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Final Music Video

This is our completed music video.  This is our completed digipak. This is the link to our final website. Our Final Website  ...

Final Digipak




Above is our final Digipak, after receiving feedback we made 2 major changes. Issak changed the lyric sheet as the main criticism was that it was too text heavy. So we added an image of iSO and blacked it out to match our galaxy theme. We also reduced the lyrics on the sheet so that it wasn't overwhelming to read. 

Final Website

Below is a link to our final website but also some pictures of the finished product.

Our Final Website 

Our completed website has 5 pages: Home, About, News, Store and Contact. All of the pages can be seen above. I tried to maintain the same image we have for the Digipak and music video and to make the website similar to Hip-Hop artists like Logic and G-Eazy.  


Colour- Change Effect

One of the effects which Issak implemented into the music video was the colour-change effect. Here is how he did it:

Above is a screen grab of the work space when achieving the colour change effect on Adobe Premiere. This was a relatively simple task which gave a great effect at the end of the process. He realised early on that a plain and simple block colour background would be required. 
This location was a perfect background for the colour-change effect to work as desired.
Here was an example of the finished result.

Reverse Speed Effect

In our music video, there is a relatively simple effect created through using reverse speed. 
Example of reverse speed in our music video; a before and after
To achieve this effect, Issak firstly placed the clip in the desired place on the timeline. Then, he right clicked the footage, selected the option 'Speed/Duration, a 'Clip Speed/Duration' box then appears. He altered the clip speed to 200% (2x) the normal speed for 2 reasons:
  1. To ensure the reversal of speed is seamless
  2. To make sure that the clip is in time to the beat of the song. 
He then checked the 'Reverse Speed' box. 

Eyelid Blink Effect

There is an eyelid blink effect in our music video, which can be observed below: 

This slideshare explains how we constructed the effect and then implemented the 'eyelid blink' effect into our music video:

Website Feedback

We received some constructive feedback on our website as to what we can do to improve it and what people thought worked well with it. There was a mixed opinion as to the overall outcome of  what everyone thought of of the website. 
Our scores were:
  • 5
  • 7
  • 9
  • 8
  • 7

Animation Of Text

Issak created a title and wrote text on it. He then placed a title over the time lapse on the timeline and then altered the scale of the text to increase over a set period of frames to acheive a 'zoom' effect. The font is Poplar STD, which is a text we identified as common in our genre. 
Example of text animation

Filming in Town and at the Crematorium

We were behind schedule for filming and still lacked a sufficient amount of footage, Issak and James took a day off to film. They decided to go back to the crematorium too, as we already had some really good footage there and wanted some more. They also filmed in urban parts of town and at the Graffiti Wall. 

Panorama Issak took from Graffiti Wall 
As a result of filming for the majority of the day, they got the remaining footage that we needed for the music video. Especially the parts at the end where we had gaps and this allowed us to replace some footage that was poor from our first time filming. 

Digipak Feedback

After producing our first draft of the digipak, we received some feedback on ways in which we can improve it and also details that people liked about it.

Some positives of the digipak were: 

  • Colour scheme works with the images on the digipak although the top left and top right pictures are too empty
  • Enough representation of the artist
  • Level 3 
  • Colour scheme is good as it all links 
  • The rainbow is used on all of the panels which is subtle but effective and makes them link
  • Level 3 - 8 marks
  • Like the images used as it fits with the genre and the artists image
  • The dark image used shows us clearly what genre they are trying to portray as a lot of rap music is dark and sinister
  • Front cover and song list is good 
  • Whole digipak is a strong theme and artist genre is clear 
  • 6 marks - 1/3 of your digipak is a 9 but others let it down
  • DNA strands link with his album title 
  • Personal identity is the theme 
  • Level 3 - 8 marks 
  • The title on the album is good, but doesn't necessarily match the genre
  • Level 3 - 7 marks 
  • Photography is good with good editing to make the photos look better and look more professional 
  • Good strong colour scheme looks professional 
  • Clear artist image 
Some constructive feedback was: 
  • Text is good but the bottom left might look better if it went out wider to the sides of the frame
  • top left and right are too plain (why are panel 1&3 the same?)/ too simple
  • The font on the back cover doesn't fit with genre. Make this page and 'special thanks' page the same font to make the link clear 
  • Don't agree with font used as it doesn't give off an urban feel to it more of a rock/indie feel
  • Colour is dark which makes it hard to outline the artist (are dull and boring)
  • Doesn't like the CD image, looks ok for genre of music 
  • Level 2 - 4 marks 
  • The back cover looks squashed 
  • DNA is basic 
  • No information on the spines 
  • Special thanks is too long
  • Looks like pop genre 
  • Level 2 - 6 marks 
  • Only one picture of the artist, could use another 
  • Level 2 - 5 marks 

Action on Feedback

In order to to improve our website we have taken these comments into consideration and have tried to improve the website in general but also in specific places that were mentioned as feedback.

