Group Digipak

Group Advert

Story - Boards

Story Boards are important as they are the draft of our music video. We first drew up a draft of our music video with a story board, we have drawn sketches of the scenes that we want to include in our music video and timings sound etc. This has helped us plan our music video. This has helped us plan and organise our music video and to make sure we are effective in the making of it.

Group Meetings

This post is dedicated to group meetings. As a group, we needed to create music video, communication is very important within a group as we need to work as a team. Therefore we held group meetings to update each-other on which tasks we needed to complete etc., and this has helped us with deadlines and completion of work. I feel we worked well as a group as we all have good relationships with each other and kept them throughout the project, also we had great communication and we all completed work efficiently and well. Below is a chart that includes the topics and discussions we had.

Editing Styles

In this post I will talk about the types and styles of editing we decided to use in our music video. The editing of music videos are important as it makes the video conventional to the genre, so for example with our genre of dance, videos would contain fast paced editing within the video. We will use FInal Cut Express for the editing of our video.

I will talk about 3 types of editing used in our video: Straight cuts/Ellipsis, Fast Paced Editing and Continuity editing.



Straight Cuts/Ellipsis : Straight cuts are where one shots is quickly replaced with another, we used this alot in our video with relation to the fast paced editing. The straight cuts were used throughout the video while following our artist throughout the story, and this is where the editing use of ellipsis comes to play, for example we used straight cuts while our artist walked to a house and then round the back to jump over a fence, and within this action, we used straight cuts to make the action quicker by the use of ellipsis, for example we would cut to another shot of him getting on with another action, like when he runs round a corner, then cuts to him looking over a fence, then straight to landing on the floor where he has jumped over. We used ellipsis to make the shots shorter to keep the audiences attention and interest as it wont be a long drag of the action, while still making the narrative and action understandable.

Fast Paced Editing : This editing style is basically shortening the time between cuts during the process of editing, giving the video a faster tempo and pace, and this is a convention of dance music videos and makes a relation between the sound and the visuals which is interesting for the viewer. This editing style was used in relation to the straight cuts and ellipsis, while in time of the beat, so the cuts would cut on each beat in some places of the video, we used this throughout the video as fast paced editing, however we used it wisely and did not over use it as it can become overwhelming if overused.

Continuity Editing : This is editing style which makes an action look real and fluid during different cuts, shot types and angles. We used this style in our editing as we felt it was compulsory to making a good music video as the narrative must be understood, if actions are not understood throughout our video then the narrative might become misunderstood too. We have tried our best to make actions within our video as real and fluid as possible while using straight cuts, fast paced editing and ellipsis to provide that continuity while also being realistic and understandable.

Lyrics

in this post I will be talking about the lyrics of our chosen song and analyse some of them and how we can relate them to the visuals in our music video that we will create. The song that we have chosen to use in our music video is 'Calvin Harris ft. Example - Well be Coming Back' The song is from our chosen genre which is dance and the lyrics are minimal as this is a convention to dance music, its mainly beat and bass line based.

The main lyric which is used thoroughly in the video and is also the title of the song is 'Well be coming back for you one day'. This lyric is used throughout the song and before the drops in the song. This lyrics can be connected with the visuals in our music video quite easily, as we can produce a narrative where someone or something is coming back to something  maybe someone they love or maybe a fight and gangs going back and forth to fight each other  As the song is dance we can produce a video which involves a performance as this is a convention within dace videos, however we can also make it a narrative style video which holds a concept, or merging all and also merging the lyrics to relate to the visuals and the narrative in the video.

Also as I said the lyric of 'Well be coming back' is replayed about 4 times as the tempo becomes faster for the drop, and a convention of dance videos is faced paced editing in this scenario; the fast tempo before the drop, therefore we could include this when we edit our video and this would excite our audience. we could include certain lighting and colours when choosing the scenes we want to use for the fast paced editing.

