Our Magazine Advert

We decided to stick with the theme of using cartoons which beth and I drew ourselves, for the album advert and the digipak cover. This means that our digipak and magazine advert tie together as a package.
As the album is for a compilation of Gorillaz remixes, we chose to draw a picture of a DJ at a mixing table, which ties the theme of remixes and the imagery of the advert together.

After researching the existing examples of magazine adverts from Q magazine, we narrowed down what need to be on the adverts. This included:

• The band or artists name  
• The album title
• A release date
• Available formats
• A web address
• Advertises songs it includes
• Advertises where to buy album

Here is our first draft of the magazine advert:



The audience feedback we gained from this was that the theme of remixes and the DJ imagery works well, but it was also suggested that we definately need to add some colour.

Also that the date shouldn't be larger than the album title.

An advert or link to a place where you can purchase this album such as iTunes, Amazon, HMV etc.

It was suggested we could add some information on what the special edition digipak includes.

It was also suggested that festival season would be a better date to advertise the release date.

And due to the increase in popularity recently of vinyl, we could add that as another available format of the album.

Here is our second draft:

I have added to this, colour which matches the digipak, as it is a common convention of magazine album adverts for the imagery to match the album artwork, although we have challenged this convention as our album artwork doesn't match the advert I have also added an image of the album, so that an audience would know what to look for when purchasing the digipak.

I added the small image link to iTunes, beacause after a quick survey of asking people if they owned an iPod, most of which did and also wether they use iTunes to download music or listen to their music files on their computers, again most said that they had and did. Therefore iTunes seemed like the most popular choice. It also adds some authenticity to the advert.

Finally i added the small section on what the digipak contains, for which I took inspiration from existing examples of bonus features.

I hope to upload this and our digipak to facebook in order to get some audience feedback from a variety of age ranges but mostly our target audience, and find out whether they think our digipak and magazine advert work well and are effective in drawing in the target audience.

The feedback we gained on this 2nd draft was that the colour of pink/purple on the text is "perfect".
The combination of only 3 colours are "simple yet effective".
It looks professional
They like the graffitti style of writing on the Gorillaz
The advert is in keeping with the 'youthful' style of the digipak
They also suggested that we should:

• Use the same pink text on more of the white text
• Make the text on the digipak features stand out more, for example: in shape of a record.
• Re-order the writing as it is a little squished up
• Compress 'THE REMIXES' so that the edges of the letters arent lost

Here is our third draft:

Here we have edited the sections which we were told needed some work from our audience feedback.

However Beth and I have decided we dislike the text in the shape of a record, we don't think this works well so with our next draft we will straighten that back out again. Other than that we are happy with this design.

Here is our final design:

The audience feedback we gained from this deisgn helped us decide that this was the one we would use as it wasn't suggested anything needed changing and also that it looks proffesional.

Final Rough Cut

Digipak design

Using a template for a digipak which folds 3 times, we have put onto this our final rough design for the digipak. We will gather audience feedback to decide on any final changes, which hopefully we will be able to get from social networking sites such as facebook, as well as in class from other students.
We picked this design as it has 2 sections to slot in CD's, therefore we can put the DVD of the music video in one side and the remixes CD in the other.
We tied the design of the digipak together by using the same background and writing style throughout, hopefully this makes it look more professional.

BC - The Editing Process

Here is some brief notes regarding some of our decision making in the editing process of our music video.

• Originally the skateboarding scene was going to be majority snorricam, but as that seemed slow and quite dull, I broke it up with clips of him doing tricks.  - Possible chance to shoot extra footage and add in more shots of him from different angles.
• The lighting whilst using the snorricam was very dark on his face, so using the editing tools, gamma, brightness and contrast, I have made it slightly lighter so it's easier to see his face.
• Added affect on Callum as he leaves the house and jumps on skateboard - ghost trails - which add the sense of fast movement in slow motion. 
• Added a transition from the table & ring of fire to Megan and Nick doing a shot to signify a time change. 
• Non additive dissolve - "Compares the pixels in the two clips and displays the lighter of the two as the first clip fades out and second fades in"
• Same transition used from the shot of Megan to the 'rave' scenes.
• Overlap of clips and 50% opacity on the sequence of Callum and Vicky going up stairs to connote a drunken memory - blurred and no correct order to sequence of shots, all just on top of each other. 

Changes made after second rough cut

Our second rough cut featured all of our footage, with basic editing by being cut to roughly the right length and in the correct order. After getting some feedback on our second rough cut, and most people saying that they liked the footage, Emma and I then went back to Final Cut and started our final stages of editing. 

• Cut and reverse. When Callum goes down the stairs, to make the shot a bit more interesting rather than one long take, we have cut and reversed 2 of the sections, in time to the beat of the song, to make it a bit more in sync with the song. 
• Tighter cuts on the sequence of Callum going to the fridge, making it flow more smoothly. 
• Instead of having the lip syncing in the car one continuous shot, we have split up the shot with some cut away shots, which in our second rough cut we had at the end of the sequence. This creates some more shot variation in the sequence.
• Getting out of the car - before I had cut the long pause between the car lights turning off and them getting out of the car. Dave picked up on the slight jump in editing, and so instead of cutting, we have split the clip into 3, and have the middle section sped up to around 140%, which I think gives a nice, subtle effect along with the part of the song as a cloud lifts and the lighting on the car shifts. (easier to see visually than explain)

• From audience feedback, we were told that the transition from normal lens to fisheye wasn't very smooth. After playing with some different effects, we have put on Light Rays effect, which distorts the image with bright rays of light. Using this affect on the shot of the DJ, and then the beginning of the fisheye clip, creates a more subtle transition as well as a time ellipsis effect. 

