Final Magazine Advert and Feedback

Final Magazine Advert

Creative Process

Edit 1

I had to do a lot of editing to create this. The longest time taken on this was creating the assets of our own creation for the picture, such as the movie credit text which Bastille always adds to the bottom, creating an artificial looking land and fire to make sure i'm able to add fire to the scene. In terms of the picture, the way i took it made sure it was compositionally sound to the size of an A4 piece of paper, pointing this out, i made sure Kierann was in the centre of the frame, and then a leg of the bridge went through the middle of his head, and then the bridge stretched across the whole of the image. As well as this, i made sure the bushes at the side stretched over the same length in the shot, so it all looks aesthetically pleasing. My original idea of putting fire was to blacken the water to make it look like oil, and then placing a fire on it to contrast the elements of fire and water, which was the reason we chose the shot in the first place.

We then had to make it look realistic by adding Virgin records logo, the original record label for Bastille, then we added the Spotify, iTunes, and Google play icons at the bottom to promote ways to listen to the song remotely. I then added the amazon.com symbol to advertise where to by the physical copy (The digipak)

Edit 2

I changed the triangle for the circle as it has been said that we have to create our own symbol to represent Bastille, though i do think this doesnt look as compositionally sound as with a triangle.

Edit 3

Here i rubbed out the triangle just because i forgot to do that in the first edit, and added the Taurus records logo to represent our record label.

Questionnaire - Moving forward

I asked 13 members of our target audience demographic to give their opinions on our product (Magazine advert)

"What can be improved - Notes"

DO YOU LIKE THE DESIGN OF OUR MAGAZINE ADVERT?

Yes - 7 people

Good, but needs improvement - 4 people

No - 2 people

What can be improved?

- (Kierann) needs to be looking in to the fire

-Star reviews would look nice, need to be added

Edit 4

I chose an entirely different image for the magazine advert, mainly as i felt the original image that i was using editing tools to create just didn't feel correct, also the main star image was not looking at the fire. In this case, i got an image from when we were filming of Kierann walking by the fire. It was in an unusual resolution in comparison to the scale of an A4 page, so i had to crop the image to make sure the star and the fire were both center-frame. The unusual resolution of the image made me create a border round the top edges, so that the image perfectly fit within the frame. It also made it easier to see the white text at the top and the bottom. However, i also realised that the name of the song "Things we lost in the fire" was hard to see against the sky light that was shining through the trees.

Edit 5

Responding to further feedback, i was told that the magazine advert would look even better if we had an image of Kierann sitting on the bench, so i replaced the image yet again. It wasn't hard this time as i'd already done it multiple times before. However, i did decide to extend the top border downwards so that the text below Bastille was easily visible. I did also remove the overlay rectangles that were placed either side of the artists name.

Edit 6

This edit i added Star Reviews, Release date, and added back the rectangles. The November 7th release date is actually at that date for a reason. We wanted to relate our music title back to a specific date. We thought of Guy Fawkes night on the 5th of November because it relates back to the fire, or the day of the Great fire of London, but i feel as if that wouldn't be right just because it has two dates -  a beginning and end . The star reviews replace the movie credits text as a response to feedback because i was told it looks more like a movie poster. I chose mainly British publishers as it fits with the artist's origin country. The magazines here are all fairly reputable as well, but usually post about a more niche side to the music industry, hence why i chose them because they'd be likely to post about an Indie artist such as Bastille. I added the rectangles back in to the magazine advert as I felt as if there was something missing within the top banner, like there was too much writing, but barren visuals.

Final Prop Information for all 3 products (Chris)

When it comes to props we needed to make sure that they all have similar props in each to make them all link. When it comes to successful marketing we knew that making sure our products look similar. This would mean that our audience would be able to spot the products wherever they are and it creates a sort of brand image. If we had different looking products it would mean that customers and our target audience wouldn't be able to tell that it is our products which would mean its less recognisable.

