Rough cut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-is9Dan8Yo

Before releasing our final cut of our music video we produced a rough cut in order to gain feedback from our target audience. This feedback is important to have before releasing our final video, because it allows us to find out what parts of the video worked well and what parts need improvement. By pointing out the strengths and weaknesses of our music video we are able to reflect on the video, and are able to change/adapt specific highlighted weaknesses. As well as this, by showing us what has worked well it gives my group and i positive reinforcement to keep on working and it also shows us how we can improve by gaining inspiration from what has worked well. Therefore it is essential to carry out a rough cut so that we have previewed our production to our target audience and gathered by their thoughts and feedback. 

There were various ways in which we have collected our audience feedback. The first way we was able to gain feedback on our music video was by frequently screening parts of our production to other class mates. This was extremely helpful, as they also study the subject, meaning they have a specialised interest in the subject of music videos. Which resulted in us gaining feed back on our specific editing and cinematography, instead of just the general appearance of the video. Some of feedback included "good variety of shots" and "some shots are grainy". Another really good way that we were able to gain feedback was through our two media teachers. They are both very knowledgable in this subject, therefore can offer us precise and valuable feedback about how to make our video look like a proper media production and conventional to our genre. YouTube was the main way in which we gained feed back on our video. This is a really good platform to gain feedback from our audience because, it allows us to gain feedback from a wider audience, as youtube is a global video sharing website. Our video is available to a wide range of different people, this ensures that all of the feedback we gain is not bias and provides honest feedback. People that know members in our group are likely to sugar coat their feedback, whereas strangers are more likely to be truthful due to them not having any personal relations with any of the group.
A rather unique way that we gained feedback was from two rappers who came into our class to offer advice and provide feedback as they are professionals in the industry. The advice we gained from these rappers was really helpful because they are already established in the industry, therefore can offer a good insight into what will work well. We further gain feedback from focus groups and questionnaires. 

This feedback will benefit our production because we can make appropriate changes in order to improve the video, by doing this we can make sure that all of our production appeals to our audience. Which is important because it will help to maintain the audiences attention when they are watching because it will appeal to them. A rough cut will benefit the industry because the record label can preview it to a small specific target group this will allow them to gain detailed feedback to highlight the good and bad features. Which shows them how successful the video would be if it was released how it currently is. Then the record label can adjust the video in order to improve it and appeal constantly to the audience. This will allow them to target a better audience which makes it likely to be more successful. As a result it means that the record label is likely to be more successful. This will lead to the label being more likely to make profit and have high sales. Also the artist will be promoted more successful and gain  good representation. 

This was one of our comments that we gained from publishing our rough cut on youtube. This comment was predominately positive, some of the highlights from this comment are "looks like and actual indie music video" "clear storyline" and "good balance of performance" This comment made me feel proud of the video so far because it took my group and i a very long time to come up with our narrative and display this in our video. Therefore, by this being noticed in by someone out of our group is amazing. We also took into careful consideration the conventions of the indie genre by including low budget settings, the appearance of our artist and that is is based on past experiences. 

This comment was also majorly positive, the highlights of this feedback were "great job syncing the video with the lyrics, great performance and perfect framing" As a group we had a major focus on making sure the lyrics matched and that the video flowed, so getting a comment like this made me feel very good about our video as it showed that this specific focus had been paying off.

This was also some more positive feedback that we gained via YouTube, the highlights of this feedback was "amazing camera shots" "good use of setting" and "fashion is commonly linked with an indie genre" Again this comment made me feel very positive about the video, it was so important for us to create a conventional indie production so that it appealed to the target audience and this comment is supporting that so far we have done this successfully.

One of the negative pieces of feedback that we gained was from our teachers, this was "you need to include more negative parts of the couples relationship" Although at first I didn't particularly agree and thought we had enough. Upon reflection I can now see that more negative shots are need to show the contrast between the positive. Therefore showing the roller coaster relationship. By my teachers pointing this out my group and I are now able to improve our video so that when we come to publishing it, it will be as successful as possible.

This was another slightly negative comment that we got from YouTube, the most negative parts were that "gaps" and "a wider range of negative shots of the couple would make it a bit better" This is very is similar to out teachers comments. As two different people have said this my group and I have prioritised this as something that needs to defiantly be included to improve our video.

This was another piece of negative feedback we got, it was embedded within this mostly positive comment, "the lighting inside could have been better" I am grateful that this person has taken time to notice a small detail like this, and now that it has been pointed out my group and I can see that the lighting inside could have been bright which would have overall improved the shots and made the video clearer.

