Evaluation

Final Pieces

Copyright

The song I have chosen is called 'Ones' by Kaytranada and Mr Carmack which I initially found on Soundcloud but also listened further to on Youtube. I really want to use this track as my song for my music video, so I looked into the channel owners to see if they were a professional company.

The channel is called 'Husk Sounds' and has a designed logo which initially made me think they were a record company or singed by a record company. After looking further into the channel I found out their email address and emailed them asking for permission to use the track, however have not got a reply as to if I can use the track. I further emailed them the final video itself and am yet to hear back from them.

Looking at the channels information, they state that they are an underground channel based around hiphop/ house style music which tells me they are not connected to a record company and after looking at their email ' HuskSounds@gmail.com' it further shows me they are not professional as they use a general email type. This shows I have taken every reasonable step in trying to gain copyright permission to use the track, however will still like to wait for their reply for final conformation.

Results

Evaluation Questionnaire

I have created a final survey to collect results and feedback of the final product I have created. This is so that I can use the results for the evaluation questions to conclude this project which I will then be presenting to an audience.

Final Music Video

         

This is the final video which brings everything I wanted into play. In this final cut I experimented with finding the correct fonts to use for opening and ending title sequences to match my digipak and magazine advertisement. I also found a san serif font to use for the credit titles which looked good in conjunction to the digital looking main title font. I added fades in and out of black to these titles which made them pop out at the viewer as the bright white and black contrast can be seen. This then fades into the main video which flowed the opening title sequence and video together nicely. I further edited some of the clips which were in the main first draft to then match these fades and break apart the straight cut shots. Some of the clips swoop away from the rider to the floor in which I then added fade to black transfers which makes these shots better as the focus of the floor wasn't very interesting although being a main filming technique in BMX style edits it didn't work by itself in music video. 

In the final trick sequence I wanted to draw upon the constant same shot style of the tricks which became repetitive and didn't match the cinematography of the rest of the arty shots. To break this apart every three or four trick shots I added close ups, for example a spinning wheel on the floor which adds more detail and focus to elements of the bike which then looks nice to the audience. This worked well and keeps the pace of the video flowing, which then links to the flow of the riders subliminally.

I finally added a shot of the two riders together looking at a camera, which is very different to the rest of the shots as the impression given throughout the video is point of view shots from both riders and generally filming what they're up to. However I really like how they almost are looking over clips together and it presents more of the efforts of the sport of getting footage they are proud of, and almost as if the whole day that was filmed was successful and enjoyable that it was all worth it. This then cuts to a shot of them riding into the sunset as a slow fade to black comes into play which finishes the day in the life off artistically and nicely which as a viewer is happy to end the video off on a high. The backing track gets quieter till there is no sound left as the ending credits fade out which slows the video off well. 

Music Video Edit 3

Edit 3 really starts to tie the video together where I went back over edited sections and really focused on timings of cuts to match music pace to further keeps interest of the audience and to present flow in the video which metaphorically can link to the flow of the riders and sport. 

The ending of the video is now put in where the riding sequence of tricks is evident. I like the way the ending trick sequence looks, however watching one trick after the other  starts to get repetitive so I want to add more arty shots in between the riding clips to match the pace and cinematography of the rest of the video. Adding in more close up shots and still video will break this apart and will add more background detail to the sport being presented. 

Music Video Edit 2

In this edit I start to progress into adding colouring filters and adding the transition of travelling to the final spot where the last third of the video is going to be filmed. I added a grey saturated tone to the video which I liked in my research. I did this to emphasis on the meaning to the sport and the riders and how its not about competition but more the individualistic elements and hard work which the riders put in for the enjoyment they get out. The grey tones also add a gritty raw feel which I personally really like which I have seen in other videos from my research, and is also presenting the themes of riding, friendship and hard work in its most natural way. 

Towards the end of this edit, I bring into play the quick change of the hand covering the lens and then it coming away presenting a fully re built riding spot, which we thought of on the day. I like this as it shows progression over a period of time in the matter of seconds which keeps the audiences interests and the videos flow in tact.

Music Video Edit 1

After collecting all the clips I needed I moved onto editing together my video for the music track I have chosen. Earlier on in my project I made a questionnaire and collected results around what my video needed to include so I wanted to re look at the results as reference. My feedback told me that a narrative style video is preferred and to rap/ hip hop genre music so the way I have filmed my clips have helped to follow this preference.

