Feedback from Junction

Today we had lessons at the Junction to show our rough cuts of our music videos. We had quite a few videos between the whole class, and we showed them one after each other, with feedback inbetween from Simon Bates (junction co-ordinator) Rob Tinkler and Pete Edwards, who also worked at the junction and specialised in gigs etc. We also had Tom and Emma there to supervise the class and also to watch the videos, as they hadn't seen our music video rough cuts either so it was new to them too.

After watching our video, we received some feedback which would be very helpful in our development stages of our music video, and luckily we were all still at the rough cut process, so any feedback would be appreciated and would help us with later editing for the final cut of our video. We received both positive feedback and constructive criticism.

- The constructive criticism was that the narrative was good but they really preferred the performance of the video, they wondered if the narrative is overall needed in the video. Matt and I will see what our teachers Pete, Nick and Barney suggest and if it turns out the narrative isn't needed then we will leave it out for the final music video.

- All of them really enjoyed the silhouette effect we had created with the lighting, and thought this worked really well with the music video and the music track.

- They liked the fact that as we hadn't been able to use the junction to film, the hall we did use was a really effective space to use, and thought it was a great idea and a great place to film.

This was mostly all the feedback we received, and afterwards Simon said he thought all the work was of really high quality work - and this proves the hypothesis that working in a work related area as opposed to just in the classroom really does make a difference and does help considerably, as we received help from all the industry professionals such as a lighting technician etc. He even would like a CD of all the finished work to showcase at the junction etc as he thought all the videos were really high standard.

More shots of editing process

Here are some more shots from our editing process, showing the transitions we put on such as colour correction, and where we actually fading the music out, as after Nick's feedback as well as Pete's we agreed it was too long so we have now shortened the song to 3.20 seconds. 

Music video Rough Cut Feedback

Today we received our rough cut feedback for our music video. The main points were:

- Some shots were still a little too dark (We had not added colour correction to some of the cuts so this can be easily solved)

- Some shots are held for just a little too long (we can easily cut these down, In Pete's opinion if a shot is held for more than 2 seconds there needs to be a valid reason why)

- The song is a bit long, 4 minutes is too long for our certain video and everyone in the class is doing a 2 minute video, so there is no need for us to do a video for 4 minutes, perhaps we can use the shortened version we mentioned earlier in the post below 'shortened song version?' or we could simply cut the music as there is a part in the song where the music fades, perhaps this will be better.

- There needs to be some motion in the shots are some are too static, motion added to these would help them and would go better with the faster pace of the song. (We could easily add motion so this isn't a big problem, and have started to add motion after feedback was given.)

- There needs to be more close ups at the end as there were more at the beginning, it would be better if it were consistent throughout. (We can add close ups to the end and have already started to add these after feedback was received.)

- Pete did not understand the empty hall in the video, but had said he had not listened to the lyrics much, however when he listened again it was clear the shot related to the lyrics and he said this was fine. (As we have explained in planning stages, the lyrics 'How do you feel when there's no one?' and the shot shows an empty hall. Matt and I as a pair thought this shot was relevant and added to the feeling of loneliness we tried to create in the song.)

- Pete said with the narrative, it needs to be clear that the shots are flashbacks, so to add an effect to make this clear and this will be easier for the viewer to understand.

These were the constructive points. Overall, Pete thought the video was edited well to the music and the narrative was easy to follow, he liked the variety of shots and said we were well ahead with editing and these were only small problems above, so we did not need to worry and he was confident we would finish in time for the deadline.

Overall this feedback was very helpful as it was good to see what someone who had not seen the video before thought of it after watching it. It was helpful to have Pete's feedback as we had not yet received feedback and were glad to hear an opinion. Pete had seen the editing stages but not the finished video until looking at it and writing down some feedback for us. Hopefully with these above changes the video should create everything we wanted it to, and should hopefully be effective and realistic, along with the CD digipack etc.

Feeder CD Digipack

The next digipack I researched was from the actual band in my music video, Feeder, and is a limited edition digipack set. This CD/DVD edition includes a 45-minute bonus DVD in special packaging. Featuring four full length video's from the Depot Sessions, it also includes two documentaries: "Tumble and Fall: The Video Diaries" and "Pushing the Boundaries". It also includes 5.1 mix of "Victoria".

