Below is our finished music video...

Below are the external panels of our Digipak. Left is the back and right is the cover

Below are the external panels of my Digipak

Below are the external panels of my Digipak
Left is the back of the album and to the right is the front

Below are the internal panels of our Digipak

Below are the internal panels of our Digipak

Below are the internal panels of our Digipak

Below are the internal panels of our Digipak
Click on the image below to be directed to our website


Monday 19 December 2016

Construction Post 6: Website Post Production


We used the software Wix in order to create our website. Although this is a software I had not previously used, by the end of this process I am very confident using it and its tools. A website is very important for an artist as it acts as a hub for all of the information about them. In addition to this, we wanted our website to be an interactive place where fans of our artist could find opportunities to get involved in activities as well as view exclusive content.

In order to stick to convention we wanted to create a landing page. After researching into other artist's websites I decided that I would use our artist's album cover as the background for this page. This would immediately advertise our new album to any viewer of the website, increasing our reach to our TA and therefore increasing the likelihood of sales. Other artists such as Alicia Keys have also used this technique which I think is very effective...

Alicia Key's landing page 
Our landing page 
In addition to this, the repetition of the album cover image helped to create a brand for our artist due to the synergy it created.

Once the viewer enters the site via the 'continue to site' button, they are navigated to the home page. Here, they are greeted by a compilation of short clips that I sourced from outtakes which were later edited by Jerom. We were inspired to do this by looking at the sites of artists such as Izzy Bizu and Drake who have videos that automatically play in their background. This appealed to us as it was immediately engaging and showcased the artist. The button 'Listen' links to our music page, once again advertising our new album.
A snippet of our home page 
A snippet of Izzy Bizu's homepage 
The tool bar is a very essential part of a website as without it, the viewers would be unable to navigate their way around the site. After receiving feedback from a member of our TA, we decided to change the name of the page 'Live' to 'Tour Dates'. This was to make our pages clearer so that  TA members were more likely to spend more time on the site. 

We were also told that our social media icons blended in to our footer too much as they were originally black, so I changed the theme to one that stood out more in order to encourage viewers to click on them. Having social media was very important to our artist as it allows them a way to interact with their audience. For this reason, I created an Instagram account for our artist. Having different social media platforms meant that we could broaden the reach of our artist as well as offering fans exclusive material. This is also a good example of cross media convergence as the website is able to advertise and link to all of these different media texts.
The Instagram account I created 
Next, I created the Music page. Here I put the finished music video along with an album track. The album track once again showcases the album cover, creating a consistent image, whilst the final music video creates new imagery. Below the final music video I wrote a quote that the artist would have said about their new album. This helped to give the website a more personal feel, increasing the audience's ability to relate to the artist. 
Our music page
We also wanted an area on our website where fans could view pictures and images of our artist which lead me to creating the Gallery page. This page gave a variety of different formats to look at such as pictures and videos. With these images I took the opportunity to create some mutually beneficial relationships with different brands. For example, once the picture on the bottom right corner is hovered over the caption "Thank you sleek for some treats #SleekMakeUp" can be seen. This creates a symbiotic relationship with this brand as they are sponsoring the artist, whilst the artist also advertises their make up to members of their TA that may want it.
Gallery pictures 

Below this, I created an exclusive behind the scenes video which can only be seen on the website, acting as an incentive for fans to go on the website. This short video can be seen below...

I then created the 'News' element of this page. Here, fans could keep up to date with any events that Layla Obi had. For example, I created a competition in which fans had the opportunity to meet the artist if they entered a competition by using the hashtag #MeetLaylaObi. This made our website more interactive for the viewer as well as encouraging them to advertise our artist further through the use of the hashtag. As Andrew Dubber once said, "Today a music website is a place where people gather and connect with an artist and with each other." and so by encouraging our fans to share posts, we will be creating an online community for them to connect through.
Our competition
The button gadget
I then create the Tour Dates page by creating a table in Photoshop which consisted of different dates and venues. After this I placed  this into Wix and put a 'button' gadget on each row under the column 'Tickets'. Once I did this I edited the text on each button to say 'Tickets'. I then linked each button to the Ticket Master website so that when the button is clicked on you are immediately directed to the Ticket Master website. Unfortunately I think that this is one of our least visually engaging pages as I was unable to put the fairy light detail that I had wanted around the edge of this page due to constriction of the template we had chosen. Despite this, I think that all of the relevant information required in order for the page to fulfill its purpose is included. 
How I linked the buttons

The next page I made was the Merchandise page. In order to make our merchandise options more interesting I created a variety of products such as a phone case, a mug, a beanie and a backpack by duplicating the brand template that Matt had created onto different items. This helped to create a larger ranger of items which is beneficial from a marketing perspective as the more options a consumer is given, the more likely they are to find an item that they like and eventually buy. 

