Audience Feedback

We asked 6 people to watch our penultimate cut of the music video. From the feedback, we made changes, such as a jarring shot in a band scene, as there was too much movement, as well as correcting the out of sync shot of Brandon at the beginning of the video.

We also asked if our core audience (16-25 year old indie fans) understood and enjoyed our video - overall they did, and 4 out of 6 could identify the genre correctly, and all could identify the premise of our video.

Overall I am happy with the feedback, as it indicates that the message of our video was clear, along with the intended image of the band. I also feel like the second dance sequence, with the new editing style, was much more effective and enjoyable for the audience. In hindsight, I would have changed the colour of the 80s narrative background, as I feel like the yellow background meant that the rest of the shot was too yellow, which lead to colour correction problems.

Whilst we were able to correct Jacob's skin tone back to his natural colour, it was more difficult with  my skin tone as I have a naturally slightly yellow complexion

Editing The Video - Grading

Editing and grading the video in Premiere Pro

To grade our video we used:

• Procamp, to edit brightness, contrast and saturation
• Three Wheel Colour Correction, to colour correct shots, such as making skin tones less yellow in the band shots for example
• Change Colour, to change certain colours, such as making the whites more pure in the band shots

Having used them before, my group was confident and quick to grade with these tools.

Editing In Premiere Pro

Whilst editing the second dance sequence, we used Crop and Motion to create the split screen effect. Since no one in the group had done this before, we had to practise on a new sequence so as to make sure we got the desired effect for the final cut of the video.

Grading in After Effects

However, we had to grade the 80s narrative shots in After Effects, due to the need for more precise colour correction; this was because the shots were so yellow that my skin tone blended in with the background. We used Colour Finesse 3 to colour correct the shots; I did this, having never used the software before. We feel that the final product was fitting with the rest of our video.

Grading with Colour Finesse 3

Working On The Album Art - Back Cover

We got feedback on our album cover, and from this we decided that we needed an image on the back cover, due to not having one on the front cover, and only one single image across the two inside panels. Below are the two new designs that we decided between:

The design above is synergistic with our website design - the 'accordion' layout of the pictures in the galleries mirrors the layout on the back of the album art. Whilst we liked this design, we thought it didn't really fit with the overall design of our front cover, which is more minimalist.

The 'accordion 'style gallery on our website.

The design above is what we decided was our final design. We still felt that we needed an image on the back cover, and we knew we wanted it to be an image of the band. We used publicity shots with different costumes to add variety, and the green background to add colour, but also so that it fit with the colour scheme. We also decided to do the 'stuck-on' effect with the images, as this was synergistic with our website design, therefore anchoring the brand image. We felt that this design fit more with the overall minimalist style that we wanted the album cover to have.

The 'stuck-on' design on our website.

We based our album design on The 1975's album The 1975 - whilst there is no image on the back cover, we drew inspiration from the minimalist design.

Working On The Album Art - Back Cover

As shown in the slideshow above, we have three different designs for the back cover of our album art.

The first design has a neon border around it, that is 'stuck on' with tape - this is synergistic with our website (as shown below) which helps to anchor the brand across platforms. The neon glow is also synergistic with the band logo (which is on the front of the album). I like this design as it is simple and easy to read, and fits with the band image.

The 'stuck on' style of the website.

The second design has no border, and has numbers with the neon glow, which is the same as the front of the album. Whilst I feel this also fits with the style of the album, I think this design is less aesthetically pleasing.

The last design is the track names with no border or numbers. I like this design as it is clean and easy to read, but I feel it is too simplistic, and is less effective at anchoring the brand and style.

Working On The Website - Interactivity

The website has a scrolling 'advert' bar at the top; each ad links to the relevant page on the website, such as the tour advert linking to the tour page, where the audience can buy tickets.

We also have a scrolling news feed, which is linked to the three social networks listed above. This means the audience can see what the band is doing without having to leave the website. Audiences can also reply to tweets whilst still staying on the website.

We also have links to social media (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) on every page, which means the audience can interact with the band, as well as share content with their friends. 

Our competition (from which the audience can win a signed album, tickets to a gig and a chance to meet the band) also incorporates social networking sites. In this case it's Twitter and a video uploading site, such as YouTube - fans send in videos of themselves dancing to the single.

For example, McFly had a competition in which fans could feature in a fan video, singing to their single Love Is On The Radio.

We also decided to have a contact page, where the fans can contact the band by sending them a message. This helps the fans to feel more connected to the band.

Editing The Video - Editing Techniques

After getting feedback, we found that having the same editing technique (cutting between eras) for both dances during the video meant the effect lost its impact. To counter this, we decided to test different techniques that we could possibly use.

Firstly we tried cutting the footage in half horizontally, so that the lower halves of our bodies were in a different era from our upper halves. We found that this only worked with certain clips, as we were not in the same position in every era, meaning our bodies look disjointed.

