Digipak and Advert- Audience Feedback

 After getting 15 people to take the online survey, here is the results of the survey. Since this is from the perspective of the target audience we will be taking this feedback seriously and will consider all of it when creating the digipak and advert.

As you can see many of the target audiences wanted to see the lead singer on the front of the Digipak. This resembling bands like Florence and the Machine and Marina and the Diamonds. For our digipak and advert shoot we are going to take photos of the band and of the singer individually and see what looks best after the Photoshop process. However we are going to take into consideration that the key demographic want the lead singer, therefore we will do more research in to shots of lead singers and how we can take the photo of the lead singer to look dominant and a key figure in the band.

Majority of the target audience wanted the logo on the top of the advert. We have many ideas drawn out for the advert with different scenarios of where the logos are. However many people like to stick to the convention of the logo on the top of the page. We will definitely consider this when it comes to creating the final draft of the digipak, as we haven't decided if we want to stick to conventions for challenge them in this part of the advert. 

Many people think black and white images for an alternative rock band would look very effective on the advert. We thought this to as the black and white reflects the rock genre rather well and can also reflect a sense of mystery of that the band and sticks to the dark theme that we are portraying. We will definitely consider this for when we make the final advert as the target audience has requested this. 

Overall the names were rather split between the target audience. Evolution of Us was an overall favourite however it was close behind by all the names. As a team we like best the Evolution of Us as we feel this reflects the bands evolution which could be in music style of there own life, as the music will reflect this and also reflect the bands debut album. We feel the other names reflect more of a rock genre and not the alternative side to it which is why we have decided to call the album 'Evolution of Us' as we feel this reflects the bands house style well. 

Majority of the target audience thinks that the band should be included in the advert. We as a group agree and want to show the whole band on the front of the advert. We aren't sure how we are going to picture the band yet and which location we should take them, however us and the target audience agree that the whole band should be introduced in the advert. 

Our key demographic have agreed that the colours Black. white and red should be used throughout the digipak and advert. A lot of the target audience we asked have all ready seen the music video and therefore have recognised the key colours used in it, which are Red, black and white. We feel these colours show the rock side to the band and using them throughout will mean the colours become more associated with the band. 

Finally a considerable amount of the target audience thought that a red cross should be shown on the back of the content page. Originally wanting to put this on the front of the digipak we had t change our ideas fast due to the release of Ed Sheeran's album entitles 'X'. Because of comparisons to this and the XX we wanted to move the X, a key part of our music video and the bands logo, to the back instead meaning that the band can still be represented through the X and not have as many comparisons to the other artists. 

Advert Designs

After drawing these advert designs out we showed them to out target audience and got their feedback on which one was their favourite. From the feedback we found that the most popular by nearly everyone was the advert with the 4 swore are images at the top of the page. We will use this as a style model for our final product.

Music Video Editing // Making Abby Look Psychotic

We finally finished the music video. After looking though about 1 hours worth of footage and cutting it down into 3 mins 10 seconds was a lot of hard work. Having to cut 3 mins into 1 seconds worth of footage was very stressful but made the video up beat and exciting.

One thing I challenged was to use a purple tint over the top of the footage of the main character walking through a forest to reach the cage.

This created a sense of edge to make it look out of the norm. It highlights that fact that the main girl is very psychotic and out of place in the real word.   

I also wanted this scene to reflect the attitude of the main girl and the cage. We had filmed a part of the main girl sitting in the cage, kicking and screaming. I knew it didn't fit in well with the beat of the music so I sped up the footage, to again bring that feat factor to the video. 

 This added a personality to the girl and made the story line more clear for the audience.

These a two screen grabs from the video that I used to speed up. 

Another technique we agreed on and also used in our rough cut, is switching between the main girl laughing and crying in the slower part of the song.

These clips were placed when the song builds up from slow back up to fast. The main girl is spinning around which gives a sense of madness.

popping in clips of her laughing emphasises the psychotic side of the girl. And her mad/deranged mind.  

Blog Diary: Week 11

This week we have been editing tirelessly in preparation for deadline day. However we have soon realised how much we needed to edit, as a lot of our shots are only 1-2 seconds long. Meaning we have a lot of footage to rifle through and determine what would look best in the final music video. On Tuesday we pulled a 6 hour shift of editing, with Abby being the head editor and the rest of us pitching in ideas of where we think things should go and what footage looks best.

