Rough Cut - Miss Miller

Rough Cut

Introduction

A rough cut is essential to carry out so me and my group can receive feedback from peers and teachers about improvements that need to be made before the final production. Audience feedback is helpful within a rough cut as it allows comments to be made on positive and negative things. Both negative and positive comments help with improvements as we can learn from mistakes and improve them over time and know exactly what we as a group did wrong. 

To receive audience feedback me and my group posted our rough cut video on youtube, which allows any member of the public to like or comment. I also shared my video on Facebook which meant my family and friends could watch and also comment on what they feel worked well and what didn't. Sharing towards different people meant not only my artists target audience could produce feedback, but a wider audience who might not enjoy music from the soul genre so much, but still understand what should and shouldn't work. We also screened the production to my media class, which allowed them all to watch it in full and ask any questions at the end they needed too. Also giving feedback at the end from the class as a whole, so they could debate there thoughts and ideas. I also completed a similar feedback strategy which meant groups from within my class and not came round and watched my groups rough cut on the computer. This had a positive side in comparison to the screening of production as the viewers could give more personal feedback just to me and my group instead of saying it in front of the whole class. Also watching it on a closer screen meant they could look at the more intricate detail within the rough cut. Before creating my rough cut i completed a questionnaire for my research to help me and my group know what to include. Research before-hand helps me an my group to know what the audience enjoy seeing within a soul music video, as well as the artist. Adele is the artist to our song and she holds a lot of conventional features within her personal look which we tried to recreate within my own artist Amy. Having a questionnaire for my audience before the first creation of the rough cut meant my audience feedback afterwards would be just as helpful as i can understand whether the audience liked what i included from what they said. Having four different feedback techniques helped me to understand the negative and positive sides to my rough cut, and how and what i can do to create it to the highest standard possible. 

Main
If my rough cut was to go into the music industry then i would receive feedback from a much larger audience. Within the music industry you are able to reach a wider audience for feedback, as within the music industry you become more well known due to the high publicity. Within a music industry if its something the audience want to see then this will mean a high profit will be made, and the music industry will pay a lot of money to produce the music video to a high standard after the improvements made from the rough cut. Without producing a rough cut, i would not be able to receive feedback, and without this, the music video would not reach the highest standard possible. If my music video was to be put into the music industry then this would really benefit me and the work put into it. The publicity rate would be much higher and i would not only be reaching my target audience, but also a global one too.
For my rough cut it was published on Youtube, and this meant i received positive feedback and comments to improve. I have included screenshots below of four comments that were posted on my misc video which include both positive feedback and improvements that could be made to help with the final production and keeping it to a high standard.

I am going to take on board the comments from Youtube and make the improvements explained, as after re-watching my music video i can see why these comments have been said. The first comment explains that there is a good use of transitions between each scenes. This was one of the first things me and my group made sure happened when starting the editing, as we wanted to show a smooth editing pattern throughout, also to add to the slow effect of the song, affecting the mood and emotions being set. The second comment included a lot of detail about the editing techniques being a positive, and how they work well too portray the artists memories and emotions. Although, one improvement that was mentioned was adding more scenes to express a clearer narrative and story line. This was one thing that i as an individual within my group noticed after publishing on Youtube. I felt that the narrative didn't quite make sense, and scenes from her friendship group could be added to show a clearer structure and this way it would be easier for the audience to understand and not have to ask, as this was a frequent question asked within  the screening of production. The last comment from Alfie also mentioned the same improvement relating to the narrative being unclear - both of these comments have helped me see a different perspective and start changing the way the narrative is structured as i would like it to be easy to understand and understood by a wider audience rather than just my target audience of 16-30 year olds. 

Another constructive comment that i received was from the first comment on Youtube, where Danny explained we need more angles and scenes within the performance element of the music video. The performance element to my music video was meant o be included a lot more and not as minimal with the scenes as it is now; this is due to when constructing to the music video me and my group found that the narrative scenes held the story line and showed more of a structure. From this feedback I would like to include more performance scenes as now from a different perspective I have seen that more performance scenes of Amy performing do need to be included so the audience can see her singing the song and expressing her emotions. The screenshots above show 4 comments on the music video from YouTube as well as a comment on Facebook. I shared the video on Facebook to receive a different perspective on things and to reach a wider and target audience, as well as allowing my family and friends too see. This comment was from a friend of the artists who stated that she found the music video elegant and didn't find it boring. This type of feedback is constructive and helps as she has no influence within  media or the music industry and was her first time viewing it. Social media has been a huge help and the video has many likes and views showing its popular and could receive a high success rate.

