Website

The website design was inspired by the album cover design and also the SBTRKT website. After looking at this website, we really liked the idea of using the album cover as the background for page, and so replicated the style using our own album cover.

The official SBTRKT website

Wonder Where We Land - SBTRKT (Album)

We set about doing some mock up sketches using the idea for the album cover, using a similar colour scheme and the same NTLS logo as we had created.

Using the Wix website tool, a rough mock up was put together using the different components previously created, such as PSDs of the logo and album cover. 

Hopefully this is how our final website should look like. The intended colour scheme has not been decided yet, but for the moment it is just a plain black and white tonal scheme, to comply with the black and white images in the circles.

Album Cover

In the production meeting week 3 the group discussed some possible album cover designs. We came up with a few sketches of visuals we liked inspired by images found, and made a few mock ups on Photoshop using images sourced from Google.

After using the sketches as a guide, we started messing around with the images and came up with a few concepts based on the original idea.

Personally I prefer the square design, as it allows for greater detail and makes the image look more collage like. However, the squares do not look as stylised and professional as the circle version and so we may use the circle design for that reason. The intended design for the front and back cover is that we will use a panoramic photo which stretches across both the front and back cover, of a forest background. The shot used is also a concept for a promotional shot of the artist.

Other concepts we came up with from messing around on the computer were the digital collage as shown above. The Imagery of this cover is really interesting however there may be issues with bringing together the front and back images of the CD cover, as the imagery is quite unique.

Publicity Shots

Our first promo shot was not intended as one, however we felt that it would work really nicely as a background or picture for the gallery on the website. It is a panorama of a forest with two figures, NTLS, standing in full white on the left hand side of the frame. We intend to take a few experimental shots as well as the ones we have planned, just to make sure we have a variety to choose from when editing them after the shoot. With the images from this shoot, we want them to have an intense and eerie feel to them to create the band's image as being mysterious, slightly strange and quirky.

We then decided to design some other shots for the forest shoot so that we had a wide variety to choose from on the day. These promo shots are similar to the original designs in framing, however feature a lake or a body of water. This is because we were inspired by images from other photo shoots we had found on Pinterest which we thought looked really nice, and so we decided to try and replicate them.

The promo shots on the left are ones from the studio which we designed so that we have shots from the days of shooting. The lighting and costume of the band will be the same as in the video out of convenience, however we may change the lighting for some shots, depending on how they look on the day. The Portrait shots of the two artists will eventually be the images we use for the album cover.

Here are some images that we took inspiration from:

Animatic

For our group's animatic the structure was loosely based on the storyboard, with a few changes to the order of sections in the video. The annotations in the video explain the details of the sections in the video, but in summary the video consists of contrasting studio and archive footage. The studio footage contains a simple narrative where the two artists from NTLS are singing the song 'Heart Skipped A Beat' which reflects how they were previously in a relationship but have broken up and still need each other. The archive footage is of a couple who are supposed to be the two artists in the band NTLS and the narrative progresses through their relationship until they eventually break up.

After our teacher had watched the animatic, we received feedback from our teacher. The following notes are what we were advised to incorporate into our planning for the actual music video.

 

Makeup
The artist's makeup must be unique and visually interesting due to the simplicity of the shots in the studio. This will make the shots less boring and will keep the audiences attention rather than them getting bored of the plainness of the shot.

"FKA TWIGS - Through Glass" is an example as her makeup
 makes her character stand out against the background

We decided that for the artists makeup we would stick with the theme of black and white and have a strip of face paint across the eyes, as this will make the characters less plain and more intriguing to the audience.

Narrative Section
With the feedback we received form our teachers, we agreed that the relationship between the couple outside of the studio must follow a more conventional structure to make the story clearer for the audience. To do this, we will have the relationship follow a three part structure. Firstly, the couple will be very in love and so they will be obviously happy and constantly proving their love for each other. As the relationship progresses they will be more comfortable around each other, so running, lifting each other up, laughing and sometimes relaxing. Eventually the relationship will break down. To make the break up more convincing for the audience, we have decided to have Louis' character get bored with the relationship and have him want to spend more time with his friends than Gina. The couple will seem less affectionate towards each other and Louis will begin to shrug Gina off to make the message clear visually.