Firstly one of the props we have used for all 3 products is fire. The main song in the album is 'Things we lost in the fire' so making sure that the main prop on the products is fire is essential to the recognition. We have this displayed on all three products of ours. To create the fire it took us around half an hour which included building and getting some fuel to set off the fire. Luckily we had a friend who had a lot of spare material which we was allowed to take to burn. This mixed with a bit of dead foliage meant that we could build up a nice large fire in which we thought would make the music video look a lot more professional. We were also very lucky to get the location that we had. We had a small section of concrete at the end of a large field which meant that we could light the fire safely. overall I think that having the location and the material it meant that we could create the best fire to make our video look professional.

The second prop that we had in our video was a bench. We wanted it to look like the artist was alone to emphasise that he is alone. The best way we thought we could do this was of him sitting on a bench. We were lucky as there was a bench in the field we were filming in which meant that all we had to do was to carry it to the correct position and to make sure that it was in the frame which had to include the fire. Luckily we had a clear idea of what we wanted to do as we had a good shot list and storyboard.

The third prop that we wanted to use was a notebook. We wanted to show the love that the actor and her once had and the best way we thought that we could achieve this is through the use of a notebook. We also wanted to do this because we wanted to see the actor throwing things in the fire to represent his loss and the burning of their old relationship. This is why it was essential to firstly show the notebook first as it would not have made much sense otherwise. 

We thought that the female and the new male should be holding something to show that they are on some kind of date and that they are together. The best way we thought we could do this is through the use of them two holding the same cup. We thought that this would be good to show that they are together and to help make it clearer for the audience. We also thought it would look a lot more professional rather than them not holding anything. 

 Finally, the last prop that we wanted to make sure that we had a shot of was the mobile phone. The mobile phone was used to show that he still had emotions for her however he started to lose them once he was on it. The way that we was able to show this is through the use of footage showing him deleting old photo's of them. We wanted to show that whenever the males were on the phone it showed that they were losing their passion and love for the female actor. This is clear from the shot of the new male pushing the female character away. We thought that having one object to display the loss of love would be the phone as it would look the best and be the easiest to shoot with. 

Final Digipak and Feedback

Digipak

 Edit 1

The final digipak a task, but we ended up needing a lot more resources that we already used in the past by our own creation, this would be, for example the movie credits writing that we created using illustrator for the magazine advert, the Taurus records logo, the image used in the first panel. We tried to make this as realistic as possible, compositionally and detail wise. For this reason, we added Virgin records to the front and back of the digipak. We also added both the virgin records website URL, created a fake Taurus records URL, and added the Bastille website URL as well. On top of this, we added a barcode specific to digipak. We were originally going to do a 4 panel digipak, but we then made it a six panel digipak because it would get us more marks. this lead us to create some design decisions that we havent thought of previously, such as the two panels to the left. I wanted to keep the panel on the left simplistic, as it is what the customer would see when they first unfold it, plus i think it looks aesthetically pleasing with the faint smoke in the background, makes it look like the fire is still burning but it is not visible in this shot. For the main image, the front image, i had to create, using photoshop, and island, as well as crop fire out from one of our fire shots, to add fire to the island. I like how this turned out when looking at it from far away, however, if it were to be analysed closely there would be a lot of flaws within the image editing, such as stretched textures and poor lighting effects. I put the Bastille text in the middle to cover these flaws and draw the eye to Kierann rather than the background. We were also meant to create a new shape to represent Bastille, so i chose a circle. This is good as it opened up a lot of new ideas for composition ideas. I added circles in photoshop and then gave it the stroke effect, changed the layer effect to overlay and reduced the opacity, to finish it, i would decrease the fill, making the illusion of the circle lighting up the background, which can be seen on the front panel and the left third panel.

The flaws of the digipak become pretty obvious after looking at it though, for example i forgot to flip the top three panels, and there were some white gaps between some of the panels.

Edit 2

I flipped the top 3 panels, got rid of the white panels.

"What can be improved - Notes"

DO YOU LIKE THE DESIGN OF OUR DIGIPAK?

Yes - 3 people

Good, but needs improvement - 9 people

No - 1 person

What can be improved?

