Song list

As we are starting our digi pack we decided to put some song names together to come up with a song list.  we tried to stick to the electronic genre as much as we could.

1. Sail!
2. Realism
3. Countdown 2 Electro
4. Hybrid
5. Level Out
6. Protocol
7. Lets be Clear
8. Dance With Me
9. Game Over
10. 21/12/12

Digipack Software Trial

In my lesson today i had to choose a band in the same genre as my chosen genre (Electronic) and design a didgi pack for their album.

1.I copied this template of a digipack onto publisher to help me with my design
2. I searched for a band photo on google. I chose the electronic/dance band Azari & III for my example band and chose to use this photo:

3. I then went onto 'www.picmonkey.com' to edit my picture of my chosen band. Because my chosen photo was more rectangular than square i cropped the picture in half making two square pictures of the band making it easier for me to fit it into the different panels of the digi pack.

4. I used the different fonts available and put the name of the band and name of the album on each different half of the original picture. i looked through the different texts that where available to use on picmonkey.com.  i looked out for an electronic font so i used the font 'Home Sweet' because it was the closest font to the electronic genre.

5. After i edited my first picture on picmonkey.com I put it into my digi pack template

6. I then searched for a back panel picture. I decided to stick with the black and white theme but show the electronic element by choosing a picture of lightning.  Using picmonkey.com again i wrote the song titles on top on the background.  The genre came through well in the song titles.  I tried my best to use language you would expect to se in an electrical subject.  for example 'Static Heartbeat'  I chose this because it was electronic and scientific. another example i used was '21/12/12' for the final song on  the album which is the date of what is believed to be the end of the world.  Again I used the idea of science and electronic ideas to create names linking with the genre.

 7. I then put a barcode and Facebook and Twitter links on the back cover showing that you could also find out more information about the band.

8. Finally i put all of the pictures together and added a picture of a CD to the CD panel and this is my final product:

I'm happy with my first trial of my Digi pack software because i think that i stick to the genre well. Although i do think i could hve sjown more of the electronic characteristics through the colour.  

Filming evaluation (12th DECEMBER)

Today we filmed our music video.  We have used all of our preparation from the research and planning and used it for our production.  We followed our 2 column story board throughout.  I think that the filming of the music video was very successful as we were all prepared and organised, as well as our actors and actresses.  We managed to get ourselves some reliable actors who listened properly and took it seriously as I have had some bad experiences in the past with the actors not turning up or not taking it seriously.  My group also each made sure that we had a job title and each had their turn of filming.  I think we worked great as a team because we all listened to each others opinions and comments,which has definitely helped it flow calmly.

We pre-booked our destination which was the lecture room at our school. We thought it was the best place to film for our video as it fit with our narrative perfectly, it wasn't oversized and it had all of the resources we needed; such as the projector, fan, speakers, the desk etc...

 

The only actor we needed to prepare costume was the main actor, Joe.  His part in the video was to be  a 'crazy' lecturer. So we gave him the stereotypical 'teacher/lecturer' costume i.e; shirt, tie, blazer.  

We each made sure that everyone in the group had a chance to film. We each allocated different shots to ourselves in the group. My part of the filming was to record the close up shots as well as the point of view shots which we did from the lecture audiences point of view.

We alos added other shots such as Joe acting into the camera from a flat angle close up throughout the whole song so we can cut parts of it to use in the final edit.  Becky had the good idea of Joe (actor) to hold the lens of the camera, miming the lyrics and rotating n a circle 

         

Location and Prop powerpoint for video

ADD by

Website Analysis

webpage analysis by

How Research and Planning is helping our narrative

Peer Assessment - 2 Column storyboard

Today we finalised our narrative along with putting it into a 2 column storyboard.  We split into two groups, Kirstie and Daniel finalised the narrative and wrote it down with the timings and lyrics and then me and Becky added details and put it into a 2 column Storyboard.