Conclusion

As an overall improvement I will try to include all the suggestions made to ensure my music video reaches the highest grade as well as standard. Other peoples comments and views allows me too see a different perspective, and not just from myself as I have crated the video and seen it in the making a lot of times. From these constructive comments we have come together as a group and discussed the fact that we are going to meet within the next week and re-film some scenes to add more of a clearer picture to the video which will help the audience to understand the narrative clearer. As well as within these scenes of friendship, I am going to include a black and white filter which will portray the past, and how Amy the artist is reflecting on her memories when she was happy, and concluding to the fact she isn't happy in this moment of life, and is more saddened and depressed.

I feel that creating a rough cut and sharing it with many different audiences has allowed me to see improvements that can be made, and also gives my audience a sneak preview of the music video and what a high standard it can reach.

Analysis of individual digipak - Miss Georgiou

Analysis of individual digipak

Introduction

I have created an individual digipak to help promote my artist from the creation of her album. The digipak that i have created concludes of six slides, portraying different emotions and elements through pictures and text. The order is shown clearly stating the front cover to the album, a single image, the CD, message to fans, single image and the back cover showing the album track list. My previous research from digipaks from artists have helped me to produce similar and conventional images to my genre of soul. My previous research was shown through Duffy's digipak who used conventions to the soul genre which i have taken inspiration from. My research really helped me to produce my ideas into six different slides. There are many purposes of a digipak and these include to promote an album, to list the content of an album, to make the CD eye-catching, to use art and images to express a message, to tell us something about the artist and musician and the music behind it, to attract a wider audience as well-as the artists own.

Main

The colours that i have included revolve around red, white and black. The reasons for including these colours throughout my whole digipak is because they contrast and reflect the expressions and emotions being sent out by the artist Amy.The red being used as a reoccurring theme shows Amy's emotions of love, passion, power and also anger. The anger represents when Amy is not in her hometown anymore and is angry and sad that she isn't happy in the place that she is living and wants to be around family and friends and be happy like she was in her past. I have include the colour red in bold on the 18 on the front cover. This colour stands out brightly to the audience as it overlaps amy's name in white, although both still understandable. The red 18 links in contrast with the red curtain within the next slide to the digipak, showing an image of Amy standing on the stage performing. The red curtain represents her as having all here emotions behind her whilst she is performing her song on stage. The red is also included on some of the text in the message to fans. The words "you" and the "A" on Amy is written in the colour red to represent a personal effect to the audience, and the red on the letter "A" is a reoccurring theme through out as its also included on the single image of amy on the stage. The type of red that i have included in the typing is a darker red, showing a deep passion but also in contrast with anger of not being in her hometown, relating to the songs included on the album. In Addition, the fitters and colours back and white are used in every slide to the digipak. The main focus to the black and white is the filters i have included on some of the images. The front cover and back are both in a black and white filter so they connect and show relation to each other. The colour black is used within every one of my 6 slide digipak which shows to the audience its an important colour throughout the music video. The colour black in my digipak represents the connotations of sadness, hidden meanings, elegance, power and grief. This colour also helps to portray Amy's dark thoughts and meanings being sent out to her audience. The connection between the front and back cover in relation to colour shows that there is an importance in the images. My CD itself is in a block colour of black, with a small amount of writing showing white and red. The black to the background shows a darker side to my artist. All of the colours I have included within my digipak are conventional to the soul genre, and all hold there own meanings and connect to the soul genre in many ways.

The conventions of the soul genre I have included within my digipak is the images I have included, which includes a close-up of my artist on the front cover. Close-ups are conventional to the soul genre as it means the artist can connect and portray their emotions easily to the audience through facial expressions and emotions. This is why I have included a close up on my front cover of my digipak as it means my audience can create a relationship with the artist and can understand the way she is feeling and the meanings within each song that has been included on the album. The audience will also be able to see the expression being shown from the artists face, and this will represent her past emotion. Close-ups are used all the time within the soul genre, including male and female artists. Another convention of the genre that I have applied within my digipak is the colours black and red. The colour red shows my artists power and authority within her songs and how she is a strong and independent woman. The colour black in contrast with this shows the darker meanings behind her thoughts and messages being sent out through the lyrics and images she is portraying through the digipak.The personal message from the artist to the audience is also very direct and is directed specifically at each reader. Soul songs conventionally are seen to be very personal and direct to the reader to help with the relationship that is going to be created between the two. This personal message helps with the audience grasping the concept of the artists feelings, and how this message means a lot to them and helping with the aid of promotion. Including conventions from the soul genre within my digipak helps the audience to recognise reoccurring themes from the genre, this helping a relationship to be created.