Our Merchandise page 
I then combed through this page, adding little details such as product information and shipping details so that our site was more informative and appeared more realistic. 
Product details 
The 'More' section consists of the pages 'Bio' and 'Sign Up'. Here, extra information about the artist as well as the option to sign up to the website mailing list are presented. For the Bio page I created a backstory for our artist. This is so fans could find out as many details about our artist as possible in order to fulfill their want to know more about idealised figures. As well as this, I created a Q and A in which the artist answered more questions about herself.
The bio I wrote
The sign up page gave the viewer the option to create an account with the site, allowing them to receive any information regarding Layla Obi.This is important as it means that we can directly interact with fans and increases our reach.
Our sign up page
Overall, I am very pleased with how the website turned out as I believe that I created one that was both informative and interactive as well as aesthetically pleasing. 

Construction Post 5: Digipak Post Production

After shooting our final album cover we began editing our panels. This was a crucial aspect of our project as album art is very important, especially for a debut single as it defines an artist and represents who they are.


Inside Panels 
After our shoot I reviewed our pictures and decided on the images that we would use.
Originally, our idea was to include a side profile shot of my face with writing around my face on the left hand side panel. However, after viewing the pictures taken I decided it would be best for them not to be included. Instead I had to use my resources and decided to create a new focal image by taking a screenshot of one of our behind the scenes videos.
The behind the scenes video I sourced the photo from
The image I created
As it was a screenshot, it meant that I had to edit this picture in order to appear cleaner. For example, in the image above it is clear that my eyes are still slightly open. In order to stop this I used the paint tool on Photoshop to paint over this space so that my eye looked closed.
The edited version with my eyes shut 
I then went on to use refine edge to cut my head away from the background. After I did this  I increased the brightness of the image so that it blended into the white of our panel more.
The cut out head before adding the background 
Originally Matt had attempted to source a font to recreate the look of handwriting, however, I felt that this didn't look effective so I suggested that I write out the words and sketches by hand. After I drew all of these words Jerom used the Polygonal Lasso tool to select each word individually, then moved them onto a white layer. After this, he turned up the contrast in order to make them darker. Coming up with words to go inside of the panel was difficult for me at first, however, after referring back to our influential album covers such as the one for the artist Erykah Badu, it reminded me that the words did not have to necessarily make logical sense together but needed to individually evoke our artist and their character. This lead me to include phrases such as 'Make a change' and 'Keep up'. We also wanted some drawings that represented our artist and her beliefs. For example, I suggested that we included the symbol of a fist as it is often associated with black pride. Jerom then went on to draw this image along with some other sketches so that he could strategically place them around our panels.
Some of the phrases I wrote
The font that was previously on our panel
Outside Panels
After taking our album cover picture we wanted to increase the brightness of it so that the colours popped and connoted energy and youth. Jerom used the levels function on Photoshop in order to do this and created an image which made the grafitti background stand out more.
Before and after the colours were edited
As we had discovered whilst editing the interior of our album, my silhouette proved to be very difficult to edit around. This was due to my hair as its volume and intricate texture meant that it took a very long time to refine the edge of this image. After successfully cutting around my body from the front panel image, it was duplicated and transferred to the back panel of our template.After this, my body was layered with an image of graffiti which was extracted form the cover. However, after seeing this effect we decided that it would be best if the back panel showcased a different type of graffiti. In order to achieve this, Jerom and Matt used the Clone stamp tool along with the Polygonal Lasso in order to manipulate the image and colours of the graffiti that we already had, creating a different and vibrant look.

