Final Product: Music Video 'Beatophone' by Aether

Final Product: CD Digipak 'Bolt' by Aether

Final Product: Website 'Aether'

Click on the image 

Evaluation Question 4 Part 3

How did you use your media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

Digital technologies has allowed me to produce a successful campaign in promoting my band through utilising different areas of technological convergence throughout the pre-production, production and post-production process of creating my campaign. My use of digital softwares such as Adobe Photoshop and Wix.com to create the CD digipak and website has enabled me to become a prosumer, a creator of media products. The use of Adobe Premiere Pro as the editing software for my music video has taught me how to properly cut and edit a music video to a professional standard and successfully promote my band. Through digital technologies, I was able to upload my product onto Youtube which enables my audience to access my product anytime anywhere. The online age also allows me to share my media product through social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook which generates a wider range of audiences as these audiences can also share it to their friends and thus the chain goes on.

Henry Jenkins argues through the 'participatory culture' where audiences are becoming prosumers of media texts where the digital technologies has created opportunities for regular audiences to produce and upload their own products which was something that I have achieved by creating my very own music video and uploaded it onto Youtube.

Evaluation Question 4 Part 2- Video

Evaluation Question 4 Part 2- Script

Here is the draft version of our script.

Introduction

Technological convergence, simply put, is how individual consumers interact with others on a social level and use various media platforms to create new experiences, new forms of media, and content that connect us socially, and not just to other consumers, but to the corporate producers of media in ways that have not been as readily accessible in the past.

Set Design

To begin with, we utilised a variety of digital technologies throughout the research and planning process of our music video. When we considered things such as set design, we utilised the game “The Sims 4” to recreate a 3D version of our sketches in order to see how our creative ideas would transpose in a more realistic way.

In order for us to be able to create the atmosphere appropriately, we used things such as the wall tool and the foundation tool in order for me to be able to create a room, in which we could then insert wallpaper, floorboards, and mise-en-scene through the use of the build-and-buy tools. This helped us to figure out the scale of our set, and allowed us to get a better idea of what it would really look like, as we were able to add textures, as well as colours and a variety of possible props, as well as lighting options, and general layout.

As we wanted to create a contrast between the 1920’s element and futuristic element, using this programme helped us to create that visual juxtaposition through the use of mise-en-scene.

Animatic

Additionally, when we first created our storyboard we had a couple of slides which we drew onto paper, but in order for us to properly be able to visualise and assess whether our idea would properly come across to an audience, we decided to work on an animatic through the use of Hitfilm Express 3.

By photographing each shot of our sketches, and cutting them through the use of the timeline and the blade tool, as well as adding a .mp3 version of the song into the editing programme, we were able to cut each shot to the beat of the track in any combination we wanted to and therefore were able to play around with the options the shots gave us. This was done through dragging and dropping items onto the timeline, as well as deleting the ones which didn’t work right. At the time, when creating the storyboard animatic, we very quickly realised that we did not plan enough shots and therefore this creative process helped us to establish the fact that we needed to generate a larger variety of shots.

By exporting the Hitfilm File into a .mp4 file we were then able to upload it to YouTube, where we could make it available to our audiences, and therefore receive feedback on our work.

Black Magic Camera

On our shoot day the most important piece of digital equipment was the Black Magic Camera. We used this camera to film our video, which has the ability to shoot in 4k, which increases the amount of pixels in the video, which therefore heightens the pristine quality of our film, and therefore makes our work semi-professional. Whilst it usually records sound, we decided not to do so due to the fact that we didn’t need it as we would add the track over the top during the post-production process.

Another thing which was important, which we had to pay attention to was the histogram, which showed us the balance between the shadows, midtones, and highlights, and helped us to adjust the aperture of the lens in order to control the brightness of the video.

Next to this, we also had the Zebra function enabled, which is when there are black and white lines running through certain areas of the displayed video, so that when focusing the display video, we could see which areas had the most light, and also which areas were in focus. We also had our camera plugged into a larger monitor so that the bystanders on set could point out any errors in film and correct these.

Lenses

In order to gain a variety of shots we utilised a variety of different lenses. In order for us to be able to shoot a wide angle of our set which included each of the dancers and musicians, and for the mad scientist all of the equipment, we used the 18 mm lens. In order for us to shoot our mid shots within our music video, we used a 35 mm lens, and lastly, to shoot our closeups we used an 85 mm lens to obtain the detail which we wanted to portray.

