Brainwave!!

Because so many people from my focus group liked the other picture in black and white, i thought it would be a great idea to use the two very similar pictures for both products, the advert and the digipak. I have put the idea forward to my focus group to see what they think.
Here is the new advert so far.

 And here is the new digipak so far, linked in with this advert.

So far, the focus group still seem to like the other advert more, but hopefully now that they have seen this digipak, they will see the reasoning. 

Feedback for picture

 I have had some response from my focus group telling me what they think of the picture above in black and white, and over all they seem to like it more, they say that it makes the picture seem more dramatic and it fits in better with the black and white theme.  The picture below is roughly the same just from a bit further away, and personally i think that I like this picture more because it has a nicer feel to it as apposed to the one above which I feel is a little bit too close and the black and white makes it feel pixelated. However, I will ask the focus group what they think.

Edited advert.

Feedback about the advert.

As you can see here, one member of my focus group has said that they like the simple design, which is what I was aiming for, but he thinks that it would be good if there was something that stood out a little bit more and grabbed their attention, for example some colour. 

Therefore I have thought about this advise and will try to add a little bit of colour to the advert, one idea I have is to use the same blue that I have running throughout my blog for just one small part of the advert.

One thing I have learnt as a producer of music advertisements, music videos and other products, is that it must be very difficult for these companies to make a product that suits their whole audience, because I have realised in this short task, that where as some of the audience think that a bit of colour in the pictures, doesnt look right as the video is black and white, however they believe there is not enough colour in the advert. 

If i were to do this for a living I would find it quite frustrating, however in this case, I quite enjoy editing my products so that people like them more and the feedback is excellent.

Advert draft 1

This is my first draft of the advertisement, as you can see I have only included, the artists name, the album name, and the release date. I will ask my focus group what they think about this and return to the drawing board.

Release date advertisements

I have looked into some advertisements that other companies have created to show the release of albums/singles. I wanted to get a clearer idea of how to create my poster. I didnt want to make it feel too busy, but then I also didnt want to not put enough information in it.  Here are some of my favourite ones I found.

As you can see, three of the four posters use a pictrue of the artist to advertise the album, which I think is the best thing to do and something that I will definately do with my poster, as I want the public to see who is being advertised, not just their name. 

All of the posters show the artists name and the name of the song/album/single, which are the 2 things I will have to make sure I include in my own poster. They dont all say when they have been released, which I think makes the posters look better and simpler, but I may have to do it to my own so that the audience can see when its being released. Some small symbols such as the itunes logo are rather effective because they advertise where to get the songs from online, as many people do these days. That is something that I may consider putting on my poster. 

Looking back

I thought it would be useful to go back and look at the questions I initially asked my audience to find out what they liked in a music video, and see if  I have managed to use any of the things that they said. After all the audience is the most important part as they are the people who will be viewing the video and buying  CD's, if they don't like what a music company creates then there would be no point in creating it.



"Outdoor, indoor lighting can look false and outdoor has a nice atmosphere and is suited to almost any song
Depends on the genre of the music, however an entire video in black and white/sepia might be less interesting than one in colour
I think that a story line going on at the same time is something for the viewer to follow and enjoy; gives you something to actually watch."


"Outdoors, indoors is boring.
Bright Colours
Story line, just watching them sing is boring, much like the x factor"


"Prefer a story as watching someone just signing is boring 
Loved aha take on me from 80s this helped to change the way videos were done plus I loved the lead singer, and wanted to be the girl in the video"


"I think that at least having two storylines is very important and even if there isnt two stories as such there is two strands.
I wouls say that at the moment my favourite music video is by Benjamin Francis Leftwich - Atlas Hands. I would say it is because it is simplistic and yet has its own style and is rather edgy.
I don't really have a prefference however all of the options are effetive for certainthings, by using only one however it could be boring.
Bit of both two strands would work with this."


"Unusual videos where they have a storyline that you can follow as you get gripped and want to watch till the end. These stand out to me far more than simple ones with no storyline as you tend not to watch them for any other reason than for the song.No preference on colour or location as its dependant on the song that the video is for; as long as it suits. I think a mixture is good as I like to see the band but i also like a storyline to make it interesting."


"What do you think of music videos with more than one story line? I think they are interesting, but might be a bit unclear of confusing
Favourite ever music video? Why? Lazy song, I like the simplicity... and the chimps."


"Outdoor or indoor videos? Why? I like a bit of variation, but if had to choose, outdoor, the lighting is usually a bit brighter
Bright colours, black and white, sepia, other? Bright colours FTW- just more fun and attractive.
Being able to see the artists singing the whole time or a story line of other people? Why? I think seeing a story line is more interesting."