The template that we used
It was important for us to stick to the conventions of album covers when we were deciding what information to add to the back of our album in order to provide audience members with the relevant information. After researching existing albums, we decided that we needed to include a bar code, a copyright claim, an institutional logo, the artist's logo and the artist's website.
The information on our album
It was difficult to decide on the sizing of the name of the artist on the album cover at first as we wanted it to be striking, without overpowering the image and drawing away attention from the focal image which is the artist themselves. However, after seeing albums from artists such as Beyonce and Adele, it became clear that their names had to be bold as they acted as part of their brand and were just as important as the title of the album. After this discovery, I suggested that we increased the size of the name 'Layla Obi' so that it became the focal point of all the writing. However, after doing so the two separate layers of name and album title overlapped each other. In order to prevent this i suggested that we somehow incorporated the two through techniques such as putting the letter 'y' in Layla through the 'O' of London. With the help of our technician, Emma, we discovered a way to do this by using the Polygonal Lasso tool on Photoshop.
Our album's final title
Adele and Beyonce's albums
In conclusion, this process required a lot of trial and error as we experimented with many different effects and formats in order to bring out the best results. Through this section of the project I also developed my knowledge of Photoshop tools and utilised my group's artistic abilities.

Sunday 11 December 2016

Construction Post 4: Music Video Post Production

We edited our final music sequence using the software Adobe Premiere Pro. Going into the editing process, we had to bear in mind all that we had learnt from our test edit and audience feedback. This process also involved a lot of trial and error as were constantly replacing shots with others that we felt might work better and due to the vast amount of good shots that we had it was difficult for us to choose. Below I have included the notes that we found for ourselves along with the notes given to us through feedback sessions.



During our final edit it was important for us to figure out a new look for our music video opening. In our test edit, our opening immediately introduced the artist through a MS of myself in front of a projector. However, after receiving feedback, we decided to create a new opening which built atmosphere gradually. To achieve this we compiled a series of short voyeuristic shots such as a CU of Eyes and Lips so that the artist's image would be slowly revealed, rather than just being introduced immediately. These voyeuristic shots were cut to the beat, varying in length as we had also been told that the cuts in our test shoot were too predictable. Once we had these shots in place, we wanted to play around with the different transition effects that we had available. For example, after I played around with the different types of dissolves (as seen), I felt that the 'cross dissolve' was most suited to our video. These dissolves helped to make our video more fluid and created an effect that was aesthetically pleasing. 


Above are the various dissolve effect options and below that is our timeline with the addition of the cross dissolves which can be identified by the purple box on the top of the shot. 



Above is our original idea for the opening compared to our final opening sequence. It is clear that the second opening is much more effective as it builds up suspense as the audience wait to see the full image of the artist. The different shot and lighting types are more interesting visually and create the drama required in a music video. The use of voyeuristic shots adheres to the theories constructed by theorists such as Laura Mulvey as they introduce an element of sexuality as the camera follows the male gaze. 

The transition tools proved to be very important for our video as they allowed us to combine the studio narrative to the male narrative seamlessly. For example, when the male character falls asleep I used the fade transition effect in order to connote his dream like state. I then cross dissolved this to a shot of myself in the studio lip syncing whilst putting my hands in a praying position. This fusion of narratives was to foreshadow the events within the rest of the video as I appear to be pleading with the male character to stay safe in the dangerous world that we are surrounded by. 

After we had placed all  of the shots that we wanted on our timeline I took it upon myself to grade the video. I completed this task with the aid of the ProcAmp tool as seen.

During this process I had to go through each shot individually and alter the brightness, contrast and saturation settings. This was a tedious process as it required a lot of experimenting with different settings. It was important for me to bring out the colour within each shot in order to create a more vibrant look, however, I had to do this in such a manner that I did not compromise the colour of any character's skin, therefore impairing the realistic look. Grading was a vital aspect of editng as I soon discovered the dramatic effect that it had on the look of our footage. For example,  in the original footage seen our shot appears very dull and grey, however, after using the procAmp tool I was able to bring out the colour in the background graffiti. In addition to this I was able to bring out the colour in Andy's skin. This makes the shot appear more realistic, heightening the audience's ability to believe and relate to the video.
Before grading 
After I graded 
An issue that we encountered whilst editing was sticking to the guidelines of the brief which stated that the video must be 3 minutes long. Originally, our video lasted a total of 3 minutes and 40 seconds which is evident in our test edit so we had to find a way to reduce this drastically. In order to adhere to the brief, Matt was able to edit the audio of our song so that it lasted a total of 2 minutes and 55 seconds. This was very benficial for our group as it meant that we no longer had to force ourselves to put in unnecessary shots in order to fill up time. However, 2 minutes 55 seconds still didn't meet the brief's requirements so i thought of a way that we could fill up this time. To do this I created a title in which the institution appeared at the end of the video along with their copyright claims. This is a convention seen within many music videos as it is another way that an institution is able to put their own 'stamp' on their projects.
A real video example

Our title

Above is the institutional logo that appears at the end of the music video for the song 'Do It Again' by Pia Mia compared to the one that appears in my video.