The video above is the result of the first section of clips I gathered and started to edit together. The narrative really starts to come through in this first draft where the 'day in the life' style is noticeable as the main actor 'Tom' is getting ready and going out riding to meet myself who is his riding friend. Throughout this narrative I really try to think about the cinematography I am using, and the ways the low angle shots present enjoyment and excitement and how the surround areas and mise en scene have a play into the look of the video. A lot of my shots vary in angles and are similar to many shots used in typical BMX style videos which from research I know work very well. Many of the clips are straight cut together which I like for this video as it keeps the pace of the clips following and keeps the attention of audience. These straight cuts mixed into the thought process of camera angles, lighting and cinematography make my video narrative interesting and work well together.

Editing 2

Another part of the video which I had to learn was how to make my footage black and white. After experimenting with the 'dip to black' filter I looked through the colour filter section and stumbled across an option called 'tint'. Using this I dragged and drop this filter onto every clip which brought them into the gritty colouring I desired from my research.

Tint feature for raw edgy footage effect.

The final thing I had to learn was about title sequencing. I have already got experience in Photoshop which is another programme by Adobe, In which I opened a new document which had the same dimensions as my video. Using this new file I dragged and dropped my desired text and saved this file and re opened it in Premiere Pro, which allowed me to then set a duration of this as a still image and then I faded this out to start and finish the video.

Ending shot and Photoshop file text ending credit sequence.

Editing 1

Prior to editing the final video together I had already had experience using Adobe Premiere Pro which is a professional video editing programme so I decided to use this piece of software again to edit this piece as I was familiar with the majority of the tools and so that I could improve my prior skills.

I started off with importing all the clips and dragging and dropping all the final shots one after one so that they were all in chronological order. This then allowed me the go through each clip and use the razor tool to cut all the unwanted footage off of each clip so that they all flowed smoothly together. Later on in the process of editing I zoomed out on the timeline and fine cut all the clips again to ensure the best flowing footage possible.

All the footage together and cut.

I use straight cuts for the majority of my video due to this being a key element of pace and the interests of the audience in multiple rap music videos but also a standout feature of BMX edits which I had analysed in depth prior. Some of my shots finish with the lens swooping away from the rider into the floor which decreased the pace of the shots. For this I had to research about transitions where I looked into a range of different ways in which the clips could flow a lot better and resulted in finding out about 'dip to black'. Dip to black made the videos transition fade to darkness in synchronisation with the swooping camera effect which then solved the pace problem. This was something key to improving the video which I found through a Youtube tutorial.

Dip to black found in the bottom left hand corner. This is a sequence showing the fade and its effect.

Test Shots

Here is a  video of some of the test footage I have created to show how we shot some of the clips in multiple ways to make sure the best shots were used for the final piece. When filming my video I had to make sure continuity was correct so that the video would flow properly once the clips were together and also my video was supposed to use a certain type of arty cinematography found in high profile BMX style videos ( my favourite Videographer would be John Hicks and his styling). Making sure the videographer and shadow was not in shot, shaky footage was avoided, natural lighting matched well creating lens flares, clothing and actor positioning matched was key to the success of the final clips.

The clips put together here show how certain angles and multiple attempts have changed the result and how from doing so I could choose what would work well for the final video.

Animatic

Here is my animatic. I took all the drawn out storyboard thumb nails and edited them together to get an idea of how they would all look in sequence. I personally like how they would look one after the other, however this animatic is very basic so all the shots are 5 seconds long which it obviously wouldn't be in the final video.

Filming Day 3

In the final filming day we needed to get the trick sequence filmed as this is a crucial element of the video. We arranged to go out Thursday 17th of March to get the clips however the weather wasn't sunny enough let alone dry enough for us to ride properly so we re scheduled it to the 19th. We came across some some problems that Saturday in regards to security issues and them thinking that where we were riding we were vandalising and causing damage to surrounding property which of course we weren't. In the end we were told to leave despite speaking to the manager and were threatened to get our riding equipment taken away which would have drastically changed my final video and plan as I would have to collect riding gear again which would take time to get together which I couldn't allow as the deadline is close.

Tom and I decided to go back and risk getting told to leave again, because within the matter of days our stuff could be taken which would have meant me re filming half of the video. On Monday the 21st of March we went back with the camera and after 15mins the security guard came back over. I then had a chat to the guard and asked to shoot here just for one more afternoon/ evening and I would never come back which we agreed on and managed to get all our final shots within this time period. To make sure we got the shots we wanted without risk (as I could never come back again) we got multiple shots that were the same so that I could pick and chose once editing.

