchandise websites and created images using adobe photoshop. We then imported these images onto wix where I could price each item, link to a checkout where they are able to be purchased.

Evaluation-

For my evaluation I used several different online formats. I used prezi as it was easy to use as I am familiar to the format and because it is a creative way to present my work rather than using Microsoft powerpoint. I also used glogster which enabled me to include videos, images and texts all on one page. I had used glogster also many times before for previous pieces of work just like I had used prezi. I used SoundCloud as it was the most effective when creating an audio recording. I was able to upload my video clips that I recorded on garage band easily. Other audio recording softwares such as quicktime players audio recordings did not have a start over button which would lengthen the process and make it harder and re-record whatever I wanted to say.I also used emaze as it was simple to embed and copy the HTML code into my blog on my blogger account. I used survey monkey to make a questionnaire to send to my friends via my smart phone using a website link. These friends had watched my music video and had seen my digipak and had been on my website in order to give feedback. The website collected the feedback and conveniently changed the feedback into data. This was great as it allowed me to see specifically what a large group of people thought about the products. Alongside this I used a YouTube video which, like all the other softwares used in my evaluation, I could quickly put into my blog.

What would I have done differently with the benefit of hindsight?

I would have looked up how to use a dslr camera properly and in more detail. I had to re-film many shots due to having the wrong setting, not knowing how to change from manual focus to auto focus and change the exposure levels on the camera. I also would have edited the ending of my video as I feel that the cuts were jumpy and for audience satisfaction added another clip of the couple at the end.

What do you know now that you didn’t know before?

I now know how to use the software adobe after effects much better through the use of online tutorials. I know also how to change camera settings in order to adapt to the scene and make the shot the best quality possible.

What advice would you pass on?

I would advise to use adobe after effects as it changed our music video completely. It made our video 10 times better than I originally hoped. I would also advise time when you are going to film/produce your music video carefully as weather can affect performance and quality of the video. I would also say make sure you know how to use the camera properly before filming.

What were the advantages/disadvantages of the technologies used?

The hardware-

The camera had both advantages and disadvantages to it. An advantage of The camera was that it filmed in amazing HD quality. a disadvantage was that the camera was difficult to use.

The lighting kit was quick and easy to set up. It also added a professional element to our videos and pictures taken in our studio. We were also able to attach coloured gels easily on the barn doors of the lighting kit. The disadvantage was that it was extremely heavy to carry so we used it mainly at school in the studio it made the studio extremely hot thus made it harder to film and also had many safety precautions.

The tripod gave the advantage of having steady shots and reduce shakiness of the camera. It also allowed us to film clips and shots in the same positions. However, it took time to set up and take down and at times was a hassle to carry.

Software-

Adobe premiere pro can do anything you wish it to, on the other hand it can take a while to do something particular.

Adobe after effects creates fun effects but was intimidating, hard to use and required research before using.

Adobe photoshop allowed you to produce high quality images and manipulate the images however you wish to, but some editing effects required a tedious amount of focus to do.

Adobe Illustrator enabled me to do many things but was extremely difficult and confusing to use.

Youtube was great for research. Its only disadvantage was that the quality of our video when uploaded as it decreased dramatically.

Soundcloud, prezi, glogster etc were all easily linkable to the blog, but some of these softwares required to be viewed on internet explorer in order to be seen on the blog and could be time consuming to make.

Wix was extremely helpful when creating our websites. Many of the features that I included on the site I easily found in the toolbox. The only problem that I had with wix was that some things took time to do for example creating the store.

Digital technology e.g. phones and computers were all reliable as we constantly use them day-to-day basis, but my only problem was that I could not access some softwares such as prezi on my phone.

Evaluation - Question 3

Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

During production -

Post production-

I interviewed teenage girls to give feedback about my music video. I wanted to see their initial reactions to my music video and understand how they related my band to other real bands currently in the music industry.

Video conclusion - 

1) Overall people liked the concept of the storyline and the music video.

2) The audience would like to watch the video again as they feel that there are many details within the music video that they could have missed out on in first glance.

3) Criticisms- The audience thought it made sense, however they did not understand the camera not being in focus. This was significant as it was representative of the protagonists mind being 'hazy' as all he can think about is getting to the girl. This concept wasn't portrayed clearly enough to the audience.

4) They agree with the song not having much of a meaning on its own; the audience say that the music video worked with the only small clear meaning sung in the chorus of the song and that I had adapted that concept successfully to fit the whole song.

