Construction Post 6: Website Post-Production

We used the "add" tool to place
everything on the website

I spent a lot of time editing the website during post-production, as Eddie was focusing on the edit and Mario was mostly working on the Flat Plan. We used the website creation tool Wix to make the website, and I feel that it was very useful as I had no knowledge on other forms of making a website such as using HTML.

At first we decided to create the basic pages on the website:

• Home
• News
• Media (With Bio under it)
• Store
• Tour
• Contact

We then added some basic content to it, such as relevant information on all of the pages and the appropriate icons for each page, such as social media widgets.

On the home page we had all of the things that seemed most important, this included a link to pre order the album, the music video, the song, a link to the tour page and a list of social media links.

On the news page I put some announcements for big events such as the music video's release. After having received feedback from our target audience, who felt the website was not interactive enough, we added in a competition and an announcement video, featuring our artist addressing his fans, giving them an update.

On the media page there were some social tools added, but since we hadn't set up the accounts yet they looked quite bare. This would later become one of the most interactive parts of the website. We added in a lot of different features after getting feedback from the audience saying that there was not enough on the website for them to engage with. We added in links for purchase opportunities, including tickets for Orlando's upcoming concerts, download links for digital copies of the single 'Sun Goes Down' and also a link to the store page for pre-ordering the album. There were also social media pages added into this page, we added in a widget for Orlando's instagram feed, which also prompted viewers to follow his account.

The bio page was set up with a space for Orlando's picture at first, since we had not done the photoshoot yet. There was also a section for text about Orlando, so the audience could learn more about him.

For the store page I inserted a store tool, but we did not have any products to put on there at the moment, apart from a pre-order page for the album. Later, this page would be populated with merchandise. To get a better sense of what our audience would buy, we carried out a survey and decided to display the most popular results on the store, with items such as t-shirts and mugs being the highest in demand. Using the website Redbubble.com, I created the designs which we then used to advertise the products on the store page.

The final version of the store page

The tour page had a list of dates and a link for people to buy tickets for the show, which would direct them to www.ticketmaster.co.uk

An early version of the Tour page

The contact page included some fake contact information for people who worked at our record label. This let people get into contact with them, while also making the website look legitimate and professional, since all other artists we looked at had contact information on their website..

Construction Post 5: Digipak Post-Production

For the album cover, we wanted to follow conventions. At first we looked at different album covers and quickly found common aspects among them. They usually only included a name, and sometimes an illustration. So, at first we included a stylised logo on the front of the album cover (we would use this logo in other products, such as the website for synergy) and the name of the album along with an interesting graphic. When we asked for feedback from our teachers, they said that they liked the logo however said that it looked a little bare. We explained that this is what the majority of albums were like, but they told us that the albums from last year had not had their artist on the front and lost marks for doing this. As a result of this, we decided to put a picture of Orlando on the front cover, and we embraced this new design as it gave our artist more of a presence.

The Orlando logo

For the back cover we put titles of songs that would be in the album. We also put in institutional information along the bottom, including copyright information, a link to the official website, a QR code, a barcode and the logo of the record label. This part of the album stayed largely unchanged, as nobody had any criticisms of it, however we did change the colour of the background to match the front.

On the front cover Orlando is portrayed as a loose and laid back character, for instance his appearance looks casual; he is wearing a shirt and pair of sun glasses. the sunglasses also blocks the audience from making contact which could portrays him to seem cool and relaxed and also less serious which people may find quite interesting. The kind of messy, creative looking font used for his name reflects this.

For the inside we originally had it blank in the same colour as the front as we did not know what to do. However, after receiving some audience feedback we decided that we should add in pictures, so that it did not look bland. We referred back to the original plan we had made for the album cover and decided to insert an image of Orlando on one side, and I had the idea of putting the vinyl disk on the other.

The original flat plan for the album cover

How the inside cover ended up.

Construction Post 4: Music Video Post-Production

For the post-production, we used different software to create the final product. Adobe Premiere Pro was used in the editing of the video and Adobe After Effects was used to add in extra things to the video, such as the backgrounds.

Adobe Premiere Pro

Getting the edit done was a big priority for us, since we knew that most of our time would have to be spent in After Effects. First, we uploaded all of the footage onto Premiere Pro and we named the video clips according to which shot number they were and which take it was. This helped us when it came to placing the clips onto the timeline. We created several tracks and then layered the takes onto the timeline. By having different layers, we were able to add in newer footage by placing it on a higher track. Some simple effects were done in Premiere such as reversing the the footage slightly then playing it normally, this added some diversity to the video. The video was mostly cut to fit with our original storyboard, however some sections were changed after we received audience feedback. For example, we were influenced by audience feedback to change the glow in the dark scene so that it cut to the beat, making it more engaging.

What the timeline looked like in Premiere

Adobe After Effects

When the edit of the video was done, we began work on adding in the backgrounds and objects into the scenes by using Adobe After Effects, we also used the software to grade our shots while we worked on them, rather than grading them in Premiere later. During the editing in After Effects, a lot was done to alter the footage. The first step of this involved removing the green backgrounds and also making sure that the skin of the characters didn't have the green tone from the light that was reflected off of the green screen. Then we added in the effects we wanted, which varied from scene to scene. For example, in the yellow scene, the yellow background had to be added, then a new layer had to be added and cut in the shape of a ball. Then, in addition to changing the way the ball itself looked, a glow around the ball was added. Then the ball had to be given a motion path, which we had to make match the motions of the main character, to make it look like as though she was pushing the ball away. This was a time consuming process, since each shot had to be meticulously worked on. Below, you can see the final result of what the ball looks like.