This is what it turnt out like:

Once we had finished creating the storyboard we then gave it to another group so they could asses it and give us feedback.

The feedback they gave us was:

From this we are were told:

1) Describe the location/room that the filming is going to take place- this is going to be a lecture room, we forgot to state this on the storyboard.

2) What shots are going to be used for the opening sequence- we are going to use close ups on specific body parts and actions.

3) We had a good blend between the narrative and the performance.

4) we need to improve slightly on the narrative- Our narrative progressed on the other pages of our story board, when we showed them the other sheets, they was happy with the progression of the narrative.

The feedback we received we will take into account and incorporate it into our storyboard the next time we are all together. 

Freytag's theory. 'Sail' soundtrack

Freytag's theory suggested that drama is sectioned into 5 parts: 

• Exposition
• Rising Action
• Climax
• Falling Action
• Resolution

Freytag suggested that the tension will rise to a peak which is then followed by rising action to make sure that the audiences interest is still maintained.  Once the tension has reached the climax it is then it is released in the resolution. 

We used Freytag's theory to base our own track on it and how we are going to show the 5 parts in the narrative.  

Possible Logo Ideas

I have experimented with some different logo ideas.  

I focused on the different font styles i could used and different shapes and ways i could show my genre through my logo. 

I have decided to stick to my colour scheme as i think that it represents electronic well. 

The Narrative

This is our narrative of the music video.  We have shown audio, time duration's shot types and actions.

Questionnaire Analysis

Questionnaire Analysis

Analysis of Purity Ring's 'Fineshrine'

purity ring analysis

Analysing Questionnaires

In lesson today we worked as a gorup to look through our questionnaire results.  We have all taken note of the results and we are going to put them into a powerpoint analysing them.

Focus group

  

this is our focus group. we asked 3 people to come and give us their thoughts and opinions on the questions we asked them.  We based our questions around our chosen genre 

 

iWeb practice with website ideas

I used this font from Urbanfonts.co.uk to use on my website design as I think that it is shows elements of what type of genre we are as it is futuristic and scientific looking. 

I started to use the different tools and effects on iWeb such as the youtube link, showing the bands newest single.  I also searched a similar image to what I'm planning on using in my finishing product of my website.  I think that the text above the picture of the eye looks well with the picture but I would like to experiment more on colours instead of sticking to Black and White as it can be plain and boring. I also added a couple of social networking links which would take you to 'Mad Xibit's' Facebook pages or Twitter pages.  this would help gain the band more fans and followers as well as other easier ways for the public to find out more information on the band.

Lower down the page I added tour dates which would be in people's attention practically straight away as the first thing that should draw the audience's attention is the YouTube video.  The idea of this is that the audience would listen to 'Mad Xibit's' song, enjoy it and then become interested in buying tickets.

Questionnaire

Questionnaire
we have put together this questionnaire to gather data on what an audience from the age of 16 want to see in a music video.

Website Analysis

 The banner has been made with colours which compliment each other to stand out.  for example the white writing on the black makes it readable and understandable for the fans / readers of the page.

contacts - this gives the webpage visitors other ways of getting in contact with the band.  but this is also convergence. 

the banner clearly shows the bands name and also gives an idea on the genre.  The Prodigy are known to be in the electronic genre, therefore they have designed their banner in a spesific way representing electric bolts which represents electronic music

Post focus group preparation

As a group we decided to get ourselves even more research towards our music video was to do a focus group.  We are going to be asking a panel of people few questions relating to our genre.  We have taken into account the people we've asked age as we are focusing on the 16-30 age range.

Here are the questions we are going to ask and the reason behind asking them:

1. How old are you?

• Finding out the focus groups ages helps us understand what the most popular interests are of that age or age range.  We will take it into account on what the people of our target age range are/will expect from a music video today. 

2. What is your favorite music genre?

• The results from this question will help us what the most popular music genres are at the moment, and what kinds of music videos they will be familiar with.  This could help us with our narrative leading us in the right direction to get us more viewers.  

