Album digipack sketches

Evaluation of Animatic and Feedback

The reason for creating the storyboard animatic is so that we can have a visual of what our music video will look like, and it allows us to time it with the music to see if the visual works with the audio.

To create it we drew out the storyboards with timings etc, and then filmed it and edited the frames on premiere editing software to the music.

I think that we have been quite efficient in creating the star image as Bela in our group is creating the clothing for the artists and dancers so we will have more control over making the artist look exactly how we want.

After presenting our storyboard animatic, it wasn't exactly as we hoped it to be, due to some issues with the track etc. however these have been amended for when we actually shoot it.

The general feedback from our teacher was mainly directed at certain elements of the sets we had planned. It was mentinoed that the scene we wanted to include which involved an angled wall with water running down, may not be a possibility and so we suggested maybe using wet material instead to emulate water, however we have been told that it may still be possible to use the wall concept which is what we are hoping for.

We have a scene in the video which involves two boys dancing to indian music, dressed in asian style clothes, which our Teacher James isn't fond of, as he feels it may look comedic and ruin the high fashion theme within the video, however we intend to execute this in a very stylistic and tasteful way, using a high fashion approach in the style of Rick owens, whose clothing has influenced our video's aesthetic.

We were also told that due to health and safety we will not be able to incorporate the scene which involves one of the artists swinging in a box, and so we have changed this idea to now instead involve the artist in a water container with elastic over the top and the artist trying to escape.

Most importantly, we were told that for our video to work, it is highly dependant on our ability to provide the materials we need, and also for the actors and main artist to perform well on the day, which is why it is vital that we conduct a screen test with the main star as soon as possible.

In conclusion the animatic was very helpful in identifying how we can improve our video and also what was going to work well and what wasn't. I am now confident and look forward to creating our music video.

Research for Ancillary Tasks

For this  task we conducted research into similar artist's mediums of promotion, such as websites and album covers. We looked at 5 artists.

Websites

These are some Similar artists websites that we have looked at to draw inspiration for our own website.

Main features:

• Black websites
• Videos
• Links to: Instagram twitter Tumblr Facebook, YouTube iCloud , mail
• Focused in image
• Private photos as well
• Interviews, news

Albums

The Main features are on these albums focus on the Artist's face and style (clothing/jewelery) , which is what we want to emulate.

Our Cast

Fatima 

Fatima will be our artist who we will

promote and will be the vocalist of the video. 

Darina

Darina will be a second element to the video
she is the person who fatima will show her
dominance over.

Dayo & Etian

Dayo and Etian will be our dancers.

Asking for Copyright

This is the email that we sent to the record company that the artist of the track is signed to in order to ask for permission to use the track and avoid copyright infringement.

Storyboard Animatic

This is an animatic we created of our storyboard on Premier Pro. After watching it through we have decided that we may re compose some elements however we are confident now in pursuing our ideas for the video.

Music Video Timeline

Timeline from hurtwoodhousemedia5

Visiting lecturer from Polydor Records

On monday we were visited by emily, who is a video commissioner at Polydor Records. With her colleague she showed us some of the projects she had worked on and explained to us the commissioning  which was invaluable to our own music video promos.


Recently she has worked on Ellie Goulding's Music video for 'goodness gracious',  also La Roux's - 'kiss and tell' as well as Bipolar Sunshine's 'deckchairs on the moon'. Emily essentially produces a treatment for the music video based on information from the director, record label and artist. She explained that  sometimes the artist has a clear vision and idea for the music video concept, which she explained is great, however these concepts may sometimes be slightly too optimistic/ unachievable with regards to availabke busget etc.


On the other hand sometimes the artist does not have a prepared concept/idea for the video and in  this circumstance the director will pursue their own vision for the video.

She also hinted at the importance of references as this often helps the audience to resinate with product, this was a key factor for the kiss and tell video by La Roux, as they made a reference to telephones and incorporated a live telephone number which added an interactive aspect to the video.


In addition to this, references to products can sometimes help with the funding of the music video if it leads to sponsorship deals. For example if an artist made a deal with Dr. Dre Beats to feature their product in the music video, then they would help fund the video in return for the product being featured in the video raising brand awareness.


Furthermore, Emily also informed us that the average budget for a music video these days is between 5-10 grand for a relatively new artist, however for bigger artists such as Lana Del Rey and Rihanna, the budget can be around 200 grand as they are more established and successful.


Finally, Emily also emphasised on the point of always having a plan b. This is because cast may not show up or you may find out that you do not have permission to shoot somewhere etc. For example she referenced a time where they were going to shoot from a helicopter for the Bipolar Sunshine video, but the week before they banned aerial/ airborne drone shots.


I am very grateful to have been able to get this advice and information and of course insight as it will definitely be very helpful in creating my own music video promo.