The images i have included within my final creation of my digipak. The first image is the front cover, showing a close-up of Amy looking downwards away from the camera. This hides her emotions from the audience, leaving them guessing what she is feeling and meaning they have to try and work it out.  This also links to the back cover, showing my artist also looking away but this is shown through a mid-shot of Amy looking over the river in London. I have chosen an image of Amy looking downwards away from the camera as this shows an insecurity of the artist, hiding her emotions from the audience, this creating a relationship between the audience and the artist as they have to dig deeper into what the artist is feeling and the reasons why. I haven't used an image on my CD front cover as i wanted it create a simple effect with the black colour standing out to the audience. Moreover, every image i have used within my digipak shows Amy to be looking away every time. This is conventional to the soul genre as it is used by a lot of soul artists as it hides emotions and feelings from the audience easily and docent reveal them easily. The three images i have included are all taken in the location of London, these are the images from the first slide, fifth and sixth, showing that they relate and connect to each other. I feel that the images I have included within my digipak all hold a meaning that connects to the artist as well as the album, and the song Hometown Glory. All of these images when seen by the audience will help create a relationship from the audience to the artist as they can link to the song Hometown Glory.

The layout and design I have chosen to use for my digipak is including six different sides, and to lay them out in a simplistic way for the audience to understand. The layout shows the front cover, single image, CD, message to fans, single image and back cover showing the track list. The reason for choosing this image is because when laid out all together there is a clear connection between all six, and once the digipak is folded and put into the CD itself, it will be clear when opened to why they are in that order. The layouts and designs on each of the slides have been placed in certain ways due to the way i feel they work/don't work. I placed the album name "Amy 18" at the bottom of the front cover so the artists face can still be seen and the emotions still portrayed. Also carrying the running theme of Adele's albums where she used numbers after name in her last 3 running album's so I took inspiration from her. The second slide shows Amy centred in the middle of the stage, and i have placed a line of lyric in the top left hand corner so it stands out from the red background, and easily recognised by the audience as its a lyric from the song. This is also similar to where i have positioned the album name on the CD. I have placed the name at the top in the centre so its easily seen by the audience and they know what it is. This is a good thing within the album as it means the audience can see a clear design the whole way through and a reoccurring theme from the album. The layout I have chosen on my CD is simplistic, easy to recognise and easy to understand, which is good for my audience, meaning an easy target audience to catch. I feel I have chosen a simplistic layout not only for my target audience to understand but a wider audience that will enjoy the CD itself, as well as the digipak inside.

The typography i have included shows different fonts throughout to portray different emotions to the audience. The fonts I have included are stereotypical to the soul genre. The font i have used on the front cover is bold and upper case. The font is a large size and stands out to the audience as well as being positioned centrally. The bold writing on the front cover shows that this album is strong and forceful and shows a lot of meaning to the audience. Although within the soul genre its not conventionally seen to want to stand out, but I have chosen this to show a unique effect towards the audience. On my chosen image, message to fans and back cover showing the track list I have used a handwriting type font which adds a personal touch from the artist herself. This is conventional to the soul genre as it means the audience can create a relationship easily with the artist. The personal approach leads the audience into thinking it has been written just for them; helping with the method of promotion and a direct/strong target audience. The curly handwriting also represents my artists simplicity and elegance. The two colours I have used on my message to fans; red and white, work together well and contrast two different meanings to the audience. The colour red presents love to her audience, and a personal touch whereas in contrast to the colour white which shows her innocence and difficulties. This shows the audience understanding two different meanings and sides to the artist. 

The language I have included within my digipak is simplistic and easy to understand by my artists own target audience, as well as a wider outlook too. I haven't included many words, only the ones that need to be there. The front cover simply consists of the album name, the image on the second slide included one sentence of a lyric from the song hometown glory included on the album, the CD only includes the album name the same as the front cover to the album, the message to fans is a short message that only holds a few words but a lot of meanings, the next image does not include any language and the back cover only includes the track list of songs included on this album. As there is only a small amount of information on the digipak this means the audience are not overwhelmed by a lot of writing and aren't put off when looking/reading. Including simplistic language within my digipak is conventional to the soul genre, as from previous research I have found that soul artists only use small and simple uses of language to attract a wider audience.

