Editing Update

After the feedback I received from the class I have a small window in which to make a few quick changes to the music video. This is the following feedback I received and how I developed the video

Use of Editing

• Too much time lapse in big block, could get boring- I cut the amount down slightly to allow me to edit onto a certain beat (see below) Although I was restricted too how much I could cut it down at this point.
  
• Could of included a few more shots in the bar scenes? - I increased the amount of bar scenes and variety of shots. Adding a Mid-shot of us talking.
  
• Missed some opportunities to edit onto the beat- The class pointed out there was a change in the music just after I crossed the road where it would have been nice to see the timelapse stop and rest of the narrative begin. I shortened the time lapse scene so that when the music changes its cuts to Nicola on her walk home. I also noticed a Sharp harsh sound in the music while me and Nicola were getting dressed to go out, so I though it would be nice to rearrange the footage so that this sound coincides with change in narrative between getting ready and the bar scenes.
  
• In the bar scenes close up show you the couple just drinking or looking about- is anyone actually talking? - Once this had been brought to my attention this mistake was obvious... the couple are not really shown talking! I changed the shots I used and added one where we are both talking an laughing. This helps create more tension between us above and give the effect that we are flirting.

I also altered part of the rewind scene. One of the clips saw me waiting at the traffic lights but on second consideration I felt that this doesn't really serve the rewind scene very well as it only shows me standing still. So I changed it for a clip where I was crossing the road- so when rewound it quite obviously shows backward movement and a change in the pattern of time.

Class Feedback of our Promotional Package

Having completed our music video and print ads, we screened them to our Media Studies class who gave us lots of valuable feedback and constructive criticism. This information was excellent for finding out what the strengths and weaknesses were of our production and will really help when we evaluate our work.

MUSIC VIDEO

Initial Impressions: Positive Feedback

• Video clearly focused on the main characters, easy to understand who it was we were ment to be watching.


• Time lapsed traffic was in time with the tempo of the music.


• Liked the make up shots, giving the effect the camera was a mirror.


• Interesting narrative effect with the "rewind" through the day at the start.

Initial Impressions: Criticism

• Not enough light in the bedroom scene, too dark.


• Artist not included in the video.


• Too much time lapsed footage, got a bit boring.


• Could of used more shots to keep engaging the audiences interest.

Use of Cinematography

• Liked the use of experimental use of cinematography, particularly the make up shots and the shots through the metal chair in the bar scene.


• Shots well framed and panning shots were smooth.


• Good variety of shot sizes.


• Bedroom shots could of been more detailed?

Use of Mise-En-Scene

• Nice and colourful shots throughout.
• Bar environment looked sophisticated and classy.
• Good use of props - mobile phones etc.
• Characters dressed appropriately throughout.
• Lighting on Nicola in the bedroom scene could of been improved.

Use of Editing

• Shots used worked well with the timing of the music.
• Looked professional, no amateur effects used etc.
• Could of included a few more shots in the bar scenes?
• Missed some oppertunities to edit onto the beat

Suitability of Visuals to the Music

• Overall, worked well throughout.
• Could of included artist in the video, or perhaps shots of a DJ to make it more performance as well as narrative based.

Response to Brief

• More reference needed to Lawrence King - too distanced.

Production values and Technical Ability

• Effects used were good throughout.
• Some lighting issues, mostly in the bedroom scenes.

Suitability to the Genre of Music

• Ambient music, not too stressful or too much action.
• Made everyday scenes look a bit different.
• Overall, was defiantly suitable to the genre.

Suitability of Creating a Bands/Artist Image (Representation)

• Representations in the video included - nature, movements, relationships, intellectual, perhaps quite middle class?
• No representation of Lawrence King in the video.

Suitability for Target Audience

• Worked well at targeting our audience.

CD COVER AND MAGAZINE ADVERT

Initial Impressions: Positive Feedback

• Clever use of typography.
• Time & nature reflected well (which were strong elements in the music video aswell, helps to bring the 3 pieces together to create a promotional package).
• Suburbia and middle class represented (the house on the inside cover etc) - audience can relate.
• Suitable typefaces used.
• Photo used on inside cover very nice.
• Contrast between nature and urban environments apparent - worked well.

Initial Impressions: Criticism

• Some of the writing on the magazine advert could of been in a different colour to make it a little clearer to read, but no major criticisms overall.

Use of Images

• Linked to music video, mysterious.
• Middle class suburbia.
• Piece's connected as well as contrsated.
• Inside image tinted slightly yellow, nice effect.
• Magazine advert image was abstract, looked very good.