Digital Clapper

Another device which we used during our production stage was the use of a digital clapper, which enabled us to sync the track to the actions happening in the video. The track would be added into the music video later, which is why the timestamps at the beginning of each video were vital, in order for us to be able to accurately synchronise the action and the track, especially during the lip-sync sessions.

CD Digipak

Furthermore, during our production stage, we used Photoshop in order for us to be able to creatively design the band’s CD digipak. The tool which we utilised most during this creation process was the rectangular selection tool, as this allowed us to create many different shapes in a variety of lengths and sizes. Additionally, we also used the fill tool which allowed us to add in blocks of colour and therefore make the entire process quicker and easier. In order for symmetry to exist on the digipak, we used the rulers in order for me to break the square up into four parts, which then allowed us to select the area which we fully created, copy and pasted this into the three other squares and flip them vertically and horizontally. This way the embellishment on the front of the digipak looks clean and professional, with everything being in the right place.

In order for us to achieve the shiny look of the digipak we used a variety of different blending modes and settings on the embellishment as well as the text in order for it to look like shiny metal. When double clicking onto the layer on which the embellishment was found on, a settings menu came up which gave us the ability to choose different kinds of effects which we could specifically apply. The different variety of tools we used were “Bevel & Emboss”, “Inner Shadow”, “Inner Glow”, and “Drop Shadow”. Combining these together allowed me to create a shine on the otherwise flat layer and therefore make it stand out and look 3D.

Website

The programme used to create our website was through Wix.com; an online website creator which allows us to express our creativity and effectively design our very own website for the band. The main focus of the homepage is the representation of the album ‘Bolt’, which is shown through the music player which consists of all the tracklists in which the audience can play and listen to each track by clicking on the music player. This was done through Wix Music tool where you can upload your own mp3 files in order to present it on the website. The other main tools that were used were the text boxes and image tool which just simply adds the texts/images onto the website. Bandsintown is an application which was embedded into wix.com which allows us to create real tour dates for the band, allowing audience to buy online tickets to the show straight from the website. The black and gold embellishment effects was achieved through processes of colour-editing and customising via trial and error.

Editing

When we were editing our music video, we used the Mac OS system as well as Adobe Premiere Pro. In our offline edit, we started out by renaming all of the rushes in the bin as this would help us to navigate through the approx. 230 raw shots and therefore be able to filter out the shots which were useless and therefore save us time. We decided to name the shots including the futuristic elements with an “F-” at the beginning and the shots with the mad scientist in them “Mike-” (due to the fact that this was the actor’s name), which then helped us to quickly find shots during the editing process.

Another thing we did was sync up all the shots, which is where the effect of the digital clapper came in handy. In order for us to accurately be able to sync the video to the soundtrack, we matched the time of the track and the time on the clapper within the video. This was done for the majority of our shots, which was a lengthy process, however saved us time in the end as we didn’t have to resync a shot every time we decided to place it in the timeline by pulling it out of the bin.

We cut our shots to the beat, meaning that every time there was a significant beat within the soundtrack, we decided to cut to another shot using the blade tool, cutting one of the many layers within our timeline. Whilst we started off with just portraying the dancers and the musicians in the 1920’s element, we later on decided, in our online edit, to cut in the mad scientist elements. This was for the video to remain diverse and keep the audience interested, as well as the dancer which was primarily added within the transition, in order for it to lead up to the transition point and build suspense and interest. We also decided to shorten the shot length during our online edit to put in a larger variety of shots, to keep up with the rhythm and keep the engagement of audience.

Text Blink

At the end of our music video we decided to add in the name of the song “Beatophone” in a creative way. We decided that it would be cool to have a blinking neon sign of the name, which shows up for about 3-5 seconds at the end of the song.

We created the blinking text in Photoshop, however first, through Adobe’s Typekit we downloaded a font titled Beon Medium which looks like a neon sign. We used tools such as the marquee tool and selected the verticals and the horizontals within the font and put them on separate layers, as the effects which we then adhered would be different for horizontals and verticals. We used the effects “Bevel & Emboss”, “Inner Shadow”, “Inner Glow”, “Drop Shadow”, to create the neon effect. To add the glowing effect, we added the “Outer Glow” effect, which then gave the sign it’s blue glowing effect.

