Final Music Video

Group Digipak

Group Advert

Digipak Reflection

My aim for my digipak was to make it relatable to the music video and the target audience. Much like music videos, digipaks also represent artists and are supposed to display their image and personality. Like I did with my advert, I used photographs that were taken throughout the performance section of the music video so that both products would link. Here is my completed digipak:

I used photoshop CS6 to edit this digipak. I wanted the design to be similar to my advert so that the two products would relate to eachother. I followed indie genre conventions by using simplistic photographs and simplistic editing styles. However, I incorporated an edgy flavour by using distressed brick walls and graffiti, scruffy fonts and ripped paper in order to give a poster style (much like my advert design). Using these elements also adds quirk and youthfulness which would appeal to teenagers and young adults. I wanted to incorporate the guitar within the digipak as it promotes the artist as a singer/songwriter and musician rather than an image. This definitely follows the conventions of indie. On the front cover of my digipak I deliberately made the image of me darker and the name brighter. This is quite common and conventional within the indie genre as indie artists like to be known for their music and their name rather than their image.

Advert Reflection

As a group we decided to each design our own advert so that we could compare and gain inspiration from each other. It is important to design your advert first in order to investigate what works well and meets the codes and conventions and what doesn't. Here is an image of our individual adverts (my design is on the far left):

From the start I had this idea that I wanted a brick wall within my design as I feel that a distressed brick wall gives a 'grungy/indie' vibe which is very conventional to our chosen genre. I also felt that by using graffiti we could demonstrate the unique twist that we are trying to portray within our project as graffiti isn't really conventional to indie, its more conventional to the urban genre. I also wanted to incorporate my guitar within the advert because instruments are conventional to the indie genre. I think the use of instruments promotes the artist as a singer/songwriter rather than an image which is conventional to the indie genre. 

However I also liked Drew's design. I liked his 'poster' concept as I thought that that was a creative way to display the typography. Therefore we decided to combine our designs:

This is my final design:

I am very pleased with my design as it actually turned out better than I though it would. I used Photoshop CS6 to edit my design. I used photos of myself that my group and I took whilst we were filming. It is important to organise a photoshoot when producing an advert as it gives you the opportunity to promote your artist the way that you want, using codes, conventions and genre characteristics to make the photos and the artist relatable to the target audience. I also used a photo of a brick wall that I previously took. 

Within my final design I cropped the photograph of myself, allowing the brick wall to be visible behind it. This gives that 'poster' look that I admired from Drew's design, however still maintains the same layout as my design. I used the font 'Chalkboard' as it looked like the type of writing that you could find on a brick wall. I decided to incorporate a comment from NME as positive comments like this reassures the audience and persuades them to buy the product. I also used a tag line "Featuring the hit single 'The Apple Tree'". This is something that I noticed a lot of album advertisements use and I thought that it would promote the music video also. I like the combination and the contrast between the 'urban/grunge' styled brick wall and the 'indie' feel to the photograph with the use of instruments. Using genre characteristics I think that this design would be relatable to indie audiences, however the 'grungy' edge makes the design original and unique and could be relatable to other audiences aswell.  

Film Schedule

Risk Assessment

It is important to consider risks before our group begins filming, as health and safety is our priority; making sure everyone remains unharmed by the end of filming, otherwise we run the risk of filming and not being completed due to an accident occurring. A risk assessment is carried out in order to reduce the chance of injury happening. As a group we had to assess our locations for potential risks and consider a plan to reduce the risk and document the process. An example being, the risk of theft by surrounding people in rough areas such as Camden and Brick Lane. The way in which we would handle this risk is to wear the safety straps on at all time, so that the equipment is attached to one of the group members, which also in fact reduces the risk of dropping the equipment causing damage.

A risk assessment will assist me when filming as the chance of either myself, Georgia, Drew, Rhianna or any additional characters from becoming injured during the filming process. Obviously being the people filming, we not only have to look out for ourselves and the team, but we are also liable for general public's safety, eg. not leaving equipment out for anyone to trip over. The risk assessment is also clarification that you cannot be held responsible for any accidents if all have been analysed, unless one risk has not been. 

The only additional risks encountered during filming was in the forest, with branches randomly placed on the fall, increasing the risk of Georgia tripping whilst performing. Another being, during Georgia's performance when seen sitting on an unstable fence. In order to avoid both risks, we had to make sure her walking path was clear of anything that could potentially cause her harm, as well as test the if the fence could support Georgia's weight when sitting on it. If we did not test this risk then there was a big possibility the fence could collapse and Georgia may have fallen into the lake. Luckily everything went to plan and all group members remained unharmed.

