Website Layout (Final)

Below is the copy of my webpage design that I plan to use:

The logo that is used above is NOT the logo that I will be using. That was my initial idea for a logo. As of yet, the detail that I will be including in each area of the webpage is not yet clear but from the titles of each area, its pretty clear which form the detail will take once the webpage is created.

Logo (Final Design)

Today, I have come up with my final design for my logo. Below is a picture of my logo

For my logo, I decided that the core element of it should be the 'M' and the 'X' from the artist's name . I've implemented this into my logo the best way I could. The 'X' needed to have a different style to it, so I though that this chosen effect would go well, especially when looking at various electronic artist's logos.

The Angel wings were an idea that I had out of the blue in all honesty, however they seem to be fairly effective in contrasting with the 'rough and rugged' look that I have given the 'X' in the background. The crown was also something that was very spontaneous in my thought process. I watched a music video by WoodKid called 'Run Boy Run' and in it, there was a consistent image of two keys that had a royal-like style to them, so I took that as my inspiration and used a crown instead.

At the moment, I'm still experimenting with what my colour scheme is going to be. I have the idea to use two contrasting colours to go alongside the contrast in imagery within the logo itself, hence the reason why I've used orange and blue. The only idea that I will definitely be implementing is the outlining of colour rather than colouring it in fully.

Peer Assessment of our 2 Column Storyboard

In todays lesson (28th November), we created a 2 Column Storyboard for our music video. This is what it looked like:

This storyboard shows our narrative at every stage of the song we are using. In detail, it shows what we plan to have on screen at various sections of the soundtrack. For example, at the very beginning, we plan to have numerous shots that set the scene of the video, like a close up of the door handle turning, and footsteps walking into the lecture theatre.

We then got feedback from another group on the content of our storyboard, with any criticisms or good ideas that we have used. Below is the feedback we received:

We were told the following:

1) Describe clearly what sort of room its in?

2) What shots will we be using for the opening shots?

3) We had a good blend between the narrative and the performance

4) Need a slight improvement on the narrative

We have taken this feedback into account and will incorporate it into our storyboard in due time.

Results/Findings From Our Questionnaires

Questionnaire Results

From these findings, we have come to several conclusions:

• We now have decided on what our final idea will be for our narrative
• Within our final idea, there will be very minimal forms of conflict, seeing as there were no positive feedback on existing music videos that contained violence/conflict
• We will be making sure that our footage we get pretty much includes our 'artist' in every shot possible, as that was another key focus that those asked said was vital when they watch a music video.
• Our 'artist' will be given a look based on existing artists within the industry, similar to Calvin Harris, the most popularly voted for look.

Evaluation of Our Focus Group

Here is our evaluation of the Focus Group. 

Focus Group (20th November 2012)

            

This is our Focus Group we have done to gather more research into our genre of music, Electronica. We will put this alongside the results that we have gained from our questionnaires to help us make a final decision on what to include in our main idea.

Webpage Design (FIRST DRAFT)

This is my first draft of a webpage design that I plan on using:

As you can see it is not fully completed yet as I plan to add more to it as I go along, simply because there needs to be a background image added and that may effect the positioning of some of the links, images, etc.

First Logo Ideas

As a group, we decided on this being our starting idea for our logo:

We decided on using the eye as part of our logo because within the footage that we plan on getting, we hope to use a number of different close-up shots, and so we thought that it would be a good idea to keep this theme consistent to our music video.

We have all decided upon including different symbols within each of our eyes, similar to how the Rolling Stones have styled out their logo of the lips:

I have decided to use the shape of an eye but with a Union Jack instead of a pupil. The other themes within my group is a 'x' as the pupil, a fully black pupil and a glass-shattering effect.

Moodboard for Webpage

Media Moodboard

This is my moodboard for the artist's identity.

There are reasons specifically why I chose to include these images and fonts. For the fonts, we had the discussion that electronica bands seem to have futuristic characteristics, so I took this approach and went looking for any styles of font that seemed to show a futuristic 'feel'. The ones above I feel best reflect this, especially the 4th from the top, which seems to show the letters in a slightly more unique way than expected.

In terms of the pictures I've chosen, I took inspiration from electronica bands like 'The Prodigy' and 'Deadmau5'.

Our Ideas (Pitches)

Our Group's Initial Ideas

During the process of choosing our soundtrack, collectively, we came up with a brief idea that still needs a little more detail to it, but we all feel could work to our advantage.

Idea No.1

For this, we came up with the idea of having the person playing our artist in a dark room, with a singular spotlight or several spotlights aimed at the centre of the room. Within these spotlights, the 'artist' would be in a trance-like state, giving a number of cameras we were planning to use loads of direct address in a semi-confrontational way. We'd also have a number of close-ups mainly directed towards various body parts such as the hands and forearm, the legs and different areas of their face. This would be at the very beginning as its gives a build up to the physical appearance of the artist from the off, leaving the audience to want to stay on and watch to find out more about the 'persona' that we want the artist to portray.

Idea No. 2

This was an idea that I have recently come up with by myself. I have sat and listened to the soundtrack  a number of times through and have thought about the different themes that strike me straight away.

There are a number of different elements to this soundtrack that are possible to implement within our own music video, however there are two in particular that I feel we could pull off. The first is that the instruments used in the soundtrack create a machine-like atmosphere, possibly even zombie-like. So, taking elements from idea no. 1, I thought that the starting shots could consist of pretty much the same, close-ups of different areas of the artist's body, however they could be a lot more lacklustre, giving off that 'zombie' vibe. The shots would then focus on the artist's face, which has make-up on to make him look partially 'dead' but on only one side of his face. Following shots would then consist of different locations, rather than just the one, that gives both machine-like surroundings and isolation.

Idea No. 3

The third idea I have is the other theme I found was predominant from the soundtrack, to portray a 'break-up' between the artist and a 'lover'. I had this idea when I saw the new lecture-style room that had been built in our school. This would be the setting for the music video, and would have a clear narrative and performance element to it. Like the first two, the starting shots would be the same but this time, there would be a number of shots showing the artist putting a CD on, and then on the projector, showing him and his 'lover' on a recorded video. This video would then be the main source of light in the room and then to follow this, there would be a number of shots showing the artist slumped in different spots of the lecture stand watching the video back whilst clearly singing/miming the soundtrack as well. This would be cut up with a number of shots showing the crazed look of the artist that has obviously been an impact of the break up, much like the one's planned for the previous two ideas.

Band Filming Activity

In todays double period, we filmed a band performing on stage live.

There were three cameras in use to start with:

A static camera

A free, handheld camera

A Dolly camera

Here is a diagram of the set-up for filming:

Our group found this to be a valuable experience and have gained a number of useful notes that we feel can help us when we get to the process of going out to get our footage. for our music video. For example, my group in particular ended up using a variety of different shot types to film the band. We also found it useful to film at different levels to the artist/instruments as it makes the shot a little more interesting.

The Dolly Camera was the one camera that I was most interested in working with. This is because I have seen from other people's work from previous years as well as in other popular music videos that a Dolly Camera can help to create some interesting and extravagant shots that helps to keep the audience's attention to the music video, so, from a personal view, this was one area that I myself found useful to learn about in this activity.

Before going on to use camera's in other areas around the performing band, I had noted in my mind the  ways in which other students in my group and others were filming the band. This gave me some ideas as to not only how I could film the band when the time came for me to be in that particular role but it has also given me some ideas into how we, as a group, could choose to film our 'artist' when it comes to getting the footage for our music video.