Music Video

Here's our final music video. I'm really happy with the results and I think we've achieved the effect that we wanted. Although in hindsight there are a couple of things I would change, such as more varied shots eg. some of the girl, more movement and choppy editing etc. I think it still works really well as it is. We've cleary shown the contrast and division in the two artists, as well as showing that these two genres of music work well together. We've also got accross the emotion in the song that we heard from the first time we listened to it. So overall, I'm really happy with it.

MySpace

Here's our band website. We chose to do a MySpace page. I think its turned out well and the design ties in with our proucts well, meaning it all works together as a promotional package. I think we could have been a little more experimental with the design/layout, however I also think it's simplicity works well with our artists.


www.myspace.com/tainted09

Album Cover

Here's our final digipack. I think the album cover, both the front and back, as well as the inside sleeve and CD back, all work well together. The design runs through the digipack and the style all relates well to the other proudcts we have made.

Evaluation

We had our evaluation yesterday where we filmed our responses to the four questions. We prepared notes which are on the group blog. We split it so that we each did the notes for two questions and we then lead these questions when we actually filmed it. I did question 1 (conventions) and question 3 (audience).

During the filming of the evaluation, we were a little nervous because it was something really different, but overall I think it went well. From what I can remember, we covered everything that we wanted to and we didn't really have any problems with how much we each said. I think it was a roughly 50/50 split in the amount that we each spoke and it was easy to bounce off each other because there were only two of us. Soo hopefully it was ok.

Audience Feedback

We had a screening today where we showed our target audience the three products that we have made. They gave us feedback that meant we could see if we were targeting the right audience, as well as finding out some improvements that could be made and seeing what effect or impact the three products had on the audience.
Click here for all the feedback


Everyone said it looked like a real music video and looked professional. Reasons for these were:
• Lipsynching
• The backgrounds – the studio and outside
• Close-ups
• Black and white
• Flashbacks
• The actors
• The camerawork
• Cuts to the music
• The performance
• Lighting
Overall, we got really positive feedback about whether it was believable as a real music video. This is really good as it shows that we have followed and used the conventions of real music videos. From this feedback, I think that the locations (white studio and outside), actors (performance, lip-synch, attitude etc.), lighting and the use of black and white were the strongest elements of our video. This is really good because these are the parts that our video centres around.

Music videos should be entertaining and this is so that people watch the video again and again - when we asked people if they'd watch it again, most said yes, and when asked if they'd download/buy the song, most said yes as it 'enjoyable' and 'catchy.' Entertainment is also important for word of mouth as it will encourage people to talk about it. This optimizes the amount that we are able to promote the song. When we asked people if they found it entertaining, most people said yes (18 out of 22). The reasons they gave were:
• Good actors/Good Performance
• Like the conflicting element between the two singers/two sides to the story
• Liked the black and white
• Liked the setting

However, four people did say no and the reasons they gave were that it was a bit repretitive and stays the same all the way through. I do agree that the start of the video can be abit repetitive, but we wanted this strong performance at the start, and then its disrupted by the rapper. So I don't agree that it stays the same all the way through. There is a point of change, and this interrupts Daniel's performance, representing the fact that Tyler, the rapper, interrupts and disrupts Daniel's life. We also have the narrative elements throughout the video.

Appeal is also important. We wanted to see if the music video appealed to our audience to ensure that we were targetting the right audience. I think this was fairly successful as we did appeal to most people. The parts that appealed to them were:
• The outside city shots
• The black and white
• The flashback and storyline – interesting narrative
• Performance – you feel for the main character
• The different characters and the way it switches between them

A couple were unsure and they said that they just didn’t like the shots of just the singer as they found it a bit boring. Someone also said that they found the first part of the video really interesting but then found that nothing really happens.
We also had a few people say no (4 people.) Their reasons were that they found it a little bland with not enough action and movement and therefore found it a bit boring.
I can see why they said this; however we were going for this effect at the start. We found that too much movement and choppy editing just didn’t fit with the song and we wanted to focus mainly on the character’s emotion, therefore we made it look very simple, just concentrating on the guys, how they are feeling and what they are saying.

Understanding of the video/song is also important, although a lack of understanding the first time you watch it can also have an enigmatic effect, making you want to watch it again. When we asked our audience if they understood the narrative behind our music video, everyone said yes. This was really good as we only had a couple of shots of narrative in our music video, but we managed to get accross the story in this short amount of time. Most people also understood that it was a band/duo, however some thought it was two artists collaborating on a track. This is probably due to the fact that it is a combination of such different genres of music, however we thought this is what would make our band different and can be their unique selling point.