Other key lyrics used in the video are 'Standing in the light till its over, out of our minds' this can definitely relate to a party, as maybe connoting dancing in the laser/strobe lights at a party and not leaving until the party is finished  as this is very conventional to our chosen genre, and we could then relate the visuals with the lyrics, maybe having a shot of a house party and people dancing in strobe lighting.

Another Lyric used in the video is 'Sad to leave it all behind' and this can relate to the first analysed lyric that I talked about which is 'Well be coming back for you', as I said before we could definitely have a connection with the visuals and the narrative, as maybe a relationship goes wrong and one of the ex partners comes back to visit him/her. The lyrics can be used for a few good ideas we have for the video we can create to have a connection with the visuals and narrative. The lyrics in sync with the pitch and tone of the beat/bass line so if we can match the visuals with the lyrics, we could make a very memorable and successful music video. Also the lyrics 'someone had to draw the line' and 'In the back room Something I heard you say' again connote ideas of a relationship break up so we could base our narrative around a relationship idea.

Ultimately the song we have chosen is a great song to work with in terms of the lyrics as they are very catchy and flow well with the beat of the song. The lyrics are simple and are easy to base a narrative around. There are drops in the song and this can be accompanied by conventional dance visuals like partying and being rebellious in the video. This song can let us decide to chose what style we want our video as we could do any three of the performance, narrative or concept, and we could even combine the whole three in one video.

Photo Shoot

In this post I will explain the reasoning behind the use of images we have taken and where they have been used. I will also show changes I have made within Photoshop.

We have decided to have a photo shoot, as the images we have taken were used in our Digipaks and adverts we made. The pictures have given the Digipaks and adverts a better visual connection and attraction to the audience. The images we took were used to build a relationship with our audience, as they would be shown on the Digipaks, making the connection by showing the artist to the audience, letting them see the artist himself. we initially took about 8 shots of our artist with different angles and poses, the pictures below are of what i have chosen to include in my Digipaks and Adverts.

Pictures I used:

This is a medium shot of Spencer which is our artist 'Tuscano'. He is looking straight into the camera and we have incorporated this to give a stronger connection with the audience, as he is looking straight at them when they look at the picture, it makes them seem more involved with him as it appears that he is looking straight at them. We have thought about Dyers 'Star' theory, of construction of a star image, and one of them is apparel  the star must be attractive or look well, and here Spencer has his shirt unbuttoned, certainly attracting more of the female audience, It also contains a sense of rebelliousness which is a convention within our genre.

This next picture is a close up of our artists face, once again he is looking straight into the frame and this gives a better connections with the audience, also it is a close up of his face, with a blank background, and this could emphasise that it only Tuscano in the frame and only Tuscano's music is what you will get. Another dance artist which is well known 'Avicci' has made an album with just a close up of his face as the front cover so this would be conventional to the genre too.


Once I took and got these pictures onto a computer, I then manipulated and edited them in a programme called Photoshop. The programme allows a big range of editing options for any image you chose, so Photoshop was a good choice, also, it is used vastly with media, for example 'air brushing' with models faces in magazines.

I have used both images in both drafts of my digipaks to give them a more a better aesthetic appearance, and this would interest the audience as it is two different images. In my adverts I have used the second image, the close up, as I feel it more conventional, as in many posters the artist's face is shown usually in a close up, and it connects the audience with the artist.

These images are the final edited versions which were used in the digipaks and adverts. I chose to edit them as I could make them become more of the theme of the digipaks and adverts, which were kept to being conforming to the dance conventions, night-life, strobes and clubbing images, with bright colours. My photo shop skills improved in the second draft as we can see, I made the images conventional to the dance genre, as you can see in one image I gave Spencer a pixel effect and turned him pink, the pixels connote the dance genre as the sounds are quite electric and this relates to electronics which pixels come from, and obviously the bright colours connote dance too. In another I turned Spencers face into half robot half human, this connotes again to dance as robots relate to the electronic sounds and the equipment used to make dance music.