Firstly, James changed the store icon from red to white as it fits in a lot better with the black and white background, being a continuous theme throughout the digipak and website. This was only a small detail that our group didn't think about but was largely recognised by our peers. 



We then changed the layout of the about page completely and added a link to instagram, a description of iSO and the record label as people were confused as to iSO and Real Proviso Records, which is iSO's record label. We added some other content to this page as people said it was too basic and short so they didn't have enough of an understanding as to who iSO was and his background. 


James added the link to iSO's twitter page and instagram page and put them in a visible place of each page on the website to maintain consistency. This also makes it easily accessible for anyone navigating around the website by being able to view his social media at any time.

Creation Of Merchandise

To create the majority of our merchandise we used Vistaprint. It is a website primarily for business cards but it also allows you to make branded merchandise such as T-shirts and bags. The built in website software makes it easy to add logos and images to clothing and other items.

Vistaprint
Example of t-shirt creation

Music Video First Draft Feedback

As we were behind on filming for our first draft, it only last one minute and fourty seconds but we still decided to get some feedback on what we had already. Some of the constructive feedback we got is listed below:

  • Needs more movement, most of the camera work is too static
  • Needs more shots of the artist in the centre 
  • More locations needed that fit the genre 
  • Should use colour correction on some of the shots
  • Cut shots out off stairs, doesn't fit with the rest of the video
  • Use colour wall more in video

Production Diary

I've kept a production diary in order to chronologically track all of our planning for our final music video. 

21st Sep: Today we got into our groups and each pitched 3 song ideas with a rough plan as to what we could do for the music video attached. We discussed what we liked and disliked about some of the ideas but we came to a final conclusion that we liked Buried Alive - Logic, and Children Of The Wild - Steve Angello as our final 2 songs to pitch to the class for their feedback. 

22nd Sep: In this meeting we pitched our 2 song/ music video ideas to the class, we just showed them the lyrics whilst the audio of the song played so that we could see how they interpreted the song compared to us. They came up with some good and bad points which made us rethink our song suggestions. The biggest problem they thought we would face would be the speed of the rap at certain points throughout the song but we decided that we could work through this problem and solve it so we decided to use Logic's Buried Alive as our final suggestion. 

23rd Sep: Today I created an availability table so that we could easily see when we had free's together where we could use this as group meetings or filming. I also highlighted when we had media lessons so that we are able to plan ahead and use our time productively. I also made a group chat on Whatsapp so that we're able to communicate easily. 


24th Sep: Today I looked at websites and CD covers from the rap genre in order to gain an understanding of how we could design and display ours. James also did some research on Kendrick Lamar's website as well as Logic and I did some additional research on 50 Cent. Issak did a practice lip syncing task for our music video so that we had an idea on the 
difficulty of the speed. Here is his practice; 



25th Sep: Today I decided to do some artist research on Logic as I don't usually listen to any music in the Rap genre and I wanted to know some more about him. I felt this would help as when we want to create an identity/ personality for our artist I will be able to help and input ideas. 

28th Sep: Today I did some research into rap parody videos and found a few on YouTube. I watched them and thought how each parody mocked different things, some mocked lyrics, costumes and even appearance of group members. Issak worked on doing a steal-o-matic which works as a moving, visual mood board to present our inspiration. James kept researching website and CD covers from similar genres.  

29th Sep: Today Issak carried on with the steal-o-matic as a lot of detail needs to be put in for this. James continued to do some more research for our website and digipak. Today I wrote a letter of permission to our Artists record label requesting permission to use their song to create a music video to. I have sent this off in the post to await a reply. 

30th Sep: Today I did some font research as to which font we want to have in order to feature on all of our merchandising, website and album covers. Issak continued to work on the steal-o-matic and also continued with the annotated timeline of lyrics. 

1st Oct: Today I wrote a prop and location list so that we know what props we need when we start to film. Issak finished the steal-o-matic. 

2nd Oct: Today we were unable to progress with our group planning as we had a workshop with Pete Fraser and Jake Wynne which we all attended. 

5th Oct: Today we blogged about our Pete Fraser and Jake Wynne workshop. We reflected on what we had learnt. 

