Nicholas Alexander posters/adverstisement

These are some of the brilliant posters that Jack created from pictures/footage taken from the last two sessions of footage. As they were captured on the day, they really reinforce the mood and aura we want Nicholas Alexander to encapsulate in the video and to his audience.








Nicholas Alexander surveying over American's legendary Route-66.

Digipak first draft

This is the first draft of our Digipak, it has turned out extremely well and has definitely benefited from our filming and photoshoots. Feedback and improvements to follow.

Nicholas Alexander on social media - first drafts

These are some examples of Nicholas Alexander's social media, which drastically need updating. By the time the website and digipak are finished, the social media pages will be completed and up to date to make then coincide and be more relevant with them. This is a good starting point though as they are essentially first drafts of the pages.

Twitter

Merchandise draft

This is a very early draft of our merchandise created by Charlie-Ann. Some of them we will definitely keep such as the phone case and the keyring, however the mug and the handbag needs a bit of a redraft. It is very good work however and will go very well with the website.

A new photoshoot

From the feedback we received from our website we, as a group, realised that we drastically needed to update the photos on the website as they were bad quality and generally rather unprofessional. We immediately went onto to do the first of many photoshoots (as show below) and it was a great success. These photos swiftly found a home on the website gallery and in the digipak.

Blog reflection

Reflection of blog progress:

Three targets to improve blog - research or planning (have you thoroughly covered all key media concepts - forms and conventions of your music video genre, audience, institution, representation

·      The blog needs to be sorted out logistically to make it more accessible to any viewing bodies (mainly the examiner) with a good use of labels, professionally arranging pictures  and some better technologies to make it more engaging.

·      There also needs to be a bit more research into some other elements of our video such as genre and audience research to prove that we know exactly what we want our video to represent and the exact audience to appeal to.

·      Although there is already some research on existing singer songwriters, we need a bit more simply to be able to apply the knowledge gained to make Nicholas Alexander as realistic as can be.

Technology - Have you learned new online programmes for showing off work?

I'd say I have become more versed in Adobe Premiere compared to last year, as I have had to make a lot of Work-In-Progress sequences to show how the construction is coming along.

Also I've become very good at Wix as creating the website for Nicholas Alexander has been a long term process with many revisions as I learn more techniques in the program. 

Have you tried new premiere effects that you haven't told us about

As my main role in the group is not editing the finished product, I've not really dabbled in many advanced premiere effects aside from speeding up various shots.

Have you uploaded drafts of digipak, editing, posters, mag article

Yes, there are posts depicting how the digipak/website has developed. However there needs to be some evidence of actual drawing board planning.

What mark out of 20 is it so far?

I'd say a solid 15.

Is it fun to look through?

Not really as of yet, however that is one of my main targets for improvement.

Is the learning journey (blaaaghh) evident? 

Definitely through the evidence of the digipak and website.

Song lyrics - I'm No Superman

Shot list - I'm No Superman

Website evaluations

Website progression - the gallery

The gallery is the page that will change the most, as we add and remove pictures that fit and don't fit the image we want to create. For example, the performance pictures we will most likely keep and most of the ones that came before it we will most likely remove as they are at best, placeholder. The passage of writing next to the gallery however is something we definitely want to keep, as it gives the website a personal edge which is a brilliant advantage.

Website progression - Tour dates

This is a screenshot of the tour dates page of our website, without probably the most unfinished and thus needs the most amount of attention. For a start, the generic pictures of artists need replacing with pictures of Nicholas Alexander himself to make it seem more personalised. However the black and white aspect of these pictures fits very well with the watery blue so there is a good chance we may keep this. The tour dates themselves are fine as they are realistic locations which Nicholas could easily play at.

Website progression - Contact details

This is a screenshot of the contact page of our website, which is probably as of now completed (though there is always room for improvement, we just haven't found it yet). To create this accurately, we essentially looked at many others similar webpages on different artist's websites, to make sure we had all the right features. These features include a message dropbox, links to contact details and access to social media.

Website progression - The Bio

This is a screenshot of the biography page of the website, one of the ones that is nearing completion. The biography is perfectly fine, well written and true the story of Nicholas Alexander. It lacks a strong photo of Nicholas to go with the biography however and this will be one of the things we will be striving to act on in the near future.

Research on institutions

How Nicholas Alexander is working to get signed

1. Talent

Regarding what the article states about talent, Nicholas Alexander has not effectively had his big break but is spending a lot of his time working on his music video and creating exposure and an identity for himself. It also mentions that an up and coming artist should primarily focus on harnessing their own talents and constantly refining them instead of focusing on a big break. It goes onto say that talent is one of the most important things as it will in itself cause a big break if the talent is strong enough.

Regarding how this links into Nicholas Alexander, he hasn't really been following this advice due to massive focus on creating his music video, so this is something that is in his radar for improvement.

