Feedback

This is a Photobucket presentation of all of our written feedback from our classmates and teachers. 
This feedback has helped us to find what is good about our music video and what we could do to improve our video and get it to a higher quality and therefore a higher grade. 

Possible CD Ideas

Whilst amending our digipak we played around with the idea of incorporating our artist's signature on the CD cover, here is the result: 

We really liked this CD cover idea because the photo is very industrialized and has a very sophisticated feel. This matches the theme of our music video and our cross-media products. We also added Ivory's signature on top of the CD, this makes it feel more personal so that whoever buys the Album will feel like Ivory personally helped to make and finish every CD she sold.  

Shooting Schedule

Here is the shooting schedule for the filming of our music video 'Like Me':

Date	Location	Props/costume	Interior/ exterior
25th of September	Danbury	Black dress	Exterior
30th of September	Danbury	Black/flowery dress	Exterior
4th of October	Danbury	Black jacket/top/jeans	Exterior
9th of October	South end	Black jacket/top/jeans	Exterior
15th of October	Danbury	Black dress	Exterior
19th of October	Back of field, by pond	Black dress	Exterior
23rd of October	Danbury	Black/flowery	Exterior
28th of October	Danbury	Black dress	Exterior
2nd of November	Danbury	Black/flowery dress	Exterior
6th of November	Danbury	Black jacket/top/jeans	Exterior
10th of November	South end	Black jacket/top/jeans	Exterior
15th of November	Danbury	Black dress	Exterior
18th of November	Back of field, by pond	Black dress	Exterior
22nd of November	Danbury	Black/flowery	Exterior
30th of November	Danbury	Black dress	Exterior

Location 3

Below is a presentation about our third and final location, which we used to film the 'insane' footage of Ivory. This shows the positives and negatives of the location and why we used it for our music video.

Digipak analysis

After finishing our digipak we decided to take time to evaluate and analysis our digipak, this helped us to breakdown what we have and chosen and reasons for this. 

Here is a detailed analysis of our second digipak draft, which outlines the shot types and why we chose them for our album's digipak:

Digipak updates

After receiving feedback on our first digipak draft we had to make a few amendments before creating and completing the final version. One of these changes was adding the institution information to the back cover. The institutional information is crucial and must be included on every digipak which is something we discovered through our digipak research.

After looking at several official digipaks including these:
 We began to see similarities in their institutional and extra information. For example, both feature barcodes so this was something we added to our digipak. Secondly, both feature the artist's recording company and who distributed their album which is again something that we made sure to add to our digipak.

The institutional information we added went as followed:

Polar Republic Records Ltd.
Distributed by Sony Music Entertainment
All Rights Reserved 189 Soho Avenue, London, W1D 3AP   

 

Here is our second digipak draft:

Final Digipak Amendments

Today was the deadline for our digipaks and website and here is our final digipak:

The amendments we made since the last digipak update:

- We've added Ivory's signature blue streak through her name to the front cover of the album.
- We changed the bottom left image from the image of the trees to an image of Ivory.
- The 'thank you' section of the digipak has been amended so that it is no longer just a quote and now surrounds an image of Ivory. 

Magazine article

After conducting magazine article research we wrote and constructed a magazine article for Ivory in the well known music magazine: NME. We have already created a magazine cover for Ivory which is on a NME magazine, so we believed that creating a magazine article for NME magazine would make sense.

NME was a great magazine to choose for our artist because it regularly features new upcoming artists such as Ivory, Florence and the Machine did one of their first magazine articles with NME before they became a worldwide success. 

Website update

After conducting our website research we found that female solo artist's tend to have a cover page to their website. On this cover page, the viewer can access the artist's latest music and the artist's official website via a link.
It was because of this discovery that we have created a cover page which, via a button, links to the official website. 

So here is the link to our new website (featuring the cover page with a moving background): 
http://ivoryofficial.wixsite.com/iamivoryofficial

Above is the cover page that also has a moving background, it helps make the website a bit more interesting and will attract people visiting the site to want to see more. Ivory is seen on this cover page, therefore instantly introducing the viewer to our artist. 

Editing Techniques

Below are some GIF's that we created to demonstrate the variety of editing techniques that we used throughout our music video.

Digipak first official draft

Here is our final, first draft of our digipak which we will be receiving feedback on very shortly. Once we have received this feedback we will begin the process of making amendments in order to complete the digipak in time for the final deadline next week. 