Studio Performance
To have the performance work, the atmosphere in the studio has to be intense to contrast the narrative. The people must appear to be intrigued by one another but not sexually attracted to each other. This will make for them to appear to the audience like the two are admiring each other as pieces of art. The two will also move to the rhythm of the song as well which will make it a more visually interesting performance.

Editing Style
Using the theorist Carol Vanalys as inspiration, we will try to challenge the audiences expectations in terms of rhythm and style, cutting from one shot to the next unexpectedly or having the transitions to the beat of the music. For the narrative footage, we will try to make the sequence more dreamlike by maybe fading from one shot to the next. This will make it more like old footage compared to the paced and quick cuts for the studio shots.

Here is a rework of the animatic using the feedback we received.

Changes

• Changed the order of some footage
• Paris scenes removed
• Snaps to the beat replaced by studio footage
• Added London setting scenes (London Bridge, Ally Pally etc)

Storyboard

For the storyboard, the group mapped out the chronological order of shots to make the animatic easier to create. It was also a great reference to use for when the whole group was not there, as the outline for the structure of the video was already decided by doing so, so there was no speculation as to what to do. Green post-it notes were used to represent the shots within the studio and the orange post-it notes represented the archive footage. Shot type and any action within the shot was written in the top corners of the post-it note, and any lyrics that coincided with the shot were written underneath as a guide to the editing process.

Because we used post-it notes, it meant that restructuring certain scenes was a really easy process. The board was placed next to our allocated edit suit for when the animatic was being put together.

Production Meetings 13/10/14

Story Board completed
- Studio narrative complete
- Archive narrative complete but not solid. Still some issues with placement of shots and how believable the story and characters are.

Animatic

- Completed and all storyboard shots compiled into a timeline using the edited 2:59 ‘Heart Skipped A Beat’ track 

- The animatic was used as a template to see how the archive narrative worked with the music. The narrative was finalised after issues with the placement of key scenarios. The scenarios are as follows

1

- Party (drinking, laughing, dancing)

2

- Park (talking in playground/grass/bench)

- Bedroom (watching TV/reading/smiling)

- Street (Walking together holding hands/laughing and pushing each other)

- Birthday (Cake/smiling/laughing/blowing out candles/handing an Eiffel Tower)

- Paris (Holiday footage)

3

- Park/Bedroom/Street except things are not as they were in the previous sections. The two seem more distant and Louis is shrugging Gina off, annoyed, having small arguments.

4

- House (Louis doesn't want to be in a relationship any longer, Gina gets sad and starts crying/shouting/throwing stuff at Louis)

- Louis leaves the house

- Gina is left crying

- First draft of shoot board for the studio shots has been completed but may need changing after reviewing the animatic with the teacher

- Archive shots need to be finalised e.g. when, where, who 

- Rushes of locations need to be done seeing as we are shooting outside of studio

Publicity shots

- 2 publicity shots planned and finalised. Definitely a few more sketches need to be made but research into influential photos and artist promos is underway.

Flat plans

- Flat plans and mock ups have been done using wix and Photoshop

- Screenshots of the wix homepage need to be taken as the website draft will change as we build the website up

- Album cover designs have been finalised to 2 possible variations of the same idea. 

- Maybe some sketches of new ideas after researching into album covers further just for variety

Production Meeting 24/09/14

Development from last meeting

‘Ghostpoet – Cash And Carry Me Home’ track vocals were distinctively a mature black male, and so we thought it would be better to not use it and play to the strengths of our group, rather than have to spend ages finding someone with enough experience who fit the description. No development with the Artist name or Record Label, and seeing as track has changed target audience will have to be re-evaluated too. 

Track shortlist #1

[1] Glass Animals – Holiest

[2] FKA Twigs – Video Girl

Thoughts

[1] Good track and lyrics are workable. Track is slow and repetitive. Boy and Girl so duet possible. 