From all of the feedback that we have gained we are able to see what has worked well and what hasn't worked as well. Therefore from the few negative comments that we did receive my group and I have noticed that most of the actual footage that we have filmed is fine and we just need to add in some footage and re-film certain parts. We need to film some more negative scenes of the couple fighting to show the contrast in their relationship, and make it clear why the couple are fighting. We also need to re-film some of the inside scenes to ensure that we have good lighting in order for the audience to be able to see clearly what is going on.

Digipak

I have created an individual digipak to help to promote my artist, it also helps to reveal a bit more information about my artist to the as it includes a personal message from her and some additional photos and quotes from her songs on the album. All of these extras on the digipak will help to gain the attention of her target audience. I used from previous research to inspire me for my digipak. This included my own personal magazine advert. This inspired me because i wanted my two ancillary texts to link together, therefore the advert had a major role on the texts/fonts/photo styles i used. Making it easy for my audience to link the two together. Also prior to creating this i analysed Gabrielle Aplin's digipak as she is also a female indie artist therefore it allowed me to gain inspirations from it. I really like the representation of Gabrielle in her digipak because it allowed the audience to see her as relatable as she was presented as approachable. I also really like the simplicity of the digipak, therefore implying she is a real person and not an over the top star who is self obsessed.

Throughout my digipak i have tried to use the same colour theme in all of the different slides. On all of the photos i used an antique filter and made the photo warmer. This helped to give the digipak an older feel, as if the music if her looking back on her past. Implying to her audience that the songs will be a reflection on Sharna's past, this could allow them to go on a journey when listening to her music as they are more aware that the songs are based on life experiences. On the front cover of my digipak i used a white colour for Sharna's name, i decided to use this because the colour white has connotations of purity and innocence. As she is a new artist in the industry, she has not been taken into the darker side of the music industry (drugs and alcohol) Therefore i want to show her to be shown as innocent as i believe it helps to show her as a real person that makes her more relatable to the audience. It shows her as real because ordinary people don't no generally have high addictions with alcohol and drugs a they are expensive luxuries that ordinary people might not be able to afford. Also on the front cover i used an orange colour for the album name as it has associations with happiness and creativity, which could imply to her audience that her music makes her happy. This could encourage them to listen to it as they too would want to feel happy and listen to the creativity of her music. On the second side of my digipak I continued with the theme of white writing again this is to highlight her innocence to her audience. Also as white is used for a quote of her song lyrics it implies to her audience that her music revels her true self and shows her purity. For the CD in my digipak I continued with the same colour scheme as in my other sides. The colour orange for the butterfly wings as it could connote to her audience that her music and creativity makes her feel like she can fly. There are also some black features on the wings which could show her as confident and bold in regards to her music. This bolder side to her personality could help to show her as a real person to her audience, this is because it shows she has various sides to her  personality like a 'normal' person. In the next three slides you can see dark greens and dark greys in the background, this is also seen in the first three slides. This implies that Sharna has dark past experiences. This could intrigue the audience, making them want to listen to her music to find out more about Sharna's life and her story.


In my digipak I have aimed to use as many genre conventions I can from the indie genre so that my audience can recognise it and appeal to them. The first convention that is noticeable throughout my digipak is the setting of each slide. They are all set in a field environment, this is conventional of indie music as they normally use low budget settings as indie music videos are generally low budget productions. Also by having it in a public setting the audience will find it more relatable as they would have been in similar settings. Therefore this will appeal to them as they will easily be able to recognise the setting and environment. The next genre convention that can be seen in my digipak can be seen in my digipak is Sharna's clothing she is wearing. She is clothed in oversized tops/jumpers and concealing trousers. This is conventional of indie artists because they conventionally do not wear highly revealing clothes and have their own original style. Artists like Sharna are more focused on dong their own thing and their music then wearing revealing clothing to gain attention. This will appeal to our target audience because it shows her as independent and not needing to follow the norm, this will make her audience feel more confident when expressing themselves through their appearance as they would have seen Sharna do it. However, one subversive element to my digipak is the image sued for the front cover, it is a long shot of Sharna sitting in a field looking directly at the camera. This is subversive tot he indie genre because I believe it shows her as confident and quite fierce, as the whole of her is in shot and can clearly be seen. Whereas conventionally indie artists look away from the camera or cannot fully be seen in their shots, which shows them to be slightly more quite. I made my front cover subversive as I think this photo stands out more. I did try a photo where Sharna was looking away from the camera at first, however I do not think that it presented Sharna well and was rather boring.