To conclude, this was one of the most enjoyable parts of the process for me as I was able to see all the hard work that my group had done come together. It was a very difficult process that tested our editing abilities as well as our creative instinct, however, I think that this was worth it as we were able to create a video that I am very pleased with. 

Construction Post 3: Week 3 Production

During this week we began editing our studio shots. As we were yet to film our male narrative (due to it being a location based shoot), we decided to create an outline of where all of our studio shots would go in our sequence. In order to do this we had to make decisions regarding how our two separate narratives would flow together. For example, we decided to largely stick to studio based shots during large moments of dialogue as it gave us the opportunity to include our lip synced shots.This meant that the male narrative mainly fell upon moments of instrumentals as words were not significant in this sequence. Building upon advice from our teachers which was to try to bring the two narratives together more, we also wanted to include moments where the two narratives appeared to link. For example, during shooting I thought it would be effective if I pushed the camera away from my face and into a pan so that we could sync this to the pan of Andy that I shot on location.
The pan
We then synced Andy's shot to another shot of me so that it gave the illusion of a 180 degree spin. I think that this effectively linked the two narratives as well as helping to create a variation of shot types. This also allowed us to experiment with different shot transitions as we used dissolves and fades to try and make these shots flow.

During the weekend we had our on location shoot to film the male narrative. Originally, we had only planned to film on the Saturday of this weekend, however, our actor was unreliable and arrived to the shoot several hours late. This meant that we were forced to return to Shoreditch on the following day to finish off the rest of our shots. This was obviously frustrating, however, it taught me the importance of scheduling and sourcing reliable actors. Despite this set back, this weekend proved to be a very efficient one as we were able to address all of the issues raised in our test shoot. We were also able to experiment with the new shots that we had created. For example, I knew that we needed more angles of Andy running in order to make our video more interesting visually. A problem that we encountered was feeling restricted to creating static shots of Andy running due to us only having a tripod. In order to overcome this i came up with a method in which the tripod was put down to its lowest point and then placed under the arm of whoever was recording. This meant that we had the freedom to move with the camera and follow Andy as he ran. Originally I had attempted to film these shots whilst running with the camera, however, I felt that my hand was too shaky so passed this on to Matt who completed this with a steadier hand. However, some of the shots within our video still appear very shaky. I would have preferred to have a smoother camera movement, although I do think that the shaking creates energy and reflects the paranoid nature that the character finds themself in.
An example of a shaky shot
Overall, this week was a very efficient one as we built a good foundation for us to continue building upon in the following weeks.

Construction Post 2: Week 2 Production

In week 2 we began filming our main and final shoot. We came prepared with all of our revisions from our test shoot and attempted to improve on what we had done previously. This was another long and tiring week, but we were aware that this hard work was needed in order to create a music video that we could be proud of.

Below I have included a picture of my group's filming schedule. The schedule is colour co-ordinated in order to show the different set ups that we would be creating. This was highly beneficial to our group as we were able to allocate each day to a different set up, ensuring that we stayed on track to finish all the shots required. This also meant that I could map out the different make up and costume looks that I would need for each day in advance. Overall, having a properly planned out schedule was vital to our shoot week as it meant that everyone knew what was required of them for the day, resulting in a more efficient day of filming. The behind the scenes clip that I have included illustrates the importance of the schedule as it is the first thing that I refer to when explaining our plans for the day to our technician, Emma.
Our schedule



Monday 
On Monday we decided to film our projection shots for the video. This had proven to be a tricky set up in our test shoot, so we thought it best to begin the week doing this in case the footage had to be retaken. Despite learning from our test shoot, perfectly positioning the projector still proved difficult for our group. We eventually overcame this issue by placing the projector on top of various objects such as a stool and wooden blocks until we achieved the results that we wanted.

During this day we were able to use our revised projection footage which consisted of brighter footage as we had been told that our previous footage was too dark and blocked out my body by casting too many shadows.

After a suggestion from our teacher to create more interesting shots, we used this opportunity to experiment with different shot types and even tried incorporating some movement into these shots by experimenting with some dolly and hand held shots.

Below I have included a short clip of my group evaluating how we think the shoot day went...




