behind-the-scenes

 

Behind The Scenes

This post shows what we were doing during the shooting. This blog post was done by 2 of my teammates, Haresha & Ata

Members and Our Roles

Nathan - Cameraman and Actor

Louis - Actor

Ata - Actor

Haresha - Actor

Non-Members and Their Roles

Saka - Lighting & Gofer

Behind the Scenes

BTS #1: THIS IS WHEN WE SHOOT FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE TRIED TO IMITATE A SCENE WHERE A GROUP OF TEENAGER IS STROLLING AROUND A MALL CREATING MEMORIES, WALKING AIMLESSLY. THIS IS OUR INITIAL IDEA FOR OUR SCENES AND IT IS OPEN FOR AN IMPROVEMENT. 

BTS #2: THIS IS WHEN WE RESHOOT SOME SCENES AS WHAT OUR TEACHER ADVICED TO. THIS RESHOOT CAN ALSO ENRICH OUR STOCKSHOOT CLIPS AND SCENES INCASE SOME CHANGES ARE NECESSARY TO BE MADE IN THE MIDDLE OF EDITING. THE CONCEPT OF BESTFRIENDS STROLLING THE MALL STAYS THE SAME, BUT THERE ARE SOME ADDITIONAL ACTIVITIES IN THE PROCESS, SUCH AS ARCADE.

Problems and The Solutions

• Rain at the beach
• Solution: Rather than waiting for the rain and run out of time, instead, we shoot indoors in the basement parking lot of Living World Mall
• No permission to shoot in Living World Mall Basement
• Solution: we switch to another alternatives and we decide to shoot in our friend's neighborhood.
• Dark Video Clip
• Solution: We find position with better lighting.
• Solution 2: We borrowed our friend's motorcycle for its headlights
• Late for sunrise shooting
• Solution: We decide to reschedule the day.
• Limited cameraman to shoot the whole group (only one cameraman, Nathan)
• Solution: We use tripod to shoot the whole band.

Self Reflections:

The behind the scenes was pretty easy to do since all we needed to do was take a picture during our shooting times. We've faced a lot of problems during our shooting times since a lot of our members were unavailable or were late due outside elements. For me, I was having a tough time tackling mock exams, and other school projects so managing my time was difficult for this project

Editing

 

Editing

This post was made by me and outlines the editing process for the final music video

Most of this post was made by Nathan.

Final Timeline:

using tricks I learnt from the teacher such as syncing the performance clips to the song, then setting their opacity to 0 for scenes where they're unused, it has saved me some time during editing

Color grading

Scene with friends (warm):

Scene without friends (cool)

For the scenes where the main character is alone, I've decided to edit it to be bluer than the scenes where he has somebody along with him, the blue tone was chosen as it is often associated with loneliness, solitude and coldness. That coldness I wanted to convey as I wanted to portray being alone as that uncomfortable coldness

The process of color grading was quite rushed as I was used to editing single photos at this point and often times it takes me 5 minutes more or less to edit one photo, furthermore, the color grading settings on the editing software I used was quite different to the app I often use so it was a little bit of a learning curve. 

Aspect ratio

I didn't use a traditional 16:9 aspect ratio common to many screens and chose to use 2.35:1, also known as the cinemascope aspect ratio or resolution, the reason for this is due to my genre conventions often having black bars displayed in their music videos, furthermore I wanted to mimic an anamorphic lens' stretch in order to try and capture the music video in a way that mimics the gear of usual indie music videos which often also use anamorphic lenses

Lastly, by having a wider aspect ratio, it allows for the focus of the viewer to be less on the top and bottom where in our music video nothing happens and instead focuses on the center third of the screen, giving an easier viewing.

Self Reflection:
Since I was the one who was in charge on editing last project, I let my teammate Nathan edit for this project, since I didn't feel like I was comfortable editing this since I didn't have a lot of time. In the future, if ever i need to, I will allow Nathan to edit any video related projects that I may have in the future

Social Media: Research & Development

 

Social Media: Research & Development

In this blogpost, my group decided on the social media presence for our star to be reflected in our products (social media posts, music video, etc)

Most of this was done by Haresha

RESEARCH #1: VACATIONS

What do they post on their social media page? Can you group the different posts into categories (eg Personal, promotional etc)

Just like other bands, the Vacations share updates and activities for their fans to keep them informed about the band's current state, endeavors, and other aspects related to the band. What adds a personal touch to their account is their sharing of daily behind-the-scenes activities. They also frequently post memes that are mostly related about themselves, which adds a more relaxed and playful vibe to the band. This contributes to the development of their image as a fun and laid-back band on their social media pages, contrasting to their musical persona that they've shown in the music (composed). In addition to sharing personal insights, they also create promotional content, primarily focused on their tour schedules that include dates and locations for their concerts.

Does it feel personal or is someone else creating content for them?

Their social media profiles come across as more personal instead of being managed by a team or a corporate that filters the content of their post for the sake of their official accounts. It seems that their goal is to connect with the audience by presenting themselves as relatable, choosing to be seen as a humble, and fun band rather than as glamorous or formal superstars.

