Logos and Copyright Letters

Today we took a break from story-boarding and decided to make some logos for our artist Noxa and a copyright letter. We started off by making some logos that we thought matched Noxa's star image. The first is the word 'Noxa' but the 'X' has a painted look to it as we thought it matched the alternative rock genre:

This logo has a sleek look to it and would look good on top of a website or CD cover. However the font used for the 'N', 'O' and 'A' is just a first draft as we wanted the 'X' to be the main focus of this logo. Our second logo is once again Noxa's name with a rose underneath it:

This logo represents Noxa's star image in a better light: sweet and innocent-looking yet deceitful just like a rose. This is shown through the rose being a dark grey/black rather than red or white, to show the loss of innocence. The text in this logo also looks scratched or roughly hand-written with gives the logo a more personal look.
We also discussed using just 'X' from the first logo or the rose from the second logo as a image alone so our audience could identify our artist through a picture alone:

Depending on which logo we choose we could use the full logo on the website and digipak but in other scenarios the image above could act as a logo without the text and our audience would still be able to identify who it belongs to.

After creating our logos we wrote a copyright letter to the artists of our song choice "Narcissistic Cannibal", EarlyRise. We wrote a short, but sweet, letter asking for their permission to use the their song cover in for our music video:

We decided to end the letter with our names, in alphabetical order, and our artist name 'Noxa'. We also decided to include our logo (although this is not a final decision and we could not make it any smaller!) as that is part of our star's image. The main reason we wrote the letter is to make sure that we can get permission from the band as we do not want to take their song if they are against people using their song.

Group Blog Questionnaire - Answers

http://shotgunrecords3.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/auidence-rearch-1.html

The response to the questionnaire was very helpful and interesting to read. My group and I enjoyed reading the opinions from people of all different ages and to see their interests and what they like. I was most intrigued by the question about favourite music videos. Nobody had the same one and each one was like for a different reason. I decided to make a mind map on a summary of the results from the questionnaire:

Storyboarding and Writing a Treatment

This week we have been drawing up our storyboard and planning out our treatments. This is to help us have a plan for when we begin to film our music video. Our storyboard is a set of images that will help as a visual aid during film whereas the treatment is a written analysis of the overall look and feel of what we want and expect from the video. After we have completed both of these tasks and drafted up a shooting schedule we will be ready to start filming in our locations. The final image is our complete storyboard!

Meetings and Location

This week my group and I have been having meetings where we discuss our artist name, locations and props that we would like to use in our video and also went on a location check. Our meeting have been very helpful in terms of planning as we now have a artist name! Our artist is called Noxa which is Latin for the word 'harm' which I think represents our song choice and, hopefully, our artists star image quite well. We also annotated the song lyrics to 'Narcissistic Cannibal' and this allowed us to write down any ideas that came to mind when reading a certain lyric. I have taken pictures of each sheet and written them out on a group blog post. We also went on a location check which was very inspiring and I made sure to vlog the trip to show off our location. This trip helped all of us with our ideas and where we could film our music video.

Meeting Notes:

Annotated Lyrics:

 

Group Post Link: http://shotgunrecords3.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/meeting-notes.html

Vlog Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9T3mbIEZWs

Digipak Research

A digipak is a luxurious case for a CD that provides the owner with extra exclusives that would not be in the ordinary case. Digipaks are not as common as regular CD's as they usually contain special editions of the CD and have a overall nicer appearance as the case is laminated and involves several pages but the biggest reason they are uncommon is because they are expensive to manufacture. There can be either 3, 4 or 6 pages in a digipak that each have something on them such as: lyrics to a song, a thank you note, photos, vouchers or discounts, information and links.

There can also be more than one disc in the pack which can persuade the buyer even more as they get more than one CD. The purpose of a digipak is to advertise the artist or band and to tempt fans and the public to buy their digipak over another artists, this can boost sales and profits. The following alternative rock digipaks include (in order): Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Nirvana, Oasis and Nine Inch Nails.