To create my digipak I used the programme Photoshop. This is an programme on the computer which allows you to edit images. I found that this programme was very helpful and allowed me to produce and create many things which conform to the genre of soul. Some aspects to this programme were hard to use, leaving me with a few weaknesses. The first being finding it hard to use the quick selection tool. I was able to use the quick selection tool by selecting it on the side bar of the Photoshop page. This tool allowed me to select different parts of the image; meaning I could move that part of the image, cut it out, put it onto a different image or change its colour. When cutting the part of the image out I wanted the tool would often select more than I wanted, and I found it hard to put it back without starting all over again. The image which I selected was my artists face which i cut out from a different background and placed it on my background of London, which showed her looking down at London and reflecting on her life, linking to the music video itself. With research and guidance I found that by holding the control button on the keyboard whilst highlighting you could minus the selection you have done, and go back to where I wanted to be. Another weakness I found was after I had used the quick selection tool. I found that once using this, the image I had moved or cut out had a radged edge, and didn't look smooth. For this to be corrected I had to use the rubber and smoothen out the edges. What I didn't know until guidance and research was I had to zoom into the image first before using the rubber, as this way I could get a more professional finish. Although, within the programme Photoshop I also had a few strengths. My first strength was downloading fonts onto Photoshop from the internet, as I found some of the fonts on Photoshop didn't work with my images, and didn't conform to the soul genre. Downloading fonts meant I could drag and drop them into the programme, and from then I could simply type the text I wanted and once entering using the enter bar on the keyboard my font would appear on the text I had typed. I found this was a useful way of choosing a different text I wanted, and also being unique from other peers within my class.

The link between my three products shows a clear correlation. I have included the same colours in all three, showing red, white and black. The black and white filter is reoccurring showing that they are all recognisable when put together and when apart and can be seen the same by the target audience. The colour red is represented through the backgrounds of London as well as on her lips when the black and white filter is applied. The red lipstick is worn in most scenes of the music video and is also shown on both ancillaries, representing the music video. Portraying the music video through ancillaries shows the artist being promoted, leading to more sales and fame.

In my digipak I have included several different fonts on each slide. The slide showing Amy's personal message to her fans shows a handwritten font. This font is called 'French script MJ'. This shows specifically towards the audience that it has been written to them personally and can be seen as a direct message - leading fans to buy the album and look at the ancillaries more.

Conclusion

I feel that after the completion to my digipak I have conformed to many different conventions of the soul genre. Within all six slides to my digipak I have included a different convention within each, which represent the artist in a few ways. The images I have included represent my artist stereotypically to the soul genre, and this can be seen easily by her audience as they stand out. I have used only three colours throughout mu creation to my digipak, which not only means that all 6 slides to the digipak connect, but shows meaning to the audience that these three colours represent the artist and mean something too her. Each colour represents an emotion from the artist's feelings. The location of my digipak also relates to songs included in the album. The location that most of the pictures are taken in is London, which means the audience can engage with the artist as they are recognisable locations and mean something to the artist. I feel that my digipak does appeal to my target audience as its simplistic and easy to recognise within the soul genre. My digipak holds a unique touch throughout, which hopefully not only my artists target audience will like, but also a wider audience too.

Meetings and discussions - Miss Miller

Meetings and discussions

Introduction

Meeting with my group regularly is important when making decisions for the production of our music video. Discussing our ideas is a good thing for our group as we can all have our own input into what we want to include in our blog posts as well as our music video. Discussing ideas means that we all have an input, and none of our ideas and points our left out. Organising our time was also important. This meant that no time was wasted and all the time we had was put to good use. We made a meetings and discussions schedule to help provide each of us with a structure of what we had talked about, and when our plans had to be done by. This helps us all stay on track of our ideas and now knew what we was doing when and the reasons why. The table below shows a clear structure to what we have discussed as a group, when the discussion took place, when these ideas are going to take place by and by who. For some of the actions, we was all involved and didn't have to take place in our own time. Most of the actions were blog post's and could take place in our own class time meaning we could all attend and take place. Whereas the group story boards and filming, has to take place outside of lesson time so this had to be planned.

Conclusion

Overall, i feel that this table helped all members of my group to stay on track to when things had to be completed by, this also helped with us as a group wasting no time. Me and my group worked well together to completing our meetings and discussions because we all worked together when putting in our input into what we wanted to include. Our discussions worked well as we could all discuss about what we was gong to put in each blog post and help each other out in what to put, and all have a similar content and structure. We all communicated well in the activities that had to take place outside of lesson time, e.g.  storyboards. As they took more than an hour to complete, each one of us in our free lessons took the time to complete these storyboards in time to complete the blog post. The photo-shoot took place over a duration of time as we took the photo's each time that we filmed. Our discussions meant we could sort out who was using what pictures within their posts, and how they was going to talk about them. This helped each group member with ideas on what to include within the blog post. It was beneficial for us to create a meetings and discussions post and keep a record of what we have discussed and when things should be completed. This meant each member of my group could keep on track of things, and not fall behind. This also meant we could reflect on what we have spoken about, and remember the things that each of us suggested. As the table built up from each discussion it allowed us to see the progress we was making with blog posts and the progression into research into our music video. All of these helped us be prepared for the creation of our music video as we had completed a significant amount of research and recorded everything we had completed.