To animate it, we created the same sign in black and white (without the “Outer Glow”) and uploaded both files to Giphy. Giphy allowed us to put the two images in a variety of different combinations to change how fast the sign blinked, and in what pattern it blinked. In the end we had a prototype which demonstrated what the blink at the end of the video would look like, and so we inserted both image files into Premiere Pro, made them as short as possible, and re-created the blinking that we made in Giphy earlier.

Lastly, we added a buzzing neon sign sound effect over the top to add to the image and keep up the detail all the way through.

Evaluation Question 4 Part 1

How did you use your media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

During my construction and research, planning and evaluation stages, I have used various digital technologies which can be divided into three subcategories: hardwares, softwares and online technology. For example, during the research and planning process, I have used online technologies such as pinterest and youtube in order to carry out researches about the elements to be included in my music video. Throughout the process of producing the promotional campaign, I have demonstrated a wide range of the use of media technologies.

Evaluation Question 3 Part 4

What Have I Learned From My Audience Feedback?

Audience feedback has played a crucial role in helping me construct an intended star image for my band as well as producing an effective campaign to promote the band.  My target audience has informed what went well, for example the unique idea for the music video as well as the Electro swing style of music and the simplistic theme of gold embellishment & 1920s across all 3 elements of the campaign. The areas of development has also been informed by our target audience, such as the initial feedback from Luke which has transformed our idea completely.  If I was to make any future changes to the campaign I would've made sure that we acquired more shots of the mad scientist both lip-syncing and mixing chemicals in the lab as the footage we had just wasn't enough to construct a proper narrative and understandable storyline that the audience can accurately follow.

Taking note of the audience feedback I understand how the audience inform me the success of  the campaign is and indeed allowed me time to make adjustments to the campaign before it went to distribution.  Audience feedback is important market testing in post-production to see if I created the right star image and marketed this purposefully. As Henry Jenkins informs us that we live in a ‘participatory culture’,  where fans and audiences are important in circulating meaning and the strength of media messages.

I also recognise that my audience has engaged with the meanings in my music video in different ways, bringing their own contexts to the reading of the star image – what Hall argues is reception theory.  I can understand how my audience can either reinforce or challenge intended meanings in the text. "The idea of a love-story narrative is too cliche for a music video and should not be used"was the feedback from Luke for our first initial idea which was a oppositional reading which enabled us to come up with a new idea completely for our music video. "I really like the idea of the mad scientist as it is very unique and funky" was a feedback from our classmate; which was a preferred reading; after we pitched the idea to them. After we pitched our new idea to Luke the second time, he volunteered to help us develop the idea and suggested that we should include a clear transition between the 1920s element and the futuristic element; a negotiated reading.

Evaluation Question 3: Part 3

Youtube Statistics Audience Feedback from Chris Himathongkom

Evaluation Question 3 Part 2

Evaluation Question 3: Part 1 (Introduction)

What Have I Learned From My Audience Feedback?

Audience feedback refers to the response received by the producer of a product from an audience. This helps the producer realises the positive and the negative opinions on the product, allowing further improvements to be made on the product. This process is very crucial for any media director/producers as it allows the product to reach wider range of audience, as well as successfully retaining the existing fans. 

BEFORE FEEDBACK FROM LUKE

Initially before this pitch was made to Luke, our idea for the music video involves a sad memory telling love stories for the track 'Home' by Deluka. The idea was quite stereotypical for any pop music video as it contains a narrative about love. 

AFTER FEEDBACK FROM LUKE

The feedback was really helpful from Luke as he pointed out many things that will not work and thus we had to make quite big adjustments to our initial idea. In the end, this pitch has allowed us to scrap our idea completely in which we came up with a fresh new idea for a new track within a week. This feedback was really crucial to my overall campaign as this feedback alone changes the whole campaign completely.

We also managed to gather audience feedback from the people around our school by showing them the tracks and explaining our idea to them. The majority of feedbacks were positive but a fews weren't. The negative ones were that it may be confusing or the narrative may be a bit too abstract. We analysed the information gathered from this research and apply it to our initial idea by eg. making the narration simpler and easier to understand. The feedback also allows us to clarify our target audience accurately which is very important in producing a successful campaign.

Evaluation Question 2 Part 3

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary text?

I believe that our campaign; consists of a 3 minutes music video, a CD digipak and a website; is reasonably effective at promoting our band. The star image of our band; being creativity, originality and talent; were being portrayed widely throughout our campaign, for example is the funky idea of a scientist time travelling in our music video. Our USP being the combination of old and new; i.e. the 1920s and futuristic elements. These elements were being represented thoroughly in our campaign and adapting to fit it in with the electro-swing genre, this includes the black and gold embellishment on both our CD digipak and website homepage, as well as the jazz club included in our music video.

