Note To Moderator A.R. W.J

"Dear moderator, welcome to our blog. All of our work has been clearly labelled (on the right hand side) so that you are able to work your way around the blog. Our work has been divided into research and planning, the media product and evaluation. I hope you appreciate our coursework journey and the work that we have created."

Final Digipak & Advert A.R.

Final Digipak and Advert

Evaluation Question 4 Final A.R.

Evaluation Question 4 Final 

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Evaluation Question 4 |Create infographics

Evaluation Question 3 Final A.R.

Evaluation Question 3 Final

Evaluation Question 2 Final A.R.

Evaluation Question 2 Final

Evaluation Question 1 Final A.R

Evaluation Question 1 Final

Evaluation Question 1 Draft A.R.

Evaluation Question 1 Draft  

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 2 Draft A.R

Evaluation Question 2 Draft

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 3 Draft A.R.

Evaluation Question 3 Draft  

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 4 Draft A.R.

Evaluation Question 4 Draft  

Evaluation Question 4

Digipak Journey A.R.

Digipak Journey

Digipak Journey

Peer Feedback for Video Draft A.R.

Peer Feedback for Our Video Draft

Sanjay Patel -

"Hi Alex!
For a draft, your work is at a very high standard. It is clear that you and Will have put lots of effort in to be successful!Changes needed -

Focus the camera to ensure that the video looks professional.

Ensure that the band look enthusiastic!

And have some more focus on your band members (Derry) "

This was the email we received from Sanjay Patel for our music video draft. From these comments we were able to see that we need to either use another camera (which we later  do and experiment with), or to learn how to use the camera that we were using at the time so that we can get the best video possible. As the song is a fast pace, up tempo song, the feedback that the band should look more enthusiastic was taken on board which is why we believe that for our final video will need to have the band looking more enthusiastic to create more tempo in the song. In addition to this we will need to add more focus on the lead people / instruments in the band, such as the drums and the singer.

Chloe Phillips - 

"This is a good video to have produced for your draft. obviously i can see you haven't got all the shots you wanted yet and i would encourage that you change your piano player, as he doesn't look the part, maybe even a new drummer too that can play in time with the sounds. I would even go to say that maybe not include shots of audience because the band look the part and would look good on their own being filmed. well done looking forward to your final product."

From this feedback we have decided that we are going to have to alter the band around, especially for the drummer as they are very influential in the song so there will be a lot of focus on them, which means that they will need to be in sync with the song. We will have to ensure that we use an actual drummer so that they will have the correct rhythm for the song. For our final video we are going to film the band on the stage and on the stage only instead of including audience shots. This is because we believe it will be too difficult to create a realistic setting and rely on people turning up.

Plan of Action For Improvements A.R.

Preparation

• We are filing our music video for the final version of our music video. This time we are a lot more prepared and we know exactly what we need to do after the feedback and our experience from the first time round. We know the key areas that we need to improve on, and how we need to make the band look more enthusiastic as it represents the song.
• We are using the same venue as last time, The Soundhouse in Leicester as we were well looked after last time we went and the lighting person was a huge help to us and I believe he can make our video look excellent with the inclusion of the chaining lights and the smoke effect used towards the end.
• We have devised our own list for what we need to take, which has improved upon last time as we now will be able to include everything needed and we won't forget anything that is key for our filming. 

Feedback For Our Music Video A.R.

Feedback For Our Music Video

As we expected, there are a lot of things that we can do to improve our video as we made many mistakes that we have learnt from. The benefit of making these mistakes first time round are that when we create our final video, we will have the knowledge to know how to produce a higher quality video, we need to:

    - Focus the camera and even use a tripod, and the reason for this is that it will allow for us to take clearer camera shots so that our video looks more realistic and is of a higher standard. This will improve our video a lot because the main problem is that it looks very blurred and it makes the video lose its realistic look. 

    - Another thing that we can make sure of is that the bassist (Will Jones), hasn't got chewing gum in his mouth, which he has consistently through. This makes it lose the realistic approach as you would never see a band member with chewing gum in their mouth whilst they are performing.

    -  Derry Foran (our lead singer) has to be more clear with his vocals when singing so it can be easier for the audience to understand what he is signing, and it makes it difficult for us to make the music and song in sync with what he is singing. At times he also hides behind the microphone so you can't see what he is saying, and this is another thing we need to work on, to make sure he stands back enough so that you can see what he is singing.

     - As we didn't notice throughout, our keyboardist, Ali Lord, makes many mistakes throughout which ruin the video a lot. He pulls numerous 'unusual' faces which don't  suit the look that we are going for at all, and it makes the video look like a comedy. In addition, he puts on his jacket and hat and keeps taking them on and off throughout our video which we didn't realise. This makes the video look even less realistic than it does as he keeps on changing his costume throughout.
     - Another problem with our video is that the band are performing to calmly and slow, when they should be more enthusiastic and have a fast tempo to reflect the song. This is both down to the band not moving as fast as they should and being enthusiastic, and down to our editing, we need to speed up the tempo of the editing to make it raise the tempo of the video so it reflects the style of the video. 
     - There needs to be more emphasis when playing, especially with the drums and guitar as these are the main two instruments that are heard in the song, and therefore we need to film them more often, and when they are playing, they need to put more effort into it when they are playing. This especially goes for the drumming as it is highly recognisable in the song, and therefore he needs to play it with more effort.
     - It would also help if the lead singer (Derry Foran) learnt the words fully to the song. He knows most of them, but at times he isn't as confident with them so he doesn't 'sing' them as clearly, which makes the music and our performance lose the connection as it begins to look out of tune due to him singing out of time. 
     - We need to work on the costume of the band, the reason for this is that there was a variety (T-shirt, Plain Shirts & Hawaiian Themed Shirts). This doesn't appeal to our audience in the video, especially as we are trying to create the image of the Courteeners as they reach out to the same audience that we are trying to. We need to make them wear plain shirts so that they all look like a band collectively, as this will help the band look like they are together, and it will create a realistic and professional look. 
     - In addition, we unnecessarily used microphone stands in front of Finn (Lead Guitarist) and the bassist (Will Jones), and this led to their being a restricted view on them playing their instrument. Next time we need to ensure that the only microphone and stand that is being used is for our lead singer so that you get a clear view of all the other band members.
    - We need to try and recreate the filming style that has been used by the cameramen for Jools Holland, when The Vaccines made their first performance on there, playing the songs If You Wanna and Blow It Up (as shown below).