Production company

To complete our digipak, in particular the back cover, we had to create an institution logo for Ivory's music label- Polar Records. We decided on this production logo because it is simple but very bold, like what we want Ivory to look like. Polar Records was a good name for Ivory's music label because it is unique and quirky which is what we want people to see her image as.

Website update

We've added a new story to our news page which links in with our magazine article and front cover. We spoke about Ivory featuring on the cover of the music magazine NME as a part of their ten year anniversary publications.

Home Page:


We've added the album release date to the home page, alongside the release of the single 'Like Me'. This will allow fans to pre-order and prepare for Ivory's album release.

Page Titles:







To all of the pages we have added social media links so that our fans can constantly access our social media pages and follow our artist. 
The buttons link to Ivory's Facebook and Twitter pages and are present on every page of our website.

Elements tour poster

Below is our tour date poster, that we carefully designed and made as a group. To ensure that it fits in well with the look we are going for, which is slightly dark and creepy . This is why we have gone with dark colors and we have added Ivory's logo so we instantly know who's tour it is. 

We used Photoshop to create our tour poster and this was a great software to use for this task because it ensured that all the edges of the photo of Ivory are cut neatly and that colors can be corrected. As seen above Ivory's eyes glow a little and look very light, this helps make her seem more mysterious and to catch peoples attention. Although Photoshop is a difficult software to use, we decided that we would learn how to use it correctly through advice from our classmates and YouTube tutorial videos.

Like Me First Draft

Below is our first draft our music video 'Like Me', we were really happy with this draft and what we have achieved. But we got lots of feedback on this that we can work with, both positive and negative feedback. 

Shot list

Here is a detailed shot list, outlining every shot and location in our music video first draft.

Aim for today's shooting

Today will hopefully be our last day filming as we hope to film the remaining footage we need for our music video. We are going to predominantly film the singing shots needed for the chorus as well as a few long shots and cutaways.

Here is an example of one type of cutaway/transition that we are hoping to film today and feature in our music video.

This type of fast, whip motion is something we are hoping to recreate through both editing and filming techniques. 

In this music video, these transitions are used to cut between the artist singing in different locations. They create a smooth and interesting transition which isn't too difficult for the audience to visually comprehend.

The full sequence of shots we are trying to recreate can be seen below:

We will set the camera up and have Ivory stand in one position, sing a line, quickly move the camera to the left and then re do until she has appeared in four different locations in a circle. This should hopefully, with a little editing, create the above effect which we will feature in our chorus.

First Tour Poster

As our artist is a new, up and coming artist it is unrealistic to assume she would go on a sellout European tour performing in huge venues around the UK.

As a result of this we have decided to go on tour with the established indie artist Ladyhawke who is going on tour around the UK in February next year. Ivory will be opening for Ladyhawke at the start of her UK tour and so we have created a tour poster for Ivory's leg of Ladyhawke's UK tour. 

Merchandise Photoshoot

Below shows a collection of photos that we took of Ivory in her merchandise, to help the products to be promoted. We decided for Ivory to wear her merchandise because after research many artists such as Rihanna wear their own merchandise for promotion, so we want to be as realistic as possible. Here is the photo shoot: 

Storyboard

A storyboard is used for us to plan our music video, dividing up timings of the video and adding shots that we will fill this time with. A good quality storyboard is very important in the planning of a music video because it is something that you can relate to, you do not have to stick fully to the storyboard order but it will help plan filming. 

This is the storyboard for our music video, it helps to split up our music video and show what shots and angles will be throughout our video. 

Ivory tour poster

This is the tour poster that we have created for our artist Ivory, it is Ladyhawke's tour poster and she is who Ivory will be going on tour with. So we decided to put Ladyhawke as the photo on the tour poster, because Ivory is supporting her so is not as important on the tour poster as the main artist.

So instead we included Ivory's name and logo and the light blue colour in the background which is the same as Ivory's logo, this helps create a theme through the use of color. 

Tour poster research

Below are four tour posters that we found from artists that have a similar image to Ivory and are in the same genre of Indie music. These posters helped us to see what we should include in our poster, how it should be set out and what images/photos should be on the front.





       


This is a presentation of the research that we did for tour posters, we looked at examples of tour posters including the ones shown above. They are analysed and explained about what makes them a good tour poster. 

Magazine Cover

Here is our magazine cover which features our artist, Ivory, on the front cover of the well known publication NME.
We really like our magazine color because we ensure it matched well with the typical NME magazine article by including the logo, red writing and headlines. But we ensured we still had the essence of Ivory throughout, with the edgy photo of her and the dark colors and background.