"I enjoy something i can follow so i prefer to watch a hero or a couple, something romantic with a twist, gripping and compelling at the same time; otherwise the story is boring. I prefer to watch female artists as the idea of male gaze is relevant to me.The colour is never usually something i look at, but if i had a preference it would be Black and White, the video has more of an impact on the viewer and can sometimes come across more emotional and therefore i get more attached to it.
I prefer to have the singer being the person involved in the story line for example Drunk by Ed Sheeran."

As you can see, my focus group have outlined that they enjoy mainly videos that are filmed outdoors, this is one thing that my video is full of, every piece of footage I filmed was done outside as I felt it went well with the feel of the song.

Nearly all of them said that they enjoyed music videos with more than one strand or with a story to follow is they find it gripping. This is definately something I have managed to do as i have two strands going the my entire video and one thing I think will make viewers want to watch the video more. 

My focus group have also sad that they liked simple videos, in some ways I think that my video may have a bit too much going on at times, but then I think that is balanced out by the calmness of the video and the way there is a lot of peaceful footage of the artist singing. However over all I think I have stuck well to what my focus group like to see in music videos, and I hope that they enjoy the video. 

To link my video with videos that the focus group said they liked, here are a couple of their favourites.  

Transitions

As a bit of last minute research I asked my focus group what they thought of the transitions in my video, because I realised that they are not the usual transitions that a music video would use. The usual transitions would be a cut or a direct transition which jumps immediately from one clip to another. However I have used alot of fade and blur transitions which are slower and a bit gentler. Personally I felt that they suited the video well.
Here is what someone from my focus group said:

"I thought the fading was really good, you could see parts of it were meant to be sort of flash backs or memories which worked well. The shot between 1:30 and 1:50 confused me a bit as I couldnt really see the overlap shot, the faded one behind it. But i'm guessing it was some sort of memory. The transitions fading out to black then in from black worked well."

 This has reassured me that the transitions throughout the video work well together and it makes the video flow well. I am glad the my focus group are able to see the point of the fading and the shots in the background are suppose to be memories.

Is the picture right?

A few people from my focus group mentioned that they felt that the picture above was very nice, but as it was in colour it did not fit right with the rest of the video as that is in black and white. I wanted to get their opinion on it if it were in black and white instead.
Personally I dont like the picture as much in black and white because I dont feel like I can see the same emotions and I think the colour gives it an edgier feel. However I should wait and see what the focus group think.

Finished video with final editing

This is the finished version so far, however i will put it up on my focus group and see if there is any final feedback from them.

Someone like you

This is the opening picture for my music video, although it has no real importance to the video itself, it is simply important to inform you as the examiner who I am, and my important numbers, I wanted to show that I have taken every part of the project seriously and tried to use a consistent feeling throughout the entire project in all parts where possible. The black and white of this picture goes well with the rest of the video as it follows everything else I have done. I used a tree silhouette as I have used a lot of nature in the video and wanted this to also be shown. It works well because I feel that it lets you know a bit about the video, before you have actually seen it.

Digipak draft 1

Here is some feedback that I received from my focus group, I asked them to tell me what they liked, what they didnt like and things that they think I could change to make it better and more appealing. 

1) "I like the photos because they are natural and represent the sad song"

2) "The photos really capture the emotions of the song, however the sun is exposed in two of the pictures and may have a greater effect if pathetic fallacy was taken into consideration and the weather was a bit more dull. "

3) "I love the extra diagetic gaze as it makes me really feel the emotions, the black and white makes you feel sad because of its dull colours, I also like how the font on the digipak matches the font on the opening scene on the video- however one thing I dont like is the hair band around her wrist"

Having taken all of this advise into consideration I have decided a few things that I should change and will get working on them again.

Edited pictrues

Here are the edited pictures that I uploaded earlier. I think that they are all very effective and all have a statement to make. They also all follow the genre of the music and the naturist feel that the video has. Thanks to facebook I was able to ask my focus group which ones they liked the most. and here are the order they liked them in.

 

Focus group feedback for pictures

Here is a print screen of my facebook focus group, as you can see I have uploaded the edited pictures and asked the focus group to tell me which ones are their favourite.

Without facebook a lot of my research would not be possible and I would not be able to find the right information. 

Photos for digipak/poster

Here is a sample of pictures that I have taken to use in my digipak or poster. I asked a few people which ones were their favorite, and this was them. I will not edit these pictures in order to make them fit in with the more professional look that a professional digipak would have. To do this I will use Adobe photoshop Elements. I am going to try to stick to the same style that my video has. For example, using black and white, light and shadows to enhance the pictures, because these are the main elements and effects used within the video.

As you can see these pictures have all been taken in an outside environment which was also done to stay with the theme of the video, because 90% of the video is filmed outside I wanted to take the pictures for the digipak and poster outside, because after all these products would be used to advertise the video, therefore it needs to have the same feel.