On deadline day we had already edited around half of the video, however we underestimated just how long it would take us to edit the other half as we raced against the deadline all day to the finish the video. Our main priorities was making sure that the video went with the beat of the music, expressed it's creepy narrative and was in focus. We feel we have reached these targets for the videos and we hope that people enjoy what we have created.

On Thursday we looked more into our digipak and advert and decided where we wanted to take the photos - which is Iona's back garden. We want the digipak and advert to reflect the alternative rock that our bands music is and also the bands house style. We have decided to incorporate leaves into the digipak, as these reflect something old and fallen but re grow into something new, which could be reflecting the music that will be on the album and how we are introducing a new band.

We have had a problem organising when we can take photos of the band as there availability for all of them together is becoming difficult to organise. However we have decided on Tuesday, which is last minute due to the deadline, however we know what we want the photos to look like and the templates are finished, so we hope that it is just a case of editing the photos and placing them in the correct space.  

We also have been planning our evaluation, which we have decided to make fun and creative relating music to it through out. We are still in the process of writing out the answers in detail, as we do want them to be intelligent responses about our video. 

Target Audience Research: Digipak and Advert

Due to the success of our online survey which we used for the music video, we also decided to use this survey to gain ideas from our target audience on what should be included in the digipak and advert. We will be analysing this data in a few days time and see what our prime demographic want to see in an alternative rock digipak and advert,

Here is the survey link:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/WB57GXL

Make Up

For us our mise-en-scene was important as it needed to reflect the characters in the music video in order for the audience to determine if they were good or bad straight away. We kept an eye for detail when it came to the main protagonists making sure that props, clothes and makeup all reflected the dark side to her personality.

Here is a video we made that shows the process of doing Abby's make up. 

https://vine.co/v/Og55ZMhMgtt

Final Cut

The Final Touches For Music Video

Today is deadline day for the music video, we are planning on spending the full day editing. We have loads of new footage to add in. We are making sure that our narrative makes sense and sticks to the beat of the music. For the band footage we are editing this well to get the right instrument parts to go with the right bit of song. This includes a range of shots and angles to show the whole band and show them as individuals. Our deadline is 4:30 so we will ensure the editing is completely done by 4 o'clock to have a spare half an hour to convert the video and put it in the Hand in Folder, ready for the teachers to watch.
Here are some photos...

The Day Before Deadline Day

Today is the day before deadline day! Today is being well spent with Abby editing, Iona designing the Advert, Emily designing the Digipak and Sophie doing the blog. Although we need photos of our band for the advert and digipak the girls are still able to design the layout, colours and text for both of these, the deadline for these are not till next week. We will carry on doing these all day today to ensure we have enough time to finish the editing tomorrow for it to be handed in on time

Filming Done and Dusted!

Last night was our last time of filming footage for our music video. We filmed the cage scene at the quarry and Abbys bit at Iona's. This went really well as we captured some good scary cage scenes as it was really dark when we filmed this. We made sure we had plenty LEDS to use as it was pitch black. This time we included Abby in this scene, which is something we didn't do in our rough cut, this enables the audience to understand that she is the one behind the cage and is doing this to the people she hates. At Ionas, we decided to take the scene away from her home and do it in her garden, this was a good setting as it was dark, but we had the LEDS for light and a fire. We also had Abby ripping up her scrapbook she made of all the people she hate like she does in the rough cut of our video but we thought we needed something more to this, so after she rips up the scrapbook we see her throwing it into the fire. Our target audience loved the candle bits within the rough cut so we made sure that we did this little scene again to include in our final cut. They also loved the part where Abby is crying and laughing which makes her like really insane, we also made sure that we got footage for this bit too. One of our new ideas for the ending of the music video, is for Abby to spray paint an X over the camera, but we ensured that we put clingfilm over the camera to do this on. we thought that it made it look like Abby is coming for the audience and they are her next victim, the red X plays a big part throughout the whole music video as it represents the band as this is their logo. We made sure that we had a backup plan if this idea did not succeed so we put the front cover of Abby's ripped up scrap book, which is designed with a red X, into the fire and filmed it being burnt. We are relieved that all footage for the video is now done as the deadline is one day away!