Blow It Up -

Reflection Post A.R.

Reflection Post

• There has been a lot reflection we've had to do this week, due to us taking into consideration how we are going to improve our music video and what we are changing. As we received our feedback and discussed ideas between one another, we realised the amount of problems that we were dealt with for our draft, and it allowed us time to reflect on what to do for our final video. 
• We have recently decided that it would be best to use an actual drummer for our final video, and the reason for this is that it will help us to make the video to look more realistic as he will be able to learn the song and play it in time, whereas the 'drummer' we used before was unsure so it didn't look professional and realistic.
• After sorting out all of the problems, we have decided to book our video in for the 21st November Friday, and this is because it will gives us two weeks to edit our video and finalise it so we can sort out our editing issues and gain consistent feedback so we can edit it to the best effect and make it look more upbeat. 
• We have decided to use the same venue as last time, and the reason for this is that we liked the help we were given with the lighting, and we are going to use this to strong effect and use it as a key feature of our new video. 

Evaluation of Peers Digipak & Advert Improvements A.R.

Evaluation of Peers Improvements

Millie Leader -

(Advert)

Chloe Phillips - 

Ollie Dennis -

Idea For Front Left Panel A.R

Digipak Improvements

Original -

Improvements -

I have had to make minor changes throughout it, but the major changes that I had to chance was the front left cover (bottom right in the image above). I had difficulties getting the mosaic design in the same colour as everything else. 

I have been interested in trying to fit this design in my digipak, and I originally had the idea from a band called Autechre, and their album Exai. I was interested in the weird and interesting cover of their image, and I felt like I would like to add something like that to my digipak in some way. I then went on to see the cover for Policia's album , Shulamith. I found this to be very different, and the pixelated image really appealed to me and I felt intrigued by the design. Although I have been already set on the front cover for my design, I felt like I should add a design like this into my digipak. As someone who takes an interest in Joy Division, I have always found the album Unknown Pleasures to be one of the most significant album covers of all time. I really like the idea of having a small image placed onto a plain background. From these designs, I was able to come up with an idea for the one panel that I was struggling with, and I feel as though it suits the audience that I am aiming for this digipak to be aimed at as of the bands and images that it is related to.

Autechre, Exai -

Policia, Shulamith -

Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures -

I was able to create this, however I wasn't entirely happy with the way it looked when stretched for the square, so I had to make some alterations to it. 

This lead to my final design of the digipak and this panel being altered to be turn out like it has done below.

Final Digipak Design

Problems With Filming

Problems When Filming

The first problem we faced was the fact that the camera that we were borrowing from Will's friend wasn't charged up which meant a lot of the time was wasted by charging the camera up, and this also led to us rushing when actually filming which meant that the shots that were taken were of a poor quality due to us rushing. On top of that, for our shots, we were only able to take one or two of each shot due to the time we had left after the wasting of time when charging the camera, and we needed to rush through it before the camera ran out of battery.

We are going to use the school camera next time we film for our final draft, and the reason for this is that we can be taught how to focus this camera so that the shots are clearer, and it will allow us to be responsible for it so that we can charge the camera and make sure we have no qualms whilst filming our video. 

Another problem was the fact that this venue didn't have a backstage, and as well as that, due to the constant changes that were being made, many people lost interest in turning up so we realised we wouldn't have much of an audience, this led to us having to just film the band at this location and get the shots that were possible. Consequently, this led to us having a lot of problems to solve last minute once again. After editing the draft footage, we have come up with a solution to try and recreate a video similar to Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor where they are playing on the stage, but there isn't really an audience. This means we could hire the same place out and get every single shot in 3/4 hours to save us from having to go to a numerous amount of places when we can get it done in the same location in one day, it makes it more realistic.

Venue Changes

Venue Changes

Although we were originally, and throughout the whole research we were thinking of Lock 42, in the last few hours before we were meant to be filming we faced a lot of problems. When enquiring about Lock 42, we were told that it would be fine to hire out the venue and just ring a few days before. However we did this, and we were told that are a lot of items in storage so we should check whether it would be possible, but we were told there isn't a lot of room at all.

As I (Alex Rhodes) was in town this day, I went to enquire about the possibility of using The Cookie Jar. This then became our chosen venue as we had it all sorted with the owner and they allocated us a time from 11-2 which would have been enough time to film a higher quality video. However, we received an email the day before we were meant to film (we were meant to film on Friday 25th October) saying that it wasn't going to be possible (the image below).

This lead to us making calls all day on the Thursday to try and sort another venue out. The only other one we felt met our requirements was The Soundhouse in Leicester, however this didn't have a backstage which is what we needed, and therefore we need to go somewhere else to get the backstage shots.  

Advertisement Draft A.R.

Advertisement Draft