The whole editing process

When we finished filming our music video , we all had kind of different roles in terms of what each of us is doing . While me and Gaby were in charge of designing and creating first drafts of CD digipack and thinking about different possible ideas for the website , Teddy was in charge of editing the music video .
Video editing is the process of manipulation and rearranging video shots to create a new work . Editing is usually considering to be one part if the post production process - other post-production tasks include titling , colour correction , sound mixing , etc.
Adobe premier pro is the editing that we had to use . Teddy said that he used Premier last year when he was editing the AS thriller , so Adobe premier was a new program for him to use . Tedy had a small brief from Matt when he started dropping music track onto the timeline in sync with the playback that we used on the day . He then started dragging all th eindividual clips from the shoots of Harvey (who was the performer) onto th etimeline without any audio . Once everything was placed he had to find the clacker in the video that I was holding out at the start of all the video that contained lip sync to make this stage easier . Once he matched it up with the ending softwares time he repeated it with the rest of the hanging shots .  He than was told by Matt that he is highly recommended to make a performers cut as this would be an easier way of producing the video . Then Teddy had to zoom into the timeline and precisely match more to the beat of the music . The video seemed to be far stronger after he zoomed into the timeline and matched the beat to different shots .
After that he had to add the other aspect of our music video on top of the performers cut . This specific part of the video features the story of the individual who awakes inside a padded cell and after putting on his headphones the song goes into his head and he try to find the DJ equipment to play . It was really great seeing the footage we took on th epick up day and working it into the video we had already . It was difficult to know where to put individual clips of footage withput breaking the consistency we already had with the performance cut . It took lots of audience feedback and perseverance and eventually we managed to make it work . The actor wasn't as skilled as Harvey the hanging man , this is because he is not a theatre student himself . This made it slightly more harder as an editor to select certain clips that worked in the video however Teddy took on the responsibility of working around this problem and was faced by looking through every single second of each individual clip searching for the most believable acting and the best farmed shots and he continued embeding them throughout . Teddy did have some issues of wondering where to place the clips and if he needs or not to put a clip over lyrics in the song . However , once he tried putting vocals to the DJ it worked great and looked good at the end .
Teddy than was interested in what others think about his editing so far . Matt suggested him not to take so long on introducing the DJ character and we should show him after the first drop . He tried it and it made the video flow far more easier and there was less of the hanging man at the beginning . He continued adding the clips of the doctor and the patient on , and he decided to try and play around with the opacity and overlayed clips , so that when he laughted it looked very phsycotic . Teddy then got abit confused as he was getting mixed feedback on whether he should have the doctor and patient kissing or if we should just end on the hanging man . Eventually , as a group we dicided to end on the hanging man .
Then we asked Luke and Matt about what they think and they said that it was done .
Our video will be uploaded onto YouTube on Monday .

Second draft of the website

http://teddybensted15.wixsite.com/mysite-1 

Here is a link to the second draft for our website .  

Teddy came up with a name "Forbidden Abyss" . 

After the homepage , there is a page with the latest news , where the audience can find different information .

The next page is their new album and a song . 

First draft for the website

http://teddybensted15.wixsite.com/website

Here is a link to our website for the music video . Teddy was responsible for it and below I am going to post some screenshots of his first draft .

Above is the homepage of the website .and below is the list of all the music .

Below is the list of the concerts .

Audience feedback questions

We have just finished editing our music video and now we are really interested in what other people think about it , so we decided to create a list of questions for our audience and ask them what they think . We have asked 4 people . Here are the following questions :

• Do you think the performance/concept based music video worked for this genre of music ?
• What were your first impressions from watching the music video ?
• What do you think of the location for this music video ? Could it be improved ?
• What did you think of the variety of camera angles used in this music video ?
• Was the lighting suitable for the music video/genre/location of music ?
• Do you think the balance of performance and concept was even or was there too much/too little of one ?
• Did you notice any continuity problems ?
• How did this compare to other music videos of a similar genre that you have seen ?
• Did you think that the shots were synched with the music ? ( lip sync , cutting on beats , etc.. )
• What do you think is going to be a target audience for this music video ?
• On the scale of 1 to 10 , how would you rate it ? ( 1 being lowest , 10 being highest )

Yana was the first person who I filmed and asked to give us some feedback . She mentioned positive things as well as some negative . Yana said that the video was greatly filmed and it was very creative . She said that the video suited the music very well and also there was a variety of different shots and angles . The negative thing that she mentioned was that the setting was quite repetitive .

 The second person who I decided to ask is Sophie , my housemistress . She said that the music fitted nicely with the concept . She especially liked the weirdness of his movements and that he is hanging isolated . She didn't really like the girl lying under him , as she thought that he was doing enough to keep the audience engaged . Overall , Sophie said that the concept and the music worked really well together . 