Using Facebook for feedback

We used survey monkey again for out digipak and advert questionnaire as it was effective way to keep in touch with people and get many people to answer it. We wanted to make sure people who had seen the final cut of the music video to answer this questionnaire, as they are in a better positioned to tell us what colour scheme would suit our bands genre and positioning of pictures and logos. People who have seen the music video will also understand what our lead singer looks like and will then be able to make a reliable decision if she would look good on the front of the digipak or advert.

Instead of addressing our survey at a large audience we this time Inboxed target audience who has previously seen the music video to answer the digipak and advert questionnaire, we had 15 respondents. 

Final Shoot

This is our final day of filming. In this filming we planned out the fire and the ending scene.

For the fire scene we want lots of shots of angles of Abby looking in the scrap book and throwing the pages in the fire. We wanted slight low angles of Abby when looking in the scrap book to show how she is powerful compared to the people in the book. We have decided a slight angle as she is not in complete power which is later demonstrated in the music video by her going crazy. 

We also wanted a variety of angles of Abby turning the pages of the scrapbook, with a variety of close ups and mid shots. For the final shot, we want Abby spraying an X on the lense in order to reflect the own bands logo and the X that has been used throughout the music video. To do this we have planned to cling film a strip near the lense and focusing the camera carefully so you can't see the existence of cling film. 

Here are some pictures from the final shoot. 

The ending scene went successful after around 5 takes. For the fire scene we made sure we had Abby at multiple angles and shots of the fire and pictures burning in the fire. 

Last Lot Of Footage

Tonight is the last time we will film for our music video, (if everything goes according to plan). We will be filming at the quarry to get more scary cage scenes and filming at Iona's house to get more footage of Abby. For the cage scene we will be using Iona's cage, we will also be using the chains we bought and making sure the makeup of the 'prisoners' are good, we will do this by using fake blood and eye makeup to create bruises. At Iona's we will be using the corkboard, apples, paint and the scrapbook. We will also be filming one of our newer ideas which is to have clingfilm over the camera and for abby to paint a big red cross over the clingfilm, for this we will need red spraypaint. We hope that this filming goes well as the deadline is getting closer, this means we need the weather to stay dry so that we can do this! Wish us luck

Final Logo Design

 For the logo we have used our signature X, however to make it suit the rock genre more we have added an effect around the cross to make it have the spray painted feel. For the 'UTOPIA' front, we decided that a bold and large font would standout out against the red X and the black circle, it also makes the name recognisable as audiences would notice the bold serif writing of UTOPIA straight away. We have also decided to stick to our colour scheme Red, Black and White, choosing the colour scheme as our target audience decided it would be best for our genre, after target audience feedback.

We have drew many logos, with us working with shapes such as triangles and eyes. However we decided using the X represented the rock genre better, as it is used throughout the music video, we thought that it would be good to have the X as a double meaning within the music video - representing elimination and the bands house style. We also stick to the colour scheme of Red, Black and White, which our target audience had decided within the previous survey.

Target Audience Feedback: Logo vidoes

We filmed a few of are target audience responses about the logo. All of them were positive and thought that it reflected the alternative rock genre we represents. Here are some of the videos: 

Changes to Production Plan

Due to the band footage not looking as good as we want it to we have decided to re film it.

In this re filming we have decided to decorate the drama hall more making it look completely different. We have thought about using leaves all around the floor, this linking to the music videos nature side. We also are designing a new drum cover so that it sticks to conventions of rock band scenes that we have analysed.

We also are re-filming some of the main protagonist parts of Abby as we weren't happy with camera quality and lighting in the places. We have decided to film these from 3:35 on wards on Monday the 24th of November, adding in in more shots to make the main protagonist look more psychopathic.

Blog Diary: Week 10

This week we have been filming the final bits for the music video.
We have tried to follow the production plan, however due to the lack of availability of certain people we have had to move around some dates for filming.

This has been shown when we tried to film the final Cage scene on Friday the 14th, having to then move it to Monday the 17th. However this worked out well for us as we had more LEDS available for us to use and more people to participate on the Monday. However when filming the cage scene in Marden Quarry we did find that one of the LED's ran out of battery which left us with only two, however when looking at the footage on the screen this does not seem to effect the quality. We are pleased with the makeup of the 'prisoners' and the overall look of the cage scene and it was a very cold but successful shoot.