Do fans have the chance to interact and engage with a. The artist b. Other fans

Fans of VACATIONS is possible to interact with the artist (a) through the instagram comment sections, but it seems that the band choose did not make any interaction with the fans throughout their social pages. It seems that instagram acts as an update of what are they up to and an announcement of tours; basically, an update of their activity in general. But, fans can still interact with the other fans (b) through the comment sections, and it is most likely to discuss and share their thoughts about the band's posts.

How does the artist promote their music?

They promote their music/bands through their social media pages while posting memes to maintain a relaxed engagement of the band between their audiences. They're the most actives in Instagram and Tiktok, as they got the most engagement on those social media platform.

How has this soc media influenced you?

We would like to conform the meme posting contents that they did in their social media pages, as we want our band to be known the same way as them, which is a playful and easy-going persona that we show in social media. The reason why this is necessary is because we want

RESEARCH #2: REALITY CLUBS

What do they post on their social media page? Can you group the different posts into categories (eg Personal, promotional etc)

On their social media platforms, they post updates about the band’s activities and share information regarding their current situation to keep their fans in the loop. Furthermore, they have recently uploaded mini-vlogs showcasing the city they are visiting for their latest concert series, known as the BUZZ Tour, which they refer to as "stage journal." They also seem to be promoting their merchandise through their social media channels. Overall, their social media posts are mostly well-polished and professionally edited.

Does it feel personal or is someone else creating content for them?

For Reality Clubs it looks like a team of social media sections and photographers are behind the band while developing, creating, and filtering contents that are allowed to be posted to the band's social media page.

Do fans have the chance to interact and engage with a. The artist b. Other fans

In the majority of their social media updates, there is no indication that the band replies to or engages with comments from their fans. The comments section is consistently filled with fans sharing their support and motivational messages for the band. When the post pertains to an upcoming concert, attendees express their enthusiasm about the band performing in their cities, which boosts engagement and excitement among fans. While they may not communicate on social media, they do connect with their audience during live performances.

How does the artist promote their music?

Reality Club promotes their music through social media, such as Instagrams as the main platform. Other than that, they also promote their music through live performances and world tours (e.g. BUZZ Tour) in order to increase the awareness for their new music amongst their loyal fans. Not only that, they feature they're new released on their social media bio.

How has this soc media influenced you?

The vibrant neon colors on some posts inspired us to assign a unique color theme to each member of our band. For example, the neon color associated with Louis would be red. When he is the spotlight/at least present in a post, ambiance of that post will closely reflect the color red as well. This color will be symbolising the personality of the respective member.

1st drafts

This is our first social media draft, where we tried to visualise what will our band's social media post looks like at first.

2nd draft

Here is our official instagram account after we posts some pictures.

Self Reflection

I helped by giving some information on the Vacations instagram account. I think that our group can encapsulate the personality that these indie social media accounts have since they appeal to the teenage audience, and we are teenagers. I was surprised when the Vacations had posted memes on their official account since I haven't seen a lot of official artists post relatable memes.

File Organisation

 Here is my file organisation

here is my personal file organistaion

The image above shows my file organisation for the research & development for the digipak. I've put all the files needed for the digipak into 1 place so that it's easy for me to drag and drop it into google drawing so that I can place the correct images together into one file to make it easily uploaded into blogger.

This is our group's local file organisation, instead of dividing it into sections, it's divided into dates so that it's easier for us to organise the files and isn't a hassle. However, most files and folders before this were created, however was very messy and were not named properly.

Self Reflection

Though it's needed, file orgnisation doesn't really play a crucial role in our final project, since it would take too much time to rename each file. However messy unorganised files were unrecoverable and difficult to find during the time crunch. In the end, we eventually had a small file organisation to make it easier for us during the time crunch. 

Theory of Stardom

 

Theory of Stardom : Richard Dyer

In this blogpost, it will present a brief summary of what we learn on Stardom Theory as well as our works as a group of investigating this theory on real life stars.

Most of this was done by Haresha

STARDOM THEORY

Richard Dyer’s Stardom Theory suggested that celebrities are developed and presented by the media industry to the public eye or the audience as an idol (their "ideal" type of person they dreamed of), which often represent a specific persona that are engaging and appealing to the targeted demographic. The purpose of doing this is to sell media company's products and/or just generating popularity in general.

Persona can be divided into two types:

1. REAL persona
   A curated version of themselves, designed to fit the expectations of an audience; to REEL or to attract the audience.
   Eg. Performances, Music videos, social media
2. REAL persona
   The authentic personality of the star— it means how they really behave (they're real personality as an individual) in their personal life, behind the stages, and away from camera
   Eg. Interviews, documentaries, behind-the-scenes footage
   
   

Why are celebrities appealing? 

