If I Believe You - Final Draft

IIBY - 5th Draft from Jonathan Edge on Vimeo.

Digipak - Final Draft

Poster - Final Draft

How Did We Use Media Technologies Across Research, Planning and Evaluation Stages?

DIrector's Commentary - Final Draft

In this commentary, we address all four evaluation questions.

How Effective Is Our Combination Of Texts?

How Did We Develop Our Technological Skills?

What Did We Learn From Audience Feedback?

What Representations Are Created By Our Product?

In the Digital World, To What Extent Does Our Product Have Commercial/Audience Value?

Poster - Seventh Draft

In this draft we changed the rotations of the apostrophe in She's American because it was facing the wrong direction.

Action Plan Week 19

Action plan week 19 from Jonathan Edge

Audience Feedback on Sixth Draft

We weren't sure whether we wanted to go with the most recent version of the poster, which is the spaced out one, or the one which has the three singles instead of the two. To determine which would be best, we printed out both and asked our whole class to pick which one they preferred.

As you can see, the more spaced out version was preferred, so that is the version we will go with.

Poster - Sixth Draft

In our last draft we forgot to relayer all of the text to give it the pink glow, so we did that here and then also made some minor changes to text alignment.

Poster - Fifth Draft

In this draft we removed one of the singles and then changed the alignment of everything so that it creates more space on the poster.

Audience Feedback on Fourth Poster Draft

The response this time was that the readability is now much improved and the text can be easily read, though it was suggested that there's still maybe too much text and it leaves very little space, so we will see what we can remove to try and make it feel like less of a solid wall of text.

Poster - Fourth Draft

To try and improve readability, we duplicated the text layers so that the text would become more bold, and we also did some cutting and replacing of the trees in the background to cover gaps of light that were affecting readability.

Audience Feedback on Third Poster Draft

The main issues people expressed were still with regards to readability, so we will need to work on that, but aside from that everyone prefers this new approach we're taking as opposed to the earlier drafts we had.

Poster - Third Draft

This draft changed quite a lot from our previous version. We took a screenshot from the video to use to replace the bordered image on the previous draft, but as we enlarged it to fit in the border we realised that the image would look good if the background was included and took up the whole poster. Because this change of background affected the visibility of the text, we added a pink neon border to all of it which again fits the colours of the video and makes it more readable. We also changed some of the alignment of the text, as was suggested in our last feedback. 

Audience Feedback on Second Poster Draft

The response to this poster was more positive. Some expressed doubts about the strength of the main image and said we could pick a better one, and there were also some concerns raised about the alignment of the text, so we will look into changing that in our next draft.

Poster - Second Draft

This is the second draft of our poster. We went with a different approach after taking feedback from audiences, so we changed the main image and made the poster more text heavy so that it is more conventional and easily identifiable as a music poster.

Audience Feedback on First Poster Draft

This was only a very rough preliminary draft, so we didn't ask for too much or any particularly extensive audience feedback. However, the people we did talk to said it was too simplistic and would maybe work better in landscape, so we will try that.

Poster - First Draft

Action Plan Week 18

Action plan week 18 from Jonathan Edge

Poster Flat Plans

Here is the flat plan we made for our poster using Photoshop.

Poster Questionnaire Results

Poster Questionnaire

Questionnaire for poster from Jonathan Edge

Poster Textual Analysis - The XX

Poster Textual Analysis - Kasabian

Action Plan Week 17

Action plan week 17 from Jonathan Edge

Poster Textual Analysis - Ariana Grande

Justifying Digipak Corners

The corners on our digipak interior behind the CD were a point of contention in our audience feedback, and although people ultimately decided it looked better with them we conducted additional research to justify our use of them, and found another 1975 album which uses a similar technique with the corners behind the CD.

Audience Feedback on Eleventh Draft

We needed to determine whether the version with the corners or without the corners is best, so we printed out physical versions of both copies, and asked people to put post-it notes on the version that they liked the best with a small explanation as to why. Here are the results:

As you can see, the version with the corners received a lot more positive feedback so we will likely use this version, though first to ensure that it meets conventions of digipaks we will conduct some minor additional research to ensure that these corners are typical enough of digipaks that we can use them.

Digipak - Eleventh Draft

We have now reverted back to the pink colour, and need to consult audience feedback again to determine whether we use the version which has the corners outside the CD or the version that doesn't, both of which can be seen below. 