We also spend a lot of the week re filming Abby's scenes. We had already re-filmed them after the rough cut deadline, as we found them to dark and in places grainy. We have since filmed certain bits of Abby's scenes over 3 days and decided this week to film the final bits next week.

The final bits we need to film is just more scenes portraying Abby as a crazy obsessive person to really make the audience feel uncomfortable and understand that she is obsessed and crazed with these people. We also needed to film the final scene in which will end the music, which was an idea given to us by a target audience feedback, which was Abby spraying a cross on the camera.

Overall this has been a very successful week for filming as we are pleased with a lot of the footage we have took and have already started putting it onto the timeline and started editing scenes.

Emily and Iona have also created the Digipak and Advert - sticking to the colour schemes of red, white and black. Both of these are nearly done, just needing to take pictures of the band and leaves, which is what we want to include on the digipak to portray the bands own style.

Drop Down Day 2

On our second drop down day,  we went to the mausoleum in Seaton Deleval to film parts of Abby's bits.We were able to take the crane with us, which got us some great shots. This was quite a creepy place, therefore it fits with our music video. We made this look like Abby's den, by placing the cork board in the scene. It was quite difficult to film as it was so cold but looking back at the footage we got some good shots that can be used in our music video. One of the ideas was to have Abby smashing an apple of the wall as the apple represents a person within the music video , we got a good shot of the apple being smashed and will edit this to put it in slow motion. The graffiti on the walls went well with the scene as it portrays it as a den and a scary place to be. We found a small X on the wall  below the right window which is our band theme and colour! 

Logo Ideas: From other bands

We are looking into logos to represent our band. We have looked into a lot of bands for their logo ideas as we wanted to use an X to represent the band, however many people gave us feedback saying an X would create to many connotations to the XX and most recently Ed Sheeran's album entitled 'X'. We want to keep to the colour scheme that our target audience has decided which is red, black and white.

The foo fighters are a rock band which use the name colours that we are going to use on our logo and other media products. We like this logo as it is recognisable to the audience and shows the bands initials. The writing use represents an elaborate rock style, which the colours reflecting that. This band logo reflects the Foo Fighters as a rock band and the house style of music. We want to replicate this effectiveness in our own logo and have it look just as professional.  

Marina and the Diamonds take a different response to the conventional band logo by just using the name of their band in a sans serif writing. However since this logo is used thoughout Marina and the Diamonds production this type of writing has become a trademark for their band. We have considered the use of writing as a logo, however we feel the alternative rock genre would be reflected more clearly through a logo. 

We have already analysed the XX in our influence for the X post. However this shaped X is the XXs trade mark logo and makes them easy to distinguish between other bands. For different albums they add a different pattern within the X, each of these patterns reflecting the indie pop music that they create. 

Final Band Performance Shoot

Today we filmed our final band performance bits. For this shoot we decided to film the band on a complete new stage sticking to the forest theme throughout we decided to cover the stage in leaves, so that you couldn't see the floor. This worked out successfully with the stage looking more creative, especially with the Alice and wonderland styled clock in the background. We also improved our band logo and the drum cover for it, sticking with the colour scheme of red,black and white. The re arranging of the band turned out to be successful, as the drummer was improved and the use of the keyboards suited the song.

For the performance we also had a crane, dolly and three camera available to us. This enabled us to play around with the the different equipment and create some really good shots for the band performance. The singer and the band all put a lot of effort in for the last band shoot, as there were no more available days and times to have everyone back.

This photo shows the improvement on the stage, which around 7 bin bags of leaves covering the floor, and the drum logo improved to show the band more. The keyboard has been introduced as it plays a big role in the song. 

Final Band Planning

Through our group chat we planned when we were going to get the leaves. And how we were going to do it - in which we decided later in the group chat that we would leave collect in Churchill, a forested area near the school, on the day of the band shoot so the leaves are smelling up in the cupboard we would have stored them in. Sophie also brought red paint so we can create the band logo with the X to go on the drums. The tape we sorted as we laying black sheets on the floor to cover the chess layout in the drama studio and to also make the stand the drum is on not brown but black like the rest of the hall.