For the editing and grading, we used a tool that was in the programme called Luma, which allowed us to change the contrast and saturation of the scenes. This was very helpful for us, because of the importance the colours had in our music videos it was vital that we were able to get the backgrounds to be the desired colours. This also was quite important for the contrast between the first scene, which was meant to look dull and dreary compared to the following dream worlds.

comparison between the first scene with a later one

After Effects was essential in our music video, as we relied heavily on the chroma key technology to make our music video look the way it did. However, there were some cons to using the software. There were extremely long opening and rendering times which cut into the available time we had to work on the project. Because of the size of the project on more than one occasion the programme crashed, meaning that we lost some progress.

Construction Post 3: Production - Photo Shoots

After having finished the shoot for the music video, it was now time for us to shoot photos for use on the album cover and website. We had three days during the week to get through the shots we needed, but we ended up not needing the last day.

25th November

At first the lighting caused an issue with the way the photos were turning out, but after modifications to the camera's settings the photos turned out fine. Everything went to plan, and we were able to take the photos we wanted.

Before adjusting the light settings

After the adjustments

26th November

On the Thursday, we encountered some technical difficulties. There was an issue with the flash due to one of the plugs having broken, so we were not able to get as much light as we wanted in the shots. The backgrounds were the areas that most obviously looked darker than the photos from the day before, but this didn't really matter since we would be editing out the backgrounds in Photoshop later. This day was also used to get photos that included both Mario and Eddie which would be used for the website.

There was significantly darker lighting on this shoot

We wanted these photos to more properly convey their personalities, so we had a range of different shots including some that were more fun, and some where they seemed more serious and cool-looking. We also decided to get some shots that just featured Eddie, in case we needed to use them at some point. At the end of the day we had decided that the past two days had gone so well that we did not need to use the third day for shooting.

Construction Post 2: Music Video Production Part 2

In the latter part of the week we had performance shots and the big group scenes planned, so this was going to be very time consuming and important for us.

Day 4 - 18th November

On this day, we chose to film our performance shots, as Shayam would not be there since she had other commitments.  For this, we chose to film Mario singing the song from different angles, we planned to use these shots as cutaway footage during the group scenes. They were also useful as after showing the rough edit to some people in our target audience, quite a few of them said that we should have had more close ups of the artist. The filming process went quite smoothly as we used Eddie's 600d camera as well as the school's 5d camera to film from different angles at the same time, speeding things up.

600d and 5d footage was taken at the same time

Day 5 - 19th November

This day was the most intensive shoot for the group. On this day we had the orange, purple and black scenes planned, which all involved large groups of actors. We shot the glow in the dark scene during lunch, as this was when we could get the most actors on set. We initially planned to use UV paint, however when we tested it, it didn't show up well on camera. Instead, we made the main focal point of the scene the glow sticks. This worked out well, since we had enough to make sure everyone was adequately decorated and to create a visually interesting scene.

We then used the time during our media lesson to shoot the new year's (purple) scene, we used people from our media class and others who were free at the time to fill the scene. We had to get quite a lot of different shots in this scene, so we overran a bit, but this wasn't a major problem. We were able to get a variety of shots, some which we thought of in the heat of the moment.

After school, we then shifted our focus to the party (orange) scene. We chose to include a lot more people in this scene, because after showing the rough edit to our target audience focus group, many people said the scene felt empty, with not enough going on. We managed to get all of the necessary footage, finishing on time. However, there were some scenes in which we could have some more alternative shots, so we might be able to benefit from one more shoot.

Day 6 - 20th November

On the final day of our shoot week, it was a lot less rigorous, since we used the day to re-shoot footage we thought could have been done better. Using the morning to go over the footage, we used the time we had at lunch to re-shoot, which didn't take very long. Below is the type of shot we were getting on the day, it was just a few shots that involved Shayam.

Construction Post 1: Music Video Production Part 1

We had six days to shoot all of the footage we needed. The main focus of the first three days was to get the individual shots for Shayam, Mario and Eddie, who played the main characters. We would also be able to get more artistic shots if there were actors that were unavailable for certain slots.

Day 1 - 15th November

The call time for the first day was 9 a.m. and we were to start shooting at 11 a.m. The reason we arrived so much earlier than the shoot time was so that the actors could get into their costumes, to prepare the set and also give the technician time to set up the greenscreen for us. The first shoot day went very well and we were able to work very efficiently, because of this we had more time than we anticipated to film additional shots, which meant that we would have a lot of shots to choose from when it came to editing.

Day 2 - 16th November

On this day, we decided to shoot the shots for the red, 'Mars' scene. The shoot went well and we didn't encounter many problems. One issue that came up was when Shayam had to place down a flag. We used a mop as a guide for the flag pole, which we would then later remove in post-production. At first, we noticed that when she was holding the mop at an angle when placing it, so we got Mario to hold it upright.

Day 3 - 17th November

We chose to use this day to get footage that we had missed or needed to re-shoot. One of the things we decided to re-shoot were some of the shots with Shayam from day 1. This is because while reviewing the footage, we noticed that there was an error in the costumes - she bare foot in these shots, so we filmed these shots again with her wearing socks. We felt this was something that we should have fixed to avoid continuity errors in the final video.

The costume error was fixed

R+P Post 33: Reflections on my role and contribution during Research and Planning

I think that our project has been progressing well so far, and I feel that as a group, we have been working together very well.

During the research period of the project, I was the one who had the least knowledge on the genre, although Mario and Eddie seemed very keen on it. As such, I took it upon myself to research popular artists and their music so I could have a wider understanding of the conventions of the artists and music videos of the genre, this also allowed me to take part in the discussion of ideas for the video as well as our artist's identity.

The shootboard I made

I think that the planning process has gone smoothly, since we all divided different tasks among ourselves to ensure that everything got done. I made the shoot board for the shoots, which proved to be very useful and time saving when the time came to use them.