Audience Feedback on Tenth Draft

We ourselves don't think the blue version is as good as the pink, but we asked for audience feedback anyway to see what the general consensus was. Everyone we questioned said that they preferred the pink version as it's more linked to the colour scheme of the video and creates the most consistency with the video itself, so we won't use this blue version and will carry on with the pink.

Digipak - Tenth Draft

It was suggested to us that the colour of the digipak wasn't the best it could be, so after taking some advice we decided to try a blue version.

Audience Feedback on Ninth Draft

We had the oppositie criticism of the eighth draft relayed to us this time, with some people saying that they miss the corners of the image and thought they gave the digipak more personality, and the inclusion of a hidden image of sorts made it more interesting. To get a better idea of audience attitudes to the digipak we will print both versions and ask for feedback on the physical, constructed digipaks themselves.
We also had one person suggest that pink wasn't the best colour the digipak could be, and that it would maybe work better in a dark blue, so we will likely try that for our next draft.

Digipak - Ninth Draft

In this draft we removed the image behind the CD, and replaced it with a reverse gradient simply showing where the CD would be placed, as seen below.

Audience Feedback on Eighth Draft

We asked for audience feedback on our eighth draft, and response to the design of the CD was positive, with people praising the simplicity. However, some people took issue with the corners of the image behind being visible, so we will see how it looks without that.

Digipak - Eighth Draft

Audience Feedback on Seventh Draft

We have been told that the image on this draft is better, but we should consider how it would look with the CD placed on it, so for our next draft we will design and place the CD on the digipak.

Digipak - Seventh Draft

Here we have changed the image on the top right again.

Audience Feedback on Sixth Draft

We again asked for audience feedback on our latest draft and were told that the image on the top right is now too similar to the one on the left, so we will change this image.

Action Plan Week 16

Action plan week 16 from Jonathan Edge

Digipak - Sixth Draft

Audience Feedback on Fifth Digipak Draft

We asked for more feedback on our newest draft of our digipak. We were told that there isn't much of a connection between the two interior images, and that the image on the right could be changed to better match that on the left.
We were also told that the central image on the back should be resized so that the character is the same size as he is on the front.

Digipak - Fifth Draft

Because the initial blur we did was not well received in our audience feedback, we decided to go for a simpler effect that conveys the same meaning. 

Digipak - Fourth Draft

In this draft we have changed the barcode to a landscape orientation, as this was suggested in our audience feedback.

Audience Feedback on Third Digipak Draft

To gather an idea of where to go next for our digipak, we decided to ask for more audience feedback on our digipak, and to do this we printed out what we currently have and constructed it to look like an actual digipak before giving it to people and asking for some feedback.
The most common positive points were that:

• The colours create unity with the video
• The layout of the back of the digipak especially is very creative and eye-catching
• The colours of the digipak go well together
• Has basically all of the details necessary for a digipak

The most common negative points were that:

• The mise-en-scene of the central image is quite weak
• The blurring of the face effect could use a lot of refinement
• The barcode on the back should be landscape instead of portrait

After looking at this feedback, we will consider what should be done with our main front image in order to improve the digipak, as that's where most of the complaints have come from. 

Digipak - Third Draft

Here is the third draft of our digipak, with the newly decided interior images.

Audience Feedback - Digipak Interior

We designed several possibilities for the interior of our digipak, which can be seen in our previous blog post showing the second drafts. We decided to ask for audience feedback on what should be used, listing all five options on an online poll and asking people to answer which one they think would be best, and we would go with the two most voted options. These were the results:

Because of these results the two options we will go with will be options 1 and 5.

Digipak - Second Draft

After receiving audience feedback, we decided to zoom out the main image and change the colours of the text and border. These colour changes continue throughout the back and interior images, and we have several interior images which we will ask for more feedback on to decide what to use, as the response to our initial interiors wasn't very positive. 

Inspiration for Digipak

We have decided to go with the first idea of our digipak flat-plans, and this post is explaining the main influences behind that design. There are two albums in particular we are using as inspiration: 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' by Kanye West and 'James Blake' by James Blake.

The first cover we are using as inspiration because although it's a completely different genre to what we are using, it is similar in that it's a very artistic album that deals with mature themes. We're planning on using a similar style border on our digipak so that it looks more artistic, though we will change the colors to match our color scheme. The second album is more close in genre with it being indie pop, but the inspiration we are taking is from the visual of the man with the blurred face. We feel this would be fitting for our character who is quite lost and not quite right mentally, so this blurring and shifting of the face could represent his confusion.