Description of Hazard	Prevention of Hazard
Falling in between the gap at a train station, when stepping from the platform onto the train.	Ensure all group members stand behind the yellow line on the platform at all times. Also, make sure that the group are aware of surrounding people whether the platforms busy or quiet and the people getting on and off the train.
Risk of falling into the canal.	Make sure Georgia and Drew walk slowly and carefully when   approaching the canal. Ensure that when position themselves they do not step too near to the edge.
Being hit by motor vehicles when crossing the roads.	Ensure that Georgia and Drew cross the roads safely by either looking both ways repeatedly when crossing or to cross at traffic lights if available.
Damage inflicted to the camera.	Make sure all the safety straps are securely fastened onto my wrist at all times during filming. If the camera is placed onto the tripod, ensure that the tripod itself is held to prevent it being knocked over.
Risk caused by the surrounding diverse people, with the possible risk of theft.	Make sure all equipment is kept at a close distance and are kept safe by all group members, particularly me being the cameraman, reducing the risk of theft. Another prevention is so wear safety straps on at all times.
Risk of team members or surrounding people tripping over the equipment eg. The tripod.	Make sure everyone stays out of the equipment zone. This will require extra team members helping to direct the general public around the equipment ensuring everyone remains safe and unharmed.
Health risk to Georgia and Drew when smoking.	Make sure the characters are not to inhale the smoke too much and are not around it for too long. We could always use an E-cigarette as an alternative, however would not have the same effect.

Storyboard

 

 

 

 

 

 

What is the purpose of a storyboard?

 

The story board itself has a effect role in ordering the shots which we aim to cover. The story board for any media film plans the footage from start to finish and allows the crew members to be organized and know what needs to be filmed and how long for. The storyboard covers what actors are in what shots, how long the frame lasts and also the type of editing needed. As a group we were made away of how to execute the shot with precision and knew what we wanted the outcome to appear like. The production process is made more efficient by using the story boards and therefore is a useful tool to use when producing a music video. Our ideas were put onto paper, and then the storyboard is a final over view before we take our ideas to be filmed. The story boards additional purpose was also to change and improve our original ideas as a group and see what will look the best and make our video more successful for our target audience.

 

How did you use your primary and secondary research that you carried out, to plan your music video?

Overall our research contacted was mainly focused on what our target audience would find aesthetically pleasing. We wanted to include as many aspects as we could that our target audience would want to see and what they liked based on the findings from our vox pops and questionnaires. The findings of our research was therefore heavily influential when creating our storyboards as we aimed to create a specific style to our music video The content within the video was found enjoyable by our target audience and we used this when creating our story board. The performance was also covered in the story boards as we knew that the audience of 13 to 24 year olds would be extremely interested in the visual performance as well as the narrative. We incorporated this into the story board and aimed to build a relationship between the lyrics being sung and the on screen visuals.

 

 

How did you and your group storyboard your music video?

 

Creating the storyboard together allowed all of us to have a say in how we wanted our music video to appear. We kept in mind specific aspects of our video from the research and tried to include ideas from all group members. We wanted a variety of shots, and knew that to include the instrument would mean we were appealing to the indie music genre convention. We wanted to throughly plan our video before we took it too filming, and we also had a discussion of how and when we would film each piece to insure our time was most effective. Overall the message from all group members was that we wanted to put what the public said into our video, convey to genres and also keep in mind the visual and artist relationship which we of course wanted to be strong.

 

 

How did you share the responsibility?

 

We were each assigned a role and created specific parts of the story boards in pairs. This made the discussion regarding what and when we wanted to film more intimate, and we could spend our time more efficiently whilst taking in turns to create each frame. I drew the images whilst other group members talked and dictated what should go when. We already had an idea of what we wanted, therefore sharing the responsibility was easily as we had a common goal of what we wanted and knew how we wanted the video to look and what would appeal to our target audience and the indie/pop music genre.  This uniformed process ensured that we were all happy with the storyboards.

 

Did you follow your storyboards, or did you make changes?

 

We pretty much followed the storyboard, yet in the editing process some footage was swapped around simply because it fit better and would look more visually pleasing. We all shared the same vision of how we wanted the video to appear. The storyboards allowed us to stay focused and we knew we could always refer back to it. We planned the time well, and didn't change how long we wanted each clip to play for. The story board for the performance was particularly helpful and we kept to our plan as it was well thought through. We did make some changes, for example in the apple tree panning shots we picked more footage up in Camden so inserted it alongside the pub sign. This was done so we could build a stronger link with the audience and also incorporate more of an indie alternative edge into the video. In conclusion we mostly did conform to our plan however the narrative did evolve slightly and was improved which overall made our video more conventional to the indie genre and was more of a success.