Website 1st Working Page - Update

 Website Update:

1st working page looking to be finished. I will try to include some more details at a later stage if I have time (maybe a short teaser for a tour, some more merchandise items, etc)

• All social buttons work (you are directed to the appropriate webpage for whatever button you click)
• Most elements are animated/moving (the images do not effectively show this)
• The Mr. Blue Sky single is interactive (hover over image to see vinyl)
• Included merchandise page with both Mr Blue Sky related merchandise and other CDBoy related items (e.g. pre-order for the next album)
• Interactions with fans through twitter, featured some fake twitter handles with fake tweets for audience engagement
• Teaser for next "era" of artist - went for an autumnal mise-en-scene with dark greens and browns, serif fonts etc.
• A footer with appropriate social buttons and disclaimers, as well as an invitation for an newsletter
• A secret easter egg (the user can click on the bunny at the footer to find a secret poster, with a call to action to enter a raffle)

Other elements to note:

• Created a font for the website (most of the text is written in this font)
• The Mr Blue Sky album cover is a homage/reference to Tyler the Creator's Flower Boy album

1. Writing and easter egg for the second page complete. 30 second audio/visual element completed, but needs to be uploaded to website.
2. Shooting for video done (might redo bits if they don't look as good as I want) but still underway with animating.

30 Second Audio Visual Content

 For my 30 second clip for my webpage, I decided to make an interview with the minor characters appearing in the music video, who will be posing as CDBoy's mum and dad. A big part of my star persona is his positive relationship with his parents - something many young people would aspire to have.

This is my completed video, with editing similar to WIRED's twitter interviews that they host. However, this is much longer than 30 seconds, so I will aim to condense the content of the interview into a short, 30 second TikTok.

19/09/2022 Progress

 Long Weekend Goals:

• Record all musical instrument shots. Piano, guitar and vocals, including a fret-board shot for the guitar riff in the song.
• Record more general footage of my main character for the second half of the song.
• Finish recording / reach a conclusion to my music video.

At the weekend, I accomplished two of my three goals. I now have a complete master track for the guitar, guitar closeups, fret-board closeup and vocal aspect of my music video Each element that I recorded can be swapped in at any time, with all of the audio synced successfully.

As well as this, I continued with more of my editing and filming. My timeline as of this weekend looks like this, with the left section being film I have decided upon and am happy with, with a few tweaks and adjustments. 

My timeline last week looked like this, with a concept I was less happy with.

Alongside editing, I am also sketching out the rough lines for my animation. I have decided against properly animating anything as things may come up or I may have to make adjustments to my clips, so I should not commit to anything until I am sure it is final. While I have not reached the conclusion of my video yet, I feel more confident in the direction it is taking and will continue animating and recording in my spare time. During the week I have found a video I wish to analyse further, and hopefully reference in my video - Happiness by McFly.

I am struggling with finding intertextual references to use in my video, so I aim to speak with my peers soon to see if they have any ideas or references I could include.

I have not started my website yet, but am continually taking images and drawing pictures for when I do. I have a generally good idea of how my website will appear and I will aim to begin planning this next lesson.

Photos taken 06/08/2022

 

Music Video Draft - No Animation

 

This is the second/third draft of my music video with an adapted storyline. Whereas before I had a storyline that appeared too niche and specific, I have expanded it for a broader theme of Eric exploring the day around him. This draft has some animation, and some sketches outlining the animation that will go atop of it - which will be finished at a later date.

Photoshoot #1 - Out the Window

 

Taken - 1st August

I intend for these images to be used as posters and promotional material for my website, as well as using it as an opportunity to test out my camera and the method of shooting. A tower was assembled outside of my window in order to shoot from my first story window. In these images I will superimpose my animated characters around the main character.

^ The tower that was used.

Planning - Storyboarding on Adobe Animate

Rather than creating a physical storyboard using paper and pen, I decided to use Adobe Animate to create a rough storyboard for the shots that I should include, and how long they should be shot for.

However, I have found that in several areas I have timed things wrong and the animatic is too fast- but I should be able to correct this and get the same ideas across.

 

Planning - Animation Test

 

Here is a small animation test I conducted to see if I could create the effect I was originally aiming for.

How I made, and intend to make the animation in my music video is as follows:

1. Shoot the video I wish to create an animation over.
2. Run it through Adobe Premiere Pro with the Warp Stabilizer effect if necessary - I need the shots to be as still as possible for overlaying animation onto.
3. Import the video into FlipaClip, my main tool of animation, on my iPad. If there are more complex shots I intend to use Adobe Animate, which gives me lots of rotoscoping capabilities and other visual effects.
4. My animation is at 4/5 frames per second, so FlipaClip automatically cuts down the video to show five frames per second instead of 30. By importing the video into the programme I am able to draw on top of the video on the layer above to see exactly where my animation will be placed in relation to the video.
5. If my animation has elements that will be cropped, I do not erase them in the animation on FlipaClip. I use the entirety of the canvas and draw the whole character (for the most part) to keep things consistent and allow me to move the animation around slightly if need-be (trust me, it just saves time in the long run). In this case, I animated the bee even when it was behind the window so it looked smoother when it emerged.
6. Once the animation has been made I set the background to a bright green, or a bright colour that is not shared in any of the colouring (making a green screen)
7. Import it into Adobe Premiere and resize it so that it fits the screen. Apply the "Colour Key" effect from the effects panel and colour-drop the bright green so that the green-screen is applied. I often have to play around with the tolerance and feather tools to make it look clean and remove any green spots.
1. In this example, the bee goes behind the window, so I had to utilise masks to achieve this.
2. In the effects controls panel (where you are able to change the size, rotation etc. of the video selected) I created an opacity mask and adjusted the edges of the mask so that it fit the four edges of the window. Opacity masks allow only the calibrated shape of video to appear, so I made two masks for the two panes of the window that the bee is visible in.
3. I added a light drop shadow to make it look more authentic.
4. I then exported the video as a H.264.

