Evaluation Task 4

How has our group used digital technology in pre production, production and post production?


PRE PRODUCTION


ANIMATIC RESEARCH/ FEEDBACK:

For our research we have looked into many different artists that we thought Rosie May would possibly look like. We have looked into artists such as Lana del Rey, Katy B, Amy Winehouse. Eliza Doolittle and Little Boots. We used the internet to go onto their social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as their official websites to look for possible uses of colours and information that has got to be uploaded for our artist's website. Looking at their social media websites has helped us form an idea of who our target audience would be. From the likes and tweets on these websites of the artist’s fans we could find these individuals’ profiles and see what demographic the majority of these fans fitted into. We could spot our potential demographic from these artists’ websites such as Eliza Doolittle’s tour times would be earlier in the evening than Lana Del Rey’s  due to the fans’ ages in their target audience. This use of digital technology helped us  conclude that our target audience is around 11 – 24 years old. Our artist primarily attracts younger girls and secondarily older music listeners due to the urban, organic aspect of her star image which we have gone on to depict in the video, digipak and website.  Internet has helped us a lot because we could also visit artists' pages on Facebook and Twitter and trace the possible target audience. Using the information obtained from these websites we would then establish what things would we would need to change so that we can attract more audiences for out artist. We also looked into different videos of those artists using YouTube. It had helped us out a lot because we could embark certain storyline-related ideas that would later on help us establish our artist. This would mean that we were able to attract similar audiences as have the artists that we looked at. Moreover, the use of colours was very important. Because our artist is a synthetic star whom we are selling is organic, we had to analyse real media texts to establish the boundary between synthetic and organic pop-styles. We have embarked the idea of putting Rosie May on the front cover of the digipack with the sea behind her. However, this had to be changed because it looked to organic and lacked the "shiny-pop" synthetic element. Therefore, we have decided to use Photoshop and take the picture where she is standing against the graffiti wall. We have enhanced the colours by increasing hue saturation and taking a little bit of the contrast away. This would brighten up the picture and give it a more "synthetic" look. Also, when we were analysing the first album version we have realised that the font did not match our artist entirely. It look too sophisticated for her, we wanted to add a little bit more of edginess and for this reason the second part of her name "MAY" had been changed to a more rigid and modern synthetic writing. This alternation were conducted only after we have researched into similar artist's album covers. One can see that the edginess looks more like Katy B's album cover and the second writing is more Amy Winehouse and Lana del Rey.

 We also researched Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites as well as the artist’s websites for further inspiration.

The first digipak attempt

The final digipak result

PRODUCTION


CAMERA:

On the day we used Sony NX5 unlike the other groups who FS100. This is because NX5 is more mobile due to it's size. If we were to use the latter it would be very difficult to move around from place to place. Moreover, there are many people in Brighton and carrying around a large camera such as FS100 would take up a lot of time and effort. For this reason we decided to take NX5 that was very beneficial when it came to the scene at the beach. This allowed us to quickly set up the camera and get ready to shoot. Moreover FS100 only uses prime lenses. This means that every time we change the distance between us and our artist we must change the lens that is used at a certain distance. On the other hand, NX5 uses a built-in lens that can also zoom in. This again would save us a lot of time when we are on the location meaning that we can shoot more scenes without having to change the lens. The portability of the camera enabled us to move around locations quickly in Brighton and film incongruously on the streets. By using a semi-professional prosumer camera in the same manner as Gareth Edwards in Monsters we could in effect film guerrilla style.


POST PRODUCTION

EDITING:

To edit our music video we used the programs, Final Cut Pro, After Effects and Color.

After Effects Program

Final Cut Pro Program

Color Program

 

 

We decided to conform to typical conventions of a music video by selecting the choice of discontinuity editing which added an energy and youthful spirit to the video which was replicated to Rosie May’s star image. The cut to the beat, fast paced editing also helped to maintain the interest of the viewers of our video. Lip-synching was something we also looked to film and cut to during our music video and did this by focusing on close ups of the singer, miming to the track.

 

Our choice to incorporate light leaks created a vintage, retro effect which was inspired by Lana Del Rey’s videos. This was achieved by using stock footage of film burns on the computer which we dragged onto the timeline of our video in Final Cut Pro. We then used the composite mode to aesthetically layer the light leaks onto the clips. This gave our film a professional look that we felt was contemporary in music videos right now and would therefore appeal to our target audience. Ellie Goulding used this kind of effect in her music video 'Burn' as did the 1975 in 'Sex'.

 

We used the program, Color, to edit the look of shots within our video. We chose to decrease the contrast and brightness whilst also increasing saturation, which created an Instagram effect which would be of cultural relevance to our younger target audience who would be social media users, explaining the appeal and our efforts to create the Instagram effect. We also edit the images on our website to conform to this vintage aesthetic theme. This would appeal to our target audience of teenage girls.

Our group were also conscious to incorporate the technique of 'matched cut' when editing together a whip pan shot and another shot. For example a whip pan to the left, as shown below, would be followed by another clip moving to the left. This is very logical effect as the continuity is retained as well as the journeying theme of the music video is continued as the movement of clips in one direction insinuates the artist's and narrative strands progression.

 

 RESEARCH - DIGIPAK/WEBSITE:

The research for our animatic, target audience and music video helped us to create the synergy of the digipak and website. By researching similar artists’ websites we gained an insight and basic knowledge as to what a musicians’ website should look like and involve. We also used these artists’ as a case study for our digipak. Our group first created a digipak using the program of Photoshop. On Photoshop we primarily used the composite mode, with a photo we took of Rosie May standing against a plain backdrop. Then we layered it on top of the image of Brighton beach which we took on the shoot day. We then used a mixture of the lasso tool and the magic wand in order to cut Rosie symmetrically out. Then we used a grid template to put on top of the image of Brighton beach in order to ensure that Rosie would be in the centre of the image and not off centre. Then we used the contrast settings to manipulate the image of it being a sunnier day, turning up the saturation making it look bluer and brighter. Ultimately leaving us with an image of Rosie May against the Brighton sea front. However, when we gathered a focus group together we collected feedback telling us that the digipak was too similar to Lana Del Rey’s. Therefore, we decided to change the image to one of Rosie May stood in front of a wall of art depicting past organic artists. We took this photo so we did not to edited it in great detail, just again turning up the contrast in order to make the colours more striking and stick out of the image. This allowed us to incorporate Negus’ theory on organic and synthetic artists as although the pop industry is primarily filled with synthetic artists we want to portray Rosie May as an organic artist amongst her organic idols. We also used digital technology when producing our website, using the program Wix. Our choice to incorporate consistent images of Rosie in street settings, helped us to emphasise her urban and rebellious star image, also communicated in the video. By embedding these images and selectively choosing our fonts and pages we successfully achieved an urban, organic theme throughout our group’s work.