This was particularly interesting as it helped me see what the band Feeder likes, in which I am using a song of theirs for my music video. it helped me identify what kind of style they are hoping to portray and what audience they are aiming for, it also showed what special edition stuff they add in their digipacks which help me in my research for my digipack CD cover.

CD digipack

CD Digipack

What is a digipack? 4 pages with a CD size template, contains the outer front cover, the outer back cover and the two inside pages. Also contains something extra which is a benefit from buying the actual CD as opposed to downloading online for free. The something extra could be a booklet, a behind the scenes CD or footage, and exclusive interviews with the band perhaps.

A digipack’s function is to advertise the CD album, it must have an attractive front cover in order to promote the album and must attract the right customer and age group relevant to the genre of music. The digipack is something extra which adds to the benefit of buying the actual CD, it may also c

ontain some extra footage, interview, DVD or extra for this same benefit.

The first CD digipack I researched was a Coldplay album 'Viva La vida' which is a special 2CD promotional digipack. With this you get an extra CD which comes with the original CD album. You get a few other tracks and remixes in which you would not get with just downloading the CD album online, although perhaps these special featured songs could also be downloaded, it is when an actual item etc is presented with the digipack in which people think is a benefit of buying the CD. From the review of the album you can see that people enjoy the extra CD, which is good as it shows real customer reviews.

The next CD I researched is called Pink Floyd 'The Wall' limited edition deluxe pack. It includes a digipack designed to appear like 'The Wall' with debossed brickwork etc. A photo montage of film

shots and a re-production of the original film promotional poster is featured inside the digipak, "THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WALL" - a 25 minute documentary a

bout the making of the film, Running commentary from Roger Waters and Gerald Scarfe, RETROSPECTIVE - A new 45 minute documentary with interviews with Roger Waters, Gerald Scarfe etc and Original Film Trailer and production Stills.

These are better ideas of an added benefit of buying a CD digipack, as it contains something you could not get off the internet, the exclusive documentary. Perhaps something like this would be a good idea for my digipack, although i like the idea of an interview or behind the scenes footage too.

Scanned image CD covers

Here is a scanned in image from an extract from The Sun daily newspaper, with clear reference to CD covers and some imitations using household items. I thought this would be interesting to add to my blog as it is a non IT resource and shows how CD covers can be made. Since part of our project is to make a CD cover for our bands music video, I thought this was appropriate thing to add, so I scanned it in to the computer and added it to my blog. I've also enlarged some of the extract so you can see some CD covers up close.

Music Video Rough Cut

Here is our rough cut for our music video. Overall, I think we edited the footage well and cut quite quickly too. We used a least 6 different angles not including close ups so this was great, we have loads of extra footage - but its always better to have extra footage than not enough.

I think the members of the band were all enthusiastic and was really pleased with the amount of effort everybody put in beforehand, such as learning lyrics, guitar chords and drums to the song.

Editing process rough cut

Here are some pictures of our editing process for the rough cut. As you can see from the editing post before, we have added the main footage which we filmed at Manor. You can see the markers added, as well as all the different angles on seperate editing lines. I think the editing process is going well, and we have finished our rough cut and after feedback will continue to edit for our final music video.

Shoot day two - Evaluation

We shot our main footage today at Manor Community College, as the venue at the Junction was unavailable to be used after 5. From the moodboard of shots below you can see what the place is like in general, with a big hall and good area of stage. I think filming went really well, we got 38 minutes of footage in total which is so much more than we need so thats excellent. We filmed from 5 until half 6, with some breaks in between.

The stage was a great area to film, and much bigger than the Junction stage so this worked in our favour. We had enough space for everyone and arranged everyone well on the stage. Overall I was very pleased with the amount of footage we got, and the level of general effort everybody put in. The music technician at Manor had actually set up the microphone, drum kit and stage lighting so that we would have less setting up to do, which helped considerably.

The only downside I can think of is the darkness of the footage, as it was either having a couple of lights on, light the footage shows, or all the lights on which was far too light to use. I thought that lightness can be added and saturation etc in final cut or after effects, so hopefully this will look effective.