An easy to understand tutorial on masking can be found here.

Planning - Concept Sketches for Posters

Here are the initial concepts I had for my designs for the webpage, posters, etc. This was relatively straight-forward as this was one of the first concepts I had for my star identity. I will try my best to achieve the correct angle as seen in the first image but this may be difficult to achieve due to the height of the window in question.

Planning - Rough Plans for Website

 Some rough plans on the layout of my website, with annotations from discussion time in class. I wanted to create a fun, action-packed and visually appealing website with lots of digital convergence with animation from the music video.

Planning - Concept Sketches for the Logo

 

Here are my concept sketches for the CDBoy logo. I decided upon the name CDBoy in reference to TVGirl, a popular band that is popular within my 16-25 year old audience. 

This is one of the logos I have decided on - made out of a CD I scanned on my printer.

Pitch Presentation

Planning - Annotating my Lyrics

 

Here are some rough ideas for my music video based on the lyrics. My idea is that the Mr Blue Sky motif represents my artist - he is the Mr. Blue Sky and influences the world around him with his art and creativity.

Planning - Initial Ideas and Potential Topics

1. Mr Brightside - The Killers

Because I want my video to have some elements of animation, Mr Brightside is a great option. It is extremely well-known song, with memorable lyrics. It follows a clear narrative that I could accompany with a distinctive visual style I could easily apply Andrew Goodwin’s theory and create some interesting visual effects alongside the lyrics and the song is anthemic for its popularity and lyrics about teenage life that many individuals can see themselves in, especially individuals in the 16-25 age demographic.

2. Mr Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra

Mr Blue Sky could be considered an anthem due to its upbeat, feel-good nature that resonates with almost everyone. It is not slow - it is a positive, very well-known song that allows for many different representations and its narrative is vague enough independently for me to create my own, and the music video would flow, and I could adapt my ideas to fit the lyrics. The lyrics of a Mr Blue Sky, the personification of the sunshine and sky, would appeal to the aspirational audience as well. 

3. Supermassive Black Hole - Muse

Supermassive Black Hole could be considered an anthem of revolting against the system and the idea of individualism but would have to include a strong performance element and consistent colour and thematic concept. This would appeal to the aspirational audience, and my 16-25 demographic as well, as young adults are encouraged to fight for themselves and often do so against themes of authority in stereotypical teenage and young adult representations. 

4. Teenage Dirtbag - Wheatus

This song would specifically resonate with my 16-25 year old demographic and would come under the anthem as the lyrics are memorable, the song is well known and well liked by this demographic - being made in 2000. The lyrics speak about falling in love, a teenage crush, and would be particularly resonant to the aspirers psychometric group as love and happiness with another from a young age is desirable and sought after. The song also includes elements of teenage life, like seeing an Iron Maiden concert and issues and aspects that surround school - being made to play in PE, dealing with bullies and having a romantic interest within school.

5. Kids - Current Joys

This song would be particularly resonant with my 16-25 year old audience as the song is about growing up and the trials and tribulations that come along with it. The song can be considered an anthem of young people, however the tempo is rather slow and may get boring if I did not include a large performance element to my video.

Planning - Moderators Report

Points of Guidance:

 

1)    The best products must show an understanding of specific requirements of the brief relating to genre, representation and industrial contexts. which requires prior research before planning. Strong technical skills and a clear fundamental understanding of relevant codes and conventions is necessary for gaining top marks.

2)    As an extension of point 1),  there needs to be a certain level of quality to gain top marks. The product must be "accomplished", "sophisticated," "highly appropriate," and "highly developed."

3)    Many of the best products that emphasised the performance aspect (by filming the artist performing the track several times in different locations) provided alternate, yet appropriate mise-en-scenes and included a variety of camera shots and movements along with well-edited lip-syncing.

4)    Less successful products often followed a theme of a) missing key elements of the brief or b) did not adhere to the codes and conventions of the form. Examples of this include:

• Camerawork and camera movement which did not demonstrate the level of skill, finish or excellence required for Level 5 marks
• Pieces were performance footage was used in a perfunctory manner, or where lip-sync was not fully effective
• Editing which did not match the pace/BPM of the track
• Failure to mention the name of the band/artist track at the start or end of the video

5)    Superb examples of online products clearly showed an understanding of real-world examples of websites and had applied knowledge of this effectively. In order to achieve top marks I should appreciate that the website element is worth the same number of marks as the analogue products and should put in an equivalent amount of time creating it.

6)    The statement of intent should be detailed, and go into depths as to how and why specific elements should be created and how these ideas link to ideas shown in other areas of the course - the appreciation of theorists or particular products. The statement of intents should highlight every requirement and how it will be addressed.

7)    Links between the products should be clear and strong, with examples of tweets, Instagram posts, newsletters, merchandise or discussion of other products available to buy such as tracks, tour books and subscriptions. Simply the addition of social bars are insufficient proof of understanding of technological convergence.

8)    Convergence that was insufficient did not develop further than shared font and colour palettes. Insufficient convergence often included:

•        Music video sites that did not include the video
•        Logos on websites that didn't match the partner product
•        Models / actors that were not used in the partner product
•        Products that did not mention the website at all.

9)    Digital convergence must have examples of coherent branding and synergy that effectively engages the audience and provides insightful and coherent meaning.

10)    Practice the technology I plan on using in order to become familiar to it before shooting.