Something that all of these digipaks have in common is they all include the CD, which is expected in a digipak, and a list of what is on the disc. This is a good way to inform the audience on what to expect from the digipak. Some of the digipaks are simple, similar to the Arctic Monkeys, Nirvana and Oasis digipak, as they only contain a front page, a disc (or two), a image and a list of what the disc contains. It does not overload the customer with information or extras and it stays to the point. The Muse and Nine Inch Nails digipaks, on the other hand, contain lots of extra content such as booklets, pullout images, a memory stick and plenty of discs. This can make the digipak feel more full to the customer and almost like a gift as their are many extra presents inside.
All of the digipaks represent the artist and/or band by the use of colour and images and each one is identifiable by appearance alone.

When creating my own digipak I would like to go down the simple route by adding in some exclusive images, a disc or two and what the discs will contain however I am keen on the idea of offering my audience more than what they would find in a ordinary CD case. I will also use colour and images to make my digipak link back to our artist, Noxa, and her star image and they way she is represented throughout our video.

Location Check

Today my group and I decided to visit our main location: the forest. The connotations of  the forest can vary from mysterious and magical to isolated and trapped and we wanted to see what themes came to mind when visiting our location for the first time as a group. Our main objective was to find some over head trees, winding and split paths and a bridge which we found! We also found many extra locations including a graffiti wall, a hill that can be used to make small silhouettes, a river, a empty car park, a small town and a field. There are so many places within the forest location that have certain connotations that we can make the most out of. After visiting our location I was left felling very inspired and I have many ideas for music video. Visiting our location will also make story-boarding and linking shots to certain locations will be a lot easier and more realistic.

I made sure to vlog the trip so I could show off our location and have something to refer back to when annotating our song lyrics in more detail. I decided to try and edit my vlog in time to the music to get use to that kind of editing for when we edit our music video, however I made each shot cut quickly to the next so that our location was shown but not in so much detail that it gives away to much as I want the location to be a one of the main factors of our video:

Apologises for my shaky hands and poor camera quality!

Audience Research

Having the right audience is important when making any kind of media as they are the people the creators have in mind when creating their project. For example a gory horror film would have the target audience of 18 - 28 yet a colourful children's TV show would be marketed for 5 - 9 year olds. However there can be horror films for children and children shows that adults enjoy but during the creative process the creator had a certain group of people in mind whilst they were creating. This is the same for music videos.

This is the work we completed as a class on audience research

Our song choice is the dark and slow song 'Narcissistic Cannibal' (the Earlyrise version) and we have decided on a dark themed video. Our target audience is 16 to 23 year olds - the average age of students. The video will contain a lot of hidden metaphors and themes that link with the lyrics which may be missed by a younger audience. This particular audience may be able to take apart our video and see the messages behind the images as students more likely to look at videos more critically. Many other alternative rock bands also have this target audience and it seemed natural to have a similar one to other songs from our genre.

Jay Z and Linkin Park Digipak Analysis

Jay Z and Linkin Park had one of the more interesting digipaks. It was 6 pages and each contained something different and the artists logo and names were repeated constantly throughout to advertise and market both of the bands. The reason I chose to analyse this digipak was because it is two different artists merged together and the digipak is in both of their names, advertising both of them equally.

///CLICK THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE IT///

The overall feel of the digipak matches both of the artists star image and genre which fans will enjoy. It is also contains different content such as a music disc and a behind-the-scenes disc which gives the audience a chance to listen to the music and then see how it was made. It gives a insight to the amount of work that both artists put into the digipak and it keeps fans involved and intrigued.

This has given me some ideas on what catches the audience's attention, by the use of colours, and how I can advertise our artist.

Wix Practise

During yesterdays lesson we had practice using the site wix, which is a website making site. I have used wix before for one of my AS evaluation questions but since then the site has been updated and is a lot easier to use. The site is really easy to use and this is a good point when a beginner uses the site for the first time. I wanted to see what was new since the last time I used the site so I tried out everything. I liked the backgrounds that moved as it added something different to the site and made is visually interesting and the background was easy to change. The banners are all professional looking and the pictures can be given boarders to make it match the site. There is so much customisation available to the user which I really liked as it gives me the freedom to make the site how ever I wanted it to look.

This screenshot is of the layout of wix and my testing of the website to see what had changed and how easy it was to move things around and add new objects.