3. If we say electronica, what comes to mind?

• This will give us an idea of what we could use to make sure that our music video is representing the genre in the correct way.  This also gives us a rough idea on what our peoples opinion is on the genre.

4. In every band they have a USP about them. Something that makes them different. Can you identify what you think the main trademarks are of these artists? 

•  We are going to show the people of the focus group a power point showing different artists of our chosen genre (shown below).  We used this question because we believe that it would be very useful as it will help us with creating an image for our band to be shown in the digi pack and website.  The results will tell us whether an artist is noticed by only their music or because of their image too.  

Focus Group by

5/6/7. Which video is your favorite? why?

• For this question we are going to show our focus group 3 music videos from our chosen genre Electronica. The Prodigy - Fire Starter, Rihanna - We Found Love Ft. Calvin Harris and finally, Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice.   The 3 videos we have chosen are very different examples of Electronica, this, we hope will give us a variety of answers we can take into account of what the audience would like to see in a video of this genre. 

8. What video is your favorite and why?

• We are asking this question so we can use the outcomes in our own video. 

9. What is your least favorite and why?

• We are asking this question so we can try to avoid the outcomes in our own video

Practicing iWeb Software

today in lesson I used iWeb for the first time. I made a basic lay out for a website about me. i used the tools shown in the bar on the right hand side to add a YouTube Post and pictures.  I also made a Welcoming page before the page shown above which was linked to the main page.

I found this lesson useful because it helped me understand how to use iWeb and gave me an idea of what I want to do for my actual website design for our band.

Website ideas

Our homework for this lesson was to come with a website idea with notes on what colours/fonts/images I wanted to use.

My first idea was: 

my main theme was the colour blue influenced by the podigy's website idea they used in their banner because i think that it represents electricity. (an example of the prodigy's banner above)  I also chose this colour because that was one of the most common colours which came up in my mood board when I was researching ideas related to electronic music. it isn't very clear to see but there is a washed out picture of the 'eye' logo in the background. The 'x' in the pupil of the eye would link you to another page.  I included advertisement on the left and a social networking link bar on the right.  My idea for the background colour would be black. 

I then came up with a clearer plan for my website with different ideas which made the website look more professional and creative:

I split my paper into two different halves showing the entrance page (upper half) and then the main webpage (lower half)  I decided to stick to the Eye design. I used the colour blue again as it was the most common colour that come up in my mood board.  I tried to show some elements of electricity for example in the eye (upper half) i drew electric waves of blue in the eye.  i then designed my main web page.  I thought it was a good idea to put a youtube clip at the top right corner of the page because it will be the first thing that catches the audiences eye because it will be familiar to the audience. I then thought that it would be a good idea to put the tour dates underneith the youtube clip because then it is an easy way of promoting their music. Myself and my teacher noticed that in the middle of the page where annotations are there would be a large blank space.  So i thought it would be a good idea to have a washed out effect on a picture of the artist/actor from our video.

MY MOOD BOARD IDEA FOR THE DIGI PACK

Our task was to put together a mood board of what ideas we had for our music video. I used Urbanfonts.com to find different types and styles of fonts which would suit our genre.  I then looked at what types of images the sound represents. The image ideas all linked together in a way.  the electronic images fitted with the genre's name and the images of the eyes were what my group had as an idea for the main image in our Digi pack. 

Filming and Directing of a band (pre coursework taster)

Today our media class filmed shots for a band to make a music video from it.  Our teacher directed the band while we each had a go of taking different shots and angles with the camera.

The picture above shows our plan we had before we went down and filmed.

I had the chance to work on different camera positions.  For example at first myself and Daniel worked on the static camera shot, which is camera 1 shown on the plan above. We then moved onto camera  2 which was the moving shot, we used a wheel chair (Drama Prop) to get the moving shot.

This made me understand that it isn't simple to record a whole band performance because of the many different types of camera movements and angles.

