Final Cut - Music Video

For the final cut I adjusted everything so it was the closest to perfection it could, this included tightening transitions and effects throughout the video. In addition to this it meant fixing the scene where there are two of me in the same shot, I found this due to the projector (blogpost - "The projector problem"). To fix the problem I adjusted the blacks and zoomed in on my face. I also added text at the start to introduce the artist and myself, still using the same typography as the battlefield text. Lastly at the end of the video I made the text appear from behind in the same typography as the poster and album cover, this was inspired by Dan's outro on his youtube channel. I also added the poster at the end to help with synergy.

Digipak [Draft1-2] - Advertisement Poster

The changes to the poster include those simliar to the poster such as the colours and text. However I did use a variety of text for the 'coming soon' and release date. I further used photoshop brushes to adjust the shadows on both the character and the text. It further allowed me to add the shiny look to the orange text. Lastly I added an orange boarder to contrast the darkness of the blacks, this should help catch the audiences attention.

Digipak - Draft 5

After finishing the front I enhanced the colours within the blues and the oranges, which provides the intertexual reference towards the game that the song is based upon. I also added vignettes to the images to add shadows and contrasting colours. I took the feedback from my audience and applied it to all the covers because I wanted them to all link well together. 

The Projector Problem...

When displaying my product to an audience the projector was set on a different colour format, this in turn made the 'cropping line' on the image standout very distinctly. This made the effect not as effective for the audience, this was a problem that I was unaware of when it came to displaying my music video. To overcome this I edited parts of the effect on a projector but ultimately it was impossible to adjust the colours to be suitable for every projector. Overall my audience is going to be viewing this on their phones/laptops off the platform YouTube therefore I am not to concerned about this problem.

Digipak - Draft 4

This latest design has taken the orange light beams into the typography of the text, this adds a flowing line that contrasts the harshness of the 'metal' text. The text itself is a parody of the Battlefield text that the song is wrote about. In addition to the text I aslo took the colour of the orange and applied it to the outline of the title, this also was included in the eye of the character. Due to my audience wanted for the album cover to be brighter, so I upped the blues to a more vibrant electric blue. The blue was taken directly form the battlefield poster, which makes the intertexual reference more subtly compared to a straight up parody. Finally I toughed up the edges of the mask making the grey patches not as visible to the viewer, this makes the black and white stand out. Overall I am happy with the results of this final cover, I feel that I have applied different layers of inspiration to create something new. Furthermore I have used my audience feedback to improve my work.

Digipak - Draft 3

 I have decided to actually use my previous design because I didn't want to use a parody styled poster because it drew to much attention to the game instead of the album. However I am still going to use the aspects from battlefield, for example I took the blue colour directly from the battlefield poster. This overall brightened the image, which was one of the improvements from my audience feedback. Furthermore I went around all the fabric and made sure that the grey patches on the eye and mouth holes were patched up with blue instead of grey.

I am going to also use the 'battlefield' text as a reference to the game and maybe incorporate the orange light lines on the game cover. I could also incorporate the orange colours and brighter blues.

Digipak - Draft 2

This is the initial idea for the poster, I want to add text etc and be able to translate this text into the album cover and the music video. This may not be the same design that I use in my final product but I think that it is important to experiment with design concepts to help create something new while referencing the media that it is based upon. I may translate the orange onto my previous album and update that design because I still like those images. In addition to this saving me time it will also help me perfect my design for the album cover instead of starting again.

Album Cover - New Design

My new idea is to take the running theme of postmodernism and remixing from my music video and translate it into my digipak. I want to take the game that inspired the song and parody the games poster. I want to take a new set of photos doing similar poses to this game poster, I will also try and make some of the vehicles in the background along with the buildings. I will still keep the selective colour idea that I used in my video and the previous poster by keeping the orange and replacing the blue with black and white. Lastly I may use the typography from battlefield in my digipak.

In terms of colour this is what I would be going for. This is a really rough edit of how I want the colour scheme to work.

Album Cover - Draft 1 (Changes)

The latest version of my album cover is now put together in a template so that all the covers can be seen working within unison. However, I think that I will be revisiting the design and style of the album and digipak because I think that the whole character within the music video has changed. This album cover was largely based off the fact I was having selective colour, which would make the blue of the balaclava stand out. With this feature now changed within the music video it would make sense to do the same for the digipak. I will be keeping the text but looking at making the album cover relate more to the music video in a comical way and I will be keeping the text I used in this version.

After Effects - The Blood Problem

 The blood effect that wanted to achieve did work through premiere until I tried exporting it. I tried many different ways to solve the problem but in the end I decided it was best to just build the effect up again on after effects using previous clips as reference. The problem was to do with the formating of the footage in H264 so I overcame this by rendering in a different format that could still be imported into premiere. To further make sure this same problem didn't occur I used a variety of different blood splat effects, which replaced the one that I had been using before.

Using the previous versions as reference I created an improved version as after effects allowed for a lot more options when blending the effect. I further duplicated every effect I used so that I could have a variety of colours like reds and whites to give it an abnormal but stylistic look.

I then used a mask and adjustment layer to feather out the edges of the blood so that it blends better with the overall scene. I did this because it really helped sell the impact of the bullet with the blood looking like it went everywhere instead of just stopping. I also used the same technique of keyframing in the movement of the blood to match the point of impact, I further added motion blur to match the movement of the camera.

Then within premiere I wanted to create a much more detailed sound design to help the audience follow the movement of the bullet. I used hollywood sounds such as 'whooshes' to help create the sound of a traveling bullet, which are then mixed with some boosted blood sounds I had. These would all then be integrated within the soundtrack and will help create a narrative.