Evaluation Question 2 Part 2

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary text?

Evaluation Question 2 Part 1

How effective is the combination of your main product and the ancillary text?

In order to assess the effectiveness of the combination of main product and the ancillary text, we have been looking at how our main product; a 3 minutes music video work together with the CD digipak and website that we have created to promote the star image of the band as well as the USP. Keith Negus argues that the music video is used as a promotional tool for the band and the star image is used to brand the product. Branding then, is used for the music industry to create and promote their products for their target audience. Phillip Kotler defined marketing as "human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange processes." This essentially means the selling products and services to a range of audience and enabling them to buy into the star image. Kotler also added that Marketing is the key to success of any campaign, where it consists of four variables; the PPPPs: Price, Place, Product and Promotion.

For our campaign, we wanted to create the USP for our band in which we want to represent throughout all of the elements of our campaign. Due to the fact that our band is an Electro-swing band in which is quite a unique genre, we tried to incorporate the star image of the band by including the element of 1920s; which is the jazz element of the band; and the futuristic element; which is the electro part of the band. The black and gold color-scheme of both the website and the CD digipak to emphasize the element of the 1920s with the futuristic element included as a time-travelling mad scientist in the our main product; the music video to promote our band as being the combination of old and new.

Evaluation Question 1 Part 5: Evaluation

In What Ways Does your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

I personally feel that we have combined the use, develop and  we had challenge forms and conventions of real media products and produced our own original promotional campaign for our own fictional band. We have used Keith Negus' theories in the production process of our media products as well as comparing our products with other similar promotional campaign for other existing bands, making sure we include all the conventions expected by the audience while also contrasting some of the conventions and making our finished campaign very original and unique.

Evaluation Question 1 Part 4

Evaluation Question 1 Part 3

Evaluation Question 1 Part 2

Evaluation Question 1 Part 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Music video convention refers to the elements in which we expect to see in a music video. For our pop video, we included the convention by having the singer; the mad scientist; as the main focus of the video with lip-sync element is being portrayed in many different aspects and time throughout the song. The genre of our band was Electro Swing in which, we added a time travelling narrative in order to represent the funky, upbeat theme of the song. For our website, we used different size fonts in different places in order to make it look funky and original while adding various photos from the band. The digipack artwork is abstract and funky which connote with the style of music. In this task, I am going to compare my music video, CD digipaks and website to other existed products in order to see whether they share the same conventions of a music video or not. 

Developed Website

After receiving various feedbacks from both my friends and group members, I decided to make a few changes to layout of the website as well as the contents inside it. Here is the updated version.

http://chrishimathongkom.wixsite.com/aether2

Website Draft 2

After I received all the feedbacks from my latest draft, I decided to make a new website completely as a second draft in order to see which theme would be more effective in linking our campaigns together as well as promoting our newest album/ music video.

In my new website, instead of using the robotic theme, I decided to go with the black and gold theme in order to fit in with our digipack as well as still containing some steampunk elements. Here is the current draft in which I am still working on.

Here is the link to the website: Aether

Feedback on Website

Unfortunately, I was not in class when we were assigned to collect feedbacks for our website. I decided to gather some information from Evelyn's blog in order to keep on improving my website draft. The feedback were mostly quite negative which I frankly understand since its the first draft but the feedbacks are as follow:

1. Fonts need to be bigger 
2. Get a photo of the actual band members- shows that it is organic
3. More text
4. Promote the new album and singles
5. Change the dates and venues of the band
6. Link to faux tickets?

Although some of the feedbacks are not quite accurate as some of these features have already been included in the website previously but some of the comments are quite useful. 

I have applied some of the changes to the website in order to fulfil the general feedbacks given by my classmates.

Feedback on Digipack

Evelyn has volunteered to design our album cover and here is her current unfinished draft:

The general feedback from last time was to make the band name bigger than the album name on the cover of the album as that is usually the case for most albums ever released. The band name 'Aether' is supposed to be metallic and brass kind of look which correlates with the steampunk theme of the band. 

The colour gold, in which we agreed on as a group, works quite well in connecting the past with the present which still contains the element of being futuristic yet steampunked. 

Music Video Final Product

Here is the finished product of our music video.