Digipak - First Draft

Digipak Rough Photoshop Draft

We quickly through together a quick draft of what we would like our digipak to look like, using stock images and the photoshop tools we plan on using. When we come to actually design the digipak the central image will likely be larger and we will also make sure the border isn't as rough. 

Digipak and Poster Original Images

Original images from Jonathan Edge

Digipak Flat-Planning

Digipak Questionnaire Results

These are the results from our digipak questionnaire. We asked the same sample of people that were used for our initial questionnaires, and essentially found out that digipaks were very important to them. They think they should include an image of the artist, they should include the artist and album name on the front and should have some link to the content of the album.

Digipak Questionnaire

Digipak questionnaire from Jonathan Edge

Digipak Textual Analysis - Suicide Squad

Digipak Textual Analysis - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Digipak Textual Analysis - To Pimp A Butterfly

Digipak Textual Analysis - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

Action Plan Week 15

Action plan week 15 from Jonathan Edge

Directors Who Influenced Us

Directors who influenced our video from Jonathan Edge

If I Believe You - Fifth Draft

The changes we have made in this draft include decolorising the opening shots to show a contrast between the past and present, and then refilming the scene on the log to get rid of the McDonalds bag that was previously present in the mise-en-scene.

Director's Commentary - Fourth Draft

If I Believe You - Fourth Draft

This is the fourth draft of our music video. In this version we added some shots of the lead character with his girlfriend at the beginning of the video to further establish a human connection with the character and clarify why he would turn to religion.

Storyboard - Update #3

In this update we have added the opening shots of Nathan and Emily walking to church together. 

If I Believe You - Third Draft

This is the third draft of our music video. Changes in this version include minor shot order changes and we also changed the slow motion effect on the title reveal as the camera pans upwards.

If I Believe You - Second Draft

This is the second draft of our video. We took our audience feedback into account, so first we changed the shot one minute and ten seconds into the video as this part received the most criticism. We also restructured the shots in the second chorus so that the timing was better which created better flow.

Storyboard - Update #2

In this update we added the newly changed shot 1:10 into the video, with Nathan sat on the crumbling wall instead of leaning against the railing.

Audience Feedback - First Draft

If I Believe You - First Draft

Analysing the Break and Imagery in Our Video

We have completed the break section of our video, which is the most technically ambitious parts of the video due to all of the layering but one that is also very vital to the narrative.

This section shows the character watching homemade footage of him and his now dead girlfriend out together, but ultimately the toxic images he associates with religion fill his mind and prevent him from finding the relief he desires in religion. This is such a big part narratively because combined with the few shots leading up to this break, this is where the narrative turns on its head, and it stops being a story about someone who wants to find relief in religion and becomes a story about someone who cannot find relief in religion. 

On the technical side, there's a lot going on in this section. Edited using HitFilm4Express, the audio has several layers, with the popping in of samples and strange distribution between left and right channels being intentional to create an uncomfortable feeling that represents our character's instability. Sound effects used include VHS static, white noise, and more violent static effects which pop in and out. The most interesting audio effect here though comes from this interview with 1975 frontman Matty Healy:

As we are making a video for The 1975 we felt it should reflect their religious views, especially with the song being so heavily about religion. We found this interview which helped us mould our narrative into what it is now, and decided it would be a nice hidden effect if we managed to include the audio of this interview somewhere in the video.

The break was the best place for it to fit, so we isolated the audio of the video, pitched it down and added echo and distortion effects onto it so the voice cannot be heard clearly. What we ended up producing was an almost Satanic sounding deep distortion in the background that perfectly fits the jarring feeling we were going for, while also having the nice addition of adding a thematically relevant hidden message to the video

For the visuals of this segment, we have several images pop up in the footage of the girlfriend that are meant to be images of toxicity that the character associates with religion. We also linked this back to the band, as Healy has also spoken about how he cannot support religion because it prohibits the empowerment of women (source: https://humanism.org.uk/about/our-people/patrons/matty-healy/), and one of the images that flashes on screen is of a man attacking a woman. Further images used include Jesus on a crucifix (to drive home that all of this imagery is linked to religion), the Nazis burning books, a video of a priest attacking a child, ISIS soldiers and an intimidating homeless person at an underpass.

We want this imagery to be quite jarring and disturbing compared to the rest of the video but also maintain thematic relevance, which we feel we have accomplished, though we will still seek audience feedback to confirm this.

Fully Evaluating Our Story and Further Enhancing Narrative

Now that we have finished filming and are starting to edit, our narrative has completely pieced itself together and further developed from its initial conception.