5) People enjoyed the creative elements the most about the music video. This shows how the video was successful as typically indie music videos have creative elements. It also represents how the youth of today have an extreme need for creativity. This was their focus to the question - What was your favourite part?

6) The audience understood the genre that the music video was from. They were able to link other similar bands to my own based off the music video. They managed to link my band to other indie pop bands. 

 

Evaluation - Question 2

Question 2 -How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

 

Evaluation - Question 1

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Designing The Digipak

Designing The Digipak

Website Research 3

Website Research 3

Indie Pop Band The XX website- http://thexx.info/home/

Digipak Conventions

Conventions of a Digipak

Digipaks can be used for both CD's and DVD's. There are two main reasons as to why CD's and DVD's both have digipaks, the first reason being for product protection and the second reason being for product promotion.

Digipaks for CD's help sell and promote the artist's/band work a significant amount. The digipaks are also extremely representative of the artist's/band which is why it is key that the digipak is presented in a certain way, has certain images and font styles etc. People will use these elements to help recognise the artist/band and set them apart from other competitors in the industry.

Here is a list of CD digipak conventions:

Front-

• Artist name
• Album title 
• Image of the artist/band 
• Parental Advisory label (only if some songs have explicit lyrics)

Back-

• Artist name
• Tracklist
• Production credits
• Barcode
• Record Label
• Record Label website
• Image of artist or colours/image connected to the artist/band

Spine-

• Artist name
• Album name
• Distribution number

Booklet Front-

• Iconic image (Image linked to band/album or image of band)
• Credits

Booklet Contents-

• Images of artist/band or related images to their genre
• Full lyric sheet
• Track by track credits
• Full credits

CD-

• Image of artist/band
• Artist name
• Album title
• Record label
• Credits and Copyright
• Compact Disk trademark

When creating my digipak for my band I will include all of these conventions in order to seem as realistic as possible. If there is something different about my digipak, there should be a promotional reasoning behind the reason e.g. the look of the front cover on the digipak.

Official Band Website

Published Website

Link -http://cdeabr1.wixsite.com/palmsthebandofficial

 The home page of the Palms website takes you to a simple yet sophisticated short slideshow of various different images of the indie band. The first image that appears is the official logo of the band. It is only fitting to have the bands official logo as the first image to appear so that people can immediately recognise their logo and understand who's music artist website they're visiting.









The next page that the website visitor can go to is the about page. The about page 'does what it says on the tin' and tells you about the band, how and where they began and more. The 'About' page also contains professional critics opinions of the band.

You can then visit the music and videos page where you will find the bands official music video for their single 'Luna' and you can preview listen to some of their songs on their new album 'O M E N S'.

If anyone wishes to see the 5-man-band live, you can click the 'Tour' page which takes you to a page with their U.K. tour dates on. It also takes you to the official tour dates video which they have posted on their social media. The page also contains a Reading and Leeds festival poster. As the band are performing on the last day of the festival (bottom of the poster right hand side you can see their name) it was only fitting that they included tickets for the festival also.

Fans/website visitors can find images of the band members on the 'Gallery' page. The images have all been photoshopped on ps6. Lighting effects such as using gels were used to help improve the quality of the photos along with giving the desired effect.

 The 'Social Media' page brings you to a page full of the bands different social media. The bands twitter and latest tweets appear on the screen along with their single Luna on Spotify and if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you will find the bands official Instagram where they post fun pictures and videos.

A devoted fan can purchase different items from the store page. People can purchase items such as jumpers, a hat, a phone case and the bands official album 'O M E N S'.

People can check out what they have added to their cart by clicking on the cart symbol/image next to the menu bar at the top of the page. 

If fans wish to get regular updates about the band or even if their favourite merchandise item has some back into stock they can sign up to the website by clicking on the 'Sign Up' page and filling out their details.

Overall I believe I achieved and managed to mirror a typical indie band music website. I still managed to put my own spin and style on the website which is still kept within all the conventions of the indie band music website that I understood whilst doing my website research. I gave the band a cool style that would be like by many indie-pop fans. This website would be a successful, functioning and popular website if it was made for a real band.

The whole website has a blue/pink/purple and peach colour scheme, just like the digipak. I wanted all my products to flow and fit together, which it now does. The website has all the typical conventions of a music website and has a particular style that is extremely suiting to my mixed gender band and their genre style.