I found this lesson useful as I felt that it prepared me to expect the what is to come when recording our actual music video. It also helped me understand different camera shots that I wasn't clear on before.

group ideas - our pitches

Frankenstein representation graphic

My representations show the idea of how I would like the setting and the image of the character in my music video.

Location: 

• I had the idea of an empty dark room.  The fact that it is empty represents loneliness.  The lyrics show loneliness and anger, so I thought that this could be shown in the setting.  The lighting of the location can show darkness, or anger.  The spotlight highlights the fact that he is on his own and makes him stand out even though the room is empty. 

Costume:

• I gave my character a casual average man of today look.  This shows that although the lyrics portray him as an individual, his image portrays him as the same as everyone else.  It shows that you don't need to look different to have different things going on in your head.  This is why the close ups of body parts idea is a big thing when we come to thinking about our pitch ideas because it can show that he is different and that his actions are different not necessarily his look. I specifically chose quite dark / bland colours to show his personality, e.g it isn't all bright and loud but dark and quiet. 

Face:

• I chose to get an image where one side of the males face is in darkness and the other is in light.  This could represent a split personality.  If you linked this with the lyrics, he says 'I blame it on my A.D.D baby'  this is saying he cannot help his actions due to the A.D.D showing two sides to him.

our first pitch

As a group we have come up with some ideas of what the narrative of our video could be from listen to the track many times over.  After looking at all of the different ideas we came up with we put parts of each idea together to come up with one final idea.

1.

• This was the first idea we came up with as a group.  We all had the idea of the main character / artist sitting in a dark room spotlighted.  We were thinking to set up 4 cameras in each corner of the room so we could get him at different angles and points of the room.  We thought that extreme close ups of body parts could show the creepiness of the lyrics.  We thought it was a good idea to get a lot of different shots in different angles so that we could change the shot to the beat of the music as it is quite staccato throughout. Having just the one actor on his own in a room reacting to the lyrics and music would leave the audience engaged wondering what the actor will go on to do next.

2.

• The second idea Daniel had came up with after listening to the soundtrack over. He tried to think into the different themes what can come of the song.  The first he thought of was Zombies as the instrumental comes off as quite machinery like which made him think of zombies.  He still took ideas such as the extreme close ups of body parts to use in his idea as it can show a lot in a persons personality or frame of mind at the time by just looking at their movement. The close ups will go on to a close up of the main actors face, half of the actors face would be covered in make-up which would make him look dead/zombie like.  The following shots would then show him in different locations rather than just the one which could show isolation.  This links to The Prodigy music video 'Invaders must die'.  

3.

• The 3rd idea was again inspired by Daniel when he noticed our school lecture room. An idea of a 'break up' with the artist and his ex 'lover'. Like the first two ideas the ECU will stay the same, the narrative would be of the artist showing a home made video of the couples relationship shown on the wall through a projector. The audence would look as if it is to an empty lecture room until the end when you just see a silhouette of the woman.  The recorded video shows the ups and downs of their relationship and he slowly starts to break down as the relationship shows it's breaking while miming along to the soundtrack. 

4.

• Because idea 3 could come across more of a pop genre type of music video because it could come across as cheesy. So we chose to avoid that part. But as the location of the lecture room is a really good place to show a performance element, we have chosen to keep it.  We are going to make a power point about love and A.D.D and life which fits with the lyrics more and comes across less cheesy.  We could also use graphs and statistics which are scientific which is synergistic to our genre.  The artist will perform as a 'mad professor' presenting the presentation to a small audience who start to notice himself losing and and gradually leaving one by one, leaving one person in the audience - the ex partner.  again we will use ECU and cut up shots, fitting with the beat of the music. 

As you can see throughout we kept the idea of ECU.  This is because the lyrics of the song 'Sail' are quite psychotic for example 'maybe I should kill myself, I blame it on my A.D.D baby'. From looking at a persons facial expressions and body movements you can tell how they are feeling.  Therefore the ECU of the body parts will show him gradually losing it in the narrative.  