Our video follows a man who's girlfriend has died, and is left mentally broken. As such, he turns to religion to try and find relief, which is reflected in the song's lyrics. Learning about postmodernism really affected the shaping of our story, and though this narrative is postmodern already (as it follows a relationship story that's not man/woman, it's more about the relationship with the church and even in the case of the man/woman it focuses on the grief of that story, not the love) we have decided to further subvert traditional narratives by having our character not find redemption in religion, making him more of an unsympathetic character who rejects religion and can only see the toxicity of it.

As directors we prefer this narrative because it's a more controversial and rarely seen viewpoint that could allow for some good symbolism and iconography. To reflect this new narrative direction we will have the lead be faced with both Christ and cocaine, and choose cocaine to reflect his destructive mental state; we'll have him see imagery of a burning Bible; during the break section we'll edit in disturbing imagery linked to religion; and then ultimately the video will end with the character rejecting the church and walking out.

Coloured Footage Day 4

Here is our footage from the fourth day of filming after we have coloured and cropped it to the correct aspect ratio.

Raw Footage Day 4

This is all of the footage we captured on our fourth day of shooting.

Coloured Footage Day 3

Here is our footage from the third day of filming after we have coloured and cropped it to the correct aspect ratio.

Raw Footage Day 3

This is all of the footage we captured on our third day of shooting.

Shot List for Church Shoot

Coloured Footage Day 2

Here is our footage from the second day of filming after we have coloured and cropped it to the correct aspect ratio.

Raw Footage Day 2

This is all of the footage we captured on our second day of shooting.

Coloured Footage Day 1

Here is our footage from the first day of filming after we have coloured and cropped it to the correct aspect ratio.

Colouring Our Footage

This is an example of us evaluating our creative skills and experimenting using a platform that we have not used before. 

Raw Footage Day 1

This is all of the footage we captured on our first day of shooting.

Action Plan Week 14

Action plan week 14 from Jonathan Edge

The Challenges Of Filming On Location

Location filming is something that we did not undertake last year and has challenged us to try something new. Whilst we did film in houses, it took no organisation as they were our houses and the sets were already designed to work for the production. This year we decided we needed to film in a church location to reflect the story and tone of the song we picked. As you can see in previous posts we have already organised and scouted the location for the video, however the actual filming itself creates many issues.

One issue with filming on location is the transportation required and planning on the day. Everything has to go to plan and nothing can be left to chance as you only have a set amount of time to film at the location. This means we have prepared a shot list to counter this and we both have a clear vision of what needs to be filmed on the day. We also have organised how we will get there and we have fully confirmed our access to the site and location.

Organising the access to the site as well has heavily delayed the project. We where meant to film over a month ago but due to access and limitations we have been un able to do it. This has pushed the production back by a few weeks and delayed our previously drawn up schedule.

The benefit of filming on location however is the incredible setting it will create for the production. The whole set is great to film at and we think it will really add a great element to our video.

Designing a Recording Studio Logo

Designing%20 a%20recording%20studio%20logo from Jonathan Edge

Location Scouting

We went location scouting around the church before we fully committed to filming there just to make sure it would be suitable for our needs, and we've decided that it is. Here are some images we took around the church to make sure it was okay for us.

 

 

 

 

 

Editing Our Song

The song that we have chosen is quite long, running over 6 minutes. We wanted to cut it down to around four minutes in length, so we went into Final Cut Pro to do this. First we had to use the blade tool to cut out certain parts of the song, then we had to use audio key framing to made the transitions between edits sound more natural, as seen below. The edited version we now have is four and a half minutes long, which we think will be much more manageable.

Action Plan Week 13

Action plan week 13 from Jonathan Edge

Storyboard - Update #1

This update shows the break section.

Enhancing Our Narrative

After reviewing our audience feedback, looking back on our synopsis and studying narrative further, we have decided to make some changes to our story.

Around halfway through the video the song will cut out and enter a break section where we will cut to the lead character in a darkened room, watching a TV. The TV will have footage of an old girlfriend on it, who has presumably died. This gives context to the actions and mood of the character throughout the video and why he turns to religion. We will also likely include a shot of him looking at a gravestone to further emphasise this.

Obtaining Filming Location Permission

For our music video we would like to film in a church, so we would need to get permission to do this. Here you can see the email exchange of us contacting a church, explaining what we would be doing and then getting permission for it.

Legal Issues - Filming

Legal issues filming from Jonathan Edge

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Katz and Blumler's Use and Gratifications Theory attempts to understand the reasons people choose to watch pieces of media and what needs it satisfies for them. The theory states that all pieces of media fall into at least one of the four categories:

Entertain - the media you watch should give you enjoyment and some form of escapism so as to temporarily lose yourself in the media and forget about your real world worries.