The appeal of the artists is also important for fans. We had to consider this when we chose our actors and I think we made the right decisions because people said:
• Young and ‘cool.’ Appeal to teenage guys.
• Good emotion – very convincing
• The black guy is likeable – smug and cocky. The main guy is so cute, I feel sorry for him
• They are so different – both physically and their attitudes.
• They are emotional – it’s good - you feel sorry for the guy singing who’s lost his love.
• Good looking

We also asked people for their criticisms as this is important to find out what we can improve on and think about what we would change.
Some criticisms people made were:
• A little less black and white
• Shots up against the wall look a bit over the top/cheesey
• The white circle around the shots on the flashbacks did not look as professional as it could.
• Some parts where the singer gets repeated too many times - needs to be a bit more going on.
• Not enough shots of the girl
• Could be more choppy and more camera movement - could be a bit more varied and dramatic

I agree with most of these points. We did try to do some shots in colour, such as the narrative but we decided that this just didn’t work and didn’t look right so we decided to put it all in black and white. I also think the white circle on the flashbacks do not look as professional as they could – I don’t think they achieved that ‘dreamy’ affect that we wanted. I also think that it is a good idea to add more shots of the girl – this will also add variety. We did try to make it more choppy with editing but this was difficult with the song as its quite slow and we didn’t think that it would have as much emotional impact.

We also wanted some feedback on the other products that we made (the digipak and the MySpace). We asked people if they liked them and if they thought all 3 products tied together well.
They liked the:
• Running colour schemes - Black/White/Grey
• The opposites/contrast between the artists.
• “Cool effects and it looks stylish.”
• “Album looks good and MySpace has a nice layout”
• “They follow the same theme and capture the mood of the video”
Some improvements were:
• Could be a bit more colourful and exciting
• Think the back cover looks a bit empty, and the front cover as well. Perhaps more colour for contrast.
• MySpace could be a bit more interesting.

I can see why people may have wanted more colour used in the products; however we found that the absence of colour was a convention of the genre, particularly with male artists. We did try to add some colour that we thought would still tie in, such as the red used on the album cover however we didn’t want to use too much.


Overall, this feedback session was really helpful and we got some useful information about our audience and how they feel about the products that we have made.

Progress Update

Early this week we have spent our time finishing off the video, by adding in the narrative shots, filling in gaps, tweaking small bits, tightening cuts etc. I used a lot of my free time to edit and we have been focussing on that to get the video finished as quickly as possible before Friday’s deadline.

Last week we used some time to finish the inside sleeve for our album cover, as well as the track list for the back cover. However, we’ve decided that we’ll split the rest of the work between us so that we use our time more efficiently. Therefore we decided I would design the MySpace and Mel would design the rest of the album. As we had spoken about what we wanted from both the MySpace and the album cover, we both knew what to do. Therefore I spent the rest of this week completing the MySpace so that it was ready for today’s deadline. Mel also finished the album cover, so our digipak was complete. The music video was also finished from earlier this week. Therefore we completed all 3 products in time for the deadline today and so the production stage of this project is finished! I feel it’s gone really well and I’m happy with all three products and I think they all work well together.

Test Screening

Today we decided that our music video was finally complete and ready to screen to other media students. This was so that we could get some final feedback and make any last minute changes. So we held a test screening which went really well. We could see it on a bigger screen, and this meant it was easier to spot any mistakes/problems.

One of the main problems was that the lipsynching was out. It was quite obvious, but we hadn’t noticed it on the edit suite. However this is easily changed if we move certain shots backwards or forwards by 1 or 2 frames. Some also said that the blur effect that we added onto the flashbacks was too much and they couldn’t see the shot properly so we just need to take that down a bit. They also thought that the white effect that we added around the edges of the shots was also too much and took up too much of the frame, therefore we also need to make this smaller, which I agreed with when I watched it on the big screen. Someone also didn’t see the relevance of the last shot (the one that’s out of focus) but our reason for this is that the last shot is summing it all up as it represents how he’s feeling which is lost and confused so we saw that as a good way to end the video.

Other feedback that we got was that everyone agreed that the performance that we got out of our actors was really good and believable as they felt sorry for Daniel’s character and saw Bernard’s as cocky and not really showing much emotion. They also liked the editing, particularly where we cut quickly and when we cut on beat. Soo overall it was really good and we only have small changes to make which shouldn't take long and then we are complete!

Shoot (Narrative)

We had a shoot yesterday where we filmed the narrative shots that are going to be in our video. We had planned to do quite a few shots, but a lot of these didn't work out on the day. This is because the actors found it quite difficult to do and we had to film when it was dark so we had some lighting issues even though we were inside. However after capturing the footage, I think we still have enough footage that we can use in the video.

We also made a decision to put the narrative shots in black and whites too (these were going to be in colour but it didnt look right), as well as adding the effect of a slight camera blurr and slow motion to distinguish it from the rest of the video. Another idea suggested was to put a white circle around the edges of the shots to achieve that dreamlike effect. We thought this was a good idea and represents the fact that it is Daniel who is thinking back to these moments.