 

Band Costumes

Costumes

Filming

Diary Entry 4

Production days 4-5



These 2 particular days were harder to film. Days 4-5 took longer to film as we were outside in a public so people were walking past and cars were constantly getting the way. In particular everyone found it difficult when we all had to film on the roads. We constantly had to stop and re-start filming clips due to these problems. I ended up leaving the camera rolling most of the time so that we could work more efficiently.

Again, because we are all friends we did all enjoy working together and natural bloopers happened. We had to re-film clips as sometimes the band members would laugh. I didn't particularly mind this as it made the process of filming more fun and less serious. This ended up showing in the video as it gave a fun and energetic look to some parts of the video which is representative of youth.

When it came to filming the tracking shots of Rees this is where things became a lot more difficult. I was having problems with the focus on the camera and whilst filming out the car window of my friends car. I was focusing more on my safety whilst trying to catch a good shot of Rees riding beside the car. We also had problems finding a long road clear enough that wouldn't have many cars down it. This made our clips limited due to constantly having to stop as well as Rees warning me and my friend Hannah (the driver) that there was oncoming traffic. A major factor that I couldn't help was the way the camera was shaking. This was impossible to not have. Neither I or my school owns a dolly, therefore there was no guarantee that the tracking shots would be smooth. The shots were also hand held which also added to the problem despite how hard I tried to keep the camera as still as possible.

There were also some clips that I couldn't carry through properly. This was mainly the clip with Ben walking and the camera pretending to be a POV shot of Rees riding. The clip was supposed to be more fast paced and should've ended up zooming past Ben at the end. I tried my best. I attempted this shots myself 4 times and even had to ask George to attempt to film the clip to see what I should do. Neither of us were able to get the perfect shot as we weren't quick enough and if we were the camera would be too shaky. It is also important to state that in this clip the camera was still attached to the tripod so running with a tripod, in the middle of the road, trying to keep the shot as still as possible, and trying to get a quick movement was extremely difficult. At the end,  I used my second attempt (which was the best clip) in my music video.

Filming outside also was difficult as the weather was constantly changing. In the morning specifically we had rain then we had sun in the rest of day. Due to the sun, it looked like it wasn't very cold, but it was. I had a few complaints from the band members about the cold and them wanting to get all the filming done quickly. This was one of the main reasons as to why we had to stop filming and carry on another day.

I managed to get all the shots that I wanted to get and followed through all my plans. The band members were extremely helpful in this process. My partner and I were extremely happy with the results that we came up with from days 4-5 of production.

Filming and Shooting

Filming and Photoshoot

These were the first 3 days where I took videos and images for my music video. It was a fun process and I managed to get what I wanted done without any hassle. As I could control the environment in my schools studio it was quick to film and I didn't face many problems. The only problems I had whilst filming during these three days were trying to get the band members who didn't really know the song to lip sync to the song properly. I had to film the band members 4/5 times each as they would laugh or mess up the words. We had fun whilst shooting the video and because we are all close friends it was harder for everyone to keep a straight face. The band members tried their best for us and all gave me clips that I was extremely happy with.

 I also had problems with the heat that was being emitted from the lights used. I would get complaints about the lighting being too strong and hot. The fact that we were in a small black room as well didn't help. I suggested that the band members left the room which directly next to an outside area to cool off. I also had problems with some of the props and the way some of the band members were playing the instruments. As I had stated before, none of the my 'band members' actually know how to play any instruments so to be able to pull off playing guitars, a keyboard and drums convincingly was hard for them all. I tried my best to guide the band members despite not knowing how to play any instruments myself. As I know the song very well I knew roughly what movement should be happening and pace. I believe this helped how the overall product looked.

Whilst filming as well the band members also helped put their ideas in to the video. We all got inspired and the mixtures of all of our ideas added something extra to the video that my plans originally didn't have. The band members were all extremely helpful and all complied with whatever I asked them to do. We couldn't help having a laugh whilst filming and taking pictures. It was an extremely fun project that we all enjoyed taking part in.

Animation

Animation On Adobe After Effects

It is fair to say after an a horrible experience in the past two years of doing Media Studies, year 11 and year 12 proved to me that After Effects was an extremely confusing programme to use. Initially whilst planning my music video I did not intend to use this programme, however, when I saw an easy step-by-step animation tutorial on YouTube I wanted to include it in my own work. This was the tutorial I followed-

I found that this video was extremely helpful. I was able to edit clips that I had already put into my music video without problems. All I had to do after editing these animation clips was add the fast colour corrector wheel in order to finish completely editing that certain clip.