6th Oct: Today I did a shooting schedule to decide when we could film our first shoot and what we would film. Issak and James decided to do a photoshoot for Issak so that we could experiment with some album/ website photos. Issak then edited some potential photos for the digipak. 

7th Oct: Today James wasn't here so Issak and I decided to do some more work on the timeline of annotated lyrics. I also did a risk assessment for shooting and emailed the council for permission to film in Chelmsford Crematorium. 

9th Oct: Today I started the storyboard and decided on some of the shot types for our music video. I tried to vary the shot types so that they would be interesting and keep the audience captivated. Issak used some different effects on photo shop and edited the album cover for our digipak with input from myself and James as to which fonts, colours, styles and positioning on the cover. 

12th Oct: Today, I carried on creating our storyboard so that we knew exactly what we needed to film and to which lyric they fit with. James did some digipak research as to what other rap artists look like and what to include on it. Issak came up with a name for himself and quickly drew up some examples on photoshop to show the rest of our group and to get some quick feedback. 


13th Oct: Today I did some extra website research as I was still a little unsure of how our website should look and the layout of it. James looked at different videos and found some inspiration as to what ideas we could include in our video. This then helped Issak to continue completing some ideas onto our annotated lyrics post. 

15th Oct: Today I filled out a shooting schedule so that we could organise our shooting and make sure that we knew what we wanted to shoot and when we wanted to shoot. 

16th Oct: Today we started to film some of the green screen shots as we decided this would be easy to film first so that we had some footage to play around. We then decided to film outside so that we could get some long shots of Issak as we found this challenging in the green screen room. We shot a few shots for several lines of the first verse.  




19th Oct: Today we sat as a group and brainstormed ideas that we could include into our timeline of annotated lyrics for verse 2. 

20th Oct: Today we filmed a few more lines of our music video. The locations we filmed in were the crematorium and near to a block of flats. We wanted to film with 2 cameras so that we could get some different angles of one shot but as James couldn't make the shoot, we were unable to do this. 

21st Oct: Issak continued to edit today whilst James and I did some more planning for our music video. James continued to work on the website and tried to experiment with different layouts and contents. Today, I updated our production diary as we were a few days behind and then I carried on updating the storyboard as we had added to the annotated lyrics. 


23rd Oct: Today Issak and I filmed all morning as James was absent. We went back to he block of flats to re-shoot some of our previous shots as the footage wasn't good enough to put into our video. Once we got back we uploaded the footage and Issak started to edit some of this footage. We all filled out a questionnaire based around the level of input and general evaluation of each team member. We then went to a different location to film on some stairs as we thought we could get some different angles to the shots here. 


2nd Nov: Today we had a class meeting and discussed the website research that we needed to do in order to make our website match similar websites within this genre. 

3rd Nov: Today, Issak continued to edit some of the footage we have previously shot. James added to our halfway evaluation presentation as he wanted to add some more information and explanation to it. I reflected on some of our filming shoots so far so that we could learn from our mistakes and in order to help us save time when filming. 

4th Nov: Today, none of my group were in the lesson due to other commitments, so I watched the other group present their halfway evaluation and gave them some feedback on their digipak, website and their music video concept idea. 

5th Nov: Today we had a brief meeting and decided not to do any filming so that we could each individually catch up with any bits of paperwork that we needed to finish or add to. Issak carried on editing the footage we had already shot. 




6th Nov: Today we presented our halfway evaluation to the group, we received some feedback on this and will continue to look into this and improve based on the feedback. 

9th Nov: Today we filmed Issak at some different locations so that we had some more footage to edit. We tried to use a variety of urban locations to use similar locations to the stereotypical rap genre videos. 


10th Nov: Today, Issak wasn't here, so James and I decided to make sure all our work was up to date and we planned for everything else we needed to get done and by which deadlines they needed to be finished by. James also continued to work on the website and I did some more research. 

11th Nov: Today, Issak wasn't here again so James and I were unable to film so we carried on with paperwork tasks. 

13th Nov: Today, Issak wasn't here so I filmed another time lapse of the sky so that we could add that to our music video. James added some more to the website and I did some further research to support our digipak. 

15th Nov: Today, we filmed for a large proportion of our music video. We had 2 cameras and managed to capture lots of different shots. 




















16th Nov: Today, James carried on with the website. we uploaded our footage onto the computer so that Issak could start editing. 

17th Nov: Today I updated the shooting schedule so that we can keep track of when and what we've filmed. James carried on with the website and Issak continued editing. 