The images used for my digipak are all originals taken by myself and my group members. For my front cover I used a long shot of Sharna sitting on the grass in a field. For this image I slightly blurred out the background to added emphasis to Sharna. I also added a antique filter to the image and increased the warmness in the photo. Following this I used a faint eraser tool to slightly erase around the edges of my blur so that the line was not so harsh. I think as mentioned before this photo shows Sharna as confident and independent as there is not anybody else in the photo. Which will appeal to my target audience as it makes her a good role model for them to look up to and gain confidence from. My second image is a long shot of Sharna facing away from the camera and looking to the ground, she is slightly to the right hand side of the image. To this image I added the same antique filter and increased the warmness as I do in all of my photos, this is so they can be easily linked together and the audience will clearly be able to tell they are from the same digipak. Again to this image I blurred the background to add focus to Sharna. However also to add focus to her I cropped her out and increased the brightness of her, this just helped to add extra emphasis to her. This shot of her I think contradicts the front cover slightly as it shows her as more hidden and secretive. This could imply to her audience that she is normally a secretive person but her music is used to express her experiences to her audience. This would appeal to her audience because they could feel quite privileged that Sharna is sharing her experiences with them and not being so hidden.


The typography and language used is quite minimalistic but also stands out to Sharna's audience. For Sharna's name and album name on the front cover I used a quirky looking font, this was because I believe it highlights to the audience that she is different, independent and doesn't follow the norm. This would appeal to her target audience because indie fans normally like things that are a bit quirky and different as they generally don't follow the mainstream themselves. Therefore will feel encouraged to be different by Sharna which will appeal to them. On my two slides with song lyrics on  I used a floaty looking font, I used this because it makes it seem as if Sharna is singing the lyrics when you read them. This would appeal to the audience because it will make them feel as it they are getting a sneak peak of her album. For my personal message slide I used a hand writing styled font, and signed it off with a signature font. I decided to do this because I think it makes the message look as if it has been hand written by Sharna herself. Therefore will make it feel more personal to her audience which will appeal to them more. I used direct address throughout the personal message "sharing with you..." in order to make the audience feel as if Sharna is directly speaking to them. This personal touch helps to promote Sharna as caring for her audience and wanting to be personally involved with them.
Overall I think my digipak helps to promote Sharna as someone who gains confidence with her music and enjoys connecting with her audience and telling them her story. This can be seen through the personal touches (fan message) added to the digipak and the various photos of her allowing the audience to get a good understanding of who she is and what she is like.
In order to create my digipak I had to use Photoshop to produce high quality professional images. Although I have used it before I did struggle when blurring the background of some photos but not the whole photo. This is because when just the background was blurred it make the photo look fake and that the other part that wasn't blurred had just been placed in. It took me quite a while to figure out how to get rid of this harsh line. However, after playing around with the opacity of the blur and slightly erasing some of the blur I managed to make the line more subtle. Also it was quite hard cutting out part of the photo so it was not blurred using the quick selection, as getting précised parts of the photo with tiny details was difficult. But I soon realised that I was able to zoom into the photo really close which made selecting minor details easier.
I found creating new layers and masks for existing layers rather easy as it was simple once I knew where the tools were on the page. I also found the text box tool easy to use, changing font size/style/colour was simple and I was able to perform all of these tasks without any hassle. By finding these core skills easy on Photoshop it allowed me to move/change elements of my digipak without much hassle therefore enabling me to send time improving it and using more advanced skills, which I believe helped my digipak to be successful.


I believe that my digipak conforms to my genre conventions, as through research of other indie artists such as Birdy and Gabrielle Aplin I have analysed the features that are common and they use and replicated these in my own work. This includes shots of Sharna where she is not looking directly at the camera and slightly off centre to highlight that she is not self obsessed and is more focused on the music then promoting herself as a product. Also the colours used such as orange which implies she is creative and her music makes her happy. And white which connotes her innocence in the music industry as she has not sucome to the drugs/alcohol that is common within other artists. By taking into other indie artists work and media texts, I believe that my digipak will appeal to my target audience because I have followed the conventions that indie fans will expect to see in the work of an indie artist. Features such as the personal message highlight to my target audience that Sharna appreciates her fans and gives more of a personal feel to the media text.