-Use a different image for the top three panels

-Flip those top 3 panels

-May need some track listing

-Vary the shots used

Edit 3

Although i removed the movie credit text from the magazine advert, i have decided to keep it in the digipak because i feel as if it needs to be there for credits. Plus it makes it look unique and niche. I replaced the main image here so it relates back to the magazine advert, and the imagery makes sense seems as Kierann is in the same setting we used in the music video, and he's looking directly in the fire.

Edit 4

In this edit, we decided to change the top three slides of the digipak, mainly because the image used at the top became extremely pixelated when becoming enlarged. I kept the middle image the same because it fit with our idea of showing progression through the day within our ancillary products as well as the music video. I also added the Bastille text and logo in the middle of these shots. The next addition with the track list. originally, we thought the digipak was for a single, turns out it's a promotional product for an album. I effectively added popular Bastille songs, but made it so the main track "The things we lost in the fire" the first within the list. we placed it on this slide as there was a lot of space on it already, and we wanted to keep the slide to the left of it looking crisp and succinct.

Edit 5

In this edit and responding to verbal feedback, i moved the Bastille text on the spine upwards towards the middle . I removed the Bastille text from the top images as well as their logo, and put an opacity 31% triangle in it's replacement so it doesn't look bland (we tried it without any effect on it, and it didn't look correct). I also decreased the text size as we felt the track list was a little too large.

Edit 6

I had realised an error within our digipak, and it came about when i flipped the product 180 degrees. The time cycle went from night to day, rather than day to night, so i changed around the top two slides.

Magazine Advert Draft 1 and Feedback (Chris)

Magazine Advert Draft 1 and

Feedback

The feedback we had gotten was to change the background of the advert. This was due to the fact that it had water in the background and didn't really have any connotations of fire which was the feel that we wanted to go for. The second piece of feedback we had got given was to get rid of the triangle in the title. This was a copyright problem which we had to put right.

Final Music Video (joe french)

Final Music Video

Music Video Rough Cut 3 and Feedback (Chris)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy5MUeMRM38

Music Video Rough Cut 3 and Feedback


For our 3rd rough cut we had been only given a few points which would help the final product look as good as it can be. The first piece of advice that we had been given was to change out the first shot of the actor singing. This was because it was a little blurred and we wanted to make sure that the first shot of the actor singing was clear and was a good clip to introduce the main actor.

The second piece of advice that we had been given was to swap over the clip of the actor walking to the tree and move it forward a few seconds. The reason for this is that is that it would make it more clear to have the main actor away before being introduced with the girl. 

Music Video Rough Cut 2 and Feedback (Kierann)

Music Video Rough Cut 2 and

Feedback

Music Video

What Works Well

Lovely cutting to the beat

Some beautiful shots - panning and well composed shots - Kierann between Chris and Harriet! 

Nice performance shots - just check out what is on the surrounding edges of the frame! 

Even Better If

You ditched the curtains in the performance shots - check the outside of the frame

Check the lip sync throughout

Add more notebook scenes

Ditch the shot that tilts from under the bridge up - it is weird and the pole of the bridge is in Kierann's face

I've written wonky branch on my notes - does this mean anything to you as I am struggling to remember what I meant! 

I hate the new shot of Kierann on the bench - the sun is in his face too much - either film again or go back to your previous shot

Clean up transitions a little - they can be a little jumpy at times

We want a longer shot of Kierann walking away at the end

Our group will use this feedback in an effective way which will make sure that our music video becomes better than the previous rough-cut. The first thing we will do from this feedback is watch our music video and assess the standard of the artist’s lip syncing and make sure that it is of high quality. This is because lip syncing in the performance of our music video the lip syncing is one of the main features and it is something that the audience will notice straight away if out of sequence. We are going to get rid of the tilt shot from the bridge as our teacher advised us to. To fill this empty spot as a group we will see if we are we can either use spare footage we have or if it would be better to reshoot a performance shot somewhere else as we are lacking them.

Music Video Rough Cut 1 and Feeback (Joe fisher)

THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE - FIRST DRAFT

What went well

Love the fact it's all set in one day - we see day into night - the journey

Some nice shots

Love the slow mo of Kierann walking

Lovely shots of them on the swing

Very steady camera movement

Really nice cutting to the beat - fire, fire, fire!