The third person was my art and textiles teacher Simon . He said that it was a very interesting piece , but personally he doesn't like this kind of music Simon said that the setting was really good  and especially the horror elements in it . He liked the weird music together with the weird movements of the actor . Overall , he said that the video is really enjoyable .

 The last person was a girl from my house . She liked a good variety of shots + the idea with a person hanging upside down really suited the music . 

                                           

Creating a first draft for our digipack

After we finished editing our music video we had to start thinking about different possible ideas for our digipack . From our group, Gaby was the one who was creating it in Photoshop , as I can't use this program and she is a photography student . For the front cover, we decided to make the background black , as we wanted to show the contrast between bright letters and a dissolving face . Later on we might think about changing this girl's face on the face of singer .



We really wanted to use this idea with a dissolving face , so we thought that to make letters look a bit dissolved might be a good idea as well .



Our next idea was to include an abstract object or we were also thinking about some kind of texture . So , Gaby decided to choose this flower , which I think works really well for our main idea . Personally for me , here is a good link between the artist Flume , who also used flowers for his cover and us , as we wanted to create something similar to his work . I also think that the main point for all our covers and the website is that it is very simple and our whole group really like the idea of it .



In terms of this grey pattern , we are not quite sure yet , but maybe after creating a second draft we might want to change it and make it look more abstract .



Here is another version of a final outcome . The only difference is that the writing is not colourful and it is in black and white . Personally , I think that if we are going to do everything in black and white it is going to look a bit depressive , so I think that the use of bright colours will make it look only more interesting .






Here is our prototype for the digipack .

Publicity campaigns

I had a look at their online shop and found many different interesting things so that for example they have quite a lot of clothes with their prints . I also noticed that they have many different other accessories such are for example cases on laptop etc. Quite an important point to consider is that their prices are not high , which suggests that they know the approximate age of their audience and they know that people age 16 to 25 are not going to spend a lot of money . I also noticed that the layout of their shop is really interesting and it is easy to find things that you need in there .  

   

Sketching ideas for the CD digipack

Here are our initial ideas for the CD digipack . We wanted to make it look weird and crazy at the same time . So , we really liked the idea of dissolving faces and thought that it might be really interesting to use this . We have also done some sketches of a possible background - which is made out of geometric shapes . Another idea was to photograph a couple and make their faces dissolved , so that they are kissing , but you can not see their faces . The next idea is about the title . We want the title to be dissolve as well and for the background, we want to use contrasting colours such as black . The last idea is to divide the front cover into four parts and draw the singer in different parts . So , to do two middle shots of him and two wide shots and so that he can show different emotions and be as crazy as he was in the video . For the background, we want to use disco lights . We are not quite sure either we want them to be bright or pastel . 

Sketching ideas for our website

During this week we have started to create a sketch of ideas for our website . While thinking about our initial ideas we wanted to include the following points : Use a monitor (CCTV) , include moving background (fast cuts and moving images ) . Our title is made out of a continuous line and we wanted to make it look like it is a wire of headphones , as we have headphones in our music video , so we wanted to create a link by doing so . We also wanted to use neon lights ( again like we did in our video ) . We want to use them on the very first page , but instead of really bright colours we want to use more pastel colours like Flume did . we decided to choose three colours : red , orange and yellow . If neon lights are not going to work , we will put artist's portrait instead , because I think that it is really important for us to use his face somewhere on the website . Also , if either the lights are not going to work or if the face of the singer is not going to look appropriate , we are going to put a video below the title . 

As we want to use some abstract shapes in it as well , we thought that it might be nice to make a transaction between the first page and the page when people are going to press "World tour" for example , so that while the next page is opening there is some kind of entertaining happening . Another thing which we want to include is if we take a page "World tours" for example , when you open it , you can see the background through the writing ( again like Flume did on their website ) . 

We also thought that we want all the titles to be made out of wire and be in a sort of continuous line . 

  

Ideas for the background

  Here I am going to put some of the possible ideas for the background of our CD digipacks and websites . They are all completely different but I think it is easier when you have too many ideas to choose from that just one . These ideas are taking from my three artists that I chose . Some of the backgrounds are really abstract and complicated , some of them are really simple and the colours are really calming .


               

         

   

Research into websites

Web sites contain information which publicises and promotes the artist image and a range of information and images to the audience - or it's fan base . Often this is organised into what Boyd has termed co-option - the invitation to join the community and take part . media marketing of the pop star image has become iconic and famous . Iconic images have helped retain the popularity of existing and legendary artists . All music websites are about promotion and information provided to the audience . They fall into three main categories : 1). Promotion of single album release 2). Promotion of a tour live appearance 3). Merchandising - a poster of an artists or band , sales of T-Shirts etc. 