Educate - the media should in some way give you information, knowledge or understanding.

Identify - being able to see yourself or norms/ideals you associate with reflected in the media, perhaps through role models who share similar values, or aspirations to be someone else.

Social Interaction - the media product should be able to spark conversation or debate between other people.

Our video would likely fit into three of these categories. One being to entertain, as we would hope our end product is good enough for the viewer to lose themselves in and enjoy watching. Second being to identify, as some people should be able watch the video and see parts of themselves in the protagonist. And third being social interaction, as our video will create the possibility for people to have conversations possibly about the ambiguous ending of the video, where the character's fate is left open, or the place that religion holds in people's lives.

Defining Our Audience

The main audience for our music video will likely be teenagers to young adults, as they formed the bulk of who we questioned in our questionnaires. The alternative rock genre itself typically has a younger audience, and the band who's song we will be making the video for has a similarly young target audience.

 

Although we are dealing with serious subject matter that could be seen as more adult, we feel it will be easily relatable and viewable for most people because most will have at least some experience with religion, whether it's being part of it or questioning it, so the video should be an interesting and engaging watch for them.

 

We won't aim for any particular gender as we feel like it's easily marketable to both, and we also won't try and completely shut out older audiences either, as they definitely have the potential to enjoy and engage with the type of video that we will be making.

Action Plan Week 12

Action plan week 12 from Jonathan Edge

Audience Feedback on our Font

After deciding on our font, we showed to a handful of people and asked for feedback. Here are some of their quotes:

"It looks very sleek, I really like it."

"I think it's great, and it definitely matches the aesthetic of the song."

 

"It's good but I would be careful using white text, when you place it over the video you need to make sure it will be visible."

Deciding on Fonts

Audience Feedback on Overall Synopsis

After writing our overall synopsis, we showed it to several people and asked for their feedback on it. Here are some of their quotes:

 

"I think it's a great idea and you should definitely look into using some controversial imagery. Religion has a lot of area to explore, and think your video could be really insightful and thought-provoking with this narrative."

 

"I think it's a good starting point, but it needs a little bit more story, for example why is the character so unstable?"

 

"It sounds like a great idea but you should make sure you keep it accessible. If it goes too artistic then it may turn general audiences off, so be sure that it's not too artsy for its own good."

Storyboarding

Storyboard from Jonathan Edge

Overall Synopsis

Our video will begin a fade in to a tracking shot from behind the main character as he walks into a church. We will then have the title and band name come up on screen, possibly with a director credit as well. The video will then follow the character as he aimlessly walks around town, lip-synching along to the song. There will be various locations, such as on top of a building looking over the town, in a forest-y walk, in a field and so on. The video will keep coming back to the church where the main character will be singing, and at various points in the video we will see the lead character consuming drugs and/or alcohol.

This is all to illustrate the narrative that we are following a character who is mentally unstable, and they've come to a point where they are incredibly depressed and just feel as though they have no purpose in life. This is why they're essentially a junkie. Because of this, he goes to church in the hopes that the presence of God will make him feel better. The video will end ambiguously with the character walking out of the church, not revealing whether he has found relief or not.

Action Plan Week 11

Action plan week 11 from Jonathan Edge

Web 2.0 and David Gauntlett

Web 2.0 and david gauntlett from Jonathan Edge

How the Music Industry Operates

Music Video Regulation and Censorship

Music video regulation and censorship from Jonathan Edge

Action Plan Week 10

Action plan week 10 from Jonathan Edge

Seeking Copyright Permission

Here, you can see evidence of us emailing the various record labels that own the distribution rights to the song to see if we can get permission to use it.

Music Video Copyright Information

Music video copyright from Jonathan Edge

Action Plan Week 9

Action plan week 9 from Jonathan Edge

Questionnaire 2 Results

We questioned the same sample of people so that the results are fair and consistent with the first questionnaire. When asked about the importance of establishing a star image, the result was closet even, so this isn't something we'll see as a huge priority. The majority of people also think that the lyrics of the song should match the content of the video, which is good as we were already planning on doing this. People have also said that they don't see intertextual references as particularly important, so again they won't be much of a priority in our video. The result for when questioned about the pace of the video is that the best pace is one that matches the beat of the song, which we will likely do in our video, and finally most people said that the best form for an alternative rock music video to take is either a narrative or a mixture of both narrative and performance.