Finished Music Video

Finished Website

Our finished website is available here.

Finished Website

Finished CD Booklet

The front and back cover, as well as the CD booklet can be viewed below.

Evaluation Q1

Evaluation Question 1 from 09robebr

Evaluation Q2

I made a Glog in response to this question.
Question Q2

Evaluation Q3

We created a video to present this question shown below.



Below is the script we used if it difficult to hear what is being said.

  As well as what is mentioned in the video, we got feedback from an online forum that had personal relationships with a member of our group. Their overall views collectively was that it was an entertaining video. Most of the people who commented fall into the categories of audiences which we have focused on from the Life Matrix tool and the Uses & Gratifications theory and this means that we accurately created a music video which conforms to the audience which we aimed at.

In terms of constructive criticism, the feedback was mostly based on post-production elements of the video and little recording would have been required. "At 1:29 (when there are additional vocals in the background), you should do the split-screen that you did in 1:59, but without the blur and get the other guy to sing/lip-sync the BG vocals." We acted upon feedback where possible such as with post-production editing shown. However there other elements of the video such as, "I guess nothing can be done about the actors?" and "the lack in acting skill", it was difficult to implement as we had little time to film and implement the changes; a mistake we were forced to use post-production to fix wherever possible.

 In order to help support the feedback from before, we held a preview screening of our music video along with other music videos from other groups in our class and with the feedback. The responses were similar to the forums' responses with problems such as an unclear narrative and lack of acting.

We also asked our teacher for feedback on our music video, who suggested the glitch effects we used in the final version of the video as it was a technique used in videos previously made of a similar genre. Using a tutorial, we were able to create the effect in our own production.

 We also asked for brief feedback on the album artwork and the website to gauge peoples opinions of the ancillary tasks. From the feedback we received from the people in my media class, the general trend was the need for cutting the prints more precise as it was slightly uneven. However, the remainder of the feedback is positive with comments saying it was "professional looking" and that "people would buy that in shops".

Evaluation Q4

Creation of the Website

During the past few weeks, we have worked on creating a website to accompany our CD booklet and music video. This was done using the online website creator; Wix.

This was the original template's home page which appeared to need a lot of work to change. Firstly, we needed to change the background to something more appropriate to our project (which would feature on all of the pages that follow) after several different backgrounds were tested, we opted for a scenic screen capture from our video which we then had to edit so that the lighting and colours allowed for text to be viewed. We also removed the large icon and text from the centre and replace it with a large title of our artist to be placed at the very top of the page. The social media links were also moved and were each linked to Madeon's official pages. The navigation buttons at the bottom were only added to this page whilst the ones at the top remained in the header on the rest of the pages.

The News page was fairly straight forward in terms of the design. We simply split the text box which scrolled down the page into two parts in order to have everything instantly seen without the need to scroll down as this affected the size of the background picture. Once we had finished doing that, we were able to fill in the information with events including the plan for the music video and the release of the song we were covering. We also decided at this point to colour code each page, making the boxes red throughout as opposed to the flashing multi-coloured ones that were originally there.

We did a followed a near identical process for the news page, splitting the text box and adding in information about a tour including dates, location and price.

For the music page, we had to replace the music app that already existed and opted for YouTube clips with links to the same songs oniTunes.  We had originally had 4 videos on the page, however due to the aspect ratio on certain computers, not all could be viewed properly.

We decided to completely scrap the bio page as it was not vital to the website and it didn't seem to blend very well with the other content.

We created our own brand new Store page which frequently features on real artists' websites selling merchandise etc. We added images of genuine Madeon merchandise and made some realistic prices to accompany them.

The header contains the Artist's title alongside the logo From the initial 'M'. This logo is also a button that links directly to the homepage.

Website Colour Schemes and Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-Scene: For our website we have decided to subvert from a lot of the conventions used by the original artist.
We will utilise screenshots from our final production piece and landscape shots taken when filming in order to make up the background, as opposed to Madeon who used a landscape artwork rather than a real picture. This background will be enhanced in order to be the middle ground between the two contrasting moods in the video. This will be the tone throughout the rest of the website.
The information will be laid out in a very simple and easy to use way through the use of tabs linking to different pages and large text boxes with information displayed in a simple list form.
The conventions of the genre and of music in general will be conveyed through the frequent use of the artists logo and brand.