Tuesday 
We then went on to film our strobe lighting shots on Tuesday. This proved to be another difficult day in terms of lighting as we had to experiment with different ways to make the strobe lighting appear bold without washing out my face. This day was particularly hard for me as I found it very difficult to keep my eyes open whilst the strong light was flashing.Eventually we decided that these shots looked better when my eyes were closed as they no longer looked agitated. However, I feel that this day was also very successful for me as I became more fluid in front of the camera, allowing us to create more artistic and aesthetically pleasing shots. I practiced different types of hand movements that could be incorporated into the video in order to increase the movement as suggested by our teacher such as the one below...

One of my hand movements
Wednesday
An example of the fairy light shots
On Wednesday we filmed our fairy light and microphone set up. The fairy light set up was one of our easiest to set up as it involved turning out the lights and placing myself under the string of fairy lights that had been set up. However, this set up was also very tiring for me as I had created a set of dance moves in which I repeated under these lights in order to achieved our desired silhouette.



The microphone set up proved to be a more difficult one as we struggled to create camera movement here. This was because the legs of the Dolly kept on barging into the microphone stand legs whenever Jerom would attempt to film close ups. However, once we overcame this issue we began to use different techniques such as pans and zooms so that we did not recreate the static footage of our test shoot.
The new microphone shot created 

Thursday
This was our red/blue lighting and stool set up day. This day proved to be very difficult for us as the lights in our studio had stopped working properly. This was due to the Gel Filters on the lights becoming stuck between two different colours rather than just one. This meant that rather than getting our desire red or blue shots we could only achieve a sort of purple lighting. This caused our group a lot of trouble as we ended up spending several hours attempting to fix the lights and decided by the end of the day that they would require engineers to fix them. Despite this major set back we were still able film some stool shots with very faint lighting, however, through grading I was able to make the colours stand out more and pop.
Our final stool shot.

Friday
We did pick ups of any shots that we had yet to film on this day as well as filming some specific shots such as the candle ones. Although this day was allocated to re-filming any shots that we thought we could improve, we were limited as to what we could film due to the lights still not working. We had to arrange our candle shot for this day as we had to be supervised by our technician, Emma who arrived armed with a fire extinguisher. Although we knew we wanted to incorporate candles into our video in some way, due to not including such shots in our test shoot we did not have any idea of how we were to arrange it.  I decided that it would be a good idea for me to wear an 'off the shoulder' shirt so that we could create close ups that used minimalism. This eventually led to us experimenting with a series of voyeuristic shots such as ECUs of lips and half face shots which we thought looked very effective and decided to compile them in order to make the opening of our song.  This shot proved difficult to shoot as I had to lift my head up then blow out the candle without looking at it. I also had learn how to blow out the candle without puffing out my cheeks so that the action appeared effortless. Here is a snippet of some of the behind the scenes of this shot which shows the process of preparing it...

Overall, this week was a great learning curve for me as it gave me hands on experience as to what working on an actual music video set is like. It was an extremely tiring week, however, I think that it was worth it as we came away from it with footage that we loved. 

Construction Post 1: Week 1 Production

During week 1 of our production we began revisions of our test shoot. After evaluating our test edit with the help of our teachers and TA, we began to extract the elements of our video which we did not think worked. For example, in our test edit the male narrative shoot had a long sequence in which our actor is seen walking into the train station. We realised that this section was too long and made this part of the video dull. I think that we had created this section in the mindset of attempting to create a continuous sequence of events, however, I soon realised that this was detrimental to our video as music videos conventionally have non-linear editing. This new mindset made us much more willing to cut down this footage, allowing us to create a shorter and sharper video.
How we established the actor entering the train previously
We also had to work on establishing the character of this male after a member of our TA said "I was confused at first because I didn't know who he was". This meant that we had to think of a better way to introduce this character visually.
Our original establishing shot of Andy
We decided to get rid of the shot above in our final shoot as it was an ineffective way of introducing our character. He is so far away that you cannot see any of his features and he appears to be an average civilian on the street. Instead, we decided to create a CU of Andy which would immediately introduce him to the viewer and highlight him as a character of importance.
Our final establishing shot of Andy
As well as re-drawing shots, we also remade our projection video. Previously the footage made had been too dark so we had to edit in some new brighter footage. This meant that my face was better lit in these shots. During this time I also became interested in the idea of creating a projection that consisted of geometric patterns and images which I went on to create and can be seen below.
An example of my projection

Another example of my projection
To conclude, we took this week as an opportunity to build upon our test shoot. This week was a very creative week for us as we were forced to push our artistic ideas and abilities.