Feedback on first draft

We received lots of feedback from different media groups which was extremely helpful as there was lots we needed to adjust  including our merchandise and our digipak.

Key Pieces of Feedback: 
Good: 
Some nice shots in the music video sneak peek
Our artist's image fits the genre and style of video we are trying to create
Good use of interesting locations which match your image
Good use of different social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram
Nice, simple album cover with continuity of image from this to our music video.

Needs Work:
Need to ensure their is continuity across all band products regarding the colour of the logo; must always be the same
Need to change up the framing of the shots to have more diversity
Album digipak needs some work and needs to be completed with less focus on images
The flowery dress that can be seen in the music video sneak peek doesn't really fit in with the other outfits or the artist's image as a whole
When the beat drops at the start of the chorus, the shot needs to clearly indicate this drop and the artist needs to start going crazy
The merchandise is too male-orientated and needs more diversity
In order to appeal to a younger demographic, a non-explicit version of the song needs to be released.

Further website research

When designing our website we studied and researched other solo female artist's websites to see what key features are present in all of their websites.
The three main artist's websites that we consistently drew inspiration from were: Lady Gaga's, Lorde's and Ellie Goulding's.

Key Features:

The artist's picture/image is the first thing you see on the website and is usually the home page background.
All of the websites are very minimalistic and simplistic which works well with the artist's image.
All promote the artist's current album or single on the home page.

Lady Gaga



Lorde



Ellie Goulding 

Digipak first draft

This is the first draft of our digipak, we have worked hard at researching digipak's and testing different themes and photos. But we have decided on these photos and writing for the first draft our digipak because it is very sophisticated and portrays Ivory as being very strong and independent. 

Although our digipak is not finished here, as we are still missing a photo in the bottom left gap and the CD needs to be improved because it is still fairly boring. Also the spines have not been put on, so when this is complete it will look more like a finished digipak. 

Halfway evaluation

Today we presented our halfway evaluation to our class and received their feedback on every element of our artist brand so far including the website, the name, the digipak, the merchandise and the music video itself.

Here is our halfway evaluation presentation:

Like Me Sneak peek

This is a sneak peek for our music video 'Like Me', we created this sneak peek and exported it to YouTube. We have included it in our halfway evaluation, viewers will be able to see part of out video and can give us feedback. 

Ivory GIFs

This is a list of GIF's that I have created to show some of the scenes from in our music video and we can include these GIF's throughout our cross-media products. These gifts are fun and help to capture Ivory's personality, she is powerful and moody in our music video but she also has a fun, happy side. 




This GIF shows the moody, strong side of Ivory and helps the viewer to see what her personality is like throughout the music video. 




Whereas this GIF portrays Ivory as being happy and playful, which she is not seen to be like in the music video. So this GIF can be used in other band products. 

Music video analysis

Today I watched a really inventive and professional music video which has given me some great ideas for our music video.

The thing that stands out to me when watching this music video is the quick and smooth transitions that link the music video together.
I particularly like this way of cutting a music video together because it is different and not your run of the mill editing technique which creates an element of excitement when watching it. Not only that but after watching this simple but creative music video I have been given new ideas for our own music video and how to edit it together so that it stands out.

Social media update

After creating our social media accounts for Ivory we ensured that we would continue to update the social media pages and regularly post to update fans. I have posting as Ivory and trying to keep to persona of her while writing and posting.

Twitter

                                 


As you can see we have started personalizing our Twitter pages with posts offering sneak peaks and interactive gifs and pictures of our artist. This has helped to gain more follows and to make the pages more interesting. 

Facebook

  

This shows an update of our Facebook account for Ivory, as you can see we have added Ivory's logo as her cover photo so people automatically know who she is when on her page. We also have posted about her upcoming tour, this makes our artists page seem more realistic.

Feedback on album cover

Below is both the front and the back page for the album cover for our digipak. Both photos of Ivory are very powerful and sophisticated. But we wanted to get feedback from our teachers and classmates, so that we know what people like and what could be improved.

Album cover

Back cover

Teacher- Miss Brookes: 

I really like the font as it is clear and simple to read.

The image is really nice and works with the artist image you have created.

Improve:

Try warming the image up slightly, so that it matches the rest of the colours in your digipak.

Classmates:

Georgia:

Album Cover: The font really suits the cover and the photo is good.

Back Cover: The consistency of the fonts across the two photos really works.