Use of Mise-En-Scene

• Good use of lighting, all the images well lit.
• Lawrence King dressed appropriately in the inside cover image - looked dark and mysterious.

Use of Fonts & Typography

• Clever use of "Night".
• Font used was sort of electronic/futuristic/like a typewriter font.

Use of Colour

• All images nice and colourful
• Perhaps more of the writing could of been in white?

Use of Layout & Overall Design

• Successfully created aesthetically pleasing print advert designs that worked effectively.

Production Values & Technical Ability

• Good technique
• Images used were of very high quality/high resolution.
• Demonstrated good photography skills (credit goes to Nicola for the images!) :)

Suitability of Creating a Bands/Artist Image (Representation)

• Lawrence King represented in the inside image of the CD Cover, shown as mysterious and anonymous.

Suitability for Target Audience

• Targeted a young audience with an interest in ambient music well.

Suitability and combination of all 3 promo package elements for Target Audience

• Good overall promotional package, elements followed through (nature vs. urban, movement, time).

Editing Techniques

This year I will be editing on a Mac Pro using Final Cut Pro software. I used a variety of editing techniques to produce the effects within the pop promo.

• Video Transition, Cross Dissolve- A dissolve allows me to essentially mix two separate piece of footage so that there is no fade in/fadeout. This was useful in the traffic scenes at the pedestrian crossing.
• Video Transition, Non-additive dissolve- Compares the pixels in the two clips and displays the lighter of the two as the first clip fades out and the second fades in. I used this when changing into different parts of the narrative to show a change in time.
• Video Transition, Fade In/ Fade Out- Fades in the incoming clip as the Outgoing clip fades out. This helps to show a more definite passing of time and I used this on the pop promo first draft between the bar scenes and bedroom scenes.
  
• Audio Transitions, Cross Fade (0 dB)- I used this at the beginning and end of the audio track. We had to clip either end of the audio track due it being nearly 5 minutes in length.
• Video Speed- The video speed function allowed me to create the time lapse scene at the pedestrian crossing. I sped the footage up approximately 2000% to give it the correct pace to the music.
  
• Video Speed, Reverse- To create the rewind scenes I selected random clips of the video as a whole, placed them backwards of the timeline then selected approximately 800% speed in reverse. This made it clear to the viewer that we are going back in time during the day.

On final completion of the pop promo I will convert it in to a .mov file so that i can play it using Quicktime. I will use the Compressor software with in Final Cut Studio to convert the pop promo to a lower res format so that it is more suitable to upload to my blog.

Final Digi-Pack and Print Ad Designs

Nicola has completed her work on Photoshop and we have decided on the final designs.

I was extremely please with Nicola's photography skills and the final designs. Here is my evaluation the final designs.

Album Cover and Reverse

We decided to use this particular nature shot as it shows beautiful colour at that certain point of dusk- The day is just becoming night (relating to the album name). Nicola saturated and changed some of the colour of the photo in Photoshop to enhance the silhouette of the trees and beauty of the colours. It almost looks like a digital sunset, and links in with Lawrence's style of digital music. White was the most appropriate text colour for the track listings as it stood out around all the darker colours. Although we originally had the album name in 'Night' in black, we decided to change it to white as it made the play on words more obvious.

Inside Covers

A clever image taken by Nicola on a street near her house on the outskirts of town. A suburban street was suitable because Lawrence's music is not particularly gritty or grimy so would not justify a bustling city street. The inclusion on the guy in the background introduces the artist but still gives his actual face relative anonymity. The blurring of the lights links well with the traffic scenes in our music video. To create this effect Nicola decreased the shutter speed and therefore increasing exposure time, showing the blurring of the car lights. The text we included in Lawrence's thank yous, something we feel is appropriate for an artist for his first album.

Magazine Ad

Nicola again played about with shutter speed to gain this great image. The blurring of the lights directly connects it with the Digi-pack creating continuity within the package as a whole and therefore a product with greater marketing power. The text was tilted so that it looked parallel to the blurred lights. We would have liked to have changed the colour of some of the text in the bottom left hand corner but the colour of the background meant that it was often hard to read in any other colour but black.

