Evaluation Question 1

In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In addition to the video, looking at Goodwin's theory, I noticed that our video challenges the common convention of electronic music of having disjuncture. We challenged that convention by having Dan Davids performing to the character, breaking the 4th wall, whilst maintaining a light narrative to be consistent all throughout it. Our video resulted to be a 70-30 ratio of performance to narrative, which I feel conforms to the convention of a regular pop music video, but intentionally matches the ratio of the original music video.

Link: http://dollasign7.wix.com/arcanedandavids

Evaluation Question 2

How effective is the combination of your main product (video) and ancillary texts (digipak/website)?

I feel the combination of our video and digipak/website are very strong, comparatively. The video, itself, was created to show a type of imbalance in attention, as Dan Davids was  given more screen time and focus compared to Arcane. With the video alone, a new viewer would assume that Dan Davids was the main artist as he is the one consistently seen from beginning to end.

Having said that, to the fans that recognise both Arcane and Dan Davids, they'd realise as he's the producer, he's shown in order to make him seem like he's any other person in the video. In response, however, for the album cover, I intentionally put the both of them on there in a sense of irony. To the newer viewers that would've thought "what's the significance of this person?", they're now seeing that same person on the front of the album cover. I feel this is very effective, as stated in question 1, it's not 100% common in electronic music to have images of the artists on the album cover. Therefore, it would theoretically be Dan Davids on the album covers, but I decided to go against that convention, commonly found in pop music.

Factors of synergy that were used, were the Arcane eye and both artists making appearances on the covers and in the music video. In order to maintain the continuity with all of the products, we realised it would've been best to keep both artists making an appearance in one way or another. On the other hand, for the website, I specifically intended to have only the Arcane eye on the website as it was my best way to remain minimal and focused on the content, similar to Calvin Harris' website.

The combination of the website, the digipak and the video, in my opinion, turned out to be very strong. The video matched the standards of industry music videos, the digipak kept that level of quality up, and I feel the overall package from all of the products turned out to be very strong, high-quality and effective in cohesion.

Evaluation Question 3

How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

We used media technologies in various different methods, provided by different forms. For research and planning, we created a production schedule on TimeToast, in order to help us maintain a plan all throughout the time given to shoot, edit & have everything made prior the deadline. Regarding the storyboard, I used StoryboardThat to create a draft storyboard, in order to illustrate the vision given for the final video.

For the actual equipment used, we used a Canon 550D in order to shoot the video, along with an iMac as our system to edit it with. Using a computer like an iMac allowed us to work efficiently, and was easy to work with. 

When it came down to the edit, we used Premiere Pro. Two effects that we created when using Premiere Pro, would be the use of keyframes, automating the opacity of a clip, and layering side clip over another. In addition, using a Gaussian blur filter over a clip. That, in itself, is how the clip below was created. We made sure not to make the performance clip secondary to the effects happening over it, but due to keyframes in Premiere Pro, it worked out very well.

I used Photoshop in order to create the album cover, front, back and inside. I used a lot of layering in creating it, in order to prevent the cover from being 'flat', so to speak. I used a wide range of tools, also. From the magic wand tool to remove parts I did not want, duplicating the layers, then adding a filter onto the secondary layer, move tool, polygonal lasso tool, etc. Below is a small example on how exactly I made the cover:

I used Wix in order to create my website, and found it was rather easy to work with. I embedded our music video to be the first set of content shown on the screen, as I intended it to be seen first. I also added the links above the front text, along with the social media link (as shown below).


Canon 550D to record, blogger used to research and show progress between different stages (to help each other know what's going on), Twitter used to show when the filming process took place, YouTube to develop research on existing songs/music videos to help.

I also used websites such as YouTube for research, allowing us to watch real media products in order to see what the conventions were for the genre and what effects we may add in ours. We also used Twitter in order to post when we were filming, that way it was easy for our group to be monitored under health and safety. Below are examples of how both Twitter & YouTube were used, along with examples of us filming.

Evaluation Question 4

What have you learned from your audience feedback?

From the audience feedback over the course of the project, I definitely feel our group made a huge improvement between the start and end. At the beginning, we were given good signs from our feedback, being told our piece had potential but the actual idea was not concrete. I, at the time, was confident of the end result, but didn't have proof or full evidence to show why exactly I was confident. We had started shooting, made a rough cut and allowed others to give us feedback on said rough cut. From that feedback, everyone else had a stronger sense as to what the end result may look like, considering the rate we were working at.