• The ending of the video, where Callum and Vicky go upstairs, the lighting seemed really bright and a bit unreal in the situation of a house party and so using the Desaturate effects, I changed the colouring a little bit, just to make it match the rest of the footage more.

There have been times where we've had to choose between different editing effects.
Some have been more simple, with something like the order in which shots appear, others needed a little bit more thought over, with the various effects available on Final Cut.

Here is an example of two clips which we have had to decide over.
Whether to keep it simple sequence which visually is easy to follow, or instead use effects to create a visual representation of the situation - being drunk.

BC - Gorillaz album artwork

Formed in 1998, Gorillaz' first album came out in 2001. Named Gorillaz, their first album consisted of some of there most well known tracks.

Their first album is a graphic image of the band in the same 'geep' as featured in the 19/2000 music video. The album art is simple, with just the car on the white background and the band name tagged in graffiti, and the parent advisory.

In 2002, Gorillaz released the compilation G-Sides.
As a  'B-Sides' Collection to their first album, featuring the additional tracks from their first three singles and the Tomorrow Comes Today EP.
This is the album in which 19/2000 SoulChild Remix first came out on, as the first song on the album.
All versions have the same cover, featuring Noodle with a skeleton doll in her hand, except for the Canadian, Japanese and Australian versions.   [Wiki]

There is similar aspects between this album cover and their previous, such as the graffiti style writing on Gorillaz, and the cover featuring all the band members, even though there is the one that is in the foreground.

Laika Come Home is another compilation released in 2002.
It isn't a typical remix album, and instead of having variety of artists remixing the songs, is done by just one group, Spacemokeyz.
The album contains most of the songs from Gorillaz' first album, but remixed in a dub and reggae style.

In 2004, the album was packaged with 2001 Gorillaz in a limited edition box set as part of EMI's "2CDs Originals" collection.

The album cover is different to the usual artwork of Gorillaz, the imagery is of a space monkey, on the background of a map of the stars, edited with text such as 'Spacemoney versus Gorillaz'.
There is also a sticker added on to this version, in which some images of the album art work don't have. The sticker gives an insight into the album, with the band, remixers, a brief description and other artists that it features.

Demon Days is the second studio album, released in 2005.
The album cover is reference to Let it Be by The Beatles.
Featuring all 4 members, and moving away from the graffiti band title, but staying quite simple in the imagery.


Like G-Sides to Gorillaz; D-Sides is the B-side album to Demon Days.
Released in 2007, D-Sides contains remixes and B-side tracks.

'Have a look at this exclusive image of the contents of the D-Sides deluxe package below! In one of Gorillaz most spectacular packages yet, there are plenty of goodies to be had with this 2-disc set. In addition to fantastic new images from longtime Gorillaz friend and collaborator Jamie Hewlett, the amazing box also features a patch and more new stickers! Also note that the release date of D-Sides has been amended to 19th November in the UK and 20th November in the USA.' [Gorillaz fan blog]

The third studio album, released in 2010 is their most recent album, Plastic Beach.
Comparing to their first album cover, Plastic Beach seems a more graphically animated image as opposed to the simple graphics of the band members.
They also have used different text type to the graffiti style.






The Fall was released on the 25th December 2010, as a free download on the Gorillaz website, exclusively to fans in the band's Sub-Division fan club.
The entire album was recorded on Damon Albarn's Apple Ipad, during part of their World Tour. Plans have been announced for the album to get a physical release, scheduled for April 2011.

Behind the scenes footage

Behind the Scenes from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.

Third Rough Cut

Rough Cut 3 from Beth Cooper on Vimeo.

Audience Feedback on this latest edited version by three classmates, who represent the age of our target audience as well as our class teacher suggested that in order to improve this cut we should:

• Cut back to the phone ringing and add in SFX to the shots to mimic the vibrations of the phone, in the opening scenes of mise en scene close ups.
• Also add diegetic sound of the phones vibrations.
• Reverse the shot of the light bulbs to focused, then blurred, as this will tie better with our central protagonist, Callum waking up.
• Alter the sequence of shots to mix both mise en scene, bottles and cigarette packets etc with the extras cast asleep.
• Add more lip-syncing as Callum gets dressed.
• More shot variation during the fridge scene.
• Possibly add a close up shot of Callum opening the can, and using SFX put his face on the can lid.
• Possibly repeat the motion of the fridge shutting to match the beat, similar to the repetition of Callum running down the stairs
• Overlay Callum taking the cigarette of the girl sleeping on the floor to mask the slight shake of the camera
• De-saturation of red hues on the skateboarding scene
• Add more ghost trails on the long shots from the skateboarding scene or possibly just on the jumps
• Re-shoot the shot of the CD player in the car
• Add shots of the road, to increase shot variation in the car scene
• Re-shoot the scene in which Callum and Simon arrive at the party, as the shots are too long, they're poorly framed and they don't flow well into the next sequence of shots from the house party.
• Mix together shots of the rave and the kitchen scene with fast pace editing to create a more slowing transition.
• Alter the main shot of transition from our cast member Megan, to the DJ, to a transition of Megan to Megan down in the rave which would flow better.
• Layer some of the HD shots from the rave 
• Link the HD shots to the fisheye lens by panning down into a bottle creating a circular frame which is similar.
• Also improve the transition between the fisheye lens and the scene with Callum and our female cast member Vicky going upstairs in a similar way.
• Re-shoot the ending to make it less abrupt, we will film Callum putting his hand to the camera to signify the end.