Overall this was successful although there were lots of complications. I am happy I was able to speak as an adult to the manager and security and make out how important it was for me to get this sort which was lucky they let me in the end. In hindsight, I should have requested permission to use this area to film at this time and place however did not so as I had used this space for riding for years prior with no problems or interruptions at all. I also was under the impression it was public property due to the area being broken down and an unused space for years and have recently discovered it is owned by the council so writing for permission to use the space to film would have been the correct thing to do. If this product was for commercial purposes I would have to gain permission by the council however due to it not making any profit and being for educational purposes only I can leave it, however a valuable lesson for the future has been learnt.

Filming Day 2

The second filming day was the 23rd of January where we aimed to collect more shots for the trick sequence which starts half way through the video and also film the ending once the sun has started to set.

We wanted some really pretty and creative looking shots so Tom brought along his 'Camera slide' which allows the camera to be mounted and then move smoothly sideways which combined with some manual focusing in and out of focus would look really nice. We managed to collect a few shots of this style which I think would work well in and out of a trick and also some in-between shots giving the audience some background to the riding itself.

We got some cool trick sequences filmed which would work well in conjunction to the rest of the shots I had previously collected however didn't manage to film all of the tricks as we wanted to improve the obstacle/box we were mainly riding on. The improvement of the box could also be filmed from a 'POV' view which would make the 'day in the life' realistic and then the progression of building and then having fun would be more evident with this improvement. We stopped filming and collected more wood so that we could build it up in our next filming session.

We moved onto trying to film our final shot of us riding off into the distance which was difficult as we only had a short period of time to get the shot where the sun was and also people were driving in and out of the centre where we were filming making it difficult for us to get a smooth flowing shot without disruptions. We finally managed to get what we wanted which was worth the efforts in the end.

Camera Slide

Filming day 1

Filming day one set out well, the sun was out producing some really nice sun light for camera lens effects however the ground was slightly damp. This was a slight issue as the slick tires us boys have could easily slide out causing injury if a trick was landed slightly off centre so we both had to be careful of this.

We took my camera and Tom had recently brought a new filming camera as well, so we set out with 2 lots of equipment as back up if there was technical difficulties. We didn't encounter any social interferences with residents which was good as it could have effected the flow of shots we were collecting however half way through the filming session my camera died so we switched cameras, swapped lens and adjusted ISO and shutter speed settings so that the rest of the shots were as close to the first half of shots as possible which as a result worked well and saved the day.

The water became a problem once we got to the riding spot where the trick were supposed to go down as tricks such as 180's, 360's and bar-spins made the bike slide out from under our feet which meant we had to stop and complete the trick section of the video in filming session two. I predicted this might happen which is why I planned ahead.

Here are some photographs of use on the day...

The first set of images show how in the introduction the camera is spotted in the reflection of the kettle which was then corrected producing the same effect.

How has the target audience research effected ideas?

From researching into my target audience through a 'Survey Monkey' survey, I have evaluated what I have gathered from doing so and what the audience expect. I have selected a song based upon the exception of the audience wanting something rap/hip hop in style which I have taken on board and have selected a rap instrumental song as a result which also fits the pace of the clips I desire. I have also taken influence from the audience enjoying narrative based videos which are interesting to watch due to the audience being able to follow the story of the song.

Video Budget

Thinking about video budget is important to directors and producers of a music video/ film makers so that they can distribute money evenly to actors, equipment and location. This so actors are payed a fair amount for the work they do and for food etc so they are looked after, camera equipment, bike equipment etc which is needed to help produce what is wanted in the shots and also might have to pay the owners of property or land for permission to be filmed and acted on and for that location to be allowed in the video once released to the world.

Lucky enough for me, the only other actor I need for the video is one of my best friends Tom who I ride with weekly despite the production of this video. Tom and I both like riding together so filming at the same time makes the sessions funner for us so he doesn't want to be payed. Out of respect I will bring drinks and food to keep up ticking over throughout the day. The equipment I already own is adequate for the job. I have a semi professional DSLR camera which videos so I can get the shots I desire through that, and the camera handle and tripod I own also helps stabilise shots so I do not need to go out and buy anything else. Finally the places we are filming does not disturb any residents of the area or get anyone else in shot so I will not need to ask permission film and ride on property.

It was important I state this as it shows me think in context to a professional filming session and the ways the producers would have to go in industry. I can also reflect on this in my evaluation on decisions I have made and will make if variables come into play.

Filming Dates Planned

Before I start filming I am planning out the dates In which I would like to aim to gather all my shots together. This is so I can follow the date list as a guild and goal.

Day 1: January 2nd 2016- 9:45 till 4    Would be good to get all of the whole sequence done on this day throughout the change in the sun creating the effect I would like.

Day 2: January 23rd 2016- 2:00 till 5:00     Would like to get more in-between creative looking shots which add feeling. Do more on the riding sequence once at the riding spot.