Colour Scheme:
we have chosen to use several different vibrant colours for the text boxes and the text itself. This was an attempt to adhere to the conventions of the genre. This was decided through the frequent use of neon and strobe lighting seen in different music videos categorised in the same genre and is something we will pay homage to.
The background may make the text colour difficult to choose as it is likely to consist of several different colours which may blend the text in. We will attempt to counteract this by adding a translucent layer behind the text to help distinguish the text from the background.


Below is the homepage of Madeon's official website:

Brand Development

I have created a post on Glogster to explain how we developed a brand using our products.
Brand Development

Account of meetings

During the course of the project, our group have made it clear we need to meet consistently to produce the video and ancillaries. We organised this by using a spread sheet that all of us had access to during the task to decide when to meet up and the tasks we would set out to at the meeting. The spread sheet mentioned is shown below.

Editing the Music Video

The editing process has been long and tedious, but the video has begun to finally take shape. We have all of the sequence in order and transitions we believe to fit.

In order to achieve the best transitions and effects in the video, we ended up placing clips into 5 different video tracks across the video to be able to make the transitions flow.

The amount of effects we are able to use on Premiere Pro is huge and with that we have the freedom to pick and choose as we feel and that the chances of finding an effect which enhances the picture in the way that we want is high.






In addition to this, I have began requesting feedback on the current edit of the video from various people our group knows that also study media.



This was the current edit of the music video which we have shown people these were the responses we received:

We have taken this feedback on board, as well as asking for feedback from our teacher and fellow peers in order to produce the highest quality video.

One of the comments which we have had to upon was that the video included too many fades as transition and that the difference between characters emotions weren't always obvious. Through this we have some of the fades and testing out various effects to make the difference in characters emotion obvious, such as the Luma keying and reducing the brightness in the depressed characters shots and the use of colour changing, colour correction, enhancing the brightness and saturation and using sharpening effects on some shots to make the emotions of the happy character evident.

Amy Winehouse Case Study

In order to learn about the life of a star in the music industry, we conducted a case study on the singer Amy Winehouse. We produced a slideshow on the singer.

Amy winehouse case study from Wellsy0130

Creation of the CD Booklet and cover.

Our group has begun to design our booklet and cover for the CD. Max has done a lot, but all of our group has contributed to the creation of the CD cover and booklet.

We used Photoshop for the most part to get the detail of the CD cover correct, such as the squares and colours correctly shaped and match the photo that we originally took.

We began using various effects which Photoshop offers such as gradient changing, brightness altering, photo filtering, changing the colour curves of the image and many more. We did this to make sure that all the images had an effect on them to give them the slight sunset tint to each image in order to make the image look effective to the audience.

The content in the booklet was relatively similar to the artwork in the use of effects to make the image have a warm effect. In addition, the CD booklet content had to contain small text in order to fill all the vocals from one song on the page. We used a black stroke over the white text to make the white text readable.

We used Adobe Illustrator to size the booklet correctly on a template.

Copyright Request

We decided to email the management for Madeon in a hope that we are granted the rights to use the song in our music video. We are using the song for educational purposes and for non-profit purposes so we hope that they respond giving us the legal rights to use the song in this way.

Filming days 13/02 and 14/02

We filmed for both Saturday and Sunday in order to film the remaining shots to finish the music video. We filmed many shots of the happy character for our video as there was a lack of footage that we had of them. We needed about 1:30 of the video to fill, so we needed both days in order to fill the remaining gaps in the production. The shooting schedule for Saturday is here and for Sunday it is here.

Character profiles

In order to effectively convey the narrative of our music video, the characters had to be very well planned out. As we opted for a narrative which contrasted two different moods throughout, the characters had to be complete polar opposites in terms of emotion and dress sense.

Happy character:
This character is to be portrayed as the stereotypical teenager who's actions frequently suggest he hasn't a care in the world.
The emotions conveyed through actions and facial expressions will be viewed as being overall positive.
The miss en scene (especially costume) will be presented in the most positive way possible. For example, his attire will consist of bright colours and will make him appear quite smart and well put together. (The colour and lighting may also be changed during post production in order to convey this)

Sad character:
In contrast to the only other character in this production, this character subverts from the dominant stereotype and is portrayed as a much darker, more morbid person. The aim is to convey the message that unfortunate events have caused this character pain and he is try in to deal with it in whatever way possible.
Similarly, the facial expressions and mise en scene play key roles The portrayal of this character.
The costume will consist of darker and more depressing colours and will attempt to be similar clothes to that which is stereotypically worn by unsavoury characters.