18th Nov: Today, Issak continued to edit. James did some sketches as what he wanted the final website to look like and I looked at some previous student videos which achieved high marks for some inspiration and I also tried to give them a mark, picking out what worked well and what didn't. 

19th Nov: Today, Issak carried on editing whilst James continued to update the website. I filmed the storyboard and explained the shots and what would happen in each shot. I edited it and uploaded it to the blog. 



20th Nov: Today, Issak carried on editing and James continued to complete the website. I updated the production diary and marked some more student music videos.    

23rd Nov: Today, Issak created the tour poster on photoshop so that we could include it on our website which James continued to work on. I did some research on some magazine articles of rap artists for some inspiration as to what we could use and include on ours, including the layout. 

24th Nov: Today, James added products on the website to our store so that its available for our fans to select items branded by iSO. Issak edited some more of our footage and I edited the storyboard on premier as well as planning the interview to film. 

25th Nov: Today, we filmed Issak for the interview and then we uploaded the footage and Issak edited it together. 

27th Nov: Today, Issak wasn't in so James finalised the last details for the website and I finished the magazine article. 

1st Dec: Today, we watched each others first draft of our music videos and gave constructive feedback as to what they could do to make it better and what did or didn't go well. 

2nd Dec: Today, I looked at everyone's websites and gave feedback on what I thought was good and what could have been better. 

3rd Dec: Today, I looked at everyone's digipaks and gave them feedback as group as to what went well and even better if. 

4th Dec: Today, we looked at our video feedback and decided which shots within our music video that we should re-shoot and which shots worked well. 

7th Dec: Today, I edited the rest of the storyboard together so that we could export it and upload it to our blogs. James looked at the feedback we got from the website and changed parts of it to make the website better from this feedback. Issak finished adding some extra details on to the digipak after looking at the feedback. 

8th Dec: Today, I decided what we could add to the website and the digipak based on the feedback as neither James nor Issak was in the lesson. 

9th Dec: Today, I went through my blog with my teacher to decide on posts that I need to add in order to support my research. Issak continued to edit the digipak as the deadline is today. 

Digipak First Draft






















This is our first draft of our digipak that we created. We tried to incorporate a consistent theme in our digipak and website to make them look professional.  

Digipak In Use


Example of our Digipack in use 

Example of the back cover in use

Time Lapse Opening

We shot five different views of the sky as a time-lapse. Issak has used them for the opening of our music video. Issak linked the time lapses to the instrumental in the song so they are in time with the beat. 

An example of one of our time lapses 

Magazine Article Research


I researched some magazine articles of current artists to gain some inspiration as to the layout, content, style and format for which I should create my article.
                                          

Costume:
The rapper wearing a grey hoodie is called Soulja Boy. 
The other rapper wearing a black hat and shirt is called 50cent. They are wearing black and grey colours. 
50cent is wearing all black clothes which could symbolize that he is powerful. 
Soulja Boy is wearing a grey top and this could represent him as being cool. Soulja Boy wears gold chains to represent his wealth and power. 

Colour:
The background colour of the DPS (Double Page Spread) is simple and plain – the colour is grey and it matches with the rapper’s costume.
It makes the rappers stand out as the background colour contrasts with their clothing making the DPS look eye catching and professional.
The font used in the quote is Sans Serif and it is written with capital letters to stand out more.

Image:
The image used in the double page spread shows the rappers posing as they look directly into the camera. 50 cent has his hand inside his pockets and Soulja Boy’s arms are spread out. The way they pose in the magazine cover make them seem like tough gangsters. Soulja Boy looks into the camera as if he is saying “So what?” to the reader.  50cent stands behind him with a threatening facial expression.The image is simple with no fancy or stylish background. The grey background matches with their costume.

Language:
The language used in the large quote is explicit, therefore, it has been censored.
However, the quote relates to 50cent’s facial expression as his face shows anger.
The tone used in the quote reveals toughness and aggressiveness because of the way he curses.

Masthead:
The font used in the masthead is Sans Serif, however, it has been duplicated, flipped vertically and reflected.
This font technique may have been used on the page to create a sense of uniqueness and style.
The masthead is a simple large black font with no flick ups and this gives the magazine a modern look.

Colour scheme:
The colour scheme used in the double page spread is black and white.
These colours have been used to give the page a simplistic and modern look, making it easier for the reader to focus on the main elements of the article.
The fact that black is used in the image could connote the rapper’s elegance and the white could symbolize freedom and cleanliness.

Target Audience:
This double page spread is aimed at youngsters who have interest in the hip hop and rap culture.

Lightning:
The lightning used in the page is high-key meaning that the image is bright and natural and it does not have dark shadows.