Even better If

Some of the fire shots lack focus - when he is behind the fire - shows different quality

Get rid of the first swing shot - it needs a shot of them swinging on it

Too many shots of Harriet looking at the camera

Cut from from 1.43 - you can see Kierann laughing! 

Work on transitions between shots

Feel he needs to throw more into the fire

Why does it go to first person shot - hand held?

The shot with Kierann at the fire in the dark - 3.53 is too long

Add photos of them being thrown into fire at the end

26 marks so far - Proficient

We all feel that this is some really nice feedback in which we will be able to improve upon by the time we have to present it again. However, there are some parts which will be tricky to improve upon. For example, we can easily add transitions between shots to add variety, but to also make sure they fit in the music video, but it would be harder for us to shoot more scenes of Kierann chucking more things in to the fire, and although we do agree with this, there is a chance that we wont be able to do this until the third draft just because last time it took much organisation for us to film those fire shots, and we have already used most of the "bonfire shots" that we need and have.

Final Location Scouting for all 3 products (kierann)

Final Location Scouting for all 3  products

When it came to reshooting from rough cut one and two we filmed in the same locations each time. We ether filmed in the same spot or at a different angle. This was because we really liked the places we filmed in and thought that they all fit in with the music video. E.g. we filmed in our local town as that’s where are target audience may go once or twice a week. On the third rough cut we needed to film a couple of shots as we had removed some shots from our music video as they weren’t up to our standards. This was because the shots had the sun shining so much on the actors face that you couldn’t see him lip-syncing. For this reason we had to reshoot that scene. We considered many places in which we could film. We thought about going back to the placed in which we filmed but we felt that it was too stationary. In the end we found the back of a field in a wooded area in which we filmed that scene. In the end we scraped the idea of the two bedrooms as it looked out of place with the rest of the music video. We had filmed all of the music video outside so far so by having a shot in which was set inside would seem out of place. We stuck with the location of the park. This was because we wanted the characters relationship to seem true and a place in which couples usually go is the park. With them playing in the park it made their relationship look realistic and not fake. I believe that because of this location our points were clearly represented. We filmed the bonfire scene at the end of a field. This is because it represented our idea of mystery, which all indie music videos represent. After rough cut two, we decided to add shots of the artist in the studio performing. This was because we found in rough cut one that all of the performance shots for the artist were quite stationary which made it feel quite boring. To tackle this we added the artist in the studio, but before we did this we looked at our research of our genre to make sure that it actually made sense why we added. We found that it did as filming in a studio is one of the locations that is used in indie-pop. All of our locations are relevant to our genre as we frequently looked back our research from the start of the project. This made sure that our music video was actually being presented as an indie music video.

Animatic storyboard (Joe Fisher)

The animatic storyboard gave us insight as to what how our final product may be structured. These were only basic ideas, but got the point across. We established here that we would need a lot of imagery of fire if our video was to be successful in portraying the message we needed it to. It also helped us figure out what characters we may need when shooting the video, so taking this in to account early meant that we could cast and prepare as to how these people would be presented on camera. Due to the repetition of a lot of the scenes in the storyboard, this made us plan in many ways how we would fill these gaps, and what sort of scenes we’d need to shoot when we were out filming. This actually helped us as it allowed for flexibility with our ideas and allowed all of the group members to have input as to what should be in the music video, instead of sticking to a layout that has been pre-determined.

Final Costumes information for all 3 products (Kierann)