From the rough cut feedback, we noticed that during our editing stage, people that wandered past us noticed the silhouette shot in our video. We were constantly & randomly told the shot came out great, it really works in the video and completely took that on board for the rest of the edits. This taught me that, if people are to gravitate towards this shot, even when they're not intended to look at it as of yet, then more people will gravitate towards it when the final product has been edited. Therefore, indirectly telling me to include the silhouette shot even more, as it is a very nice shot.

I also learned that from my ancillary products in comparison to real media products, the responses were that I had used conventions to its potential, making my ancillary come off as a strong example against real media products. The album cover and website show indications that I carefully looked at the different conventions, saw how they could be used and manipulated them by using them, conforming against them, and/or developing them.

From the silhouette shot (directly in the middle of editing), to the last day of editing, we were confident that our piece was very strong. It was well edited, well shot & the performance levels remained consistent. At least, that's how we felt.

But, that's also everything that we were told at the premiere to the audience.

After it showed, they commented on how well done our piece was, and the fact that it had a high quality from beginning to end. From that point, I had learned that my gut instinct of believing in the project, thinking of new ideas, what can we do, what can't we do, ended up getting our project to where it needed to be. I learned that the video came out strong, and everything that we set out to do from the beginning, we did.

Regarding the ancillary work, I learned that others understood why I had made certain things how they are. For example, the use of colour and the effect it has on the album covers, matching the quality of professional, industry standard covers. I learned that the covers also matched the 'vibe' of the video, too, and remained consistent with the website, having factors of synergy be included in each product. The feedback from both the album cover and website tell me that, considering the budget given and the space of time, they both came out very strong and maintained the consistency at a high level.

Final Video

3. Seun, Daniel, Beau, Chyna from 283goswellg on Vimeo.

Finished Website

Below is the final result of my website:

Link: http://dollasign7.wix.com/arcanedandavids 

Finished Ancillary (Digipak)

Below are the final results of my digipak:

How I Made The Album Cover

Digipak Planning

I've decided, for my own digipak, to focus on both Dan Davids and Arcane as my main artists. The cover will be a shared focus. 

Change in Arcane's text (& potential logo?)

Above is the replacement of the previous text I had before with Arcane's title. I feel that this is very stylistic and will make a great replacement, leading me to make this the main text for Arcane's name, if seen anywhere. The font is 'Australia Title'.

Update To Design Ideas

I've decided to adjust the design idea by having Arcane and Dan Davids appear as focus artists, rather than only Arcane. I feel this works best as it promotes the collaborations between the two better, in addition, it makes more sense to the casual fan. The project is intended to cross the bridge of producers and artists coming out as main artists together.

Having said that, the fonts I'll be using for Dan Davids' name will be:

Cerena: 

Keep Calm:

The Bold Font: 

For Arcane's text, I used Lemon/Milk as I feel it works very well in the digipak.

I'm going to be using Keep Calm, as I feel this works best in giving a formal font a sense of informality and casualness, which is something we addressed with Dan Davids' branding (which is the same as Arcane's casualness).


And for the album name, I decided to go with Hacked as I felt it was the best fit for an electronic influence, also matching the album concept of 'voltage'. I duplicated the layer in order to give the secondary copy a motion blur effect, as repeated from the draft ancillary made months ago.

Below are the results of when they are put together (not the final product).

Progress On Digipak

I wanted to give the image a very slight tint of blue, as I feel blue is the most common linking colour between the Arcane eye and any of the other products (ie music video). The three main colours I've decided to go with (as previously mentioned) are blue, black and white, therefore, I wanted to stick to the plan by using the blue tint. Below is the before and after of the difficult task:

So far, I've focused very carefully on getting the colour balance and lighting of the images to be done correctly. I know that the back cover will not require as much focus as the front, therefore, I wanted to get the front cover's difficulties out of the way first.

And below shows the progress made directly after, as the matching the background of the front cover currently remains a difficulty. I've been focusing on making sure the gradients are consistent and match all throughout.

Progression on Digipak Pictures

After going through with the photoshoot, we were unable to do the initial idea of having a projector project the eye over the both of Arcane and Dan Davids. We continued on with the shoot and resulted in a large amount of pictures to choose from. Below are some of the pictures I've shortlisted to use in my actual digipak.

52. Overview on 'Dos & Don'ts' of Design Work

Below are 'Dos & Don'ts' for creating our design work, which I think is useful to have as a reminder of what boundaries one shouldn't surpass when making their designs.


 Dos:

- Sticking to two clear fonts, maximum. The fonts should compliment each other and be appropriate for the genre.

- Stick to three colours maximum, and under the condition that they go well together, whilst fitting the genre.