Day 3: February 13th 2016- 4:00 till 5:30     Focus on getting the ending sequence when the sun is setting and we ride along into the colours of the sun. Multiple tries needed to get the correct camera effect.

Final Digipak and Magazine Advert

Overall I feel like I have created my digipak and advertisement piece to the best of my ability. To create my digipak I focused throughout on the music itself and the themes I want to present throughout my video and then made certain decisions upon this. An example of this would be my colour selection of the images and the graphics I have created, my video needing to present the gritty raw feeling of riding and the struggles which I try to refer to through subliminal things like the tone the images and graphic make. The music I have selected works well as its tone and rhythm matches the feel to the video I have planned so I then had to make sure the titles typography fits these ideas within the music. I then had to transfer all of this process into the creation of my final advert which follows everything I have reflected and created on. I finally have got some feedback from my teacher and also my main rider Tom again. My teacher has stated how he likes the way I have tied everything in with purpose making my designs meaningful and my rider Tom enjoys the images creating the feeling we both experience whilst on our bikes.

Draft 5 Advert and Digipak

Now I had made my cover and digipak I had to finally create my advertisement piece for a magazine. I chose to stick with my concept of putting my digipak cover in the centre of the advert with white borders and black backgrounds as the colours all fit together nicely.

I firstly added the white titles I had developed and placed the CD cover in the centre by itself as I didn't need a repeat in titles. I additionally create the text 'debate album out now' in the same style as the first lot of text which works well as an overall cover.

Once this was done I reflected on improvements I could make to piece. A lot of the adverts I analysed were simple and linked to the genre of the music and the artist themselves which I think I had achieved, so I spoke to my teacher and my rider Tom for some feedback both agreeing it all worked well. I also learnt that many adverts have external references from popular medias so I thought this final detail would make the piece of a higher quality as if it was an industry stand piece. I didn't use the same titled text for this as I wanted some diversity in the advert. Also 'NME and MTV' wouldn't use the font I had created for their own company so I finalised on using the font 'Avenir' which is a rounded yet tall looking font which looked good with my created text due to the thicknesses of the text being medium. This then composed everything together resulting in me having a digipak cover, digipak and advert all in a similar yet effective style.

Draft 4 Advert and Digipak

I further developed my graphic into a final cover which looks like so...

I really like the way this has come out. I eliminated the surrounding bored which was bland and unnecessary and started separated text from background to stand free by themeselfs. My final mandala graphic fits nicely in conjunction to the text and doesn't take away from the background image.

Now that I had created my final cover, I needed to develop my digipak. I placed my final cover on the front of the template I had as a base to the piece and started to eliminate a large collection of photographs and screen shots I had in a folder which I was contemplating putting on my digipak. I finally decided on some which fit nicely together and were visually interesting presenting elements of my video. I turned them to black and grey and adjusted there colour, light and shadow balances to make the come out as dynamic as possible.

Digipak 1 with the placement of the photographs

Digipak 2 with added in spines in the colour range of my theme. Added in my graphic onto the format of a CD.

Digipak 3 is further developed to have a realist CD with my made graphic and adding a track list and barcode to the back for a professional look.

Draft 3 Advert and Digipak

After getting an image I was happy with for my cover I wanted to continue to develop this to a higher level as I want to achieve high marks overall in this section of the work and get this to industry standards due to my interest in pursuing graphic design as a career.

Moving on with the development of my digipak I wanted to focus on the front cover first, as this is the initial thing the audience will see and what is like the sales pieces of the whole video/music whilst  in advertisement and on the shelfs in shops. I started to think about the feeling the song I gave chosen and what sort of typography and fonts I could use to suit this theme the best. I also thought about developing a graphic which links in nicely.

I started off looking at san serif type faces this being text without 'flicks' as the natural curved fonts would link to the overall flow of the video and also the urban tempo of the track itself. I wanted to put this text in a contrasting colour to the darkness of the image so white initially came to mind in making the text pop as opposed to blending with the background.

I searched through the pre set fonts Photoshop and Illustrator have to offer, not really liking the forms of the text so I started to look elsewhere on sites like 'dafont' and 'Fontspace'. I found a copyright free font with large curved letterings so I took this onto Illustrator to change slightly. I added more connectors between the letters of the name of the song and also the artists names themselves which I like a lot better due to the flow of the text.

Here is the colour change I made and the manipulation of the text. I think this looks nice and works well, the text is fairly simple yet has the accents for a slightly digital effect which suits the tone of the track.