We then tried having more than one era on the screen at a time, both with four eras and two eras. We found this was better than cutting the shots in half, as it avoided disorientating the audience with disjointed bodies. We found that having two eras on the screen was better than four, as it kept the focus on the couple. By having four eras on the screen, it means the couple is reduced in size, and therefore the impact of the dance is lost.

This is the final cut of our second dance sequence:

We removed the four eras on a screen, and stuck to having two or three; this meant that the focus was kept on the couple.

Editing The Video - Cutting Between Eras

We decided to test our idea of switching quickly between each eras on the beat (0:02 - 0:03). Whilst it's clear to me that this editing technique is right for our video, on a personal level I find the effect slightly jarring and disorientating. We decided to use this editing style between the 50s and 70s era, and between the 80s and 90s era, as it fits with the change in pace of the song.

Working On The Album Art - Design

For the inside cover of our album, we decided to use the image below, as it conveyed our band image well - clean cut, innocent and quirky. We thought that the bright colours would complement the dark exterior colours.

We felt that the image also clearly conveyed the personality of each band member, and the band as a whole.

We also decided on the font for the back cover, along with the album track names; below

is the final list that we wrote during a group meeting.

We then transferred the track names onto the album digi-pack: we chose the same font as the logo (Little Sparrow Regular) so as to have synergy across the album art and website, as this font is part of the band logo, so it is anchored across both platforms. We found that it was legible in white on the dark background. We also decided to have the neon outline on the numbers, again to have synergy within the album art itself, and also across the two platforms. 

Above is the album digi-pack in Photoshop, which we are using to edit it. We decided to have one image across the two inside panels, which features all four band members.

Working On The Website - Reorganisation And Blooper Reel

We reorganised our website and separated out the behind the scenes photos into eras, so as to make the pages load faster. We also made the social media links more prominent, and added a link to the band instagram. We felt that having social media links meant audiences would have their social and sharing needs gratified.

Whilst editing the footage for our music video, we also edited together a blooper reel, as we felt that fans would enjoy seeing the band interact with each other, and would enjoy laughing at the bloopers.

Shoot - 29th November - Publicity Shots

On the last shoot we also took publicity shots for the 90s, 50s and the band. I edited the chosen photos in Photoshop to put on the website.

For the 90s, we used the boom box as a prop to convey the era, as it is a clear reference. We also did some 'fun' couple shots, so to visually portray the theme of our video - love.

For the 50s, we again used the props to reference the era; we also did individual shots of both Jacob and myself, as well as the 'couple' photos to portray the theme of our video. 

For the band publicity shots, we used a different colour background for variety between shots. Again, we did individual and band poses, continuing to convey the band image of being innocent and fun; for example, the photo on the right, where the band is messing around with one member looking confused and fond, or the image on the right, where Brandon is peeking over Jacob's shoulder.

For example, this photo connotes innocence, as Jacob looks young and slightly cheeky. This would appeal to parents of younger audience members, as the band are positive role models.

The image on the left is unedited, and the image on the right is edited - I increased the vibrance and contrast of the shot so as to make the colours richer, and to make the photos seem more professional and clean. I also enhanced the background colour, to accentuate the variety between shots.

Again, the image on the left is unedited, and the image on the right is edited - I again enhanced vibrancy of colours and the contrast to give the image a more professional, clean look. I also removed the border between the cyclorama and the floor, to make the image cleaner. We used a different colour again for variety between shots so it is more visually interesting for the audience members.

We did poses such as the ones above as they connote the more quirky side of the band, whilst also showing the band dynamic and relationships - we wanted it to be clear that the band worked well together and could have fun.

We also did poses like this to add variety to the shoot.

Shoot - 29th November

In this shoot we were reshooting all the shots that we decided during the week after reviewing the footage that we had.
We started off reshooting all of the 50s narrative scenes, as we felt Jacob's lip syncing was not as good as the rest of the narrative. We also did this set up first as it was the longest part to shoot, and the longest to set up and take down.

We then one shot from the 70s narrative scene, then moved on to shooting two shots from the 80s narrative scene. After reviewing our footage with Mrs Blackborow, we decided that a mid-shot of Jacob walking across the bench and directly addressing the audience was needed, so we shot this extra shot along with the reshoots.

We also decided that some of the band scenes needed reshooting, so we did this after the 80s scene, as it was another difficult set up. It also took a long time to set up as I had to do the make-up for every band member. Whilst this was being shot I also got ready for the next set up to save time.

Lastly we shot two shots from the modern narrative scene, which were the mid-shot of Jacob and I, and the close-up of me.

 We also took more publicity shots of the band, as well as for the 90s and 50s eras. For this publicity shoot with the band we had the members wear different costumes, and we changed the colour of the background, as it gives more variety to our shots, and therefore interests the audience more.

We kept the poses the same in terms of conveying band image - fun and quirky, such as the one above where they were sitting together on the floor laughing.