1. Love: We are fascinated with the love lives of the stars, can also feel a romantic affiliation with them
   
2. Ordinariness: We like to see them doing routine things, living normal lives just like our own
   
3. Success: We like the idea of overnight success, and failure before success. This appeals to our
   sense of fair play. (Why we like reality TV so much)
4. Consumption: We are fascinated by the huge material wealth brought by media success. Not just
   luxury homes and cars, but also strict dietary regimes set by expensive nutritionists, holidays etc.
5. Dream turned sour (downfall): fascination with the exploitation of their misery
   

Here is my group's notes and a star we investigate for the stardom theory case studies

Self Reflection

I think that the theory of stardom can be useful since our project involves creating a star for our Final Promotional Package. This will also be useful on referencing a theorist and theory for my Critical Self Reflection. I find this theory to be pretty relevant in todays era since most of people persona are displayed through their social media platforms. With this theory, we can think twice on our opinion on celebrities, since they could have a hidden agenda in their private life.

Audience feedback

This post explains how we showed a rough draft of our music video, album cover, and social media page to some members of our target audience in order to receive helpful feedback. 

most of these were done by Me(Louis) & Haresha

Screen Test: Audience Feedback

MUSIC VIDEO FEEDBACK

The purpose of a screen test is to gain audience feedback about our work and see if their are any improvements that can be made. We decided to use google forms to create a survey to share with our audience because we are trying to find out whether we're reaching the right target audience and try to improve on our music video. Here are our questions: 

1. Age

2. Gender

3. How often do you watch music videos?

4. How can you relate with the protagonist?

5. What words would you use to describe the emotions felt in the sample video?

6. How good was the overall quality, writing & message of the music video?

7. How well do you think the visuals matched the mood and message of the song? Please explain your thoughts.

8. What do you think the story or message the sample video is trying to convey?

9. What were your favorite parts of the sample video?

10. How would you improve on the scenes in the sample video?

Here are the results from the audience feedback:

From the feedback we learned that our video is somewhat relatable with teenage 17 year old audiences and that they seem to grasp the story of the music video quite well. We also noticed that some aspects of the video are a little blurry

We are going to change some closeups to be less blurry by reshooting some scenes so that it can be clearer in the final outcome. We're also going to reshoot some performance scenes, as I feel they look a little bland and too stationary.

This screen test was a useful part of our process because it helps us grow towards are target audience and make us to create a proper artist with realistic aims and views. This also allows us to better connect with the target audience and make our product tick the right boxes to appeal to the target audience

Here are the results from the audience feedback:

From the feedback we learned that our social media page should be a little bit more refined or make it a little more formal. Although we want to be known for the humble imagery and casual atmosphere, but we also not forgetting our status as an idol; an influencer who influenced a lot of people in the future. 

We are going to change some pictures here, as this is our first draft maybe we can take out some pictures so that we have some "music or a band" vibes in this social page. And also, maybe we could make a tour poster which we hope will reinforce our group to be an actual band in our social media page; in other words, we don't want our social media page to heavily appear like some average personal-Instagram users posts.

This screen test was a useful part of our process because we can get testimonies from real life music enjoyer. From those testimonies, opinions, critics, and tips, we can improve and add something to our music video, social media, and digipak/album.

SOCIAL MEDIA and DIGIPAK FEEDBACK'

The purpose of a screen test is to gain audience feedback about our work and see if their are any improvements that can be made. We decided to use google forms to create a survey to share with our audience because we are trying to find out whether we're reaching the right target audience and try to improve on our music video. Here are our questions

1. Age
2. Gender
3. How often do you listen to Indie genre music?
4. If you were a part of our band, what would you do to make our social page more engaging?
5. do you think our band's social media page is engaging?
6. What's your opinion on our first digipak sketch? is it understandable?
7. How does our artist's persona relate to you?

Here's our first digipak rough sketch

Here's the result of the questionnaires

From the feedback, we learned that for our first digipak sketch is quite vague, but it is still understandable by the audiences, which is why we keep it simple to be understandable and digestible, so that people understand the bigger picture.

For our digipak, we're planning to make something that can "represent" the band; either we put the band's member faces or something that identify as our brand. We also don't want our social media page to heavily appear like some average personal-Instagram users posts, so we will try to make it as polished as possible; to distinct ourselves from your average instagram user's posts/

This questionnaires is very helpful for us to receive a third-party/gathering opinions from others on what can and should be improve in our digipak later on. Asking our targeted audience should be prioritized to get an accurate preferences for our digipak and social media in the future, so that we understand what our audiences what.

Reflection: This screentest helped my reassure that our video was giving off the right message for the target audience, and reassures that they were able to grasp the concept of the video. Making the forms and finding participants can be quite troublesome, but I managed to do it since the target audience was teens, and I am friends with people on the teen age range. Next time, I think I'll be able to improve by asking people to be sure.

Filming Schedule

 

Filming Schedule

Here is our filming schedule that may help us organise the plans of recording and what agenda do we have on that day to keep us in track.

Most of these are made by Haresha & Ata

Self Reflections:

I don't think the filming schedule was useful since, all of as weren't able to follow the plan because our schedule was full, mostly due to other projects and mock exams. Next time I don't think we'll create a filming schedule since it hasn't been useful for the previous project and this project, I think it may be a waste of time for the next project.