Characteristics of our chosen genre Electro

Today we made note on what characteristics we need to produce a good music video.

we made our notes on videos in our chosen genre. These were:

• The Prodigy - Invaders must die
• Satboy Slim - Weapons of Choice 
• The Prodigy - Firestarter

Research Plan

As a group we have  decided to split the  research planning between the 4 of us.

• Questionnaires 
• focus groups
• Interviews 
• characteristics of the genre 
• Market research

My role in this is to put together a focus group with Daniel.  We have decided to do 2 focus groups one around the age of 17-18 (year 13) and then the other with teachers from the age of 24-30.  I decided on those ages because when we were looking at our  target audience we thought we should aim it at people who are willing to pay money for their music and not have a worry about it.  We decided not to use year 9s (14 year olds) in a focus group because we knew that they wouldn't be willing to pay an average price on a song on iTunes whereas they would be wanting to spend their pocket money on other things when you can listen to music for free using sources such as YouTube.

We have been looking at different music videos such as:

• Lady GaGa - Bad Romance 
• The Prodigy - Voodoo People/Breathe/Omen/Firestarter/invaders must die
• Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice  

while we were looking at the music videos we were making note of the characteristics we noticed a lot in the videos. 

characteristics of electronic music videos: 

• effects
• dance
• p.o.v shots 
• Rotating camera 
• blurs
• Flicker pad effect 
• jump cuts 

While we were doing this Kirstie was writing up a questionnaire, she wrote questions that would give us an understanding of what people expect to see in music videos and the characteristics of what they would expect from a Electronic music video. 

Becky did a powerpoint of electronic research :

Electronic Research

Choice of Soundtrack for Our Music Video

My group have been given a task to go and bring back 3 songs back to the group and we will have to make a group decision on what song we are going to use for our coursework for this year.

The 3 songs I chose were

• Purity Ring - Fineshrine
• SBTRKT - Right Thing To Do 
• Enter Shikari - Wall

The 2 songs we short listed were:

most of the group were happy with 'Fineshrine - Purity Ring' but because some of the group were unhappy we all decided on our back up song 'Sail - AWOLNATION'




The video my group has chosen to do is 'Sail - AWOLNATION'

We have sent a tweet to the band 'AWOLNATION' asking permission to use their song to use for our coursework:

Lip Sync (research)

We were given the task to either record and edit a video of either myself on my own or with another person lip syncing to a song of our choice.

I paired up with Kirstie and we lip synced to 'Justin Bieber - Boyfriend'

we used two different camera angles we did with the Mac's and then we decided to use one effect (Black and White) throughout the song until the end when we changed it to normal colour.

The whole point of this task was to know what it was like to be put in that position to have to act and sing a song to a camera.  We also edited it in Final Cut which was new for me. This got me prepared for what I am going to be doing in my real coursework.  I enjoyed using final cut because I found it useful and understandable to use.

This is our video:

Music Video Representations ( Research )

The Prodigy - Fire Starter 




 How is the artist being represented? 

• rebellious 
• devil, hell 'Fire' 
• fire are out of control - dance movements are out of control
• spoken with anger 

How are the lyrics represented?

• the artists behaviour reflects on the lyrics as a fire when in a full rage is un controllable and highly dangerous. In the video when the artist is saying rather than singing the lyrics and his uncontrollable movements.
• raging personality is symbolic as how fire would be represented (uncontrollable)
• the lyrics are repetitive which means that one message is what the prodigy as a band are trying to drum into your head 

What is the overall effect of the video on the audience?

• it keeps you on edge and keeps you watching throughout 
• kept me interested throughout 
• the different angle shots and constant movement keeps you engaged 

COLDPLAY RESEARCH

Coldplay

Richard Dyer's Star Theory - You Me At Six

Presentation 1