Dear Moderator,

This blog belongs to:

Scott Fletcher-Dobson, who worked with Paul Gilfoyle and Jake Davies

Thank you for taking the time to take a look at our blog, it is a result of 5 months of hard work and it showcases the stages of development that we went trough as a group in order to create our music video and ancillary texts to the best possible standard. The three stages we went through were planning, research and production, all of these stages are shown through text, images, videos and presentations.

Regards,

Scott, Paul and Jake

The Automatic - Monster Final Cut

This is the final cut of our music video. We have responded to the feedback we were given on our second rough cut in order to get the best out of the video. One issue that was pointed out with our rough cut is that a certain shot was too hard and it was hard to read the wanted poster, making the meaning of the narrative unclear to the audience; We designed an improved a wanted poster that was easier to read and added more lighting to the setting and re-shot those parts. We then edited the new shots in a new layer over the old ones, making sure our match on action was still present. With the new footage, one part of it was inappropriate and with our own initiative we created a censor image to go over the top of the taboo footage. There was an issue with one of the shots being too long. Over the breakdown, the lead vocalist and the bassist are shouting the lyrics at each other and it is one continuous shot for almost a minute. This is an issue as it is the fastest part of the song and therefore should have more shots cut to the beat. We have resolved this issue by editing a lot more shots into that part, so that the shots change to the beat. There is a drum roll towards the start of the song and we have added a lot more shots into that as that is another really fast part of the song so its taking the thought beats into account. Another piece of criticism we got was that some of the shots were too similar and repetitive, we changed this by adding more shots and angles to go along with the song and also taking the thought beats into account such as the breakdown as i have shown earlier, we have took different shots and angles of them singing and then as the music gets faster the editing to different shots gets faster also and eventually ends up with close-ups so the audience didn't get bored of the same shots as shown in the feedback. So all in all our final cut has taken into account all of the criticism that was given by our peers and teaching body and adapted it to our finalized product to create a well structured, funny and appealing music video.

Final Digipak

This is the digipak we have designed via Photoshop to go along with our music videos. In order to make our digipak look professional, we decided to have a band photo shoot rather than just use screenshots from our video. After our photo shoot, the next step was to find a digipak outline on Google images that we could use. Once we had the outline, we thought it best to start on the front cover of the digipak as it is the first thing the audience would see. We used the website 'dafont.com' to find appropriate fonts for the band name and album title, we then used screenshots of the text and imported them into Photoshop. 'The Automatic' was filled in with the same blue as the cookie monster in order to link the style with the video. We used the same fonts on the spine with a cookie separating the band name and album title, this again linked our digipak with our music video narrative. The next step on our front cover was to include some photos from our band photo-shoot, this would keep the CD cover looking original and unique. We includes a shot of each band member holding a frame and pulling a face, using the quick selection tool to delete the background. The back cover was the most complex part of our digipak; we included a shot of the band sat on a couch, but most of the background had to be deleted using the rubber as the quick selection tool wasn't accurate enough. We also had to reduce the opacity by a considerable amount so that it didn't overpower and take attention away from the track listing above. The track listing was also time consuming as it was difficult to decide on a suitable font that was comical and suited the light hearted theme of the digipak, as well as fit the longer song titles on the page. The font I chose was again taken from 'dafont.com'. The most difficult part was fitting the correct copyright information, logos and bar code onto the bottom of the page without it looking cramped and jumbled; but I think we have chosen the right arrangement and it looks pretty realistic. We decided to leave the CD holder side blank as we didn't want it to look over crowded when the disc was in, we wanted a contrast as the CD is designed to look like a cookie (again linking the digipak to our music video narrative.) The other sides are unedited photos of the band from the photo shoot with a clear background, this idea took influence from the booklet that comes with Lost prophet's 'Liberation Transmission' Album. This band are of a similar genre and the booklet includes photos of the band with a plain background, but it looks very effective. The first side that will show when the Digipak is opened will be the one with the four band members stood with their arms crossed. I think this creates a good effect as it is different to other band shots and looks good on its own. The photo of the band crouched down and the other photo of the band on the couch take up a similar amount of space and make the digipak look quite symmetrical as well as filling the digipak out to make up for the plain center. Overall I think the simple but effective colour scheme and use of images such as cookies put a young and almost immature feel on the album cover, which will appeal to the teen audience.

Final Magazine Advert

The magazine advert was not as time consuming to make as the digipak, but equally effective. The aim of the advert is to interest the target audience and potential fan's attention, and I thought it was important to capture the same essence as the digipak, which is why I included the same plain white background. I also used the images for the band name and album title; I wanted the theme to stay very close to the digipak, and as these are the biggest pieces of text, it was vital that they were the same. I used the photo of the band members with their arms crossed in this also, not to remain continuity, but because it was best suited. The photo looked the most professional and represented each band member as equals, as well as fitting perfectly above the text. The small description is the key selling point and is multi-functional as it lets readers know that it is a good album, and what genre it is etc. The 'OUT NOW' is there to replace the release date and inform the reader that the album it already out and can be bought in shops. This is also a vital piece of text, hence the large bold font. The small features at the bottom give the digipak a realistic feel as they are the features that most magazine adverts contain nowadays. As facebook is the largest current social networking site in the world, it is vital that the band would promote themselves and their album via facebook, which is why I have included the link at the bottom of the digipak. The smartphone bar-code is also a vital part of modern technology if the band want to keep up with other competitors within their genre. I think that the theme of the advert suits the music video and digipak perfectly whilst still maintaining the unique features of a modern day magazine advert.

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Evaluation Question 3