Music Video - Draft 6

The main changes in this version of the music video is the first gun shot. This included further development on the sound design to help the audience keep track of whats going on, this si because the sound of a 'whoosh' helps the audience understand the speed of the bullet and the fact it's traveling. This allows these micro narratives to be understood in a short space of time. In addition to that the use of more larger cinematic sounds makes the bullet have more of an impact, to further link with this and the scream I key framed the camera to shake.The gun and blood was done on after effects so that I could stop the blood being left over afterwards. I also added back a slightly darker blood in the background of the white to add a tint.

Music Video - Draft 5

This draft focussed more on the end half of the music video, I wanted to retain the pacing that was present within the first half of the video. The reason I began focussing on this is because within my focus groups; discussion with my peers and teachers most people commented on the pace dropping off towards the end thirty seconds. 

This version also improved on some of the VFX for example in draft 4 I noticed that my hand at 00:10 was cut off and ruined the realism so in this version I key framed in the crop to match the movement.

 Another rather big addition was the return of the 'Trebor mints' shot at 00:13, which everyone loved from my original drafts (test shots) so I decided to continue with that theme but slightly change in the sense that the whole movement of the mints would look like an advertisement, with the slightly canted angle. Throughout the video there were moments where I hit the camera but at 00:50 I thought that it had to be cut because the transition wouldn't work as well as the others, this lead to the shot being cut early and forming a different transition.

The blood effects have been adjusted to a more pure white because I felt that the slight red tint made it look more like pink paint, this is most noticeable at 1:22. To further tighten up the 'yoga shot' I increased the contrast and darkened the background in order to make the two shots blend together smoother at 1:26. 

The skeleton was cut two a shorter shot because according to my focus group it ruined the pacing slightly because it went on for too long, a solution I might explore is putting the skeleton in other parts of the video as well for a short period of time. However I did cut the shot down and moved the camera closer to him to avoid him not having arms at 1:33. 

The next shot is one that I will probably reshoot or adjust the editing because at 1:37 because the shot I think ruins the music video so I will be looking into how to change or replace it. However I did improve the next shot at 1:43 because I added some crazy fire effects to add variety and impact, the reason for this is because within the industry of rap music they often refer to their lyrics as 'fire' if they're good.

Another aspect I added for variety is the slight 'mirror' effect when the lyrics talk about the "digital illusion" this is because I wanted to again reference grim rap music while maintaining the digital theme.

LightSaber Effect - Editing

To begin the effect I dropped my footage into after effects then spent the next few hours following the movement of the model light saber I used. The reason I used a white model was to make it easier to motion track the object. I used a separate solid layer to mask around the blade I then duplicated the layer and adjusted the motion blur and colour to create a beam/laser effect.




Firstly I wanted the beam to as close to the actual movie effect I did this by using the colour correction filter. This helped me adjust the several elements of the saber to create a relaistic effect. I could further adjust the centre of the blad in order to create a thicker laser. I often used a black layer below so that I could see what I was doing.

I went through a variety of colours for various reasons because I wanted to see which one looked best and which one worked intertexually with the lyrics. The original blade was blue, then I changed it to green, then red and then back to green. I had several ideas on how to make the blade colour and the rest black and white. I firstly tried selective colour but it kept blending with the T-shirt so I had to make the blade be on a separate layer to the rest. I then went back on after effects and edited the colours on there instead of on premiere because it offered me more options in terms of layers. This allowed me to make the background easily. I just had to edited the bottom layer black and white, making sure it was similar to the rest of the music video.

Intertexual References - Final Product

My product is complety built upon previous media to create something slightly different, this is because I have set out to make something 'new' instead of 'original'. This is heavily influenced by our theory lessons on postmodernism, this is because we were looking into theories that looked into the idea that 'Everything is a Remix'. I wanted to try and make my music video self aware of this theory therefore I used several conventions and visual elements from other texts. The reason I did this is to link into the idea of the internet, which is where my artist is based. I found these conventions through my research into music videos and postmodernism.

1. Camera Hit - this came from both K Pop and western rap music videos because they heavily interact with camera often hitting and moving it.
2. Mints - This is more influenced by the lyrics but the motion of how the mints move onto the screen connotes 'advertisement', which pokes fun at all media trying to sell something to the viewer.
3. Smoke - This was a convention that I found in a lot of music videos in general.
4. Film Noir - This was a film convention that focussed on the shadows created with Lowkey lighting, I used this throughout my music video because it helped me focus on the depth and shadows.
5. Blood/Selective Colour - The bright white blood with the cartoonish style along with the selctive colour was inspired by SinCity. This is a very slight reference to the film.
6. Goat Scream - Within the sound design in the film world the 'Wilhelm Scream' is often used as a reference to sound design, I decided to do something similar but used the 'Goat Scream' from a popular internet video that has become a meme. This scream signifies the idea of remixing on the internet.
7. Low Angle - The low angle for the chorus is almost directly taken from the Eminem music video 'Berzerk' which shares a similar style and pace towards my video.
8. Light Saber - The Starwars reference of the light saber shows the nerdier side to the artist and further connotes the popular 21st century culture.
9. Jacket - The 'Army Jacket' is a reference to my AS media product, 'Conscience' because it is the same jacket ised as the military character in that film.
10. Sharpshooter - This is a reference towards the song 'Sharpshooter' a popular rap track.
11. Hoodie - The hoodie signifies the rebellious side to rap that people often associate with the music genre.
12. Mirror Effect - This is a reference to rap and grim music videos because they often use the convetion of the 'mirror' effect.
13. Digital Transitions - The whole digital old TV look is based off the idea that it is on the internet and was inpried again by 'Berzerk'.