- Clear photos that are in focus, along with appropriate shot sizes & are generically appropriate

- Barcode, date, copyright information, title of album, artist name, record company logo, website and artist website music be shown


Don'ts:

- No unnecessary effects. Text/image effects must suit genre.

- No image stretching to fit the panel. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Also, stretching the image loses the quality of the image itself.

- No placement of text across face of the artist, unless it fits the genre/actually comes off as stylistic.

- No use of fonts that do not work, as this will make the design look worse.

- No need to have photos on every panel. The conventions of your genre must be reflected within your piece, therefore, if your genre doesn't have it, yet photos are used (to fill space), your product will look worse.


Having gone through the Dos & Don'ts of the design work, I feel fairly confident that I will be following the rules correctly in order to make my piece very strong. I've stated I will only be sticking with two fonts and three colours to use, and is what I intend to do.

Where Did My Ideas Come From

An image I've seen that has given me a stylistic idea is the one below: 

The image is of a producer called Flume, and the picture taken (in my opinion) is incredibly impressive. The use of colour in the image shows very stylistic effect, and is one of the reasons why I decided to create the album cover in the format that I'll create it in. I do not believe I'll be able to have the same colour effect as the one above, but the tone of it being a shade of blue is what I would intend to use, one way or another. I believe a blue tint effect may be used, in order to add to stylistic value. The lighting on Flume also, is one that I think I will try to aspire to when our cover is shot & photoshopped.

Regarding the website, I intend on having it focused on the content, but with moments of focus towards Arcane. A website I was inspired by was Calvin Harris', as his website is almost 100% pushed towards his content that he's made, or updates about him.


I think this is a very smart technique in terms of promoting content and is very effective, as the focus remains on the content itself.

However, I intend on adding a stylistic approach onto the website for Arcane.

The website http://jackuunofficial.weebly.com/ is an example of what stylistic effects may be added, that do not hinder the balance between promoting content and focus on artist.

The use of gifs, images yet more content would be what I would like to use in my own work, however, in a different style.

Shortlist of Fonts, Colours, Layout & Design Ideas

For my cover, I intend on having two separate fonts. One being for Arcane's name, the other being for the album name, 'Voltage'.

I intend on having the colour scheme be between black, white and blue (shade of blue depends on pictures taken). These three colours are the only colours I intend on switching between, to prevent a clash, making the product look worse.

For Arcane's name, I intend on having a bold font. Below are some of the fonts I have looked at and consider using for my final product.

Lemon/Milk:

Couture:





The Bold Font:





For the 'Voltage' text, I intended on having electricity effects across/within it, in order to represent the voltage from it. This would be an effect done within Photoshop, but I looked at a few fonts which may be of use, and will consider them for my actual product.


Hacked:




Dendritic Voltage:




Digital Desolation:






The main idea I've had for the cover, itself, was to have Arcane sitting on a chair, Dan Davids standing up near him, and have a projector projecting the infamous eye over the both of them. I intended for the room to be dark, and the only light showing is the light from the projection of the eye. I made a very quick and brief drawing of what the cover's format would be:


The back cover, I feel, would not exactly need a picture of Arcane, as it would be better for him to remain behind the scenes on that note. If we were creating a digipak for a pop star, for example, it would make sense to have their faces put on every side of the product, if possible.

However, Arcane isn't exactly a pop star. 

Analysis of Calvin Harris' Website

Analysis of 'Motion' by Calvin Harris

Importance Of Digipaks

Digipaks are vitally important as they allow a new dimension of creativity focused on the artist and their music. A digipak is essential in the music industry, as it offers more to the fans than the audio alone. Album covers allow a visual to be put along with the songs and album name, usually including a booklet for the fan to read.

The example above shows the lyrics for one of the songs on the album, along with artwork of the artist herself, Ellie Goulding. Fans would be able to connect directly with the song as they are given the lyrics, hand in hand with a picture of her.

Websites, as well as album covers, may be commonly used within digipaks, too. A website would be seen as a hub for interaction between the fan and the artist themselves. 

Above shows Sam Smith's website. Immediately, we're given content to watch/listen to, showing that websites are also a strong promotional tool for the artists. For this case, the splash page is used to promote his most recent content, however:



After you enter the site, it gives several links to click on, whilst giving updates on the homepage. This allows the typical fan to know what he's up to immediately, whilst being able to click onto the different links for anything related to him.

Digipaks are seen as 'power players' in terms of promoting content made by different artists, allowing them to shift people's attention on their promoted projects, then maintaining it as they listen to the project itself. 

Pitch-7 Costume (chyna)

In our music video, we plan to have 3 costume changes. We don't want to have too many, but we feel that if we have 3 really good costumes than it will still represent our artist in the right way and reflect to song.