Production Meeting 7

Learning to use Photoshop was frustrating but we eventually discovered that it was a very powerful tool when harnessed properly. Nicola had now complete the first draft of our album cover using both images of nature and city life. We wanted to create a link between the video and the album design and the inclusion of lights and traffics helps with this. The nature image on the front has had the colours altered to appear artificial and more 'electronic'. For the inside image Nicola experimented with exposure time. Using a busy road she increased the exposure time to create the blurring of the lights which give the appearance of fast moving traffic. We are particularly happy with this.

Editing of the pop promo is nearing completion but has hit some errors. A problem with the Macs effected the whole class and resulted in some footage dropping frames or footage becoming jerky and clipped. Unfortunately we do not have the original footage to re-capture to resolve this problem, but as explained it is through no fault of our own. We will try and reduce the damage caused by using alternative footage that is unaffected. Luckily Maya shot quite a few take of the same scenes so we should be able to find some footage that is good to use.

Feedback: Lawrence King

We sent Lawrence the a copy of the music video (albeit the one with technical errors) and a copy of the digipack and print ad design. We conducted the following interview over Facebook to get some feedback.

Hi Lawrence, We sent you a rough draft of the video, what do you think about it?

I think its very good! I know you said there were some issues with this version of the video but Igot the general feel of it.

What in particular do you like about the video?

I enjoyed the fast motion [time lapse] scenes, I think its suits the pace of the track well. I'm also glad you decided to uphold my anonymity. Also the concept of crossed paths and a relationship forming. Most electronic artist I follow also do something different in their videos, not just a band playing in a pub or girls dancing in aclub like you find in most pop videos.

What would you change about the video?

Probably would have put a few more of those fast motion scenes in there, maybe at a nightclub? And I'd like to have seen the track at its complete length, but I know you had restrictions and all that.

Moving on to the album design and magazine advert, how do you think we did?

REALLY really good, the cover has a nature feel to it but kinda enhanced nature- which i like. In the inside cover and on the ad I like the feeling of speed or moving that you captured. Looks kinda urban aswell. The bloke standing across the road is a nice touch, like its ment to be me, but its not clear enough to really know.

Thanks for your time Lawrence!

Individual Ideas- Album Cover/ Print Ad Nicola

Nicola's Entry

Digipack

My initial ideas for the digipack were to show the contrast betweet nature and urban life. I took various photos of sunsets and then used photo shop to contrast the colours to make the sunset stand out, for the urban photos i changed the shutter speed on my camera to create the effect of rushing traffic.

Original Image

For this Digipack design i used a computer style font to show the electronica side of the music and i used the sunset picture to show the nature influences that inspire Lawrence.

I decide that night would look good in white and i placed it on the black part of the digipack, i later decided that it didn't look right her so i moved it to fit in with Lawrence's name.


I then tried out a different font to see if this worked better i decided against it as i didn't feel that it worked as well as the original font, i also moved the album name into the artist name and i felt this gave a good look and feel to the digipack.

With this digipack i tried changing the colours to see is they would stand out more and i tried bue and as you can see it blends into the background.

This was my last idea but i still wasn't happy as although i liked the way the album title and artist name are positioned i still felt that the album name need to stand out more. I put the copyright information in white on the black part of the background as it made it stand out and i used white for the song tracks as this went with the style that i was going for and i didn't want to overload the digipack with colours.

Print Ad Ideas

Original Image
I took lots of photos for the print ad and i thought this one may be nice to use as it shows the artist is a anonymous way which fits in with our genre as the artists are usually faceless, this photo also has the rushing traffic which ties in with the themes of your pop promo and didipack. I decided to use the same font as the digipack to help tie the two together and i used the same arrangement of "Lawrence King" and "night" to again tie the print ad to the digipack. I found that with the text on top of this picture the print ad became to busy and i decided it would be nicer to use a simpler image.

Original Image

I then found this picture which i thought summed up my idea as it was abstract like other album covers in this genre but it also had the traffic theme that follows through the promo and the digipack. After this i started to change the font colours to see which looked best, black stands out the most in some places for example in the album/artist title some white was need to make it pop. i tried other colours such as bright green to give a computer theme to it and i also tried red to go with the colour of the rushing traffic but they got lost against the background.

As you can see from this example i was trying out different colours and her i was trying our green and i didn't work as it didn't fit in with the print ad at all. i was also experimenting with the text placement here,i knew i wanted the date in the bottom left corner and the album/artist title in the top right corner but i was trying to figure out the best places to put the quotes from magazines and celebrities i wanted them to go along with the traffic but be cause of the colour they didn't fit.

As you can see from this idea, i changed the font to red and this still didn't pop so i decided against this font,