A website homepage is usually the most important page , containing various elements . These conventions provide information in their own right or offer the audience the opportunity to interact with the page , share it and navigate to other parts of the page or the website . Although the content varies on different home pages , there are many similar conventions which are used . In particular , the layout of many websites follows a similar pattern or template . Any variations are dependent upon the purpose of the website , the b and the needs of the target audience . 

This is the website of the first artist that I looked at - Pink Floyd . I do not like the layout of the website , but the reason why is probably because he is not contemporary and because he is not alive anymore and he was not the one who was creating a website for his album . We can also see that there is an exhibition in V and A museum . The reason why I chose him even though he is an old artist is because of the use of abstract objects . On the right side, we can see that people can order his work and also maybe be showing his albums is a good idea for those who are not really familiar with his work . 

The second artist is Peter Gabriel . I chose him because of the idea with a dissolving face . I think that his website is really nicely done . It has a very good layout . I also like the idea that for the main page he used a photograph , as this is what we want to do . When you open his website , there is a title "Recent news", where the whole important information will be . There is also a page with the dates of their tours , but actually, when I opened it , I saw that there are no tour dates available at the moment . I also saw a page with their T-Shirts , audio and fine art prints , so that his fans can buy something with his logo . For our own website, I also want to create something with the logo of the artist , so maybe a T-Shirt , mugs , posters , etc. There are a lot of things happening on his website and as for me I would say it is not really clearly to follow it and I think that it is a little bit messy .

The third artist is my favourite own , maybe because of the colours , because I really like the pastel colours . I really like the first page . It is entertaining for the audience but at the same time really calm .

When you scroll down you can see some videos from YouTube relevant to the artist .  

The page with world tour is really straight forward . It has a clear structure and is really easy to follow . It is really simple . There no unnecessary information just the information that you really need to know . The flower on the background is a photograph , which is again what we want to use . I also like that it is transcendent and even through the writing you can see the picture on the background . 

Another interesting thing is when you press to "World tour" or something else , while it is loading , this page appears and again the background is really simple and calming and the only thing that we can see is the name of the group . I think that they want to put as much attention on them as possible , so that is why the use this title is a good idea . I really like their design and think that we should consider doing something similar in terms of its simplicity and abstraction .

Research into digipacks

The Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd

  The Dark Side of the Moon is the eights album by the English rock band Pink Floyd , released on 1st March 1973 By Harvest . The album built on ideas explored in earlier recordings and live shows but lacks the extended instrumental excursions following the departure of founding member and principal contribution , Syd Barrett in 1968 that characterised their earlier work . It thematically explores conflict , greed , the passage of time and mental illness . I think that a similar CD cover to this will really suit our song , as it is simple and abstract . The designer of this particular album cover was Storm Thorgerson . When he was creating this album cover , and when he was asked to take a photograph , he replied "What do you mean ? That's what I do . Pictures ... I do not do graphics" Thankfully , for the history of album cover design , he embraced the challenge laid down to him , using twin inspirations of Floyd's live light show and a triangle which is a symbol of thought and ambition - he created this cover and a piece of musical and art history . That is why I think it  might be relevant for us to have a look at .
Most of his album covers are really minimal - especially the second picture which is going to be shown below . It is just a white brick wall with text on it . I know that he is an old singer but I still wanted to use him to show the contrast between the contemporary artists and the old one .



Peter Gabriel



I found this CD cover and remembered about our idea with a dissolving face . It is not exactly the same , but something similar . I just thought that if our music video is about a crazy mentally ill person in a padded cell , for the front cover we can use either the face of that person or a face of a singer . We can also turn it around and make it look like he is hanging upside down like he is in the music video . I like that the colours of the cover are not bright and he only used black and white colour palette . This album cover gives me a sense of mystery and questioning his emotions .

“I’ve always loved artwork and album art. I think it’s been a huge part of what people identify and feel about the music and the records” said Peter Gabriel “I used to love gatefold sleeves… when you would sit with a new record and open it up it was just a precious moment. Now we’ve gone into this digital world a lot of that has been lost. We’ve being looking at ways of getting quality prints of the artwork for a long time and I’m happy now it has happened.” 

The third artist that I decided to include is the artist whom I saw on Gaby's blog and really liked it . His name is Flume .

   

It is completely different to my first two artists but I think that it is a good contrast for us . His album covers are really interesting , calm and the pastel colours look really nice with the flowers that he chose for his front cover . There is no writing except his name but I don't think that a lot of writing would work . As a group we want to use photographs for our front covers , as Gaby and Teddy are really good in it as they are doing photography .