New Location and Ideas

Today we have decided that we are using a new location which is the mausoleum in Seaton Deleval, this place will be 'Abby's den' where we will include the corkboard and her scrapbook. At this place we will film Abby going mad, crying and laughing to show how mentally ill she is. We will also be filming one of our new ideas we have had, which includes Abby holding the apple and using it as  'voodoo doll' that controls the boy she is in love with. We will be taking the crane with us to get some establishing shots, to improve out music video as we didn't have any of these shots in our rough cut. The location of this goes with our theme of nature within the video, it is also quite a creepy looking place which also goes with the theme of our video.

Digi Pak Designs

For the project we also have to create a digi pak. For drop down days we also decided to produc some drafts of digipak ideas so we are prepared for the upcoming deadline. 

Our band brand is shown through the red  'X' with the band name 'Utopia' going through the middle. Looking at digipak such as Florence and the machine and Marina and the diamonds, the lea singer at some point is shown in a solo shot in the digipak. The shot is usually a mid shot of the lead singer, with some abstract form of object along side, for instance te lungs and wildlife shown on Florence and the machines digipak. We have already decided to stick to the color scheme of red,black and white as these colours represent the alternate rock music of the band. 

In this digipak design we stick the codes and conventions of digipaks with the lead singer on the front, band name on top and album title on the bottom. We also have a full band photo, with the lead singer standing out in bright clothes. The back ground of the digi pak is labelled black. The tracklist shows the bands iconic red 'X' symbol which the track names bullet pointed down. We will also stick to codes and conventions such as the labels name at the bottom and a bar code.

This digipak designs shows a different take on the analysed digipak. This one shows instead of a band picture a picture  of a road sign with 'Utopia' written in it. The background picture being of a woody Forrest showing the sinister side to the bands music and possibly what the album has in store for fans. Instead of a band photo we have considered the use of just the lead singer, as demonstrated in the Florence and the machine digipak, with just a photo of Florence. We have also thought about adding on the band style by having the CD show the bands symbol of the 'X'. The tracklist also shows the bands house style continuing with the planned black, red and white colour scheme with the 'X' dominating the page. 

Organising the band

The band is a crucial part of the music video and we want to make the band parts look as professional as possible in doing that we need to make sure that the band can make it. Due to disasters that have happened in our rough cut attempts, such as us not being able to use locations that we had book. We decided to keep a constant form of communication with the band through the use of facebook, so we could keep them updated on what was happening.

In doing this we organised the band by making a facebook group to keep in touch, in this we told them days we would be filming and what they should wear. For the recent band shoot in preparation for the final cut filming we kept in touch with the band this way, this shows a week in advance warning and then Iona reminding the band the day before. 

Added Apple Scene

We decided that we needed to add more into the music video to portray the main protagonist as a psychopath. We also recieved feedback that we needed to do more with the apple metaphor and portray it as a sin. When thinking we thought about making the apple a voodoo scene, with the main protagonist controlling people with the apple. To make the scene more clearer for us to film we made up a storyboard.

A mid shot of the main protagonist (Abby) with the apple in focus. Then we hope to do a focus pull to bring Abby and the apple into focus. This showing that the apple will have relevance in the sequence that is about to take place and show the apples control over the people. Main thing the mid shot with a slight close up of the apple, Abby will grip the apple tightly with a evil expression in her eyes.

A lead in the cage, who will be made clear in the scrapbook and cage scenes, will then grip his head tightly demonstrating the apples voodoo power on the boy, who will also look in pain. 

Abby will then turn the apple slowly in her hands, staring eerily at the camera while doing so. The camera will turn to a slight low angle mid show again, just wanting Abby and the apple in the shot to highlight there power. 

The final voodoo scene will go back to the victim, who will then twist his head in pain as Abby is moving the apple in the palm of her hand. We have decided due to the apple representing sin, this could show how the main protagonist has sinned in what she is doing, but also the people she has captured have sinned as well, with the apple having ultimate power.

After these scenes we plan a quick jump cut or the cage, showing the boy now in the cage. This scene is to mainly highlight the main protagonist as someone who is crazy.

Change In Schedule

Yesterday we were meant to be filming scenes with the cage in the local quarry, but unfortunately it's raining very heavily, therefore we are unable to shoot. However, today the weather forecast is misty which would be more suitable weather for filming this scene as the mist will had a sinister feel.