Here are some screen shots of myself and my partner animating some clips of the music video-

So following the tutorial all we did was :

1. Select the clip we wanted to animate in our work area on Premiere Pro.
2. Open the clip up in After Affects.
3. Select the paint tool and brush tool.
4. Start drawing on our video frame-by-frame.

We decided that we wanted animation that wasn't too overwhelming or intense and have something straightforward yet artistic. We decided to animate the people and the musical instruments in order to make them stand out. As we had planned to use a colour affect on some of these clips we decided the colour white would pop the most and suit the clips that will be animated without the colour affect on the image. We decided also not to be too neat with the animation as we thought it would make it look more fun and would suit the bands edgy style. We have seen this messy look upon young indie bands many times such as the band - Rat Boy. 

Despite how easy it was to animate the clips it was an extremely long process and I would often find myself and my partner staying after school to finish animating these clips frame by frame. We also didn't like how some of the were fully animate as we thought this made it look a little bit harsh. Therefore me and my partner - Cole decided to break the animation up a little bit by not editing all the frames in the clip. This in turn saved us time and gave the required look we were going for.

Final Filming Location

Final Filming Locations

This is  our local area. We decided to stick to the local areas as the group could all meet quickly, we knew the local places and we knew that there were not going to be many people in the street interrupting our filming.We also knew the best places the film and so used this to our advantage whenever there was a nice day with good weather to get everyone together quickly to film for our music video. We also used this location as it was easier for us to carry our equipment and at times the equipment was a bit of a hassle to carry. 

Music Video Timeline

Music Video Timeline

Band Logo

Creating The Band Logo

When it came to creating a band logo I started with the simple idea of replacing the 'L' in palms with the silhouette of an actual palm tree. This was what made the logo stand out from other competitors in the Indie genre and overall music industry. I took to after affects with this side and decided to try different simple font styles with a similar skinny/classic look to it. I was able to manipulate the palm tree image as well as the letters and decided that the following logo had the best look and would be easiest to read.

This style is current and simple. This means that the band can use this logo and on any style of digipak no matter which direction their style chooses to go down. This logo will go with any style. It is simple yet stands out. The idea of replacing the 'L' with the palm tree is original and many members of the public would immediately recognise the logo and link it with the band. 

Treatment Feedback

Treatment Feedback

As a task in class, I had to pitched my treatment to my media studies class and receive their own ideas about my plans for my music video.

What went well:

• People understood my narrative and thought that it would fit with the song.
• They liked the animation ideas that I had for the band clips.
• They all agreed that I understood all of my genre conventions and are well applied to my music video.
• My locations are close by and their easy areas to film in with not too many hazards. 
• They all liked my editing style and said that it will stand out.

Questions I was asked and what I replied:

1. Who will be in your music video? - I plan to use my friends that are confident enough to be in front of the camera. I have chosen my friends Ria, Rees, Ronnie, George and Ben. I think these people will help me out the most during production and are most understanding about my plans for the music video. 
2. How will you make sure that all 5 members of your band will be together all at once? - I have looked over all of our school time tables and used a group chat to talk to the band members to ask when they were all next free. As we all live close to each other and all attend the same sixth form we will not be facing many problems about meeting up and recording for the music videos as the locations that I plan to film in are not that far.
3. Will they be lip syncing a lot to the song? Do they know the song? Do they play instruments? - I plan to use lip syncing in my video however, I don't want to use it throughout the music video as it will distract from the narrative of the music video. Therefore I will only be asking the band members to lip sync to the song. 3/5 of the band members know the song and only 2/5 haven't heard the song before. I  have already asked the band members to listen to the song in order to familiarise themselves with the lyrics of the song. Unfortunately, all of my band members do not play any of the musical instruments, however I do not plan to use many clips of the band members playing their musical instruments. I plan to use shorts clips of the band pretending to play the instruments to the beat of the song.
4. What is the overall message that people are going to get from the music video? - Hopefully my message is that there is always another chance at love. They will understand that two members of the band are in love each other and aren't prepared to let each other go/want to start something new. This is why at the end of the video I plan for the 2 band members to look lovingly at each other when they are together.

Improvements:

1. "Be more specific about what you are going to film."
2. "You need to make sure on how to film your clips and where exactly".
3. "Because you will be filming out in the public you will need to be careful about match on action and cars and pedestrians in the background".
4. "You need to work on grouping the different clips but at the same time you need to make all the clips flow."
5. "You can use interesting shots. Make sure that you use different height and types of shots e.g. close ups and wide shots."