2. Product

This is what Nicholas Alexander is currently excelling on, as it states that one of the major challenges that an unsigned artist faces is getting a product out there, and with the music video Nicholas creating he is already succeeding in this regard. It also states about the ease of creating your own website, social media presence and fanbase without the help of the multinational record conglomerates that charge a fortune, which is something that Nicholas Alexander has benefited from hugely.

3. Placement

This segment of the article identifies the various vehicles that Nicholas Alexander could use in order to get his work established and recognised, It mentions some examples such as:

SoundCloud

Reverbnation

MusicXray

IndieGoGo 

Finally it also mentions how nowadays an artists creates his big break, and doesn't wait for it due the availability of vehicles for recognition.

4. Promotion

This segment of the article states the importance of gaining a fanbase and following by promoting oneself independently. This is easier than ever nowadays with the internet and the huge popularity of social media.

Steal O'matic

This is the Steal O'matic we created to aid us in creating a solid montage of inspirations for our music video. Although obviously we didn't use the exact ideas present in the videos we analysed, I believe we re-created the "vibe" that these music videos maintain which can only be a good thing as it proves that we are following genre conventions.

Prospective websites - Homepage drafts

The homepage

Like the digipak, the website is also always undergoing updates from feedback and new ideas. The two above screenshots depict the website in its very early stage and current stage and the differences are yet again, paramount. In the first incarnation of the website, the watery blue theme is in its foundation stages and we did not know how far we wanted to take it at that stage. Compared to the current incarnation, it is very inferior.

The amount of photos on the homepage are also different, as due to the acquiring of footage we were able to easily insert (like the Digipak) photos from the shoot into the website to create and enforce Nicholas Alexander's identity, The first incarnation lacks any proper photos thus suffers greatly.

The final major difference between the two iterations is the use of a proper background, again acquired from the footage. It maintains the watery blue theme too and gives the website an appealing and likable look. Further iterations of the website will be posted to the blog, as there are still many parts that need updating (such as the other pages of the website).

Prospective Digipaks - Backs of albums drafts

This is a compilation and comparison of our current prospective album backs.

Album backs

These are the two album back covers we have created and difference between them is huge. Like the original album cover, this back has a similar sort of theme but then we were rather unsure of the direction we wanted to take Nicholas Alexander as a solo artist, which shows in the finished design. It also doesn't follow many of the conventions of existing album covers thus is not very believable. Our second prospective cover is a lot better as it is imbued with the same sort of benefits as our second and third album covers. We again have used footage from the performance to reinforce Nicholas Alexander's identity and have also followed many more conventions of real life album covers (though more could be done).

The second album cover also includes the generic copyright jargon on the back, with an ID number too which makes it look so much more realistic and professional. T

Prospective Digipaks - A comparison of album cover drafts

This is a compilation of all our Digipak work so far so we can easily compare them to one another and keep on identifying methods to improve them.

Album Covers

These are the three potential album covers for the Digipak that we have created. Clearly our third one is the best out of the three, signifying our improvement in photoshop skills as time progresses. We have also maintained the tranquil and watery blue theme across the album covers aswell as other aspects of our Digipak and the website. One of the main criticisms of the first album covers was that it didn't give Nicholas Alexander a distinguishable identity and on screen presence, something that an up and coming solo artist desperately needed. We rectified this in the second album cover which was acclaimed, however this had the problem of being rather blurry (but still a lot better than the first one). We also had footage by the point and had the advantage of using photos from the recording which looked very professional.

The creation of the third album cover draft came about completely by accident as we were very confident with the second one. We found nice location infused with brilliant lighting so it was an opportunity we couldn't pass up. The end result was astounding and it we came out with a brilliant album cover still loyal to the themes of the original.

Concept footage & feedback - I'm No Superman

 Above is all of the footage we recorded on Monday (10/11/14) solely for the new concept part of our video. Influences were taken from singer songwriter videos less famous then Ed Sheeran such as Bed Howard and Jake Bugg. We also received a large amount of useful feedback from our peers, including -


Less focus on the bike footage, however this will be nullified by the implementation of the performance.

Our location was extremely well chosen with brilliant lighting which was a massive boost to our confidence.

Using some non lip-sync footage from our previous shoot under Ed Sheeran would be a good idea.

Keep our primary location intact in the performance (ie under the bridge.

New lip sync task - I'm No Superman

This our new lip sync task for our new song, consisting solely of a tracking shot which is what we want to use a lot for our song too. Some of it is a bit out of sync but that is purely due to the time taken to actually create the task and we will not be reminiscent of our final video.

A late change of song

Due to the release of Ed Sheeran's music video for our original song, 'Thinking It Loud' and it subsequently becoming number one we have decided to switch our song. We have decided on "I'm no Superman" as it is a similar genre and we can use essentially a lot of same ideas, but for a more upbeat and enjoyable song. We firmly believe that we will be able to score a lot higher marks with this song, plus we will be able to use almost all of our existing digipak and website work due it being the same sort of genre and personality.