I then started to compose this onto the digipak cover. The final thing I needed was a main graphic. I wanted this graphic to be some sort of geometric shape to match the feel of the titles but also to have the graphic to tie the composition of the pieces together. I know my types of patterns and shape as I practice graphic design in my spare time (as I already stated) so using something aztec of a style of basic mandala could work due to the symbolic meaning of them and also the slight urban effect they have which would fit well. I experimented with a range of shapes in conjunction with each other and created a circular graphic as a result in the white colour matching the titles. Overall I really like the result of the graphic because the circle being subliminal in presenting a bike wheel or the cycle of a day in the life of a rider links well, and the complexities within the graphic representing the obstacles the rider faces whether it be riding far to have fun or the effort of building to create and achieve something to be proud of or enjoyable.

Initial graphic I produced didn't work well, the lines were too complex and thinned out not being visually easy to view.

My second graphic developed from a lined shape to a thick white mandala where I experimented with composition and the play with my text.

Final graphic

 Progression and development

Song Choice

After researching into all different genres of music and styles of music video and also gathering feedback from an audience gathering a specific target I want the video to be aimed at, I have decide to use a rap/ hip hop style track. This is because of this genre appealing to the audience the most and the diversity of the genre itself ranging from a intense meaningful song to a paced beat. I like this as I want the track to link to the meaning of bike riding, and including a track which links to the efforts grittiness of the sport should work well.

I started looking on websites like 'Soundcloud', 'Youtube' and apps like 'Spotify' to find a track which I like that would fit nicely. The track also had to be copyright free or a track I could buy and use without avoiding the terms and conditions of stealing music so I looked and niche artists. A lot of the BMX edit songs/ backing tracks are from 'Soundcloud' so I used this website to look further into typical types editors would choose.

I eventually came across a song on Youtube from the channel 'Husk music' with a song called 'Ones' by the artists 'Mr Carmack and Kaytranada'. Its an instrumental style track with a hard hitting pulsating beat and a constant high hat symbol rhythm with a digital piano style melody. This stood out by far, due to the beat and symbols almost presenting that constant drive a rider would have (which I know from experience) and the melody being chilled presenting flow and enjoyment. The track is the duration of 3:46 seconds being a nice time to present what I would like to for my video, being the fact that its a narrative and I want to present the progression of a day out riding.

I have also emailed the owner of the song asking for permission to use this track for my video.

Focus Group Feedback

Now I have started to create my final pieces ( ancillary tasks) I am thinking about the themes and views I want to portray throughout. To help with this, I have asked 5 friends who have been riders for many years for some input and thoughts about what I should include as I thought asking this niche audience who would have understanding of the sport would help me with ideas to portray bike riding in the best possible way throughout my digipak and advert.

Responses:

Tom- "Make sure elements of parts of the bikes are shown to show detail of the bikes themselves, show the audience real, current bike parts to be as realistic as possible."

Kai-" Cool graphics without going into the typical graffiti font types, graffiti is too generic."

Joe- " show actual building of spots, shows depth to the sport."

The other two riders gave similar response. Using this feedback I will make sure to select photography and typography to consider these views so that the final product is understandable to non bike riders, but also relatable to bike riders themselves.

Draft 2 Advert and Digipak

After I had created my first advert and digipak I reflected on my thoughts of the video and came to a conclusion of the cover being to similar to the video itself due to the action being shown and the positioning being basic. I thought that if my cover didn't include bikes or riders but more an image which shows the creativeness I want to portray thought the video and a basic logo to suit this photograph.

Whilst filming the introduction of my video at Toms house, the main rider in my video, I was playing around with the settings on my camera trying to capture some lens flare as this was a creative style of shot I wanted to include later on in the video. This was a shot I didn't think much of at the time, however since looking back at the shots and photographs I collected over my filming sessions this stood out as representing the essence of the video. It includes the beauty of the natural light which I liked as it helps present and compliment the beauty of the riding itself, the starting location of the video Toms house which is important to the view of the narrative within as it shows the progression of the day and how Tom would leave his house to natural fresh feeling of the start of the day and the natural growth of the ivy which follows the overall theme. 

I decided to experiment with this photograph to see how this would fit around my current ideas of the digipak front cover. I took the photograph onto 'Photoshop' and enhanced the light and dark areas within the image then turned it to black and white which links to the raw feeling I overly want to present. I then cropped the photo to the dimensions of a square cover, including the real key features of the photograph.

Enhanced photograph

Cropped/transformed photograph

I finally placed the cover in digipak form to see it in context. Although there isn't the rest of the images on the digipak I can see it in proportion to the rest of the areas and see how this would be at the front of the digipak and the placement of everything else within.

I also placed the image in a similar format to the original advert to get a perception of how I could play with this format.