Textual Analysis 11 - Varien 'The Ancient and Arcane' CD Cover

Consuming Habits of the Dance Music Industry

The consuming habits of the dance music scene are different to that of the mainstream scene. The dance scene is often seen as the most digitalised scene with artists releasing singles of extended plays (EP) through digital marketplaces only. Some artists will release long plays (LP), these albums are normally sold physically on the record labels website as well as through the digital marketplaces.

 

The dance music scene is record label orientated and releases are hyped up before the release of the song in order to gain a wider audience. They often do this by posting previews on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the song will be previewed on Soundcloud; a website designed for music sharing and is most prominent for the dance music scene.

 

Most people consume dance music through the releases and purchasing on digital marketplaces. Beatport is the most prominent marketplace where record labels such as Spinnin’ Records and Bourne Recordings will release on Beatport exclusively before a release on another digital marketplace like iTunes and Amazon. In addition to this, the consuming habits of some dance music audiences has shifted to music piracy as people now begin to download the music illegally.

 

From this research we gathered, we have discovered that in order to reach a wider audience, it will be useful to sign the song onto a record label. In addition to this, we would release previews and hype the release up on our social media pages, website and on our Soundcloud page. In addition, we should offer a physical copy for purchase on our website.

Goodwin's and Halls theory

Goodwin's theory is about genre conventions and their stereotypical characteristics. It looks at 7 different principles:

• Links between lyrics and visuals
• Genre characteristics
• Intertextual references
• Notions of looking; similar to the Male Gaze theory
• Voyeurism; the enjoyment of watching/ looking at the artist
• Demands of the record label
• Performance, narrative or concept based music videos.

When looking at the house genre of music videos and the music video for our song, Madeon 'Finale', there of differing styles that the music video takes. In 'Finale', there a focus on the artist and a narrative of him performing at a live show. While there of shots of the artist, very few are clear; ruling out the belief that the audience watches the music video to look at the artist. The lyrics and visuals don't often match, but the use of 'go out young' with the audience appearing to be of that age group shows that is it not out of the question.

Other music videos of the genre also tend to use a performance/narrative with some intertexual references for their niche audience. There may be some links with visuals but will often depend on the lyrics and if it possible to make any graphic matches.


Hall's reception theory is how the audience view the music video and it's messages. There are three readings that the audience may have to a music video:

• Dominant - the viewer accepts the points made in the video.
• Negociated - the viewer partly accepts the points but may question elements of the video.
• Oppositional - the viewer totally rejects the points made in the video.

The music video for Madeon's 'Finale' has very few controversial points, and is mainly about how the artist feels during a performance. Therefore, it is most likely people will have the dominant view of the video.


Few music videos of this genre raise controversial points due to already appealing to a niche audience. If so, they would be points the fan-base of the artist would also agree with.

Filming Day 1 - 10/1/16

Our first filming day went well. We now have a starting point and some shots that we can use to try and design a CD cover and website. Here are some of the shots we took.

Storyboard for Main Task

Updated pitch

We have updated our one page pitch to make it look more professional. We have also included our company logo to help show this.

Contributor Release Forms

In order to film our music video, we had to sign the release form in order to ensure all the credit for creating the music video. My form, Matt's form and Max's form are all available on Google Drive. The terms of our release forms are:

Texual Analysis 10 - Mashd N Kutcher Website

Textual Analysis: Mashd N Kutcher Website from Max Biddlecombe

Artwork Album Practice - The Prodigy

As a way to learn how to create a successful CD cover, we practiced by recreating a cover for the Prodigy's 'The Day is my Enemy'. The original cover, below, is a simple design of a fox with a bright background.

 

We used Photoshop to blur the image of the new animal and different colours with glossing and background removing to restyle the image. These techniques will be useful with our own ancillary tasks as we plan to use bright colours and adapted images in our own CD cover. We also learned that most digital covers are 1200x1200 to support digital retailers such as Amazon and iTunes.