My Music Video - Version 1 Audience Feedback

I asked for audience feedback on this first finalised version of my music video by sending it to my friends via WhatsApp, posting it on Facebook, and by enabling the comments section on Youtube.
I chose to seek audience feedback from my peers as they are representative of the audience demographic that I was targeting with my music video.

Above are the replies from three 18 year
old females. Two are Caucasian and
one is Afro-Caribbean; all three are
long-residents of the Cayman
Islands.

Sam Hadfield, 18 year old Caucasian British male. He went on to raise an interesting point regarding the ordering of some of the shots, which I am now going to review in light of his comments.

A YouTube comment that my video received. The channel appears to be a promoter of copy-right free music (but the compliment is still very much appreciated.)

Maya Ambekar, 17 year old Indian-Caucasian British Female.

With this feedback I am able to happily confirm that my video has successfully appealed to the demographic I was targeting. I also plan to address any questions the audience have, and will consider the suggestions made.

I posted a link to the video and a request for feedback to my personal Facebook page, in the hopes of gaining feedback from my peers. 

Charlotte Upham is a 17 year old A2 media student who recently moved to the UK from Dubai. I have made a careful note of her point about the transition from England to Cayman (something raised by Sam Hadfield as well), and will be revising the video, seeing if I can make the transition clearer in any way. 

Magazine Advert - Ideas

Based on my research into the codes and conventions of magazine ads for albums, I know that the magazine ad is essentially a variation on the album/DigiPak cover.
As I intend for my advert to follow these conventions, I will be basing my magazine advert off of whatever my final DigiPak cover looks like.

In all likelihood, I will be using my own design of the Capricorn icon - as it appears on the front of the DigiPak.

Keeping in form with the DigiPak, I plan to also use the same parchment paper background (of course I will need to see how it looks in actuality before I finalise any decisions.) 

I reckon that I'll probably stick with the layout of my draft magazine advert (pictured below), as it contains all the necessary information and clearly identifies what the advert is about, without losing the striking simplicity.

As I've already considered with the DigiPak, I plan to explore using one of the fonts below for all the typography featured in the advert (with the exclusion of the record label logo, the artists website address, and the iTunes logo/website.) The font I ultimately choose will of course be the same font that I use for the final DigiPak.

This font is the most similar to the brush with which I created the Capricorn drawing. I'm inclined to use it, save for the possibly juvenile feeling it creates. I will be showing three edits - one with each font - to members of my target audience to gain feedback and opinions to help me make a final decision.  

This font has the same uneven edges, but in a slightly more toned down version making it less juvenile looking. However, I'm not sure if the thinness makes it feels too clean/simple. 

  

I think this one is my personal favourite. It's style makes it feel as if it's been carefully handwritten, and it looks good in lower-case and upper-case letters.

At this stage I can't decide anything else, but I am now ready to begin bringing my ideas to life with Photoshop and Illustrator.

Magazine Advert - First Stages

As part of my A2 coursework, I have been tasked with creating a Magazine Advert for my chosen artist.
To do this, I'm again going to be using the programme Adobe Illustrator CS6.

As I've done my research and analysis into the codes and conventions of magazine adverts, and as I've already begun to dabble with album cover ideas for DigiPak, I had a enough of an idea for my own advert to begin an initial exploration. 

So, the first thing I did was to open a new document in Adobe Illustrator CS6, and place a black rectangle shape over the page. This gave me a base to work off of, and matched the choice I made for the black background on the front and back covers of the DigiPak.

As I'd already worked with Illustrator, I conveniently had all the vectors I'd previously used readily available me, so when I decided to recreate the appearance of the album cover, all I had to do was select the previously downloaded images, such as the capricorn vector and the island records logo vector. 

Due to the importance of making the magazine advert congruous with the the DigiPak, I chose to use the same font - Lucida Blackletter - that I used on the DigiPak on the advert. I created a text box using the text box tool, and then I placed the artists name, "Bishop Briggs" in large at the top centre of the page, in line with the horns of the capricorn vector I placed below. 

At an equal distance of spacing beneath the capricorn, I decided to place a review/rating of the album (taken from a real review). I created another text box and then chose a smaller size for this, as people will be more intrigued as to what the smaller writing says and will therefore pay attention when reading it. 

Like I did with the DigiPak - and as I've noticed it as a convention of numerous other album magazine adverts - I placed the record company logo in the bottom right hand corner. I'd already downloaded it as a vector before, so all I had to do was open it as new and then change its colour to white (so that it would show up against the black background.) 

At this point it still felt rather lacking as a magazine advert, so I looked at my list of magazine advert conventions and decided to add a release date, information about where the album is available, and Bishop Briggs' website address.

To get the right look for the website address I tried placing a screenshot of the actual address so that I could have the fancy "B" symbol it uses at the start. However, I was dissatisfied with how this look, so I instead typed out the web address using Lucida Blackletter for the "B" (the closest font I could find) and Arial for the address. This provided me with a similar enough look and avoided me having to use a screenshot. 

This is the screenshot of the actual website address

This is my recreated version of the website address

To advertise where the album is available I decided to download the vector for iTunes (granted, it's not the most recent logo, but it'll do for this practice run.) 

I then opened it in Illustrator and placed it in the bottom left hand corner of the advert, opposite and aligned with the Island Records logo.

I wasn't quite finished yet though, as the iTunes logo by itself - while the message would've been clear enough - felt a bit unfinished.
So I typed "Available at" and "iTunes.com" and placed them above and to the right of the logo.

Admittedly, this looks odd. But for now in this trial it'll do.

Overall, by this point the advert was definitely looking more appropriate.

Still very simplistic in terms of the visual design, but as I'd included enough of the codes and conventions to make it clear what I was advertising, I decided to conclude my trial here.

*************
In conclusion, as a first attempt I am satisfied with the results. I like the simplicity of the capricorn logo and definitely intend to keep using it; however, I do think the design may be too clean for the genre. I'm planning to try working with photoshop to incorporate some photography in the design, possibly using the frame of the capricorn...
But we shall see!

My Music Video - Rough Cut 2

In this cut of the video I have now added the scenes with the subject getting ready in her bedroom and the scenes which feature the subject and her partner going to the concert venue.
I have placed the same post-production effects - the Projector and Romantic filters - onto the new footage, and (more or less) edited the footage to the beat of the music.

The only thing left to do now film the last projection room footage, which will feature the full compilation of the Cayman and England GoPro footage, and then begin editing the final version of the music video

My Music Video - Rough Cut

This is the very first rough cut of my music.

As of right now it contains the footage for the opening and closing scenes, the compilations of GoPro footage from England and Cayman, the concert footage, and some of the projection room footage.

It is currently missing the scenes for the verses, which features the subject getting ready and meeting her "partner". 

In terms of editing, I have made no post-production edits to the river scene or projection room footage. 

I have however made changes to the 'memory'/projection footage; I used the FinalCut Pro filters Romantic and Projector, so as to create a stylised effect on the footage that connotes to the audience that they are watching the subjects' memories.

For audio, I detached the audio from all the footage, as I'm running it against the song so the audio isn't necessary. For the opening and closing scenes which don't take place during the song, I searched the FinalCut Pro sound bank and selected the noise of a running river. I also added the faint sound of seagulls, as they appear in the background of the opening long shot. This use of sound helps to set the mise-en-scene of the river. 

Overall, I am happy with how this video is starting to shape up, and I am very much looking forward to seeing the finished product!