[2] We had a very strong music video concept. Studio based music video, messing around with visuals and using interpretation of lyrics as reference. Track is very slow and repetitive. Hard to keep audience engagedwithout change. 

None of the tracks were finalised because of the issues with tempo and how engaging the track was.

Track Shortlist #2 

[1] Basement Jaxx – Good Luck

[2] The xx – Heart Skipped A Beat

[3] Little Dragon – Klapp Klapp

[4] Bad Idea – AlunaGeorge

[5] DJ Fresh – Gold Dust

Thoughts

[1] Female lead singer is good. We interpreted the track as the girl is singing about herself and a partner who cheats on her. The first couple times she takes him back or he’s just a cheat and she’s narrating the story of their relationship. HD bits are close ups of me in studio lip-syncing, VHS bits are him cheating on his girl (undercover footage / voyeur).

[2] Songs and intro are long. Similar idea as Basement Jaxx but this time the two people have broken up. The VHS shots are a narrative of the couple’s relationship. Lip sync of us alone in studio mouthing words like 'sometimes I still need you'. We considered using the studio as the foundation (solid lip syncing) and then outside as a narrative, possible break up at end of song. 4 people needed possibly, 2 for studio lip sync (girl and boy) and 2 for narrative (girl and boy). 

[3] The whole thing is a concept video in the studio, lots of flashing images and jump cuts with quick reverses of shot, maybe some in slow motion (similar style to glitches with playback). ‘Sprinkles’ in the song we could use glitter or something in slow motion and make it look stylised. Glitter out of focus behind afigure it would catch the light really well if the shiny pieces were big enough and you'd get a shimmer effect. We also liked the idea of using a mirror effect and hand / body movement to create a kaleidoscope image. In summary a studio based music video and lip-syncing with various arty visual concepts. 

[4] We had similar ideas to ‘3’, however you could play around more with the tempo and editing style. Further analysis of lyrics could uncover some ideas too. 

[5] This is more a track to fall back on. The lead singer is female and ideas from previous possible videos could be used (will go into detail if needed).

Production Meeting 29/09/14 and 01/10/14

Development from last meeting

Track ‘the xx – Heart Skipped A Beat’ was chosen, as we felt that the possible narrative and group ideas for this track were strongest. No developments on Record Label or Artist. Audience has been pinned down to fans of the Electronic/Indie Genre.

Audience

Primary - Electronic/Alternative music fans

Secondary - Late teens/early twenties 

Tertiary – Late 30s / Early 40s

Record Label

Branch of Sony Central Records

Red Pigeon Records

Alternative/Electronic music specialist

British Indie Record Label

London Based

Chosen Track

The xx – Heart Skipped A Beat

Artist - NTLS

• Duo
• Male and Female
• No band
• Smart casual clothing
• Electronic Music 
• Produce their own music tracks
• Female – (Simone Battle)  
• Male – Shirt and Jeans

All information about the project was finalised and an attempt at obtaining copyright from the owners of the track was attempted.

Production Meeting 23/09/14

Shortlist of tracks

[1] Ghostpoet - Cash And Carry Me Home

[2] Glass Animals - Holiest {NO IDEAS}

[3] Spooky Black - Without You {TOO SLOW}

Ghostpoet Track - Ideas

- Narrative of people going out lip-syncing (different people race/gender ect) 

- Breaking the fourth wall (White Lies – Bigger Than Us)

- GoPro facign person, on stick (head stays still everything else moves)

- Time code okay, not too long

- British Artist, Young Turks Record Label? 

Record label

Young Turks

- British 

- XL Recordings branch

- Indie company

Find who signed Ghostpoet? 

Audience

- Late Teens / Early Twenties

- Urban

- Underground

- Indie

- Pinterest of audience members and style of target audience? 

The Artist

- Name = ???

- Solo Artist 

Ghostpoet track was decided on as this was the one that everyone in the group liked. Only issue was waiting for teachers to verify the track.