Final Costume Ideas

Music Video

We looked at the lead singer of Bastille, Dan smith, for inspiration for the top the protagonist will wear. We found that he wears a lot of checked shirts as well as t-shirts which reference old cult films, they all have a vintage look on them. We also looked at many over Indie artists for inspiration so we could have a varied choice. I looked specifically at the band "Foster the People" as both bands share many similarities. I found that the costume choice for Indie-pop wasn't as varied as a thought it would be for a male. I found two types of costume they would either wear. It was either a t-shirt which had intertextuality to either a film, mostly cult films, or a rock band. The other type was a shirt, most of which are checked. In the end we chose the checked shirt. This was because we thought that it looked more stylish and what the viewers may actually wear. Our initial idea for the both costumes have changed quite a bit. This is, because after a period of time and more research into indie artists we found that our costumes were too mainstream. We believe that the change will benefit us as dressing like our target audience will make the music video more relatable and interesting for them. Another factor for why we chose a checked shirt was, because our actor already had one and it also looked pretty vintage. We decided in the end that the protagonist should shouldn't change clothes in any moment of the music video, however the female character will. The reason why we chose to do this is to give the idea that the artist is nostalgic towards his ex-girlfriend. So by him wearing the same clothes it connotes that he feels that he is closest to her when wearing those clothes. 

For the protagonist’s costume we have come to the conclusion that he will wear dark colours. He will wear black jeans, black converse shoes and a vintage looking shirt. The reason why we have chosen black is, because it is the usual clothing in which someone would wear to a funeral or when they are grieving over the death of a loved one. Stereotypically worn by a widow. Even though his ex-partner hasn’t died, to him she has and the only thing he wants is for her to come back. The shoes will be black converse as converses are typically worn by Dan Smith the lead singer. The shoes are also considered "edgy" and that's what vibe we are trying to pull off in costume. This is because “edgy” is a small fashion trend where people wear fashionable clothes which mostly worn by the niche audience. Indie is listened also by the niche audience so it makes it more relatable. 

We decided that the female character would wear something which is niche, a bit creative to reflect out onto the viewers. As the actress who we used is a very creative and considers herself part of the niche audience we asked her for some inspiration with the costume. She gave us some tips and we built on them. We chose a yellow jumper for the first layer. This is to connote that she is a popular girl who stands out from the crowd. To make the costume look more niche we added the fir over jacket. We chose this as its creative. This is what many of the niche audience would wear and to top it off we put sun glasses on the top of her head. This is to connote that see is a materialistic person who wants everything and when she is bored of it she replaces it, like her clothes and like her ex-boyfriend. Then blue jeans to connote that she is fashionable.

For the first costume we had her wearing a pink low dress. This is to connote that see is sweet when she wants to be. She wears a cropped fir black jacket. This is to counter the sweet side of her to show that she can also be nasty which is hinted by her leaving her ex for another guy. The scarf has been used to embrace her creative side as well as continue the theory that when see gets bored of something she gets rid of it.

Digipak + Magazine Advert + Music Video

Throughout all three of our products, the only person in it is the artist. Within all three of the products the artists is wearing the exact same clothing. This is for several reasons. The first is to create a nostalgic feel which is clearly shown in the music video. The second is to build on the relationship between all of the products so that the target audience know that it is a product of Bastille. the only person featured on the digipak and magazine advert is the artist, we have done this to draw the centre of attention to him so that all of the audiences attention is on the artist.

By doing this activity it has prepared us for when we are going to film our music video. this activity has made our group more organised which will later result in a better product. This made us realise that the custumes used in each product need to have a deeper meaning.

Casting/Audition information (Kierann)

Casting/Audition information

Our first consideration about casting was finding actors who were in the same age group as our target audience which is 17+. This is to make the music video more relatable and enjoyable for our target audience. To find these actors advertised it to our year group, To find these actors advertised it to our year group, specifically to those who have a background in acting or music. This is because we don’t wasn’t our music video looking too amateur, we want it to look as professional as possible. We auditioned three girls and four boys. There is only one female character in the music video and because of this we auditioned three girls. This was so that we had a variable choice to choose from. There is two male characters in the music video so we decided to audition four boys. This was again to give us a varied choice, all boys would audition for each role. The way we auditioned the female character and the male character (the one who doesn’t sing) is just by judging them from a photo of themselves.  This is because we only needed to see them in the music video and they wouldn’t have to sing. The way we auditioned the other male character (Artist) was by giving them a day to learn the chorus of the song and see how well they knew the song as the actor would need to sing the whole song many times over. The people we auditioned for the female role was: Harriet, Jackie and Charlie. The person who went through was Harriet. This was because we thought her looks fitted our character’s personality better; confident in front of the camera and pretty. For the male character (the one who doesn’t sing) we auditioned: Darron, Paul, Luke and Joe. We chose Darron out of the three, because he was the most charming of the four. As well as this, he is in a relationship with Harriet, the female character. We chose them together as their reactions to each other would be more realistic and true. For the other male character (Artist) we chose Luke. We chose look because out of the other four he had the most acting experience and also knew the song better than everyone else. His lip-syncing was far superior than the other three.

