Final Media Music Video // Alcazar Spark

Final Digipak // Sachin Mistry

Digipak Changes from Draft to Final - Michael

 This was my first completed draft. Originally I was pleased with this as I liked the continuity throughout. From feedback I received I was pleased with people's initial reactions. Many people commented on the  photography and said the inner stretched out photo worked very well alongisde the front cover. I also received a comment that stated the change in colour between the black and white collage and the inner two panels worked well. as it was a nice blend. 

 In my second draft, I decided I wasn't fond of the use of the collage as I believed it looked messy and less professional than it could, so I got rid of it and took another photo that fitted in and had a similar style to the photo on the first inside panel. Many people told me they liked this photo and it suited the overall digipak much more than the collage and that the layout still worked well.

In my third and final draft I decided to keep the same photo that I used in the second on the right inside panel. However, I also decided that this didn't fit with the theme that had continued throughout the rest of the digipak, as only one person is present in the picture. To fix this issue I went into Photoshop and duplicated the first figure. This then meant my final digipak was consistent, clean and appeared professional throughout. 

Final Digipak and Magazine Advert - Michael

Final Digipak - Milo

Magazine Advert - Milo

DRAFT Evaluation question 1. Milo O'Mahoney

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

The obvious way in which we develop conventions found in real media products is by frequently mimicking common camera shots found in narrative music videos such as slow motion walking, out of focus lights and only infrequent use of instruments or singing etc. One example of real media products that also employ these features is "Flashed Junk Mind" by Milky chance. Their entire video essentially consists of the two band members and assorted extras walking through fields and engaging in random activities such as golf in a quarry and jumping into a river.

However, we actually challenged conventions by making what is, for all intents and purposes, a binary opposite music video. Although we share many of the same shots, we ended up having the main 'character' of the video alone for most of the video. Most of the scenes were also either filmed at night or inside, forming a theme of loneliness and sorrow. We also develop what is a common concept (a sad, narrative music video) by creating a very disjunctive story line unlike most sad narrative videos such as "when you're gone" by Avril Lavigne and "when September ends" by Green day.

There are exceptions of course, one notable one of course is "hurt" by Johnny Cash which is made up of assorted clips and Johnny Cash sitting at a piano playing and singing. The video plays very well to the sorrowful undertones of the song as well as real life events experienced by the performer. Our music video works as a crossover between these two styles of sad, narrative music videos with performance elements by paring sad themes with disjunctive story and infrequent yet noticeable use of performance.

Music Video Update - Michael

Since completing our first draft, we've been receiving feedback in order to attempt to improve on our video and make our media product the best it can be. We have also filmed more scenes in order to adapt our music video to the song we're using and to try and make it as professional appearing as possible.  We currently have all the shots we need to complete the video and will spend the next week carefully editing and finalizing our media product. 

Draft Music Video: Alcazar // Spark

Feedback Received from Draft Magazine Advert - Michael

Feedback Received from Draft Digiak - Michael

Draft Magazine Advert - Michael

Draft digipak, album cover and magazine advert // Sachin Mistry

Draft Digipak - Michael

Draft digipack and poster - Milo O'mahoney

Evaluation of album magazine adverts - Milo O'mahoney

Photoshoot moodboard/collage.

Digipack panel ideas - Milo O'mahoney

I like these three album covers due to their photographic merit. They have all employed techniques that create a professional style that matches what we are trying to achieve with our music video. I believe that if I adopt an album cover similar to one of these, it will match the video and style of music well.

Instead of a blank background or something bright i believe that a forest or some dark, natural landscape will go well with the proposed setting of the video. This will then be a good cross platform theme that remains similar throughout the album. I am planning on imposing three images (portraits) of the two band members (two of them individually and then one of them both together) with the forest or other natural setting in the background.

This is a similar style image to what i wish to recreate on the panels of my digipack. To get this style of portrait i will use a dark background and a single source of light to the side of the subject. This will create a smooth yet highly noticeable contrast between the two sides of the subject's face, which plays in line with our idea looking at the two sides of passion in our video.

A2 Media music video animatic // First Draft

Weekly Update #3 - (21/09/15 - 25/09/15)

At the start of this week we analysed and evaluated all the feedback we got from our peers for the 25 word pitch which we made about our music video. This was a very important tasks as it has highlighted certain areas which we haven't mentioned which we didn't clear state in our pitch. An example of this is what style of video we are going to be making?

This week we started the storyboard which will help us to visualise our video better, this meant a lot of team effort, and collaborating off each other. I would say this has to be the activity I have enjoyed the most as we have had so many ideas for our music video. This also meant that that we have had to look at video and some movies which we have taken the ideas from to put into our music video.

We stripped our chosen song apart and so that we could analysis the song and find out what we think the lyrics mean. This is so that we can film scenes which are relevant to the song and make sure we get the message across through our music videos.