Group Research - Steal-O-Matic

After finalising the information surrounding our project (audience, record label, music track and artist) we set about creating a steal-o-matic, which is basically a collection of images and videos which we felt were similar to what we wanted the final outcome of our music video to look like. Compiling a playlist of influential videos on YouTube, we took various clips and produced a two minute mock up of the intended structure of the video. Above is the result.

Group Reseach - The Artist

After deciding on the track for the project "The xx - Heart Skipped A Beat", the process of creating an artist image around our previous decisions of audience, genre and style was relatively easy. Using the track as way to direct our ideas, the group decided that the duet between the woman and man in the song would be represented for the project by a two person collaborative artist called 'NtLS' (pronounced 'nettles'). The duo consist of a male and female artist, which we thought logical seeing as the song contains a male and female voice, who are unaccompanied by anyone else. We realised that there is a lack of mixed ethnicity artists in the charts, and even fewer male/female duos, which encouraged us to create an artist with a black female lead and white male.

Nico & Vinz

AlunaGeorge

Complying with our choice of genre, NtLS produce music of the Alternative/Electronic and references of real artists that we feel are similar to them include AlunaGeorge, a male and female duo, and Nico & Vinz, a male duo.

We found their style similar to our intentions of artist image  and possible concepts of style for NtLS could be having the male band member wearing a shirt and jeans and the female band member wearing a grunge style outfit or alternative clothing, a generally smart casual look in both cases to make clear the Indie/Electronic image of the duo. There is also the possibility of obtaining a iconic band image by using face paint and tribal-inspired dots in the music video, but this idea has not been finalised with the group.

Group Research - The Music Track

Our chosen track asked for in the brief of this project is 'The xx - Heart Skipped A Beat'. The track is owned by The Young Turks Record Company and is 4 minutes long. The song is of the Electronic/Alternative genre, which complies with our chosen target audience.

This song was suggested to the group by Vivian. We thought that this was a good track to use as not only was it of the Electronic/Alternative genre, but that we immediately came up with some possible ideas for the music video also, and we agreed the ideas worked well with the song. Issues with other tracks we chose before this one were that the beat and tempos did not develop, however with this song they did so that was not an issue. Vivian also suggested to the group that the gaps in the song where there were no lyrics could be used to show VHS footage of a narrative story, which we thought was a really good idea and was one we had been looking to do from the start of the project regardless of track. The length of the track however is an issue, as it is 1 minute over the exam board's 3 minute maximum for the length of a music video, so this is something to discuss with the group. Seeing as The xx are under The Young Turks record label, Louis contacted their office asking for permission to use the track in our project. A copy of the email we sent is below.

Group Research - The Record Label

We decided on the name Red Pigeon Records for the Record company and thought of suitable traits for a record label producing and distributing an artist of the Electronic/Alternative genre. They are as follows:

• A branch of Sony Music Records

• An Alternative/Electronic music specialist company
• A British Indie Record Label
• London Based

The reason for the choices were that firstly we believed that the Electronic/Alternative artist being signed would not sign onto a large name label, in order to retain their artist image. Secondly we thought seeing as the artist was based in the UK, we would make the record label British and London based.

Group Research - The Audience

Primary Audience
The primary audience we aim to appeal to are Electronic/Alternative fans. This chosen genre is a large gap in the market with few major artists producing songs of this genre. The genre is not particularly popular primary choice for listeners but there are a large number of people who like this kind of music so theoretically it should sell well.

Secondary Audience
The secondary audience would consist of Electronic/Alternative fans ageing from late teens to early 20s. We thought this is an appropriate age of audience to target as it is where the majority of the number of people who listen to the Electronic/Alternative genre lie.

Tertiary Audience
The tertiary audience we would aim to target would be people ageing from their late 30s to early 40s, as we believe there to be an audience here who listen to and buy music of the Electronic/Alternative genre. Even if they don't, we believe that the tempo of this genre is a lot less garish and more suitable of a more mature audience.