Shotlist for magazine (Joe Fisher

Draft magazine adverts
We have been given the task to create a Magazine advert for out chosen artist, Bastille. If we are to do this, we are to also gather our own assets to use within our advert, so that we do not get in to any legal mishaps such as copyright claims.

For the main effort, we will be using Photoshop and it's tools to our advantage, to make an effective advert which can look professional.

At the school, we have access to a white screen in which we will have to book to use. This will be an effective method of getting our own assets as this white screen will effectively function as a greenscreen. As the white colour is so bright, it will differ greatly from the clothes that our artist would be wearing in these shots, so when we import it in to Photoshop, it would be easy to crop them out of that current background. If we end up shooting on site for a main background, we will not need this.

We may need this white screen for other objects though and for the same reason, just in case we need to add more assets to our magazine advert. This is effectively my thinking method of when creating the "Young Naz" magazine advert.

If we have enough of these clean cut assets imported on to Photoshop, it will be easy to produce a professional, composed image with all the assets we have.

Next we will need ratings, for this we will, again, be using the white screen against a starkly contrasting colour for the stars, such as black, to create the "star ratings" asset we will need.

In terms of social media platform logos, we're supposed to produce our own assets, so we may need to do something with the logos so that it's okay in terms of legal precautions such as copyright.

We'll be taking several shots of the artist on a white background for sufficient asset creation, but then we will also have to take some action shots of the artist at an actual location to give the scene on the advert some composition.

We'll be wanting to add some correlation between the magazine advert and the digipak, so we'll be using some of the same image assets when creating them to make them feel as if they are part of a package. We've looked at past products that have done this effectively and we think we can do this effectively with the right tools which happen to be available to us.

If we were to do a white background, I would actually like to add some colour to it, like reds, oranges and dark yellows, all representations of a fire. I have multiple ideas for how we could add these aesthetics, but the best two that I think will fit would be

-Fine lines created in Photoshop

-Ink in water against a white background so I can crop the image

The fine lines in Photoshop would be easier to create, as the tools in Photoshop allow for multiple chosen coloured lines of given width and length to be added. Elements such as transparency can be added to the assets to make them blend with the background

The ink in the water strategy we'll need a good camera for. One of our group members does have a good camera so we could actually do this. We will need some sort of strong lighting as well, but that shouldn't be hard to organize. We could use and merge colours such as blood oranges and strong reds to represent the flame. Not only that but it spreads "like a fire" across the water, creating some really good looking patterns if done correctly. It would probably look better, but take a longer time to access.

If we do a white background I don't think we should crop out the artist, mainly so that the advert has a sense of depth, that, or we leave any shadow that the original image creates, but crop everything else.
In terms of text, we should use a bold font. Looking at several indie magazine adverts, most of them use a bold text font with a rather "high lettering scheme" to make the magazine look professional, classy, but also eye-catching and appealing to it's targeted audience, and seems as Bastille is classed as indie, I only see this to fit. I have also noticed that these same indie adverts either use just one whole image and then put text over it in related contrasting colours, or they tend to harshly separate between sections of imagery and sections of text.

Final Magazine advert
Judging by the design that we collectively thought to be the best for our group, we decided that we needed a few core assets to our imagery, these were:
A shot with Kierann in the centre of the frame
A shot with the fire in the centre of the frame
A shot with both Kierann and the fire in the frame
A shot of Kierann looking at a fire
A shot of Kierann from behind looking at a fire
A shot of Kierann sitting on a bench and looking at a fire
A shot of Kierann looking over water
On top of this, we were also going to need image assets if we were going to edit anything about the image, this would be
Flames
Smoke
Grass
Bushes
The fence in the background
The bench