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