From the pictures you can see the process we went through, first filming three angles from near the stage for a kind of mid shot, then close ups of each member of the band and then some long shots to get a range of shots. We shot from 9 different angles including the close ups which count as different angles. At colleridge on Monday we will add this footage to the footage we got on Tuesday of the significant moments and then we will edit everything together for the rough cut deadline on wednesday.

Filming Moodboard - Thursday 15th October

Here are some shots of the location and pictures of when we were filming. I think the location turned out really well and overall the band were much better than what I expected, I was really pleased with how much effort everyone was putting in individually. Zoe learnt the chords to the song as did grant, Tasha had a lot of practice drumming and Subash learnt all the lyrics and knew them effortlessly.

Editing Progress

Here are some screenshots of our first editing process, we filmed Tuesday night and then uploaded the footage onto the mac computers at Colleridge. We then started to edit our 'significant moments' which go into our music at various points. 

Then we will add the main footage, (which we are filming tomorrow at half 4 roughly), onto the timeline and will edit it accordingly. Hopefully each bit of footage will blend well, and will be effective. We have added two significant moments, which are roughly 30 seconds long, and we have enough footage for another two if we need them.

Target audience demographic

Above is our diagram created in Photoshop which shows the audience demographic for our band and similar bands to it. It shows what

 - our character's name would be, their age,

 - their gender, 

- their clothes,

 - their activities, 

- other media they watch,

- where the music is from etc.

However this is a specific stereotype and perhaps everything about our character may not be true. For a wider age range it would be 16 - 25 year olds which would enjoy the music. Their class financially wold be someone who could afford an album every now and again but not be an excessive spender. They would have a part time or full time job and would therefore be able to afford some of the more expensive CDs.

Venue no 2 Availability Confirmation

I rang the second venue today just to check availability and ask if filming would be possible, incase the Junction venue is not available after half 4 when we need to film. After ringing, they confirmed that it would be o.k for us to film there etc and what times we would like - I specified half 4 to half 6 as filming time, and the hall is now booked incase we need to use it. We also need a drum kit, an amp and lighting for the stage (but this is the least important aspect.) If worst comes to worst the main singer in the band, Subash has a drum kit and an amp so we can use these.

This venue is the back up venue incase the first venue, The Junction, is not available to use in the times we would like. Either way, I think this venue will be just as effective and hopefully will create a good music video.

Shooting day one

Above are the images I took on my digital camera while out filming our first days shoot. Today after college time we filmed the 'significant moments' that would go in our music video to add a little story to the video, so that it is not simply all performance.

We had previously checked the possible locations for the significant moment, which consisted of near the riverside, and various other places. In the end we chose to do the significant moments near the riverside and went there to see where we could film. We found some nice areas in which would be perfect for the video, and as you can see today I have taken photos of the locations we previously liked. We used these locations in our music video, these consisted of:

- A clearing of path with trees either side of it,

- A bench near the river with the sun setting,

- A bridge on the river overlooking the area,

- A behind shot of the couple sitting by the river.

For the significant moments after a discussion together Matt and I decided it would be a nice idea to have the main singer of the band with his girlfriend, which would could as the 'significant moments' throughout the song. Since they are a real couple this was fine for them and they enjoyed helping us.

I think overall today was a good experience and helped us establish what would blend in well with our music video. We still need to do a health and safety assessment for the area, which will be added soon, and I have noted down possible safety problems that may have occurred while filming.

Music Video Internet Banner

Here is my internet banner advert to promote our new music video. For the poster I simply took different pictures from a creative commons search on Flickr and added them onto the poster, I made some of the pictures transparency less and then made the main text 'Feeder' appear over the top so this is the main advertisement. To see the poster better, click on it to make the poster bigger.

Reply from Feeder - Myspace

From emailing the band 'Feeder' and asking permission for using a song I would like to use in my music video, I have received a reply, it is shown in the above picture. I will not use the video music track to exploit commercially so therefore this should be ok to use the music track. It would be great to advertise the band themselves and I hope that the music video I make will also promote the song etc for Feeder.

Model release form

Here is the model release form for the 3 people we are using in our music video, we will get them to sign it and agree everything is ok when we shoot. It is important that we get permission to use each person in the video and that they agree fully to be in the music video.