Today we have also managed to come up with an artist name which we were really struggling with. But after playing around with the idea 'Tainted Dream's', we have come up with 'TainteD' where the 'T' and 'D' represent the artist names, which are 'Tyler' an 'Daniel.'

Update

Since our last shoot, we have been concentrating on editing the video. We have made some changes such as deciding to do the performance part of the video in black and white, with the narrative in faded colour. The relevance of the black and white is to show that we are documenting the relationship of them now, and this will be distinguished from the narrative which tells the background story and will be shown in colour, but faded to show that it is a memory. We are also going to experiment with split screen to make the narrative more interesting and we can show two perspectives through this.

We have also made a decision about the artists themselves, and after much discussion, we have decided to make them a duo rather than two seperate artists with one featuring on the track, which we had planned before. However, as the two artists are so different, we thought we could play on this, with regards to the album cover and their name. An idea for an album cover name is ‘Blurring Boundaries.’ The idea behind this is that these two guys are coming together through music, and breaking new ground, as they are so different. We have also tested images for the album cover and have come up with an idea that reflects the album name and is a close-up image of the two guys with their heads joined and blurred together.

Our plan now is to finalise a band name for them, and then start working on the MySpace. We must also plan the other images that we want for the album, as well as plan the shoot that we are doing on Tuesday for the narrative part. We are going to create a schedule for the next week so that we know exactly what we are doing and can therefore work more efficiently to get everything completed in time.

Shoot

We had our final performance shoot/re-shoot this weekend, where we filmed Daniel on Saturday and Bernard on Sunday. The shoots went well and we had both actors moving a lot more in order for them to look more enthusiastic and this came across really well on camera. We also experimented more with the camera by doing more handheld shots and taking the camera into our hands to add more movement, as we noticed that the shots on our last shoot were slightly too static. This all meant that we had an overall more interesting set of shots to use.

Now we plan to edit all of our performance shots and put them into the video, as well as plan for the narrative shoot which will be next week, and try and finalise our album cover and MySpace at the same time.

The Shoot

We had our main shoot yesterday which went pretty well, but after capturing the footage today, we have noticed that we may need to re-shoot quite a bit due to problems such as bad framing, things in shot that we don’t want to be there, not much movement etc. We also need more close-ups of both guys.

Our shoot however did go very smoothly. Both actors turned up on time and were well prepared with their lip synching. We had planned the day focussing mainly on the main artist who was with us for 10 hours (8am-6pm) which was pretty tiring for him. Our next actor arrived at 4 and was with us for two hours. We had only planned to do the shots of the two of them together in this time, however when we were left with spare time at the end, we decided to do some unplanned shots of our second artist in an outside location. Therefore the shoot was successful; however we need to look back over the footage in detail to decide what shots we need to shoot again and what extra shots we can get.

Here are some photos from the shoot:

Planning…

This week we have been planning our shoot that is going to take place this Sunday. We visited the location that we want to use on Monday and did a location reccy to check its suitability. We liked the way that we could film in two different locations (outside and inside) and we have therefore developed this further and are going to make this contrast a main part of our video. We will place one artist in the outside, urban area and the other will be contrasted in the stark white room inside. This will distinguish them as different artists and will emphasise the conflict between them that we hear in this song.

As planning for the shoot, we gave been working on producing storyboards for tricky sequences in the video to ensure the shots work together, as well as a shooting schedule for the day and a call sheet for our actors.

As well as this planning, we have been developing our ideas for the video. We have decided that we want the conflict to be a main theme in the video and this could be shown through a build up to a confrontation between the two artists at the end of the video. We have also been trying to decide if we want to base our video on performance with narrative or with concept. Our concept ideas are the fact that we are demonstrating a realistic view on human relationships and society which can be shown through the contrasts in location and costume to demonstrate something like rich vs. poor. Or we thought about giving the song more of a storyline and portraying this vividly in the video. Our narrative ideas include things like the two guys as young boys, showing they have been best friends for a long time. As well as including a female actress and showing her with both guys to show that they have both dated her. Then we would show reaction shots of the main guy with things like him looking at old photos of them together etc. we have also discussed other ideas about the technical side to the video. We want to have structured, controlled camera work throughout the video (maybe until the end when it can become more handheld) in order to achieve that high gloss feel. We would contrast this would more handheld camera work at certain points in the video where we need to emphasise emotion. We have also thought about playing around with the focus settings in order to achieve some interesting shots. We have also said we want to include lots of jump cuts in the performance, for example we can have wide high angle shots of the main guy appearing all alone and deserted, and then cutting to a close-up to show his emotion.

So far I think we are on track and well prepared for our shoot later this week.