Ivory's signature

To help us develop Ivory's image we created a unique signature which she will use to sign the album digipak and our merchandise. We created this signature so that she has an individual style of writing, meaning that people will recognize this whenever they see it as being Ivory. 

We decided that the signature will look very powerful and looks like the artists logo, this will help people to recognize the signature easier and keep the theme of the font continuous throughout. 

Artists with similar style

The style of our artist is very important in the making of our music video because we need to ensure that all Mise En Scene and style details match perfectly. This will help us to create an image for our artist 'Ivory'. 

So we decided to do some research on artists that have similar styles to what we want Ivory to look like. We have shown artists with similar clothing and similar hair styles, which are both major factors we need to consider for Ivory to look edgy and indie.

Reflection of Danbury filming

Over the past couple of weeks we have visited this location in Danbury multiple times to get as many quality shots as possible. This location is perfect because it has a more industrial feel to it with the abandoned greenhouses and warehouses, but also has a more nature orientated side to it. With lots of beautiful apple trees, plenty of land and nature footpaths. Whilst we were at this location we got lots of great footage, that we can use throughout our music video. 


  At this location we had planned many different shots: When we arrived at this location for the first time we had lots of different shot ideas in our head. But on arrival the location could not facilitate some of the shots and some were not safe to do so, for health and safety reasons. Shots like the ones inside sheds and along the footpath were completely improvised, but ended up to be really good shots that we can use as footage in our music video.

We did not expect for the location to as picturesque as at turned out to be, as shown below. So we decided after filming some gritty, eerie shots of our character. We would return to the location and film some more pretty and innocent footage of our artist. This shows how the location was very versatile and meant we could get plenty of beautiful footage in one location.

What went wrong at this location:

One obstacle that we had to overcome when filming at this location in Danbury was the accessibility. It was very difficult to reach the different areas of the location, so we had to be very careful while walking around the area due to low ceiling and industrial items. This meant it limited the areas we could film in, but luckily there was plenty of places to film there. 

Another thing that went wrong when filming was the weather, due to on the days of filming the weather changed while we there, so the lighting changes throughout the footage. This has meant we can not use some of the footage that this has happened to.

Feedback on editing

After we started to edit our music video and it started to come together. We thought it would be a good idea to ask for feedback on our editing and see what can be improved and what we did well. So below is the feedback that we received:

What could be improved:
- The locations that we have chosen have very different themes to them and so when edited together they look strange. So to improve this we had the idea of putting the more innocent, pretty footage from Southend at the beginning and end of the music video. Then have the more gritty, weird footage in the middle of the video. This means that the footage will make better sense together because it has a structure. 
- Another improvement that could be made to the editing of our music video is the special effects, we need to include more exciting and quirky effects that will fit in well with creepy image we are trying to portray of our artist.
-  We also need to work on the lip sync, to ensure that the timing of the song with the footage of the artist singing match perfectly with each other.

What we did well:
- The footage is very clear and the color of the footage from the different locations match perfectly. Meaning that the footage works well together and looks professional.
- What we also did well from the editing we have done so far, is a couple of fast cut shots, that match perfectly with the chorus of the song and therefore look really good within the music video.

Magazine article research

To help us create our artist's first magazine cover and article we conducted some music magazine research to ensure we stuck to our genre conventions. This magazine research includes examples of other artists magazine covers and this helped us to know what to include on ours and the style we should be aiming for. 

Digipak ideas

Album Cover Ideas:



These are the two ideas that we have for our album cover, they both show Ivory in the centre of the cover and the writing is the same. But they both have a different feel, the one above shows Ivory as being more moody whereas the one below shows Ivory as being a lot more angry and is a more aggressive position. 





Inside Cover Ideas:




These three photos were all taken at our main location, which is an industrial location but also has a very natural feel with trees, leaves etc. 



These photos have all been shortlisted for our inside cover because they all have good, bright colors in. they also all include nature which is very important to be included, this is because our entire music video will be filmed outside. 

Early stages of Website

The website of an artist is extremely important as it is a universal platform that allows the artist to connect with their fans and vice versa.
We have begun designing the website for our artist Ivory and are slowly getting to grips with the perfect layout and content in order to accurately represent our artist.


Here is our website so far:




Improvements to made:

Once our music video is complete we must upload it to the website
When we have completed the "Making of Gasoline" video it must be uploaded also
Tour dates are to be added
We must complete and update our biography paragraphs 
Complete our gallery page
Create an Instagram link
Create a unique fan page
Add a merchandise page
Create a press release for the new album
Finalise changes and layout
Receive feedback and make further improvements